Stage Two, Complete!

Outside, there was also a stone pillar, but unlike the one inside, here you could only see everyone's scores.

First was Lianda, the pre-tournament favorite. As an Artifact User, she had almost no way to train her Force Multiplier, so she could only rely on herself to figure out how to reach a two-fold multiplier. But once inside the volcano, she suddenly gained the technique. Like a fish in water, Lianda's strength soared. She only lost a few seconds on the final checkpoint, achieving a high score of 991.

Second was Yanlefu from Eastsea Province, a warrior skilled in one-hit kills. His speed in ending battles was always clean and decisive. The first three rounds were all instant kills, earning him full marks. In the fifth round against the Lava Stone Monster, he spent the most time—over twenty seconds—but still reached a total score of 971.

Third was Toster from Eastsea Province, with 958 points.

Fourth was Guen. He wasted too much time on the Lava Stone Monster in the first round, overcomplicating things. After he realized his mistake and went all out, he managed to sprint to 944 points. If you added back the forty-plus seconds he wasted at the start, Guen would be second only to Lianda.

Scott stared gloomily at these scores, feeling even more frustrated inside.

The fact that Guen could still charge into fourth place like this completely exceeded his expectations. What puzzled Scott even more was: what was Guen doing in the first round?

It wasn't just Scott. Even the Super Tier experts above the volcano looked helpless.

Seeing Guen score only fifty-four points in the first round against the Lava Stone Monster had made these Super Tier experts drop their jaws. They even wanted to ask Tom if the testing equipment in their Stardew Valley was malfunctioning. But Guen's final ranking told them that his strength was indeed formidable.

"Tom, what was that little guy of yours doing? Was he trying to hide his strength?" someone asked.

Tom was also frustrated.

But they could only see the scores, not what was happening inside. Otherwise, he would really like to ask that damn guy what he was up to.

Kagar, however, showed a strange expression. "Tom, this time your Southeast Province is really something."

Tom smiled as well.

Guen's ranking had indeed depressed him for a long time. But the overall performance lifted his spirits.

Aside from the top nineteen, the rankings of the others had already come out. Only six belonged to their Southeast Province. Among seven provinces, this data was ugly. But surprisingly, among the top nineteen, a full four were from their Southeast Province.

The highest ranked was Guen, in fourth place.

Next was Setti, in eleventh place.

Then came Ganlan, the son of the Leiquan City Lord, whom many recognized. He had decent talent, and under the easier guidance inside the volcano, his Force Multiplier had clearly improved greatly, ultimately placing him sixteenth.

The most surprising was a person named Chen. Although he was last place, with a score of only 724, it was clear that his final two rounds were won by dragging things out. But before the trial began, he only had a three-fold Force Multiplier. Many four-fold Force Multiplier trialists had been eliminated, while five-fold ones were deliberately protected and kept in. This showed that the Land of Inheritance had some regulatory ability. So what was it about this guy named Chen that was worth noticing?

The Super Tier expert from the Forest Goddess Temple looked at the information about Chen in his hand and suddenly his expression shifted: Green hair?

High in the sky, where the Super Tier experts couldn't see, there was a spaceship disguised as a white cloud, observing everything below.

"Do you think Guen can gain something here?" Ina asked.

"He can," Kolong said with certainty.

"Whether it's the Norde Race or the Kano Race, the teachings they can receive definitely surpass this planet. But that's our race," Kolong said with a bitter smile. "You and I are just ordinary Planetary Level. We can teach Guen some things, but when it comes to instruction, this Domain Lord Level inheritance is definitely better than what we can offer."

Ina agreed.

The resources they had received within their races were certainly better than what this planet offered, but that was just them. Guen had left that place shortly after birth and grew up in the Aoyu Empire. Those Secret Methods, though Kolong and Ina had mastered them themselves, couldn't be passed on to Guen. When Guen was still a Low-Tier or Mid-Tier Warrior, their help was significant. But the closer Guen got to Planetary Level, the less they could assist him. This inheritance was a better harvest.

Everyone's gaze was fixed on that stone pillar, wanting to see how long the remaining people could hold out.

Inside the volcano, the red space suddenly grew even hotter. The steaming heat made the space itself seem somewhat unreal.

"Congratulations on entering the second stage. In the second stage, there is no danger, only trials. You will receive some of the most widely circulated Secret Methods on Tucha Planet. You need to achieve an eight-fold Force Multiplier within three months. If you take more than a month and a half to reach this goal, your score will decrease by one hundred every five days. Begin."

A cold, emotionless, rigid voice sounded.

In front of Guen, a massive light screen suddenly appeared. Within this screen, he could see many smaller options.

