The next day, Zheng Dong went online to purchase suitable skills for Xiao Zi.
However, he couldn't find any skills that satisfied him. After careful selection, he bought the low-tier skills Sensory Perception, Sonic Lock, and Psionic Exploration, the mid-tier skills Dark Erosion and Dark Vortex, and the high-tier skill Avalanche.
To purchase better skills, he would need to participate in an auction.
The auction was also conducted online, requiring pre-registration. The nearest auction was still a week away.
Just then, Grandma Wang from next door knocked on his door again.
This time, she didn't need Zheng Dong's help with anything. She brought him some food and also delivered the gem cat cub he had chosen.
The gem cat cub was growing quite fast and could already run around.
Seeing the adorable, mewling gem cat, a thought suddenly struck Zheng Dong: what would happen if a gem cat, which was already of the spatial element, also mastered the time element?
Perhaps it would become the only pet with spacetime attributes!
Zheng Dong possessed an Assimilation Bead, so he could try it.
Unfortunately, he currently lacked time-element resources.
The following day, the skill inheritance beads Zheng Dong had purchased online were delivered by the courier.
Shortly after, his colleagues from the Special Affairs Bureau also handed over the two skill inheritance beads that Tu Qionglan had given Zheng Dong.
Immediately, Zheng Dong began assisting Xiao Zi with its cultivation.
Zheng Dong only finished his cultivation the day before the Rongcheng Rookie King Competition began.
During this period, he had guided Xiao Zi to elevate the proficiency of its newly acquired low-tier and mid-tier skills to the "Profound" level, and its high-tier and ultimate-tier skills to the "Master" level.
Xiao Zi's strength was also getting closer and closer to the Lord-tier, with its energy value even exceeding the Commander-tier range and reaching the threshold of the Lord-tier.
In addition, Zheng Dong had also taught Xiao Zi several combination skill ultimate arts.
With this, Zheng Dong's confidence in winning the Rongcheng Rookie King Competition grew.
[Name] Mutated Gold-Devouring Rat
[Attributes] Gold, Earth, Dark, Space
[Race Level] Commander
[Growth Level] Commander
[Energy Value] 10225
[Skills]:
Low-Tier: Harden (Profound), Earth Evasion (Profound), Shadow Shift (Profound), Sensory Perception (Profound), Sonic Lock (Profound), Psionic Exploration (Profound)
Mid-Tier: Earth Spike (Profound), Shadow Control (Profound), Clay (Profound), Shadow Arrow (Profound), Void Concealment (Profound), Enhanced Self-Healing (Profound), Dark Erosion (Profound), Dark Vortex (Profound)
High-Tier: Duplication (Profound), Gold-Shattering Claws (Profound), Shadow Clone (Profound), Booby Trap (Profound), Super Vision (Profound), Adamantine Defense (Profound), Spatial Shift (Master), Psionic Control (Master), Intimidation (Master), Avalanche (Master)
Ultimate-Tier: Earth Vein Resonance (Profound), Gold-Devouring Body (Master), Infinite Devour (Master), Absolute Darkness (Master), Mount Tai's Pressure (Master)
Special Skill: Treasure Hunt (Profound)
Combination Skill Ultimate Arts: Earth Vein Rampage, Earth Vein Leap, Clay Armor, Booby Trap Arrow, Clay Golem, Spatial Blast, Shadow Trap...
Furthermore, Zheng Dong himself had completed the imprinting of all low-tier, mid-tier, and ultimate-tier skills mastered by Xiao Zi.
Only for high-tier skills, due to the limitation on the number of imprinted skills, Intimidation and Avalanche were not imprinted for the time being.
Since this year's Rongcheng Rookie King Competition was being held in Longan District, which was quite far from Anhe District, requiring a two to three-hour drive, Principal Liu decided that Zheng Dong and the others would travel to stay at a hotel a day in advance to maintain their optimal condition for the competition.
Zheng Dong also received a message from Principal Liu, asking him to arrive at the school for assembly at 2 PM.
After lunch, Zheng Dong prepared his daily necessities, placed the gem cat cub in the relic space, and prepared to depart.
This relic space was a perk of his position at the Relic Bureau. It was a simple relic space, empty inside, and required Zheng Dong to furnish it himself.
He didn't have time to set it up now, but it was perfectly fine for housing a gem cat cub.
Upon arriving at the school, a considerable number of people had already gathered, including participating students, many teachers, and the school's cheerleading squad.
Of course, students who wished to watch the competition could also arrange with the school in advance to travel together.
Boarding the bus, Zheng Dong slept for the entire journey. When he woke up, they had already arrived at a hotel in Longan District.
The next day, August 8th, 4720 of the Yanhuang Calendar, the Rongcheng Rookie King Competition officially commenced.
Due to the large number of participants, the competition was divided into preliminaries and finals.
