The quarter-finals of the Grand Competition began under a sky of brilliant, cloudless blue, but the atmosphere in the arena was as tense as a drawn bowstring. Only eight disciples remained. Each one was a celebrated genius, a future pillar of the sect. And among them, the most discussed, most mysterious, and most controversial was Li Yu.
He had reached this stage not through a display of overwhelming personal power, but through a series of baffling victories where his powerful beasts had carried him. He was the puzzle that no one could solve, the quiet, unassuming boy who commanded monstrous companions.
He sat with his friends in the waiting area, a small, private section for the quarter-finalists. Brother Kai, Hu Jian, and Lin Tao were in the stands, their faces a mixture of pride and profound anxiety.
"Your next opponent is… difficult," Brother Kai had warned him that morning. "His name is Chen Mo, from the Formation Hall. He is at the Sixth Stage of Qi Condensation. He is not a powerful fighter in the traditional sense, but he is a genius of strategy and control. He uses battle formations, arrays, and traps. He will have studied all of your previous matches. He will be prepared for your beasts."
When Li Yu's name was called, he walked onto the central platform, his expression as placid as a deep lake. Across from him stood Chen Mo. He was a thin, scholarly-looking young man with sharp, intelligent eyes that darted around the platform, constantly calculating angles and distances. His martial spirit, a rare Rank 5 Thousand-Armed Artificer, floated behind him, a complex, ethereal being of spinning gears and glowing, phantom limbs.
"Junior Brother Li Yu," Chen Mo said, his voice polite but with an undercurrent of supreme confidence. "Your prowess in beast taming is admirable. However, a battlefield is not just a contest of strength, but of intellect. Let us see if your beasts can solve the puzzles I have prepared for them."
The match began. Chen Mo did not attack. He simply clapped his hands together, and with a series of intricate hand seals, he began to lay his trap. Glowing runes spread out from his feet, covering the entire stone platform in a complex, shimmering web of light.
"First, your mist," he said calmly. "This is a Wind-Dispersing Formation. Your concealment arts are useless here." A gentle but persistent wind began to blow across the platform, making it impossible for any fog to form.
"Second, your speed." He clapped his hands again, and the runes shifted. "This is a Gravity-Well Formation. The spiritual gravity on this platform is now ten times that of the outside world. Your evasive movements will be sluggish and predictable."
Li Yu felt a heavy, invisible weight settle upon him. His «Rippling Shadow Step», which relied on light, fluid movements, was instantly rendered a hundred times more difficult to perform.
"And finally," Chen Mo said, a triumphant smile on his face, "your beasts." He threw a handful of small, black flags to the edges of the platform. They embedded themselves in the stone, and a new layer of runes, these ones a deep, earthy yellow, flared to life. "This is a Beast-Suppressing Earth-Prison Formation. It will not harm your companions, but it will hamper their movements and suppress their spiritual energy. Now, Junior Brother Li, with your tricks neutralized, what will you do?"
The crowd murmured in appreciation. It was a masterful opening move. Chen Mo had analyzed his opponent and, in less than a minute, had created a battlefield perfectly tailored to counter all of Li Yu's known abilities.
Li Yu looked at the complex web of formations, at the confident, intelligent young man who believed he had already won. A feeling of helplessness washed over him. He had no strategy for this. His mind, so adept at cultivation and analysis, was a blank slate when it came to formation arts. He had no idea how to dismantle this intricate prison. He only knew one thing to do when faced with a wall: hit it as hard as possible.
He closed his eyes, his heart pounding. He wasn't a commander. He was just a beast tamer who trusted his companions.
"Crimson," he commanded through his link, his voice tight with desperation. "Smash it."
A portal opened, and the massive, jade-scaled form of his Rank 4 Flood Dragon appeared. The moment it materialized, the Beast-Suppressing Formation flared, and a heavy, earthy energy wrapped around Crimson, slowing its movements.
But Crimson was a creature of pure, draconic might. It let out a furious roar and, following its own instincts, it simply… charged. It did not use a technique. It used its own, unadulterated, overwhelming physical strength. It slammed into the invisible barrier created by one of the black flags, and with a sound like shattering glass, the formation rune cracked and dimmed.
Chen Mo's confident smile faltered. His formation was designed to suppress, not to withstand a direct assault from a beast of such terrifying physical power.
