You Ditched an R-Rank, Now That I’m an SSR, You Wanna Cry?-Chapter 49: Spinning Tops – The Provincial Competition Begins!

Su Yun covered her mouth with a light chuckle:
"Classmate Mo, don't misunderstand, I was just sharing some insider information about the competition with Brother Xia Yuan..."
Mo Shiyu maintained a smiling expression on the surface, "Oh, I see."
But internally she was grumbling about how artificially sweet the other girl sounded - why was she speaking in such a sugary tone, and calling him "Brother Xia Yuan" over and over!
Su Yun gave a sweet smile, "I feel like Classmate Mo cares a lot about Brother Xia Yuan, checking on everything he does."
Mo Shiyu replied with an expressionless face, "He's my Contracted Spirit, my companion who's with me day and night. Is there a problem?"
Su Yun picked up the wine glass she had previously fed Xia Yuan from, taking a small sip with her rosy lips, "I would never restrict my Contracted Spirit from doing anything, even finding a wife would be fine..."
Mo Shiyu's eyes widened dramatically, her hand lifting then dropping, words caught in her throat - that was the same glass Xia Yuan had drunk from!
As for Xia Yuan, he completely ignored both girls, picking up his plate to continue hunting for food, thoroughly enjoying the feast.
The rhythmic music in the Starlight Banquet hall swelled, pushing the atmosphere to its peak.
Men and women moved to the center, following the beat as they began to dance.
Mo Shiyu and Su Yun's gazes suddenly sharpened, both rushing to Xia Yuan almost simultaneously:
"Brother Xia Yuan, would you dance with me?"
"Xia Yuan, let's dance!"
At the same time, an even larger group of beautiful women were making their way over, their intentions equally clear.
Xia Yuan had just finished eating, patting his full stomach as he let out a satisfied burp.
Seeing both Mo Shiyu and Su Yun extending their small hands toward him, he laughed, "Are you sure you want to dance with me? I don't know how to dance..."
Mo Shiyu: "That's fine!"
Su Yun: "I can teach Brother Xia Yuan how to dance..."
They spoke almost in unison.
Seeing the massive wave of women approaching from behind, Xia Yuan simply grabbed both girls' hands and pulled them into the dance floor, "Alright then, let's all dance together! Perfect for some post-meal exercise!"
Mo Shiyu looked stunned, "Hey hey... wait a minute, dancing with two people is too..."
Su Yun was equally surprised that Xia Yuan would take both of them - dancing was usually one-on-one between men and women.
Although Xia Yuan had never danced before, he felt he had natural talent - becoming the Dance King of Asia was just a matter of deciding to!
Then...
Two spinning, blossoming flowers bloomed on the dance floor.
One rose, one snow lotus.
Xia Yuan laughed carefreely, holding Mo Shiyu and Su Yun's small hands as he guided them in continuous spinning...
"Whee... this is fun."
"Dancing is so simple!"
Their long dresses fluttered and spun like blossoming flowers.
The visual spectacle was indeed impressive!
Though it was rather exhausting for the participants...
"You're spinning so fast, you can go even faster! Steady now, I'll make you take off!"
Xia Yuan grew more excited as he played, even adding force to accelerate their spinning.
Mo Shiyu and Su Yun spun until they were completely disoriented, wanting to refuse and stop but unable to form words anymore...
They regretted it, they truly regretted it!
Xia Yuan was basically treating them like spinning tops to whip!
The entire venue erupted with constant exclamations, everyone applauding and cheering for the two girls' super-strong spinning top-style dance as if watching an acrobatics performance!
When the Starlight Banquet ended...
Mo Shiyu and Su Yun had already left quite some time ago.
They had suffered terribly.
Before passing out from dizziness, both had sworn they would never ask Xia Yuan to dance again in this lifetime!
.........
The next day.
The provincial competition officially began!
270 young Spirit Tamers selected from 27 Spirit Tamer Academies across Yun Chuan Province gathered at Chongyang City's Tianding Grand Plaza!
Tianding Grand Plaza was equivalent to the Bird's Nest from his previous life, covering a vast area.
The spectator stands on all four sides could accommodate nearly 100,000 people!
Today, it was completely packed!
The noise was deafening, the atmosphere incredibly lively!
All the prominent Spirit Tamer families from Yun Chuan Province, official personnel from the Spirit Tamer Alliance, and even some military big shots were present to watch the matches.
This competition was being broadcast nationwide in real-time with complete, dead-angle coverage.
Major media outlets from Great Xia had all arrived to provide live broadcasts and commentary.
This scale, this grand spectacle, was merely the provincial competition venue.
It showed just how much importance was placed on the National Spirit Tamer Academy Competition!
As the future stars of Yun Chuan Province, the vital force that would support humanity against dungeon monsters and secret realm demons, they entered Tianding Plaza amidst the cheers of the massive crowd!
Among the Northern Chuan delegation.
Xia Yuan walked with his characteristic carefree swagger, gazing around at the astonishing spectacle, marveling:
"Wow, this really lives up to being a provincial competition - the scale is countless times larger than Northern Chuan's."
He maintained his usual relaxed and lazy demeanor, "But after taking first place, let's finish early and return to the hotel. I made plans with Dama and my female gaming friend..."
Dama was the nickname for Holy Light Knight.
After they became familiar, Xia Yuan started calling her that, finding it convenient and catchy.
The female gaming friend was a girl Xia Yuan met playing games online - a girl with excellent skills.
The Northern Chuan team didn't think Xia Yuan was boasting or showing off when they heard this.
Because he genuinely had that level of ability...
This was Mo Shiyu's first time participating in such a large competition, making her slightly nervous but somewhat excited.
She was thinking about how she should manage her expressions when Xia Yuan shone brilliantly?
How to avoid those envious, jealous gazes?
It would be hard to suppress her smile!
Mo Shiyu rubbed her chin - her mouth had been getting sore from smiling so much lately, she needed to control it...
After all participants entered the venue.
The national official higher-ups from Northern Chuan Province came over and delivered a long speech of encouragement and expectations, tedious and boring.
Just as Xia Yuan was considering going up to shoo them away, the Spirit Tamer Alliance's chief examiner responsible for this provincial competition finally appeared, announcing the competition rules:
"This competition has abolished conventional arena matches and will instead adopt a dungeon speedrun format."
"Before the competition begins, ten special dungeon portals will appear in the center of the venue."
"These special dungeons were created by my SR Contracted Spirit - Realm Creator Zhuang Meng."
"The monsters appearing in these dungeons are completely identical, with difficulty equivalent to four-star dungeons!"
As these words were spoken, the entire venue stirred, exclamations rising and falling continuously.
The competitors were especially shocked, whispering and discussing among themselves.
The chief examiner was a well-dressed, robustly built middle-aged man.
He raised his hand to signal for quiet, then continued:
"You must have your Contracted Spirits solo-clear the four-star dungeon at the fastest possible speed!"
"However, you have three chances for error - you can attempt the dungeon three times, with your best clear time from those three attempts counting as your score."
"There are 270 participants total, but only the 5 Spirit Tamers with the shortest clear times will be selected to proceed to Great Xia's Imperial Capital to participate in the National Competition's Peak Tournament!"
He chuckled disdainfully, "If you can't even solo-clear a four-star dungeon, just voluntarily withdraw now - the Peak Tournament isn't for people of your level..."