Even though the battle arena in Hot Springs Town rarely sees any visitors, this place is still equipped with a complete team of logistics personnel and referees, who promptly arrived at their positions after receiving the request.
Since there are almost no visitors here normally, they were quite curious about the rare sight of a visitor battle, and were not upset about their laziness being interrupted.
"You go first, Xiao Ji, don’t rush to strike!"
Feng Yuan warned Xiao Ji, unsure of what ultimate move she might use against the enemy. If she starts with a Divine Beast Technique, Witch Baby might be knocked down before getting a chance to respond.
Although the girl wasn’t sure why Feng Yuan was so confident, given her Witch Baby’s relatively weak strength, she didn’t refuse his offer.
"In that case, Xiao Qian, go ahead and show our strength with magic!"
The girl shouted while pointing at Xiao Ji, and Witch Baby instantly began chanting magic. Noticing the opponent’s action, Feng Yuan frowned. Although he told Xiao Ji not to strike first, he didn’t mean for her to use a lengthy magic chant, right?
Unlike the standard ultimate move system, the Spirit Beast Ultimate Skill system has fewer ultimate moves with side effects or preparation times, and the Spirit Beasts that can master them are limited.
Magic is different; as long as it’s learned, spells with both short and long chants can be used. Naturally, the magic requiring long chants generally has greater power, sometimes even exceeding a whole level in certain situations.
But this isn’t her reason for choosing a long chant magic; Feng Yuan didn’t say Xiao Ji should wait and let Witch Baby finish her magic.
Not long after Witch Baby began her chant, Xiao Ji started to act. Although she didn’t know what Witch Baby was up to, Xiao Ji didn’t underestimate her. She let out a long cry and unfurled the Underworld Domain, hesitating not even a moment to initiate Domain Awakening.
Not wanting to lose out of carelessness to Witch Baby — that would be quite shameful for Xiao Ji — she took rigorous precautions, even at the risk of picking on someone weaker.
The awakened Underworld Domain deprived Witch Baby of any chance to touch the Crystal Domain, and because of the domain’s suppression, even the magic would have its power diminished.
After all, even magic utilizes environmental energy, just to varying extents.
Seeing Xiao Ji set up the Domain Battlefield, Feng Yuan wanted to say enough is enough; Domain Awakening is already oppressive enough. Setting up the Domain Battlefield would widen the power gap, even if both sides were of equal strength, not to mention Xiao Ji being far stronger than Witch Baby.
This preparation gave Witch Baby sufficient time for her chant, and as her magic completed, a giant Firebird formed out of the void, flew towards Xiao Ji with a loud screech.
The awakened Underworld Domain weakened the Firebird’s power, but compared to an ultimate move, the energy occupied by magic doesn’t completely match with Spirit Beast Ultimate Skills.
Thus, Feng Yuan could see that the Firebird’s power was only reduced by about 20%, even under the Domain Awakening state. Clearly, the magic system can somewhat resist the Crystal Domain’s suppression.
However, this comes at a steep cost; the magic system likely gains almost no benefit from the Crystal Domain.
Xiao Ji’s setup of the Domain Battlefield this time was specifically for defense, where those materialized Netherworld Plants had unique defensive methods to block ultimate moves.
The Firebird couldn’t even get close to Xiao Ji before being intercepted by the plants, although at the cost of some of the plants getting consumed.
With a long cry, Xiao Ji stopped engaging Witch Baby on the ground and instead flapped her wings, abandoning the already-established Underworld Domain and Battlefield, taking to the sky.
Watching Witch Baby quickly chant magic, Feng Yuan wasn’t optimistic. The biggest problem with the magic system is that most teammate enhancement methods are ineffective, and even if they are, they can only work on ones own ability.
No help for it, since most Spirit Beast ultimate moves don’t specifically target magic means, even a magical Spirit Beast like Witch Baby can only temporarily enhance its own attributes to increase magic power.
However, this Witch Baby is simply too weak, not to mention that magical Spirit Beasts are not skilled in solo combat. Unless they master summoning-type magic and are of comparable strength, they’ll be easily defeated by Spirit Beasts.
