Gu Ming was unaware of the challenge issued by Lu You.

When the battle began, Gu Ming’s attention was already focused on the arena, and he didn’t notice anyone else’s voice.

After its greeting, Cyan Treasure didn’t look at Lu You again either. Just like its master, its whole body tensed up, preparing for the fight against the Turtle Wood Flood Dragon.

The trash talk Square Heaven Turtle had spouted before the battle made Cyan Treasure very unhappy, but Gu Ming specifically reminded it not to get carried away.

"Don’t let his words get to your head. You can be angry, but you can’t lose your composure.

"We’ll defeat our opponent with our actions and let our victory do the talking!"

Gu Ming encouraged Cyan Treasure, whispering in its ear, trying his best to balance its state of mind.

He couldn’t just extinguish its anger, but he couldn’t let it completely empty its mind either.

Anger could boost Cyan Treasure’s fighting spirit, but too much anger would be a bad thing.

As for Square Heaven Turtle’s arrogant attitude, Gu Ming wasn’t too happy about it either, but he was more inclined to think rationally and defeat his opponent on the field.

Since his opponent was so arrogant, he had to use that disdain to build an advantage.

’Alright, here’s what we’ll do...’ Gu Ming laid out the opening strategy using hand signals, eye contact, and the resonance of their Pet Beast Contract.

Cyan Treasure nodded, recalling the results of its recent training with great confidence.

Just as the two were preparing to fight, their head teacher, Ling Jun, who had left only a moment ago, suddenly returned to the scene. He stood in the center of the arena and said, "I’ll be the referee. Once both sides are ready, the battle can begin."

"This is a friendly match. Friendship first, competition second. Pull your punches and don’t get carried away, understand?"

The head teacher had clearly returned to look out for Gu Ming.

He wasn’t saying this for Gu Ming’s benefit, but for Square Heaven Turtle’s.

The "Gui" (turtle) character in Square Heaven Turtle’s name wasn’t there because he was timid, but because his family’s contracted Pet Beasts were mostly turtle-types.

As the eldest son of the main family line and the successor his generation was heavily grooming, Square Heaven Turtle was used to being treated like a little emperor at home and was usually very aggressive in his speech.

Only Akagi Shu, from the same school, and a few other top-ranking Beast Taming students had the confidence to talk back to him.

"Enough talk. I’m ready," Square Heaven Turtle snorted, placing the Turtle Wood Flood Dragon on the floor about twenty-five meters away from Gu Ming.

Gu Ming looked at his opponent’s "little snake." The Turtle Wood Flood Dragon hadn’t fully grown yet. It was about the same size as Cyan Treasure, with no horns on its head and covered in Turtle Wood Scale Armor. This matched the information he had, which stated it specialized in defense and the Grass Element.

If he underestimated it just because its specialty was defense, he would very likely suffer a major setback.

After all, if he couldn’t even break through its defense, he would be a sitting duck.

Because the Turtle Wood Flood Dragon was a Grass Element type, its species had a high potential cap, strong Life Force, and great Endurance. It wasn’t afraid of a battle of attrition.

In terms of defensive ability, it was no weaker than a true turtle-type Pet Beast.

The file from the head teacher included not only the Pet Beast’s abilities but also a background check.

For example, Square Heaven Turtle was originally supposed to form a contract with a Celestial Spirit Turtle with Five-star potential—the offspring of his family’s highest Star Level Pet Beast.

When he was young, Square Heaven Turtle encountered a Turtle Wood Flood Dragon during an outing. He forged a friendship with the adult Flood Dragon and made a pact that when he grew up, he could seek it out and partner with its offspring.

Thus, the Fang Family’s plans changed. The cub he was meant to form a contract with naturally became a Turtle Wood Flood Dragon, and he contracted it early in the first semester of his senior year, putting him far ahead of many of his peers.

Raised until now, his Turtle Wood Flood Dragon was already over nine months old.

