Ten-Year Grand Competition

Yin Congyang thought for a moment. Feilaoshen had explained everything clearly earlier, and anything not detailed would have corresponding materials for reference. Only the last point—the opportunity to advance to the core layer—left him puzzled: "Lord Feilaoshen, regarding the once-every-hundred-years chance to advance to the core layer, can one only enter the End-of-the-World Secret Realm? Are there other promotion channels in the training camp? I recall that at the Planetary Level, passing the 51st floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower allows direct promotion to the core layer."

Feilaoshen nodded: "First question. Normally, the top 100 of the century's student competition are assigned to the End-of-the-World Secret Realm. But these 100 geniuses are eligible to enter the Initial Universe, where they can comprehend for 100 years. If you meet the standards, you can be promoted to the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm, or even the Primordial Secret Realm or the Primitive Secret Realm. Historically, some students have directly entered the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm after 100 years of comprehension in the Initial Universe, but none have made it to the Primordial Secret Realm, let alone the Primitive Secret Realm—that's simply impossible. Second question. The training camp does have other promotion channels. For example, if you have a very powerful Immortal teacher—I mean the kind of existence among Immortals that is close to a Universe Lord—who speaks for you, you can directly enter the End-of-the-World Secret Realm. Another example: if you make an exceptionally outstanding contribution to the human race, and the Virtual Universe System evaluates that contribution as significant enough, it can also grant you a spot in the End-of-the-World Secret Realm. As for the Heaven-Reaching Tower you mentioned, at the Planetary Level you need to pass floor 51, but at the Star Level, you need to pass floor 61. And the difficulty of passing floor 61 of the Heaven-Reaching Tower is no less than that of advancing from the End-of-the-World Secret Realm to the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm!"

Yin Congyang nodded silently, bowed, and said, "Thank you for clarifying, my lord."

"Young one, aiming high is right," Feilaoshen said kindly, "but everything must be grounded in reality. Lay a solid foundation, take one step at a time, and when your strength is sufficient, you will possess everything you desire. Go now."

Leaving the Gravity Tower, Yin Congyang found his villa, number 2985, and carefully read through the email sent by the Training Camp Intelligent System. After planning his next phase of cultivation, he began a new round of intense training.

He still had a considerable number of points. Completing the Planetary Level trial missions had also awarded him corresponding points. Although they weren't enough to exchange for the third volume of the [Shake God] secret manual, they were more than sufficient to support his training.

He planned to cultivate a clone at the Star Level first. Once the clone matured, he could send it into danger first, effectively gaining an extra means of survival.

Within human territory, safety wasn't a major issue when one's strength was weak—except for the training camp's various life-and-death trials and missions. But once you began to stand out, the more talented you were, the more the enemy races wanted to eliminate you. Assassinations would come one after another.

This was the norm in the universe. When a race produced a genius unseen in billions of epochs, enemy races always sought to eliminate them quickly. Even allied or vassal races secretly welcomed it, after all, no one wanted to see a non-kin existence grow too powerful.

In such situations, it all came down to whether the genius's survival methods were formidable enough. Take Kedi, for example. Back when he was a World Lord, he had passed the 20th floor of the Heaven-Reaching Bridge and cleared the World Lord-level Primordial Heaven-Reaching Mountain, hailed as a genius unseen in billions of epochs. And yet, when he ventured into a cosmic secret realm, the Zerg Race set a trap, and even his teacher, Chaos City Lord, could not revive him.

If Kedi had had a clone back then, with his comprehension of laws that allowed him to pass the 20th floor of the Heaven-Reaching Bridge, his will and consciousness would undoubtedly have been extremely high. Before an irresistible danger struck, he could have chosen to self-destruct, then used the clone to reconstitute his true body, thus avoiding annihilation.

Similarly, after Luo Feng rose to prominence, he was assassinated several times. But once his clone was exposed, all races knew that killing a single clone was useless. Only soul destruction could completely eliminate him. So the other three races even united, paying a huge price to enlist the Xu Zhen Demon God to attempt to enslave Luo Feng's soul.

After careful deliberation, Yin Congyang began cultivating the [Clone] secret art he had obtained by chance, starting from the first part. Originally, his spiritual sense and soul were completely fused. The first step was to contract his spiritual sense, freeing up a portion of his soul so that he could cut a part of it off.

The first step was both difficult and easy. The key lay in the strength of his will. A powerful will made it easier to mobilize his spiritual sense and contract it according to the method provided by the secret art. If one's will was not strong enough, even this first step would be incredibly arduous. After all, for such a heaven-defying secret art, without the corresponding talent, even entering the door was extremely difficult.

Yin Congyang allocated his time well. According to the course schedule, he chose classes he found interesting and helpful, attending them in the Virtual Universe. The remaining time was spent cultivating his domain, comprehending laws, and using the basic welfare provided by the training camp—treasures that promoted evolution—to accelerate his evolution speed. Combined with the mysterious fluctuations in his dantian, his cultivation speed was not much slower than at the Planetary Level.

As for missions, there was no rush for now. He had just entered the Star Level, at Star Level first stage. He needed to first raise his foundation and gain greater confidence in self-preservation before undertaking dangerous missions.

For example, the assessment mission for the Universe Trainee Mercenary. Although he wasn't afraid of ordinary Star Level ninth-stage opponents now, facing a group of Star Level ninth-stage foes was another matter entirely.

