Monster Pet Evolution

In the end, Yuzhou's Public Military School and Tiange Academy were the last two schools to advance to the finals.

While the field in the auditorium was cleaned up, butterfly-like creatures surrounded the field, erecting a barrier between the audience and the action by emanating a golden light from their bodies.

To the left stood the young men and women Gao Peng had met that morning. They seemed a lot more confident than before.

Beside them stood an Ironbone Sabretooth Tiger, a Devil Vine Mountain Climbing Monster, a Monster Sunflower, a Tang Dynasty Mystic Snuff Bottle, and an Iron-Winged Armored Paladin.

The rules stated that every team had to be comprised of five monsters and, at most, five trainers. One-man teams were also allowed to participate, as long as the participants were confident in the abilities of all five familiars they had been able to sign Blood Contracts with.

However, there had been no such cases in last year's event. The team with the lowest number of members still had three.

All of the participants were high school students. As one could only sign their first Blood Contract at the age of 18, these students had only had their familiars for, at most, two years. The event's age limit was 20 years old.

All of them had given their all to raise their familiars in such a short span of time, ensuring that their familiars received the highest possible power boost. Since one participant was allowed one familiar, most schools decided to send teams of five into the championship.

The Ironbone Sabretooth Tiger was a huge, bulky creature that had somehow regressed to a more primal form. It was currently Level 36. With its thick body and impressive regenerative ability, it acted as the team's frontline and meaty shield.

The Devil Vine Mountain Climbing Monster was a formless mass of vines. One could even liken it to an almost human entity made of living vines. It would drag its vine-covered arms on the ground as it lumbered about, and a black eyeball peeked out from where its eyes should have been. This was the Devil Vine Mountain Climbing Monster's only weakness.

The Devil Vine Mountain Climbing Monster could strangle its victims with its vines. It was in charge of crowd control in the team, limiting its opponents' movements while making sure that the rest of the team had more leeway to go on the offensive. It was Level-40, the highest among the five familiars in the team.

The Level-35 Monster Sunflower was in charge of healing. It was noteworthy that not many trainers were fond of the idea of raising Healer-type monsters.

The Monster Sunflower was equipped with the ability to heal others. It had an extremely huge face that was surrounded by layers of bright yellow petals. This made its face look even more enormous.

It was also quite ubiquitous these days. Of course, its popularity didn't equate to weakness. Rather, it was the convenience of its healing ability that made it so popular among trainers. The Monster Sunflower could heal others in two different ways.

First, it could provide targeted healing by shining healing rays of sunlight from its body on a single target. Second, it could open up its petals and extend an area of sunlight around itself. Anyone inside the area would immediately receive its healing. However, the healing effects that could be obtained this way would be a lot weaker than that provided by its single-target healing.

As the Monster Sunflower's area-of-effect healing ability could heal both friend and foe alike, the dexterity with which it could alternate between both of its healing abilities in combat was usually taken as a clear sign of how well it had been trained.

As for the Tang Dynasty Mystic Snuff Bottle... Gao Peng didn't remember there being any snuff bottles during the Tang Dynasty. It's probably a fake, he thought. However, this wasn't important. What was important was the fact that it had evolved into a living, breathing monster.

On the surface, it looked like a three-foot-wide bottle. It could spew out large amounts of white smoke from its mouth, but this was no ordinary smoke. The bottle monster could confuse its opponent's senses with it. It was a true counter to monsters equipped with sight-related powers. However, Second Baby's ability probably wouldn't have been affected by it.

Last but not least was the Level-38 Iron-Winged Armor Paladin, a seven-foot-tall creature that seemed to be made of living metal plates. It could execute lightning-fast attacks by extending its metal plates explosively from its body. The Iron-Winged Armor Paladin was the team's main source of burst damage.

However, its weaknesses were quite obvious. For instance, the Devil Vine Mountain Climbing Monster was the perfect counter to it. Also, while the Iron-Winged Armor Paladin's armor plates were capable of inflicting piercing damage, they wouldn't work well against an opponent with strong defenses.

Most schools would pick five strong candidates among their students, then assign their familiars to either the frontline or backline before sending them off into battle. Most of the participating familiars there were Commander-tier. However, a familiar like the Tang Dynasty Snuff Bottle would have a tough time putting its abilities to good use on the field.

Not counting the Monster Sunflower, Tiange Academy only had three damage dealers. This was quite a bold combination of familiars.

The students of Yuzhou's Public Military School stood before them. They attended a public school backed by both the military and the region's government, and their team was also composed of Commander-tier familiars above Level 35.

When the bell rang, the Tang Dynasty Snuff Bottle began spewing out white smoke from its mouth, engulfing the entire field with it.

"Someone has left a comment on our forums stating that all of Tiange Academy's matches have been all but unwatchable. I have to agree with him or her there," said the host.

"Yeah, the field is covered in white smoke every time. Even our infrared feed comes out blurry. I suppose this is the school's way of saving the good stuff for last," said one of the guest speakers sitting beside the host.

"That's right. I heard that Tiange Academy has prepared themselves quite well this year. They just might enter the semifinals."

"I think they could just skip straight to the finals," said the guest speaker in an attempt to boost views by raising a controversial topic.

"I don't think it would be that easy. A lot of people weren't satisfied with last year's results. Some of the participants from last year have returned to set the record straight once and for all. You can tell that most of the participating schools have put a lot of effort into training their students for this year's event."

"Yes, I have noticed that. Some are even saying that this year's winner will be either last year's champion, Huawu High School, or last year's runner-up, Jiangnan First High School."

"Huawu High School and Jiangnan First High School…"

The host and his guest speaker continued babbling on the television.

Gathering his thoughts, Gao Peng remembered that there were three top tribes in the ancient clan: the White Dragon Tribe, the Green God tribe, and the Mysterious Serenity Tribe.

He had personally met some of the people in the White Dragon tribe. Even though his grandfather had refused to join them, he had told Gao Peng that the tribe had taken the Southern Sky Group under its wing in order to safeguard them against other tribes.

The Jiangnan region was now under the control of the Freedom Alliance. Even though the Freedom Alliance had declared its independence, it hadn't officially adopted an isolationist policy. On the contrary, it still maintained its relations with the outside world and even offered various privileges to draw people in.

Now a shell of its former self, the Alliance Government had decided to return every region's right to autonomous rule. Those who didn't agree to this had no choice but to accept the Alliance Government's decision.

Gao Peng suddenly remembered something his grandfather had said the day before.

"I could become mayor any time I want. While the Yuzhou region still hasn't adopted the Ji surname, I already have people out there trying to guess what I'm going to eat tomorrow from the smell of my farts."

The High School Championship might just have been another manifestation of the power struggle between the various existing powers in the world. It just so happened that Jiangnan First High School belonged to the Freedom Alliance.

What have I gotten myself into? Gao Peng rubbed his face in frustration.

Since he had agreed to lead the school's team, he figured there was no point crying over spilled milk.

I'm just going to be leading the team from the sidelines. I don't have to do anything!