Sakura released Healing Aroma.
It healed a total of five spirit beasts belonging to Wu Fei and Jin Keke, along with the two Beast Masters themselves, restoring their stamina.
After about 10 minutes of healing, Wu Fei's two spirit beasts were fully recovered, and Jin Keke's three spirit beasts were half recovered.
Just then, Lin Chuan's brow suddenly twitched.
It wasn't that Wu Fei suddenly caused a scene, but rather, Lin Chuan felt an indescribable premonition at that moment; he detected an anomaly in the air.
This was an instinctive reaction Lin Chuan had accumulated from helping out on the farm since he was a child.
When it was about to rain, or when there were significant changes in temperature, air pressure, or humidity, he would be more sensitive than others.
And after becoming a Beast Master and currently advancing to level 7, these sensations became even more acute.
At this moment, Lin Chuan felt that the air seemed to become stagnant, an indescribable low pressure.
An invisible force was gathering towards them, making him feel uneasy.
Guoguo also seemed to sense it; it moved closer to Lin Chuan, its small chubby hands clenched, vigilant of its surroundings.
Lin Chuan exhaled, ordering Sakura to stop the Healing Aroma.
Wu Fei and Jin Keke clearly didn't perceive the crisis as keenly as Lin Chuan, and they were immediately puzzled.
What's going on?
It stopped healing halfway?
Before the two could ask, they saw Lin Chuan command Guoguo beside him:
"Sweet Fruit."
The next second.
Guoguo concentrated its spirit, condensing a mini peach between its two small chubby hands.
Bomb Fruit was emerald green, while Sweet Fruit was pinkish-white, shimmering with a faint glow, giving a comfortable and reassuring feeling just by looking at it.
Guoguo pushed the mini Sweet Fruit towards one of Jin Keke's three spirit beasts.
Instantly, that spirit beast was completely enveloped by pinkish-white energy, and the Wood Attribute energy, with its life force fully activated, quickly permeated and warmed its entire body.
In just 10 seconds, its injuries were completely healed.
This was the effect of the single-target, powerful healing skill! Sweet Fruit.
If Healing Aroma continued to be used, it would take at least another 10 minutes to achieve the same effect.
Guoguo didn't stop; it successively threw a Sweet Fruit to Jin Keke's other two spirit beasts.
Similarly, in less than 10 seconds, both spirit beasts were completely recovered.
At this point, Wu Fei and Jin Keke, along with their five spirit beasts, were all fully healed.
Well, for business, one must be trustworthy; since he took the money, Lin Chuan would naturally provide full service.
"Alright. Healing finished."
Lin Chuan said.
After speaking, regardless of Wu Fei and Jin Keke's reactions, Lin Chuan took Guoguo and Sakura and turned to leave.
With light steps, Lin Chuan slipped into a dark alley between two ancient houses and quickly disappeared from sight.
It was only then that Wu Fei and Jin Keke snapped back to reality.
"Sweet Fruit!?"
Jin Keke gasped in shock.
New Beast Masters qualified to participate in the secret realm assessment were at least top students in their schools.
They generally knew about some not-too-obscure knowledge.
They were also aware that Sweet Fruit was a branched, mutated skill of Bomb Fruit.
Since Lin Chuan's Flower Leaf Leaf, named Guoguo, could use Sweet Fruit, it meant that it had mastered Bomb Fruit! And its proficiency was at least proficient level!
Bomb Fruit, this was a rare burst damage skill among Wood Attribute skills.
Jin Keke and Wu Fei exchanged glances, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
They hadn't expected Lin Chuan's Flower Leaf Leaf to have a burst skill, nor had they expected Lin Chuan to have hidden it until now.
However, why would Lin Chuan expose it at this moment?
Shouldn't such a trump card be used against someone like Li Zeyu?
Although saying so might hurt their self-esteem.
But Wu Fei felt that, even if he and Jin Keke, with all five of their spirit beasts combined, fought Lin Chuan, they would be easily worn down by Lin Chuan's milk-shield poison tactic; the two of them were completely not worth Lin Chuan exposing his trump card for.
So, was it purely to gain a few minutes of healing time?
Or did Lin Chuan sense something, discover some danger, and thus leave early?
Alternatively, did he think that since he had already reached the secret realm assessment, there was no need to hide his trump card anymore, and it was simply for showing off?
Wu Fei thought it was the former—that Lin Chuan must have sensed some danger and chose to retreat and hide. As for the latter, it was also possible, as teenagers of this age who could hide their trump cards until now already had good temperaments, and it was normal to subtly show off when it was permissible to expose them.
In any case, they should respond according to the former. Since even Lin Chuan sensed danger and chose to withdraw and avoid it, then he and Jin Keke had even more reason to run.
After contemplating, Wu Fei took Jin Keke's hand, intending to lead her and follow Lin Chuan's footsteps, believing that following the big shot was definitely the right choice.
However, Jin Keke tugged at his sleeve, signaling him to look around.
"Fei, we... we're surrounded."
