A Small Test of Skill

Liang Ji's and Peng Yue's retainer teams quickly arrived at the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake's location, forming up directly into combat formations.

"Draw bows!"

Peng Yue's Ice Soul Serpentfolk team was in the rear. Their leader gave the order.

"Fire!"

The next moment, a hundred thousand rune ice arrows rained down like a dark cloud covering the sky, engulfing the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake.

Hiss!

The Crimson Serpent Demon Snake instantly sensed something was wrong. It reared its head and hissed, its crimson scales flashing with red firelight. Its tail whipped like a giant whip, sweeping towards the incoming arrow rain.

Clang, clang! A large number of the ice arrows were swept away by the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake's tail.

But the hundred thousand arrows were simply too many. The Crimson Serpent Demon Snake managed to sweep away less than one percent of them. The vast majority of the arrows struck its body, submerging it.

Roar!

Its hiss turned into a roar. The over thirty-zhang Crimson Serpent Demon Snake was not something a single volley of a hundred thousand arrows could kill.

At this moment, the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake, covered in arrows, roared and charged furiously towards the two's retainer teams.

"Draw bows! Fire!"

"Fire!"

This time, Liang Ji's Half-Dragonfolk retainers formed a shield wall to block the front. Peng Yue's Ice Soul Serpentfolk team was even more at ease. Under their leader's command, they fired two more volleys of arrows, submerging the charging thirty-zhang Crimson Serpent Demon Snake twice.

After three volleys of arrows, although the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake was heavily wounded, it had already reached their close range. The Ice Soul Serpentfolk didn't have time to fire a fourth volley.

"Flying Snake Spear! Fire!"

At this moment, among the Half-Dragonfolk retainers, the warrior leader 'Chi the Fourteenth' gave the order.

The twenty thousand Half-Dragonfolk forming the shield wall in front attacked in unison, launching 'Flying Snake Spears' and submerging the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake, which had reached their close range and was covered in arrows, once more.

Hiss...

This time, after suffering successive heavy blows, the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake could no longer hold on. It let out one last weak, desperate hiss before collapsing to the ground, dead on the spot.

"Good!"

In this battle, Liang Ji and Peng Yue's retainer teams had only tested their strength together, and hadn't even managed to gauge the strength of the shield wall formed by the Half-Dragonfolk team.

However, Peng Yue still praised them loudly.

Although Liang Ji's retainers acted as shields in front, protecting her Ice Soul Serpentfolk team, it didn't mean they could only take hits.

Who said an offensive shield wall wasn't a shield wall? As long as it could eliminate the attacking enemies and protect her retainers, it was a qualified meat shield.

"Classmate Liang Ji, I didn't expect your retainers' spear-throwing skills to be so formidable!"

"With this, my confidence is even greater."

Liang Ji smiled and said, "It's all thanks to your sponsorship."

At this moment, the two's retainers had quickly cleaned up the battlefield and salvaged materials from the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake.

They were quite lucky, managing to obtain a first-tier Crimson Serpent Demon Snake Demon Core.

"According to our previous agreement, we'll split the salvaged materials and the Demon Core fifty-fifty," Peng Yue said to Liang Ji. "Classmate Liang Ji, if you trust me, I'll handle these materials and the Demon Core. I'll give you Spirit Stones directly then, how about it?"

"Of course, no problem," Liang Ji readily agreed with a smile.

In fact, Liang Ji could see clearly that the Crimson Serpent Demon Snake they had killed had been hit by countless arrows and flying spears. Its scales, flesh, bones, and other materials were almost shattered. The quality of the materials salvaged by the retainers was quite poor.

He could even imagine that the Void Demon Race they would kill next would likely not have much better quality materials than this Crimson Serpent Demon Snake.

If he were to sell such poor-quality materials on the Star Net, the price would likely be driven down extremely low.

Peng Yue, coming from a Star Lord's family, should have connections to handle these poor-quality materials and sell them for more Spirit Stones.

This way, he could naturally earn more.

After cleaning up the battlefield, the two teams didn't linger and continued to advance.

This second mock assessment had no restrictions or rules; it was entirely based on actual combat. It only looked at how many Void Demon Race creatures the Star Lord students' retainers killed in this demon cave and how they performed in battle.

Peng Yue wanted to achieve first place among the ten schools, so she naturally had to kill the most and the strongest Void Demon Race creatures.

And coming from a Star Lord's family, she had already gathered a lot of information about the demon cave. She had even prepared Rune Artifacts specifically for finding Void Demon Race creatures and knew where to go to find the most and strongest Void Demon Race creatures to hunt.

Liang Ji didn't need to worry about this. His retainers only needed to follow the direction indicated by the Ice Soul Serpentfolk, act as meat shields when encountering Void Demon Race creatures, protect the Ice Soul Serpentfolk team, and kill as many demons as possible.

On their journey forward, the two teams cooperated, eliminating one Void Demon Snake after another. They were mostly ordinary first-tier Spotted Demon Snakes. The strongest was a Spotted Demon Snake that was forty zhang in size, but with the increasingly tacit cooperation between their retainers, it was killed before it could even reach the shield wall.

However, the forty-zhang Spotted Demon Snake, before dying, spat out a large amount of venom and poisonous gas as it charged forward.

The venom of a forty-zhang Spotted Demon Snake was undoubtedly stronger than that of the thirty-zhang Spotted Demon Snake previously killed by the Ice Soul Serpentfolk.

But this time, Liang Ji's Half-Dragonfolk retainers blocked the front. The venom and poisonous gas were all blocked by the Half-Dragonfolk team, without affecting the Ice Soul Serpentfolk team behind them in the slightest. Naturally, there was no chaos or poisoning.

As for the Half-Dragonfolk team that bore the brunt of the venom and poisonous gas, they blocked most of it with their rune shields. The small portion that got through was unable to cause much damage to the Half-Dragonfolk warriors.

"As expected, the Spotted Demon Snake is the most common and weakest existence among the first-tier Void Demon Snakes."

"A forty-zhang Spotted Demon Snake is almost at the late stage of first-tier. Although its venom exceeded the poison resistance level of the Half-Dragonfolk's Hegemonic Body, it was limited. A little medicinal pill solved it."

Liang Ji sighed inwardly.

The Void Demon Race, due to their different species, actually occupied the same tier, and their strength varied; similarly, Star Lord Retainers, due to different bloodlines, were in the same tier, and their combat power varied, making direct comparison impossible.

However, within the Star Alliance, there was a general comparison.

Using the strength of the Star Lord's Natal Star's Spirit Vein as a benchmark, Retainers whose Spirit Vein reached Tier 1 (30%) generally possessed early Tier 1 combat power; those whose Spirit Vein reached Tier 1 (60%) could have mid-Tier 1 combat power; and those whose Spirit Vein reached Tier 1 (90%) could have late Tier 1 combat power.

Of course, this was a comparison of combat power in their base state, without considering the Rune Artifacts, elixirs, combat skills, and other means available to the Star Lord Retainers.

For example, in Liang Ji's Natal Star, the current Spirit Vein strength was only Tier 1 (12%), and in reality, his Half-Dragonfolk warriors had not yet reached the early Tier 1 level.

Moreover, within this demon den, the strength of the Retainer warriors would be weakened by nearly half.

But with the help of teammates, Rune Artifacts, elixirs, combat skills, tactics, and so on, they could still surround and kill early or even late Tier 1 Spotted Demon Snakes.