Chapter 446 — The Might of the Time Element System
The Beast-Taming Craftsman Page 3 of 4
Better to... just sit this one out!
Apart from Shi Jin, every beastmaster of the seven nations had abandoned the trial! 1
This scene left the beastmasters of the Totem Nation utterly incredulous; they could not fathom what the seven nations were selling in their gourds.
And on the side of the seven nations' beastmasters, incredulity likewise rippled through them.
Who would have thought the other nations were also abandoning the trial on such a massive scale?
No—abandoning it, and yet not entirely abandoning it.
There was still one contestant from the seven nations.
It was Shi Jin, who had declared his intention to compete before anyone else...
But was Shi Jin really going to be all right?
After all, their legends had all said that this trial carried a crisis of life and death.
Multiple totem-rank starry void insects, plus a totem-rank Rubber Divine Tree—it truly did not look like friendly ground.
In the Seven Isles region, there was the Phoenix Fire Tree; Feng Juejieyi, who could likewise have competed, grew nervous for Shi Jin.
She could not understand why Donghuang's legend had not tried to talk Shi Jin out of it. 1
"What's going on?" At this very moment, witnessing this bizarre phenomenon, the Totem Nation's side too suddenly felt a pang of unease.
"Um, Lord Deity, my deepest apologies—I've suddenly got a bit of a stomachache." Among the two Totem Nation contestants who had just responded, one that looked like an ape wrought of wood suddenly turned pale and spoke at once. 1
Under the dumbfounded gaze of its nation's totem, it hurriedly dragged its contractor away from the trial site—strange, far too strange; it no longer wished to compete.
The Eternal Divine Tree: "..."
"This—" At this moment, the sixth trial, steeped in a thick atmosphere of eeriness, left the Primordial Tree God, the Tyrant Dragon King, and the Black Dragon Sovereign somewhat silent, unable to grasp just what was going on.
It also made the Thunder Crown Rubber Divine Tree, which had steeled its resolve, gulp hard, a trace of nervousness creeping in.
Even the Eternal Divine Tree had a bad premonition. What... were you all up to?
Before long, of the twenty-nine trial challengers who had stepped forward, nine withdrew one after another.
These nine factions had all come with the mindset that taking down a single overlord-class astral insect would already make the trip worthwhile—grab a little profit and leave.
But when the seven nations strangely sent only the Shishuo contestants, and on top of that the Giant Dragon Empire and the Dragonkin Empire had approached them to join forces against Shi Jin, these nine factions
suddenly felt afraid.
They sensed something momentous was brewing, feared being caught in the blast, and chose to give up one after another.
"Anyone else want to leave?" The Eternal Divine Tree was utterly, absolutely speechless.
The remaining nineteen contestants were somewhat uneasy, but since they had missions to carry out, none dared to withdraw on their own initiative.
"Not bad." Shi Jin appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly he was watching the nineteen totem-nation contestants left with great delight.
With max-level telekinesis and telepathy, he could sense a faint, elusive killing intent on each of them.
What Shi Jin had not expected was that after the Shenyuan Legend's little performance, the sixth trial had turned outright into a playground between him and the totem forces eager to hunt him down.
"In that case, I will send you into the barrier." After staring at Shi Jin for a few extra moments, the Eternal Divine Tree spoke in silence.
It, too, was gradually coming to understand what was going on—and it rather wanted to see what sparks these forces of a later age would strike against one another.
"Look!"
Once the contestants had gathered, inside the trial barrier, enormous monstrous trees like man-eating plants opened their giant vegetable maws and, accompanied by gushing sap, spat out one bizarrely shaped insect after another.
When first spat out, they were not large—at most a few meters in length—but as they dropped to the ground, each astral insect's body suddenly swelled.
"Zzzz zzzz..."
Moreover, they emitted an indescribable sound. The largest few insects expanded to dozens of meters tall in mere moments.
Their forms were exceedingly strange, with only some insect characteristics about them; their bodies contained organs of all sorts of animals and plants, as though a dozen species had been stitched together—utterly horrifying.
Outside, the contestants and spectators sensed no particularly intense energy fluctuations from them, yet a life force comparable to totem-class beings enveloped them like a vast sun.
Five totem-class astral insects in total, and forty-five overlord-class astral insects!
"So few!" Upon discovering there were only forty-five overlord-class astral insects—fewer than a hundred in all—the remaining totem-nation trial challengers instantly felt there was not enough to go around.
The Rubber Divine Tree glanced over and felt it was barely enough to fill the gaps between one's teeth.
If it was merely life energy they contained, they did not look so terrifying.
Even the five totem-class astral insects seemed less imposing than the Azure Dragon Crown Prince who had just been slain in an instant.
And at that moment, seeing the "insatiably dissatisfied" expressions on the trial challengers' faces, the many gods led by the Boar God suddenly curled the corners of their mouths.
"Heh heh."
"They seem not to know what they are facing."
Moments later, all twenty contestants were teleported to different locations within the trial barrier.
The Eternal Divine Tree's teleportation was exceedingly deliberate: every trial challenger who had just entered the barrier found, right before their eyes, an astral insect flexing its body.
Their eyes glowed crimson and ghostly green, drool streaming from their hideous maws, as though they were starving to the extreme—so ravenous they had nearly lost their reason.
"Astral insects, is it."
Whooosh!!!
Each newly entered overlord-class Great Radiance Flower, empowered by its beast tamer's light-element enhancement talent, unleashed a myriad of rays, attacking the aberrant creature before it—a creature built upon a mantis body,
bearing traits of apes, willows, dragons, and phoenixes all at once.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Countless attacks rained down, yet the astral insect stood motionless where it was. The techniques set off violent explosions across its body; amid rising smoke, it merely flexed its body again, then advanced toward its prey with blood-red eyes.
The overlord and its beast tamer felt their pupils contract.
"Aaaah!"
In mere moments—barely seconds after the trial began—a trial challenger was torn apart by an astral insect and devoured.
At this scene, many spectators outside watching the trial barrier went wide-eyed and clapped their hands over their mouths.
Such things happened elsewhere as well.
In an instant, of the twenty teams that had entered, two had their members killed and eaten by astral insects.
This set the hearts of the beast tamers from the seven nations who had not joined the trial—along with those who had just withdrawn—pounding wildly.
After all, the first batch of astral insects the trial challengers encountered were merely overlord-class; those five totem-class astral insects were still farther off, hunting for prey.
"Quasi-totem grade." At that moment, the experts watching the trial all turned their gazes deep and pronounced their judgment.
Each of the forty-five overlord-grade star void worms here had a physical body comparable to totem grade; to them, the attacks of ordinary overlords were no different from a tickle.
Even a top-tier overlord, they feared, would have to pay a grievous price to defeat these star void worms—and that was assuming the worms had no other cards to play.