Witch Baby does not fulfill either condition, so Feng Yuan anticipated a conclusion appearing soon.
Looking up at Xiao Ji, Feng Yuan was curious about her next move.
With a flutter of her wings, Xiao Ji let out a long cry, preparing to deliver a decisive blow. Witch Baby lacked the ability to penetrate the Crystal Domain, so even if the Underworld Domain affected her, she could do nothing against it.
Frowning, Feng Yuan noticed that Xiao Ji, although no longer within the Underworld Domain, still received its strengthening effects. No, she was drawing the power of the entire Underworld Domain to enhance her upcoming ultimate move?
Since the Crystal Field Awakening will automatically end after a certain time even if nothing is done, Feng Yuan didn’t find it regrettable or wasteful.
However, Feng Yuan couldn’t understand whether Xiao Ji’s actions were due to something unique about being a Divine Beast or an issue with the ultimate move, as most Crystal Domains require the user to be within it to affect the ultimate move’s form.
"How is Xiao Ji doing this?"
Dou Yanlan was surprised observing Xiao Ji in the sky. At this moment, plants in the Underworld Domain were becoming ethereal, and blue mists were rising from the Underworld Domain, converging on Xiao Ji, making it easy to guess her intentions without needing to sense them.
Yet, they couldn’t understand why Xiao Ji could harness the power of the Crystal Domain from outside it.
As the Crystal Domain’s power gathered around Xiao Ji, the Underworld Domain automatically dissipated, and the magic cast by Witch Baby regained its normal power, freed from suppression.
But at this point, Xiao Ji flapped her wings, and behind her, the phantom image of a small town nestled among the mountains appeared as Feng Yuan rubbed his chin and said
"I really can’t tell what ultimate move it’s using this time."
Understandable, as Feng Yuan didn’t expect the Strange Crystal’s effect to cover and work even under Domain Awakening changes to an ultimate move.
Of course, the ultimate move’s power and effect hadn’t changed, but this change in appearance would surely cause the opponent trouble, because even Feng Yuan couldn’t tell what ultimate move Xiao Ji was using.
After the phantom of the Hot Springs Town appeared, various miniature landscapes began to condense around it, varying in size, and it was entirely unknown what Xiao Ji had summoned.
"This Strange Crystal seems quite formidable,"
Dou Yanlan naturally noticed this issue too. Although technically, the use of Strange Crystals is allowed in Beast Tamer competitions, generally few people use them during matches.
After all, the effects are fixed, and even if one couldn’t tell what ultimate move was used the first time, the second time would reveal it. But playing like Xiao Ji does makes things unpredictable.
Domain Awakening-enhanced ultimate moves undergo changes in form, yet these changes can sometimes be similar, and Strange Crystals could likely produce identical appearance changes for similar change forms, resulting in the same appearance possibly corresponding to several ultimate moves.
Though not impossible to guess, figuring out what ultimate move the opponent used would certainly be challenging.
"Is this Feather Thousand Blades?"
Rubbing his chin, Feng Yuan was a bit surprised staring at Xiao Ji. Feather Thousand Blades is a move only feathered Spirit Beasts can use. It inherently carries no fixed attribute, and it is normal that Xiao Ji’s own attributes allow the Underworld Domain to affect it.
However, the Feather Thousand Blades ultimate move primarily covers an area and its destructive power is not exceptionally high, and it has a peculiar side effect: it causes feather loss.
Indeed, while activating Feather Thousand Blades mainly involves condensing feather-shaped energy bodies, it requires the Spirit Beast to use its own feathers as a medium.
Upon activation, feathers will certainly diminish from Xiao Ji’s body, and Feng Yuan didn’t understand why she would use this ultimate move.
Having side effects naturally also brings advantages, meaning that compared to ordinary same-level ultimate moves, Feather Thousand Blades either possesses higher power or additional effects. If side effects mean a numerical decrease, then Feather Thousand Blades must receive equivalent numerical enhancements elsewhere.
Focusing on Witch Baby, Xiao Ji let out a long cry, and the miniature landscapes launched rapidly towards Witch Baby, who, knowing escape was impossible, quickly cast a magic barrier in an attempt to block the attack.

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