This news soon reached Lei Feng, who, with a dark expression, found Yi Long and questioned him, "Are there no longer any capable people in your Yi Long team? You actually sent a rookie out!"
Yi Long knew that Lei Feng still held a prejudice against Li Zhonglou because of Pang Zheng's affair, so he ignored him, merely saying indifferently, "As the captain now, do I not even have the right to make decisions?"
Lei Feng's brows furrowed tightly. "You should be aware of the consequences, Yi Long. It's already the best that he's still alive. Sacred beasts cannot participate in the first round, and you're gambling with the entire future of the Dark Department!"
Yi Long waved his hand. "Whether it's a gamble or not is your opinion. In my view, his strength is more than enough to participate in the competition."
Afterward, Yi Long no longer paid attention to Lei Feng. Instead, he pulled Li Zhonglou aside to arrange some specific details.
The others, seeing that their two captains had already fallen into conflict before the competition had even begun, couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.
What are we going to do? We're already demoralizing ourselves before we even start. Is the Dark Department really going to be at the bottom in this trial zone competition?
For a time, the entire Dark Department was shrouded in gloom.
Li Zhonglou also tried to persuade Yi Long, saying, "Look at their reaction. Why don't I just not participate then?"
Just as Yi Long was about to say something, Grandpa Dao from the Third Team had already returned with his people. Seeing the spirited Grandpa Dao, Lei Feng's eyes lit up, and he immediately walked up to him and said.
"Old Dao, why don't your team send someone up for this one-on-one match this time?"
Grandpa Dao asked in confusion, "Why should we participate? Wasn't it agreed that only your two guardian teams would participate in the first round?"
Lei Feng said with a gloomy expression, "The situation has changed. Yi Long actually wants to send a rookie out. Do you think this is possible?"
Send a rookie out? Grandpa Dao looked at Yi Long in the distance with a questioning gaze, and the latter, who obviously knew Lei Feng's intentions, also looked extremely displeased.
Upon seeing Yi Long's reaction, Grandpa Dao immediately understood that a conflict had arisen between these two. He had just returned and was unaware of the situation. If he rashly agreed to Lei Feng, he would undoubtedly be drawn into their conflict.
Therefore, Grandpa Dao, being quite astute, waved his hand and said, "No, no. Whatever was agreed upon before, let's stick to it. The rules have been set, how can they keep changing?"
After speaking, Grandpa Dao led his people to another side, clearly adopting a stance of staying out of it. After all, these were the rules that had been set beforehand. Now that Lei Feng wanted to pressure him with the future of the Dark Department, he wasn't that foolish.
So Grandpa Dao simply ignored everything and pretended to know nothing. This way, even if something went wrong, it wouldn't be his responsibility. As for the future of the Dark Department, he wasn't going to let anyone put such a high hat on him.
Grandpa Dao thought about it and directly called out to Yi Long, "Where is the rookie from your team? Tell him to come and claim his Sacred Beast."
Only then did everyone remember that Grandpa Dao had returned with the Sacred Beasts this time, and their faces immediately showed anticipation.
The strength of Sacred Beasts is divided into at most six stages. Generally, those who come out of the breeding grounds can reach at least the third stage, while adult Sacred Beasts that Li Zhonglou encountered before are in the fourth to fifth stages.
As for the final sixth stage, it is only the strongest form of a Sacred Beast calculated, and no one has yet discovered a Sacred Beast that has reached this stage.
However, even so, generally speaking, once a Sacred Beast reaches the fourth stage, its strength is already equivalent to that of a captain. If it also cooperates with the Sacred Beast holder, it can completely be equivalent to another captain participating!
Li Zhonglou walked towards Grandpa Dao at Yi Long's signal. In fact, he had noticed someone in his team carrying a large iron box for a long time.
As expected, when he arrived in front of him, the latter gave a look to the person carrying the box. That team member immediately put down the iron box on his back, took out a key from his bag, and opened the lock. In the next moment, a small, fluffy white figure shot directly towards Li Zhonglou.
It was Xiaobai, Xiaobai seemingly without any changes.
It pounced into Li Zhonglou's arms, its little head constantly rubbing against Li Zhonglou's chest, as if expressing its longing.
Li Zhonglou directly grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, lifted it up, and examined it carefully. He then asked Grandpa Dao, "Has it completed its upgrade?"
Grandpa Dao said with some disappointment, "Is your Sacred Beast a premature baby? I don't know how you raised it back then. Under normal circumstances, it shouldn't be this weak. It only reached the second stage this time."
So that's how it is. Li Zhonglou, who suddenly understood, showed no disappointment. Instead, he was quite satisfied.
No matter which stage it was, it was good enough to maintain its current size and appearance. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for this little fellow to return to his country with him.
So Li Zhonglou directly took Xiaobai back to Yi Long's team. Upon hearing Grandpa Dao's words, the anticipation on the faces of the other members of the Dark Department turned into disappointment.
Only the second stage, it couldn't help at all!
However, among the crowd, there was one person who was happy about this. Pang Zheng mockingly said, "Like owner, like pet. Trash matching trash is indeed a perfect match."
Li Zhonglou glanced at him. Pang Zheng's eyes immediately turned cold, and he stared back fiercely. Chen Guang and Gao Shang, seeing that the situation was not good, quickly pretended not to know and stood between them, blocking their line of sight.
This broke the sparks flying between them across the distance.
Li Zhonglou calmly withdrew his gaze and no longer paid attention. Instead, he walked in front of Yi Long and asked, "Can I bring it to participate in the first round?"
At this point, only the members of the Dark Department knew the rules of the trial zone competition. Li Zhonglou was thinking that if possible, he would bring Xiaobai to participate directly and let it fight in his stead.
However, Yi Long directly shook his head. "No, Sacred Beasts are not allowed in the first round. You should hand it over to someone else for safekeeping later."
"Alright."
Li Zhonglou sighed inwardly, already planning how to hide his strength and win the competition later.
Because the Dark Department's location was not in the center of the various hunting teams, what happened here was unknown to others except for a few neighboring hunting teams, including the bald man Bo Qiang in the Ghost Team.
At this moment, Bo Qiang had confirmed that Li Zhonglou had not come to participate, so his mood had already become cheerful. Coupled with the fact that his breakthrough in strength had already stabilized, he was full of confidence for the upcoming one-on-one competition.