Beast Taming Begins with the Inner Circle of Pets

Chapter 34 The elimination round begins!

When Lin Manman saw the "Life Blossoms" talent, her first thought was of her brother, and she was overjoyed. Who would have thought that before even receiving news from the Alliance, she would encounter a spirit beast capable of healing souls!

"I'm sorry, little guy. Although it's immoral to force a contract while you're unconscious, you're just too important to me!" Lin Manman selectively abandoned her personal ethics and temporarily indulged in her immoral life.

After Lin Manman inscribed a soul contract with the tree spirit, she sent the four little ones back to their rice and stared at the tree spirit in a daze. Two innate talents and one racial talent at level 1; although there are only three skills, those can be learned later. Did that old man not notice such talent, or did he deliberately give it to her?

Did she mishear the old man's parting words, "You must take good care of this spiritual fruit," or did he actually know all along? If he did know all along, then who exactly is he?

After thinking for a moment, Lin Manman felt that the other party was more likely to know. Thinking about how her three perfunctory answers had resulted in her receiving a top-tier spirit pet, a slight pang of guilt welled up inside her.

"What's this? A doll? Did you buy it today?" Fang Yaqi came out after taking a shower and saw Lin Manman squatting by the bed, with a cute grass-green doll on the bed.

Lin Manman looked up at her and chuckled. She reached out and poked the tree spirit's belly, causing the tree spirit to involuntarily let out a soft "ooh".

Realizing that her feigned unconsciousness had been discovered, the tree spirit opened her pure black eyes and hurriedly flapped her two pairs of semi-transparent wings to fly in front of Lin Manman.

"Waaaaah~ Waaaaah..." Mommy, a snake is going to eat me! Help me, boohoo...

"Hiss? Hiss!" Who's your mom? This is my mom, don't go around claiming other people as your mom!

After finishing her meal, Hongyu quickly came over, her scales bristling as she hissed threateningly at the little creature in Lin Manman's arms.

"Waaah, waaah." Here, the scent of the mother tree lingers.

The little creature huddled in front of Lin Manman, tugging at her collar with its tiny paws.

Lin Manman was taken aback, then quickly pulled open her collar and pulled out a necklace. The pendant on the necklace could be opened, revealing the withered seed of the Tree of Life inside. Could this little thing actually be connected to the Tree of Life?

"Holy crap? This thing is actually alive? It's way too cute! Let me pinch it." Fang Yaqi reached out to touch the tree spirit that was clinging to Lin Manman's necklace.

Lin Manman slapped Fang Yaqi's hand away. "Alright, can't you see you're already terrified?"

It has to be said that the tree spirit's appearance is really similar to CJ7, except that it has a leaf on its furry head and two pairs of semi-transparent wings on its back. Otherwise, they are almost identical.

"Don't be afraid, sweetie. I've already signed a contract with you, and they'll be your Beast Tamer from now on. They'll be your older brothers and sisters, and they won't hurt you." Lin Manman smiled kindly and beckoned the four spirit pets to her side. "From now on, you'll be called Xiao Qi. This is Hongyu, and this is Adai. They're younger than you, so they're your younger brothers. This is Yinyue, your older sister. And this is Honey Badger, your older brother."

Lin Manman patiently introduced Xiao Qi to her family members, barely suppressing a villainous laugh. This was her precious treasure, a treasure she'd gotten for free, so she had to cherish it.

"Wow." This is too small, it's not even as big as my fingernail.

"Aww~" So cute~

"Hiss," another one vying for favor.

Ah-Dai squatted atop the honey badger's head, remaining aloof and silent. His sharp eyes flickered for a fleeting moment when he looked at Xiao-Qi.

Xiao Qi hugged the seed of the Tree of Life tightly, burying her head in Lin Manman's arms. Although the soul contract made her no longer repulsed by the aura of these spirit beasts, her past living environment made her subconsciously afraid of spirit beasts that were too large.

Fang Yaqi's expression instantly turned to utter confusion upon hearing Lin Manman's words. "I just took a shower, and you've got another spirit pet?"

Lin Manman blinked innocently, "You might not believe it, but this is the fruit that old man gave me."

"Huh?????????" Fang Yaqi was even more confused. "A fruit...turns into a spirit pet? Is that even possible???"

Lin Manman shrugged. Inwardly, however, she sighed slightly. The moment she saw Xiao Qi, she desperately wanted to form a contract with it and rush back to treat her brother. But with the competition imminent, running back now might not only expose Xiao Qi's information but also shake their team's morale. After all, they had trained hard for over a month for this competition.

Just bear with it a little longer. Anyway, I was prepared to wait for three to five years. Now it's only been a short ten days or so, and it will pass quickly.

Time flies, and the elimination rounds have officially begun!

The five arrived at the competition venue early in the morning. Due to the large number of participating teams, the organizers divided the venue into four competition areas, with matches taking place simultaneously. Based on their registration numbers, Lin Manman's team was assigned to Area B for the elimination rounds.

Upon entering the competition area, teams will draw lots according to their respective groups. The lots are divided into five colors: red, yellow, blue, green, and purple. There are ten lots of each color, and the order in which these ten teams play is not restricted. If one of the two teams in a match wins, they will continue to challenge the next team in the same color group. If a team wins five consecutive matches, they will directly advance to the round of 64. If they lose, they will wait for the next round of challenges. If they lose two consecutive matches, they will be eliminated.

The team had already tacitly left the draw to Lin Manman. Lin Manman didn't care; she was confident she could get through the knockout stage. She drew a spot in the green group; the rest would depend on the completion of the Tier 1 matches.

The matches in the Tier 1 group are very fast, because everyone has just awakened, lacks combat experience, and hasn't learned many skills. Often, just a few skills are enough to decide the outcome.

The entire Tier 1 group of fifty teams finished their matches in less than three hours.

When it was the referee's turn to draw the signatures for the Level 2 competition, Fang Yaqi shook Lin Manman's arm and said, "Watch the color the referee draws! I'm so nervous, I don't want to wait until the afternoon to compete."

The next second, the referee held up the drawn ticket, one end of which was green.

Lin Manman gave Fang Yaqi a thumbs up. "If I'm a lucky charm, you're a cursed one."

"Let's go, let's finish early in the morning." Zhu Zibin was the first to stand up and walk towards the competition venue.

As the five players took their positions on the field, five more players came up from the opposing team. They all appeared to be high school students, and their composition consisted of two warriors, two elemental mages, and one priest.

The two teams nodded to each other as a greeting, and the referee blew his whistle, officially starting the match.

Lin Manman summoned the honey badger. The moment the honey badger appeared on the field, a gasp rang out from the surrounding audience, and the opponent's face turned pale.

"Wow, is this really a level two spirit pet?"

"Not necessarily. Who says a level two beast tamer's spirit pet is necessarily level two?"

"That person must be over three meters tall, right? Are you sure there won't be any problems?"

"The referees next to us are all experts at level 6 or above, and there are priests nearby who are ready to come to the rescue at any time. Nothing will happen."

"I didn't expect the Tier 2 group to be so strong right from the start."

"Yeah, yeah, Level 1 is really nothing to see."

This was a tactic devised by the five of them: to use the honey badger to quickly end battles in the early stages, avoiding revealing too much of their team's strength. The honey badger's size advantage might also deter teams that felt they weren't strong enough; if the opponent surrendered outright, it would save them considerable energy.

(End of this chapter)