The Ten-Year Tournament

Yin Congyang thought it over. Feilaoshen had explained everything before clearly, and there would be materials available for anything he hadn't gone into detail about. But he was puzzled by the last thing he'd mentioned—the chance to advance to the Core Layer. "Lord Feilaoshen, can one only enter the End-of-the-World Secret Realm through the chance to advance to the Core Layer that comes once every hundred years? Does the Training Camp have any other advancement paths? I remember that at Planetary Level, passing the 51st level of the Heaven-Reaching Tower was enough to advance directly to the Core Layer."

Feilaoshen nodded. "For your first question, the top 100 in the hundred-year student tournament are normally assigned to the End-of-the-World Secret Realm. But these 100 geniuses are eligible to enter the Initial Universe and spend a hundred years comprehending its mysteries. As long as you meet the requirements, you can advance to the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm, or even the Primordial Secret Realm or the Primitive Secret Realm. In the past, there have been students who entered the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm directly after spending a hundred years comprehending the Initial Universe. But no one has made it into the Primordial Secret Realm, and you can forget about the Primitive Secret Realm. That's simply impossible.

"As for your second question, of course the Training Camp has other paths to advancement. For example, if you have an exceptionally powerful Immortal teacher—I mean someone who is extremely powerful even among Immortals, and is close to a Universe Country Lord—and he speaks on your behalf, you can enter the End-of-the-World Secret Realm directly. Or, if you make an outstanding contribution to the Human Race, the Virtual Universe System may evaluate it and decide that your contribution is significant enough to award you a place in the End-of-the-World Secret Realm. Then there's the Heaven-Reaching Tower you mentioned. At Planetary Level, you need to pass the 51st level; at Star Level, you need to pass the 61st. And passing the 61st level of the Heaven-Reaching Tower is no easier than advancing to the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm from the End-of-the-World Secret Realm!"

Yin Congyang nodded silently and bowed. "Thank you for explaining, sir."

"Setting your sights high is a good thing, young man," Feilaoshen said kindly. "But you still have to keep your feet on the ground, build a solid foundation, and take things one step at a time. Once you have the strength, you'll be able to achieve everything you want. Off you go!"

After leaving the Gravity Tower, Yin Congyang found his villa, number 2985. He carefully read through the email from the Training Camp Intelligent System, made a plan for his cultivation, and began another round of arduous training.

He still had plenty of points. Completing the Planetary Level trial mission had earned him a good number, too. They weren't enough to exchange for the third stage of the Shake God secret manual, but they were more than enough to support his cultivation.

He planned to cultivate a clone at Star Level. Once it grew strong, he could send it into danger first, giving himself another way to stay alive.

In Human Territory, a weak person was generally safe, apart from the Training Camp's various life-and-death trials and missions. But once you made a name for yourself, the more talented you were, the more your rival races wanted to eliminate you. Assassinations would come one after another.

That was the norm in the universe. Whenever a race produced a once-in-an-era genius, its enemies would always want to kill them as quickly as possible. Even allies and subordinate races were secretly glad to see it happen. After all, no one wanted a being from another race to grow too powerful.

In such circumstances, it all came down to whether the genius had powerful enough means of survival. Take Kedi, for instance. Back when he was at World Lord Level, he had passed the 20th level of the Heaven-Reaching Bridge and cleared the World Lord Level Heaven-Reaching Mountain. He was hailed as a once-in-an-era genius. Yet when he ventured into a Cosmic Secret Realm, the Zerg Race set a trap for him, and even his teacher, the Chaos City Lord, couldn't resurrect him.

If Kedi had had a clone back then, his Law Comprehension had been enough to pass the 20th level of the Heaven-Reaching Bridge, so his will and consciousness must have been extraordinarily strong. Before an overwhelming danger struck, he could have chosen to self-destruct, then had his clone re-form his original body and avoid death.

After Luo Feng rose to prominence, he was assassinated several times as well. But once his clones were exposed, every race realized that killing one clone was useless. Only Soul Annihilation could destroy him completely. So the other three races even joined forces and paid a huge price to hire Xu Zhen Demon God, hoping he would use Soul Enslavement on Luo Feng.

After careful consideration, Yin Congyang began cultivating the clone secret technique he had stumbled upon. He started with the first part. His Spiritual Consciousness and soul were originally fused together; the first step was to draw in his Spiritual Consciousness, leaving part of his soul free so he could cut it away.

The first step was difficult, but it could also be easy. The key was the strength of one's will. A strong will made it easier to control one's Spiritual Consciousness and draw it in according to the method described in the secret technique. If one's will wasn't strong enough, even this first step would be unimaginably difficult. After all, this was an astonishing secret technique. Without the right talent, even taking the first step was a tremendous challenge.

Yin Congyang organized his time carefully. He chose the classes he found interesting and useful according to the schedule and attended them in the Virtual Universe. He spent the rest of his time cultivating his Domain and comprehending the laws. He also used the basic benefits provided by the Training Camp—treasures that stimulated evolution—to speed up his progress. With the help of the mysterious energy in his Dantian, his cultivation wasn't much slower than it had been at Planetary Level.

He wasn't in any hurry to take on missions yet. He had only just reached Star Level and was at Star Level One. He needed to build up his foundation first and make sure he had a better chance of protecting himself before taking on dangerous missions.

