Chapter 717
Chapter 717: The Miserable Byzantium Helios Beast
Translator: StarveCleric Editor: Millman97
At the foot of Leiyuan Peak, with the swift flash of a shadow, a human and a saint beast landed on the ground.
“Elder Mo!”
The human stepped forward and clasped his fist with a smile.
“Pavilion Master Mo!” Elder Mo hurriedly returned the greetings.
The person who had just arrived was none other than the pavilion master of the Hongyuan Empire Master Teacher Pavilion, Mo Gaoyuan!
Even though he wasn’t a member of the Ten Great Master Teachers, his standing and capability was on par with them.
“Langya Saint Beast!” Elder Mo turned to the saint beast by the side and clasped his fist in greeting as well.
Mo Gaoyuan’s tamed beast, Saint 1-dan primary stage Langya Saint Beast!
As fellow Saints, there was a need to maintain basic ceremonial respect.
“Greetings to Elder Mo!” The Langya Saint Beast replied in human tongue.
After the formalities, Elder Mo turned to Mo Gaoyuan and asked doubtfully, “May I know the reason behind Pavilion Master Mo and Langya Saint Beast’s arrival?”
The Master Teacher Pavilion and Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy could be considered as equal existences under the direct command of the same Conferred Empire headquarter. As such, the Master Teacher Pavilion had no authority to interfere with the recruitment of the Master Teacher Academy.
“I heard that there are many talented students in this batch, so I dropped by to take a look…” Mo Gaoyuan chuckled.
Since this was the entrance examination, Zhang shi had to be there as well. Mo Gaoyuan was intending to improve his relationship with him, as well as to make use of this opportunity to ask about Yang shi.
Hearing that the other party was only here to spectate, Elder Mo secretly heaved a sigh of relief and replied while stroking his beard, “There are indeed quite a few talented students this year, but it’s hard to tell whether they will be able to pass the examination or not!”
“Oh? Is there something deeper to the examination?” Mo Gaoyuan asked in bewilderment.
The purpose of the examination should be to sieve out the talented students from the mediocre ones. Otherwise, what would be the point of conducting an entrance examination?
“Isn’t the test this year regarding hunting Transcendent Mortal 4-dan pinnacle spirit beasts? To those talented students, it shouldn’t be hard to clear this mission!”
The entrance examination of the Master Teacher Academy was a huge affair in Hongyuan Empire. As the head of the regional Master Teacher Pavilion, how could he remain unaware of the matter?
While it might be difficult for a 4-star master teacher to defeat a Transcendent Mortal 4-dan pinnacle spirit beast in a straightforward battle, it shouldn’t be too difficult for them to clear the mission if they were to prepare themselves beforehand.
“The admission criteria of the Master Teacher Academy isn’t based on whose fist is the strongest. If it were just mere hunting, don’t you think this entrance examination would be a little too easy for them?” Elder Mo chuckled. “Thus, I prepared a little surprise for them!”
“Oh?” Elder Mo was taken aback. He traded astonished glances with Langya Saint Beast.
When the both of them had heard the rules of the entrance examination earlier, they also found certain aspects of it slightly unusual. After listening to Elder Mo’s words, they realized that there might be another side to the examination.
“On the surface, the examination is a hunting contest where the one who gathers the most inner cores wins. However, I have designed it in a manner such that it will test the examinees’ adaptability and reactions in times of danger!” Elder Mo said with a smile. There was no need for him to hide this matter from Mo Gaoyuan. “In truth, the spirit beasts on the mountain have been organized to coordinate with one another to deal with the examinees. They have prepared bait and traps to lure the examinees into their encirclement!”
“Encirclement?” Mo Gaoyuan’s eyebrows shot up anxiously. “But those examinees are the Master Teacher Pavilion’s future…”
“Don’t worry, the spirit beasts have been strictly warned against claiming their lives!” Knowing what Mo Gaoyuan was thinking, Elder Mo hurriedly reassured him.
Those were the fresh blood of the Master Teacher Pavilion, the pillars who would prop up the organization as well as humanity in the future. Even as one of the Ten Great Master Teachers, he dared not put them in such grave danger at his own whim.
Thus, he had made precautions to ensure that the spirit beasts would only trap and wound the examinees.
