Chapter 44 : Chapter 44
Chapter 44. The Martial Exam Begins, and a Supreme-grade Reward Arrives
【Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: one billion in funds, ten sixth-rank Magical Artifacts.】
【Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: ten billion in funds, 100 Pet Growth Fruits.】
So no Supreme-grade reward had come out after all. That supposed fifty-percent chance was a lie.
Jiang Yichen let out a sigh and glanced over the rewards. Of everything there, only the Pet Growth Fruits were truly useful to him.
【Pet Growth Fruit: Each one can increase a pet’s growth progress by 0.1%.】
After reading the description, his eyes immediately lit up.
One fruit gave 0.1%, so one hundred fruits meant 10%.
Jiang Yichen checked the Pet Space. Even ten thousand Star Fruits had only increased its growth progress by 0.8%.
He had to admit that divine beasts were truly difficult to raise. Those ten thousand Star Fruits could probably have raised an ordinary martial artist into a Seventh-Realm Martial King.
Still... with the system, resources were the one thing he lacked the least.
Jiang Yichen directly tossed all 100 Pet Growth Fruits into the Pet Space and let Bai Ze eat them at its leisure. It should unlock a divine beast skill before long.
He could not help feeling a little curious.
What kind of heaven-defying skill would it be?
The testing was still going on, while Jiang Yichen walked toward the entrance to the Monster Battlefield.
Su Linyu immediately raised her little fist beside her cheek and looked at him with worship in her eyes. “Ah~ Brother Yichen, when did you break through to the Fifth Layer of the Third Realm? Wow! You are amazing!”
“So my Brother Yichen is this strong~ I love it so much.” She leaned forward slightly, her gaze full of infatuation.
In truth, Su Linyu was also quite puzzled about how Brother Yichen had suddenly reached the Fifth Layer of the Third Realm. For the three days before the exam, she had practically been with him the whole time.
She had watched with her own eyes as he ate, slept, ate again after waking, occasionally drank a little red wine, and even went fishing.
She had not seen him cultivate at all, yet now his realm had gone from the Second Realm to the Fifth Layer of the Third Realm.
There was only one possible explanation: Brother Yichen had also obtained an opportunity at Qinglin River and had improved his martial talent, but the effect had only appeared later.
“You really do have a sweet mouth.” Even Jiang Yichen felt a little embarrassed by all that praise.
Anyone hearing it might have thought he had broken through to the Martial God realm.
“But Brother Yichen was always amazing. You are already the person I admire most in my heart,” Su Linyu said sweetly, clasping both hands over her chest.
Lin Wan, standing nearby, still looked astonished, but her mouth remained as stubborn as ever. “Hmph. It is only the Fifth Layer of the Third Realm. Let Jiang Yichen pass the martial exam first before you praise him.”
Deep down, she truly could not understand it. Why had Jiang Yichen only become more and more outstanding after breaking up with her?
Had he been pretending all along?
“Lin Wan, stop being so sour. I can already smell the jealousy on you,” Tang Long said with a click of his tongue.
“You...” Lin Wan turned her head away haughtily with a snort.
Tang Long pursed his lips in a smile and walked over to Jiang Yichen. “Brother Yichen, not bad. You hid yourself for four years. Are you finally going to make your move this time?”
Jiang Yichen smiled. “Passing is enough. I do not set very high standards for myself.”
“Then you will have to work hard,” Chu Xingchen said calmly as he approached with his sword in hand. “There are thirty thousand examinees in total this time. To pass, your monster-killing points have to place within the top ten thousand.”
“That is right. With an elimination rate of two-thirds, you really need to put in the effort, Brother Yichen. I hope that after summer vacation, when the military district internship begins, we can still be together there.” Tang Long scratched his head and laughed.
Jiang Yichen paid no attention at all to that pressure. With all the absurdly powerful equipment on him, was passing not the easiest thing in the world?
He looked at Tang Long and Chu Xingchen and remembered how, in his previous life, he had failed the martial exam.
Only because his father had pulled strings had he been allowed into the military district internship, where he became nothing more than a corpse carrier responsible for cleaning up demon beast remains.
Meanwhile, they had been out at the border killing demon beasts and earning military merit. Back then, he had envied them deeply.
This time, he should finally be able to remain with the friends who had stood beside him for so many years.
Jiang Yichen nodded at the two of them. “All right. About what happened before...”
“That depends on how you do,” Chu Xingchen said, turning his back as one hand rested on the sword at his waist.
Jiang Yichen: “...”
Tang Long waved his hand. “That is just how Hero Chu is. You know that.”
Jiang Yichen smiled helplessly.
At that moment, Principal Zhou Mingyuan’s thunderous voice rang across the entire plaza from the high platform.
