Divine Beast Creator-Chapter 2029 - 2030: Challenge

"Speaking of which, Xiao Ji, can you now use the Crystal Field Awakening again? I think it’s best not to recklessly activate it inside the tower. After all, the awakening of the Underworld Domain causes considerable environmental damage."

Remembering something, Feng Yuan glanced at Xiao Ji with a warning. As for the Hao Chun Bird’s Forest Domain Awakening?

Just by watching the Hao Chun Bird perched on the Amu Tree Crown, occasionally preening its feathers and sometimes pausing absent-mindedly, it’s clear that continuous use of the Forest Domain has a significant impact on it. If it weren’t for desperate circumstances, the Hao Chun Bird probably couldn’t use the Forest Domain Awakening now.

It’s unlike a game where skill cooldowns are strictly enforced. Normally, the interval between ultimate moves allows the Spirit Beast to recover from the after-effects of the last move, but if needed, the Spirit Beast can forcibly perform the move if conditions are met, ignoring the interval.

However, doing so prolongs the recovery period post-release, and as this practice continues, it may bring serious negative effects to the Spirit Beast.

Even though the Hao Chun Bird is primarily responsible for applying statuses and controlling the field, after consecutive fierce battles, the bird is noticeably exhausted now. Feng Yuan estimates that not only is domain awakening impossible, but some auxiliary ultimate moves are beyond the Hao Chun Bird’s reach as well.

Of course, even so, Feng Yuan isn’t afraid of the potential dangers in that tower. The only thing he finds troublesome is if Xiao Ji carelessly uses the Underworld Domain Awakening inside and then activates a large-range offensive ultimate move, it might very well collapse the tower.

Glancing at Feng Yuan, Xiao Ji let out a dissatisfied squawk, spreading its wings as if to say, "I’m not happy," to which Feng Yuan replied with a chuckle,

"I’m just worried that you’ll exert too much force and accidentally collapse the tower~"

Xiao Ji proudly lifted its head, chirping happily and gestured for a while. Dou Yanlan looked at Xiao Ji in surprise, as it seemed Xiao Ji could already reuse the Domain Awakening, but...

She looked at the Hao Chun Bird on the Amu Tree Crown. Although the bird was barely holding up, she could see it was in a state of over-exhaustion. While the state of Ah Mu seemed comparatively better, it wasn’t great either. Perhaps only the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound and Cotton were in reasonably good condition.

After all, neither the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound nor Cotton had used particularly powerful ultimate moves. Although the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound had used Mythological Moves, it hadn’t been able to use the corresponding attribute’s Crystal Domain due to the lack of matching Domain Crystal.

Besides using some major ultimate moves in the Water Treasures area, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound rarely participated in combat. The previous two areas were extremely unfriendly to it.

Cotton barely used any Mythological Moves, so its current state was quite good. On the other hand, Xiao Ji had been fighting for quite a while. Dou Yanlan didn’t expect Xiao Ji to recover so quickly.

Xiao Ji hadn’t noticed Dou Yanlan’s strangeness. After getting Feng Yuan’s praise, Xiao Ji hopped towards the shadow that resembled a bridge.

This Tower of Earth doesn’t have only one entrance; it actually has multiple platforms at the top and bottom. Each platform has three rock bridges connecting the cave loop and the central entrance to the Tower of Earth.

Upon entering this artificial ancient tower, the group discovered that the space here was much larger than they imagined.

"The Earth System power is quite intense, it seems advantageous for Earth-Attribute Spirit Beasts, but unfortunately..."

Shaking his head slightly, Feng Yuan muttered to himself, having already guessed where the difficulty of this place escalates, but ironically, due to the emergence of Crystal Domains, this escalation turned out to be a pitfall for himself.

Veronia chuckled softly, saying,

"They didn’t have time to adjust it~"

Feeling the abundant Earth Attribute energy inside the tower, Dou Yanlan and Qi Chen couldn’t help but feel amused. They had already planned for failure, even considering help from Feng Yuan, but then...

Such dense Earth Attribute energy would naturally affect the power of Spirit Beasts’ ultimate moves. In this environment, any non-superior attribute ultimate move, other than Earth System ones, would witness a significant reduction in power.

