The enraged Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk continuously attacked Zheng Dong with skills like Fireball.
Zheng Dong, meanwhile, dodged using skills such as Earth Evasion, Shadow Shift, and Harden.
It wasn't until the Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk couldn't resist and swooped down from the sky to grab Zheng Dong.
Numerous clones of Little Zi emerged from the ground, using the Amplify skill to greatly enlarge their bodies, and then attacked the Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk with Shattering Gold Claws.
This caught the Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk off guard. However, its growth level had reached Lord-tier, so even the combined attack of Little Zi's clones using Amplify and Shattering Gold Claws did not inflict significant damage.
Nevertheless, the clones' objective was to drive the Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk into the Mud Swamp formed by other clones using the Mud skill, preventing it from taking flight.
Subsequently, Zheng Dong also condensed clones and used the Shadow Control skill to suppress the Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk.
The Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk was extremely frustrated, letting out shrill screeches. If it hadn't been so depleted earlier, it wouldn't have been suppressed by Zheng Dong and trapped in the Mud Swamp.
Unfortunately, there were no second chances. Immediately after, it had its other eye blinded by Little Zi's Shadow Arrow.
With this, the Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk became like meat on a chopping block.
Zheng Dong and Little Zi seized the opportunity, using skills like Booby Trap, Earth Spike, and Shadow Arrow to completely eliminate the Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk.
Although it took a considerable amount of time, the trial was considered passed, and Zheng Dong was rewarded with 49 Ethereal Stones.
He was also granted 49 days to cultivate within the ruins.
Following this, he was teleported into the cultivation tower within the ruins to train.
Principal Liu and the others, who had witnessed the entire event, were stunned for a long time before recovering.
"Good heavens, have we witnessed a miracle?"
A Treasure Hunting Mouse of Extraordinary tier defeated a Lord-tier Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk! No one would believe it if they heard it.
Principal Ma looked at Principal Liu again, sighing,
"Old Liu, you are truly blessed. Such a genius has appeared in your school!"
Seeing this, Principal Liu became even happier. He had finally won against Principal Ma once, and he said with a smile,
"Heh heh, Old Ma, enough with the nonsense. A bet is a bet, hand over that Level Six resource quickly!"
Principal Ma reluctantly took out a white jade bottle, about the size of a mineral water bottle, containing dragon blood.
"This is the dragon blood of a Monarch-tier Sea Dragon. The value of this bottle of dragon blood is equivalent to a Level Six resource, so I'll give it to you!"
Principal Liu proudly accepted the Sea Dragon's dragon blood, planning to give it to Zheng Dong as agreed.
Even if Zheng Dong didn't need it, he could exchange it for other resources to improve his strength.
Principal Liu hoped that Zheng Dong could win the title of Rookie King of Rongcheng this year.
If he did, not only the school but also he, as the principal, would gain considerable benefits.
Zheng Dong, unaware of his unexpected gains, was teleported to the highest floor of the cultivation tower. The cultivation speed here was faster than anywhere else, and he was alone, undisturbed.
He tried cultivating and found that the speed of meditation and cultivation here was about five times faster than in the outside world, meaning one day of cultivation here was equivalent to five days outside.
This immediately invigorated Zheng Dong.
Perhaps this time he could upgrade all of Little Zi's skills to the Proficient level, allowing Little Zi to touch the threshold of Commander-tier. Then, with sufficient resources, Little Zi could evolve into a Gold-Devouring Mouse.
Furthermore, Zheng Dong had obtained a large number of Ethereal Stones. By using these Ethereal Stones for cultivation, he had the chance to upgrade his Beast-Taming Space to Level Two.
Immediately, Zheng Dong activated the Beast-Taming Talent Skill Dojo, meditating while simultaneously assisting Little Zi in accelerating the cultivation of the intermediate skill Earth Spike.
Outside the Hexi Ruins, it would take 2 days to upgrade Earth Spike from the Mastery level to the Perfect level, and another 4 days to upgrade it to the Proficient level.
However, here, it would only take a little over 1 day to upgrade Earth Spike's proficiency to the Proficient level.
In less than 5 days in total, Zheng Dong had upgraded Little Zi's mastered intermediate skills, Earth Spike, Shadow Control, Mud, and Shadow Arrow, to the Proficient level.
As the proficiency increased, although the coverage of the Earth Spike skill remained unchanged, the length of each spike grew to eighty centimeters, becoming sharper and more difficult to break.
The Shadow Control skill could now control enemies from a greater distance through shadows, and the suppression intensity on enemies had more than doubled compared to before.
The Mud Swamp formed by the Mud skill had also become deeper and stickier.
The Shadow Arrow was released faster, and could be released from any part of the body. Even when looking at the opponent, Shadow Arrows could be fired, making them difficult to guard against.
Afterward, Zheng Dong continued to cultivate without rest.
In the blink of an eye, another approximately 13 days passed, and he had upgraded the proficiency of all of Little Zi's advanced skills to the Proficient level.