With two months left until the college entrance exams, his Turtle Wood Flood Dragon was just barely within the permitted age range for the test.

If it exceeded the limit, he wouldn’t be allowed to use an overage Pet Beast in battle and would have to contract a new one.

Students repeating the year were assigned to a different testing site, where the age threshold was slightly higher, but not by much—two years at most was the absolute limit.

But back to the topic at hand. It could be said that Square Heaven Turtle was a key figure the local Fang Family was cultivating. The family hoped he would be the one to break them out of their predicament of the entire clan contracting turtle-type Pet Beasts and being limited by their species’ potential cap.

The Turtle Wood Flood Dragon was skilled at using the Turtle Shell Scale Armor Skill, could fire the Ironwood Scale Blade, and knew one Grass and Wood Control Skill and one Grassland Walking Technique.

Besides these, it also had some hidden trump cards that no one had seen it use yet. However, based on the techniques the Fang Family disciples had been learning in recent years, many were Grass Element Techniques. As a Grass Element type, the Turtle Wood Flood Dragon could very likely learn them too.

The file the head teacher gave him listed many of these potential trump cards that Cyan Treasure needed to watch out for.

Overall, its combat ability couldn’t compare to that of Akagi Shu, the top student in their year.

But when it came to defense, it was extremely formidable.

Only the Red Flame Flood Dragon could break its defense; others would have a hard time dealing with it. This was the source of his pride as the second-ranked student.

"Let’s begin," Gu Ming said.

The moment his voice fell, the Turtle Wood Flood Dragon swung its tail, generating a verdant green ripple.

"Luo Cao Sheng," Square Heaven Turtle said, commanding the Turtle Wood Flood Dragon to use its Cultivating Technique to infuse a Mana-condensed Grass Seed and slap it into the ground.

Gu Ming, on the other hand, had Cyan Treasure directly fire a Storm Ball to test the opponent’s defense.

"Storm Ball!"

SWOOSH.

Cyan Treasure’s belly swelled as it compressed a large amount of air in its throat. It then suddenly spat out a Storm Ball laced with Purification of Heretics Holy Dragon Poison, which shot toward the Turtle Wood Flood Dragon.

The Turtle Wood Flood Dragon didn’t dodge or evade. It simply tapped the floor with its Flood Dragon tail.

In that instant, the Mana seed in the ground a meter in front of it burst forth and sprouted, creating a Wood Escape Barrier marked with a turtle-shell pattern.

With a BANG, it blocked the Storm Ball.

This wasn’t real plant growth but a shield manifested through an understanding of Grass Element laws, using Mana as its energy base.

The strength of the Mana would determine how powerful a Storm Ball it could block.

The Storm Ball slammed into the shield’s surface and exploded with a tremendous BOOM.

The light on the turtle-shell pattern flickered for two full seconds as it completely nullified the explosive force.

However, after taking the hit, this Turtle Wood Barrier also disintegrated, shattering into points of green light.

Square Heaven Turtle let out a soft "Oh?" and said, "Looks like the top student in the year really does have a few tricks up his sleeve."

He was surprised that the Little Cyan Snake could use a ranged Wind Element technique; that was unexpected.

And while the explosion’s power was greater than he’d anticipated, it was still within reason—if the top-ranked student didn’t even have this much strength, then the standard of the entire school would be truly worrying.

"Charge straight in, Turtle Wood Flood Dragon! Use your shield to block its ranged attacks!" Square Heaven Turtle didn’t want to wait any longer and shouted directly.

The Little Cyan Snake was supposed to use its Speed advantage to get close to the opposing Pet Beast, bite it with its Poison Fangs, and then slowly wear it down to defeat.

However, under Gu Ming’s command, it had actually used a ranged Wind Element Skill.

This meant that Square Heaven Turtle could no longer think about the Little Cyan Snake in conventional terms. Instead, he had to close the distance quickly and drag the Little Cyan Snake into the close-quarters combat it supposedly feared, to test its true strength.