"Basic Martial Arts 108 Forms, Basic Force Deconstruction 518 Diagrams, Basic Fist Technique." Guen looked at these names, and his eyes lit up.

With a single tap, the detailed training content would unfold.

And Basic Force Deconstruction 518 Diagrams was exactly the set of moves demonstrated in the light screen during the first stage trial.

Compared to the Hundred Refinement Fist, this Secret Method dissected the techniques of Force Multiplier more meticulously.

As for the other Secret Methods, Guen took a brief look and found them all extraordinary.

They covered fist techniques, Body Movement Techniques, body training methods, techniques for dealing with different weapons, and even methods for countering Spirit Readers.

In the universe, the paths of warriors were more detailed, but they mainly fell into two categories: one was the Martial Artist, and the other, those who could manipulate Telekinetic Power, were Spirit Readers—a collective term for Illusionists, Controllers, Beast Tamers, and similar professions.

The Artifact Users of the Aoyu Empire were mostly of the Controller type, controlling weapons to fight.

From Lianda, one could see the terror of a Spirit Reader.

Back then, an eighth-tier Artifact User had required Guen to use a Protective Suit to defeat, while an eighth-tier warrior, Guen could take down with just his fists. That was the gap.

But none of that mattered now—what mattered was breaking through to the eightfold power level as quickly as possible.

Guen devoured this knowledge like a starving man. Though he had obtained the Hundred Refinement Fist as a Secret Method, it was essentially his only one. His father Kolong knew many, but teaching and knowing were two very different things.

When hungry or tired, a surge of Cosmic Energy was directly infused into him.

Even if injured, there was enough Cosmic Energy to heal the wounds.

This Trial Space required only that the trialist focus entirely on cultivating themselves.

It allowed Guen to devote himself wholly to learning. The light screen even had an option to summon Lava Stone Monsters for practice—from fivefold to sixfold power, from Tier 7 Warrior to Tier 9 Warrior, any type of enemy could be selected.

If last month hadn't been so desperately tight on time, Guen would have wanted to summon a few Controllers and Illusionists to truly temper himself.

His father Kolong had told him so much about the universe, which meant that one day, he too would step into that sea of stars. The Aoyu Empire was dominated by warriors, but the universe was not—Guen couldn't ignore that.

He continuously studied Secret Methods, then verified them through practice on Lava Stone Monsters.

Time flew by like an arrow.

"Boom!"

The Lava Stone Monster exploded, scattering into flying rocks and blazing fire in all directions.

The stone pillar suddenly grew much brighter, and Guen's ranking shot straight to first place.

After entering the second phase, the remaining nineteen people had their scores reset to zero. Since only a month had passed, Guen's ranking suddenly surged, directly taking the top spot and claiming the full one thousand points.

"Guen," Chen, who had been buried in studying Secret Methods until his eyes were bloodshot, surrounded by piles of shattered stones still radiating residual heat, saw Guen's name leap to first and couldn't help but smile. "You're still the one. But I'm not giving up either."

A few figures flashed through Guen's mind—all with the same green hair as his own—then he snapped back to focus and continued studying those Secret Methods.

"Three months? How is that possible? I've been training since I was nine, and I'm twenty-eight now—I only just achieved fivefold power here. And now they want me to reach eightfold within a month?"

Ganlan was nearly scratching his scalp off. He truly felt that the explosive breakthrough sensation he'd had from fourfold to fivefold was gone. Three months was nowhere near enough. Even with many Secret Methods for reference, he felt it would take at least three years.

"Hm?" Ganlan sensed something and looked at the stone pillar. He suddenly saw one name among the nineteen leap to first place. His eyes nearly bulged out. "Just one month, and this Guen..."

For the first time, Ganlan felt the unbridgeable gap between himself and so-called geniuses. So instead of being inspired, he thought of something else: "This Guen is barely twenty, right? About the same age as my sister. She was recently involved with an ordinary warrior, and Father told me to talk her out of it. I didn't think it was necessary back then, but now it seems very necessary indeed."

On the other side, Setti also saw this scene. The muscles in his face twitched violently, and with a fierce glare, he summoned another Lava Stone Monster—but this time purely to vent.

"Guen, huh?" In a fiery red space, Lianda, with her wheat-colored skin and unremarkable features, was silent for a long time before continuing to control eighteen Flying Daggers in complex patterns through the air. Gritting her teeth, she added two more. The pattern immediately became chaotic, but Lianda clenched her jaw and stubbornly refused to let it collapse.

In just one month, Guen had met the requirements of the second phase trial, giving everyone a massive shock.