Life in developing a Divine Realm was simple yet fulfilling.
Han Wu attended classes during the day and entered the Divine Realm at night, endlessly using Growth Acceleration.
A few days later, the number of locusts in the Divine Realm had skyrocketed to 14 billion.
Of them, ten percent were Normal Lifeforms, thirty percent were Elite Lifeforms, and sixty percent were Extraordinary Lifeforms.
Such an astonishing proportion of Extraordinary Lifeforms would surely make countless gods' jaws drop if word got out.
Forget demigods—even true gods might not be able to produce 8 billion Extraordinary Lifeforms.
But raising so many extraordinary locusts also cost Han Wu dearly every day.
The Flesh Puppet corpses used as feed alone cost at least 1 million divine power each day.
Moreover, the supply of Flesh Puppet corpses from the Demon Abyss had recently decreased, and their prices had risen slightly.
This made Han Wu's already meager finances even worse, like snow piling atop frost.
Having spent all his savings, Han Wu could only grit his teeth and carry out a Life Sacrifice.
He kept only 1 billion Extraordinary Lifeform locusts for emergencies and sacrificed all of the remaining 13 billion locusts.
A massive sacrificial array covered the entire Divine Realm.
Countless locusts transformed into streams of Life Energy and flowed into the array.
Three options appeared before Han Wu.
Option One: 10,000 Night Devil hunters, Extraordinary Lifeforms.
Option Two: Three-Star Divine Artifact: Overlord Steel Blade. Effect One: Both a divine artifact and a holy relic; can be used as a Level 3 holy relic. Effect: grants Core Kin the ability to summon steel blades as weapons. Effect Two: increases damage against beasts by 15%. Effect Three: comes with the divine spell: Overlord Body.
Option Three: Level 2 holy relic: Enlightenment Stone. After being installed into the Divine Realm Core, Core Kin have a certain chance of being enlightened into a semi-humanoid form. (Core Kin must be non-humanoid and non-demi-human races.)
Han Wu's gaze fell upon the third option.
When he first saw the words "Level 2 holy relic," he thought he had misread them.
After sacrificing 13 billion locusts, how could the reward still be a Level 2 holy relic? There had to be a bug.
But after reviewing all the information on the Level 2 holy relic, Enlightenment Stone, Han Wu could only call it insane.
The first two options had absolutely no competitiveness before the third.
The Enlightenment Stone could enlighten Core Kin into semi-humanoid forms. It sounded rather ordinary.
After all, semi-humanoid races were common in Divine Realm Civilization.
Minotaurs, Lizardmen, and even Ratmen were all semi-humanoid races.
But common did not mean semi-humanoid forms were worthless.
On the contrary, semi-humanoid forms brought enormous enhancements to a race.
The most obvious manifestation was that semi-humanoid races could use weapons like humans.
If locusts could use weapons as well, combined with their racial ability to fly...
They would be a bona fide air force!
The more Han Wu thought about it, the more his heart itched unbearably. Without another moment of hesitation, he directly chose Option Three.
The Level 2 holy relic, Enlightenment Stone, fell into his hand.
Han Wu instantly arrived before the Divine Realm Core. After thinking for a moment, he removed the Level 2 holy relic, Earth Fire Lava Orb, and replaced it with the Enlightenment Stone.
Once removed, the Earth Fire Lava Orb shattered into several pieces.
Han Wu did not care in the slightest.
All his attention was focused on the 1 billion locusts throughout the Divine Realm.
He sensed that one-thousandth of the 1 billion locusts—roughly 1 million of them—had been affected by the Enlightenment Stone and had begun transforming toward semi-humanoid forms.
This would take time.
Han Wu locked his consciousness onto an Extraordinary Lifeform locust undergoing transformation and watched every minute change in it.
One month passed within the Divine Realm.
The transformation of the 1 million locusts was complete.
They had become a new species.
Kin Name: Locust People Kin Rank: Extraordinary Creature Kin Talents: Flight, Low-level Intelligence, Humanoid Body Faith Rank: Fanatical Believer Faith Power: 50,000/day Reproduction Ability: 5/time (produces higher-quality locust eggs) Life Cycle: 10 years
Looking at the Locust People's information, only two words remained in Han Wu's mind.
Awesome!
After transforming into Locust People, the locusts had actually leaped into the ranks of Extraordinary Lifeforms.
Not only did they possess humanoid bodies, they also possessed Low-level Intelligence.
Low-level Intelligence was probably only equivalent to that of a three- or four-year-old child, but to Han Wu, it was already tremendous progress.
One had to know that the locusts of the past had possessed no intelligence at all, so dumb that they only acted on instinct.
Then there were the two key factors for judging a race's quality: Faith Power and life cycle.
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After calculating, Han Wu found that over its limited lifetime, even without any further advancement, a Locust Person could provide him with nearly 180 million Faith Power. Converted into divine power, that was 1.8 divine power.
Han Wu had always cultivated his locust kin in units of tens of billions.
Even at a conversion rate of one-thousandth, that would still be 10 million.
Ten million Locust People could produce 1.8 million divine power in a single real-world day, 18 million in ten days, and 180 million in a hundred days... 1.8 divinity...
Han Wu seemed to see divinity waving at him.
"Not bad, not bad. Life is looking more and more promising. Becoming a demigod is just around the corner," Han Wu muttered.
At that moment, a video call request came through.