“All those who passed the realm test may now enter the Monster Battlefield. The martial exam begins!”
“Brother Yichen, let us go in. Make sure you keep hold of that bead,” Su Linyu reminded him softly.
Jiang Yichen gave a slight nod, and the two of them walked side by side into the swirling spatial entrance.
Behind them, Jiang Feng followed with a gloomy expression as he watched them enter. “Man, so what if you passed the test?”
“With only the Fifth Layer of the Third Realm, you still dream of making it into the top ten thousand? Pure fantasy.”
“Did you really think you could escape the palm of my hand? Man, you are still too naive.”
Jiang Feng glanced at the tracker in his hand, a slight smile rising at the corner of his lips. After straightening his custom-tailored suit, he stepped elegantly into the teleportation gate.
On the high platform, Zhou Mingyuan raised a hand, and more than a dozen floating screens appeared before him.
They were real-time monitoring feeds from the Monster Battlefield, and they would also be broadcast live to the public.
He slowly sat down, swept a glance at Shen Qingyue, and revealed a cold smile.
So what if Jiang Yichen had passed the realm test? He could still make sure Jiang Yichen failed the martial exam.
After all, friction between examinees inside the Monster Battlefield was only natural. Jiang Feng would deal with him.
Ignoring Zhou Mingyuan completely, Shen Qingyue searched through the many screens for Xiao Chen’s figure, worry once again surfacing in her eyes.
The Fifth Layer of the Third Realm... trying to place among the top ten thousand out of thirty thousand stronger examinees would be difficult.
She searched for a while before finally finding Xiao Chen’s live feed...
Monster Battlefield.
The ink-dark clouds hung so low in the sky that they resembled burial cloths soaked in blood, heavily shrouding the wilderness where demon beasts growled in low voices.
On a stretch of cracked, scorched earth, a ripple of space appeared, and Jiang Yichen slowly emerged.
“What sort of place did this random teleportation send me to? This is a complete wasteland.”
Jiang Yichen surveyed the surroundings.
The brown earth was mixed with demon beast droppings and half-rotted bones. Howling winds scraped across the exposed rocks, producing a harsh, grating sound.
At a glance, there was not the slightest sign of life anywhere. Only a pair of bats with blood-red eyes hung upside down from the bare branches of a dead tree.
The foul stench permeating the air, together with the miserable landscape, ruined Jiang Yichen’s good mood at once.
“I should test out the Black God Suit first.”
He had no choice but to make do with it. With a thought, a suit of nano-armor gleaming with red and black radiance appeared before him.
He slowly crooked a finger, and the Black God Suit flew toward him like flowing sand, gradually covering him from foot to head.
His body slowly rose into the air. Blue streams of particles burst from the joints, while six cicada-wing-like energy wings unfolded behind his back.
The nanites automatically seeped into his skin and spread across every part of his body.
Jiang Yichen slowly opened his eyes. A red gleam flashed through the Black God Suit’s eye slits, startling the bats hanging from the branches into flight.
As he slowly clenched his fist, the resulting airflow sent sand skittering across the ground.
Click, click.
The armor around his head retracted, revealing Jiang Yichen’s handsome face.
“Not bad at all. As expected, it looks excellent.” Jiang Yichen looked himself over, utterly satisfied.
“Now to test the speed.”
He slowly drew his right foot back. Then, with a thunderous boom, he shot forward like a launched missile, kicking up clouds of dust in his wake.
The speed of sound. Then twice the speed of sound.
At full power, his speed had actually reached twice the speed of sound.
Jiang Yichen was stunned.
Even a Ninth-rank Martial God only moved at the speed of sound.
This Black God Suit was practically cheating.
Jiang Yichen stopped and admired the Black God Suit with immense satisfaction. “Next, I should find a monster and test how much power it has. I can earn points while I am at it.”
“With this sort of advantage, taking first place in the martial exam would be effortless.”
But the moment those words left his mouth, the system’s voice rang out in his mind.
【Ding! Slacker choice triggered.】
【Choice One: Stop hiding your strength. Pilot the Black God Suit and slaughter your way through the Monster Battlefield, taking first place in the martial exam by an overwhelming margin. Reward: the title ‘King of Swagger.’
Choice Two: Compete? I could not be bothered. Just slack off leisurely, hide in a corner, and wait for the martial exam to end. Reward: ‘Intermediate Slacker Gift Pack.’
Choice Three: Not fighting, not scrambling, neither good nor bad—that is the true essence of the slacker’s path. You decide to land exactly on the passing line in the martial exam as well, without drawing attention or standing out, and quietly continue slacking off. Reward: ‘Supreme-grade Slacker Gift Pack.’】