Chapter 313 — A Deterrence Beyond the Peak of Mastery

"The organizers deliberately cleared the Overlords off Li Island, leaving them an empty shell of an island to harvest resources from. Well then, I won't hold back."

"For every extra Monarch someone else hunts, I lose ten million. I need to find a way to move faster — best if I can draw both the dire beasts and the contestants to me at the same time."

Who knew how many Monarch-level beasts Li Island held. If there were enough of them, that would be no small sum either.

With that, Shi Jin drew a deep breath and made a decision.

At the same time.

After Han Lu, the national tournament commentator, spent a few minutes finishing her account of Gao Xuan's record, she immediately cut to Shi Jin.

As the host, she had done her homework thoroughly, and naturally she had to introduce the high-profile contestants first.

Gao Xuan and Shi Jin were the only two beast tamers to have entered the top hundred of the Sequence War, so introducing them first could hardly go wrong.

"The second contestant I'm about to introduce is, I imagine, no stranger to any of you."

"He comes from Ancient Capital University, and he is only a freshman there. He is just nineteen years old — the youngest contestant in this tournament, in fact. More importantly, though he is young, his achievements are truly legendary. He is Shi Jin, a freshman in the Department of Archaeology at Ancient Capital University!"

"Even back when he was an apprentice beast tamer, contestant Shi Jin discovered the evolution method of the Iron-eating Beast through archaeology. Later, he personally researched the Green Worm Cocoon evolution chain, a major achievement that benefits the nation and its people. He is an outstanding young talent. More importantly, contestant Shi Jin's strength seems to be terrifying as well."

"According to the records, contestant Shi Jin also signed up for the Sequence War, the competition that selects contestants for the World Tournament. And the Sequence War Committee set contestant Shi Jin's initial ranking at eighty-first — which is utterly incredible. Now that contestant Shi Jin has appeared here, perhaps he has already proven his strength to us... A Master level under twenty is exceedingly rare. Next, let's see what contestant Shi Jin can do."

"Uh." No sooner had the commentator Han Lu finished speaking than the screen showed Shi Jin beginning to summon his pet beast.

Shi Jin did not, like Gao Xuan, directly summon an ace battle beast impressive enough to be presentable, one that would escort him as he slaughtered his way across the field.

With countless pairs of eyes fixed on the live screen, Shi Jin stretched out his hand and summoned... a Ginseng Baby?

A tiny Ginseng Baby appeared in Shi Jin's hand, plunging the vast majority of the audience into deep thought.

[Ginseng Baby?]

[What's he doing...]

[Giving up before it's even begun?]

You come to a dangerous wild region, and fine, you don't summon a beast to protect yourself — but what in the world is the point of summoning a Ginseng Baby???

And more than that: a genius who once made the top hundred in the Sequence Contest has contracted... a Ginseng Baby?

"That's you, all right." In Pingcheng, those young Beastmasters who had jumped on the tonic craze and copied Shi Jin's methods — though they had failed to learn a thing themselves — could not help but sigh with feeling when they saw Shi Jin, stronger than ever and still true to his original self, produce a tonic.

They had lost.

Of course, these were people who did not know Shi Jin — they merely took the Ginseng Baby for an extraordinary species, a tonic.

But anyone with even a little deeper knowledge of Shi Jin — students of the Ancient Capital and Imperial Capital universities, for instance — narrowed their eyes at the sight of this Ginseng Baby.

This was no ordinary extraordinary-species Ginseng Baby. This was... a combat ginseng that could use attack skills!

And a formidable one, at that.

Some of the students and teachers of Imperial Capital University looked even grimmer. Shi Jin's Ginseng Baby had undergone an evolution once, there at the university.

The old president of Imperial Capital University was one of the few who knew of the Undying Ginseng; and though Yin Huan and the others did not know of it, they had witnessed the commotion the Ginseng Baby caused back then.

In those days... the aroma had filled the sky, drawing nearly every beast of Imperial Capital University to it — Overlord-level beasts included.

How nourishing that Ginseng Baby must be.

Now, seeing Shi Jin, first of his generation, choose to summon this beast, they all wore grave expressions. What was Shi Jin... planning?

"Holy crap."

The next moment, a scene unfolded that stunned everyone.

A near-material aroma blossomed from the Ginseng Baby's body.

Aroma visible to the naked eye flowed skyward like a tidal sea.

Even through the livestream, the Beastmasters had never seen such an outrageous Sweet Scent skill.

In people's minds, the Sweet Scent skill was something that moistened things softly and silently.

But on Shi Jin's Ginseng Baby, it seemed to have gone from moistening things softly and silently to an aroma tornado.

As the aroma poured out of the Ginseng Baby, the whole sky gathered a most spectacular heavenly phenomenon, as though an undying divine herb had come into the world.

"Gulp." People could clearly hear a gulp come through the livestream.

"Whose voice was that?"

"Sounded kind of mechanical."

"Maybe we misheard."

[Eye of the Stars]: aggrieved.jpg

At the judges' platform of the East Sea Arena, Xiao Shuang's face was a mask of black lines as she felt the Eye of the Stars' longing for the Ginseng Baby, all the way from afar.

Wait — something was off. Why would the Eye of the Stars, a mechanical beast, be interested in a Ginseng Baby?

Xiao Shuang was utterly baffled.

But then...

This Ginseng Baby.

Xiao Shuang gazed deeply at the Ginseng Baby in Shi Jin's hands on the screen. She had heard from her father and younger sister that Shi Jin had, with a single Ginseng Baby... smashed two Overlords!!!

Now Shi Jin had summoned the Ginseng Baby again. What did that mean??

No... perhaps his intent was already very clear.

With the Ginseng Baby's appearance and the release of its aroma, in an instant countless savage beasts in the surrounding area, centered on Shi Jin, began to stir — and the range... was still expanding!!!

The aroma, borne by the natural wind, slowly spread across the entire island. Though the scent grew fainter as it went, it was like a fuse connecting back to the most concentrated center!

Soon enough, the whole island would likely be able to smell it.

"This—" The host, Han Lu, clearly grasped Shi Jin's intent at once and said in utter incomprehension: "Contestant Shi Jin... contestant Shi Jin has summoned his Ginseng Baby, and had the Ginseng Baby release a large-scale Sweet Scent skill!!"

"As we all know, the Sweet Scent skill is a special aroma that relieves fatigue, but in the wild, many creatures are actually drawn to that sweetness. What is he trying to do — attract a horde of savage beasts?"

"Using this method to draw Monarch-level savage beasts over, and hunt them?"

"It seems contestant Shi Jin is extremely confident in his own strength."

Gu Yu: "Seems so. But contestant Shi Jin's Ginseng Baby's Sweet Scent skill... seems a bit too terrifying. Just what level has this Ginseng Baby reached... Could it be Monarch-level? A Monarch-level Ginseng Baby?"

"Everyone look — a terrifying number of savage beasts are already moving toward contestant Shi Jin!!!"

Originally, the two commentators had meant to use this conflict-free stretch to introduce the twenty-one contestants.

But who could have guessed that this Shi Jin would break the rules right out of the gate and stir up such a huge story.

In an instant, they could not tear their eyes away, and could only focus entirely on commentating the situation around Shi Jin.