Chapter 749: Hype

For a moment, the entire arena fell into an eerie silence.

After two or three seconds, the commentator’s voice rang out across the arena, filled with shock, confusion, and disbelief: “This… this move looks like… yes! It’s a super-tier skill, Ice Field Domain! Ice Aipalu used Ice Field Domain! That’s right, Ice Aipalu! I just received information about this mysterious beast… but that’s not important now! What’s important is that Ice Aipalu just used a super-tier skill! A General-level beast just used a super-tier skill!”

“My god! This is absolutely the most jaw-dropping scene I’ve witnessed in my entire commentary career!”

“A super-tier skill! Elder Muzao didn’t even have a chance to fight back! Both the Giant Devil Vines and itself were instantly frozen within the Ice Field Domain!’”

“This match is entirely a one-woman show by contestant Qiao Sang!”

From stammering at first, the commentator had risen from his seat, spittle flying and face flushed red, getting more and more excited as he spoke.

As his words ended, the crowd erupted, instantly exploding into noise and chaos.

“Give me a moment, I need to calm down. Wait, no! I can’t calm down at all! Can someone tell me why a General-level beast is using a super-tier skill?!”

“Ahhh! Ice Field Domain! I actually saw Ice Field Domain in a match for contestants under 35!”

“Oh my god, I thought I was hallucinating!”

“Is that really a General-level beast?! I don’t believe it!”

The audience, who had a decent grasp of beast master history, had never heard of a General-level beast mastering a super-tier skill. The disbelief was so strong that everyone began doubting everything.

“It’s real…”

In the stands, Dorothy finally snapped out of her shock, murmuring, “Ice Aipalu… a dual water-ice attribute General-level beast from Blue Star. It’s a nearly extinct species…”

“Nearly extinct?” The person beside her looked at her strangely.

“How do you know that?”

Dorothy gazed at the arena, her voice distant.

“I’m Qiao Sang’s classmate…”

Classmate?

The person beside her smelled gossip.

“Which school?”

“Y-Yulianton University.” Dorothy replied honestly.

“What?! Qiao Sang is a student at Yulianton University?” The person’s voice suddenly shot up.

Everyone nearby turned to look.

“Yulianton University? Isn’t she a celebrity?”

“No wonder she’s so amazing, she’s from Yulianton!”

“Students from Yulianton don’t even need to be celebrities.”

“Wait, am I the only one who noticed the key point? Yulianton University… Qiao Sang is definitely not just 16!”

“Does it even matter if she’s 16 anymore? Just based on that Ice Field Domain, I’m completely won over!”

Dorothy took a deep breath and raised her voice: “She is 16! She skipped grades and enrolled early at Yulianton. She’s only a freshman!”

The front row of Zone A abruptly fell silent.

Other areas continued to buzz with heated discussion.

In the contestant zone.

Pirite was utterly dumbfounded. He hadn’t been prepared in the slightest. It felt like that time in school when someone told him: “Our school just had a 16-year-old who contracted four beasts, three General-level, one High-level, and two of them are completely new forms that have never been seen before.”

Or when his son once told him: “Dad, I found true love on Flame Sky Star. He’s a guy. So I used a Morph Beast to change my gender. Sorry.”

Yeah…

it was that level of shock.

---

On the field.

Lubao looked at the frozen battlefield before her, her tail twitching slightly.

A mechanical-type referee beast flew in from outside the arena to check on Elder Muzao.

“Wait!” Qiao Sang noticed its movement and quickly called out.

The mechanical-type beast instinctively froze in place.

“Contestant Qiao Sang is stopping the referee, why is that?” The commentator was recovering from his excitement.

“Could it be that Ice Aipalu hasn’t fully mastered Ice Field Domain, and she’s afraid the referee might get hurt? What a thoughtful-”

“Gigantice Spike!”

The commentator’s voice cut off abruptly.

“Lu Ai!” Lubao called out.

Boom!!!

A gigantic ice spike, as tall as a mountain, materialized above Elder Muzao’s head, and then came crashing down, creating a thunderous impact.

The ice spike shattered into four massive pieces.

The ice field vanished entirely. The temperature returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

Only the unconscious Elder Muzao, buried under massive chunks of ice, served as proof that everything just now had really occurred.

