Spark dived down, its eyes bright, its flame-covered body traversing the surging ground fire, seemingly unaffected, its speed not slowing down at all, and even the flames on it burned ever more fiercely.

Liu Jinglan was dumbfounded, yet realized belatedly: "Right, the Flame Cloud Falcon once tempered itself atop Flame Mountain, how could the ordinary ground fire caused by the Red Flame Ox harm it?"

Let alone harm, it didn’t even have the slightest effect.

Spark ignored the ground fire and heat waves stirred up by the Red Flame Ox, and in a flash was already close to the latter, its eyes locking onto the target, a strong sense of oppression crashing down.

"Moo..."

The Red Flame Ox tried to resist, but the oppressive feeling from Spark made it tremble all over, unable to move.

Fortunately, Liu Jinglan’s shout allowed it to break free from the intimidation, its eyes flickered, hurriedly moving its limbs, preparing to evade.

Boom!

The next second, a mass of flames struck its body, the deafening explosion resounded throughout the venue, the roaring flames swallowed the view, the Red Flame Ox could only see those ocean-like blue eyes.

Thud!

The Red Flame Ox collapsed, falling into a coma.

Inside and outside the venue, silence fell, only Liu Jingyi waved her hands, her tone excited: "Yeah, Chen Yuan won!"

Liu Jingyi’s voice broke the silence of the crowd, Liu Jinglan couldn’t even bother to scold his sister for her biased support, he lowered his head deeply, gazing at the blackened Red Flame Ox, his eyes flickering, lost in thought.

After a moment, Liu Jinglan retrieved the Red Flame Ox into the pet space, casually smiled: "Losing to the champion isn’t shameful."

Even though... even though it was a one-hit knockout.

A huge gap inevitably exists between Tier Three and Tier Two, although both sides are Fire Attributes, the Flame Cloud Falcon’s combat capabilities have been tested through many high-level battles, so Liu Jinglan quickly convinced himself to accept this fact.

After all, are there few beastmasters who have been one-hit knocked out by Advisor Chen?

You agree, right, Advisor Shi?

Once the battle ended, Jiang Hu grinned broadly, clapping enthusiastically: "Intense battle, brilliant indeed."

"The Flame Cloud Falcon’s performance was perfect, the Flame Energy Assault has reached mastery, the Red Flame Ox’s performance was also..."

Talking about the Red Flame Ox that was one-hit knocked out, Jiang Hu stumbled momentarily, but he quickly recovered without altering his smile: "The Red Flame Ox’s performance was also commendable."

Liu Jinglan’s mouth twitched.

No need to force compliments.

After speaking, Jiang Hu strode vigorously to Chen Yuan, extended his right hand solemnly: "Advisor Chen, let me reintroduce myself, I am Jiang Hu, a top-eight contestant in this year’s Blazing Fire Cup."

His attitude compared to before differed like heaven and earth, his demeanor and language both revealed respect, or rather flattery.

Without waiting for Chen Yuan to reply, Jiang Hu laughed heartily: "Advisor Chen, coming all the way to Fire State isn’t easy, tonight I’ll host, taking you to experience our local customs and culture."

Chen Yuan offered a slight smile: "Just speak straightforwardly."

"Cough, cough." Jiang Hu coughed once, then promptly broached the main topic, "Does Advisor Chen have plans to form a team? I can join with sponsorship."

"Join with sponsorship?" Chen Yuan was taken aback.

This was the first time he’d heard such a proposal.

Liu Jinglan quietly explained: "It’s just paying to buy a team member slot, and then he covers all our expenses for the competition."

"That’s right." Jiang Hu grinned, his rugged face seemingly spelled out "money isn’t an issue," "Consider this money for making friends with Advisor Chen."

During the brief time when the Red Flame Ox was one-hit knocked out by the Flame Cloud Falcon, Jiang Hu had already thought it through.

His family’s wealth wasn’t lacking, so might as well spend a little to establish good relations with the champion from Qin Province. If he could join Chen Yuan’s team and delve into Flame Mountain together, achieving a top-ranked position in the competition, the benefits would far outweigh this investment.

However, Chen Yuan decisively refused: "Sorry, I don’t plan to form a team."

His refusal was so decisive and firm, Jiang Hu instantly lost his desire to persuade.

Liu Jinglan quickly approached, put his arm around Jiang Hu’s shoulder, grinning cheekily: "Don’t bother, Hu, this is the big shot I worked hard to get from Qin Province, how could I let you have it cheaply?"

"Well then, the battle’s over, let’s go."

"See you tomorrow."

With that, Liu Jinglan, seemingly worried Jiang Hu might continue saying strange things, hurriedly took Chen Yuan and the other two and swiftly left.

Watching the figures leave, Jiang Hu sighed helplessly: "Well, the big shot’s gone."

The next day,

Flame Mountain.

Although it was eight in the morning, every entrance to Flame Mountain was already crowded, countless beastmasters awaiting the official start at half past eight.

Due to the large number of participants, the organizing committee adopted diversion measures, so beastmasters wouldn’t enter Flame Mountain from the same entrance.

Furthermore, the competition imposed multiple restrictions on participating beastmasters, the first being initial-tier beastmasters are not eligible.

Considering the spread of mountain fire and rampant heat waves, initial-tier beastmasters lack sufficient self-protection, participating in the competition is unlikely to earn ranks, just not wasting public resources seeking rescue would be good.

In addition, beastmasters must form teams of four, each team must have Water Type and Fire Type pet beasts.

Thankfully, this is Fire State, the vast majority of local beastmasters possess Fire Type pet beasts, and those journeying from afar mostly meet this requirement too.

The third rule is each team will wear two machines similar to action cameras, the organizing committee will employ special means to record their efforts in extinguishing mountain fire and defeating Wandering Fire Ash Spirits, allowing for real-time score tracking.

Participants can also use these machines to check the real-time scores and rankings of all teams.