Li Jianren considered admitting defeat, but he was worried others would look down on him, especially since his grandfather was a clan elder. If he lost without a fight, he was afraid even his grandfather would be inclined to beat him to death.

Under these circumstances, Li Jianren dismissed his thoughts of admitting defeat and forced himself to face the battle head-on.

“Changsheng, friendship first, competition second!” Li Jianren said abruptly before the battle started. He privately winked at Li Changsheng.

His thoughts were very simple. He hoped Li Changsheng would be merciful, not thrashing him too ruthlessly. If his demon pet received heavy injuries, it would be detrimental to the later competitions.

Since there was no way he could get into the finals, he could only do his best to get a good ranking. Even if he dropped out at the semifinals, the institution recommendations quota for 5th to 8th place were still different and worth fighting for.

“Uh-huh!” How could Li Changsheng not understand Li Jianren’s thoughts? This kind of favor was one he did not mind giving once.

Noticing the exchange, the internal affairs clan elder furrowed his eyebrows slightly, but he did not say too much and signaled the start of the competition.

Right off the bat, the two both summoned their demon pets. Li Changsheng chose Heaven’s Fowl again whereas Li Jianren chose his Earth Wolf.

Like the Fire Wolf and Wind Wolf, the Earth Wolf was a Middle-class Servant beast demon pet, except it was an Earth Type.

“Heaven’s Fowl, Arrows of Light!” Li Changsheng directed Heaven’s Fowl, making the first move.

Chirp~

In the sky, with loud caws, the Heaven’s Fowl’s entire body shone with a bright light like it was a small sun. The blinding light quickly centralized and formed numerous inch-long arrows of light, shooting downward toward the Earth Wolf.

“Earth Wolf, Solid Shield!”

Li Jianren did not sit around waiting for death. Under his orders, the Earth Wolf gathered Earth energy. A dirt-yellow round shield formed, enveloping the Earth Wolf.

Poof poof poof poof~ Crash~

In that instant, the Arrows of Light crashed into the Solid Shield. At the moment they met, strong ripples appeared over the Solid Shield, then it suddenly broke. The strength of the Arrows of Light obviously surpassed the Solid Shield’s protection.

Under the Earth Wolf’s frightened gaze, the Arrows of Light, moving a little slowly, left numerous wounds on the Earth Wolf’s body.

Because the Solid Shield had offset some of the damage, the wounds were not deep, but due to the stark difference in strength, the Earth Wolf still received substantial wounds.

Just as the Earth Wolf was ready to continue the fight, Li Jianren quickly initiated a Mental Connection and transmitted his thoughts.

Soul Connections depleted a large amount of omniscience. It could let demon pets receive their demon tamer’s thoughts. The stronger the demon pet was, the more it used up the demon’s omniscience.

Hence, very few demon tamers would initiate Soul Connections in the middle of a battle. After all, compared to a Soul Connection, other omniscience skills provided better performances for the cost.

Upon receiving Li Jianren’s thoughts, the Earth Wolf rolled its eyes and then shook its head like it was dizzy, as if it was an alcoholic who had gotten drunk, before finally.. falling to the outside of the ring.

With a ‘thump’, the Earth Wolf fell out of bounds.

According to the competition stipulations, leaving the ring or being thrown off it was seen as admitting defeat.

“Ahem ahem!” Seeing this result, the internal affairs clan elder could not help coughing, but he did not say anything, signaling for Li Jianren to switch out his demon pet.

After recalling the Earth Wolf, Li Jianren turned to release the Wind Wolf. He seemed to have a particular fancy for wolf demons. All his binding contracts were with wolf demons. Simply put, he was a wolf enthusiast.

“Heaven’s Fowl, Peck!” Li Changsheng did not use an Advanced Skill. After all, Advanced Skills had a much stronger range and could very likely injure the Wind Wolf to the point that a direct hit would be fatal.

