104

Over time, the spirit taming division had crumpled under the pressure and become one of the smallest minority groups in the cultivation world.

But this didn't mean that they were any less important. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Especially now that the number of spirit tamers were getting fewer, the spiritual association attached great importance to them to prevent that division from dying out.

The spirit tamers' segment was the spiritual convention's most interesting event. Moreover, since the competition began with an elimination round starting from the countries that ranked at the bottom, the audience had waited for a long time for the top three countries to finally appear.

This year, many black horses had appeared in the competition. Among them were a handful with relatively close ties to China and a few more which were considered to have a moderately neutral relationship.

If you only considered this situation alone, China's prospects could be said to be pretty good this year. But the two other western countries who were ranked before China didn't reveal a single hint of discomfort, much less surprise. It was as if they had already expected it and made sufficient preparations.

"Is that lad, Chris, sure that he can control that ghost? You should know what will happen if that thing can't be suppressed. If something were to happen later…" Dressed in a well-fitting suit, a blonde-haired and blue-eyed man asked. At the same time, he lowered his head to glance at his watch when his words were interrupted.

The tall blonde-haired woman standing next to him touched her curls and replied, "If something happens, our Helun country will take responsibility for it. Just proceed according to our agreement and the first two places of the next segment will be ours."

"Also, Chris has a way to make that thing obey. Don't worry."

The two who had been engaged in conversation belonged to Helun and Waxin country. On the surface, these two countries did not appear to have any talks of alliances but to maintain their status, the two had begun talks of collaboration in private.

Their ultimate goal was still the position of chief of the spiritual association. This was something that both parties were aware of and didn't need to speak of.

Having sat in the same position for a long time, Gu Yan's initial excitement of watching the two divination masters from different countries compete against each other was waning. Afterwards, because these participants were about the same age or younger than him, the spells they used were relatively low-levelled. As more time passed, Gu Yan's body began to sway to the side.

After swaying to a certain degree, his head rested against the silver-haired officer's shoulder.

In the eyes of others, the ghost sitting beside the raven youth had already been waiting there since morning, and just as the youth's head leaned over, he immediately adjusted into the optimum sitting position, smoothly reaching out a hand to support the person's upper half.

"Qiuqiu, mn… Qiuqiu." He had already fallen asleep, his eyes fluttering shut. But the words that came out were soft and vague

If it wasn't for the fact that he knew excessive stares from their surroundings would wake the youth, the Heidis would have already lowered his head to kiss the man who'd called out his name.

Something like that would only cause the eyes on them to grow more heated and, for sure, the youth would wake up. Although he wished he could, the silver-haired officer endured this urge.

God knows what a strange sight it already was in the eyes of the divination masters for a ghost to take the initiative to hug a person. It's akin to seeing a ghost in broad daylight…

Wrong. All the divination masters present immediately realised this because they were literally looking at an actual ghost.

All the people who could keenly perceive the danger dared not go forward to bother him during this time and even the voices had become shushed. Thus, Gu Yan managed to fall asleep for nearly half an hour.

"Ah Yan." Not allowing anyone else to touch him, Xie Lan whispered his name to rouse him. At the same time, at an angle that no one else would be able to see, his lips lightly brushed against the youth's ear.

The dark-haired youth opened his bleary eyes and used a hand to cover his mouth as he yawned. The corners of his eyes were slightly red; he didn't resemble a person who was about to go on stage for competition in the slightest.

"The participants for this year are so weak, it probably wouldn't even matter if Chris does not use those things. He only needs to use his tamed spirit to win, no need to show all our cards." The person in charge of the team from Waxin had been watching the battle from start to end. It was also this blue-eyed blonde who gave this piece of information to his partner.

A reply came very quickly. The idea was that they wanted to obtain a complete and utter victory, so they weren't allowed to change the plan.

After the man received the message and read it, he immediately deleted it. Since the other side had already said so, there was nothing left to say. All sights were on the stage. Based on the lots they'd drawn earlier, this round was a match between China and Helun.

According to their intelligence, China should have been forced to forfeit this round. They didn't know how China had managed to find a replacement at the last moment, but looking at their representative's drowsy appearance, they were almost sure that there was no difference between this and them simply giving up.

The name Chris had appeared in their message earlier, and now, the person had appeared on stage. He was a rather dashing young man with sea-blue eyes. When he smiled, he looked particularly charming.

The silver-haired officer's stiff military uniform made him appear even more dangerous. When the man smiled at the youth with that charming expression, the Heidis grew even more unhappy.

The youth was already completely stained by his scent but the humans in this world couldn't notice it. Neither could they detect the warning scent.

Although he knew that this was a problem with the world's setting, the Heidis was still extremely unhappy. All these flies were buzzing around his precious treasure. If they were in the Empire, no one would dare to do so.

The Heidis Empire had already ruled over all the other neighbouring stars. If anyone dared to do so, they would surely be crushed by their Emperor's orders.

"You're nearly the same age as me. Are you also a genius?" Although he looked like a gentleman and wore a pleasant smile, his words were full of arrogance and pride.

But it was an inevitable fact that Chris was a true talent. Just a while ago, he'd easily defeated a veteran divination master from the spiritual world and became conceited. Just like him, his opponent was someone who was highly regarded as a potential winner.

Hearing this, Gu Yan shook his head and softly replied, "I'm just a normal person."

As a Chinese, Gu Yan expressed that he would uphold the virtues of China. Something like modesty was very important.

If Zhao Xu and the table full of the other divination masters were to hear this, the three people's eyes would probably fall out from hearing this person who 'didn't even bat an eye while lying'. After all, they have never seen anyone more 'normal' than this normal person.

"Your tamed spirit looks pretty good." Just as Chris began to execute a series of hand gestures, he suddenly said something unexpected.

It was rare for a spirit tamer to have their tamed spirit by their side all the time because virtually no one would like to constantly experience the chill from having a ghost by their side all day. Most people would only summon them when required.

This time, Gu Yan no longer replied or thanked him for the praise. In the next few seconds, Gu Yan understood the meaning behind those words.

After Chris spoke, a crooked figure of a ghost materialised behind him. Its appearance was extremely horrifying, the type that could drive a child to tears.

"An evil spirit? Judge!" When the handsome young man summoned his spirit, the entire hall fell into chaos. This was especially so for China division's grandmaster Wen who'd let out a loud shriek.

No one in the spirit taming division would summon an evil spirit as their tamed spirit. With the evil spirit's bloodthirst and ferocity, any divination master who'd attempted to do such a thing in the past was mercilessly ripped to shreds, without their bones intact.

Was he playing with everyone's lives by summoning an evil spirit? Seeing that their own people were on stage, the expressions of the divination masters from China turned ugly.

However, there was an exception. Take, for example, Master Zhao and the two others. Although their expressions looked grim, underneath that facade, they were extremely calm.

This wasn't because they were unconcerned about their precious darling. Everyone in the spiritual world was aware that China's Spirit Taming Division was lacking in people.

But in such a situation, they were no longer worried after knowing the identity of the ghost beside the youth.

The 'evil' in 'evil spirit' was just a name. But whether or not they'd have the guts to bite their master was an extremely difficult question.

The silver-haired officer on the stage looked extremely cold and his narrowed eyes grew darker. His pupils dilated as he stared at the evil spirit who'd just been summoned with indifference.

Previously, he'd agreed to capture all the evil spirits that were still lingering in the human realm. It just so happened that he'd found one.