Jin Keke's voice trembled, containing an indescribable fear.
Wu Fei then startled, realizing that on the surrounding rooftops and street corners, Terror Puppets were appearing one after another.
At a glance, there were at least 30 of them, including two Terror Puppets that were a full 5 meters tall, like small giants, completely surrounding him, Jin Keke, and their total of five spirit beasts.
Click, click, click, click, click, click, click.
The two 5-meter-tall Terror Puppets emitted the sound of gears grinding within their bodies, and then their mouths slowly opened, a putrid, moldy smell of rotten wood wafting out.
"Roar, roar, roar."
Rough, rusty low growls emanated from the mouths of the two tall Terror Puppets.
The surrounding air, as if filled with mud, instantly became heavy with pressure.
This wasn't a metaphor, but a real sensation!
This was a skill!
Aura!!!
Ordinary Terror Puppets couldn't release skills, but these 5-meter-tall giant Terror Puppets could!
Wu Fei and Jin Keke were stiff all over, unable to move. Their five spirit beasts were almost the same, but slightly stronger than them as humans, still able to move. The five spirit beasts cooperated, protecting the two Beast Masters behind them.
"Roar, roar, roar!"
One of the giant Terror Puppets let out another low growl.
Instantly, all the Terror Puppets present, in a bizarre, quadrupedal crawling posture, lunged towards Wu Fei and Jin Keke.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"
In less than half a minute, Wu Fei and Jin Keke let out extremely shrill and terrified screams.
Two streets away.
In the courtyard of a residential building, there were several withered old trees.
Lin Chuan had Guoguo and Sakura use Vine Armor Shield to weave a withered old tree of the same shape, and then he hid inside the tree trunk, blending into the environment.
Through a pre-reserved cat-eye-like hole, Lin Chuan cautiously observed the situation outside.
He saw Terror Puppets, coming from who knew where, appearing continuously from all directions like a tide.
Everywhere, he could hear the terrified screams of the examinees.
And the sounds of various skills and moves emitted during combat, as well as the strange climbing sounds of Terror Puppets moving across roads, rooftops, and walls.
Lin Chuan felt a group of Terror Puppets entering the courtyard, searching everywhere.
He immediately stopped observing through the small hole and instead tried his best to suppress and lower his breathing rhythm.
Click, click, click.
The sound of the puppets' footsteps echoed in the courtyard, and they lingered for a long time in front of the withered tree he had disguised with Vine Armor Shield. Lin Chuan held his breath.
After a long while, the Terror Puppets that had stopped in front of the disguised withered tree finally left and resumed searching the small courtyard.
This whole thing felt like a horror game. Lin Chuan breathed a sigh of relief but didn't dare to be careless, continuing to stay quiet.
Finally, two hours later, the sound of the puppets' footsteps and the terrifying low pressure brought by the aura skill gradually disappeared.
Lin Chuan once again observed through the small hole, looking left and right for a long time, confirming that there were no more Terror Puppets in the courtyard.
After waiting quietly for another half an hour, Lin Chuan finally had Guoguo and Sakura dismantle the Vine Armor Shield woven into the shape of a withered old tree, and he walked out.
Coming onto the street, Lin Chuan looked around.
Everything around him looked as if it had gone through a storm, severely ravaged and trampled, a scene of desolation.
Walls and houses had collapsed, and the street ground was pitted with various skill marks.
There were traces of fire burning.
There were incredibly ferocious beast claw marks.
And there were shattered wood pieces everywhere; Lin Chuan could even see score beads lying quietly within these shattered wood pieces.
It must have been that those examinees defeated the puppets but didn't have time to loot the spoils before being attacked by more Terror Puppets, eventually being eliminated and forced to exit the assessment space.
One could imagine how fierce the battle here had been in the past two hours.
Lin Chuan investigated the scene for traces while picking up score beads from the shattered wood pieces.
Good heavens, in less than 10 minutes, Lin Chuan had picked up a total of 320 points worth of score beads of various colors.
While happily picking up the leftovers, Lin Chuan also thought with lingering fear, what exactly were these Terror Puppets?
If he didn't figure it out, next time, if such a situation occurred again, he might not be able to escape the Terror Puppets' encirclement and attack. Even if he was confident in his own strength, he couldn't handle such a beast-tide-like group of puppets.
Just as Lin Chuan was picking up leftovers and investigating the scene, pondering.
From the high sky, a sharp cry of an eagle suddenly came.
Lin Chuan abruptly looked up and saw a purplish-blue giant eagle swooping down towards him.
Li Zeyu?
Was he targeting him?
No, there was no attacking posture.
Lin Chuan raised his hand, stopping Guoguo, who was about to condense a Bomb Fruit to launch at the swooping Mutated Blue Feather Eagle.
Just as Lin Chuan judged, the Mutated Blue Feather Eagle did not intend to attack him. Instead, it hovered rapidly about ten meters in front of him and slowly descended.
Li Zeyu was the first to jump off the back of the Mutated Blue Feather Eagle.