Qiao Sang calmly nodded to the mechanical referee, indicating it could now come and make a judgment.

Lubao only had enough energy to maintain Ice Field Domain for about 20 seconds. Qiao Sang couldn’t be sure it would last until the referee arrived.

And since grass-type beasts often had healing skills, if Elder Muzao managed to recover even slightly, Lubao, whose energy was nearly spent, would be at a severe disadvantage.

To avoid that, she had to defeat Elder Muzao within those 20 seconds.

Fortunately, within the Ice Field Domain, Lubao reigned as the queen of ice. She could cast any ice-type move at will, without needing two fully mastered skills to create a perfect combo as other joint techniques did.

The advantages of Ice Field Domain were obvious. But there were weaknesses too, namely, the more ice skills used during the domain, the shorter its duration.

The main issue was still energy and proficiency.

But to deal with a beast of the same rank and a countered attribute like grass, it was more than enough.

“So the earlier attack from contestant Qiao Sang wasn’t over yet.” The commentator didn’t seem embarrassed at all as he explained what had just happened.

The mechanical referee beast came up to Elder Muzao, observed for a while, then picked up its whistle and blew it.

“The result is in! Let’s congratulate contestant Qiao Sang for winning this match and successfully advancing to the next round!” The commentator announced passionately.

Applause erupted like a tidal wave, growing louder and louder.

In the end, it roared like thunder, deafening the ears.

---

On the Way Back.

Pirite had been holding it in for a while, and finally couldn’t help but ask, “How did your Ice Aipalu learn the Ice Field skill?”

“She used an Awakening Orb.”

Qiao Sang didn’t hide anything and said, “It awakened the skill during its evolution into Ice Aipalu.”

“Awakening Orb…” Pirite was a bit dazed.

If it was with an Awakening Orb, then… it wasn’t entirely impossible…

In history, there had been cases where a beast awakened a transcendent skill through an Awakening Orb.

However, that beast was already at the King level at the time.

Even for King-level beasts, being able to use a transcendent skill was still an extremely rare case across all of history…

For a General-level beast, this was absolutely the first case…

Pirite suppressed the urge to immediately email the Imperial Beast University and said, “Go back and get some good rest. The preliminaries last for two days, so your next match isn’t until the day after tomorrow… If any media tries to interview you, refuse them. Don’t waste time on them.”

Qiao Sang nodded.

“Okay.”

---

10:01 PM.

Qiao Sang returned to the villa.

Her match time had been in the middle of the day, and she hadn’t stayed to watch the others, so she came back relatively early.

Dinner had been kept warm. Qiao Sang quickly filled her stomach, went to her room, half-laid on the bed, pulled out her phone, and planned to contact the Body Forge Bug to come earlier.

As soon as she took out her phone, she saw 99+ messages.

Qiao Sang opened them and saw they were all about her match tonight.

In addition to classmates from Yulianton University, there were dozens of messages from her high school classmates at Sainan High School.

Qiao Sang began replying to them one by one.

Suddenly, she saw a message from Hulis: [Qiao Sang, you’re competing in the Beast Tamer Star Tournament?!!]

[Oh my god, it’s really you!]

[Oh my god! Are you even human?! Your Ice Xilu evolved! And it can use the super skill Ice Field Domain?!]

[Reply when you see this! You’ve gone viral online! This is the perfect time to promote our beast item brand!]

Viral?

Qiao Sang froze for a moment, then opened the trending searches.

Sure enough, several trending topics were about her.

#Beast Tamer Star Tournament, Qiao Sang

#Super-tier Skill Ice Field Domain used by a 16-year-old girl

#How did a General-level beast learn a transcendent skill

#Blue Star, Ice Aipalu

#Ice Aipalu, endangered beast of Blue Star

#Yulianton University, Qiao Sang

#16-year-old girl stuns the crowd

#Qiao Sang VS Petra

#Ghost Ring King

Qiao Sang was startled. She had expected that Lubao’s Ice Field Domain might draw attention, but she didn’t think that in just an hour or two, there’d be this much discussion online, and all trending.

Even her school got dug up…

Qiao Sang marveled at netizens’ capabilities, then returned to the chat screen and typed a reply: [I just got home. How do we promote? Does your beast item brand already have products?]