Amplify no longer had limitations; Little Zi could enlarge or shrink at will. As long as its body's energy could keep up with the consumption, it could become larger and larger.
The power of a full-force strike from Shattering Gold Claws also reached ten times its own strength.
The number of clones condensed by Shadow Clone remained no more than eighty-one, but each clone was stronger than before, possessing ninety percent of the main body's combat power.
Furthermore, the speed of condensing clones had also increased significantly. Little Zi could condense eighty-one clones in less than half a minute.
However, newly condensed clones required Earth Vein Resonance to replenish energy and reach their optimal state to possess ninety percent of the main body's combat power.
The mysterious bombs condensed by the Booby Trap skill also became controllable. Small mini booby traps could be condensed, or time could be spent to continuously condense larger or even super-large mysterious bombs.
However, the greater the power of the mysterious bomb, the greater the consumption, requiring Little Zi to continuously use Earth Vein Resonance to replenish its own consumption.
As for Super Vision, it granted Little Zi 360-degree dynamic vision, allowing it to quickly lock onto high-speed or even ultra-high-speed moving opponents.
As the skill proficiency increased, Little Zi's strength also improved significantly, getting closer and closer to Commander-tier.
Next, he continued to cultivate the ultimate skill, Earth Vein Resonance.
It took approximately over a week, equivalent to over a month of cultivation outside the ruins, to upgrade Earth Vein Resonance to the Proficient level.
This allowed Little Zi to continuously replenish its energy consumption, maintaining energy balance even when continuously using advanced skills.
However, it could not support Little Zi's continuous use of ultimate attack skills.
Even overlord-tier pets could not continuously use ultimate attack skills.
With this, Little Zi's shortcomings were addressed, and there was no longer a concern about sustained combat. Against opponents with extremely high defense, it could slowly wear them down.
However, Zheng Dong felt this was still not enough.
Little Zi still needed skills related to self-healing. Even if injured, it could recover on its own, which would not only save on treatment costs but also increase combat effectiveness.
Furthermore, against aerial opponents, attack skills were still insufficient, with only Shadow Arrow available. It would be even better if it could fly.
But the thought of a flying Treasure Hunting Mouse seemed a bit strange!
Zheng Dong still planned to purchase a suitable flying skill for Treasure Hunting Mice later.
At that time, perhaps he could also learn to fly through skill imprinting.
Cultivation time passed quickly.
The Ethereal Stones in Zheng Dong's hand also disappeared one by one, and his Beast-Taming Space was continuously strengthening, on the verge of breaking through.
On the forty-fifth day, Zheng Dong's Beast-Taming Space was upgraded to Level Two, and the color of its spatial crystal wall gradually changed from colorless and transparent to gray.
With the upgrade of the Beast-Taming Space, Zheng Dong felt he could contract a second pet and allow Little Zi to advance to Commander-tier.
However, Little Zi needed to evolve into a Gold-Devouring Mouse to advance to Commander-tier, and evolution materials were required.
Zheng Dong was not worried about the evolution materials; as long as he won first place in the school competition, the school would provide them.
In addition, Zheng Dong's Beast-Taming Talent, the Skill Domain, also underwent significant changes.
He could activate a dual domain, which could further double the speed of assisting Little Zi in cultivating skills. This meant that only half the original time would be needed to achieve the same cultivation effect.
However, using the dual domain also consumed more physical energy.
Therefore, he still needed to continue taking tonics!
Furthermore, the number of pet skills Zheng Dong could imprint also changed significantly. Low-tier skills were no longer restricted, intermediate skills could be imprinted up to 13 times, advanced skills up to 7 times, and ultimate skills up to 5 times.
What excited Zheng Dong the most was that he could arbitrarily use two imprinted pet skills to form combination skill ultimate techniques.
For example, the combination of Harden and Mud skills could form the ultimate technique Mud Armor, whose defensive capabilities were five times that of the Harden skill.
The combination of Shadow Arrow and Booby Trap skills could form the ultimate technique Booby Trap Arrow, whose lethality was ten times that of a single Shadow Arrow.
Of course, using combination skill ultimate techniques also consumed more energy.
Moreover, not all combinations of two skills would result in improvement. For instance, the combination of Mud and Shadow Shift skills, forming the ultimate technique Shadow Trap, was not as strong as the Mud Swamp formed by using the Mud skill alone, only being less easily discovered in the dark.
Zheng Dong could also teach the combination skill ultimate techniques to Little Zi. Under the guidance of the Beast-Taming Talent Skill Domain, Little Zi could quickly master them.
However, he felt that the only drawback of this cultivation was the excessive consumption of Ethereal Stones and the longer time it took than he had anticipated.
The Ethereal Stones he had collected were reduced to just over thirty, and cultivating for forty-five days in the ruin space was equivalent to six to seven months outside.
This was perhaps because his Beast-Taming Space was ten times larger than a normal Beast-Taming Space.
