Beast Taming: Starting From Zero Chapter 951: Ice-Haired Chestnut

As the crowd erupted in cheers, the spectators plunged into a spirited analysis of the duel: "That Ghost Ring King is incredible. Between Shadow of Darkness and Substitute, distinguishing the real body is an impossible task."

"I agree. Being a Ghost-type pet gives him access to invisibility and Teleportation. Landing a clean hit is nearly a miracle."

"Perhaps a skill with full-field coverage could counter it?"

"I noticed that Psychic Headbutt seems to be the Ghost Ring King’s primary heavy attack, but it requires physical contact. If a pet can endure that strike, they might actually have a window to seize him."

"In my view, if Yanwei Tata had unleashed a wide-area technique during that final exchange, it likely would have struck the true body lurking behind the Substitute."

"Xiang Wenyi surely realized that, but there simply wasn't a second to spare for a command."

"Speaking of which, Qiao Sang was remarkably quiet this match. That entire finishing sequence was executed purely by the Ghost Ring King’s own instincts."

"Certain elite Beast Masters map out their strategy before the bell rings. If the flow of battle remains within their expectations, they see no need to intervene with orders."

"The fact that she acts like a seasoned veteran at only 17 is terrifying. She’s a living nightmare for other professional Beast Masters..."

"I almost forgot how young she was until you mentioned it..."

"Is it just me, or is the Ghost Ring King actually really cute?"

"What are you getting at?"

"I want to form a contract with one."

"..."

In the middle of the stadium’s roar, Qiao Sang cleared her throat.

Little Treasure looked back at her.

Qiao Sang gave him a questioning glance.

Even though Little Treasure hadn't sustained direct damage, the rapid-fire use of his abilities had clearly drained his energy. She harbored doubts about whether he could sustain his performance through another grueling round.

"Xun xun!"

Little Treasure cried out, his gaze burning with resolve.

Seeing his determination, Qiao Sang immediately abandoned the thought of withdrawing him.

Tian Yiwan’s voice, laced with excitement, boomed over the speakers: "Contestant Qiao Sang has decided not to swap out the Ghost Ring King! She’s keeping him in for the third round. Is she aiming for another clean sweep just like she did in the preliminaries?"

Tang Xueran chimed in: "Should the Ghost Ring King claim victory here, Qiao Sang will be the first participant in this year’s Regional Championships to secure two back-to-back clean sweeps."

"I’m curious to see which pet Xiang Wenyi will deploy to turn the tide in this third round," Tian Yiwan remarked.

Xiang Wenyi gazed at her opponent from across the field, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves.

She had identified the core issue. It wasn't just the Ghost Ring King’s erratic movement, the difficulty of targeting him, or the confusion caused by his Substitute—it was Qiao Sang’s silence. The lack of vocal commands made the match exceptionally difficult.

Without commands to listen for, she couldn't predict the opponent's moves; she could only react once the Ghost Ring King had already initiated a skill. This lag meant Yanwei Tata was constantly trailing a step behind.

As her thoughts raced, a countdown of light flashed in the center of the arena. The mechanical voice droned: 9, 8, 7... 3, 2, 1.

The display vanished. Xiang Wenyi’s fingers blurred into hand seals as an orange-yellow star array erupted into life.

A creature standing six meters tall emerged from the glow. It was a bipedal pet draped in thick, snowy fur. The plumage on its face was so dense it obscured everything but a pair of piercing, emerald eyes.

Data on the distant creature flashed through Qiao Sang’s mind.

She recognized the Ice-Haired Chestnut immediately; Xiang Wenyi had utilized it during the preliminary rounds.

"Xun xun!"

The moment the opponent materialized, Little Treasure slammed his paws together and pointed upward. Instantly, a towering, thirty-meter-tall Ghost Ring King manifestation appeared.

The gargantuan phantom stared down with icy eyes, radiating an oppressive aura. The Ice-Haired Chestnut, which had been preparing to strike, frozen momentarily as a wave of primal dread washed over it, stalling its opening move.

While the audience was shielded from the pressure, Xiang Wenyi felt the weight of the phantom’s presence directly. A shiver ran down her spine, but she quickly recovered, shouting: "Snap out of it!"

