"Haha, what fourth brother said is correct. This was something we all worked hard to do, so let's follow fourth brother's idea and split the monster cores. Half of it will be given to fourth brother and his other friend here. The other half will be equally split among the four of us." Changyang Hu laughed. He and Jian Chen were blood brothers, even though they had different mothers, it did not affect the relationship between them; he would not be stingy with him.
With Changyang Hu deciding for them, the other three students couldn't decline any more and took the monster cores excitedly. After splitting it up, each of the four had gotten at least a dozen, bringing them no small amount of excitement. With this amount, it was more than what they had gotten by themselves after last couple of days.
After this event, no one had any plans to stay put anymore, and after changing their location, they began to start a new fire to roast some meat.
The six people sat in a circle around the fire as Changyang Hu laughed, "Fourth brother, let me introduce you to everyone. These three are my best friends, Oz, Aoba, and Darian." He pointed at the three, "Fourth brother, Oz and Aoba are identical twins. I guarantee that when they wash the filth on their faces off, you won't be able to tell who is who!"
Jian Chen smiled and greeted the three one by one. After chatting for a while, they had started to get so familiar with each other that even Tie Ta's name was known by them.
Suddenly, Changyang Hu's face went still as he asked, "Fourth brother, I remember that before you went into the forest, your strength wasn't at the Saint Level yet. So why is it you're in the 3rd region? And now being so strong, you were even able to defeat the middle-ranked Wind Saint Luo Jian. Could it be that in the three days you were in the forest, you broke through?"
Changyang Hu's three friends paid close attention to this question; both Darian and the twins became interested after hearing Changyang Hu's question, and shifted their attention to Jian Chen. Jian Chen beating Luo Jian, had a huge impact on those three. Although they had long since heard the rumors that were circulating throughout the academy that he was strong, the rumors didn't exaggerate his strength to this extent.
Jian Chen laughed and held his iron rod up towards Changyang Hu, "Big brother, look. If I were a Saint, would I still be using a weapon like this?"
Changyang Hu looked up and down the iron rod; but it looked the same, he had already recognized the bloodstained iron rod in Jian Chen's hands and it was a still a normal rusty broken iron rod.
"That's…that's…" Changyang Hu's eyes went wide; he was put in a state of silent shock as he would have never in a million years thought that Jian Chen would be able to defeat Luo Jian using only a rusty iron rod, and if this didn't happen before his very own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it even if he was beaten to death.
At the same time, Darian and the twins looked at the iron rod in Changyang Hu's hands. The three of them were in disbelief, and then looked at Jian Chen as if he was a monster.
Seeing the incredulous looks on their faces, Jian Chen laughed and said, "With the combined powers of me and Tie Ta, there were no magical beasts that were a match for us in the 2nd region, so we decided to move on to the 3rd region."
Hearing this, Changyang Hu and the other three couldn't believe their ears. The 2nd region was filled with Class 1 Magical Beasts. Although they were weaker and had low attack power, even the average Saint would find surviving in the forest a difficult task, and Jian Chen was still obviously not a Saint yet. To say the 2nd region was no longer a challenge, even Changyang Hu and his friends would curse Jian Chen's absurd strength.
After a while, Changyang Hu and his friends finally recovered their senses. Changyang Hu continued to ask, "Fourth brother, you're not even a Saint yet and you're already this amazing. When the day comes and you become a Saint, I really can't guess how much stronger you'll become." Changyang Hu shook his head in awe, "Ah right, fourth brother, when do you think you'll become a Saint?"
Muttering more to himself, "I'm currently at the peak of the 10th layer. After this forest exercise, I'll aim to become a Saint."
Changyang Hu let out a breath of air in surprise and shock as he looked at Jian Chen, "Fourth brother, you're simply too amazing for words. Not even a few months ago, you were a new student at Kargath Academy who was only at the 8th layer. I didn't think that you would reach the peak of the 10th layer in such a short amount of time."
Hearing this, Darian and the twins couldn't believe it and their view of Jian Chen completely changed. The strength Jian Chen had shown was ridiculous, his cultivation speed was fast, and could border the line of the unimaginable. Jian Chen was definitely a genius among geniuses. At this moment, the three friends of Changyang Hu quickly came to a decision that, in the future, they would have to treat him well and avoid offending him.
Jian Chen laughed carefreely, "Big brother, I've noticed that within the 3rd region, many people are resorting to stealing monster cores from others. How did this happen?"
Changyang Hu exhaled before saying, "I don't know who started this myself, but it's said that during the 2nd day, someone started to steal monster cores relying on the fact that he had an enormous amount of people behind him. After this news spread everyone in the 3rd region started to follow suit, forming groups to rob cores. After all, Class 2 Magical Beasts are rare in comparison to Class 1 Magical Beasts, and are even harder to kill. Killing one beast would only get you one, but stealing from another is much easier than hunting, and with good luck, one would get a lot of cores as well.."
"So up until now, all the students started to steal from each other in the 3rd region. Many people have had their hard earned monster cores stolen away from them when they were alone or were smaller in numbers, The people who were injured decided to quit early, reducing the numbers in the area drastically."
"Why don't the teachers that are secretly hidden care about what was happening?" Tie Ta asked.
"As long as it isn't a life threatening injury or a critical point between life or death, then the hidden teachers won't show up. After all, the reason why we are in the forest hunting Magical Beasts is so we can temper ourselves, not to mention that we are being tested on how we can unite when being robbed; things like this happen often in the Tian Yuan continent. They're only letting us experience this sooner rather than later." Said the twins.
"Ah!" Tie Ta suddenly exclaimed in realization.
Jian Chen let loose a strange smile as he looked at his older brother and his friends. "Since other people have the audacity to rob us of our monster cores, why can't we rob them first? Are you guys with me on this?"
The group's eyes went bright as they heard Jian Chen.
