October 15.
The temperature gradually dropped as morning came.
The equipment Fang Yi had purchased was nearly all delivered. He took it out and arranged it on the weapon rack beside the attic living room.
After putting everything away, Fang Yi received a message from Jiang Fang.
The Nine-Layered Tower.
Under the guidance of his instructor, Jiang Fang, Fang Yi went through the new-student procedures and toured the Trial Room, Gravity Chamber, and Challenge Room.
They also arranged his schedule for the coming days.
Fang Yi's student number ended in an odd digit, so he was supposed to go to the Wilderness Zone to fight on odd-numbered days and stay at the Training Camp to train and study on even-numbered days.
After completing all the procedures,
Fang Yi returned to the attic, changed into his new equipment, and then went with his senior sister, Zhao Ruo, to the Wilderness Zone.
"Fang Yi, over here!"
Led by Zhao Ruo, Fang Yi and several dozen other students left the Training Camp and headed to City 1001, a wilderness city about 300 kilometers away.
The Training Camp had rules.
Students could hunt only in this city. They were forbidden from privately trading monster materials, helping others increase their battle points, or fighting one another.
In the ruined streets,
Fang Yi wielded his war halberd as he darted through the monster packs.
It was the first time Fang Yi had fought with a weapon. The monsters around him were all mid-level Beast Generals.
Yet everywhere the cold gleam of his halberd passed, only heaps of monster corpses remained. His battle points kept climbing, and his skill with the weapon grew steadily sharper.
Other students nearby,
after passing through the area and seeing the corpses covering the ground, were all stunned.
"My god! So many corpses. Who did this?"
"No idea..."
"Forget it. Let's keep looking for monsters and earn battle points."
At the Training Camp, after Fang Yi finished practicing with his war halberd, he moved on to swordsmanship. Jiang Fang's other students were all in the Blade Technique Weapon Room.
Fang Yi was the only exception, so he practiced in the Training Camp's Practice Hall.
Jiang Fang would occasionally walk between the two rooms to check on everyone's progress.
Fang Yi was no weaker than Jiang Fang in cultivation level, but when it came to weapon mastery, he was still a beginner.
Weapon techniques such as blade and sword arts,
were divided into four levels: basic, specialized, perfected, and artistic conception.
Watching Fang Yi practice, Jiang Fang felt increasingly astonished.
Earlier, she had sought out Yang Hui to learn more about Fang Yi's background. When she learned that he had entered the Training Camp at the Advanced General-Level, she had been quite taken aback.
After all, the next level up was the War God Level!
His talent was clearly extraordinary.
But at the time, Jiang Fang's astonishment had been based only on the information on paper.
Now, however,
"Only a day has passed, and Fang Yi is already showing signs of reaching the specialized level in weapon mastery..." Jiang Fang's expression remained calm and cool, but inside, a storm was raging.
She had never seen a student so terrifyingly talented.
The truth was,
Fang Yi had laid an exceptionally solid foundation.
That was why, when he started training with weapons, he grasped things and improved faster than most people.
Since Fang Yi was a new student and had displayed extraordinary talent,
he was allowed to take his Trial Tower assessment before the end of November.
With plenty of time,
Fang Yi devoted himself wholeheartedly to hunting in the Wilderness Zone and improving his weapon skills.
He did not neglect his Genetic Origin Energy training, either. He worked on everything he could practice and improve.
In less than a week,
Fang Yi had killed so many monsters in City 1001 that his arms ached. As a result, students passing through some streets would see piles upon piles of corpses.
It was a frightening sight.
On the 21st,
Fang Yi ran into several blond foreign students as he prepared to head to the Wilderness Zone that morning.
They all looked at him with smiles.
"Hello, Fang Yi."
A blond young man stood at the front. Fang Yi looked at them, nodded slightly, and politely returned the greeting.
Before they could even start talking,
Fang Yi frowned slightly at the young man's blond hair.
When the other man introduced himself, Fang Yi confirmed that his guess had been right: this was the young Master William who had challenged Luo Feng when Luo Feng first came to the Elite Preparatory Camp.
He could even be called a philanthropist.
After all, he had freely given away five billion.
Is this guy going to challenge me? Fang Yi thought as soon as he learned his name.
