Chapter 314 — The Lucky One Crushed by a Slime

To have contracted two Overlord-species pet beasts while still a first-year freshman, and neither of them an ordinary Overlord species at that. What kind of freak was this? How had Ancient Capital University gotten so lucky?

Judging merely from Shi Jin's record of having entered the top hundred in the Sequence Contest, one could tell that apart from Gao Xuan, no one here was a match for Shi Jin.

"Although competitors Li Qiu and Shi Jin are currently the pair most likely to encounter each other, Li Qiu seems to have no intention of advancing to investigate the truth. At present, a certain distance still separates the two sides. If things stay this way, there's no telling when they will finally meet."

Seeing that Li Qiu had not followed the direction the fragrance drifted from to investigate the earlier commotion, host and commentator Han Lu could not help but say with regret.

"W-wait a moment! Although competitor Li Qiu is hidden in the valley and hasn't advanced further, competitor Shi Jin and his beasts seem to have suddenly looked toward Li Qiu's direction!"

On screen, Shi Jin, along with Shen Baobao and Eleven perched on his shoulders, all gazed toward an extremely distant direction, toward where Li Qiu was.

Peak-of-Mastery-level super vision.

Relying on their extraordinarily powerful scouting skills, Shen Baobao and Eleven sensed almost at the very first instant the powerful Monarch-level energy fluctuation suddenly drawing near.

Though no figure could be seen at all, that spreading Monarch-level energy fluctuation allowed Shi Jin and the others to "see" it clearly.

"Our first opponent has arrived. A pity it isn't Gao Xuan, though." Seeing this, Shi Jin said.

Let's deal with this one first...

Shi Jin thought it over and decided to take the initiative and strike.

Though the opponent seemed to be hiding very far away, that distance was nothing to Jue's pet beasts; they could reach it in no time.

Except for Shen Baobao.

"Competitor Shi Jin is indeed looking toward competitor Li Qiu's direction."

"Could he have discovered the other competitor? At this distance... incredible. Everyone, look, competitor Shi Jin is summoning new pet beasts once again!"

Three azure summoning arrays appeared around Shi Jin.

Amid swirling dazzling light, Shi Jin's other three pet beasts appeared in the audience's view as well!

From the first summoning array emerged a beautiful butterfly-like creature with gorgeous, delicate blue wings, smaller than the palm of a hand.

The instant they saw this pet beast, though its size did not match, everyone still judged at once what kind of creature it was!

A mid-tier Overlord species, the Daydream Butterfly!

The pet beast that had first spread Shi Jin's name far and wide across the nation, and had first earned Shi Jin's personal potential the appraisal of a legendary-caliber, ultra-rare pet beast!

Apart from the Daydream Butterfly, few had ever seen Shi Jin's other two pet beasts.

One was a red flame sword spirit existing in spirit form.

This sword spirit was also very tiny. Like Shen Baobao, Mini Eleven, and the Daydream Butterfly, it was smaller than a palm, very small indeed.

Because every one of Shi Jin's beasts carried max-level magnification, unless a species trait was especially unmistakable—like Ginseng Baby or the Iron-eating Beast—the audience simply could not tell what beast they were looking at.

Even so, this whole pack of baby-formed beasts, just as expected, instantly set off widespread discussion.

[All of them in baby form—Big Shot Shi Jin definitely has a maiden's heart.]

[Maiden's heart my foot. Didn't you see that giant Jiuli War Beast a moment ago? Haven't you seen the Dream Butterfly at normal size? They're all drop-dead magnificent. You lose the moment you let their looks fool you.]

[Holy shit, is that... a Water Slime?????]

Besides Chongchong and Red Pupil, Susu was summoned as well.

Originally, the little sword spirit of unknown species should have drawn the most discussion, with everyone wondering what manner of beast it was.

But Susu quickly stole Red Pupil's thunder.

Not because nobody recognized it, but because everyone knew the slime species far too well—and that was precisely why they were so dumbfounded.

"Contestant Shi Jin has summoned three more beasts!! One is a Dream Butterfly, one is a fire-attribute sword spirit, and the last is... a Water Slime?"

The Water Slime: a beast of extraordinary species.

It was far mightier than the Azure Wool Worm or the Dragon Carp, and rarer in Donghuang besides—but none of that could free it from the fact that it sat at the very bottom of the food chain among elemental lifeforms.

Nobody found it strange that Shi Jin, having broken through to Master level, could contract five beasts. But a Shi Jin who had already contracted two Overlord-species beasts had given one of his contract slots to a creature like the Water Slime—and that left many people utterly baffled.

[No, you can't judge a beast by its looks. Have you already forgotten that extraordinary-species Ginseng Baby from before???]

[A Ginseng Baby of extraordinary species that can lure a hundred thousand savage beasts in an instant—is that even reasonable? That's got to be a thousand-year ginseng!]

[This Water Slime must be terrifyingly strong too, otherwise Big Shot Shi Jin would never have contracted it!]

The reasoning was sound enough. The Jiuli War Beast's initial form, the Iron-eating Beast; the Dream Butterfly's initial form, the Azure Wool Worm; and that Ginseng Baby—none of them looked like much. But the ones in Shi Jin's hands were plainly different from other Iron-eating Beasts, other evolved Azure Wool Worms, other Ginseng Babies. This Water Slime must be the same sort of case.

At that moment, countless viewers were all the more willing to believe this Water Slime was equally out of the ordinary. What they were more curious about, though, was exactly where this Water Slime was extraordinary enough to be contracted by Shi Jin.

Holding that thought, everyone kept watching.

In the picture, Shi Jin held Ginseng Baby and called out to Eleven, Chongchong, Red Pupil, and Susu.

"Chongchong, you hold the east."

"Eleven, you hold the west."

"Red Pupil, you hold the south."

"Susu, you hold the north. That enemy is yours."

The Four Sacred Beasts: the azure worm Chongchong, the white cat Eleven, the fire bird Red Pupil, and Susu, who had swallowed a turtle shell. Perfect!

"Ginseng Baby stays here and keeps releasing its fragrance. Savage beasts and contestants will come from every direction soon enough. The moment one of them enters your field of vision, take them out—don't let them get through to me and Ginseng Baby. See who can take down more. The prizes for eliminated contestants and for killing King-level savage beasts all go to you, split by count."

"That way, it's more efficient than moving together."

"Ying? Wu? Mi? Ning?"

The four beasts were briefly stunned, then brimmed with fighting spirit.

"Yiyi ya!!" Ginseng Baby wailed pitifully. Why couldn't it go? Why did it have to serve as bait and keep releasing fragrance? It could fight too!!

"Of course, the final reward definitely has to be shared with Ginseng Baby. We're relying entirely on it to gather the mobs."

"Yi." Ginseng Baby brightened. That was more like it. Now that was what you called winning while lying down—a tactical lean back.

Besides, two Overlords had already been blown to bits; the small fry here genuinely didn't interest Ginseng Baby!

Once Shi Jin finished arranging things, the four beasts set into motion.

Eleven, wreathed in electromagnetic force, used electromagnetic levitation, riding the power of lightning to fly; in an instant it became a streaking afterimage of lightning and shot off toward the west.

Chongchong, meanwhile, vanished from where it stood through instantaneous teleportation and headed straight east.