Beast taming, starting from zero point
Chapter 332 - 319: Group Stage

Chapter 332: Chapter 319: Group Stage

The next day.

November 3rd.

Shengshui Middle School.

When Qiao Sang stepped into Training Field No. 1, she saw Wang Yao, Shi Gaofeng, Xu Yixuan, He Daotao, and others surrounding Zhang Dezhou, engaged in what seemed like a heated argument, while Zhang Dezhou wore an expression of grievance on his face.

"What are you all talking about?" Qiao Sang walked up and asked.

Zhang Dezhou looked over and, seeing it was Qiao Sang, his eyes immediately reddened.

Like the protagonist in a melodramatic campus drama who’s been bullied but is holding back her tears, he yelled, "It wasn’t me!"

Qiao Sang was baffled.

What’s going on?

"What wasn’t you?" Qiao Sang asked, confused.

"The person who posted and sold information about you wasn’t me!" Zhang Dezhou said indignantly.

He recalled what had happened last night and early this morning, and the more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt.

Being a substitute was one thing, but when he returned to evening self-study yesterday and entered the classroom, he was asked the same question by several groups of people in succession—they questioned if his ID was "Genius Again and Again Wood."

At first, he didn’t understand, but later he found out that ID belonged to the Shengshui traitor who had been selling information about Qiao Sang online recently.

When he realized that people online were suggesting he was the owner of that ID, Zhou Dezhou felt his face covered in question marks.

What the hell?

Who the hell was spreading these rumors!

Was he, Zhang Dezhou, the type to betray his teammates?

He’d explained himself half the night, and yet some still looked at him with an "I understand" expression, which nearly drove him to the brink of collapse.

Somehow, he managed to get a good night’s sleep and felt much better, but as soon as he arrived at the training field early in the morning, he was questioned by the school team!

The only comfort was that Xu Yixuan and He Daotao, those two guys, were thankfully clear-headed enough to believe him.

Nevertheless, Zhang Dezhou still felt wronged. He had been holding it in, but seeing Qiao Sang made it hard to restrain his emotions.

To be honest, even though he was just a substitute, he truly admired Qiao Sang’s skills and didn’t want her, the person involved, to misunderstand as well.

"I know it wasn’t you," Qiao Sang said.

Those words stunned Zhang Dezhou.

She believes me?

She actually believes me?!

Wang Yao frowned, "Qiao Sang, but when we analyze it, the person most likely to sell your information from our school is him."

"That’s because you don’t understand Zhang Dezhou," Xu Yixuan said. "He may not be very strong, but he’s a man of good character. His grades have always been stable at the bottom of the class, but even so, he has never copied from others."

"Besides, besides," He Daotao added from the side. "Analyzing those posts from Litian Royal Beast High School isn’t something Zhang Dezhou would do. He goes straight to other schools’ message boards to curse directly. He couldn’t possibly be someone that clever!"

Zhang Dezhou’s mouth twitched, any touch of emotion he felt for these two vanished, leaving only a desire to laugh.

Shi Gaofeng spoke up dissatisfied, "What’s wrong with being at the bottom of the class? Who gets into Shengshui Middle School without a brain?"

As soon as this statement came out, Zhang Dezhou looked over, both surprised and a bit touched.

Their eyes met, and in a single glance, they understood each other’s message.

Brother, I didn’t expect you to be a poor student too!

The training field fell into silence for a moment. Then, Qiao Sang cleared her throat and suddenly said, "Actually, the person selling my information on that post was myself."

After speaking, she inwardly sighed. The pseudonym had been blown anyway, but there was no helping it—the blame couldn’t fall on Zhang Dezhou. Look at the guy, he’s about to cry...

Zhang Dezhou: "!!!"

The crowd collectively froze, completely dumbfounded.

"You’re selling your own information?!" After a good while, Wang Yao was the first to recover, her face full of astonishment.

"It was me." Qiao Sang scratched his head, embarrassedly said, "Think about it, doesn’t that ID spell out my name when put together?"

Everyone: "!!!"

Actually, on the forum where the ID "Genius Again and Again and Again Wood" was discussed, some had indeed mentioned the possibility that putting together ’Again and Again and Again Wood’ spelled out the character "Sang", and even guessed that it might be Qiao Sang himself.

But they were all mercilessly mocked by other netizens.

After all, who in their right mind would sell their own information?

This was the National Campus Beast Taming Competition!

Once a year!

You only get three chances in your entire high school career!

Even someone with holes in their brain wouldn’t do it, let alone someone like Qiao Sang who gives off the impression of being extraordinary at a glance.

"Ahem, it went like this, it was a day near dusk..." Qiao Sang began to narrate how it all started.

A few minutes later, Wang Yao fell silent for a moment before asking, "So there really was someone at our school selling your information but the buyer mistook someone else for you, and you snatched the opportunity?"

"Right," Qiao Sang nodded.

"Then why did you start a thread online later on to sell your own information?" Shi Gaofeng asked, bewildered.

Qiao Sang earnestly answered, "Because I found out it earned a lot of money."

Everyone again sank into a brief silence.

Suddenly, Xu Yixuan spoke up, "Can I get the 1000 I spent to buy the information back?"

Qiao Sang: "!!!"

Darn it, he’d forgotten about that!

The atmosphere in the training ground returned to its usual norm, and the wrongfully accused Zhang Dezhou was laughing and talking with the others again.

"Hahaha, I told you you didn’t seem like someone who would do anything smart!" He Daotao laughed, slapping Zhang Dezhou’s shoulder.

"Get lost!"

After about twenty minutes of free training, Sun Boyi and Zheng Guoping walked in.

"Everybody stop for a moment, I have something to say." Sun Boyi said, "Training ends in the morning, after lunch we will set off for Hongrao Town in Shanglong County."

"The sophomores will come with me to the Pet Beast Training Base in the Jiudu area," Zheng Guoping continued.

Hearing this, Qiao Sang wasn’t at all surprised.

She had looked it up yesterday when she learned about the competition venue – the Litian Royal Beast High School was located on Hongrao Town in Shanglong County.

This competition venue was actually considered quite close.

After the preliminary round, the actual competition would begin, divided into the group stage and knockout stage.

The group stage would adopt a single round-robin system, dividing the 576 contestants who advanced in the preliminary round from each grade segment into 16 groups, with a total of 36 people competing in each group.

During the group stage, only 18 contestants from each group would advance.

Based on points, contestants with relative skill levels would be distributed unevenly, meaning that a group would include both the top scorers and those with the lowest points.

During this stage, the contestants’ areas would be scattered throughout the province.

At least Hongrao Town was still within Hangkang City, while some of the farther venues were in other cities.

Moreover, the venues and competition times for the first through third years were mostly staggered, with the official competition for the first-year students having already begun today.

"Hongrao Town, huh? I heard there’s a hotshot there who’s won the lottery three times," Xu Yixuan suddenly recalled a news piece she had seen not long ago and exclaimed.

"How big was the prize?" He Daotao inquired, curious.

Qiao Sang remained indifferent on the side.

Lottery news like this was all too common, aiming to stir other people’s gambling instincts, making them think they too could win big and thus go buy lottery tickets.

"One time it was ten crates of A-rank Energy Recovery Potion, another time it was an item appraised as S-rank, and once it was a Big Mouth Dragon egg."

Qiao Sang: "!!!"

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