Half a year

Zhang Gui joined the Training Camp in late March 2057 and chose the identification number "570401."

With Dongguan accompanying him, Zhang Gui naturally never had to deal with anyone challenging him.

And whenever he challenged others, no one refused.

Although Dongguan was there, the Training Camp still assigned Zhang Gui another teacher, Xiao Jian.

He was a male spear-wielding warrior, a High-level War God from Kyoto Base City.

Xiao Jian habitually dressed in black, carried a chilling, deadly air, and greatly admired Hong.

In the Virtual Space, Dongguan and Xiao Jian fought with identical physical attributes.

The outcome was beyond doubt: Dongguan won.

But he won through his tremendous force output. Although Dongguan had reached the artistic conception level, his movement and combat techniques were still inferior to Xiao Jian's.

Thus, despite Dongguan's presence, Xiao Jian still taught Zhang Gui the fundamentals of movement and spear techniques.

In return, Dongguan gave Xiao Jian pointers on his force application technique.

During their time at the Training Camp, Dongguan, already a Councilor, had originally intended only to accompany Zhang Gui. Instead, he ended up thoroughly shoring up his own fundamentals.

The Training Camp's teachers, and even the War Gods in the War God Palace, were challenged by Dongguan again and again during this period.

But they could hardly refuse a Councilor.

Five months passed just like that.

Zhang Gui was not actually eliminated. Instead, he broke into the top hundred in his third month.

It happened in the third month because his physical attributes had finally reached the intermediate war general level.

To reward him, Dongguan left Hongning Base City in his spare time, specifically hunted down many lord-level monsters, and bought a portion of dragon blood from the Limitless Martial Arts Hall.

With Dongguan, a Councilor, as his father, no faction would invite Zhang Gui to join without Dongguan first expressing his wishes, despite Zhang Gui's excellent performance.

Thus, Dongguan provided Zhang Gui's reward himself.

For Dongguan now, king-level monsters were somewhat troublesome to kill, but lord-level monsters were easy.

Since he was only farming money, he naturally prioritized high-level lord-level monsters. He did not need to seek out low- or mid-level ones, though he would not pass them up if he encountered them. As for war general- and warrior-level monsters, their materials sold for too little to justify sorting through their corpses.

During this period, Dongguan truly killed a great many-enough to nearly provoke an uprising among the king-level monsters.

Naturally, he bought more than just one portion of dragon blood. In short, Dongguan no longer lacked money.

Still, Councilors were not supposed to lack money in the first place. What they lacked were precious resources that money could not buy. Dongguan had merely caught up with them at last.

The War God Palace.

On the arena platform.

Dongguan stood with his saber, watching the opponent before him.

"Dongguan," a burly white man resembling a lion said in a deep, resonant voice, "do you really think you have a chance of defeating me?"

Ice Snow Emperor Mohanderson, the Third Speaker of the War God Palace, was considered second only to Hong and Thunder God.

"In reality, I probably wouldn't be a match for you. But here, things might be different." Dongguan's voice held confidence.

Half a year had been enough for him to shore up his fundamentals.

His phantom artistic conception had improved considerably. It was no longer his weakness.

And his force output had always been his strength.

After finishing the Ninefold Thunder Blade, he bought 《World Destruction》, then purchased some weaker manuals as well. Drawing on all of them, he integrated his force application techniques. Though he still dared not claim to have surpassed Thunder God, he had indeed taken another step forward.

Outside, with Planetary Grade special abilities in play and Mohanderson at Third-Order Planetary Level, he naturally stood no chance.

But in the War God Palace, everyone on the arena platform had the same base attributes: Apprentice fourth stage, ten thousand kilograms of strength, a speed of one hundred and fifty meters per second, and the reaction speed of a Beginner Warlord.

At first, he had thought it was deliberately designed this way. Only after becoming Planetary Grade and asking the other Councilors did he learn that there were many aspects of the Virtual Reality Device obtained from the Ancient Civilization Ruins on Earth that they did not understand. They dared not modify it too much, so it had remained this way.

"Newcomer." Mohanderson smiled. "What gave you the courage to challenge me?"

Among the Councilors, Dongguan was indeed a newcomer.

Mohanderson extended his hands, both clad in combat gloves.

Before reaching Planetary Grade, Third Speaker Mohanderson had fought with his fists. After reaching Planetary Grade, he still used his fists.

His technique manual, Ice Fist, was available in the warrior marketplace.

Although it fell short of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade's maximum force amplitude of seven, its highest, fifth layer could still reach five.

"Come on." Dongguan gripped his saber tightly and charged toward that imposing figure.

Boom!

The saber tore through the air, and the Ice Fist howled as they collided.

As Dongguan swung his saber, he darted around the arena platform, producing afterimages so lifelike that they confused Mohanderson's vision.

Mohanderson swung both fists to defend himself, his eyes fixed on his opponent as he waited for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.

Ice Fist demanded full effort from the very beginning. Its first layer required the complete release of one's strength, a force amplitude of one. Each additional layer raised the force amplitude by one. It was an overwhelmingly aggressive fist technique.

Its strongest attack combined both fists, doubling its original fivefold amplification to tenfold power.

Of course, a maximum amplitude of ten did not mean it was stronger than the sevenfold Ninefold Thunder Blade. The Ninefold Thunder Blade could deliver sevenfold attacks again and again, whereas Ice Fist's tenfold attack could only be used to decide a battle. If it missed, it would leave an opening that could lead to defeat.

