The Charm of Soul Pets

Chapter 51: Preliminary Competition of the Recommendation

Chu Mu had Chu Ming resolve his decision and clean up all of the Chu Family’s inner dirt. However, Chu Ming’s worry held true. Chu Nan really did control one third of the family’s industry. The Chu Family had already entered a low point, and once turmoil appeared in its industry, it was very likely that they would get caught in a crisis!!

Moreover, this crisis absolutely had to rely on this grand, once every five years Recommendation to make a recovery!

The Recommendation didn’t only concern the exceptionally generous rewards, but even more importantly, they affected the prestige and status of the Chu Family in Gangluo City.

Only the powerful would receive respect and support. The Chu Family required this majesty and prestige as a great family in order to recover from its most disastrous state. Further, as long as the Chu Family could exhibit their might during this Recommendation, even if they were being forcibly suppressed by the Yang Family, assuming that the internal Chu Family could unite, they would slowly be a force to reckoned with and slowly recover. They could definitely reconsolidate their position within Gangluo City!

The Recommendation this time was extremely important to the Chu Family. The five members chosen by the Chu Family also inherited the heavy responsibility of the family!

   ……

As the day of the Recommendation approached, the stream of people into Gangluo City grew increasingly many. Even if it was walking down the street, one could distinctly feel the clamor from the vast crowd as if it was a *** holiday.

[1.TL: Again, *** is in the raws. ]

The Recommendation. A five person team. The stronger ones would naturally be the leading four great families of the Chu Family, the Zhou Family, the Qin Family, and the Yang Family. Aside from them, in Gangluo City, others powers like the auction house, the Soul Pet Palace, and the families from other families in various cities administered by Gangluo City were all strong competitors for this Recommendation. If a small careless error was made and an upset occurred, it wasn’t impossible to break through the four great great families and obtain one of the first four spots. After all, this situation had occurred in the past before.

Gangluo City’s area was relatively expansive, and the congregation of all the young experts could be regarded as a mixing together of fish and dragons. Therefore, the Recommendation had set up a few gates and filters. [1.TL: fish and dragons is a Chinese idiom meaning both good and bad people]

Originally, all of the four great families could directly skip past this screening and enter the preliminary competition. After obtaining victory in the preliminaries, they could then enter the main competition.

However, the Chu Family was no longer like before, and the Recommendation this time was set up so that the Chu Family didn’t have this privilege. The Chu Family disciples had to start from the preliminary competition.

In reality, everyone knew that it wouldn’t pose a problem from the five Chu Family contestants to kill their way into the main competition. Moreover, entering the finals wouldn’t be an issue. However, in order for the Yang Family to emphasize that the Chu Family was no longer amongst the great families, as the city lord, Yang Kuo was still able to do this petty maneuver.

The new family head, Chu Tianheng, ignored Yang Kuo’s despicable move, and still had the five members directly enter the preliminary competition mixed with both fishes and dragons.

   ……

“It truly is too excessive. Unexpectedly making us come here to compete. Any one of us five are capable of casually getting rid of five of them. What point is there in competing?!” Chu Ying began her provocative manner of complaining and scowling at anything.

The brothers of the Chu Family all knew of this eldest young lady’s temper and decisively decided not to talk. They instead allowed her to complain for half a day to the family servants over there...

“The arena is also so small. Do they think it’s going to be a quarrel between a group of small pets? My Red Bird will be able to nonchalantly burn this place down so that nothing remains,” even though she had entered the arena, Chu Ying still didn’t stop her grumbling.

“Eldest young lady, can you calm down for a moment? The more you speak, the more everyone will feel that we are both eminently arrogant and foolishly conceited. Then, in the end, we may become a minor team utterly defeated by experts the moment we enter the arena.” Chu Lang’s eyes swept over Chu Ying, who hadn’t finished speaking as he spoke with contempt.

“Chu Lang, are you courting death?! The facts are like this. For what reason do they make us come here…” Chu Ying instantly directed her criticisms towards Chu Lang.

Chu He looked at Chu Lang and whispered to his elder brother Chu Xing: “Chu Lang doesn’t quite understand younger sister's temper…”

Chu Xing immediately nodded his head and shifted his gaze to Chu Mu. A smile had risen on Chu Mu’s face, and he didn’t say anything.

Chu Xing, Chu He, and Chu Mu were all brothers under the same direct line of descent. They had a lot of understanding towards Chu Ying’s disposition, so no matter what this woman said, they weren’t wrong when they maintained their silence. If one were to answer her, Chu Ying definitely would not let up. Chu Lang was an expert from the side branch, so he clearly didn’t understand such matters...

As expected, even an hour before the preliminary competitions started, Chu Ying didn’t stop complaining about Chu Lang. Frequently, she made Chu Lang’s face flush with anger through her words.

“Younger sister, don’t talk anymore, it’s time to fight,” the competition had started, and Chu Xing knew that it was time to stop Chu Ying from going too far, so he called her to attention.

Chu Ying glared at Chu Lang, wishing to continue and said: “These inferior opponents, you get rid of them!”

Chu Lang glanced at the team leader, Chu Xing. He would naturally listen to Chu Xing’s plans.

“Chu Lang, you go first. The opponent’s strength is not strong. Get rid of as many as you can, as long as your soul pets can completely recover their fighting power within two days. Afterwards, Chu Mu will go…” said Chu Xing.

Chu Lang nodded his head, and he was the first to jump into the arena. He chanted an incantation and promptly summoned his commander rank Light Rhinoceros!

Chu Lang’s commander rank Light Rhinoceros had already reached the fifth phase eighth stage. Its grandeur completely covered the opponent’s fifth phase warrior rank soul pet!!

