Chapter 20: Crushing The Porcupine Beast
The Weeping Ancient Willow’s branches were lush, willow threads lightly drooping, with tender yellow leaves neatly staggered on the willow threads.
The yellow-green willow threads looked light and airy from afar but full of vitality.
Sure enough, there was good reason to include the Weeping Ancient Willow among ornamental plants.
Ge Bai admiringly gazed at their own Big Willow, captivated by Big Willow’s beauty, secretly pondering.
This couldn’t be let known to Big Willow; if it knew, there would be chaos again.
The onlookers on the surrounding teaching buildings saw Big Willow’s true form and erupted in a clamor.
Besides voices of praise, skeptical voices were clearly the majority.
At this moment, Jiang Yan also summoned his own pet beast, and a Porcupine Beast directly appeared in its complete form on the arena.
The Porcupine Beast was only about half a meter long, appearing much smaller in volume than Big Willow.
Its limbs were short and stout, its body round and plump, with pink skin all over.
Its back was covered in dense black-and-white hard spines, extending directly to the tail.
The spines on the tail were short but even denser, forming a small spiky ball directly at the tail end.
The Porcupine Beast’s small head had two small but spirited eyes and a plump pink nose; it was clearly a juvenile body.
An adult body’s Porcupine Beast would have spines covering a larger area on the back, and protective armor would form on the face as well.
Just summoned, the Porcupine Beast was a bit dazed, looking around before turning back to rub its small head against Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan crouched down smoothly, whispering something to the Porcupine Beast.
Ge Bai calmly observed, recalling information on the Porcupine Beast, standing beside Big Willow and giving instructions as well.
“Big Willow, this Porcupine Beast should be no more than one year old.”
“A juvenile body’s Porcupine Beast has at most two skills. One is Porcupine Charge: its speed isn’t fast, but it lowers its head, curls up its body, covers itself with back spines, and rams into the opponent.”
“The other skill is Tail Arrow Needles, flinging the tail’s arrow spines out with a tail whip.”
Big Willow also stared intently at the Porcupine Beast, its brain racing.
“No worries, Ge Bai. I’ll first use Wind Blade to intercept it, then use Willow Whip when it gets close.”
Ge Bai nodded. Big Willow’s current attack methods weren’t many, but they were sufficient to handle a little Porcupine Beast.
“Don’t worry, its spines’ hardness should be inferior to your willow threads.”
“Pay more attention: the Porcupine Beast’s weak points are the face, abdomen, and limbs.”
Big Willow’s willow threads swayed, secretly beginning to gather strength, infusing multiple strands of spiritual power into the willow threads.
“Hao Ke! Charge over! Smash its branches!”
“Hmph ha!”
Hearing Jiang Yan shout, the Porcupine Beast let out a squeaky roar and charged straight at Big Willow.
The voice was still somewhat immature, but the beastly momentum was faintly discernible.
Big Willow showed no mercy, instantly flinging out two Wind Blades.
The Porcupine Beast charging straight ahead seemed completely unprepared and was grazed on the forehead by the first Wind Blade.
It let out a yelp of pain, its body halting momentarily, then the following two Wind Blades smashed right onto its pig nose.
Its body tilted, falling to the ground, front paws clutching its small head as it began squeaking.
From over ten meters away, Ge Bai could see tears welling in the Porcupine Beast’s bean-like eyes.
Big Willow’s combat awareness was leagues ahead of the opponent’s.
Seeing the Porcupine Beast roll over, exposing its defenseless pink belly, it immediately flung out two more Wind Blades.
One Wind Blade smoothly struck the Porcupine Beast’s belly, sending it flying backward.
“Hmph, hmph ha.”
The Porcupine Beast cried out in pain but immediately curled up tightly; the second Wind Blade hit its back spines.
Spines broke, several falling off.
The Porcupine Beast rolled back to Jiang Yan’s side.
“Hao Ke!”
