CHAPTER 115: CHAPTER 114: TIANYI TOURNAMENT (PART 6)

The third team to appear at the starting point was the Desert Boat Team. With her wealth of experience, Bai Ling, the captain, immediately recognized the obstacle as a Carnivorous Rong.

She then put on a textbook-level display of the Healing Technique to communicate with the Spirit Plant for all the judges and audience to see.

The last note of the Healing Chant ended, and the Carnivorous Rong obligingly opened up a narrow passage.

Bai Ling was overjoyed and immediately led the Desert Boat Team through, heading north to search for the Competition Token.

Finally, it was the Unsuppressable Team’s turn to enter. The light curtain of the Transmission Array on Dome Square descended, and the four students from Harssas disappeared from their original spot. The host quickly switched the camera back to the Star Beast Forest.

"Alright, let’s see how the Unsuppressable Team performs... hmm?" In the camera footage, there was no sign of the Unsuppressable Team. The host switched the lens to a wide-angle mode, but still found nothing.

"Strange, where are they?" The host controlled the invisible flying camera, constantly switching angles, until finally finding them.

The host’s voice was heavy: "It seems there was a teleportation error. The Unsuppressable Team appears to have been sent to a spot farther from the starting point. Oh no, it looks like they’re in trouble!"

On the screen, the four members of the Unsuppressable Team had landed in a swamp, with mud up to their chests.

Seeing this scene, Principal Wen stood up abruptly, pointing at the huge screen in Dome Square, and shouted:

"Protest! Strong protest! I demand the competition be paused and the Unsuppressable Team be teleported back to the starting point!"

Principal Wen’s angry shout echoed through the Spectator Square. Chen Luxi opened his eyes from meditation and asked in a deep voice: "How far off were they?"

Yuan Kai, the head of the competition organizing group, quickly stood up to report: "Elder Chen, the current location of the Unsuppressable Team is approximately one kilometer from the starting point."

Chen Luxi closed his eyes and said slowly: "The deviation is within permissible limits, the competition continues."

Principal Wen was anxious; they had been the last to enter, already at a disadvantage, and now there was such a blunder. Not only was there no time advantage, but they also had to waste time traveling. What’s the point in competing? Might as well concede directly.

"Elder Chen, why were the first three teams teleported accurately, but when it came to our Harssas, there was a kilometer error? I seriously suspect there’s foul play in this competition!"

Before Chen Luxi could answer, Yuan Kai quickly interjected:

"Principal Wen, that’s going too far, don’t you think? While Tianyi City is the organizer this time, the strength of our Tianyi Team is evident to all. Do we need any foul play? Alright! Even if—taking it to the extreme—there was foul play, it should’ve been used on the Cold Smoke Pavilion and Xi Yuan Academy teams. As for your Harssas, hehe, to put it bluntly, you’re not even worthy of wasting our foul play on."

"You—!" Principal Wen, usually sharp-tongued, was left speechless by Yuan Kai’s retort. Yes, what’s the point of foul play on the last place?

The argument made Chen Luxi unhappy. With a wave of his robe, an invisible force pushed both Principal Wen and Yuan Kai back into their seats.

"Silence! I have already made my decision. Anyone who dares to make further noise will get out!"

Luo Jun firmly held the still-unyielding and aggrieved Principal Wen, whispering in his ear: "Principal, Principal! Calm down. Yuan Kai might be waiting for you to lose control and openly defy Elder Chen. You must keep your cool, don’t fall into their trap!"

At the mention of Yuan Kai, Principal Wen immediately stopped struggling, took a deep breath, smoothed his disheveled hair, and cast a sidelong glance at Yuan Kai, who was paying attention to Harssas’s situation.

"You’re right! Damn it, we’ll see. I refuse to believe our students will definitely come last!"

Ye Qingting, Cui Tianxiao, Qi Ming, and Li Xing had just ended their teleportation, falling freely and landing right in the center of a large swamp. The pouring rain made the swamp even more muddy and unstable, and as soon as the four entered the swamp, they quickly began to sink.

Ye Qingting loudly reminded them: "Don’t struggle; the more you struggle, the faster you’ll sink!"

The incident happened so suddenly that they didn’t even have time to draw their weapons. Ye Qingting tried hard to activate his Ice Elemental Spirit, planning to freeze the surrounding area to create a solid point on which he could leverage to escape.

But this swamp was strange, seemingly able to absorb Elemental Power. Even though the temperature around Ye Qingting had dropped to an unbearable level, there was no sign of the mud hardening or freezing.

Closest to Ye Qingting, Cui Tianxiao’s lips had turned blue, shivering and saying: "Q-Qingting, stop your Divine Skills, I’m freezing!"

Ye Qingting withdrew his Primordial Spirit, terrified: "This swamp is too strange, it won’t freeze at all!"

In the time they spoke, the mud had already reached their necks, and was quickly closing in on their mouths and noses.

Just a second before the mud covered their heads, Ye Qingting, Cui Tianxiao, and Qi Ming felt a tightening around their waists, and a great force was dragging them rapidly toward the edge of the swamp.

From a hairbreadth away from danger, the situation suddenly turned to safety. The four were pulled ashore, out of the mud, and collapsed in exhaustion on the ground.

A vine as thick as a bowl slowly slipped from around their waists, its other end sliding from the big tree by the swamp, writhing to find a fertile patch of soil and burrowing in.

The Python Vine had completed its mission and could now take root as a genuine vine. There was no need to guess; the only one capable of using the vine to save their lives was none other than Li Xing.

In front of the screen, Anna finally released Li Yi’s hand, breathing a sigh of relief, while Li Yi looked at the deep nail marks on the back of his hand and silently winced in pain.

On the city’s grandstand, the Harssas delegation relaxed, their faces easing up quite a bit. Luo Jun and Principal Wen exchanged glances, and after some silent communication, Luo Jun knowingly tapped a few buttons on his optical computer, continuing to watch the competition.

The torrent of rain quickly washed the mud from their faces. Cui Tianxiao panted heavily, scraping mud off his head and feeling lucky to have survived:

"Xing, it’s a good thing you were clever, otherwise my reputation would’ve been ruined! Not only did we make such an entrance on our first participation in the military school competition, but we also swallowed a bellyful of mud—a stain on my life!"

If they had really fallen there, they would have become the quickest team to drop out in the history of the military school competition, and undoubtedly, they would have been a laughingstock for years.

Ye Qingting was also still feeling bursts of fear: "This swamp is peculiar. My Elemental Power can’t transmit far, and most of it gets absorbed by the swamp!"

Qi Ming washed his neck in the rain before speaking: "N-Not only that, but the space buttons won’t open either. The swamp likely contains Yellow Spring Soil."

Yellow Spring Soil has a strong shielding effect, capable of absorbing and isolating both Elemental Power and spiritual power. Only Chaotic Power remains unaffected. While others couldn’t open their space buttons, Li Xing’s superior Spiritual Pendant was entirely unaffected.

Just when their teleportation was almost complete, Li Xing’s heart unexpectedly skipped a beat.

For a cultivator, such a physical anomaly is a forewarning of heavenly intuition. Li Xing instinctively placed a hand over his superior Spiritual Pendant, promptly pulling out the Python Vine seed from the Jade Pendant and urging it to save everyone’s life.