Chapter 32: The Zone Champion Battle, Against the Sky Element Soul Pet!

When Green Caterpillar heard the command, it looked at the incoming rocks and immediately aimed at the Triangular Steel Rock.

Its tail swung once more.

Swish, swish, swish!

In an instant, the rocks shot backwards like bullets toward the Triangular Steel Rock.

Opponent No. 9 looked on in stunned surprise.

The rocks clattered down on the Triangular Steel Rock’s body, producing dull thuds as they hit.

But these rocks didn’t do much damage.

Still, they disrupted its reaction.

At that moment, the rock attack Soul Skill ended.

Just as the beast roared and was about to counterattack,

a green figure already moved in front of it.

Then, a green tail blocked its vision.

Bang!

This time, a powerful force struck, but it couldn’t react fast enough to block with its arms and disperse the impact.

With a loud crash, the Triangular Steel Rock was rapidly pushed back.

Still, it didn’t fall off the stage.

However, the next moment!

The green tail struck at it over and over, like a sweeping leg technique.

Opponent No. 9 stared blankly.

Probably, he hadn’t expected Green Caterpillar’s tail whip to be so fast and relentless.

And this didn’t even seem like a Soul Skill…

He really had no idea what was happening…

By the time his mind caught up, he saw that Triangular Steel Rock was already battered and dizzy, and its entire body was about to fall off the stage.

With a loud crash, Triangular Steel Rock fell off the stage.

The arena fell silent for a long time.

“Contestant No. 23 wins!” the referee announced.

Wang Che looked at his opponent, thought for a few seconds, then waved toward Green Caterpillar, whose tail had become red and swollen.

Unlike Soul Skills,

when using a Soul Skill, Soul Power needs to circulate in a special way.

When it’s used normally to attack an opponent, it doesn’t cause much damage to the user’s own body.

But with a normal attack, even if Soul Power is used, it can still cause some harm to the Soul Pet’s body.

Especially this move, Whirlwind Tail Whip.

As one result of seven days of training,

Wang Che had tried to teach some basic martial techniques for Green Caterpillar to practice.

The only successful one was this Whirlwind Tail Whip.

But no matter how Wang Che trained it, Green Caterpillar couldn’t manage to perform it as a Soul Skill, Rattler Tail Strike.

Because Rattler Tail Strike was very powerful, and every time it was used, Soul Power needed a special cycle.

It was hard to perform it continuously without gaps.

Wang Che thought that if it were truly accomplished, it would probably be considered a new Soul Skill.

So it could only be performed as a regular tail attack.

Even so, its power was impressive.

The opponent found it extremely hard to defend against.

But it took a lot of energy and also caused some harm to Green Caterpillar itself.

That Triangular Steel Rock was really tough.

After leaving the stage, Wang Che took Green Caterpillar immediately to the Soul Pet Recovery Center.

The stadium was free, but most Soul Pet Recovery Centers were not free.

The Recovery Center was a simplified version of the Soul Pet Hospital, which could use various potions to heal Soul Pets quickly.

If the injury was very serious, surgery might be needed, and a real Soul Pet Hospital would be required, along with a long recovery time.

‘A Soul Pet like Triangular Steel Rock has truly strong defense and solid physique. Coupled with using the Hardening Soul Skill… With purely physical attacks, it’s hard for Green Caterpillar to defeat it instantly. Even if Rattler Tail Strike was used directly, it might not take it down in one move.’

While Green Caterpillar was recovering, Wang Che pondered.

He knew about Green Caterpillar’s strength since his first test.

After training with Beast Origin Art, all of its attributes improved greatly.

Of course, it was far beyond a common Soul Pet.

Though improvements later became much smaller.

So, even with seventy years of Soul Power Cultivation, Green Caterpillar still found it hard to instantly defeat a rare Soul Pet like Triangular Steel Rock that specialized in defense.

Its Racial Potential was still there.