   ……Of the five opponent members, Chu Lang summoned three soul pets and disposed of four members. The last person’s strength was slightly stronger, so Chu Mu went to finish it.

Although the last opponent’s strength was slightly more powerful, this person still hadn’t reached the spirit teacher level, and he could only summon two soul pets.

Chu Mu directly summoned the fifth phase first stage Zhan Ye.

In this period of time, Chu Mu had spent at least 2 million gold coins coupled with seemingly ceaseless fighting without rest in order to forcibly raise Zhan Ye to the fifth phase first stage.

Zhan Ye was also extremely hardworking and, perhaps because it seemed to almost not have used any soul items, soul crystals, attribute stones or other various methods of training, his speed of growth could be described with the words flying speed!

“The fifth phase already? A month ago, wasn’t it only at the fourth phase fourth stage?” seeing Chu Mu summon the fifth phase Mo Ye, the other four were instantly stunned!

“How did this fellow do it? Could it be that this Mo Ye is in a bursting growth phase?” said Chu Ying.

A bursting growth phase referred to the continuous growth of a soul pet in a short period of time in which its strength would rapidly increase. This kind of situation normally would only appear through the use of various soul goods. Occasionally, it would happen because the soul pet’s innate potential suddenly burst forth.

   ……

Chu Mu’s opponent was a woman. He could see that this female soul pet trainer clearly knew that meeting the Chu Family team meant inevitable defeat, but she still very stubbornly got on stage and fought.

“A fifth phase first stage Mo Ye. I should be able to deal with it.” the female soul pet trainer immediately summoned her first soul pet.

The female soul pet trainer summoned a very common Gila Monster that had already reached the sixth phase fourth stage. Its figure was over four meters large, and when it appeared on stage, it was an enormous creature with a very ample grandiose.

Compared to the Gila Monster’s four metered body covered in thick armor, even if Chu Mu stretched it, Zhan Ye was barely two meters, and he was clearly a lot smaller!

The Gila Monster took the initiative to launch an attack. As its heavy body rushed forth, the entire arena seemed to shake. It charged at the ink colored armored Zhan Ye.

The Mo Ye’s speed couldn't be considered too fast, but compared to the heavy creature, it was much more agile. It quickly leapt away, before immediately spitting a Death Ray towards the Gila Monster.

The Death Ray exploded on the ground. Energy recklessly swept through, lifting the extremely heavy Gila Monster off the ground!!

Shattering Claw!!

Seemingly just as the Gila Monster exposed its abdomen where there was no armor covering, Zhan Ye’s speed suddenly increased. From within the ink armor, its front limbs abruptly extended five eminently sharp ink colored claws that struck the Gila Monster’s abdomen!!

A critical strike!

Zhan Ye’s attack forcibly knocked the Gila Monster up, whereby the extremely heavy and large soul pet immediately rolled to the side!!

The arena was suddenly covered in silence. The only sound heard was the tumbling of the enormous lizard-like body of the Gila Monster!

“So… so fast!” Chu Xing, Chu He, and Chu Lang all simultaneously showed flabbergasted expressions. They completely did not expect Chu Mu’s Mo Ye to dispatch this sixth phase fourth stage soul pet the moment it began its attack!!

The series of moves just now - a jumping dodge, a discharged Death Ray, an explosion of speed and the Shattering Claw attack timing- such a grasp of fighting was definitely not something a normal soul pet trainer could do. Everyone further felt that there was a bit of coincidence involved.

“I forfeit…”

That female soul pet trainer promptly chanted an incantation without even thinking of summoning her second soul pet. Her face was full of dejection as she communicated to the referee.

A fifth phase first stage commander rank versus a sixth phase fourth stage warrior rank. Presumably, the sixth phase fourth stage warrior rank had a slight advantage. Ultimately, however, in the first bout of attacks, it had been knocked down. With such a large disparity in the fight, there was no point in continuing to compete.

There was a wide difference between the strength of the four great families and the factions of fishes and dragons. It was also precisely because of this reason that the four great families could immediately skip the preliminary rounds.

Although the Chu Family was currently in decline, the strength of its third generation of disciples wasn’t weak. Even if they had been pushed to participate in the preliminary competition, they would nevertheless be extremely easy to obtain victory.

“The Chu Family is the Chu Family after all. Their strength is still so tyrannical!”

“Being reduced to the screening… in the end, one member managed to defeat four opponents. The second member was able to defeat the last opponent in one strike. The difference is too large. I’m sure that obtaining victory in the preliminary competition should be very easy.”

“Ultimately, it will still be a contest between the four great families…”

After seeing the Chu Family disciples’ strengths, those who were originally mocking the Chu Family for being degraded to the preliminary competition decisively shut their mouths. The others began to guess.

“The semifinals are in two days. When that time comes, we must keep reservations and wait until the finals before using our true strength.” after the fight ended, Chu Xing seriously spoke to the other four.

“Yes.” Everyone nodded their heads.

“After the semifinals is the main competition. If there aren’t any surprises, they will face the Zhou Family. The Zhou Family’s circumstance has more or less already been researched. However, they definitely have some hidden strength, so we must be especially careful.” Chu Xing reminded the four people.

“What experts does the Zhou Family have?” asked Chu Mu.

“The hardest person in the Zhou Family to deal with is Zhou Pan. This fellow has a sixth phase third stage Multi Colored Devil Tiger. Apparently, 1 million gold coins was spent in Luo Region City to purchase it.” said Chu Xing.

Mentioning Zhou Pan, Chu Xing’s face turned a bit gloomy. Clearly, he harbored many grudges towards this Zhou Pan!