Of course, if you replenish the missing energy in the environment with your own energy, the power of the ultimate move can return to normal, but this severely impacts the Spirit Beast’s endurance in battle.

However, this would only happen in the absence of Crystal Domains. Now with Crystal Domains, unless the Spirit Beast can dispel its own Crystal Domain, the suppressive effects of the environment are nearly none.

As Dou Yanlan knows, Maomu Academy doesn’t have an Earth Domain Crystal’s mine, or at least not publicly, as the chances of such Domain Crystal appearing in a forest environment are indeed very low.

That said, if they activate a non-Earth Crystal Domain, the challenge difficulty here might decrease considerably, perhaps only bothersome for Earth System Spirit Beasts.

After all, the Earth System is inherently good at defense, and with the dense Earth Attribute energy here, it’s like opening a Crystal Domain and fighting within the same attribute; both sides benefit from their attribute characteristics enhancements, with Earth being better at defense. Honestly, it seems the shield becomes tougher.

Of course, this effect has lessened with the advent of Crystal Domains, at least these enhancements vanish once a Crystal Domain is activated.

"Let Ah Mu use the Forest Domain when the battle starts; the Underworld Domain... best not use it."

Dou Yanlan spoke as she kept her gaze on Xiao Ji. Compared to the Forest Domain, the Underworld Domain’s effect is much inferior. Although it dispels Earth Attribute energy in the environment, the Underworld Domain only enhances Xiao Ji.

The Forest Domain is different. Though it doesn’t oppose anything, in areas rich in Wood Power, Earth System ultimate moves are indeed somewhat weakened—that’s a fact.

Moreover, the Forest Domain can amplify Ah Mu and speed up the recovery of Xiao Ji and the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, making it much superior to the Underworld Domain.

Xiao Ji wasn’t upset because it understood this situation. Simply put, from Xiao Ji’s perspective, the Underworld Domain is undoubtedly useful, but in this team, ironically, the Forest Domain is more effective.

As for Cotton’s Black Mist Domain, that domain primarily targets ability changes, and they don’t currently need this effect.

The interior of the Tower of Earth used space expansion technology. Meanwhile, Veronia also detected numerous Mirror Spaces within the tower, and the expansive hall in the center testified to the simplicity and directness of this area.

A circular hall surrounded by stone pillars engraved with mysterious patterns, with numerous torches hanging from those pillars. Though the torches are small, they light up the circular battle hall. At the center of the circular area, several piles of rocks are heaped, but aside from those rocks, the center of the circular hall resembles a rather standard battleground.

Under the torchlight, the central battleground exudes a somewhat eerie and sinister vibe, yet everyone understands that the enemies faced in this area are likely Earth-Attribute entities. Furthermore, the scattered stones heaped in the arena seem particularly suspicious.

"Two steles? Let me see, hmm, so you can freely select the challenge difficulty?"

Noticing the two obsidian steles standing in the center of the arena, Feng Yuan walked up, circled them, and said that instead of writing mysterious and strange things, the steles clearly indicate that one is a normal challenge, and the other is the extreme challenge.

Feng Yuan doesn’t know the extent of difference between the two, but he understands that to see the Earth’s treasure, one must likely opt for the extreme challenge.

The steles also specify the challenge: a sequential battle. This area is a dueling ground—once a difficulty is selected, enemies are continuously generated according to rules for battle. The timing of each wave of enemies is fixed, meaning a protracted war of attrition isn’t possible.

If they fail to eliminate enemies quickly enough, they risk being overwhelmed by the continuously spawning foes.

Thinking this through, Feng Yuan stepped aside, indifferent to the choice of difficulty. Such special combat devices were extremely precious before the emergence of the Data Domain.

After all, these devices could provide the most realistic high-difficulty combat experiences without posing too much safety hazard. However, the advent of the Data Domain has severely affected the value of these devices.

The Academy’s setup here probably aims to let students experience real combat better. However, they probably didn’t anticipate the future emergence of the Data Domain and Crystal Domains, as their impact on the Tower of Earth is significant.