"Fine, we'll do it. Changyang Xiang Tian, we will follow you." Darian said as he stood up and stared at Jian Chen, the heroic spirit reflected in his voice.
"Not bad, before our strength was lacking, and could only run away blindly. But now that Changyang Xiangtian is here, even if we meet a middle rank Saint, victory isn't impossible. Since this is the final night, let's have some fun with this." Aoba and Oz laughed.
"Alright, fourth brother, your big brother will listen to you." Changyang Hu said happily.
Tie Ta didn't have an opinion, as he had decided to follow Jian Chen without question for a while now.
After everyone had eaten their fill and discussed their plans, they decided to let the twins search the surroundings for targets, while the rest waited for their return.
The twins soon came back and reported that they saw a group of 5 people nearby.
Jian Chen immediately followed the twins towards where they had reported seeing them.
When Jian Chen's group had reached the place, the 5 people were preparing themselves to rest and were caught unprepared by Jian Chen's sudden attack. Since the group was only at the Primary Saint level, they were quickly defeated by Jian Chen and his group. However, they didn't have that many monster cores, only having around 20 or so.
After taking the monster cores, they didn't continue to harass them and immediately left the area.
For the entire night, Jian Chen and the others didn't sleep at all. Instead, they looked around the forest for more targets. There weren't many people in the 3rd region by now, and ever since he had started his search, he had only come across 3 different groups. But what he and the others found amusing was that halfway through the night, Jian Chen's group had came across another group who had the same idea they had, and so they had immediately started to fight. Both sides had 6 people each, and the other group even had 2 Middle Saints whose strength could be considered pretty strong. However, those two ended up being stuck against Jian Chen and Tie Ta. In the end, Jian Chen had come out victorious against his opponent, and gained 150 Class 2 Monster Cores as a reward. It would seem that many people had had their monster cores taken by this group.
After the third battle, aside from Jian Chen, everyone else was exhausted and could not continue fighting anymore. With no other choice, they spent the rest of the night searching for a secret place to hide and sleep. Although Jian Chen and Tie Ta had wanted to continue, the other 4 weren't in any shape to, and needed the two of them to stay behind and protect them against any surprise attacks.
Without saying, Jian Chen and the group had had an overwhelming harvest; excluding the first group with their 20 monster cores, the other two groups had 70 cores and 150 cores respectfully. So in total, they now had 260 cores.
Seeing this many monster cores, Jian Chen was starting to suspect that this was already half of the total amount of Class 2 Monster Cores in the 3rd region.
The night passed peacefully, and the group started to travel towards the outside of the forest. With some herbal medicine, Changyang Hu and the others' wounds were starting to heal slowly. Back when they had first entered the forest, the school administration had already prepared these medicines inside of their Space Belts.
At the moment, Changyang Hu and his friends were all wearing well made wolf pelts that made them look as if they had no injuries at all. The wolf pelts were the ones that Jian Chen and Tie Ta had made from when they had slaughtered that pack of wolves; they had collected quite a large amount of them.
The group of six headed to the edge of the forest, now that they had completed their 3 days. If they could protect the monster cores until they reached the outside, then they would be able to finish the assignment perfectly. And since the academy would not take the cores, they would be able to use it for themselves.
Traveling on the road, Jian Chen and the rest were very cautious. This was the crucial moment, since they could be ambushed at any given time. Jian Chen and Tie Ta were still full of life but Changyang Hu and the others were not in the best shape. If they were to be attacked by another strong group, then a fierce battle wouldn't be avoidable, which was what Jian Chen wanted to avoid.
Jian Chen walked down the road with Tie Ta behind him while the rest followed in a straight line as they reached to the part of the forest where the white enchantments of the forest rippled outwards. With the end of the 3rd day, the enchantment had suddenly transformed to help the students who were lost to find their way here.
Jian Chen's soul was lashing out around him as he checked his surroundings. The 3rd region was not as quiet as the 2nd region. Not only did they have to protect themselves from magical beasts, but they also had to protect themselves from other students. Other students were waiting around for the perfect moment to strike. So because of that, the closer one got to the entrance, the more dangerous it became. After all, the enchantment was showing a hole in itself to help lead students out, so many of them were trying to leave the forest and made themselves an open target for those other students waiting to ambush them.
A few hours passed, Jian Chen and Tie Ta were getting closer and closer to the 3rd region's exit. The whole journey had been fairly peaceful, although at regular intervals, they'd encounter a magical beast carcass. Sometimes, there would even be 2-3 magical beast corpses lying in the same location.
A few hours of rushing later, Jian Chen's group of people finally arrived outside of the 3rd region's exit. They smoothly passed through and entered the 2nd region. At this moment, everyone could not help but sigh in relief. They all understood that their monster cores were secured, because after leaving the 3rd region, no matter whether or not others had gathered the required 2 monster cores, their task was complete. There was nobody here that would dare to steal their monster cores.
"Haha, I hadn't imagined that the journey would be so peaceful. This was really against my expectations." Changyang Hu happily smiled, his tone also carrying a hint of excitement.
Aoba also happily said, "That's right, and here I'd thought that we'd fall victim to some surprise attacks. I didn't think that the path would've been so calm. It really goes against all expectations."
Darian reached his hand out to touch his Space Belt and smiled, "I guess the people stealing monster cores in the 3rd region had suffered from injuries, and didn't have the energy to keep stealing from others on the road. In addition, most of the people probably have the same mindset as us, only stressing self-defense. As long as we safely leave the third region, we'll be satisfied. None of us are interested in the idea of stealing monster cores anymore."
"Yea, that's right. What you said makes sense." Tie Ta nodded in agreement.
Jian Chen shook his head and said, "The situation is not necessarily as you think it is. Actually, throughout the whole journey, there were still some people lying in wait along the way in hidden places ready to ambush us, you guys just didn't notice them. Those people who were hiding in the darkness perhaps noticed that we have a large number of people, or they didn't have the ability to discern our strength, so they couldn't determine if they could destroy us. That's why they didn't make any movements towards us. Otherwise, there's no way we could've safely left the 3rd region."
