Chapter 313 — A Deterrence Beyond the Peak of Mastery

Meanwhile, under Xiao Shuang's mental command, the Eye of the Stars, beyond its basic directives, began gathering footage from more locations.

Soon, the situation around Shi Jin was broadcast in a top-down view.

The next moment, every viewer gasped, their breath nearly stopping.

"This..."

"How is that possible."

"There must be at least a hundred thousand of them!!!"

Because in the live feed, as Susu released its fragrance, at least a hundred thousand savage beasts, from Transcendent to Monarch level, eyes uniformly red, marched toward the mountain range where Shi Jin stood.

They spanned every race and every kind, all of them dire creatures recorded in textbooks as gravely threatening to humans in the wild. As they advanced, sky and earth were a dense, pitch-black mass; just the ten-thousand-strong swarm of Transcendent-level killer bees led by their queen was enough to make every viewer's hair stand on end.

"What is that sweet scent?"

"This Shi Jin has lost his mind."

"With a commotion that big, forget the beasts — the other contestants nearby will probably be drawn to him too."

The rules of this preliminary round were meant to have each contestant cautiously guard against savage beasts and other contestants in the wild, everyone like a hunter in a dark forest, needing to tread carefully, ideally winning through ambush and picking off the weak. And yet Shi Jin had fired a flare into the sky, marking his own position?

Watching the top-down view of the hundred-thousand-strong beast army crawling toward Shi Jin, countless viewers swallowed hard.

Even the beast tides that some cities faced were no worse than this.

"The analysis is out..."

"Among these savage beasts, there are ten Monarch-level ones in total, around three thousand Commander-level, and the Transcendent-level number reaches a hundred and ten thousand."

Commentator Han Lu swallowed and said.

A beast tide of that scale could nearly paralyze a tier-three city like Pingcheng in an instant.

And this was what Shi Jin had drawn in less than a minute after summoning Susu??

At the East Sea Arena, Xiong Qi sat tensely in her seat.

"Don't worry." After a moment, a female voice came from beside her.

A large white cat had appeared there at some point, joining the Ancient Capital University section of the stands.

"Teacher Ying!" Lin Zhuo said in surprise upon seeing the Gem Cat.

At the same time, the contestants inside the competition island might not yet understand the situation, but the teachers and students of the nine great academies outside the island all stared wide-eyed, watching in disbelief as Shi Jin's mad actions unfolded.

Nearly a hundred and twenty thousand savage beasts drawn in!!

Quite apart from anything else, those ten Monarch-level beasts alone would be more than a few contestants could handle.

"That brat is not honest. Qingwei must never find a boyfriend like that." On the rostrum, Chairman Xia's gaze was deep.

"Even if all his beasts mastered Perfect-level Intimidation, it would still be hard to disperse a beast tide this vast." Director Zhong clicked his tongue.

Was this not just drawing fire onto himself?

Generally speaking, Intimidation could not deal with Monarchs of the same level, and as for those hundred thousand beasts, though Intimidation might work, there were simply too many — even using it would leave one utterly exhausted.

Moreover, the Monarch commanding them would also help resist the Intimidation. In such a situation, Shi Jin's position was extremely dangerous.

Even if the beasts eventually dispersed, Shi Jin himself would likely be drained enormously.

At this moment, no one paid any attention to the other contestants.

Every gaze was fixed on Shi Jin.

Already, the nearest savage beasts had arrived close to Shi Jin.

And Shi Jin, too, felt the aura of wild beasts from every direction.

"Eleven, come out. Let's clear a wave first."

After Susu, Shi Jin summoned his second beast.

A little Iron-eating Beast, just over a meter tall and utterly groggy, appeared beside Shi Jin.

The instant it emerged, its body instinctively radiated a faint Intimidation, so that the hundred-odd savage beasts currently near Shi Jin, though they eyed Susu with burning hunger, did not dare act rashly.

[Iron-eating Beast——]

[Shi Jin's summoned an Iron-Eating Beast — my childhood's come back to me, I grew up on Iron-Eating Beast Rider.]

[So what happens next? Don't tell me he's going to make the Iron-Eating Beast fight. If you ask me, bail. Flexing and then bolting is the only real thrill.]

Countless comments streaked across every major streaming platform.

And at that moment, Shi Cen got down to serious business.

"Make as much noise as you can, draw every contestant over here," Shi Jin ordered Eleven.

"Mii!!" Eleven thumped its chest, pledging to handle it.

The next instant.

The little Iron-Eating Beast padded a few steps away, and white radiance began to wreathe its body.

BOOM!!!

Bathed in that light, a terrifying intimidation erupted from it.

Beyond that, with a thunderous roar, a formless white flare of aura, like a bursting volcano, burst out from Eleven's light-drenched body, and within that towering aura, several meters high, blue arcs of lightning crackled — "zzzt, zzzt, zzzt."

Beneath that blaze, Eleven's frame surged — two meters tall, five, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, and still climbing!!

In that instant, the astonishing transformation made viewers gape at their screens, staring mutely at it all.

Countless eyes went wide, watching a little Iron-Eating Beast barely a meter tall multiply in an instant to over a hundred meters.

Sure, there were Beastmasters who knew an Iron-Eating Beast could command a Gigantification racial skill after evolving — but gigantifying to this size... wasn't that a bit beyond common sense?

As it grew, Eleven's form changed too.

As the radiance faded, its entire body was sheathed in hard black armor... while the armor covering its face and head had turned the color of silver lightning.

Beyond that, where its limbs met its body, the thickened ring-like armor had gone silver-white as well, wreathed in lightning.

Mysterious, domineering, noble, feral — such was the aura the Iron-Eating Beast now exuded.

By now Eleven's original black pupils had shifted wholly to a lightning-born sky blue, and paired with the black-and-white armor and the current flowing across it, it looked savagely magnificent, an overlord fit to crush all things beneath it!!

"ROAR!!!!" Eleven, fully unleashed in its Edge state, bellowed at the sky, kingly majesty erupting from every inch of it!!

Skill-Transcending Intimidation!!!

At this tier, Intimidation had surpassed the Mastery level that merely coiled around objects and skills — it could now brand itself into the souls and bloodlines of other living things, brand itself into the vast, formless forces of nature, fusing with and calling forth those mighty natural powers to manifest its own majesty.

In other words, Eleven no longer needed to expend immense stamina; a single effort could command the lightning of this place to become its will and consciousness, cowing any vicious beast that approached!

RUMBLE!!!!

At that single roar from Eleven, the heavens split with a cloudless thunderclap, a sky-shaking report tearing out, a stunning bolt of thunder sweeping across the horizon wreathed in intimidation, blazing with unbearable lightning — like the judgment of a god.

That appalling report almost instantly appeared in the minds of the hundred-thousand-strong horde of vicious beasts streaming toward this place, ringing between their ears; the detonating intimidation blew apart their spirits, minds, souls, and flesh all at once, rolling every eye white, dropping them one by one into unconsciousness — before they could even reach where Baby Ginseng stood, their awareness collapsed in unison!