In the sky, Heaven’s Fowl folded its wings and dove down. Its sharp beak shone with a cold gleam, and it appeared above the Wind Wolf in the blink of an eye, pecking at the Wind Wolf’s head.

“Wind Wolf, Iron Head!”

Wolf demons had heads and bones of steel, and bellies of tofu. Their toughest spot was their head.

Under Li Jianren’s direction, the Wind Wolf raised its head and jumped up with strength, crashing into the Heaven’s Fowl’s beak.

Bang~

With a muffled sound and under great strain, the Wind Wolf’s four legs buckled, and it slumped onto the ground. Its head was bleeding profusely, and its bone was visible.

Like earlier, Li Jianren once again initiated a Mental Connection. This used up a large chunk of his omniscience. His face was slightly pale, and his head was dizzy.

What was different this time was that the Wind Wolf did not fall out of the ring. Instead, rolling its eyes, its head tilted to the side, and it lay on the ground, unmoving.

“The Wind Wolf can longer fight!” The internal affairs clan elder was exasperated. With his sharp vision and experience, naturally, he could see that the Wind Wolf could still fight on, but he could not expose him. He knew very well that he could not wake the Wind Wolf that was ‘playing dead’.

After the internal affairs clan elder’s announcement, Li Jianren gave the remaining spot to his Fire Wolf, which was also his strongest demon pet.

“Fire Wolf, use Fire Ball!” This time, Li Jianren started the attack first.

In the ring, the Fire Wolf raised its head and opened its mouth. Many fire-red sparks gathered and finally formed a ball of fire as big as a human head, which was sent hurtling toward the Heaven’s Fowl.

“Heaven’s Fowl, Holy Light Judgment—sweep it out of the ring!” Because the Fire Wolf was much stronger than the other wolves, it was more resilient than the previous pets. Li Changsheng had no worries and resolutely chose to launch an Advanced Skill.

Chirp~

In the sky, a clear birdcall sounded. The Heaven’s Fowl’s aggregation a bright beam of light quickly and crashed it into the Fire Ball in an instant.

Roar~

After a moment of deadlock, the Fire Ball could not hold out and exploded loudly, becoming countless sparks and dissipating. Even so, it still did not completely neutralize the beam of light.

After destroying the Fire Ball, the beam of light continued falling and finally swallowed the Fire Wolf.

Bang~

During the process, the Heaven’s Fowl jerked its head a little and used the impact of the beam of light to high-handedly sweep the Fire Wolf out of the ring.

“This round, Li Changsheng wins!” After announcing the results, the internal affairs clan elder looked closely at the two young men.

After defeating Li Jianren, Li Changsheng smoothly advanced to the finals.

Wow wow~

Li Changsheng’s dominant victory naturally caused many clansmen to cheer for him. Heaven’s Fowl defeated its rivals with one move and easily won the match. On top of that, it was still just Li Changsheng’s temporary demon pet. Li Changsheng’s true power was still unfathomable.

In the contestant’s seats, Li Tianyu, Li Jingyi, and Li Runfeng’s expressions were stony. The strength Li Changsheng showed made the feel pressured. This was just a temporary demon pet too. If it was a bound demon pet, they were afraid it would be even stronger.

After finishing his battle, Li Changsheng did not leave the area. He continued sitting at his seat, observing his rivals’ strengths.

When hunting a rabbit, a lion still used its full strength. Not to mention that these were not rabbits!

Under the internal affairs clan elder’s organization, he announced the semifinals were over not long after. There were no surprises—the four strong contestants were left.

Like Li Changsheng, Li Tianyu and Li Jingyi had all easily won their victories like a fall breeze sweeping fallen leaves.

Li Runfeng was the only exception. He continued acting like a pig eating a tige[1]r, acting weak on purpose and finally squeezing out another narrow win.

[1] an idiom for acting like a weakling to lead the opponent into carelessness and seizing the chance to gain the final victory