Otherwise, how could Ding shi and the others hold on for so long until Zhang Xuan’s intervention came without suffering even a single casualty? One must know that they were encircled by several hundred spirit beasts, and a significant proportion of them was even at the Cosmos Bridge realm!
However, due to the tense situation then, no one noticed this oddity. Even Zhang Xuan had overlooked this fact.
“I see!”
Mo Gaoyuan heaved a sigh of relief. With the safety of the students off his mind, he began thinking about the examination, and his eyes slowly gleamed in excitement. “So, this is actually an emulation of a war between the spirit beasts and the master teachers. Regardless of whether the examinees are able to see through the crux of this test or not, this will be a good learning experience for them. This will teach them not to underestimate their opponents and keep their guards up at all times, as well as to cultivate their teamwork and make them realize that the strength of an individual is insignificant in the face of a horde… As expected of Elder Mo, this is an incredible work!”
After their failure, the examinees would understand that master teachers weren’t almighty. They might be a member of the most prestigious occupation in the world, but they would be sorely mistaken if they thought that none could threaten them. In a sense, this examination served to correct their attitudes before their enrollment.
Elder Mo received the compliment graciously with a nod.
“The idea is good, but restraining so many spirit beasts at once is no easy feat. I guess only a 6-star pinnacle beast tamer like Elder Mo is capable of doing this on such a scale!” Mo Gaoyuan commented in awe.
Since there were thirty thousand examinees on the mountain, the number of spirit beasts on the mountain couldn’t be any lower than twenty thousand. To force so many haughty beasts to obey commands and hold themselves back after cornering their preys, how capable must one be to achieve this feat?
Elder Mo shook his head with a bitter smile.
“Me? How could I possibly have the capability to do so? I have merely borrowed the strength of a saint beast!”
He might be a 6-star pinnacle beast tamer, but taming over twenty thousand spirit beasts and forcing them to obey his commands was still beyond him.
“Saint beast? Your Inferno Dragon Saint Beast?” Mo Gaoyuan asked.
Everyone knew that Elder Mo had a Saint 1-dan intermediate stage tamed beast, Inferno Dragon Saint Beast. It was a powerful saint beast capable of breathing flames.
“Inferno Dragon? That fellow is violent and impatient; I already thank the heavens if it manages to stay out of trouble, so how could I possibly delegate such an important matter to it? The one which I invited over to help me with this examination is the Byzantium Helios Beast!” Elder Mo replied.
“Byzantium Helios? You mean the old principal’s tamed beast?” Mo Gaoyuan realized.
Elder Mo nodded.
“I see, there’s indeed nothing to worry about if Byzantium Helios is on the job. Given its capability, no spirit beast will dare to disobey its commands.”
Mo Gaoyuan nodded as well.
“On top of that, Byzantium Helios Saint Beast is well-versed in the Ancient Beast Language, so it is unlikely that anything will go wrong in this examination,” Elder Mo replied.
As the tamed beast of the old principal, the Byzantium Helios Saint Beast shared equal standing with him, and no one dared to defy it. Even though the academy was currently headed by the Ten Great Elders, it still retained its esteemed standing.
But ever since the disappearance of the old principal in the midst of a mission, the Byzantium Helios Saint Beast had spent its days in desolation, never interfering in the matters of the academy anymore. Elder Mo had to pay a hefty price to convince it to help him with this matter. Even now, he could still feel his heart aching whenever he thought about it.
Nevertheless, it was well worth the price.
With the assistance from the Byzantium Helios Saint Beast who was well-versed in the Ancient Beast Language, there would be no need for Elder Mo to worry about any trouble cropping up in this examination.
Logically speaking, since most saint beasts were well-versed in the Ancient Beast Language and the human tongue, they could impart the knowledge to the beast tamers and fill in the missing gap in the heritage… However, there was a vast difference in the vocal organs of a saint beast and those of a human, thus resulting in a significant difference in the way each syllable could be voiced.
The Ancient Beast Language was the speech natural to the constitution of most beasts. On the other hand, the human body was incompatible with the Ancient Beast Language. Thus, a unique zhenqi circulation method was required for humans to emulate the various sounds in the Ancient Beast Language.
