When he saw Lugh come home, Austin revealed a simple smile and shouted, "Lugh, you're finally back."

"Austin? Why are you here?"

Not paying attention to the guests at home, Lugh naturally took off his slightly damaged shirt, revealing his muscular upper body. He wiped his body with a wet strip cloth placed on a shelf at the side and spoke as he wiped.

Austin was a friend that Lugh had met in this forest before.

"Lugh, are you injured?"

Austin noticed the part of Lugh's shoulder that was tied with a cloth and saw that the cloth was covered with dried blood. He asked worriedly.

"It's just a superficial injury. It's not a big deal. There was a small accident during the experiential learning and the aftermath injured my arm."

Lugh smiled and twisted his arm, indicating that he was fine. Then, he took the clean gray shirt from the flower branch and put it on.

Lugh sat next to Austin. He drank a mouthful of tea to quench his thirst and said, "Brave son, why are you looking for me?"

Austin crossed his legs casually, and the simple and honest look he had before disappeared.

He took a sip of tea and smiled. "What's the matter? Lugh, you're so ambitious. Did you forget about tomorrow's competition?"

Austin's behavior did not surprise Lugh. On the contrary, this was the Austin he knew in his heart. At first glance, one would think that Austin was an honest and upright person.

However, Lugh, who knew him well, knew that Austin's appearance was all an act.

Austin's disguise made him look harmless, hiding his true self in the dark, and then observing others' actions. Lugh did not dislike it.

On the contrary, he felt that it was a sign of maturity. Therefore, Lugh, who appeared to be mature since young, became good friends with Austin, who was 'different on the inside and outside'.

Although his personality was like that, Austin still valued loyalty. He was a person who had principles in doing things. He was the kind of person who would help his brother after they had a heart-to-heart. In this regard, Lugh and Austin were the same type of people.

"Of course I remember. Otherwise, I wouldn't have returned to the village at noon today," Lugh said.

"Do you know the specific information of the participants in the competition? What are their source beasts? How strong are they? Do you know these things?" Austin said with a light smile.

"..."

Lugh's hands stopped moving. It was obvious that he had forgotten about the preparation for gathering information before the battle.

"I knew it. You are still the same as ever. You never pay attention to the main points of the exam. You only focus on studying hard, making yourself feel tired. Did you just focus on training and forget about this?"

Austin sneered with an expression of 'as expected'.

"The brave will win when they meet on a narrow path. Just fight head-on."

The importance of information naturally did not need to be said. However, Lugh still pretended to be calm.

"Alright, stop pretending. I've already helped you collect this information. The village chief helped me find it. Today, we'll put it together to prepare for tomorrow's competition."

Austin used his index finger to scratch the space between his eyebrows, putting on a look that said, 'I'm having a headache with you like this'.

"That's great!" Lugh said with an expression that said, 'I knew you'd handle it'.

"I don't know why, but I really want to beat you to death right now."

Looking at Lugh's expression, Austin put on a hypocritical smile and spoke with a fake smile.

The participants of the competition in the neighboring villages were jointly held between five neighboring villages. The participants were young geniuses selected from each village. The age was limited to 18 years old and each village could send two representatives to participate in the competition.

Of course, the five villages only sent a total of 10 young participants. In addition to these people, the competition would allow some young outsiders to participate in the competition, so as to increase the surprise and excitement of the competition.

In order to attract tourists from other places to watch, in order to charge the entrance fee to make up for the cost of the competition.

In this society full of source beasts, the competition between source beasts would never be popular behind the times. The competition between the five villages held in the past would always attract the attention of a group of tourists.

In the past, the average number of participants in the competition would be around thirty people. Other than wanting to train themselves in the competition, more people were going for the gimmick of the prize money of the competition.

Of course, the prize money and the expenses of the competition were naturally jointly funded by the five villages. However, just the annual admission ticket alone could make up for the cost of consumption, let alone other income.

It was precisely because the competition could allow the young people in the villages to compete for the top spot and also earn a small profit, why not enjoy such a good thing? As a result, the tradition of the competition continued from the past to the present.

Lugh had obtained the specific rules of the competition from Austin. There was nothing special about it, only a very ordinary duel-elimination system. The Beast Masters would fight in pairs, and the final victor would advance to the competition until the winner was decided.

The participants of the competition would decide the winner within a day, and only the winner would receive the prize money from the competition. If the winner was someone from five villages... The village that won the championship would get half of the profits from the competition alone.

There were clear interests in the competition, and there would definitely be relative strength friction and competition, but Lugh did not care about the twists and turns.

His goal was very simple. It was to win the championship and get the rich reward resources.

With Austin's information sharing, Lugh roughly understood the information of the other contestants, so he would not be unprepared on the day of the competition.

Austin stayed at Lugh's home for a meal. The two wished each other good luck and went back to prepare for the competition.

Not only were the two representatives of the medicine village, but they were also competitors. The opponents in the competition were drawn by lot. This meant that if Lugh and Austin successfully advanced to the end... The two of them would eventually meet in the competition.

Apart from fighting for the winning village, personal honor and fighting spirit were also very important.

Although Austin did not have the qualifications to be a good son, his father was the village guard, Li Lie. Austin's family also had a wealth of resources that was not inferior to the Wang family. His cultivation speed was not necessarily inferior to Lugh's.

And Lugh, relying on his own hard work, displayed talent that was not inferior to a genius.

Moreover, he was highly regarded by the Guardian's executive officer, Beck, who recommended him to participate in the trial conference that would be held in half a month. It was enough to show that his talent was outstanding.

Therefore, regardless of whether it was Austin or Lugh, they both regarded each other as rivals. They competed with each other and improved each other.

In the remaining time, Lugh did not let Big Mouth continue to cultivate. After all, the cultivation of source beasts was a process of accumulation. One night's progress was extremely limited.

Moreover, Big Mouth was still injured. If Big Mouth didn't recover fully soon, it would affect the performance of the next day's competition.

Thus, in the remaining time, Lugh used the healing herbs in his house to help Big Mouth recover.

After settling Big Mouth down and resting, there was still some time before he went to sleep. Lugh didn't waste any time and instead devoted himself to cultivating the origin technique. It wasn't until today that the growth of the source energy in his body slowed down that he gradually stopped cultivating source energy.

Beast Masters' cultivation of origin energy depended on a gradual cycle. Depending on their innate talent, there was a limit to how much origin energy they could increase by relying on a normal cultivation method every day, even if it was a profound and powerful cultivation method.

Therefore, when a Beast Master felt that the growth of origin energy had slowed down, they would stop cultivating. This was because continuing to cultivate wouldn't be of much use, and would instead waste a lot of unnecessary time.

After studying the 'secret insect cultivation technique' for a while, Lugh fell asleep early.

Even in the Forest of Despair, Lugh was constantly improving himself. No matter how tired he was, he wouldn't fall behind in his daily homework.

This was because Lugh understood that only through hard work could he gradually transform into a strong person who could take charge of his own affairs. In this world, strength was the most important thing. No matter how tough the future was, even if it was going against the current, he had to face the difficulties head-on.

Only in this way, he could protect the most important thing in his life, and he could take back what he had lost.