"Gorst, fourth. One point!"
Ghost Gorst was not weaker than the two people in front of him. He and the other two people in front were called the top three experts in the new Combat Cultivation Hall batch. He had delayed for so long mainly because of a problem with his luck.
To be honest, regardless of who won or lost among these three people, even though there was disdain on their faces, they would not be willing to give up on the inside. They would simply strive to do better the next time. Although the difference in points among the top three pupils was rather large, this was only the first lesson in the Combat Cultivation Hall. In the future, there would be many opportunities to obtain points and establish different classes. The three of them had obviously seen one another as competitors who were worth focusing on in the future.
After all, among the 900 new pupils in the vast Combat Cultivation Hall, these three people could only look upon one another. But how could they have lost to that Earthling called Wang Zhong?
Their expressions were obviously dejected, and their gazes towards Wang Zhong were extremely unhappy. However, the silver Titan supervisor was just beside them, and it was not good to flare up. Meanwhile, after the three of them, they waited for over half an hour before others started to emerge one after another.
"Tony, fifth. One point!"
From the fourth place to the tenth place, they would each only obtain one point. Meanwhile, the others who completed the test after that would simply reach the goal and not have points deducted.
The long wait only continued until evening. Among all the lessons from the Three Great Halls, this was definitely the class that lasted the longest. The observers at the side had all impatiently left. However, there were still many people slaughtering one another in the cloth.
The herbal tea in the silver Titan supervisor's cup had been finished, and he had no intention of continuing to wait. He waved his large hand, and the cloth that was hovering in the sky fled back into his hand with a whoosh. Closely after, the silver Titan supervisor casually shook the cloth, as if he was shaking off some dust. Then, the several dozen pupils who were still fighting for life and death were all thrown out.
"Time's up!"
Tsargesimon lazily yawned. He had evidently not set any time limit in advance, and this was completely up to his mood. "All those who have not reached the target will have five points deducted, while those who have been eliminated will have 10 points deducted. Dismissed!"
"Supervisor! This is unfair!"
"Yes, you did not set a time period in advance. I was just about to kill ten enemies! But I was forcibly stopped!"
"Someone else was able to get first with trickery, but our points are going to be deducted even though we fought so desperately! There are too many gaps in this kind of test!"
Many people immediately protested their unhappiness, but before they could finish shouting, a thunderbolt suddenly fell from the sky. This was truly a bolt from the blue. There was a massive rumble, and the fellow who shouted "this test is too annoying" was struck. His entire body instantly turned charred and stiff, unable to move, like a piece of charcoal. He felt as if there was no air even in his nostrils.
Everyone in the surroundings immediately kept quiet out of fear. It was too terrifying to be struck by a thunderbolt if they said something disagreeable.
"Your luck is not bad," said Tsargesimon lazily towards the fellows who shouted various injustices. "I usually choose all the ones who stand out to slaughter. I only attacked the one whose voice was the loudest this time. So don't bicker with me!"
Everyone in the Combat Cultivation Hall looked at one another helplessly. The charcoal-like figure stood on the ground like a tree that had been struck by lightning. Until now, there was still electricity revolving around him and going in and out of his nostrils… Damn. Would there still be another one as foolish as he was?
"Very good." Tsargesimon was very satisfied with his effect of silencing the crowd. "Remember, in the Combat Cultivation Hall, I call the shots? Is this fair? I am fair!"
Everyone kept quiet out of fear and watched the Titan supervisor leave. When he was several steps away, he seemed to have thought of something and turned back. Then, he threw out a large stack of books as if he was performing conjuring tricks. "That's right. I almost forgot. These are the basics and the general principles of the three types of combat. Take one book each and read them at home. If you don't understand, you can go and eat shit."
Everyone was in an uproar… Was this combat cultivation? Why was it different from the scene that they had imagined? To be honest, although the Combat Cultivation Hall was the "weakest" Hall, in reality, they were the strongest. Other than ascending through the Heavenly Gates, combat cultivation had the most power of governance. The others were useless. If they could not ascend, then they would only be king if they could actually fight.
Thus, there was no lack of pupils in the Combat Cultivation Hall who wanted to act like an overlord. Furthermore, in reality, they were equipped with qualifications if they were able to come here. The Heaven had set rules but did not interfere with the structure below them.
However, these future "rulers" seemed to have been humiliated. What did he mean by having them go back to reading the basics? He was the supervisor! He was the supervisor in charge of teaching!