There was another person on the back of the Mutated Blue Feather Eagle, a girl with braided pigtails, wearing glasses, a gray and white sailor suit, short socks, and athletic shoes, a standard country-girl image.
Her appearance was above average, and she didn't show any particularly intimate behavior with Li Zeyu, unlike Wu Fei and Jin Keke earlier.
So, not a couple, but a team collaboration?
Lin Chuan secretly guessed in his heart.
After Li Zeyu, the braided-pigtail girl also jumped off the back of the Mutated Blue Feather Eagle.
However, she seemed a bit clumsy, with poor balance, and when she landed, she couldn't stand steadily and fell on her butt.
The girl's face flushed with embarrassment, while Lin Chuan quickly averted his gaze, pretending not to see, and turned to look at Li Zeyu.
Lin Chuan also didn't speak, waiting quietly for Li Zeyu to speak first, as he was the one who sought him out.
"I heard you're charging for healing?"
Li Zeyu hesitated for a moment, then asked.
Lin Chuan nodded, and Li Zeyu continued:
"Then can you help me heal my spirit beast?"
Lin Chuan narrowed his eyes, looking at the Mutated Blue Feather Eagle.
Very healthy, the aura of a 2nd-tier spirit beast was clearly exposed. Although it had consumed a lot of stamina, it wasn't seriously injured, which meant the injured one was the Nether Lightning Bat?
Well, no matter which one, at least at this point in time, Lin Chuan didn't intend to fight Li Zeyu.
The secret realm assessment was a total of 48 hours, and only 14 hours had passed. There was no need to conflict with Li Zeyu at this moment.
If the two of them fought, no matter who was eliminated, the remaining one would easily be ambushed by others picking up the scraps.
A battle between kings should wait until the small fries are cleared out.
"Yes, but for you, I won't accept star rock coins, only score beads."
Lin Chuan said.
Li Zeyu nodded, directly throwing a small bag to Lin Chuan, which contained 8 red beads and 20 blue beads, totaling 1000 points.
Good heavens, 1000 points just like that. This guy seems to have gained a lot from hunting, Lin Chuan thought to himself.
Li Zeyu released his Nether Lightning Bat.
Previously, on the Xiao Qingkong Cup, the Nether Lightning Bat was only palm-sized, but now it had grown to the size of a human head, with a pair of fangs exposed, looking even uglier and more ferocious, and its aura was quite terrifying. However, at this moment, it was seriously injured, and its left bat wing was still dripping blood.
Lin Chuan had Sakura go over and release Healing Aroma for it.
Seeing Lin Chuan healing his Nether Lightning Bat, Li Zeyu felt a little relieved, then hesitated again and said to Lin Chuan:
"Lin Chuan, let's cooperate."
"Otherwise, I'm afraid it will be very difficult for us to safely get through these 48 hours."
Lin Chuan raised his gaze, but didn't speak, just calmly watched Li Zeyu, waiting for him to continue explaining the situation.
Li Zeyu pointed to the braided-pigtail girl beside him.
"You probably don't know her, let me introduce her to you. She is from my family, um, Blue Sky Private Beast Master Academy's special enrollment student, Chen Yulu."
"Her actual combat strength is average, far inferior to yours and mine, but she is the most famous academic prodigy among this year's graduates in Qinghe City, consistently ranking first in various written exams in Qinghe City. Her knowledge accumulation might even surpass that of some university students in spirit beast research departments."
"She knows what those puppets are."
"According to her prediction, in another 12 hours, a demon beast of at least Tier 3, possibly even Tier 4, will appear in this secret realm space and indiscriminately hunt all examinees in the entire secret realm."
Hearing this, Lin Chuan's expression immediately became solemn, and he turned to look at Chen Yulu.
Chen Yulu seemed a bit timid, perhaps still embarrassed from falling on her butt when jumping off the Blue Feather Eagle earlier, but at this moment, she didn't show any more stage fright. She stepped forward and calmly explained:
"Lin Chuan, do you know about Gestalt-type demon beasts?"
Lin Chuan: "Gestalt?"
Lin Chuan frowned, indicating that he seemed to have heard the term somewhere but didn't quite understand it.
"Then what about hive-type demon beasts?"
Chen Yulu asked again.
"A group-will type demon beast composed of a queen bee as the core and countless worker bees."
This time, Lin Chuan nodded slightly. Hive-type demon beasts, he knew about that.
Lin Chuan: "Are you saying? These puppets are also hive-type?"
Chen Yulu nodded.
"Yes, although I don't know the actual scientific name of these puppets, they should be some newly discovered demon beast, or a newly born demon beast."
"However, I can confirm that it is a Gestalt-type demon beast."
"In fact, in this assessment secret realm space, this nameless foreign town, there is only one demon beast!"
"The puppet tide just now was all part of the extension of this demon beast's will."
"The attribute of this Gestalt demon beast is Demon!"
"Demon Attribute, a pure spiritual attribute, unlike natural attributes, it cannot be easily perceived. It is an attribute that draws energy from negative emotions such as fear."