Divine Beast Creator-Chapter 1983 - 1984: Ancient Stone Palace

Noticing Xiao Ji looking at him excitedly, Feng Yuan chuckled and lightly patted its head, saying

"Let’s have breakfast first, and then we’ll go check it out. This time, we probably won’t need Veronia and the others’ help."

After all, it’s just a trial for students, and Feng Yuan doesn’t think the academy would create a challenge that requires the appearance of Divine Beasts to solve—it’s not only meaningless, but also very difficult to accomplish.

To reach such a level, you’d at least need a Legendary Spirit Beast to step in, but even most of the teachers at Maomu Academy only possess Legendary Level strength. Creating a trial that even teachers find hard to handle would be pointless for them.

Without much thought, Feng Yuan and his group quickly finished breakfast and arrived at the entrance of the trial site opened by the academy. Here, Feng Yuan even encountered Yang Hongzhi, greeted him, and curiously inquired if he had any special information.

Looking at the entrance of the ancient ruins-like door, Yang Hongzhi said

"This place should be the Ancient Stone Palace we just entered earlier this year. It’s said that this place is sometimes used for the final year graduation assessment project, and I don’t know how the academy will adjust the mechanisms of the Ancient Stone Palace this time."

Glancing at the door of the Ancient Stone Palace, Yang Hongzhi said softly

"From our last encounter inside, the most dangerous thing was the clay figurines that could continuously resurrect. I don’t know how much the academy spent to create that thing. No matter the strength of the attack, it can only damage the clay figurines but not destroy them. After being damaged, the clay figurines fully recover in 1 minute."

"If you’re going in, you’d better not think about confronting the clay figurines head-on, unless..."

Yang Hongzhi glanced at Veronia and the others but didn’t say the rest of the sentence. However, Feng Yuan and his group understood his implication—unless Feng Yuan lets Veronia and the others take action, Yang Hongzhi is not optimistic about Feng Yuan’s chances of directly confronting the clay figurines.

Neither Feng Yuan nor Qi Chen found this surprising, since Yang Hongzhi is already a third-year student, which means the enemies they encounter in their curriculum are not something that this group of new students can normally handle.

However, Feng Yuan suspects the academy might have made adjustments, otherwise, besides himself, almost no one among the new students would be able to pass through this Ancient Stone Palace.

Of course, what Feng Yuan is more curious about is, given that even Yang Hongzhi and others can participate in this Ancient Stone Palace, did the academy make internal enemy strength adjustments this time?

It’s worth noting that this is the real world, unlike a game where different teams enter separate Mirror Spaces, not interfering with each other. The Ancient Stone Palace has only one, meaning that all trial participants will crowd together unless the academy opens it by alternating grades.

"All grades are being called together; what exactly does the academy plan to do?"

Dou Yanlan stroked her chin and said suspiciously. She couldn’t understand the academy’s intentions behind this move—having all grades challenge the Ancient Stone Palace together?

If it were within the Data Domain, she might reluctantly think it possible, but in the real world, the balance of strength is simply not there. New students facing enemies designed for senior students would stand no chance of winning, and escaping would be challenging as well.

Likewise, if senior students encountered enemies meant for new students, it would be a complete crushing, rendering the trial ineffective.

Although unable to grasp it, Dou Yanlan didn’t say much, having come this far, they might as well find out what this trial is about.

By now, quite a few people had gathered in front of the teacher responsible for arranging the entrance. Through the exchanges of others, Feng Yuan’s group also understood the situation of this trial.

Simply put, the Ancient Stone Palace opens every 2 hours, and those previously inside are required to exit upon reopening. Each person can only stay inside for 2 hours.

As for the strength of the Spirit Beasts inside, it ranges from Elite Level to Legendary Level. Besides limiting the number of entrants, there are no other restrictions, allowing both senior and new students to join.

Internal confrontation is prohibited, and the entire area is surveilled by the principal’s Beast Tamer, so anyone attempting foul play should be prepared for punishment.

Based on this information, Feng Yuan and the group had already surmised the trial’s circumstances, mainly focusing on the principal’s Beast Tamer monitoring the entire site. This indicates higher internal danger levels; while it may not threaten life safety, it does mean new students may encounter Legendary Spirit Beasts.

Is it to some extent simulating the real exterior ruins as much as possible?

Feng Yuan thought silently. Unlike the current back mountain, efforts have been made to recreate it, but in the back mountain, the academy had to compromise due to different grade-level capacities, creating areas with varying strength.

In real wilderness, such characteristics don’t exist, especially after reaching the Legendary Level, where Spirit Beasts become harder to evolve, leading many Wild Spirit Beasts to roam around, enjoying life.

Of course, that refers to Wild Spirit Beasts without tribal ties, leading to a situation where they might encounter Legendary or even Mythical Wild Spirit Beasts if not for the presence of Patrolmen.

In the back mountain, it’s less dangerous, though there are more Legendary Spirit Beasts, they are mostly confined to certain areas.

The Ancient Stone Palace would obviously not be like this; of course, if the academy went mad and stuffed it with many Legendary Spirit Beasts, Feng Yuan reckoned quite a few people might mentally collapse.

But for new students, such special trials imply they cannot possibly confront the Spirit Beasts head-on regardless of the arrangement, making the differences seem minor.

"Seems interesting, but our chances of fighting are low."

Qi Chen said, glancing at Xiao Ji and the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound beside Feng Yuan. He couldn’t quite understand why Feng Yuan, who dislikes contests, had two very combative Beast Tamers, but considering his strength, his disinterest in Beast Taming competitions is perhaps not surprising.

His strength is too overwhelming; if he really took action, Qi Chen had no doubt Feng Yuan would one-hit KO opponents in any Beast Taming match under the Legendary Level. Such battles naturally wouldn’t interest Feng Yuan.

However, Qi Chen did wonder if Xiao Ji and the others could fulfill their wishes after entering the Ancient Stone Palace.

Feng Yuan placed a hand on Xiao Ji’s head and another on the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound’s head, saying

"Not necessarily, there should be small guards or similar things as well. I don’t think in this trial we can only sneak around like thieves until we find the treasure. Uh, that wouldn’t be considered an investigation, more like...treasure hunters?"

Feng Yuan said, scanning the people present,

"Moreover, I noticed the teachers seem to be intentionally controlling the distribution of entrants, meaning that the main combat force now should be the third and fourth-year students, and we’re likely just assisting from the side."

Though normally outdoor exploration happens in small teams, this isn’t absolute, just like during the investigation of the ruins at Kumahasa Desert, where Great Xia took the lead, gathering a large workforce.

This was quite normal, as nobody knows what’s inside the ancient ruins. The safest approach is naturally dispatching a large force for comprehensive inspection, ensuring safety unless faced with extremely terrifying dangers.

The current Ancient Stone Palace clearly simulates this scene, but Feng Yuan suspects the main challenge for everyone this time might not be strength, but whether a leader can be chosen.

Although they’re all students from the same academy, there’s no guarantee they know each other. Moreover, the Commander has only been added to the curriculum this year. Before this, the academy’s teaching focused more on individual skills, so how things play out after entry is hard to say.

After waiting for a long time in the waiting area, everyone finally managed to enter under the teacher’s arrangement. As Feng Yuan had guessed, Dou Yanlan simply glanced at the present students and deduced the teachers were definitely adjusting the distribution of students entering.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be fewer third and fourth-year students but equal numbers of first and second-year students.

This wasn’t because Dou Yanlan knew everyone, but based on the Beast Tamers they released, she could roughly guess which grade each belonged to, given the significant differences in Beast Tamer strength across grades.