Sure enough,
William said enthusiastically, "Fang Yi, I'd like to challenge you—"
"Not interested. I don't accept challenges. I've got things to do. Thanks."
Fang Yi politely refused outright. It wasn't that he didn't want to earn the money.
It was just that improving his combat experience and weapon skills mattered more to him right now.
If he really wanted to make money, he could always challenge all the students later.
Fang Yi's blunt refusal, coupled with his polite response,
left William speechless.
"Uh..."
After refusing, Fang Yi headed to the Wilderness Zone to continue hunting.
The group of foreigners were left standing where they were, watching him walk away.
"Haha, William, you didn't expect him to reject you so outright, did you?"
A few passing Huaxia students watched William's stiff expression with smiles.
But some of the foreigners beside William helped smooth things over. "At least that kid's smart enough to know he's no match for William. He was afraid of embarrassing himself, so he refused right away."
"Yeah, he's just a newcomer. Don't take it to heart, William."
"That's right. We should give the newcomer a break. He just got here, and maybe he doesn't have much money, so it's normal that he refused the challenge."
The passing Huaxia students only smiled faintly at that.
They knew the others were trying to save William's face, so they said nothing.
After all, they were all students of Instructor Jiang Fang.
Their instructor had let slip during a lesson that Fang Yi was exceptionally talented, perhaps even more so than those senior students.
So they had a fairly good idea of his strength.
"Fang Yi, huh..." William narrowed his eyes as he watched Fang Yi walk away. "We'll have to fight. I want to see what makes the instructors praise this guy so much."
Trouble found those who didn't go looking for it.
On the road,
Fang Yi suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason, but didn't think much of it. He focused on that day's hunting and training.
On the 27th,
many people were checking their rankings, since the month would end the following day.
Fang Yi took a look, too. Without having taken the Trial Tower assessment,
he had somehow climbed to 100th place.
"I'll take the assessment on the 2nd of next month, then start climbing the tower..."
Looking at his rank,
Fang Yi felt no particular emotion. He had treated the past half month as an adjustment period.
He had focused entirely on improving his combat techniques and awareness, as well as practicing with both weapons. The points in his ranking had all come from hunting in the Wilderness Zone.
"Let's see how many levels I can reach without a cultivation-level advantage, relying only on combat experience, weapon skills, and Force Output."
"First, I'll message Instructor Jiang Fang and tell her I'm taking the assessment on the 2nd of next month."
Fang Yi took out his phone and began typing as he continued toward the Wilderness Zone to hunt and build combat experience.
However,
as other students and instructors checked the rankings in front of the Black Dragon Sculpture, they happened to see that Fang Yi, a newcomer who had only joined half a month earlier, had climbed to 100th place.
They were all at a loss for words.
"Teacher, what you said was true!"
Several students stood beside Jiang Fang,
staring at the rankings on the screen in utter disbelief.
Even Jiang Fang looked dazed.
She hadn't expected Fang Yi to reach 100th place after only half a month at the Training Camp!
Normally, Fang Yi's results would only be considered valid for evaluation next month. He had just joined the Training Camp, after all, and half a month wasn't enough time to show much. It wouldn't be fair to judge him on that.
Everyone else had spent a full month training to accumulate those points.
Fang Yi was a newcomer, so he had started later than the others. They wouldn't pay much attention to his results from the past half month.
They were basically waiting to see how he performed next month.
But no one had expected Fang Yi to train so hard!
He had just hit them all with a bombshell!
"Fang Yi's really brought honor to Huaxia."
"Haha! Huaxia's going to have another powerhouse."
Just then, Jiang Fang received a message from Fang Yi saying that he planned to take the assessment on the 2nd.
"Fang Yi hasn't taken the Trial Tower assessment yet?"
Jiang Fang frowned as she looked at the message on her screen, and unconsciously read it aloud.
Her voice wasn't loud, but everyone heard her clearly.
Many students and instructors all turned to look.
"What?!"
"What do you mean, he's taking the assessment on the 2nd of next month?"
"So he hasn't taken the assessment at all this half month? He made it into the top 100 without even taking the Trial Tower assessment, and he did it in just half a month... What kind of joke is this?"
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