Hearing this, the people's expressions all changed.
Changyang Hu let out a long breath and said, "It's a good thing fourth brother made sure we put on perfect acts of being completely undamaged. Otherwise, if the people knew that the four of us were injured, then I'm afraid we wouldn't have been so fortunate." Hearing this, Aoba and the others nodded in agreement, and looked at Jian Chen with gazes filled with respect.
"Alright, we should hurry up and leave. After we return back to the academy, you guys need to properly tend to your wounds."
The group of 6 continued to walk towards the 1st region. As they got closer to the exit, the nearby academy gradually entered their lines of vision. Although there were definitely many people that had been unable to endure the task and gave up on it in the middle, at least 1000 people had entered the forest together. Even if more than half had given up, there were still at least a few hundreds of people remaining. However, the mere hundreds of people spread out in the enormous forest rarely met each other, so it was rare to come across others that had decided to remain in the forest.
Jian Chen's gaze swept across the people around him that were similarly heading out of the 1st region towards the academy. He saw that most of the males sported naked torsos, and were covered with wounds. However, without any exception, all the people were in sorry states; their naked torsos were covered with dirt, and their faces could not be discerned with all the filth covering them.
Only some of the females still wore the academy uniforms. However, every single one of the uniforms had become beyond dirty, and there were tears all over the clothing. Even a beggar's clothing was better than theirs. In addition, they used wide leaves to cover the parts that their clothes didn't, making them look like extremely sorry figures.
Amongst all the people, there were also a few people who had serious leg injuries, rendering them unable to walk. They were being supported by their companions the whole way, and approached the outside of the forest, one step after another.
Perhaps it was because there were so so many people present here, but there were absolutely no magical beasts in the vicinity. It was even safer than before.
Soon after, Jian Chen's group followed the direction the enchantment in the sky pointed to in order to exit the 1st region, and they finally exited the forest. Outside stood the vice headmaster, Chang Bai En, wearing a white changpao, his back straight. Behind him stood a few teachers with indifferent expressions. Further behind them was a large group of nearly 1000 Kargath Academy students. They were split into two groups: the group on the right had many more times people than the other group. Among them, some people were wearing academy uniforms that were dirty, but had very few tears. On the whole, they seemed to be in excellent and undamaged conditions.
The other group of people seemed to be in a more difficult situation. Their uniforms were all tattered, and sported quite a few bloodstains as well. Underneath the multiple rips on their clothes, it could clearly be seen that they sported many scars on their bodies.
The people in the left group only had around 200 people. All of them were in sorry states; majority of the people there were wearing clothes made of bark or beast skins, and there were quite a few people that had naked torsos. However, all the people that walked out of the forest were organized by a teacher to join the group on the left.
Afterwards, Jian Chen's group sat on the grass quietly in wait. By this point, he had already understood that all the people in the left group were those that had stayed in the forest for the entire 3 days, and had just left the forest today. On the other hand, the people in the right group were all those that had escaped before the three days were up. According to the academy's regulations, no matter whether or not they had fulfilled the requirement of obtaining 2 monster cores, they still had failed their tasks.
As he swept his gaze in a circle, Jian Chen discovered that many people in the group he was with had melancholic expressions. There were others that looked at certain people with looks of deep hatred, looking like they would spit out flames from their eyes.
At that moment, Jian Chen sensed something. He turned around to look behind him, and saw two people with dirty faces and wearing clothing made of beast skins supporting a student in similar attire. The two were currently glaring at Jian Chen with poisonous hatred, as if burning him into a crisp with their gazes alone….a strong killing intent.
After Jian Chen closely examined the people, his mouth formed a hint of a sneer. He already recognized that the person was actually Luo Jian. Although Jian Chen knew that after what happened the previous night, he had definitely wronged Luo Jian, Jian Chen didn't pay much mind to it. In terms of strength, he wasn't below Luo Jian at all. Once he was able to condense a Saint Weapon and become a Saint, Luo Jian would no longer pose any threat to him.
In terms of family backgrounds, although Jian Chen wasn't completely sure of Changyang clan's strength, they were in no means weak in any sort of aspect. Luo Jian was the son of the leader of a major powerful clan in Forbidden City, but in Jian Chen's opinion, there was no way they Luo clan would bother harassing him over such a trivial matter. After all, Luo Jian had only been injured by Jian Chen because of the training event that the academy had sent them on. In addition, the situation at that time had been because Luo Jian had first attacked his older brother's group.
Afterwards, once all the people had walked out of the forest, Jian Chen's group had already increased to 300-400 people.
At this moment, the vice headmaster Chang Bai En walked up to the front of the crowd. He looked around at the group of figures that had obviously suffered through difficult situations. He smiled, and loudly said, "Very good. As expected, none of you have disappointed me. I hadn't imagined that this event to hunt magical beasts and stay in the forest for 3 days would have more people remaining this time time compared to all the previous times this event has been held. Now, I want everyone to maintain their current formations, and begin walking back towards the academy."
Afterwards, the entire two groups maintained their exact formations and quickly advanced towards the academy. In the middle of the journey, when they encountered a small river, everyone stopped to wash their faces clean, and then continued forward. Very soon, the group of students began to approach the academy, and in the distance, they noticed that a tall platform had been erected in the center of the sports field.
The group of people stopped in front of the platform, and the vice headmaster Chang Bai En, as well as a few teachers, walked up to it. The vice headmaster sat in the chairperson's place with a straightforward and imposing manner, and calmly said, "The Magical Beast hunting competition occurring once every three years has now officially ended. According to the academy's regulations, after the task has been completed, we will now hand out awards. I would like to now invite all the people who had stayed in the forest for the entire 3 days and have gathered 2 monster cores to simultaneously step forwards."
