Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Successive Breakthroughs
……
【You meditate in silence for three months. By drawing in the Spiritual Energy in the air, you finally open two meridians and break through to the fifth level of the Qi Condensation Realm】
【You are overjoyed and gain a temporary BUFF: Cultivation Speed increases by 100%】
【You suddenly feel as though the gods themselves are aiding your cultivation. Originally, you had to struggle to capture the Spiritual Energy drifting through the air, but under the enhancement of the BUFF, absorbing it now takes almost no effort at all】
【Another two months pass, and you open the last of the Primary Meridians in your body. You break through to the sixth level of the Qi Condensation Realm】
【You are overjoyed and want to use this momentum to break into the late stage of the Qi Condensation Realm in one push】
【You fail】
【At the seventh level of the Qi Condensation Realm, you must begin opening the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. This is far more difficult than opening the twelve Primary Meridians. Though heavily discouraged, you do not lose heart in the slightest】
【Another two months later, you finally open the Ren Meridian of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians】
【Cultivation complete. During this session, you opened a total of 4 Primary Meridians and 1 of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians】
【90 Slaughter Points remain and have been returned】
【Current Realm: Sixth level of the Qi Condensation Realm (50%). I hope the Host keeps up the good work and continues to work hard, ദ്ദി˶•̀֊•́)✧】
Looking at the system notifications, Lu Zhan gradually felt that the further he advanced, the more Slaughter Points he would need.
Resources!
He urgently needed cultivation resources now.
Only by increasing his cultivation speed could he reduce the consumption of Slaughter Points. Otherwise, if he wanted to rely solely on Slaughter Points to raise his realm—
it would be very difficult!!!
“But now that I’ve already reached the sixth level of the Qi Condensation Realm, by my own estimate, as long as I don’t run into a Demon Beast at the ninth level of the Qi Condensation Realm, I should be perfectly safe.”
“But in terms of hunting efficiency, Demon Beasts at the seventh level of the Qi Condensation Realm offer the best return.”
“Looks like I need to hurry. There are only fifty-three minutes left before the assessment ends.”
Lu Zhan glanced at the assessment timer, and a sudden sense of urgency rose in his heart.
The Demon Nest looked huge, but in truth, it was only about the size of a university campus. The Demon Beasts here also claimed their own territories, so there were not actually that many of them.
If he did not put in more effort, the others might just kill them all before he could get to them.
And all of those were Slaughter Points!
……
Inside the Demon Extermination Bureau, everyone stared at the projection from the Heaven-Gazing Mirror in utter astonishment.
First place: Lu Zhan
Realm: Sixth level of the Qi Condensation Realm
Points: 110
“Hiss, just what kind of monster is this Lu Zhan? Not even half the time has passed, and he’s already reached 110 points.”
“And it looks like he broke through two levels in a row...”
“This world is truly unfair as hell. We’re all human, so how can the gap be this wide?”
……
Not only the spectators present, but even assessment instructors like Zhao Jun and Li Cunguang were deeply shocked.
They had served as examiners for more than ten years, yet they had never seen such a heaven-defying prodigy.
“Old Li, how many Demon Beasts did you release into this Demon Nest again?”
Zhao Jun could not help asking.
In truth, releasing Demon Beasts required at least two people, one to handle the release and one to supervise it.
Zhao Jun had only been responsible for supervision, so he did not know the exact number.
“A little over a hundred, I think?”
“For Demon Beasts in the early stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, there were about fifteen at each level. There were fewer in the middle and late stages, around ten at each level.”
Li Cunguang was also somewhat dazed.
This Apprentice Demon Exterminator assessment had a full one hundred and ten participants.
There were too many people and too little to go around.
The further things went, the fewer Demon Beasts there would be. And even if someone went through great difficulty to find one, it would likely be a hard nut that others could not crack.
Yet Lu Zhan alone had already dealt with five Demon Beasts.
Whether it was his speed in finding demons or his speed in killing them, both had reached an extreme.
