Blinded by the glaring light, Yang Bin shielded his eyes with his arm. By the time the light faded, Yang Kai was gone. Yang Mengyao stood where he used to be before he disappeared.
Baffled about his sudden disappearance and Yang Mengyao's appearance, Yang Bin stared blankly at Yang Mengyao. "Where did he go?"
"I defeated him." Yang Mengyao replied cheerfully. "He didn't notice me behind him, and I used my Crescent Cut on his back. Apparently, whenever they are about to be severely injured, they get taken away. It happened to the other two as well."
Yang Bin looked around and realized what she said was true. No one else was here except for the two of them.
While they were talking, a couple items fell down from the sky in front of them. There were beast cores and rare herbs. The two looked at it.
"When we eliminate our opponents, we also take everything they have." Yang Mengyao explained. "The other two only dropped a singular beast core." She showed the two beast cores to him.
Seeing the beast cores in her hand and the small pile on the ground, a tired chuckle escaped Yang Bin's mouth. "Thanks. You saved me."
While Yang Mengyao was beaming at him, Yang Bin wasn't feeling so great. He had basically suffered a miserable defeat and had to count on Yang Mengyao to save him. Not to mention, his opponent was the same rank as him.
Yang Bin didn't think that it was possible for him to lose to someone at the same rank as him, considering his plethora of techniques, but now he had been proven wrong and was humbled as a result.
"Your arm and hand!" Yang Mengyao gasped.
"Oh right, there's this." Yang Bin looked down at his injuries. "Don't worry. I got something for them." Rummaging through his small bag, he picked up a gauze roll.
"Let me help." Taking the roll from his hand, Yang Mengyao carefully wrapped it around his arm, and then around his hand.
Sensing that his mood wasn't great, Yang Mengyao gave him a hug. "Brother, don't be sad. It's not your fault." She consoled him. "They were all using a talisman that boosted their stamina and qi recovery. Your opponent even had a strong weapon. If you also had a weapon, you would have won."
Seeing Yang Mengyao's attempt to comfort him, Yang Bin laughed. "Alright, alright. I'm feeling better now. Let's count what we got."
The pile only contained beast cores of initial stage demon beasts and silver haloed herbs, but because of the large quantity, it was still very valuable. Adding on the two beast cores in Mengyao's hand, the total came out to be…
"40 points!" Yang Bin counted. There were seven beast cores and five herbs.
Since Yang Bin didn't have any way to measure how much 40 points was, he didn't know its exact value. He guessed that it wasn't a small amount, after all, completing the difficult task of hunting the advanced stage demon beast would only grant 30 points.
In reality, this was actually a tremendous sum. In order to procure this many points, Yang Kai and his group had to pillage eight other contestants.
"Really? How many points do we have now?" Yang Mengyao asked excitedly.
"78 points." Yang Bin answered. "If we split it, we have 39 each."
Yang Mengyao jumped with joy, but suddenly remembering something, she sighed dejectedly. "Hai, if only Yang Chen didn't run away, then we would have at least 88 points right now." She was still slightly downcasted for not being able to take back the beast core of the intermediate stage Gust Wolf from Yang Chen.
Yang Bin could only awkwardly laugh at that. He was really glad that Yang Chen left instead of joining the fight. Yang Kai was already impossible for him to defeat. If Yang Chen or even his red bird was added into the mix, Yang Bin was without a doubt going to be eliminated here.
"78 points is still plenty." Yang Bin replied. "Seeing how decisively Yang Chen escaped instead of fighting us, he was probably aiming for the advanced stage demon beast Wolf King. Since Yang Chen and Yang Bai are both competing for it, I think it's best to stay out of it. I think we should look around for the intermediate stage and initial stage demon beasts."
Yang Mengyao nodded in agreement.
Unfortunately for them, there were actually no more intermediate stage demon beasts left and the amount of initial stage demon beasts were very sparse. In fact, they actually held more than half of the initial stage beast cores in the entire event.
The remaining time of the event wasn't as eventful.
Not only did they not encounter any intermediate stage demon beasts, they also didn't meet any other people. As the sun began to set, they were only able to find one more initial stage demon beasts and pick up a few herbs.
"That's now 87 points." Yang Bin said, as Yang Mengyao handed him another beast core. Due to his injuries, Yang Mengyao wouldn't let him participate in both the collecting and fighting. So he ended up as the porter for all the loot, as Yang Mengyao did everything herself.
"I think we should split the points now. The sun is setting, and we might be teleported out soon." Yang Bin glanced at the red sky.
Contrary to his expectations, Yang Mengyao shook her head and spoke against it. "Keep all of it. With that many points, it could be enough to claim first. If we split it, we may end up in fourth or fifth place."
"I'll keep it then." Yang Bin nodded.
Immediate after, a white light enveloped both of them. The dizzying sensation of being moved caused Yang Bin to shut his eyes. When he reopened them, he was back where he was before the event began.
With just a glance, he could tell that the amount of participants had lessened drastically. There were only 12 left including himself. Some of them were smiling, seemingly satisfied with their harvest, while most looked discontent.
Amongst them, Yang Bin saw Yang Bai and Yang Chen. Yang Bai seemed a little annoyed as she sent glares at Yang Chen. On the other hand, Yang Chen seemed rather carefree, ignoring the glares that Yang Bai was sending him. It appears that something had happened between them during the event.
Standing high in the air was none other than Yang Yugang. "The time is over and the event has come to an end." His voice resounded over them. "May the remaining participants line up and submit their gains." With that said, he descended to the ground.
Eight of the twelve moved.
The remaining contestants who didn't line up looked at the others with envy, except for Yang Mengyao. Seeing Yang Bin, she waved at him encouragingly.
Calming his nerves, Yang Bin lined up at the back of the line. He watched everyone else submit their earnings. Some just held one or two herbs in their hands. Others used a bag to carry all their items. When it came to his turn, Yang Bin turned in his pouch.
Yang Yugang gave him a small nod as he did with everyone else. His stoic face was unreadable.
Unsure, Yang Bin walked back to join the group and waited for Yang Yugang to announce the results.
Yang Yugang cleared his throat, "Before I announce the results, I want to say that I am very satisfied with the results. All of you have a very commendable battle will. This is the first time in many years that there were so few participants remaining at the end. Not only that, every single demon beast had been hunted and killed."
"Now let me announce the results. Starting off in ninth place, we have Yang Mo with two points."
"Eighth place is Yang Jianhong with three points…"
The list continued.
"In fourth place, we have Yang Zihan with 15 points."
"Now for the top three. Third we had Yang Bai with 63 points."
Hearing this, everyone was greatly surprised. It wasn't just because of the vast disparity between the fourth and third placer. It was that Yang Bai, who was the strongest here in terms of cultivation level, only got third. Everyone had expected her to finish first place, or at the least second place.
As if she had expected this outcome, Yang Bai stared gloomingly at Yang Chen, who looked smug and pleased.
"In second place, Yang Chen: with 84 points."
Now, it was time for Yang Chen to be surprised. He would have never imagined that he would fall short even with 84 points. Just who was first and how many points did that person have?
"Pff." Seeing how her adversary didn't get the victory he wanted, Yang Bai laughed.
"And finally in first place, with a total of 87 points, Yang Bin."