As soon as the vice headmaster finished speaking, a hundred or so people immediately walked out of the crowd.
"I will now first count the Class 1 Monster Cores. Students who have hunted Class 1 Magical Beasts, please come up to the platform for the number of monster cores in your possession to be counted." The vice headmaster continued.
Following this, all the students that had killed Class 1 Magical Beasts, including Jian Chen and Tie Ta, all walked up to the platform. There stood a teacher specifically assigned to count and record the number of monster cores that the students had earned.
Among the 100 or so people, the majority of them were below the Saint level, and had performed the event in the 2nd region. When the students that had Class 1 Monster Cores walked up, only a bit over 30 people remained. This made the students who did not know much about the 3rd region's conditions puzzled.
Although the 3rd region had Class 2 Magical Beasts, they all had low attack powers. To a Saint that could condense a Saint Weapon, although it may not be possible for him/her to fight against the magical beast alone, as long as a few people worked together, hunting magical beasts within the 3rd region shouldn't be very difficult to do. It should definitely be easier than a student that had not yet reached Saint level killing a Class 1 Magical Beast. After all, the Saint Weapons that Saints had were extremely powerful, and far surpassed those other ordinary weapons.
Logically, the chances of students completing their task in the 3rd region should definitely be much higher than those in the 2nd region. However, nobody had imagined that the event would end up with such results. In the 3rd region, only a pathetic 30 or so students had completed their task; this was much less than the people who had finished in the 2nd region.
When the first student arrived in front of the teacher inspecting the monster cores, he directly reached into his Space Belt and lightly placed all of his monster cores on the table. This student only took out 3 monster cores total.
Casually gazing at the three Class 1 Monster Cores, the approximately 50-year old teacher in charge of inspecting the monster cores nodded and said, "Hm, not bad. You qualify as passing. What's your name?"
"Teacher, my name is Cheng Yun Feng." The youth that was being inspected excitedly said. The two words "Not bad" had already confirmed the fact that the teacher was praising him. Being complimented by the teacher was the greatest honor to him.
The teacher picked up his pen and recorded the information on a piece of paper, then said, "Go return your Space Belt to the academy. Take your monster cores. Also, this is a badge that represents your glory. You must take good care of it." The teacher pulled out a badge from underneath the table, and handed it to the student.
The student happily agreed. He carefully and tenderly took the badge, and then he walked off the platform in extremely high spirits.
"Next!"
Afterwards, students walked up in succession and handed their monster cores to the teacher for appraisal, and at the same time, were recorded. The process was quite fast, and in the blink of an eye, dozens of people had already passed. The fewest number of monster cores among them so far had been 2, and the greatest number had taken out 8, which had made the appraising elder shocked for a moment.
At this moment, a handsome youth with an uncommon air walked up to get his monster cores inspected. The youth had a small scar on his forehead, and it was most likely a recent wound from the forest, since the scar still had a hint of blood on it.
The youth calmly walked up to the elder, and quietly took off his Space Belt. He then began to take out monster cores, and placed them on the table one by one. As he was removing them, the table was soon filled with 6 Class 1 Monster Cores, yet he showed no signs of stopping. He continued to leisurely pull out monster core after monster core from his Space Belt. His movements were not at all rushed, and the expression on his face was indifferent, giving off the impression that he was a very steadfast person.
When the youth first took out 6 monster cores, the inspecting teacher finally returned to his senses. A smile slowly formed on his face, and he lightly nodded while looking at the youth with an expression of admiration.
Soon, the youth had already pulled out 10 monster cores. At this moment, the expression of the elder inspecting the monster cores finally changed. His gaze towards the youth was no longer one of admiration, but one of shock. For a person that had not yet reached Saint level to have managed to kill and retrieve monster cores from 10 Class 1 Magical Beasts was definitely not an easy task. In addition, the youth still showed no signs of stopping, signifying to everyone present that he still had not finished removing all of the monster cores from his Space Belt.
The students lined up being this youth had already been shocked speechless at the sight of him pulling out so many monster cores. They thought back to how much energy they had consumed in the forest just to retrieve 2-3 monster cores; to them, this had already been quite an amazing achievement. Many of them had even felt quite proud of this. Yet the youth in from of them had pulled out many times more monster cores than they had received within the last 3 days in a single breath. How could they not be shocked? Having fought against the Class 1 Magical Beasts quite a few times, they had been left with a deep realization that without reaching Saint level, using an iron weapon to kill Class 1 Magical Beasts with such thick skin was extremely difficult.
The youth did not pay any mind to the onlookers' expressions, as if he didn't see them. His movements had still not stopped, and he continued to pull out monster cores from his Space Belt one after another without a pause. Soon, there were already 15 monster cores piled onto the table, yet the youth still didn't show the slightest trace of stopping. He was still equally unhurried as before, and he very calmly continued to take out more monster cores from his Space Belt.
At this moment, all the teachers on the platform were gazing at the youth in shock and disbelief. For a person not yet a Saint to have killed more than 10 magical beasts within 3 days would perhaps be possible if he worked together with 5-6 people, but to have hunted so many magical beasts in 3 days alone was really something the teachers felt was impossible, unless those magical beasts were all seriously wounded.
Sitting on top of the platform, the vice headmaster Chang Bai En smiled and said, "His name seems to be Mu Tian. He only entered the academy last year. After only a single year, he went from the 8th Saint Force layer to the peak of the 10th layer. This speed is quite good. It's said that he even tried to attack a Saint. Although he ultimately failed, it has to be admitted that the Mu clan really did send a good young successor this time."