The benefit was that the Beast-Taming Space was more stable, could hold more items, and pets living and cultivating within the Beast-Taming Space were more comfortable. Even injuries recovered faster.
In the following days, Zheng Dong imprinted all the skills Little Zi mastered, including the ultimate skill Earth Vein Resonance, and taught Little Zi several combination skill ultimate techniques. Little Zi could now adapt to ultimate techniques like Mud Armor and Booby Trap Arrow.
When the cultivation time was up, Zheng Dong was teleported out of the cultivation tower and arrived at a large plaza outside the tower within the ruin space.
There were still many people cultivating in the plaza.
Although the cultivation speed was not as fast as in the ruin tower, it was still faster than in the outside world.
Many students who had only completed one or two stages were cultivating here.
Zheng Dong scanned the area but did not see any acquaintances.
With eleven days remaining before leaving the ruin space, he planned to go treasure hunting with Little Zi and test the combination skill ultimate techniques he had mastered.
Not long after, they arrived at a pine forest with Little Zi.
This area was not far from the cultivation tower, and there were many students like him searching for resources everywhere.
However, most students had no luck, and only a very few fortunate ones managed to obtain one or two resources.
Seeing Zheng Dong approach, no one paid him any attention.
Zheng Dong ignored the others and, with Little Zi, walked directly to an inconspicuous pine tree. He dug under the tree and found a piece of cold iron the size of a palm.
Next, he went to a large stone and, under the thick layer of fallen leaves, found a Red Blood Earth Fruit.
Subsequently, he found several more Level One and Level Two resources.
This immediately caused a stir among the surrounding students.
"Holy crap, it's cold iron! I walked past that pine tree earlier, why didn't I notice it."
"Damn it, it's a Red Blood Earth Fruit, worth at least eighty thousand!"
"What a cute Treasure Hunting Mouse, I want one too."
...
Some were regretful, others envious, but no one dared to make a move.
This was because making a move within the ruin space would result in being teleported out, not only facing punishment from the school but also possibly being sent to the security bureau.
Zheng Dong, however, paid no mind and continued treasure hunting under the envious gazes of the crowd.
Unknowingly, he had gained quite a few fans.
Many students who couldn't find resources themselves simply followed behind Zheng Dong, enjoying the spectacle of treasure hunting and secretly resolving to contract a Treasure Hunting Mouse themselves.
Zheng Dong paid them no mind and, with Little Zi, arrived at a valley.
The valley was empty, without even a blade of grass. However, in the center of the valley, lightning would occasionally flash, accompanied by thunder.
Little Zi excitedly informed Zheng Dong that a treasure was likely buried there, with a strong energy fluctuation.
Just as Zheng Dong and Little Zi were about to head over, a Silver-Striped Thunder Snake, over fifteen meters long, slithered towards them.
Instantly, many people were scared away.
Even a few bolder individuals kept their distance from Zheng Dong, ready to flee at any moment.
Zheng Dong, however, was not afraid.
This Silver-Striped Thunder Snake's growth level had reached Commander-tier, which was roughly equivalent to the strength of a Ground-Exploding Bear, and far inferior to the Scarlet Flame Dragonhawk.
Zheng Dong planned to test the ultimate technique Booby Trap Arrow first.
He raised his right hand and pointed at the rapidly approaching Silver-Striped Thunder Snake.
At the same time, the skill imprints of Shadow Arrow and Booby Trap within his Beast-Taming Space connected, rotating as if they were a star and a planet.
As Zheng Dong channeled his power, the two imprints also shone with brilliant light.
A Booby Trap Arrow shot out from his right palm towards the Silver-Striped Thunder Snake.
The Silver-Striped Thunder Snake instinctively tried to dodge.
But the Booby Trap Arrow flickered a few times in the air before eerily embedding itself in its head and then exploding.
Although the explosion's power was not immense, because it exploded after embedding itself in the Silver-Striped Thunder Snake's head, it almost killed the creature.
The enraged Silver-Striped Thunder Snake then used its ultimate skill, Thunderstorm.
Nine silver lightning bolts, as thick as arms, descended from the sky, striking towards Zheng Dong.
Zheng Dong quickly burrowed underground.
With a thunderous roar, the ground shook, dust flew, and a pit over 120 square meters was created by the lightning strike.
But immediately after, Zheng Dong emerged from another side and once again used the combination skill ultimate technique, Booby Trap Arrow.
This time, the Silver-Striped Thunder Snake still couldn't dodge, watching helplessly as the Booby Trap Arrow embedded itself in its head, then exploded with a bang, and it fell straight to the ground.
"It's dead?!"
The students who hadn't left were staring blankly at the scene, their eyes filled with disbelief, feeling as if they were dreaming.
Two arrows had eliminated a Commander-tier Silver-Striped Thunder Snake.
What skill was this?
It was so terrifying!
And the person hadn't even used his pet, he was just a novice beast tamer like them, possibly younger than some of them!