The pupils of the Combat Cultivation Hall looked at one another helplessly. The teaching method of this Titan supervisor was really… no match to that of the Pill Refinery Hall and Weapon Refinery Hall!
This time, someone dared to silently pick up one of the books after the Titan supervisor was far away from everyone's sight. It was naturally Wang Zhong.
The book was rather thin. He flipped through the book and casually took a look. It introduced some basic concepts — that the Combat Cultivation Hall was mainly divided into three main combat systems. Frankly speaking, there were three different attacking methods.
The strongest was cultivating thunder techniques. This thunder technique was not ordinary thunder and lightning that they understood but was a kind of thunder art. It was one of the fiercest and most mysterious attacks in the divine territory, where one achieved complete agreement with the heaven and the earth. There were many ways it could be displayed. The lightning that revolved around silver Titans' bodies was just one kind. In reality, it was a rather deep and complicated composite subject.
The next was cultivating goblin arts. It was similar to the various great techniques that were commonly understood, such as the soul-devouring technique, goblin fog, transformation, expanding to the size of the world, and various goblin arts. These were actually great techniques that were formed through spiritual power, techniques, or even working with artifacts. This was also the main art that most Combat Cultivation pupils knew.
The third was body arts, where one used their bodies to fight. There were various techniques and skills. To be honest, this was the kind that was looked down upon the most.
These so-called great techniques could be applied anywhere once they were mastered. Although body arts had a vast range of uses, in reality, they had the fewest special features. Only lower-classed civilizations who could not create thunder techniques and goblin arts as they had no natural endowments had no choice but to cultivate this. In particular, thunder techniques and goblin arts required one to form their Void Core.
The reason why Wang Zhong felt that Yin Jiao's combat level was low was that the standard of Wang Zhong's body-arts combat techniques was too high. Furthermore, Yin Jiao's goblin arts were not very developed. When he used his unskilled goblins arts to face off against a peak body-arts expert, under the circumstances that their spiritual power did not gain them the advantage, the results were obvious.
No matter whether it was thunder techniques or goblin arts, their true strength would appear in the later stages. As for body arts, as their strength increased and their combat methods changed, they would be overtaken as time passed… If they were to face off, one would be an expert in body arts, while the other would be as large as the world and several hundred meters tall. What could your small fist do? You would simply be trampled to death.
In this aspect, Lao Wang was very clear that there was a limit to techniques. It was very difficult for a Casted Soul soldier to face a Heroic Soul soldier. He was not talking about the strongest Casted Soul facing the weakest Heroic Soul, but of a realistic situation. Wang Zhong knew that he did not need to panic precisely because he understood this. When faced with this kind of situation, he had to first stabilize his situation, raise his position, and seize opportunities. Only then would he be able to find a method for humans to form their Void Core.
This would not just be an individual method, but an innovative method for the entire human civilization. It was already worth giving offerings to the gods if the higher-classed civilizations did not kill them. With humans' learning abilities, as long as they found a way, not only would Wang Zhong rapidly improve, so would the others. Everything was difficult in the beginning. Whoever was able to make this first step would be able to change the status of humans.
The class was over… Lao Wang left as a group of people stared at him. Everyone did not dare to stare at the Titan supervisor, but it was fine to stare at this despicable and shameless victor. If looks could kill, Lao Wang would have died 10,000 times.
"Look at the disgusting way he walks. I really want to give him a beating!"
"Even this kind of despicable and shameless fellow can get first?"
The sounds of discussion behind continued, but Lao Wang simply smiled. This was only the first day, but he seemed to have offended all his fellow pupils in the Combat Cultivation Hall.
When he returned to the mushroom house, Flying Pig Jhonas was smiling on his bed like an idiot.
"Boss! You're too awesome!"
"You were also very good at helping me pull in hate." Lao Wang glared at the Flying Pig with evil intentions. "You really added that vital finishing touch."
Lao Wang was joking. The Pill Refinery Hall was his goal, but if he wanted to break out of this circle, he definitely had to perform. It was even more important for him to compete for points. It was inevitable that he would step over and offend some people. However, this "offense" only occurred because there was a disparity between what others understood about your status and strength in the beginning and now. This was a process that he had to go through. There was no difference between fiercer or gentler.
Meanwhile, being despised meant no harm for him. Mysteriously, the pupils from small Factions and powers acted cautiously here, not just because they did not have enough strength, but because of the restrictions from external powers. They could kill their fellow pupils, but if they provoked a prince, it would only take one sentence for someone else to eliminate their level-6 Faction.