Jiang Yan hurriedly rushed to his pet beast. This should have been its first real battle after contracting, yet the process completely exceeded his expectations.
Showing the qualities of an excellent student, Jiang Yan carefully checked the Porcupine Beast’s injuries: the nose was already swollen, with a clear blood mark, and the abdomen and forehead were also visibly injured.
He quickly pulled out a recovery-type nutrient solution and fed it to the Porcupine Beast while holding it.
At this time, Ge Bai placed a hand on Big Willow, signaling it to wait.
This was battle etiquette; even if it was to beat a drowning dog, it wasn’t suitable to attack again right now.
Their side had the upper hand, so they could naturally afford to be more composed.
When Big Willow’s swaying willow threads flung Wind Blades that hit the Porcupine Beast, the surrounding teaching buildings instantly erupted in waves of commotion.
“What was that! The Weeping Ancient Willow has a ranged attack skill?”
“That’s a spirit plant? Did I see that right?”
“No mistake! I saw two Weeping Ancient Willows at the convention center doorway last week, looking exactly like this one.”
“No way, two Wind Blades dazed the Porcupine Beast.”
“More than that! Did you see? That Wind Blade even broke the spines—this intensity is terrifying!”
While many were shocked, they had already raised their mobile terminals, zoomed to highest resolution, and aimed lenses at Big Willow.
Some quick-thinking spirit planters began searching where to contract a Weeping Ancient Willow.
Others had already entered the forum to do live text-and-image broadcasts.
“Ge Bai! You’re really amazing!”
At the arena’s edge, He Le Yao was extremely excited, shrieking cheers for Ge Bai.
Jiang Yan’s several lackeys kept their mouths tightly shut, faces tense as they looked toward the field.
The Porcupine Beast was still drinking the nutrient solution when Jiang Yan seemed to snap out of it.
With an angry face, he shouted at Ge Bai: “Why can your spirit plant use skills? You’re cheating.”
His voice wasn’t small; the crowd heard clearly and let out gasps.
Ge Bai was rendered speechless by him, rolling her eyes and stepping forward two paces.
“None of your business—what my spirit plant can do doesn’t need to be reported to you.”
“Fight or not? If not, get lost.”
Big Willow stood behind Ge Bai at this time, willow threads infused with spiritual power, fluttering upward.
The willow thread tips shone with bright light, quite imposing.
Jiang Yan looked at the surrounding situation and realized his head had been clouded by anger just now.
But he was unwilling to accept it, gritting his teeth and looking down at the Porcupine Beast.
“Hao Ke, feeling better?”
“Let’s go again. This time, watch your steps.”
“No need to be particularly fast—try your best to dodge the Wind Blades. If you really can’t dodge, curl up your body and use your back spines to resist.”
“Hmph ha”
Having just drunk half a bottle of recovery nutrient solution, the Porcupine Beast’s condition had clearly improved, the blood mark on its face much fainter.
It shakily stood up, shook its body, flicked its tail, preparing for a second charge.
The surrounding crowd, seeing this, gradually quieted down, watching intently.
Although every year at this time there would be one or two student duels that teachers wouldn’t stop, and juvenile against juvenile wouldn’t cause big issues.
But those were mostly spirit beast against spirit beast; spirit beast against spirit plant was still a first in recent years.
Not to mention a spirit plant like Big Willow—everyone was truly seeing one for the first time.
Ge Bai also retreated to Big Willow’s side, saying nothing more. Big Willow was high-spirited now, so let it freely perform.
“Hmph ha!”
Under everyone’s gaze, the Porcupine Beast was ready and charged at Big Willow even more cautiously.
This time, it lowered its head even more, trying to angle the neck spines forward.
“Liu Gu!”
Three shots.
Big Willow grew bolder with battle, infusing spiritual power into its willow threads; three Wind Blades assaulted the Porcupine Beast from different angles.
Sorry, sorry, today’s update is a bit late—will update first thing tomorrow morning!