Her command cut through the Ice-Haired Chestnut’s fear like a bell. Its hesitation vanished, and it slammed its fists together, causing visible waves of frost to pour from its knuckles.

In that split second, a massive, dark shadow lunged!

"Li li!"

The Ice-Haired Chestnut lashed out with claws wreathed in frost, seizing the thick shadow. At the point of contact, ice began to crackle and spread rapidly across the darkness.

"Split!" Qiao Sang commanded.

A second later, the portions of the shadow that hadn't yet been encased in ice fractured into dozens of smaller, ghostly tendrils. They coiled violently around the Ice-Haired Chestnut in a frantic swarm.

"Freeze!" Xiang Wenyi yelled, her eyes sharpening.

The shadows completely engulfed the Ice-Haired Chestnut, forming a seamless dark cocoon. With a flick of the giant phantom’s finger, the black sphere was hoisted into the air.

However, intense cold suddenly bled through the shadows. Before Little Treasure could begin his spinning maneuver, the sphere froze solid from the core, transforming into a massive orb of ice.

Crack!

Fractures spider-webbed across the surface of the frozen orb until the entire structure was compromised.

"Li li!"

With a thunderous roar, the ice sphere exploded. Shards rained down as the Ice-Haired Chestnut landed heavily on the arena floor.

The crowd gasped, stunned by how swiftly the Ice-Haired Chestnut had shattered such a dense Shadow Control. Only Ye Xiangting looked on with a worried expression.

"The Ice-Haired Chestnut has broken free from the Ghost Ring King’s Shadow of Darkness!" Tian Yiwan shouted into the mic. "It looked nearly effortless. Has this Ice-Haired Chestnut already reached the late or even peak General-level in terms of energy?"

"Xun xun..."

Observing this, Little Treasure felt a pang of doubt about his decision to fight the third round. Shadow Control was his most reliable technique; seeing it bypassed so easily shook his confidence.

Qiao Sang’s heart tightened. Little Treasure was exhausted from his previous fights, and overcoming an opponent with significantly higher energy reserves would be a monumental challenge.

Steeling herself, Qiao Sang called out: "Phantasm."

"Xun xun!"

Perched atop the giant phantom’s head, Little Treasure extended a finger. The massive specter mimicked the gesture, and a beam of prismatic light lanced toward the Ice-Haired Chestnut as it touched down.

"Ice Wheel!" Xiang Wenyi countered.

"Li li!"

The Ice-Haired Chestnut struck its fists together, instantly coating itself in a layer of translucent ice. It tucked into a roll, the ice shell expanding and hardening as it gained momentum.

Bang!

The prismatic beam struck the Ice-Haired Chestnut directly, resulting in a violent detonation. Through the smoke and shockwave, the massive ice ball tore forward, continuing its charge without a scratch.

Qiao Sang analyzed the move. Ice Wheel was a sophisticated Ice-type skill that turned the user into a high-speed projectile protected by a frictionless shell, capable of freezing anything it touched. By layering it with Ice Armor, the opponent had maximized both their offensive momentum and defensive durability.

Though she was secretly impressed, Qiao Sang’s expression remained stoic as she gave her next order:

"Net."

"Xun xun!"

Little Treasure crossed his fingers, a movement mirrored by the giant phantom. Dozens of shadows burst from the earth, weaving themselves into a titanic web directly in the path of the charging foe.

The ice ball slammed into the barrier. The shadow net groaned and stretched inward under the force. A ten-meter section of the mesh froze instantly upon contact, bringing the rolling ball to a dead stop just centimeters away from the giant phantom.

The stadium erupted at the sight.

"I never imagined Shadow Control could be used to ensnare and spin an opponent like that. Qiao Sang’s Ghost Ring King is constantly innovating with his skills."

"Xiang Wenyi’s Ice-Haired Chestnut is proving to be a formidable wall."

"Back when Xiang Wenyi first competed five years ago, that pet was just a Snowcake. Even as a high-level pet, it could hold its own against General-level opponents for five minutes. It evolved right after that season."

"Xun xun..."

As the fans debated, Little Treasure focused his will, causing the giant phantom to take a massive step backward. The thirty-meter shadow net began to collapse. Just as it was about to smother the Ice-Haired Chestnut, the frozen section of the net shattered with a loud snap.