The vice headmaster Chang Bai En paused for a bit, then shifted his gaze towards the lined up Changyang Xiang Tian and Tie Ta and muttered, "I really anticipate Changyang Xiang Tian's and Tie Ta's harvests. It's said that the two of them had actually ran to the 3rd region to hunt Class 2 Magical Beasts on the last day. Their powers are clearly not at the Saint level yet. Heavens, to have relied on iron weapons to hunt Class 2 Magical Beasts, that is really too unfathomable. If I hadn't personally witnessed the two of them kill a completely undamaged Class 2 Magical Beast, I would not dare to believe that such a situation was true. It seems that not only did the headmaster accept a good apprentice, Lore City's Changyang clan which has been silent for so long will soon return to their former glory because of Changyang Xiang Tian in the near future."
Only after the youth had taken out 23 Class 1 Monster Cores did he finally stop. He calmly looked at the inspecting elder taking notes, and said, "Teacher, these are the monster cores I retrieved."
The elder in charge of the inspection swept a glance at the 23 monster cores and let out a long breath. He looked at the youth with bright eyes full of emotions and asked, "What's your name?"
"Mu Tian!" The youth replied in an indifferent tone.
The elder's gaze gradually became more serious as he continued to ask, "Mu Tian, did you gain these monster cores by yourself, or did you work together with others for them?"
Mu Tian's expression did not change, as he had long since expected this would happen. "Teacher, these monster cores were gained by my hard work alone."
Hearing this, the elder's expression immediately changed. He looked intensely at Mu Tian with an expression beyond admiration, then smiled and nodded, "Good! Good! Good! Mu Tian, right? Very good. Your results are extremely outstanding. I hope that you continue to work hard in the future." The elder did not ask how Mu Tian had gained the 23 monster cores; that was not important at all. The important part was that he knew that these monster cores had been gained through Mu Tian's hard work alone. After all, in the Tian Yuan Continent, strength represented everything. As long as one could achieve the final victory, no matter what kind of dishonest methods were used, nobody would say anything about it.
Hearing the elder's words of praise, Mu Tian could not help but smile.
At that moment, the elder took about a sky blue belt and badge. He handed them over to Mu Tian and said, "This is a Space Belt you had previously given us, and this is your badge. Take proper care of them."
Mu Tian calmly accepted the Space Belt and the badge of glory, and re-inserted the 23 monster cores into his Space Belt, before walking off the platform. From beginning to end, Mu Tian had not shown a single trace of arrogance or pride; he always had the same, indifferent expression.
Jian Chen's gaze followed Mu Tian until he walked off the platform. In his heart, he had already committed Mu Tian's name to memory. Based on his intuition, he felt that Mu Tian was probably quite a complex person, and hadn't used his full potential yet either. In the future, he would definitely accomplish much more; it was simply still unknown which of the two paths he would choose to advance on.
Because Mu Tian had taken out over 20 monster cores, the following students didn't induce any type of reactions when they removed their monster cores. Majority of them had only the minimum 2 monster cores; the number of people that had more than 2 was very few. Aside from Mu Tian's 23 monster cores, the highest harvest had been the previous 8 monster cores.
The inspection went by quickly, and it was soon Jian Chen's turn. At this moment, the gazes of the vice headmaster sitting in the chairperson's seat, as well as a few other teachers, immediately lit up. Their eyes closely followed Jian Chen, showing expressions of extreme concentration. The vice headmaster Chang Bai En who had previously been reclining in his seat could not help but straighten his back, as he gazed at Jian Chen, full of expectations. Although he knew that Jian Chen had killed quite a few magical beasts in the forest, he didn't know the exact numerical value of this "quite a few".
Jian Chen calmly walked up to the elder in charge of inspecting the monster cores and lowered his head to look at the 2 meter long table. A troubled expression showed on his face, and after some hesitation, he said, "Teacher, can you please change to a larger table?"
"Huh?" Hearing Jian Chen's words, the elderly man who was closely inspecting paused, and asked in confusion, "What did you just say?"
Seeing that the table was originally not very large, and that there were already some items of little value on top of it, Jian Chen could only show a helpless expression. This table was really too small; there was absolutely no way he could fit all of his monster cores that pretty much completely filled his Space Belt.
"Yes, teacher. Can I please ask you to change this table to a slightly larger one? This table is too small." Jian Chen continued.
Hearing Jian Chen's words, all the students lined up behind him, aside from Tie Ta, showed expressions of shock. They all gave extremely strange looks at Jian Chen, and quite a few suspected that they had heard him wrong. In their opinion, if you needed to hand over your monster cores, then just hand them over. Why would you bother caring about how large the table being used was? Wasn't this simply asking for trouble?
"Who is that person? He's really reckless, to even ask the teacher to change tables…."
"He's really an idiot, to dare tell Teacher Steve that the table was too small in front of so many people. The most unfathomable thing is that he wants Teacher Steve to change tables for him. Heavens, for him to confront Teacher Steve about the table being used, does he not know that Teacher Steve is the strictest teacher in all of Kargath Academy?"
Quite a few people began to point at Jian Chen in discussion, looking at him as if he was an idiot.
The inspecting elder's expression changed, as he furrowed his brows and stared severely at Jian Chen. He snorted and then in a low voice said, "What's your name? You even tried to confront a teacher like this; this table was prepared ages ago. It's not something that can be changed just because you said it should be changed."
Jian Chen's words not only irritated the inspecting teacher, even a few of the teachers judging from the back could not help but knit their brows as they looked at Jian Chen with displeased expressions. Jian Chen's words were completely disrespectful to them as teachers.
Not a single one of the people even considered the fact that Jian Chen had requested for change in tables because the current table had no way of fitting all the monster cores inside his Space Belt.
Of course, there were some teachers who were exceptions; their demeanors were still very calm. Their faces only showed a light trace of a smile. These few were the ones who watched Jian Chen and Tie Ta viciously kill a group of Blue Wolf Kings.
