Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“These four guys are too weak, even weaker than Ai Shangcheng and Chu Ding. I wonder how they made it here.”
“The Super Training Camp might aim to select the elites from around the world, but it also tries to be fair by giving out quotas. So it got a mixed bag of good and not-so-good trainees.
“Indeed. The competition in the developed world is intense, and so those who are selected are strong. But in those poorer areas, arcanists are fewer, and so the level of strength of the trainees from these places are lower.”
“Indeed.”
The four of them chatted away over dinner. After that, they returned to their respective rooms and practiced self-cultivation.
The next morning, the hunt continued. The day passed uneventfully. At 18:00 hours, the six of them returned to the training camp on time and handed over their harvest.
The only thing left to do was to wait for the rankings to be announced tomorrow.
On Sunday afternoon, while Ling Jiu was still practicing self-cultivation, Shi Gang went to jolt him up. “The results are about to come out, Ling Jiu. Let’s check them out together!”
“What time is it now?” Ling Jiu asked.
“Five fifty. It is nearly six!”
Shi Gang looked anxious. “As per the rule, the leaderboard will be updated at six in the evening. Everybody has gone down there. We had better hurry!”
“All right!”
1
When the two came to the center of the square, they found that almost everyone had been here. Ai Yuhe was pushing Yang Ling-er in a wheelchair, coming in their direction.
Ling Jiu said his hello’s to the two and shifted his attention to the giant screen that was still blank until the clock hit 18:00 hours.
“What do you think, Ling Jiu? What results will we get?” Shi Gang was becoming even more anxious.
“Who knows?” Ling Jiu shrugged. “But it shouldn’t be too bad.”
“It’s up!”
“The leaderboard is up!”
Someone shouted, instantly attracting everyone’s attention. Ling Jiu looked up. Indeed, names had appeared on the screen.
‘My ranking shouldn’t be too bad!’
While thinking so, Ling Jiu scanned the leaderboard for his name.
No. 1: Zhou Ji, 1,500,000
‘It is not me at the top spot!’
Ling Jiu’s heart sank.
No. 2: Christopher Adam, 1,390,000
‘I am not in the second place too!’
No. 3: Hirano Hatake, 1,330,000
‘Third place, not me!’
Ling Jiu clenched his fists. Just then, he heard Shi Gang called out. “You are on the ninth, Ling Jiu. Ninth place!”
“Ninth?”
Ling Jiu’s eyes skipped the rest and shifted to the ninth place down the list. He saw his name.
No. 9: Ling Jiu, 615,000
“Only ninth?”
Ling Jiu’s heart sank to the bottom. This ranking was by no means low, but it did not meet his expectation.
In his mind, he wanted all the advanced vitality-enhancement fluid, advanced Gene Arcanenhancement fluid, and the Level One cultivation room at Twelve Underground Chambers.
It was because only by enjoying the best benefits could he advance rapidly.
‘Ninth place?
‘Screw it!
‘Intermediate vitality-enhancement fluid.
‘Intermediate Gene Arcanenhancement fluid.
‘Level Three of the Twelve Underground Chambers.’
Ling Jiu felt a little depressed. It was his first time tasting failure.
He thought with his Arcana Replication and five types of replicated arcana, he would be one of the strongest trainees in the Super Training Camp. Hence, making it up to Top Three shouldn’t have been a problem.
But the result was a slap in his face. He did not even make it to Top Five, let alone Top Three. He barely squeezed through the Top Ten threshold.
‘Not only that, the gap between my result and the top three trainees’ is pretty huge. One-and-half-million, one-hundred-and-thirty-nine thousand, one hundred and thirty-three thousand, while mine is only sixty-one thousand five hundred—not even close!’
‘The gap is just…’
Ling Jiu suddenly realized that he had been underestimating others, and finally, the words of Jing Biao came to mind: the Super Training Camp is filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons.
At first, Ling Jiu did not take that seriously. But now he was witnessing it. Every peak sat under the shadow of another, so every man might meet one stronger than himself. He now realized he had to work harder.
In contrast, Shi Gang was euphoric. “I have got the twelfth place! Ling Jiu, I have got the twelfth place! Did you see that? I am twelfth!”
“Good for you!”
Ling Jiu forced a smile, then checked out the names down the leaderboard.
No. 10: Ai Yuhe, 608,000
No. 11: Yang Ling-er, 605,000
No. 12: Shi Gang, 601,000
Because the four of them were in a team, their scores were more or less the same.
Other than Shi Gang, who was very happy with his result, Ai Yuhe and Yang Ling-er were not so happy.
Ling Jiu did not get the result he wanted. But he was still at ninth place, which meant he could enter Level Three of the Twelve Underground Chambers and practiced self-cultivation there.
What about them?
Tenth and eleventh places.
Those were awkward results, meaning they could get one hour of self-cultivation practice on Level Four of the Twelve Underground Chambers.
Ling Jiu had three days for himself while they had only one hour.
The difference in benefits was a little huge. It was hard for top geniuses like them to accept.
“You three look not so happy.”
Sensing their disappointment, Shi Gang stopped smiling. “Aren’t you all happy with the results?”
“That’s all right, just a little worse than expected. I am all right, since it is only the first round. We will work harder the next round.”
At 23:50 hours, following the rule, Ling Jiu came to the Twelve Underground Chambers.
At this time, the door leading to the Twelve Underground Chambers had closed, and the remaining eight qualified trainees were all here.
There were three females and five males.
That would be three females and six males, including Ling Jiu. What surprised him was, other than himself, there were only two East Asians here.
In other words, there were only three East Asians among the qualified trainees.
‘In front of me are the two East Asians, Zhou Ji who is in the top place, and Hirano Hatake in the third place.’
Ling Jiu could not help but look at the two East Asians. One was standing at 1.7 meters, unassuming and looking sturdy.
The other was tall, with piercing phoenix eyes and hooked nose, whom Ling Jiu felt was not as good as him.
‘I wonder which one is Zhou Ji.’
While Ling Jiu mumbled to himself, that tall man walked over to him. “Hello, my name is Zhou Ji. Nice to meet you!”
He spoke Mandarin, typical Beijing accent as he self-introduced.
“Hi, my name is Ling Jiu!” Ling Jiu held out his hand.
“I am from Beijing Base City. What about you?” Zhou Ji appeared friendly.
“I am from Lantian Base City.” Ling Jiu let out a smile. “Congratulations for getting the first place!”
“I got lucky this time. Probably it won’t be this easy next time!” Zhou Ji waved, as if the first ranking did not concern him. “There are many talented monsters in the Super Training Camp this time. Because of the limited self-cultivation resources last time, they did not reach their real potential. Once they spent some time practicing self-cultivation here, defeating them is going to be hard.”
“Monsters?” Ling Jiu cocked an eyebrow.
“The actual monsters!”
Zhou Ji looked at a handsome Caucasian guy. “Take that guy, Christopher Adam, for example. He’s the Top 2 this week. Do you know what his arcana are?”
Ling Jiu shook his head. Other than Ai Yuhe and a few others he knew; he knew none of the rest.
“That guy is from Italy, recruited by Pangu’s branch in Washington Base City. He is capable of Supersonic Shift Arcana and Angelization Arcana.”