Thus, he decided to lie low for the early period. Once he cultivated to Star Level sixth or seventh stage, going out on missions would be more reliable.

Ten years later.

Yin Congyang had successfully cultivated to Star Level seventh stage. His domain had reached the peak of the ninth level, fully mastered. His comprehension of the laws of the Five Elements was significantly stronger than ten years ago. The Law of Space had crossed the threshold, and in turn, nourished his domain, greatly increasing its power.

He had intended to choose a mission to execute, but the upcoming decade-student competition made him postpone accepting any missions.

Yin Congyang had only been in the Star Level training camp for ten years. The previous ten years were spent in the Planetary Level training camp. Therefore, the other Star Level trainees had basically trained for ten more years than he had. Currently, the Star Level trainees in the camp were mostly at the eighth or ninth stage.

Over these ten years, Yin Congyang had not only made great progress in comprehending laws but had also completed the first and second parts of the [Clone] secret art. These first two parts were the most time-consuming. The third part—cutting off a portion of the soul and injecting it into a soul container—had to be done in one go without any mistakes. Otherwise, all previous efforts would be wasted, and the severed soul could not be reattached. So he planned to proceed with the third step after the competition.

There were nearly 3,000 Star Level trainees. Having them all fight one-on-one would take too long, so a draw-based group format was adopted.

The top 128 from the previous rankings were drawn as seeds. The remaining trainees were divided into 128 groups by draw, each group having about 24-25 people. Each group held a round-robin battle, with winners earning 1 point and losers earning none. Those with tied points would have a tiebreaker match, finally determining the group's champion.

The one with the highest points would then be drawn one-on-one against the champions of the other 127 groups. The 64 winners would continue to be drawn until the final champion was decided.

Yin Congyang had no previous battle records at the Star Level, so he was naturally not a seed. He was assigned to Group 89.

Group 89 had 25 people, each having to fight 24 matches. Using his axe techniques, domain, and law comprehension—without even employing soul attack secret arts—Yin Congyang secured first place in Group 89 and entered the final 128.

After all groups had determined their champions, the Virtual Universe System conducted the draw. Yin Congyang's first opponent was Gelixi, previously ranked 43rd. This Gelixi was at Star Level ninth stage, with a deep comprehension of the Law of Wind and extremely exquisite swordsmanship. The two tumbled and rolled on the arena for dozens of exchanges. In the end, Yin Congyang, with his higher law comprehension and more refined axe techniques, defeated Gelixi and advanced to the top 64.

By the top 64, everyone except Yin Congyang was at Star Level ninth stage. His opponent in the 64-to-32 round was Felicia, previously ranked 9th. Felicia not only had a deep comprehension of the Law of Fire but had also comprehended the Law of Space. Wielding a large hammer, his hammer techniques matched Yin Congyang's axe techniques evenly. However, after Yin Congyang's Law of Space comprehension crossed the threshold, his progress was extremely fast, far surpassing Felicia's. With the added boost from the laws of the Five Elements, he closed in and split Felicia in two with a single axe strike.

His opponent in the 32-to-16 round was previously ranked 49th. The first two battles hadn't pitted him against overly strong opponents, but facing Yin Congyang, he was stopped at the top 32 in less than ten moves.

The top 16 trainees generally had considerable comprehension in some law, but very few had dabbled in the Law of Space or the Law of Time. Felicia, earlier, had only grasped a superficial bit of the Law of Space in recent years and had been undefeated in the group matches, aiming for first place in this competition. Unexpectedly, he encountered Yin Congyang, whose Law of Space comprehension surpassed his own.

In the 16-to-8 match, Yin Congyang met a somewhat arrogant trainee. This slender, small-statured individual was a Spiritual Master Controller, wielding the Xinling Disk with extraordinary skill. But when he couldn't overcome Yin Congyang's axe techniques, he was killed in one blow at close range.

By the top eight, four were Controllers. Each had reached the Star Level peak in their use of the Xinling Disk. But Yin Congyang's axe techniques were also at the Star Level peak. His comprehension of various laws was no lower than theirs, and his Law of Space comprehension was even stronger. He won two consecutive matches and entered the finals.

His opponent in the finals was Keximang, previously ranked first. This Keximang was a blade-wielding warrior.

"So you're the one who just advanced from the Planetary Level ten years ago?" Keximang stared at Yin Congyang, his gaze full of oppressive pressure. "I just took a trip to Hell Star, so my killing intent is a bit heavy. You don't mind, do you?"

Keximang assumed that Yin Congyang, having broken through to Star Level less than ten years ago, could never have been to Hell Star. So he tried to intimidate Yin Congyang with his experience there, hoping to dull his edge.

But Yin Congyang's soul was powerful, and his will was unshakably firm. Mere words could not sway him.

He looked at Keximang, a strange light flickering in his eyes, and smiled. "Is that so? Then you're really lucky to have come back alive from Hell Star!"

As these words reached Keximang's ears, they instantly evoked the terrifying memories of his time on Hell Star. Combined with the Illusion Technique Yin Congyang hadn't used in a long time, Keximang fell into an illusion in an instant. Before he could snap out of it, Yin Congyang had closed in, and in that moment, his head was separated from his body.