Su Da excitedly left, taking his two spirit beasts to seek revenge.
Lin Chuan chuckled, playing with the several score beads in his hand: 1 blue, 2 green, totaling 70 points.
It seems this method of earning score beads is truly viable.
Just by healing other Beast Masters' spirit beasts, he could obtain score beads. Wasn't this much easier than fighting others to the death?
Being a battlefield doctor in the secret realm space was truly promising.
Speaking of which, did he charge Su Da too little for the treatment? Looking at Su Da's expression just now, he probably could have asked for more!
Lin Chuan pondered, thinking he should increase the treatment fees later.
He would raise them to a level where others would feel the pinch but could barely accept it.
As for Su Da, consider him the first customer discount for opening business.
Once Su Da had completely left, Lin Chuan also departed. He needed to go to other places to find people who needed healing and earn score beads.
Of course, this was a secondary objective.
The main objective was to continue acting as a hidden observer, secretly gathering information.
He would observe the battles between other examinees and the Terror Puppets to collect intelligence.
As for the Terror Puppets, Lin Chuan still hadn't figured out what kind of spirit beast or demonic creature they were.
Approximately 3 hours had passed since entering the trial space.
In these 3 hours, Lin Chuan had secretly witnessed 3 battles.
The initial screaming girl didn't count.
One of them was an encounter between two examinees, which held no significant value. The victor gained score beads, the loser was eliminated. Even the victor wouldn't last a single round against him, so there was nothing to say.
The remaining two battles were between examinees and Terror Puppets.
One of them was Su Da, who had just escaped an encirclement by three Terror Puppets and became Lin Chuan's first customer.
The other was a female examinee.
She encountered an attack from a Terror Puppet. Under the combined assault of her two contracted spirit beasts, the Terror Puppet was defeated.
It was this battle that revealed many problems to the secretly observing Lin Chuan!
Many questions that had puzzled him became even stranger the more he looked!
The Terror Puppet's behavior was completely unlike that of a normal spirit beast or demonic creature.
Firstly, Terror Puppets did not use any skills.
Yes, their attacks were purely brute force blows, without any energy fluctuations.
Secondly, Terror Puppets seemed to have no sense of pain whatsoever. Even when subjected to severe blows, with their bodies half-destroyed and shattered, they continued to attack as if nothing had happened.
Other spirit-infused spirit beasts, such as the Plushie born from a doll's spirit, although their pain perception was lower compared to animal-type spirit beasts, it still existed. If they sustained significant damage, they would experience intense pain and lose combat effectiveness.
But what about that Terror Puppet?
It wasn't until it was completely shattered into a pile of wood chips by the combined attack of the female examinee's two spirit beasts that it finally lost its ability to resist.
Oh, it's worth mentioning that a blue score bead dropped after the Terror Puppet was shattered.
However, the blue bead was not its core, merely an external item it carried. These score beads had no energy fluctuations whatsoever, completely different from spirit beast spirit cores or demonic creature demonic cores, which possess strong energy fluctuations.
Finally, there were the shattered wood chips.
There was no trace of spirit beast or demonic creature aura! They were simply ordinary wood chips!
Could it be?
Was it a ghost-type spirit beast or demonic creature possessing the wood chips?
That's not right either. If it were a ghost-type spirit beast or demonic creature, after possession, the wood chips would still retain ghost-attributed energy and have a cold external feel.
However, there was none.
So, what kind of existence was this Terror Puppet?
To this day, Lin Chuan still didn't understand the nature of the Terror Puppet's existence, or even its attribute or species.
However, Lin Chuan's secret observations still yielded some insights.
Terror Puppets were most sensitive to sound.
Once a loud noise was made, it would attract all surrounding Terror Puppets. Therefore, when encountering Terror Puppets, one should either use skills with as little sound as possible, or resolve the battle quickly and leave the scene. Otherwise, more and more Terror Puppets would surround them.
Su Da's situation was precisely this: his two spirit beasts' skills had too loud sound effects, and he failed to end the battle immediately, leading to his encirclement by two other Terror Puppets that rushed over.
Secondly, the Terror Puppet's black hole-like eyes possessed vision, but it was very poor. Unless one approached very close to it, it could not see.
Finally, the Terror Puppet's intelligence was extremely low, or rather, it had no intelligence at all.
As long as the color of one's clothing was mostly similar to the bluish-brown of wood and plants or the dark gray of surrounding rocks, and one moved without making significant noise, then it would simply ignore them.
This was also the biggest reason Lin Chuan could now run around freely and act as a hidden observer, because Lin Chuan was wearing bluish-brown Vine Armor.
Above is all the intelligence Lin Chuan had currently collected and analyzed.
Useful, but not critical intelligence.
In short, he would continue to act as a hidden observer.
And incidentally, see which examinee's spirit beast was severely injured and lost combat effectiveness, then open for business as a doctor to earn score beads.
...
Qinghe City Beastmaster Association.
At this moment, Shi Kuanshan and the others were no longer waiting in the front plaza; they had returned inside the Association.
A special room.
This place was filled with surveillance equipment, with thousands or even tens of thousands of video screens operating simultaneously, live monitoring various scenes within the secret realm space.
