The Four Great Factions

"My sister is this year's top scorer in Kyoto Base City!"

Just as everyone was immersed in the joyful atmosphere, Tang Yongyuan suddenly stood up and shouted.

"What?"

Tang Yongyuan held up his phone and said excitedly, "Look, the school has already sent out the notification."

Before the college entrance examination results are officially released, there is actually a ranking of scores, though it is generally not made public.

It could be said that the local education bureau already knew what the highest score was before the results were even checked, which is why the school's notification was sent out so quickly.

Tang Yongqing took out her phone, and Su You leaned in to take a look. He saw that the messages in Tang Yongqing's class group had already exceeded 99+, with almost every message congratulating her on becoming the 2053 top scorer of Kyoto Base City.

Soon, the phones of Tang's father and mother began to ring one after another; they were all calls from prestigious schools across the six major base cities, leaving Su You's mother, Gong Yanrong, filled with envy.

Although her son had already become a Quasi-Martial Artist and had even signed an S-Class Contract with the Extreme Martial Arts Hall, perhaps due to a deep-seated obsession with the title of top scorer, she still couldn't help but envy the Tang family.

"Hmm, in a few years, this top scorer will be from our family." Gong Yanrong could only use this reason to comfort herself, while simultaneously glaring fiercely at Su You, leaving him completely baffled.

In the following days, Su You accompanied Tang Yongqing to several interviews, speeches, and other activities, only managing to squeeze in time to practice martial arts at night, losing even the time they usually spent being lovey-dovey.

Fortunately, the stir caused by the top scorer status didn't last too long. In the end, both Tang Yongqing and Tang Yongyuan chose Kyoto University, one majoring in pharmacy and the other in materials science.

In Su You's past life, these would definitely be considered dead-end majors, but after the Grand Nirvana, the development of both fields was quite promising.

On the other hand, once life returned to normal, Su You opened his mouth wide and demanded that Tang Yongqing compensate him for his "huge losses" over these past few days.

Although Tang Yongqing wasn't very willing at first, under Su You's sweet talk, she eventually agreed to several conditions that made her blush just thinking about them.

On the night of July 31st, after Su You sent Tang Yongqing home, he arrived at his small training hall feeling very content and continued to practice the Qi Accumulation Chapter of the Eight-Nine Profound Art.

Unlike simply using the Five Hearts Toward Heaven Cultivation Method, while practicing the Eight-Nine Profound Art, Su You always felt that his life gene level seemed to be undergoing optimization, though it lacked the intense changes he felt during his first time practicing the Five Hearts Toward Heaven Cultivation Method.

After more than two months, the Qi Accumulation Chapter in Su You's hands was nearing completion. However, it was regrettable that he still hadn't found any way to increase his Merit Points, and it was highly likely that he wouldn't be able to keep up with the subsequent techniques.

Inside the training hall, Su You circulated the Eight-Nine Profound Art to absorb cosmic energy. Suddenly, his body trembled slightly, and the speed at which the cosmic energy poured in accelerated significantly.

"No change?" Su You frowned. Just moments ago, he had completely mastered the Qi Accumulation Chapter of the Eight-Nine Profound Art, yet he still hadn't felt that sense of life gene transition.

"Was the transition happening subtly all along? Or is it that the Eight-Nine Profound Art cannot improve one's gene level?"

Su You pondered for a moment, but without any leads, he could only go back to rest, preparing for tomorrow's Martial Artist Combat Assessment.

Early the next morning, Su You and thirty-two other Quasi-Martial Artists were led by a martial artist from the Extreme Martial Arts Hall to the train station, where they boarded a train heading to the location of the combat assessment.

The entire train consisted of fifteen carriages, each holding over a hundred people, totaling over a thousand, all of whom were Quasi-Martial Artists from Kyoto Base City and its Eight Satellite Cities.

The news that Su You had been specially recruited into the Basic Training Camp by the Extreme Martial Arts Hall had long since spread through the circle of Quasi-Martial Artists in Tianjin City.

Therefore, there were quite a few people who came to ask him to form a team, and even that guy Wang Xingle had the audacity to come over and try his luck.

Ever since the news of Su You's special recruitment into the Basic Training Camp spread, Wang Xingle had abandoned any thoughts of causing trouble for Su You, and even warned Fang Jingxue not to provoke him again.

A genius capable of entering the Basic Training Camp was someone even a true third-generation descendant of the Wang Family might try to associate with. As an illegitimate child who hadn't even been recognized by the Wang Family, he was already scrambling to curry favor with the other party; how could he dare to provoke him?

During the train journey, a figure appeared on the large screen in every carriage—it was an executive from the HR Alliance. Before long, it changed to a deputy director from the Security Bureau, followed by two executives from the Thunder Dojo and the Extreme Martial Arts Hall.

They each introduced the advantages of their respective factions and the benefits of joining them, hoping to attract these Quasi-Martial Artists.

As for the military, they generally did not recruit ordinary martial artists from the outside; the martial artists among them were either raised within the military or were graduates of various military academies.

The four major factions each had their own pros and cons. The Security Bureau's work was mainly within the base city, making it the most comfortable option with great power and a low mortality rate, though progress in strength would be relatively slow.

The two major martial arts halls consisted of free-roaming martial artists, which had the highest mortality rate but also the fastest growth in strength. Among them, the Thunder Dojo had slightly lower overall strength, but its benefits were better than those of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall.

As for the HR Alliance, it offered the best benefits and possessed extremely strong top-tier martial artist power. The current second-tier powerhouses on Earth, the Fourth Speaker Atkin and the Fifth Speaker, were both consultants for the HR Alliance.

If one didn't count the two invincible powerhouses, Hong and Thunder God, the HR Alliance's top-tier martial artist strength could even suppress the two major martial arts halls.

However, the internal factions of the HR Alliance were extremely complex, consisting of the nine core families and dozens of secondary families. Once ordinary martial artists joined, they would merely become thugs for one of these families, which was far inferior to the other factions.

Inside the carriage, the martial artists were excitedly discussing which faction they should join after the assessment ended, while Su You closed his eyes to rest, waiting for the upcoming combat assessment.

Soon, the sound of the train arriving at its destination came over the speakers. After the train slowed down and stopped, the Quasi-Martial Artists stepped off one by one, marching in a massive group into the large military camp ahead.

The combat assessment was generally hosted by the military, and this time, the place Su You and the others arrived at was the Kyoto City West Military Region.

After eating a hearty lunch in the military region, the more than one thousand Quasi-Martial Artists arrived at an open square, where they were to receive their combat uniforms and weapons.

When Su You heard the officer above call his name, he immediately ran to the front and received his set of items: a Grade 2 Longsword, a set of combat uniform, a pair of combat boots, and a Communication Watch.

After about an hour, once all the candidates had received their equipment, all the examinees were led by an officer to a small town about one kilometer away from the military region.