Chapter 48: Predator? Hunter?

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Predator? Hunter?Two days later. Guangling City central square. "Now, I will announce the trial rules." Qin Lie spoke loudly. Hearing this, everyone quieted down. "The True Martial Trial is divided into two rounds; the first round is forest hunting, and the second round is dueling on the platform." "The ranking rules of forest hunting are based on the level of spirit beasts hunters by each contestant. The highest-level spirit beast will be taken as the final score." "The rules for the platform dueling are simple: participants will duel in pairs to ultimately determine the order of ranking." "Only those geniuses who rank in the top forty in the forest hunting will earn the right to duel and enter the second round." "Only those entering the second round will have the possibility of earning a place to study at True Martial Academy!" "Now, the forest hunting starts immediately, with a duration of three days. Everyone must return here before sunset three days from now, otherwise, you will be considered eliminated. If there are any questions, feel free to come forward and ask." Qin Lie announced the rules. Hearing this, many contestants immediately returned to prepare. However, most of the contestants headed straight for the Endless Forest. Entering the forest earlier increases the chances of encountering opportunities. After all, as so many people enter, it will alert the spirit beasts. It will be more difficult to hunt spirit beasts then. Ling Chen was well-prepared and thus directly entered the Endless Forest as well. With his previous experience, Ling Chen effortlessly made his way deeper into the forest. Moreover, having become a lower-grade Divine Thought Master, he could use Divine Soul Telekinesis to detect his surroundings. Currently, his Divine Soul Telekinesis could cover up to a hundred zhang, making finding spirit beasts a breeze. Within just a few hours, Ling Chen had entered the territory of ninth-rank spirit beasts. Next, Ling Chen slowed down. Ninth-rank spirit beasts were not his objective. Since this competition limits participants’ age to below twenty-five, there were quite a few Cultivators in the Spirit Sea Realm, totaling over thirty. Therefore, to ensure his entrance into the second round, Ling Chen aimed to hunt a mystical beast! Mystical beasts and spirit beasts have similar levels. They range from first to ninth rank. With Ling Chen’s current ability, hunting a first-rank mystical beast should be no problem. After all, although he’s only at the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm, he has practiced profound Spirit Arts. And it’s not just the lower-grade Spirit Arts; he has also touched on the middle-grade and high-grade ones. Among the Four Symbols Profound Arts that Luo Luo gave him, the lowest is a middle-grade Spirit Art! Among them, the White Tiger Palm is even a high-grade Spirit Art! As these Four Symbols Profound Arts are also within his inherited memories, hence he knows their exact grades. Entering the range of the mystical beasts, Ling Chen became extra cautious. However, what puzzled Ling Chen was that despite being in the area for half a day, he hadn’t encountered a single mystical beast. "What’s going on here?" Ling Chen spread out his Divine Soul Telekinesis. He was shocked to find that many mystical beasts seemed to have fled not long ago. "This is the Endless Forest, the home of spirit beasts!" Ling Chen mused with a wry smile. He thought that with his strength, killing a first-rank mystical beast would be quite easy. He would be able to advance to the second round without much trouble. But who would have thought that he didn’t even get to see a mystical beast, let alone get the chance to act. "Should I really go back and hunt a ninth-rank or a pinnacle spirit beast?" Ling Chen pondered in his heart. He had no choice as he couldn’t even find a mystical beast, so how could he possibly hunt one? Thus, he continued deeper into the forest. A whole day passed, and Ling Chen truly didn’t encounter a single mystical beast; it was as if all the mystical beasts had disappeared overnight. Originally, he planned to secure a spot at True Martial Academy through this trial and save the True Martial Token for Ling Wu. Unfortunately, man proposes, but heaven disposes. Glancing deep into the forest, Ling Chen decided to withdraw. The deeper into the forest, the more powerful the monster beasts became. Therefore, he dared not take the risk. "If I can’t find any monster beasts, then I can only look for people!" Ling Chen shifted his approach. He wanted to see if others were experiencing the same as him. If everyone was in the same situation, then he was ready to hunt a peak spirit beast, which should be enough to ensure his advancement to the second round. Soon, using his Divine Soul Telekinesis, Ling Chen found several young talents participating in the trial. Having the Night Moon Saint Body, his Spiritual Power aura was extremely concealed. Without his control, others couldn’t even sense his cultivation level. These people hadn’t trained in Divine Soul Telekinesis, so naturally, they couldn’t sense the probing of Divine Soul Telekinesis. Thus, he was almost completely stealthy as he followed a few of them. "How strange, why can’t I find a single monster beast after so long?" One of the Spirit Sea Realm youths expressed his confusion. "Yeah, it’s really odd. We could clearly sense the monster beasts’ aura before, but this time, not at all?" Another Spirit Sea Realm youth was also puzzled. Hearing their conversation, Ling Chen seemed to understand. The problem must lie with himself. Because these guys had sensed the aura of monster beasts before, but he never did. And as he drew closer, these people couldn’t sense the monster beasts’ aura anymore, wasn’t this exactly indicating the problem was with him? "Forget it, no point in following them!" Ling Chen made up his mind. Even if he followed them, he probably wouldn’t find any monster beasts. It would be better to wait for the rabbit. He would stay in one place and directly deal with the cultivators returning from hunting monster beasts! Quickly, Ling Chen silently left, heading towards the outer area of the Endless Forest. If he knew that this was because Luo Luo had left her aura on him, making the monster beasts so respectful, he would probably cry to death! The place Ling Chen chose for ambush was on a must-pass route in the Endless Forest. He lay on the branch of a big tree, eyes closed in meditative rest. Meanwhile, his Divine Soul Telekinesis occasionally scanned beneath him, looking for his next target. The best opponents would be those in the first layer of the Spirit Sea Realm. With such power, he should be able to handle them easily. And, it was very likely to hunt down a first-order monster beast! Of course, if luck wasn’t that good, then he had no choice but to strike at Cultivators above the first layer of the Spirit Sea Realm! With the Four Symbols Mysterious Technique at hand, he was confident. Then, over the course of a day and a night. During the daytime, he bathed in Sunlight, enhancing his Divine Soul Telekinesis. At night, he absorbed nature’s spiritual energy, improving his Spiritual Power Cultivation. And, when the night passed, Ling Chen was lucky enough to achieve a breakthrough to the Spirit Sea Realm. Originally, he was confident that he could defeat Cultivators of the first and second layer of the Spirit Sea Realm. Entering the Spirit Sea Realm, his Spiritual Power condensed again, turning into liquid Spiritual Power, and his power increased significantly. Now that he advanced to the Spirit Sea Realm, his confidence was even stronger. He could even hope to fight with Cultivators of the third layer of the Spirit Sea Realm! In the blink of an eye, it was the last day of the three. At this time, quite many Cultivators were already walking out of the Endless Forest. Ling Chen did not take action, as these people were all at the Qi Condensation Realm. With his cultivation of the Spirit Sea Realm, he really disdained to deal with such weak levels. "Hm?" Ling Chen smiled slightly, looking into the distance. He sensed the auras of two Cultivators at the first layer of the Spirit Sea Realm. Sёarᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.