Numerous staff members moved back and forth, recording the various actions of each examinee.
Just then, one of the staff members rushed to Shi Kuanshan and reported the situation.
"Serial number 1074, examinee Lin Chuan. He is earning score beads by healing other examinees' injured spirit beasts. President, isn't this method...?"
The staff member hesitated.
Lin Chuan's method was not against the rules.
The main issue was that Lin Chuan's healing of other examinees gave them more opportunities, allowing examinees who should have been eliminated to survive, raising them to an undeserved level of achievement.
Shi Kuanshan remained silent, his brows furrowed. He had indeed never encountered such a situation.
Liang Lu, beside him, chuckled.
"Is there any explicit regulation stating that this cannot be done? If not, then there's no problem."
"On the path of a Beast Master, luck is sometimes more important than strength."
"Those examinees, encountering Lin Chuan in this assessment, is their luck, their opportunity. We can't forcibly deprive them of their good fortune and opportunity, can we?"
Having said this, Liang Lu paused, pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and smiled subtly:
"Moreover, even with luck, without strength and sufficient caution, one ultimately won't go far."
"Those who should be eliminated will still be eliminated."
"There will be an impact, but it won't be significant. Even if the higher-ups send people to investigate, they won't say anything in the end."
After Liang Lu finished speaking, Shi Kuanshan pondered briefly and nodded in agreement.
He glanced at the wall clock. 11 hours had passed since the start of the secret realm assessment. There was still 1 hour left until the 12-hour mark, which was the time when the first major challenge of the secret realm trial would descend.
At that time, those who couldn't overcome it ultimately wouldn't, and it wouldn't be because Lin Chuan helped with healing that they would overcome it.
...
Secret realm space.
Lin Chuan had Guoguo and Sakura use Vine Armor Shield to weave out two large signboard characters: 'Miraculous Hands, Fair Dealing'.
Guoguo held 'Miraculous Hands'.
Sakura held 'Fair Dealing'.
The two little ones stood on either side of Lin Chuan.
In front of Lin Chuan were two examinees, a male and a female, seemingly a couple. The male was named Wu Fei, and the female was named Jin Keke.
"Expert Grade Healing Aroma, everyone who's used it says it's good, comparable to the treatment effects of a city-level spirit beast hospital."
"For 1 spirit beast, 2 green beads per minute, Beast Master half price."
"Buy two get one free, and the Beast Master is free."
Lin Chuan said, a brilliant smile on his face, looking like a professional vendor. This price was the most perfect and reasonable price after Lin Chuan's multiple adjustments.
Wu Fei and Jin Keke both looked troubled.
Especially Jin Keke. Before meeting her boyfriend Wu Fei, she had already encountered three other examinees, one of whom was her rival. After defeating her, he took all her score beads, and now she had not a single score bead on her.
It was only because her boyfriend Wu Fei arrived in time, otherwise she would have already been eliminated and teleported out.
Now, all three of her contracted spirit beasts were severely injured, injuries that couldn't be healed in just a minute or two; it would take at least 20 minutes.
Wu Fei gritted his teeth and checked his small pouch.
It contained 2 red, 3 blue, 7 green, and 8 white score beads, totaling 410 points.
According to Lin Chuan's price, 1 spirit beast cost 2 green beads per minute, which equaled 40 points.
With the buy two get one free offer, treating 3 spirit beasts for 1 minute would cost 80 points.
His girlfriend Jin Keke's three spirit beasts all needed at least 20 minutes of treatment, which would amount to 1600 points. He simply couldn't afford it.
Moreover, besides Jin Keke's spirit beasts, his own two spirit beasts, though not severely injured, also needed treatment.
Noticing their predicament, and seeing their understated luxurious custom brand clothing, indicating they were likely wealthy, Lin Chuan smiled politely and said,
"If you don't have score beads, star rock coins will do."
"10,000 star rock coins equals 1 white bead."
Upon hearing this, Wu Fei immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
He couldn't produce score beads, but star rock coins were acceptable.
Both he and his girlfriend Jin Keke came from wealthy families, belonging to the upper-middle class of society.
Not only were they childhood sweethearts, but they also had an arranged marriage through family alliances.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be helping Jin Keke in such an important college entrance assessment secret realm trial.
Wu Fei directly transferred 3 million star rock coins to Lin Chuan, which was 3000 points worth of treatment, stating that he wanted all five of his and Jin Keke's spirit beasts healed. Any excess would be considered a tip, and if it was insufficient, he would make up the difference.
See, scarcity creates value. As long as the right opportunity is found, money is truly easy to earn. The Xiao Qingkong Cup, despite being so difficult, only yielded 10 million. Now, simply casting a skill can effortlessly bring in 3 million.
Facing such a generous customer, Lin Chuan was also very magnanimous, having Sakura directly heal all of their spirit beasts.
As for Guoguo, she stood guard nearby, as it's always wise to be cautious.
In case he encountered a 'medical dispute' where someone, once healed, tried to backstab him on the spot, he would immediately reward them with a Bomb Fruit.
Unfortunately, Lin Chuan had yet to encounter such a medical dispute.
It was a bit of a pity; he hadn't had the chance to let Guoguo perform a grand massacre.