However, Lao Wang was not afraid. Earthlings did not even have a nest in the divine territory. Could it get even worse than this? After all, he who is down need fear no fall. In fact, this was actually an advantage.
Jhonas laughed awkwardly and did not know whether Lao Wang was planning to move his muscles after this. At this moment…
Knock knock knock…
There was a knocking sound from outside. Jhonas practically flew out. "Boss, you sit down! I'll open the door!"
It was a messenger from the insect race. This insect seemed rather out of the ordinary and had a broad pair of transparent wings. However, its body looked like that of a ladybug and was not very big. It was about one foot long and had a pocket in its stomach area. When Jhonas pulled open the door, two letters with the gold seal of the Heavenly Gates simply shot out from its pocket and steadily floated to the table.
Hum!
Once the armored insect finished sending the letters, it waved its wings and disappeared with a whoosh. It was incredibly fast.
"How flashy!" Jhonas's eyes lit up. "How handsome. This is a golden armored insect. Tsk tsk. The top messengers in the insect race!"
Messengers were a massive industry in the Alliance, and there were messengers among all the races. However, not every creature could become a messenger. The divine territory had defined very strict limits. The gold armored insects were considered rather outstanding messengers. They were beautiful and flew very quickly. Furthermore, they were serious and rigorous, and did not play around. Thus, they were considered the top messengers.
"Let's look at the letters first."
Wang Zhong did not have any wild wishes for the messenger. Since the letter had the seal of the Heavenly Gates, it was probably to assign them their missions to earn points.
The envelopes were thick, and they could even feel something hard inside. When they opened the envelopes to take a look, they saw three letters and a sign with the Star Alliance word for "combat" engraved on each envelope.
"These are the point missions from the Three Great Halls."
"Pill Refinery Mission: Collect 26 different ingredients for the level-7 Blood Creation Living Flesh Pill. Reward: 10 points. Pill Refinery pupils who do not complete this mission will have 10 points deducted."
"Weapon Refinery Mission: Collect 100 kilograms of living Aggadahsi metal. Reward: 10 points. Weapon Refinery pupils who do not complete this mission will have 10 points deducted."
"Combat Cultivation Mission: Seize a Combat Cultivation Stone from a fellow pupil. Reward: 10 points. This mission cannot be repeated. Combat Cultivation pupils who do not complete this mission will have 10 points deducted."
The missions were simple to understand. The pupils of the Three Great Halls only had to complete the mission from their own Hall or have their points deducted. It was up to them whether they wanted to do the missions from the other Halls. If they completed these other missions, they would be rewarded. If not, there would not be any punishment either.
Lao Wang carefully looked at the 26 ingredients required for the Pill Refinery Mission and immediately started to worry. He had never even heard about many of the ingredients on the list. Back then, even though he knew some general knowledge from Boss Sea and knew some spiritual flowers and plants, Boss Sea only had a small shop, and refining a level-9 pill was already his peak. How many valuable objects could he come into contact with? Wang Zhong had only seen one or two ingredients needed to refine this level-7 pill at Boss Sea's shop. Furthermore, many ingredients seemed to be extremely powerful just based on their names alone. Who knew how much he had to pay for these ingredients? Furthermore, had the Pill Refinery Hall started off by refining level-7 pills? Back then, Boss Sea had squeezed into a pill Faction by risking his life and was only able to refine level-9 pills after studying for 10 years. This was really…
"I know about the living Aggadhasi metal." When it came to weapon refinery materials, Jhonas was the absolute professional. "It is also called the black gold. It is simply the most basic forging material and has high permeability with the soul. Although 100 kilograms is quite a lot, it is still fine. It's not too expensive."
"How much is it?" Lao Wang curiously asked.
"Not much, just around 30 Gold Star Coins," said Jhonas in a rich and arrogant manner. "It's not a big deal."
Lao Wang kept quiet. All his wealth was only enough to buy one-third of that amount… A basic material for weapon refinery was so expensive. He no longer dared to imagine the price of the 26 ingredients for the level-9 pill. It would definitely be amusing.
The next mission was the last one: the Combat Cultivation Mission.
This was the simplest mission. All new pupils had received a combat sign. All they had to do was get rid of someone and seize their sign. Of course, there was also a restriction. They could not seize the signs from those lower than them, but could steal from those higher than them.
