Challenge the Trial Tower III

At the entrance to the training camp.

After getting out of the car, Xu Feng walked while looking at the massive black dragon sculpture. His attention was entirely on the names engraved on the Black Dragon Scales. It was easy to spot his own name—No. 17, Xu Feng.

"Charged up to seventeenth." Xu Feng smiled and headed toward his residence, Jiangnan Pavilion. A group of young white men and women spoke in fluent American English. "That Xu Feng is actually smiling. He may be seventeenth now, but tomorrow is the twenty-eighth. He isn't qualified to go out and hunt monsters. Once the ninety-one students who went monster hunting return tomorrow, Xu Feng will probably be pushed below twentieth place."

"Jason, you're actually making fun of someone else? I remember that when you arrived, you were only ranked 174th in your first month." April 28th, 10:00 p.m.

Beside the training camp's massive black dragon sculpture, quite a few students were already sitting on the ground, chatting and laughing. They had struggled for nearly a month. In any case, they had done everything they could and fought as hard as they could. All that remained was to wait for the final result.

Inside a residential building roughly three kilometers outside the training camp.

"Quick, set up all the equipment."

"Hurry up, all of you. The boss pays you so much to work here. Working here is practically a vacation. We only have a few assignments from the boss, and we absolutely have to do them perfectly. Understand?"

A burly man with short dyed-blond hair growled. The other five quickly moved the equipment around.

"Understood."

"Captain, it's done."

On the massive screen covering the wall appeared a ranking list—the very same list on the black dragon sculpture.

"Very good." The burly blond man nodded. "When the rankings lock at midnight, send the news to the boss immediately. Also, the boss ordered us to pay special attention to Xu Feng from Huaxia."

"Understood."

The other five answered with grins.

This was not the only team. In Hong Ning Base City, especially around the Elite Training Camp, many intelligence personnel were keeping an eye on the Black Dragon Ranking. Every midnight, it was not only the Elite Training Camp students who watched this ranking; numerous organizations across the world watched it as well.

Those organizations had a full set of intelligence files on every student on the ranking.

April 28th, 10:19 p.m.

Trial room of the Nine-Layered Tower.

With a click, the trial room door opened. Xu Feng, dressed in a dark teal training uniform, lay on the sofa and put on his helmet once more, entering the virtual space. On another sofa lay a black girl. Only a minute or two later, she removed her helmet, opened her eyes, cursed a few times, and left the trial room.

The Trial Tower could only allow one person in at a time, so students entered one after another.

Third floor of the Trial Tower.

An endless desert. Fifty Golden Vultures emerged from the sand and surrounded Xu Feng.

"I have an hour today to play with you Golden Vultures." Xu Feng was brimming with fighting spirit.

"Kill!"

The battle began instantly. In the Trial Tower's level assessment, dying even once meant the assessment was over. Therefore, after Xu Feng failed yesterday, his assessment privilege had already ended.

However, aside from the Trial Tower level assessment, as the student ranked 183rd in July, Xu Feng had one hour in the trial room and one hour in the ancient civilization Gravity Room for training.

Xu Feng's one hour of trial time began at 10:20 p.m. on the twenty-eighth. During this hour, he could continue trying after failure. No matter how many times he failed, he could start over. But once time ran out, whether he had failed or succeeded, he would immediately be kicked out of the virtual space.

"Kill!"

"Splat!"

"Time used: 3 minutes and 6 seconds. You have killed fifty Elementary Beast General level Golden Vultures. Third floor A-grade stage passed. Congratulations, student Xu Feng."

The electronic voice echoed through the scorching desert. Light flashed, and all the Golden Vulture corpses vanished from the desert. Xu Feng's stamina and body were fully restored.

Among flying monsters, vulture-type monsters were known for their ferocity. Even the weakest Golden Vultures were at the Elementary Beast General level.

Third floor of the Trial Tower.

The scene changed into a wilderness.

"Third floor B-grade stage trial. Student Xu Feng, your objective is to kill 190 Elementary Beast General level Golden Vultures and ten Intermediate Beast General level Golden Vultures within thirty minutes. Good luck."

As soon as the electronic voice fell silent, a dark mass of flying monsters appeared in the sky above the wilderness.

"Come on."

The Golden Vultures dove down from high above. A dense Flying Monster Swarm descended upon Xu Feng like golden clouds. No wonder so many War God instructors remained stuck on the third floor.