It was impossible for someone like that not to catch Li Cunguang’s attention.
The assessment was still continuing.
By now, fifty minutes had already passed. Most of the Demon Beasts that could be killed had basically already been cleared out.
And Lu Zhan discovered that he was now running into other examinees more and more frequently.
In fact, he had already encountered other examinees about half an hour after the assessment began.
But at that time, everyone had been focused on hunting Demon Beasts.
No one had the leisure to pay attention to the other examinees.
But now things were different. There were fewer Demon Beasts left. If one wanted to increase the chances of passing the assessment, then besides killing Demon Beasts to gain points, one could also eliminate other examinees in advance.
So the later the assessment progressed, the fiercer the competition became.
On a patch of grass, an ox demon was leisurely grazing. Not far away, hidden from the beast’s sight, three Martial Artists at the sixth level of the Qi Condensation Realm were facing one another in a standoff.
“Hey, fellows, my name is Zhang Qin. I only just joined the assessment this year. If you ask me, there’s no point in the three of us dragging this out.”
“What if some big expert at the seventh level of the Qi Condensation Realm shows up in a moment and kills the Demon Beast? Then we’ll get nothing, and we might even be eliminated.”
“How about this? I’ll count to three, and we all attack together. As for who gets to kill the ox demon in the end, we’ll leave it to our own abilities. What do you say?”
Zhang Qin could not help proposing.
“Not a bad idea. If we alert this Demon Beast, things will be troublesome for us.”
Wu Zixu, standing opposite Zhang Qin, nodded.
Very quickly, Zhang Qin began counting down.
“Attack!”
He finished the count, yet none of the three had the slightest intention of making a move.
Zhang Qin grew angry.
“No, brothers, what exactly is this supposed to mean?”
But Wu Zixu only looked at Zhang Qin with mocking eyes.
“Enough with the act. We’re all seasoned hands here, so why pretend to be a newcomer?”
Each of them was on guard against the others.
If the opportunity arose, none of them would mind tripping up the others during the hunt, eliminating a competitor in advance.
Zhang Qin was not embarrassed at all after being exposed.
If he failed to deceive them, that only meant his disguise had not been good enough. If he had succeeded, it would only have meant the other party deserved it.
“I only just stepped into the sixth level of the Qi Condensation Realm. I don’t think I’m a match for this ox demon. How about I withdraw from this competition first?”
Li Zeyu, the third of the three, said somewhat timidly.
“No!”
Zhang Qin and Wu Zixu shouted in unison.
What a joke. He thought he could just say he was leaving and then leave? What if he hid in the shadows and waited for the others to wear each other down?
They were all sly schemers. Everyone understood exactly what the others were thinking.
Li Zeyu really had been planning to do exactly that, but he had not expected them to see through him.
“This won’t do, that won’t do. Then what exactly do you want to do?”
Li Zeyu raised a brow.
This was the worst kind of assessment situation: running into a bunch of seasoned veterans, each one sharper than the next, impossible to fool.
Even if there were just one actual newcomer among them, they could have tricked him and broken the deadlock.
“How about I give you the location of a Demon Beast with the strength of the eighth level?”
Still unwilling to give up, he tried to lure them.
But Zhang Qin and Wu Zixu looked at him as though he were an idiot.
If they had the strength to kill a Demon Beast at the eighth level of the Qi Condensation Realm, why would they still be wasting their breath here?
Just as they remained deadlocked, a voice suddenly rang out.
“You don’t want this Demon Beast?”
A good-natured man with an air of upright honesty appeared within the three men’s field of vision.
The three men’s eyes immediately lit up.
Excellent. This sort of softhearted do-gooder would definitely be easy to fool. Once he was just about to kill the Demon Beast, they would make their move, snatch the prize from under his nose, and then conveniently eliminate him from the assessment as well.
That could count as a little “favor” from veteran examinees to a newcomer.
Hahahahahaha!
The three men were overjoyed.
The moment Lu Zhan drew near, the schemes in their hearts were already clicking into place.