At this time behind them, a beautiful girl with a pair of bright eyes stared suspiciously at Jian Chen's figure, frowning in deep thought and whispering softly, "Strange. Why do I feel that his shadow is a little familiar, maybe I've met him somewhere?" The girl's eyebrows furrowed as she thought hard. Suddenly, her eyes flashed, and a familiar figure appeared in her mind. The next moment, her eyes exposed a look of surprise accompanied by a magical color. She unconsciously shouted, "Changyang Xiang Tian, he is Changyang Xiang Tian!"
The girl's voice was not concealed at all so many people heard her. The moment everyone heard the name Changyang Xiang Tian, their faces started to change as the students who had been recklessly hurling insults Changyang Xiang Tian started to shut their mouths like obedient children.
Changyang Xiang Tian was a name that was prominent throughout Kargath Academy and was practically heard of by everyone. However, not many people had actually seen what he looked like, most of who did were freshmen. Jian Chen's face was rendered indistinctive with all of the mud and grime that left very little of his face unblemished, his clothes were also extremely tattered to the point of him looking like a beggar. With his current state of appearance, no one would be able to recognize him even when he was lined up in front of everyone.
After hearing Changyang Xiang Tian's name, the teacher in charge of inspecting the monster cores went blank as he gave a closer look. Apparently, Changyang Xiang Tian was a name even the teacher was familiar with, however, that didn't mean that Jian Chen had the proper authority to be able to command him to bring a new table. The teacher's mouth dropped open one more time in disbelief before preparing himself to speak again, but at that moment, Bai En from the academy board called out, "Someone bring out a bigger table immediately!" There was a smile on his face instead one of discontent, instead, he was looking at Jian Chen with anticipation as if he had already guessed the reason why Jian Chen had wanted a bigger table.
The vice-headmaster Bai En looked as if he was 34 years old, but his prestige within Kargath Academy was exceptionally high, second only to the headmaster himself. When he had spoken, all of the teachers went silent. Aside from a few teachers, the other teachers had not understood what the vice headmaster was trying to say. To think that he had asked for a bigger table even though the original table was more than enough to register a student's monster core's count, there was just simply no use for a bigger table.
Soon after, a 3 meter long and 2 meter wide table was lifted up to the stage, and the original table that had been used by the inspecting teacher was taken away.
"Changyang Xiang Tian, you should be satisfied with this, right?" The inspecting teacher sat in front of the larger table. His attitude towards Jian Chen was not very amiable; it was evident that Jian Chen's request for a larger table had left an extremely bad impression on the 50-60 year old teacher.
Seeing that the elder's heart had some sort of prejudice against him, Jian Chen could not help but smile bitterly. He hadn't imagined that just because of something like this, the teacher would actually have something against him. This had definitely gone against his expectations, but Jian Chen didn't mind it too much.
Afterwards, Jian Chen directly removed his Space Belt. Unlike the other students that had removed the monster cores one by one, he directly grabbed a handful of at 10 monster cores and pulled them out, lightly placing them on the table. All of these monster cores were faint white in color, and were about one circle larger than the size of an adult's finger.
Seeing Jian Chen pull out 10 monster cores at once, although the appraising elder was previously unsatisfied with Jian Chen's earlier actions, he could not help inwardly nodding. However, just as the appraising elder had assumed these were all the monster cores Jian Chen had, Jian Chen's hand once again reached into his Space Belt, and continue to pull out a great handful of monster cores. Once again, there were 10 of them in his hand.
Now there were already 20 monster cores on the table in front. Seeing this, the appraising elder's eyes lit up. He looked at Jian Chen in astonishment and inwardly thought to himself, "This Changyang Xiang Tian's reputation is indeed not undeserved. Although he has not yet reached Saint level, he was able to defeat a Saint. It seems that he really is quite skilled."
Following this, Jian Chen continued to reach into his Space Belt and once again pulled out a handful of monster cores to gently place onto the table. "Dong dong dong" sounds rang out as the hard monster cores came into contact with the wooden table.
Seeing Jian Chen once again take out 10 monster cores from his Space Belt, the expression of the appraising elder had instantly changed. His eyes now reflected complete shock, since by now, Jian Chen had taken out 30 monster cores, 7 more than Mu Tian had.
For a student that had not yet reached Saint level to have killed 30 Class 1 Magical Beasts within 3 days inside the forest was undoubtedly a record. Even the elder that had gone around the world and witnessed many things before could not help but be dumbstruck by disbelief. Although these magical beasts had relatively low attack power, it was by no means an easy task for a student only at the peak of the 10th Saint Force layer to kill them.
When Jian Chen grabbed 30 Monster Cores, the teacher evaluating him became astonished, along with the other teachers behind him as they watched this inconceivable sight. Only a few teachers who had inside information on the matter had a smile on their faces while the students lined up behind him had been dumbstruck when he had pulled the 30 monster cores out.
But Jian Chen didn't bother to look at the stupefied expressions on the teachers and students around him. While everyone was staring at him, his hands went into his Space Belt once more and grabbed another bunch of monster cores to put onto the table. When his hand refused to stop, the teachers all looked on with a sluggish expression, as the cycle repeated and he reached into his Space Belt and grabbed yet another handful…
Soon after Jian Chen had placed a couple handsful of monster cores onto the table, the big official table was filled with monster cores. Although they were all Class 1 Monster Cores, because they came from different species, the cores would not be the same size or shape. Small cores were almost the size of the big toe of a person, and the biggest cores were the size of a small child's fist.
Whether it was a student or teacher, both groups had been put into shock by Jian Chen. For a person who was not yet at the Saint level state to hunt and kill almost 100 Class 1 Magical Beast in a span of 3 days; if someone were to try to say this to someone else, they wouldn't be believed. At this moment, aside from a small amount of people, every other person would not believe that it was Jian Chen who had killed all these magical beasts. Many people had thought that the huge amount of monster cores were a result of many people helping him collect monster cores or that he had stolen them. The consensus was that he could not have killed all those Class 1 Magical Beast by himself.