Hulis seemed glued to her phone and replied instantly: [Don’t worry about the product! My family already owns the whole production chain. The most important thing is, you’re super popular now, and this is the perfect time for the brand to enter the public eye. As long as you use our product in any match, it’ll definitely explode!]

Since this concerned her future financial situation, Qiao Sang naturally didn’t refuse [Alright, send me the product.]

Hulis was overjoyed and quickly typed: [Okay! I’ll have it delivered tomorrow! I’ll also send a item specialist to teach you how to use it.]

Qiao Sang thought for a moment and politely declined: [That’s too much trouble. Just send me the instructions and a video tutorial.]

Hulis replied instantly again: [Alright, up to you!]

Qiao Sang didn’t respond further and pondered.

She would return to Blue Star in the future. Taking advantage of this popularity might help her future career.

Yuna ran a pet club, she just needed to attach her name to it.

Owen ran a purebred pet base, which she couldn’t really help with.

But Wen Xiao worked in pet grooming.

If she visited during the Beast Tamer Star Tournament, it could bring attention to Wen Xiao’s pet grooming business…

Thinking of this, Qiao Sang didn’t hesitate. She scrolled down her chat list and quickly found Wen Xiao.

She had messaged tonight too.

Qiao Sang opened it.

She was also asking about how Qiao Sang entered the Beast Tamer Star Tournament.

Qiao Sang got straight to the point: [Has your pet grooming business opened yet?]

Wen Xiao was surprised by the sudden question and reflexively replied: [Ah, not yet…]

But the next second, she realized something, her eyes lit up, she retracted the message, sat up in bed, and resent: [Are you trying to use this popularity to promote pet grooming?]

Qiao Sang: [Exactly.]

Wen Xiao: [Not open yet, but I can launch it right away.]

Qiao Sang: [How soon is "right away"?]

Wen Xiao: [Three days. I was planning to carefully choose a location, but now I’ll just buy a shop that’s already renovated. It’s only temporary, once the name gets out, even if we change locations later, people will still come looking for us.]

As expected of a wealthy family… even a temporary shop would be bought outright.

Qiao Sang replied: [Alright. Once everything’s arranged, send me the address.]

Wen Xiao: [No problem!]

After replying to most of the messages, Qiao Sang set her phone down and turned to see Yabao staring at her pitifully.

“What’s wrong?” Qiao Sang was startled.

To be honest, it had been a while since she saw Yabao make that face.

“Yap?”

Yabao cried out, clearly asking why he wasn’t allowed to join the match tonight.

So that’s what this is about… I thought it was something serious.

While Lubao was still out training, Qiao Sang casually said, “The tougher opponents are later in the competition. I figured I’d save you for the later matches.”

“Yap…”

Yabao thought about it and realized that had been the case in past matches too.

“Not sleepy yet?” Qiao Sang noticed his expression softening and changed the subject.

“Yap…” Upon hearing that, Yabao suddenly felt sleepy.

He yawned, cried out to say he was tired and wanted to sleep.

Then he jumped onto the bed, found a comfortable spot, lay down, closed his eyes, and soon fell asleep.

“Gang Slice.”

At that moment, Gangbao, who had been silent the whole time, let out a cry.

What about her?

Qiao Sang: …

She patiently replied, “There are still several days left in the tournament. Your turn will come.”

As she said that, she suddenly thought of something and asked in surprise, “You like matches too?”

“Gang Slice.”

Gangbao shook her head.

She didn’t care about liking or disliking, she just knew that matches meant battles, and battles made her stronger.

…Damn.

Qiao Sang suddenly felt she wasn’t as hardworking as her own beasts. She immediately opened the contact info for the Body Forge Bug’s beastmaster and scheduled a session.

---

The Next Morning.

Qiao Sang woke up on time, washed up briefly, and went to the living room.

When she saw the figure busy in the kitchen, she froze, then said in surprise, “Vice Principal, you’re actually home!”

Liu Yao turned and smiled: “The book you gave me was really useful. Saved me a lot of time, so I don’t need to be out as much lately.”

Qiao Sang smiled.

“I’m glad it helped. Actually, you can just tell me what you need, I might not know everything, but I can always ask the mentors.”

Liu Yao smiled and didn’t continue that topic. Instead, he asked: “You joined the Beast Tamer Star Tournament?”