For example, the Pill Refinery Hall pupils could only seize the signs from their fellow pupils and could not attack pupils from the Weapon Refinery Hall or the Combat Cultivation Hall. Meanwhile, the Weapon Refinery Hall could challenge the Pill Refinery Hall, but could not attack the Combat Cultivation Hall. On the other hand, the Combat Cultivation Hall was completely unrestrained. This was a protection mechanism. If they did not do so and allowed the Solid Core experts from the Pill Refinery Hall to attack, all the pupils in the Combat Cultivation Hall would be flattened in a matter of minutes.
The two of them sat together and looked at the missions. When they finished looking at the missions, Lao Wang turned his gaze to look at Jhonas. Jhonas instantly felt a cold chill and shrank into a corner as if he had touched electricity. His expression was full of alarm. "Boss, you can't possibly be that inhumane, right?"
What kind of joke was this? It was simply too easy for a scoundrel who could take out 10 combat cultivation pupils in seconds to finish Jhonas.
Wang Zhong laughed out loud. This fellow was far too cowardly. During the battle in the Combat Cultivation Hall in the day, it looked as if he had won easily, but in reality, the spiritual power of some people in the Combat Cultivation Hall was terrifying. Take for example bone goblin Pavaro, Ghost Gorst, and Blood Demon Balor… The spiritual power of these people was so high that Lao Wang could not even measure it. They were beings that could almost oppress him in terms of power and speed. Once they broke through their boundaries, it would be very difficult for him to display his combat techniques. Although his performance was outstanding, Wang Zhong knew that those people had not formed any interest in him.
"This mission is not difficult. If there are any convenient targets, I can help you complete the mission too," said Wang Zhong. He did not even think about weapon cultivation. As for pill cultivation… What a headache.
Jhonas was stunned. Then, his little beady eyes started to roll. "Boss, you are such a good friend. I, Jhonas, am also loyal. I have packed all the pill refinery materials… Of course, I am just lending these to you."
"Everything?"
"Everything!"
Lao Wang did not hold back. "Okay, I will definitely return the favor in the future when I have the ability to do so!"
Jhonas was definitely acting as a pig to eat a tiger. Although the illusion race was only a level-5 civilization, many families from the illusion race were bosses in various Chambers of Commerce in the Land, mainly because of their specialty in refining weapons. On the one hand, they had accumulated a large amount of riches and resources from the other worlds through public weapons like the Nebula Sword. On the other hand, they also maintained good cooperative relationships with some great powers in the divine territory.
Jhonas had never met such a strange person like Wang Zhong. It was not a coincidence that he and Wang Zhong had been allocated to the same place; this had all been arranged. The illusion race was famous for being hostages, and almost all the members of the illusion race in the Heavenly Gates had the experience of being beaten up by a tycoon. Thus, they had specially allocated the "weakest" to him, but they had never thought that the weakest was better at fighting than he was. However, Jhonas had also expected this. Lower-classed civilizations who had never seen the world would definitely not have such a large appetite.
However, Jhonas had never even dreamed that this fellow would be like an older brother and not steal from him. To be honest, the illusion race had never encountered such a good thing, let alone meeting someone who would help them out. As a result, the Flying Pig could not display his acting skills. Very quickly, Jhonas adjusted himself. In the entire divine territory, a member of the goblin race who could live so comfortably was definitely highly skilled.
"Then we shall go to Heavenly Gates Street tomorrow!" Jhonas had jumped up and was full of excitement. Lao Wang's ingredients had been settled, but Jhonas felt as if his future life in the Heavenly Gates had been settled too. "That is the top-grade shopping district in the inner circle of the Heavenly River, and almost everything can be found there. Yes, yes. We can even buy a messenger there. How convenient!"
In the divine territory, especially in the Heavenly Gates, other than the Machinery race that could communicate through electric waves, as well as a few special civilizations that relied on various special characteristics of their civilization, most of the other civilizations needed to rely on messengers, like the insect they had encountered earlier.
"Why is this so backward?" Lao Wang did not quite understand. Back then, when he was at the Heavenly Treasures Street, he had already discovered this strange phenomenon. Humans, who had not even reached the standard of a level-4 civilization, had been able to invent the extremely convenient Skylink in the Holy City and even on Earth. However, when he arrived in the divine territory, a place where various top civilizations gathered, communication became backward. When he was at the Heavenly Treasures Street, Lao Wang even wondered whether this was because Old Cow and the others were not rich enough. However, he had never expected that it was the same after coming to the Heavenly Gates.
When Jhonas heard such an idiotic question, he could not help but want to taunt him.