It was his homeroom teacher, Tian Wen.
Tian Wen told Han Wu that Kyoto Academy had issued a notice to reassess him.
A recruitment teacher would come to the school tomorrow to test Han Wu.
He told Han Wu to prepare in advance.
Han Wu said he understood, then continued devoting himself to the great cause of cultivating Locust People.
The next morning, Han Wu teleported to the classroom on time for class.
Han Wu's arrival drew the attention of several classmates.
After all, he had taken first place in the grade twice. In the eyes of the other students, he was already a god of learning.
Han Wu looked toward Qin Shuang's seat and found it empty.
He did not know whether Qin Shuang was cultivating Lord Lifeforms at home or had already gone to Kyoto Academy's preparatory class.
"Good morning, Han Wu," Xu Sun said as he walked over and warmly greeted Han Wu.
Ever since the last exam, after witnessing Han Wu's strength, Xu Sun had completely shed the arrogance of a descendant from a quasi-true-god family in front of him.
Han Wu nodded at Xu Sun.
"Han Wu, how has your Divine Realm been developing lately? If you're short on resources, you can tell me. Some scarce resources can't be bought online, but my family has many demigods, so we have some channels," Xu Sun offered proactively.
He had already decided that Han Wu was a heaven-blessed genius certain to be admitted into a first-rate university, perhaps even a top-tier one.
Getting on his good side early and forming a favorable connection would do no harm to his future development.
Han Wu happened to want to acquire more Divine Realm Core Fragments.
The Divine Realm Core Fragments he had won from the Bloody Arena had all been used up repairing the cracks in his core.
If he could get more and raise the Divine Realm Core to the limit of Divine Beings, Level 10, that would be ideal.
"Can your family get Divine Realm Core Fragments?" Han Wu asked tentatively.
Xu Sun had not expected Han Wu to ask for such scarce supplies the moment he opened his mouth.
But on second thought, if they were not scarce supplies, Han Wu would not be trying his luck with him.
"We can get them, but Divine Realm Core Fragments are a little expensive. Even at cost price, it won't be a small sum," Xu Sun said.
"It's fine as long as you can get them. I currently need enough Divine Realm Core Fragments to upgrade from Level 7 to Level 10. Have your family estimate how much divine power it will cost," Han Wu said, asking for the price first.
After communicating with his side, Xu Sun quoted a price: 400 million divine power.
That was the cost price.
Han Wu was somewhat troubled. 400 million divine power was no small amount.
Even though he had now cultivated the money tree that was the Locust People, he still could not produce that much divine power in a short period.
Xu Sun added, "My family said that if you can sell us 1,000 Skeleton Knights at the Extraordinary Lifeform level, we can use them to offset this divine power."
During the previous assessment, Xu Sun had personally experienced how terrifying the Skeleton Race was.
That despairing feeling of fighting only to see their numbers grow was something few people could endure.
His family wanted to purchase Skeleton Knights because they intended to cultivate a batch of skeletons for warfare in the outer realms.
The Skeleton Knights' ability, Summon Skeletons, held great strategic value.
"Extraordinary Lifeform Skeleton Knights?" Han Wu asked with a trace of surprise.
"That's right, Extraordinary Lifeform Skeleton Knights. If you are willing to sell Heroic Lifeform Bone Controllers, I can discuss it with my family and get you an even better price on Divine Realm Core Fragments," Xu Sun replied.
Compared with Skeleton Knights, he preferred Bone Controllers.
The Bone Giants created by Bone Controllers were publicly acknowledged in Divine Realm Civilization as the strongest combat power among Heroic Lifeforms!
Even demigods would be unable to stop themselves from drooling at the sight.
Unfortunately, the Skeleton Race had always been hard-boned. Cases of them surrendering and acknowledging a master were exceedingly rare.
The only reason Han Wu had gained the Skeleton Race's loyalty was the bloodline suppression of the Skeleton Lord. Otherwise, even if he smashed the skeletons into powder, he could never have gained their allegiance.
Seeing that Kyoto Academy's recruitment teacher had not yet arrived, Han Wu decided to complete the Divine Realm Core Fragment transaction first. "Forget about the Bone Controllers. I can sell some Extraordinary Lifeform Skeleton Knights, though. But I have one condition."
"What condition? Tell me," Xu Sun said excitedly. If he could facilitate the Skeleton Knight deal, he would certainly receive a reward from his family.
"I need your family to provide corpses of Extraordinary Lifeforms," Han Wu said.
"Wait a moment. I'll communicate with my family," Xu Sun said, immediately placing a video call to his family.
Very soon, Xu Sun brought back a card sealed with 1,000 Extraordinary Lifeform corpses.
Han Wu accepted the card, entered the Divine Realm through the Divine Realm Login Device on his desk, and handed the card to the Skeleton Lord.
Following Han Wu's command, the Skeleton Lord swiftly transformed the 1,000 Extraordinary Lifeform corpses into Skeleton Knights of the same rank.
Han Wu sealed the 1,000 Skeleton Knights into a card and handed it back to Xu Sun.
Before long, Han Wu obtained the Divine Realm Core Fragments he wanted.
Just as Han Wu was preparing to upgrade the Divine Realm Core, Tian Wen entered the classroom and called out to him, "Han Wu, come out for a moment."
Han Wu guessed that Kyoto Academy's recruitment teacher had arrived.
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