Seeing the official table being covered by a little under 100 monster cores from Jian Chen, the teacher in charge of counting them let out a deep breath. Although in his heart he thought that Jian Chen had to have fought many other groups for their monster cores. He had to admire Jian Chen's strength however, even when it came to dishonorable acts like thievery, the teachers would not care since this is a common event in the Tian Yuan continent.
Seeing almost 100 Class 1 Monster Cores from Jian Chen, the vice headmaster Bai En let loose an incredulous look. He knew in his heart that the reason why the 2nd region had so many less people hunting for monster cores was because they had been robbed by Jian Chen. There was no doubt that Jian Chen had stolen all of the monster cores from someone else, otherwise, everyone would have passed the test with the monster cores they earned by a legitimate show of strength from killing magical beasts.
With this recent development, the vice headmaster Bai En was quite emotional today as even his heart shook. Though at the same time, there was a small amount of doubt, could it be that Jian Chen and Tie Ta could easily kill magical beasts without even adding qi to weapons? Were they just not using cultivation anymore? Unexpectedly, Jian Chen and Tie Ta had both killed around 100 magical beasts over the span of the last three days.
The look in the teacher's eye was quite complicated. Soon after he had started to count the monster cores on the table; the teacher didn't ask how Jian Chen had acquired these monster cores since the definite conclusion was already clear in his mind.
The monster cores were quickly counted. The elder in charge of the appraisal said, "There is a total of 98 monster cores here. This is your Space Belt; please return the academy Space Belt now." The elder handed Jian Chen an emerald green Space Belt; this was the Space Belt that Jian Chen's father, Changyang Ba, had gifted him when he had left the Changyang clan.
Jian Chen looked at the academy Space Belt in his hands for a bit, and after some hesitation said, "Teacher, for the time being, please take care of my belt here. After this evaluation ends, I will return the academy Space Belt."
Hearing this, the elder knit his brows, and asked in confusion, "What?" Perhaps it was because Jian Chen alone had gained nearly 100 monster cores, but the elder's attitude towards Jian chen had clearly changed.
"Teacher, I still have Class 2 Monster Cores in my Space Belt, so I still need to take part in the Class 2 Monster Cores evaluation later." Jian Chen plainly said. Right now, the evaluation was only being held for Class 1 Monster Cores; the evaluation for Class 2 Monster Cores wouldn't begin until after this one finished.
"Hm, is that so? You still have Class 2 Monster Cores?" Hearing this, the elder had disbelief written on his face, and he looked at Jian Chen with suspicion. It wasn't only the elder, the other teachers sitting on the platform were currently looking at Jian Chen with identical expressions.
Jian chen nodded, "Yes, Teacher!"
Hearing this, the elder let out a deep breath. His gaze towards Jian Chen grew solemn. Only now did he realize that he had really underestimated the rumors that had been going around about Changyang Xiang Tian. However, he didn't bother wasting his breath on this matter, and waved his hand, "Alright, store away these monster cores. You can continue to attend the second round of evaluations."
Afterwards, Jian Chen placed the 100 or so monster cores back into his Space Belt and left the platform. However now, both the teachers on the platform and the students surrounding him looked at Jian Chen with completely different expressions. Their gazes were complicated, mixed with jealousy, envy, and even some with disdain.
After walking off the platform, Jian Chen didn't rejoin the crowd. Instead, he walked up to the people waiting for the Class 2 Monster Cores evaluation that were currently lined up in wait. All the students awaiting evaluation had already reached Saint level, and aside from Changyang Hu's group, all of them looked at Jian Chen with expressions of shock and doubts as he walked up to them. They hadn't even met Jian Chen in the 3rd region, and it was obvious that they found it extremely abnormal for a person not yet a Saint to be able to show off Class 2 Monster Cores. The really found it extremely hard to believe that Jian Chen had actually entered the 3rd region and killed Class 2 Magical Beasts; in addition, he had at least managed to gain two Class 2 Monster Cores.
Lined up behind Jian Chen was Tie Ta. After Jian Chen walked off, Tie Ta also arrived in front of the appraising elder.
At this point, Tie Ta being the Kargath Academy's headmaster's apprentice was no longer a secret; all the teachers recognized him. When Tie Ta walked up, the appraising elder could not help but smile as he said, "Tie Ta, I wonder what your profits were like this time?"
Tie Ta laughed, but did not say anything in reply. Just as Jian Chen had done, he reached his hand into his Space Belt and directly pulled out a large handful of monster cores, before lightly placing them on the table. Tie Ta's fists were slightly larger than Jian Chen's, so each one held 14-15 monster cores every time.
Seeing the 14-15 monster cores on the table, the appraising elder began to smile, as he inwardly thought to himself, "As expected of the person that the headmaster has his eye on. Although he has the heart and body of a tiger and seemed to lack shrewdness, his talent really cannot help but make one sigh in admiration."
After taking out 14-15 monster cores, Tie Ta's movements didn't stop at all. He once again reached into his Space Belt to pull out a fistful of monster cores. The students and teachers all stared at the table as gradually, the number of monster cores increased more and more, until there were multiple dozens.
Only after Tie Ta had finally taken out a little under 100 monster cores did he finally stop. Seeing all the monster cores he had gained, Tie Ta laughed in a straightforward manner and happily said, "Teacher, these are the monster cores I have gained."
At that moment, all the teachers and students in the vicinity were shocked speechless. They all stared at the slightly under 100 monster cores piled on the table with expressions of disbelief.
The appraising elder let out a long breath, and then looked at Tie Ta intensely, and slowly said, "Good, good. Tie Ta, you've done very well, and have not lost any face for your master." Saying this, the elder lowered his head and began to count the monster cores. He did not inquire how Tie Ta had gained those monster cores. In his heart, he had already linked together Tie Ta's means of collecting the monster cores with Jian Chen's.
The elder quickly finished counting the monster cores and said, "There are a total of 97 monster cores here." Saying this, the elder recorded it into his notebook.