"Lirael," Li Yu's second command was a plea. "Help him."
A second portal opened, and the slender, midnight-blue form of his Rank 5 Deep-Sea Naga appeared. The Beast-Suppressing Formation washed over her as well, but her movements remained fluid and ghostly. While Crimson was a battering ram, Lirael was a serpent. Her instincts were not to smash, but to find the weakness. She slithered across the platform, her form a blur, her golden eyes fixed on the glowing runes that made up the Gravity-Well Formation, a deep, instinctual understanding of energy flow guiding her.
The battle that followed was a chaotic spectacle of brute force and instinct. Li Yu did not move from his spot. He stood, his eyes wide, a spectator in his own fight. He had given his commands, but now he could only watch as his powerful companions fought their own battle.
Crimson, with a furious roar, charged from one black flag to the next, its every blow a thunderous crash that sent cracks spreading across the stone platform. It was a force of pure, unstoppable destruction, driven by its own draconic rage.
Lirael, meanwhile, was a ghost. She moved with an impossible grace, her every movement guided by her innate understanding of the elements. She would find a key nexus point in the Gravity-Well Formation's runes and, with a single, sharp tap of her silver horn, disrupt the flow of Qi. The heavy, oppressive gravity would flicker and die in one section of the platform, only for her to move on to the next.
Chen Mo, his face now pale and beaded with sweat, was in a state of frantic panic. He was a master of control, but his opponents were not playing his game. But he was a true genius of strategy. Instead of trying to control the chaos, he adapted to it.
"You rely on brute force," he said, his voice now calm and analytical. "But even the strongest beast has a weakness." He ignored the graceful Lirael, who was dismantling his gravity field, and focused his entire attention on the rampaging Crimson. He performed a new set of hand seals. "Formation Shift: Binding Chains of the Mountain!"
The Beast-Suppressing Formation, which Crimson had almost shattered, suddenly changed. The earthy yellow runes flared, and thick, heavy chains of solidified earth energy erupted from the platform, snaking around Crimson's legs and body. The drake roared and thrashed, shattering several chains, but more and more appeared, wrapping around it, slowing it, binding it.
With his most powerful, but least intelligent, beast neutralized, Li Yu felt a surge of panic. He had no other plan. He instinctively sent a volley of ice blades at Chen Mo, a clumsy, desperate attack.
Chen Mo simply raised a hand, and a small, intricate shield of spinning gears, a manifestation of his Artificer spirit, appeared and effortlessly deflected the blades. "Your turn, Junior Brother," he said, his eyes cold.
With Crimson bound, Chen Mo now focused his full attention on Lirael. He did not try to trap her. Instead, he created a new formation, a series of small, explosive light arrays in her path. Lirael, with her serpentine grace, easily dodged them, but she was being herded, forced away from the runes of the gravity field and away from Li Yu.
Chen Mo had successfully isolated all three of them.
He stood, his intricate battlefield now under his complete control, his face a mask of calm, intellectual superiority. He was alone, cornered, and faced with a master strategist who had weathered the storm and imposed his own order upon it.
He looked at Li Yu, who stood frozen in the center of the platform, his mind blank, with no new strategy to offer. He finally understood. He had not been fighting a brilliant commander. He had been fighting an army with no general, a chaotic force of nature that a true strategist could eventually understand and control.
"I yield," Li Yu said, the words a quiet admission of his complete and utter defeat. The fight was over. He had lost.
The crowd was stunned into silence, followed by a wave of disbelieving murmurs. The unstoppable Beast Taming Prodigy had been defeated, not by overwhelming power, but by pure, undeniable strategy.
Li Yu recalled his two loyal beasts and gave a polite, respectful bow to his victorious opponent. As he walked off the platform, he met the gaze of Su Ling, who was watching him from the stands, her cold, analytical eyes filled with a new, profound, and deeply unsettled light. She had expected a storm but nothing happened.
He had lost. He had been eliminated from the competition. But as he took his seat in the stands next to his worried friends, a strange sense of peace settled over him. The pressure was gone. His journey in this competition was over, but he was growing. He looked up at the central platform, where the semi-finals were about to begin, his eyes no longer those of a competitor, but of a quiet, humble, and very, very attentive student.