The preliminaries were further divided into two rounds. The first round was a points-based competition, where accumulating sufficient points automatically qualified participants for the second round, a combat match.
The finals were straightforward, consisting of a single arena match. Whoever remained standing in the arena, with no one daring to challenge them, would be crowned the new Rookie King of Rongcheng.
The rewards were substantial: 20 million Dragon Yuan, a detached villa, and the special mental-type ultimate skill, Precognitive Sense.
Precognitive Sense not only allowed the user to sense the opponent's aura, location, form, and the state of their body's energy fluctuations, but it also possessed the ability to foresee some dangers.
Even petrified by Death Spirit-type beasts using Stealth, or concealed by Void Concealment used by Space-type beasts, they could not escape the detection of Precognitive Sense.
However, to learn Precognitive Sense, there was an entry-level requirement: mental strength needed to reach the Intermediate level.
But even if he couldn't use it himself, it could be auctioned off for a considerable sum of money.
The preliminaries began, and Zheng Dong drew group F in the lottery.
Group F consisted of 120 participating students. They were required to hunt transcendent creatures within a designated area and earn enough points to advance to the second round of the preliminaries.
According to the rules, hunting a transcendent creature of Commander growth level earned 1 point, while hunting a transcendent creature of Transcendent growth level earned 0.1 points. Awakened-level creatures yielded no points.
Accumulating 50 points qualified participants for the second round of the preliminaries.
The competition took place within a large relic space, and the entire process was broadcast live by the Eye of Relics.
The host of the competition was Sun Xinxin, the flagship anchor of Rongcheng Television. The invited guests included not only Xiao Lin, the president of the Rongcheng Beast Tamer Association, but also several Grandmaster-level beast tamers.
In the live broadcast hall, Sun Xinxin said with a smile:
"It is said that this year's Rookie King Competition is the most competitive in history, with top geniuses in almost every district.
Take Longan District for example, the twin sisters Shen Bing and Shen Xue's pets have both reached Lord-tier growth level, which is rarely seen in previous years.
And Zhao Yang from Pengyang District has even contracted a Commander-tier Thunderous Flood Dragon.
Even Anhe District, which has performed ordinarily for many years, has produced Zheng Dong, who cracked a top-tier totem relic space.
President Xiao, who do you think will be this year's Rookie King?"
The camera turned to Xiao Lin, the president of the Rongcheng Beast Tamer Association, a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a serious, meticulous Zhongshan suit.
Upon being addressed by the host Sun Xinxin, Xiao Lin paused for a moment before slowly stating:
"It's hard to say. Each of their pets possesses the strength to kill Lord-tier transcendent creatures. Ultimately, it may depend on how much their respective beast taming talents contribute in combat!"
...
Meanwhile, Zheng Dong and all the students in Group F were teleported into a forest.
According to the competition prompts, this forest contained over 1200 Commander-tier transcendent creatures and tens of thousands of Transcendent-tier transcendent creatures. Transcendent creatures above Commander-tier had already been cleared out before the competition.
Some of these Commander-tier transcendent creatures were also captured from the wild and released into the area beforehand.
Zheng Dong and the others needed to hunt these transcendent creatures as quickly as possible to earn points. Accumulating 50 points would allow them to proceed to the next round.
However, the spots were limited, with only the first 24 individuals to complete their points qualifying for the second round of combat matches.
The second round of the preliminaries would take place the following day. Group F would ultimately only have 3 spots to advance to the finals.
This meant Zheng Dong needed to hunt 50 Commander-tier transcendent creatures as quickly as possible.
After completing the hunt, he would need to submit the completed task to the Eye of Relics. Only after the Eye of Relics verified that there was no cheating would he be teleported out of the relic space.
This was not difficult for Zheng Dong.
As the competition began, Zheng Dong summoned Xiao Zi.
Then, Zheng Dong and Xiao Zi each condensed 365 clones. Zheng Dong's clones, each accompanied by a clone of Xiao Zi, began the hunt.
Although each of Xiao Zi's clones possessed only 90% of the main body's combat power, with Zheng Dong's clones participating in the hunt, they could easily dispatch typical Commander-tier transcendent creatures.
If they encountered a particularly troublesome one, multiple clones could gather to围剿 (surround and eliminate) it.
Since Xiao Zi had mastered four perception-based skills: Super Vision, Sensory Perception, Sonic Lock, and Psionic Exploration, searching for Commander-tier transcendent creatures became very easy.
Super Vision granted Xiao Zi 360-degree, all-angle dynamic vision. Sensory Perception could quickly analyze transcendent creatures that had appeared in the vicinity. Sonic Lock and Psionic Exploration could further pinpoint the exact locations of transcendent creatures.
As a result, Zheng Dong's hunting speed of transcendent creatures soared.
While many students in Group F hadn't even found a single transcendent creature, Zheng Dong had already hunted dozens.
Before long, he had accumulated 50 points.
However, he did not submit the task completion.