‘Still, if it could use Soul Armament Haki… and then perform Rattler Tail Strike… it probably would take it down in one move.’

Wang Che contemplated.

The biggest achievement of those seven days of training was naturally Soul Armament Haki.

Through Wang Che’s coaching and countless sessions practicing Soul Power externalization, Green Caterpillar had basically grasped that special ability.

But, as a hidden card, it couldn’t be revealed now.

With Wang Che’s combat experience, in battles like this, he pretty much foresaw every outcome.

Unless the opponent had a Soul Pet he’d never seen or knew nothing about.

Making mistakes wasn’t possible.

He calculated every step clearly.

Just then, his Communicator buzzed.

Wang Che opened it and saw messages in the class group chat.

“Whoa, Brother Che, you’re awesome! Our class actually has two zone champions!”

“A Green Caterpillar actually beat a second-stage evolved Triangular Steel Rock… That’s ridiculous! Teacher, we gave you the battle recording—can you analyze it for us?”

“Brother Che, that final move your Green Caterpillar used was pretty cool! Could that be a Soul Skill?”

“@Teacher Zheng! Explain it for us!”

“Hold on, I’m watching… Whoa… wait…” Teacher Zheng replied.

“…”

“Next up: the zone champion match! Brother Che, I checked for you—there are a few you should watch out for!”

“Because their Soul Pets are all Sky Element Soul Pets… In terms of Soul Pet nature, they’re super effective against your Green Caterpillar… Better hope you don’t face them… Otherwise…”

“Thanks.”

…

Mention of the next match reminded Wang Che of that girl from yesterday.

Could it be that in the next round…

At the same time,

as the qualifiers from all 26 zones were confirmed,

the final round of today’s matches started random assignment.

In the stadium’s central lobby, pairs of contestants flashed across the large screen…

Finally, slowly, they settled.

Zone A, Contestant No. 6 vs. Zone M, Contestant No. 8.

Zone C, Contestant No. 9 vs. Zone P, Contestant No. 17.

…

Zone J, Contestant No. 23 vs. Zone B, Contestant No. 23.

…

Along with the matchup were full-body images of both contestants and their Soul Pets.

Zone B, Contestant No. 23 was the girl Wang Che met yesterday.

Her Soul Pet appeared as well.

A Sky Element Soul Pet, a rare juvenile Soul Pet: Spiny Gull.

A very aggressive Sky Element Soul Pet.

You could tell by its name.

After seeing his opponent, Wang Che thought for a few seconds.

‘An unfavorable type matchup. Looks like a sure win,’ Wang Che thought to himself.

Honestly, being at a type disadvantage was the thing he feared least.

Because the more obvious a weakness, the more he would focus on training against it.

At the same time,

somewhere else.

“Did you do this?”

Lin Xi stood on the stadium’s third floor, watching the duel assignments on the screen, and scolded, “Lin Xi, who taught you to interfere with the matchups like this?”

The girl called Lin Xi retorted, “What do you mean? The matchups are decided by the AI. Maybe you could mess with them on day one, but today it’s impossible. How could I have interfered?”

“Oh? And what about the Explosive Fruit in the first match? Did you set that up?” Lin Xi demanded.

“How could I? I challenged him yesterday, and yeah, he tricked me. But I’m not that kind of person!” Lin Xi argued immediately. “Besides, with my ability, do I need dirty tricks to weaken him? And that Explosive Fruit thing was obviously meant to keep him out of the competition entirely… I want to beat him fair and square on the stage!”

“That’s totally different!”

“Hah…” Lin Xi shook her head. “You, with your Sky Element Soul Pet, against his Insect Type Soul Pet—and you call that fair and square?”

“That’s a Soul Pet thing. It’s separate,” Lin Xi defended herself. “Anyway, I don’t care. He embarrassed you, so today, I’ll embarrass him!”

Lin Xi didn’t want to argue further and just sighed.

At the same time, the matches officially entered the preparation phase…