"Lock," Qiao Sang said, her voice steady.

"Xun xun!"

A blue glow ignited in the eyes of both Little Treasure and his phantom. Suddenly, a translucent cage of energy materialized around the Ice-Haired Chestnut, trapping it in place.

From inside, the Ice-Haired Chestnut struggled to see the boundaries, but the audience had a perfect view under the stadium spotlights.

The crowd went wild: "No way! That Ghost Ring King can even use Spatial Lockdown!"

"His repertoire of high-level skills is insane."

"A Ghost-type with that much mastery over Psychic-type techniques?"

"I’m going to lose it—my Superpower King has been training for six months and still can't grasp Spatial Lockdown..."

The Superpower King was a dedicated Psychic-type pet.

"The Ghost Ring King has successfully deployed Spatial Lockdown," Tang Xueran noted. "The Psychic talent of this Ghost Ring King must be off the charts. Many pure Psychic-type pets struggle their whole lives to learn a skill of that caliber."

"Xun xun..."

Ignoring the commentary, Little Treasure stayed locked on the target, acutely aware that his energy was nearly spent.

Xiang Wenyi’s heart raced, but she forced herself to stay calm. "Charge!" she screamed.

"Li li!"

The Ice-Haired Chestnut resumed its rotation, spinning faster than ever before. The brittle, frozen shadows in front of it disintegrated, allowing it to burst through the gap and slam into the spatial barrier.

"Contract," Qiao Sang ordered.

The blue light in Little Treasure’s eyes intensified. The translucent barrier began to shrink, tightening around the spinning Ice-Haired Chestnut. The pet ground relentlessly against the walls of the cage until a small crack appeared in the barrier.

Qiao Sang yelled: "Full force collision!"

"Xun xun!"

Understanding the final gambit, Little Treasure commanded the giant phantom to teleport high into the air.

Suspended in the sky, the Ghost Ring King looked down with a freezing gaze as his phantom form swelled, expanding until it reached a staggering 60 meters in height. A massive shadow swallowed the arena.

Xiang Wenyi stared up at the behemoth that had completely eclipsed the moonlight. Her jaw dropped in sheer disbelief.

A heavy silence fell over the stadium. Everyone, including the commentators, stood frozen with their mouths agape.

While the raw power of a Shadow of Darkness skill doesn't technically scale with size, the massive increase in surface area and mass meant that, for Little Treasure, the impact was exponentially more devastating.

The sixty-meter phantom’s head flared with blinding white light as it plummeted toward the trapped opponent. It resembled a colossal meteor screaming through the atmosphere.

Panicked, Xiang Wenyi shrieked: "Break it! Get out of there now!"

Crack!

The Ice-Haired Chestnut poured every bit of its strength into its rotation, finally shattering the spatial barrier.

BOOM!!!

In that exact heartbeat, the massive white light collided with the earth. The Ice-Haired Chestnut was driven deep into the ground, vanishing into a massive crater. The stadium floor buckled and groaned as stone debris rained everywhere.

A violent shockwave of air blasted through the stands, whipping the hair of the spectators in the front rows.

The 60-meter phantom flickered and vanished.

At the bottom of the smoking pit, the Ice-Haired Chestnut lay still and unconscious. Little Treasure hovered above the rim of the crater, looking down at his fallen foe with a composed, sovereign expression.

At the announcer’s table, Tian Yiwan swallowed hard. "The Ice-Haired Chestnut has been neutralized by that super-powered Psychic Headbutt. Is this the end of the third round?"

The mechanical referee descended into the pit, checked the pet, and then raised a green flag toward Qiao Sang.

The massive virtual display updated. Xiang Wenyi’s portrait faded away, leaving Qiao Sang’s image centered and enlarged.

"Let’s hear it for contestant Qiao Sang! She wins with another stunning clean sweep and moves on to the next round!" Tang Xueran shouted with passion.

The crowd finally found their voices, unleashing a deafening wave of sound.

"Xun xun..."

Little Treasure mustered his final bits of energy to raise a paw, flashing a winner’s grin to the fans. Then, he turned his head and began frantically signaling his Beast Master with his eyes.

Qiao Sang’s lips twitched in a faint smile. With a swift motion, she withdrew Little Treasure into the safety of the Beast Codex.