This way, he would not be teleported out.
Zheng Dong's objective was simple: no one else would qualify for the second round of the preliminaries besides him.
This would allow him to directly advance and enter the finals.
Therefore, he not only continued hunting Commander-tier transcendent creatures but also competed with other students for prey.
Many other students in Group F had not yet noticed this.
A fat student wearing glasses, after searching for over ten minutes, couldn't help but curse:
"Damn it, how big is this forest? Why haven't I seen a single Commander-tier transcendent creature."
His pet was an Earth Python, which was not skilled in perception abilities. Instead, it preferred to lie in wait. This made the current competition quite difficult for him.
Perhaps fate favored him, as a Commander-tier Fire Monkey fled towards him in a hurry.
His face lit up with excitement, and he quickly commanded his pet, the Earth Python, to attack.
But in the next second, several Booby Trap Arrows shot from a distance, piercing the Fire Monkey's head, and then exploding.
Before the Fire Monkey could even let out a cry, it fell to the ground.
Enraged, he couldn't help but curse:
"Damn it, stealing my prey!"
He dejectedly chased after it with his Earth Python.
But he couldn't even see a shadow of anyone.
Zheng Dong and Xiao Zi's clones had already used Spatial Shift to leave.
This scene was playing out in various parts of the forest.
With Zheng Dong's over three hundred clones, each hunting three to four Commander-tier pets, he could quickly clear out the more than 1200 Commander-tier transcendent creatures here.
Meanwhile, in the live broadcast hall, they had not yet noticed the anomaly in Group F.
Sun Xinxin was broadcasting according to the group order, starting from Group A, and hadn't reached Group F yet.
"Currently, 6 people in Group E have completed their competition tasks. Now, let's look at the situation in Group F."
Suddenly, Sun Xinxin froze.
The Eye of Relics indicated that no one in Group F had completed their competition tasks; everyone was still hunting transcendent creatures.
What was going on?
Even if the students in Group F were generally weaker, this situation shouldn't have occurred.
At the same time, Xiao Lin and other invited guests showed expressions of confusion and curiosity.
Competitions like this were, in fact, like child's play to them, rather boring.
The abnormal situation, however, piqued their interest.
Subsequently, Sun Xinxin asked the Eye of Relics to play the live broadcast footage of Group F's competition.
The camera zoomed in from afar, as if an eye in the sky was looking down at a forest. The forest gradually enlarged, displaying the locations of each participating student. It then zoomed in further, showing glimpses of some students hunting transcendent creatures.
Finally, it displayed footage of Zheng Dong's clones hunting Commander-tier transcendent creatures.
Several Booby Trap Arrows pierced a Commander-tier Ironback Eagle like a hedgehog, followed by an explosion that instantly killed it.
This scene was relatively normal, and Sun Xinxin explained:
"This should be the combination skill ultimate art, Booby Trap Arrow, which has strong lethality against Commander-tier transcendent creatures!"
As soon as she finished speaking, the footage switched again, still showing Zheng Dong's clones hunting transcendent creatures.
Then, several more scenes were switched consecutively, all showing the same situation.
This immediately made Sun Xinxin somewhat awkward.
Fortunately, a Grandmaster-level beast tamer who looked like a professor chuckled, "This Zheng Dong is quite interesting. Using clones to hunt Commander-tier transcendent creatures and even achieving instant kills, his strength will likely cause a lot of trouble for others!"
"Yes, but don't you find it strange? With Zheng Dong condensing so many clones, he should have completed the competition task much earlier!"
At this moment, Xiao Lin, who had been silent, directly instructed the Eye of Relics to actively detect how many transcendent creatures Zheng Dong had hunted.
Soon, the results were out.
[Commander-tier: 1195, Transcendent-tier: 8948.]
Seeing the numbers displayed on the large screen, everyone was astonished.
Not only the hosts and guests in the live broadcast hall, but also all the viewers watching the live stream.
"Holy crap, what is this Zheng Dong doing? Why did he kill so many?"
"No way, how long has it been since the competition started? Are you sure it was Zheng Dong who hunted them? Is the Eye of Relics malfunctioning!"
"Damn, no wonder no one in Group F completed the task. Zheng Dong killed them all, so how could anyone complete it!"
"Will Group F turn into a death group? Did this Zheng Dong break any rules!"
"Protest! He killed them all by himself. How are other participating students supposed to survive?"
...
Amidst the constant debate, Principal Liu and Teacher Wang Guixiang also became worried.
This Zheng Dong truly didn't make things easy for them!
It would be such a shame if he were disqualified for violating the rules!
Meanwhile, principals and teachers from other schools began to protest, not wanting their students to lose inexplicably in Group F.
Concurrently, the live broadcast hall also erupted in arguments.
"This Zheng Dong is simply reckless. I suggest disqualifying him from the competition!" said Yu Bai, an older Grandmaster-level beast tamer.