This time, no matter what, Xu Feng had to at least defeat the Flying Monster Swarm in the B-grade stage and reach level 3.5. I have to succeed. Xu Feng gripped the Blood Shadow Saber, his gaze icy. With a rumble, the Flying Monster Swarm instantly engulfed Xu Feng, and the slaughter began.

In this third-floor C-grade trial, Xu Feng had no idea how many times he had died under the combined assault of the Golden Vulture swarm. Flying Monster Swarms were far more terrifying than land monster herds. Once someone was caught by a flying monster's claws, they could be lifted straight into the air. With no leverage in midair, facing a monster swarm meant certain death. Therefore, he absolutely could not allow himself to be grabbed and lifted up by their claws.

"Caw!" A piercing cry rang out.

Perhaps my movement technique will enter the Intent Realm. Xu Feng held the Blood Shadow Saber and continued his trial. A little after 10:00 p.m., a training camp vehicle stopped outside the main gate. Two fully armed students walked in, one of them being Mo Qi. Today was the day she had gone out hunting.

"Mo Qi!"

The blonde beauty Luo Luoya went over to greet her with a smile. "Congratulations on holding onto first place."

"What rank is Xu Feng at?"

Mo Qi and Luo Luoya walked side by side toward the black dragon sculpture.

"Look, he's eighteenth. Oh, eighteenth is still eighteenth." Luo Luoya pointed at the massive black dragon sculpture. Mo Qi raised her head to look at the Black Dragon Ranking, then nodded and smiled indifferently. "That yellow-skinned kid is indeed quite strong, honestly. But trying to break into the top ten in his first month is just dreaming."

"If a newcomer is going to enter the top ten in their first month, it should be someone from the European Union Countries. Today is an even-numbered day, while Xu Feng goes out hunting on odd-numbered days. He truly has no hope." Luo Luoya smiled.

Mo Qi also laughed cheerfully.

Suddenly—

"It changed."

"Xu Feng's rank has risen."

"That's strange. Today is the twenty-eighth. Xu Feng didn't go out monster hunting, so how did his rank rise?"

Quite a few onlooking students were shocked.

The two blonde beauties, Mo Qi and Luo Luoya, looked up as well and were left dumbfounded.

Xu Feng's ranking had actually risen from eighteenth to ninth.

"Today is the twenty-eighth. How could Xu Feng improve? Did someone challenge him to a wagered battle, betting Points?"

Mo Qi looked as if she had seen a ghost. "Impossible."

"Impossible! How could he rise today?" Luo Luoya could not believe it either.

There was no use disbelieving it. That was simply the truth. This time, it was because Xu Feng had completed the second floor's A-grade stage, raising his Trial Tower level from 2.2 to 2.3, which gave him a slight improvement in ranking.

Time passed second by second. The students all discussed the rankings, while Xu Feng remained in ninth place.

10:56 p.m.

"Damn!"

"OMG!"

"Oh God!"

All the students stared in shock.

Mo Qi and Luo Luoya also stared blankly at the newly refreshed ranking—No. 9, Xu Feng, 570403. From eighteenth to ninth, that jump was far too outrageous. In an instant, the nearly one hundred gathered students erupted into an uproar. That ranking had risen far too quickly.

"Cheating!"

"It must be a wagered battle. Xu Feng wagered Points against someone. Someone deliberately gave Xu Feng Points through a wagered battle!" A student immediately shouted.

"Cheating!"

Some students could not believe that Xu Feng's ranking had risen so dramatically without him going into the Wilderness Zone.

"Whether it's cheating or not, Xu Feng is in the trial room right now." A sentence in English rang out.

"He's in the trial room. We watched him go in."

Several young white and black men and women walked over from the direction of the Nine-Layered Tower as they spoke. The previously noisy crowd of genius students immediately fell silent. In truth, only a very small number had shouted about cheating. Among the more than 180 geniuses, there were still a few students with particularly strong jealousy.

"Xu Feng entered the trial room at 10:23 p.m. I went in for my trial after he finished."

"Rebecca, Xu Feng went in after you." A young black man walked over.

"Yes." The black girl nodded.

"So Xu Feng is in the trial room. It looks like his Trial Tower level is rising."

All the students present began to look forward to it. In history, there had been five genius students who had broken into the top hundred right after joining the training camp, but the earliest such case had been twenty-three years ago.

The most recent one had also been eight years ago. The Elite Training Camp had not seen anything like this in a long time.

And this time, Xu Feng seemed poised to create a miracle.