Take the Universe Trainee Mercenary qualification mission, for example. Although he wasn't afraid of ordinary Star Level Nine opponents, there was no telling how he'd fare against a whole group of them.

So he decided to lie low at first and wait until he reached Star Level Six or Seven before going out on missions. By then, he'd be much better prepared.

Ten years later.

Yin Congyang had reached Star Level Seven as he'd hoped. His Domain had reached the ninth level and was at its peak, while his comprehension of the laws of the Five Elements had improved considerably over the past ten years. He had also crossed the threshold of the Law of Space, which had in turn enhanced his Domain's power.

He had planned to choose a mission, but the ten-year student tournament was about to begin, so he put off accepting one.

Yin Congyang had spent only ten years in the Star Level Training Camp. Before that, he had spent ten years in the Planetary Level Training Camp. As a result, the other Star Level students had ten more years of cultivation than he did, and most of them were currently around Star Level Eight or Nine.

Over the past ten years, Yin Congyang had made great progress in his comprehension of the laws and had also mastered the first and second parts of the clone secret technique. Those first two parts took the most time. The third part involved cutting away a portion of his soul and placing it in a Soul Container. It had to be done in one go, without any mistakes, or all his efforts would be wasted. Once the soul was cut away, there was no sticking it back together. So he planned to begin the third step after the tournament.

There were nearly 3,000 Star Level students, and having them all fight one-on-one would take too long, so they used a lottery to divide them into groups.

The previous top 128 were drawn out as seeded contestants. Everyone else was divided by lottery into 128 groups, each with around 24 or 25 people. Each group fought in a round-robin format. A win earned one point, while a loss earned none. Anyone tied on points had to compete in a tiebreaker, and the top contestant in each group was decided at the end.

Then the highest-scoring contestant from each group was matched by lottery against the top contestants from the other 127 groups in one-on-one fights. The 64 winners drew lots again, and the process continued until the champion was decided.

Yin Congyang had no Star Level match record, so naturally, he wasn't seeded. Instead, he was placed in Group 89.

Group 89 had 25 people, and each person had to fight 24 matches. With his axe techniques, Domain, and Law Comprehension, Yin Congyang took first place in Group 89 without even using his Soul Attack secret technique, earning a place among the final 128.

Once every group had decided its winner, the Virtual Universe System held the draw. Yin Congyang's first opponent was Gelixi, who had been ranked 43rd. Gelixi was at Star Level Nine and had deep comprehension of the Law of Wind. His swordsmanship was exceptionally refined. The two battled back and forth on the arena for dozens of exchanges, but in the end, Yin Congyang defeated him with his superior Law Comprehension and more refined axe techniques, advancing to the top 64.

By the round of 64, everyone except Yin Congyang was at Star Level Nine. His opponent in the round of 64 was Felicia, previously ranked ninth. Felicia had deep comprehension of the Law of Fire and had even comprehended the Law of Space. Wielding a great hammer, Felicia's techniques were evenly matched against Yin Congyang's axe techniques. But after crossing the threshold of the Law of Space, Yin Congyang's progress had been extremely rapid, and his comprehension was far greater than Felicia's. On top of that, he had the added strength of his comprehension of the laws of the Five Elements. In the end, he closed in and split Felicia in two with a single axe blow.

His opponent in the round of 32 had previously been ranked 49th. They hadn't faced any particularly powerful opponents in their first two matches, but against Yin Congyang, they were eliminated in fewer than ten moves.

Most of the top 16 had considerable comprehension of at least one law, but very few had studied the Law of Space or the Law of Time. Felicia had only recently grasped the barest rudiments of the Law of Space. Felicia had gone undefeated in the group stage and had hoped to win the tournament, but hadn't expected to face Yin Congyang, whose comprehension of the Law of Space surpassed Felicia's.

In the round of 16, Yin Congyang faced an arrogant student. Short and slight, the student was a Mental Master Controller who wielded the Xinling Disk with consummate skill. But after failing to overcome Yin Congyang's axe techniques, the student was still killed with a single close-range strike.

There were four Controllers among the top eight. Each of them had mastered the Xinling Disk to the peak of Star Level, but Yin Congyang's axe techniques were also at the peak of Star Level. His comprehension of the various laws was no worse than theirs, and his comprehension of the Law of Space was even greater. After winning two matches in a row, he advanced to the finals.

His opponent in the finals was Keximang, who had previously been ranked first. Keximang was a blade-wielding martial artist.

"So you're the one who advanced from the Planetary Level camp just ten years ago?" Keximang fixed Yin Congyang with a gaze that pressed down on him. "I just got back from Hell Star, so I'm a little bloodthirsty. You don't mind, do you?"

Keximang figured that Yin Congyang had only recently broken through to Star Level, less than ten years ago, so there was no way he could have been to Hell Star. He wanted to intimidate Yin Congyang with his own experience there and take him down a notch.

But Yin Congyang had a powerful soul and an unwavering will. How could a few words shake him?

He looked at Keximang, his eyes glinting strangely, and smiled. "Is that so? Then you must have been very lucky to make it back from Hell Star alive!"

The moment those words reached Keximang, they brought back the horrors of his time on Hell Star. Combined with the Illusion Technique Yin Congyang hadn't used in a long time, they sent Keximang straight into an illusion. Before he could even come to his senses, Yin Congyang had closed in, and in an instant, Keximang's head was severed from his body.