Thus, it was nigh impossible for humans to learn how to speak the Ancient Beast Language from saint beasts.
Besides, given that saint beasts were capable of speaking the human language, the language barrier that had impeded beast tamers from communicating with beasts had already collapsed. This removed the fundamental need for beast tamers of 6-star and above to learn the Ancient Beast Language. Even if, under some circumstances, they really had to communicate with a savage beast or spirit beast, they could always get their saint beast to translate for them.
“With the Byzantium Helios Saint Beast overlooking the examination, there is no need to worry about the examinees’ safety. I only fear that it might be too harsh on the examinees. It would be a calamity if none of the examinees were to pass the examination,” Mo Gaoyuan said.
Perhaps due to the influence of the old principal, the Byzantium Helios Beast also had an austere personality. If it were to heighten the difficulty of the examination by too much, it might come to the point where not even a single examinee could pass the examination.
“Don’t worry, I have already talked to the Byzantium Helios Beast regarding this matter. The examinees will only be trapped for a period of time. They will be released a few hours before the end of the examination…” Elder Mo replied. At which, he suddenly pointed to the mountain before of him and smiled. “Look, there are already a few examinees who have cleared the examination!”
Turning to the direction in which Elder Mo was pointing, Mo Gaoyuan saw a group of people climbing down the mountain, walking toward where they were standing.
It was noon at the moment. Considering how there was still some time before the reporting time in the evening, they must have cleared the examination in advance and were returning to report.
“T-that… what is happening?”
Upon seeing those figures, Elder Mo was just about to walk over to them to check their points when his eyes suddenly widened.
Trailing behind that group of people were a few hundred spirit beasts. Their heads were hung low, reminiscent of defeated roosters.
“It looks like… someone has tamed them?”
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Mo Gaoyuan’s lower jaw nearly hit the ground.
Beast taming was one of his supporting occupations, so he could instantly tell that those spirit beasts had been tamed by someone. Otherwise, the heads of those haughty spirit beasts wouldn’t have been lowered subserviently.
A group of two hundred examinees had actually tamed around five hundred spirit beasts?
Didn’t the Byzantium Helios Beast organize the spirit beasts to have them encircle the students and teach them a lesson?
Then…. what was going on here?
…
On the other hand, at the top of Leiyuan Peak, the Byzantium Helios Beast clenched its jaws and roared furiously, “You want me to acknowledge you as my master? Dream on…”
As the tamed beast of the old principal of Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy, how could it possibly submit to an Otherworldly Demon?
Even beasts had their own sense of morality!
While it was likely that the old principal was already dead, it couldn’t simply overlook the kindness that the old principal had shown it and submit to the enemy just to live on!
“Dream on?”
Not expecting the saint beast which had submitted to the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe to have such backbone, Zhang Xuan shook his head. “Continue pummeling it! Beat it until it submits!”
Upon those commands, the puppets began another round of brutal beating.
Five minutes later…
The most powerful spirit beast of the academy which possessed equivalent standing to the principal saw its life flashing before its eyes, and it could nearly see a ray of light in the distance beckoning it.
“Forget it, it’s fine if you are unwilling to submit. I’ll ask you some questions now, and if you don’t answer them honestly, I’ll extract your soul after your death and bring eternal anguish upon you!”
Seeing how the Byzantium Helios Beast was still hanging on obstinately despite being on the verge of death, Zhang Xuan shook his head. “Did you come here to harm the freshmen of the Master Teacher Academy under the orders of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe? As long as you spill out the location of those Otherworldly Demons, I can reward you with a painless death!”
“Under the orders… of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe?”
Gazing at Zhang Xuan with eyes so swollen that they could barely open, the Byzantium Helios Beast nearly fainted on the spot.
‘Orders your head!
‘I only came here under Elder Mo’s relentless persuasion and generous promises. The reason I am here is to temper more powerful master teachers to bring humanity to greater heights…
‘What the heck does this have to do with the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe?
‘On the other hand, you are the suspicious one!
‘To deal with me using the heart of an Otherworldly Demon expert before pummeling me with those Otherworldly Demon puppets…
‘And yet…
‘You still asked me if I am under the orders of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe? Can you get even more shameless than that?’