Enduring Hardship?

A strange face appeared, naturally drawing attention. The thousands of figures lingering outside the rift almost simultaneously turned to look.

But after sizing him up, they quickly looked away again.

New faces were nothing unusual for the fortress. Every few days, geniuses arrived and departed.

The first step of the Dharma Aspect, "Materialization," depended on one's own foundation—or rather, the height of one's Dharma Aspect.

Of course, this worked in reverse.

The higher the Dharma Aspect, the deeper the foundation, and the harsher the "tempering of reality" required.

The grade demanded of the "Thunder Pool" was also higher.

Thunder Pools were divided by grade, and eligibility for exchange was determined by one's ranking on the War Merit Board.

But for the vast majority, an ungraded Thunder Pool was already sufficient.

The corresponding cultivation techniques were less difficult as well. They only needed to earn enough war merits for the exchange; there was no need to wait for the rankings to be finalized.

Li Qingshan moved through the crowd, his gaze wandering casually as he sized up these "comrades" as well.

Their heights varied greatly.

Their appearances were all manner of strange and peculiar.

Outside the rift, more than five thousand "comrades" stood there, and nearly half of them were other races.

Inside the rift, the proportions were more or less the same.

This was what he had learned from Xi Na: throughout Fortress 13, other-race geniuses actually made up more than half.

Fortress 13 was not the only one like this.

Besides Kong Yang, two other members of other races had made it into the top ten, and the fortresses where they were stationed were in similar circumstances.

Of course, it was not that other races produced an abundance of geniuses.

Rather, all the other-race geniuses who had come to