After he had finished taking note, the elder took out an exquisite, extremely well-made, black Space Belt adorned with a few gems, and handed it over along with the badge of glory to Tie Ta, and said, "Tie Ta, this is the Space Belt that you had left in our care, as well as the badge of glory that you have earned. Collect your monster cores, and then return the academy Space Belt to the academy."
It was obvious from a single glance that this high-grade Space Belt had been given to Tie Ta by the headmaster after he had become the headmaster's apprentice. Otherwise, a child born into a commoner family like him would have absolutely no way of purchasing such a high-grade item like this Space Belt. Although these types of Space Belts were not uncommon in Tian Yun Continent, it was not something that ordinary people could own.
Tie Ta's gaze was locked onto the black Space Belt for while, before he shook his head and said, "Teacher, I would like to keep this Space Belt under your care. I still have Class 2 Monster Cores."
"What! You also have Class 2 Monster Cores?" Hearing this, the appraising elder looked at him with an extremely shocked expression, with a hint of disbelief hidden as well.
Hearing Tie Ta's words, the other teachers that were sitting on the platform exchanged glances of disbelief with each other. They hadn't imagined that after Jian Chen, there would be another student not yet at Saint level that had managed to gain Class 2 Monster Cores.
That appraising elder hesitated for a bit before replying, "Tie Ta, did you go to the 3rd region?" Although the elder's question was overstepping his responsibilities, he could not ignore the strong feelings of curiosity in his heart. Even though he had already guessed the answer, he would definitely not dare to believe it unless Tie Ta confirmed the situation.
Tie Ta nodded, and spoke in a muffled voice, "Yes, I went to the 3rd region."
The appraising elder continued to ask, "Did you gain your Class 2 Monster cores from killing magical beasts?" Despite the fact he was far overstepping his boundaries, nobody tried to stop him, since it was not only the elder that was extremely curious to know the answer. Even all of the teachers on the platform felt the same way, and they wanted a clear-cut confirmation.
"A portion of it was gained from Changyang Xiang Tian and I killing magical beasts." Tie Ta had no intention of hiding anything, but he only said half of the story.
Hearing this, the elder asked in shock and disbelief, "What! You're saying that you and Changyang Xiang Tian killed Class 2 Magical Beasts?"
Tie Ta nodded and replied, "Yes."
This answer made all of the teachers on the platform stunned. Many of them couldn't believe what they had just heard; for two students not yet Saints to have killed Class 2 Magical Beasts was unprecedented in the history of Kargath Academy.
Afterwards, Tie Ta stowed away his monster cores and walked off the platform. He joined the group of people waiting for Class 2 Monster Cores evaluations, and stood behind Jian Chen. However at this point, Tie Ta and Jian Chen had already become the center of everyone's attention, and the people who had failed the task that were currently standing behind them looked at the two with quite a lot of jealousy. There were many of them that had been pathetically running all over the place to escape from the pursuits of Class 1 Magical Beasts, and they had never imagined that Jian Chen and Tie Ta, who were not at higher levels than them, would manage to not only gain a hundred Class 1 Monster Cores in the 2nd area, but also gain Class 2 Monster Cores. This made them feel extremely disoriented, and quite a few of the upperclassmen felt embarrassed as well.
Soon afterwards, the Class 1 Monster Cores evaluation ended. The one that had the highest number of monster cores was Jian Chen, with a total of 98 monster cores, while Tie Ta was in second place, with one less monster core. The two of them had many more times monster cores than Mu Tian, who was in third place.
Amidst the crowd of people, Mu Tian's eyes flashed in astonishment at Jian Chen and Tie Ta, and he murmured to himself, "Tie Ta, Changyang Xiang Tian, your reputation is well-deserved. You two are indeed experts that can defeat Saints. I'd love to have a chance to interact with the both of you."
Although he had had his spotlight taken away by Jian Chen and Tie Ta, Mu Tian did not show a single trace of dissatisfaction. He was still just as indifferent as before, as if this was an insignificant matter that had absolutely no impact on him.
At that moment, Changyang Hu walked up to Jian Chen with a happy expression, and said in a low voice, "Fourth brother, the two of you are really too abnormal. Within 3 days, each of you managed to gain nearly 100 monster cores." Changyang Hu's tone barely concealed his happiness, and he looked at Jian Chen proudly.
Jian Chen smiled wordlessly. Suddenly, his gaze shifted as he sensed something. He looked behind him to see a youth with tattered clothes glaring at him with poisonous hatred. The youth's gaze did not bother to conceal his strong killing intent, and it was so severe that Jian Chen could not help but furrow his brows.
However, when Jian Chen inspected the youth's appearance a bit more closely, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. The youth was Luo Jian, who had all of his monster cores plundered by Jian Chen. Luo Jian's monster cores had been entirely stolen from him mercilessly, and he had even been heavily injured. Although it did not greatly affect his movements, since he and his group of companions had completely lost all of their battle spirit, they had been unable to gather the energy to steal others' monster cores or hunt magical beasts afterwards. Thus, Luo Jian's group had ended the task with failure.
Jian Chen smiled, his expression showing a hint of disdain. He paid absolutely no mind to Luo Jian. In regards to people like Luo Jian, Jian Chen had met many of them as a wanderer in his previous world. However, very few of them had the ability to really stir up storms.
The second round of monster core evaluations soon started. The students that had reached Saint levels and finished their task walked up to the platform in succession. However, there were two exceptions among them: Jian Chen and Tie Ta, who had not yet reached Saint level, while everyone else had.
The teacher evaluating the Class 2 Monster Cores was still the same elder, and the assessment progressed quickly. Because of all the stealing that had occurred in the 3rd region, the several hundred students' monster cores had ultimately been gathered by the 30-40 people present. Thus, all of them had much more than 2 monster cores, and many people had over 10 monster cores in their possessions. There were even quite a few people that had gained 23 monster cores.