Dongguan had read Ice Fist and understood this perfectly.

At first, there were several afterimages. Then they became three phantoms. Dongguan himself was one of them, but his position kept shifting, and Mohanderson could only identify him when they exchanged blows.

"If they're phantoms, I'll just smash them all." Mohanderson punched the phantoms on either side and kicked at the one in front.

As the battle progressed, he regained a familiar feeling. After breaking through to Planetary Grade, he had relied so often on his special ability that he had almost forgotten the thrill of landing solid, flesh-and-blood blows.

Whoosh!

All three phantoms were pierced and dispersed. They had all been false.

Dongguan appeared behind him, swinging his saber to sever his head.

"I've been waiting for you." Mohanderson grinned. Pushing off the ground with his remaining foot, he drove forward with a headbutt, clenched his fists, and brought them together to meet the saber.

A hundred thousand kilograms of force, coupled with his further-strengthened, rigid body, slammed forward.

The Ice Snow Emperor naturally possessed an artistic conception too. But his was not ice and snow-it was strength. His entire body crushed forward like a ponderous golem of ice and snow.

"These so-called phantoms are nothing more than afterimages created by speed. But no matter how fast you are, your real body still exists. In the end, strength decides the outcome." The Ice Snow Emperor's gaze was profound, as though he had seen through everything.

If the Ninefold Thunder Blade embodied speed, his fists embodied weight.

Although Dongguan's phantom artistic conception was highly deceptive, Mohanderson, who had once challenged Thunder God, saw its essence: speed, merely employed with rhythm and technique.

"Then have you considered that this, too, is a phantom?"

The voice came from behind him as a saber slashed vertically downward. The Dongguan who had just tried to behead him was also a phantom.

This is bad. Mohanderson realized he had miscalculated, but he swung out his left hand and twisted aside, intending to sacrifice an arm to gain an opening.

The faction he belonged to could produce the Water of Life, which was why he fought using tactics that traded injury or mutilation for opportunities.

"This is still a phantom."

His arm blocked nothing.

That downward slash had also been a phantom.

A very real saber cut into his waist, separating Mohanderson's upper body from his lower half.

His iron fists still struck the saber in one final blow.

Dongguan lost his grip on the saber, but dodged clear himself.

With resentment filling his eyes, Mohanderson lost.

"There's still room for improvement." Dongguan left the arena platform.

After challenging one opponent after another, he had thought he was approaching Thunder God's level. Now, however, Mohanderson had given him a reminder.

Although he had won, he had only avoided the final blow by losing his saber.

Outside the Virtual Space, Mohanderson could have survived through his Planetary Grade vitality, and his ability to fly would have preserved his mobility. With the Water of Life to restore him as well, Dongguan's combat strength would have dropped sharply after losing his weapon. Judging solely by their abilities as warriors, the outcome would have been uncertain.

Moreover, in reality, Mohanderson's base strength was four times his own. With both their special abilities involved, the result might have been even more different.

He was also at Planetary Grade first stage, but there was still a gap between him and the original story's Luo Feng, who could challenge higher stages at that level.

That gap lay in secret techniques.

This battle also made him realize that fighting with simulated Warrior General level bodies was no longer very useful to him.

Without a Planetary Grade body, he could not support more advanced techniques.

Still, while Dongguan considered himself lacking, others did not see it that way.

Defeating the Third Speaker in the Virtual Space did not mean his strength had reached a Speaker's level, but it was enough to demonstrate his potential.

Because of this, Catlan of the Polenas Family even asked Councilor Yan Hai to act as an intermediary and had Li Yao and Vina apologize for their earlier misunderstanding of Dongguan.

Early morning, August 1.

Nearly two hundred trainees waited on the lawn for Hong's arrival. Luo Feng and Zhang Gui were among them.

They were all excited, especially those who had recently joined the Training Camp and would be seeing Earth's strongest man in person for the first time.

Dongguan stood to one side with the Training Camp's Inspector Wang.

"You're going to the Australian Continent with them this time too? Aren't you spoiling your son a little too much?" Inspector Wang asked Dongguan.

What good would the Training Camp's "life-and-death trial" do if a Councilor went along to protect them?

"After all, for so many years, he..." Dongguan shook his head.

Over the past half year, his image as a doting father had become deeply entrenched, surpassing his former reputation as the "perfect War God."

Looking back on his journey from "Cold Face" to "perfect War God" and then to "the Councilor who spoiled his son," Dongguan felt rather wistful.

Still, he really was not going to the Australian Continent this time to protect Zhang Gui.

Well, perhaps that was part of it.

His main objective was Fog Island.

After resolving the "noise" problem and breaking through to Planetary Grade, he had finally begun planning how to deal with the crises from the original story.

Three crises would later arise on Earth: the Golden-Horned Behemoth, the Universe Adventurer Nolan Mountain, and the forced purchase triggered by Giant Axe's investigation.

The forced purchase was still a long way off. When the time came, he could bring it up and delay it for as long as possible. If he could push it back several hundred thousand years, until Luo Feng became a Venerable, none of it would be a problem.

To be honest, though, that crisis was the hardest to resist, but also offered the most room to maneuver.

They would attract attention by displaying talent, but their status as geniuses would also keep others from pushing things too far.

Then there were the Golden-Horned Behemoth and the Universe Adventurers.

Knowing that the Golden-Horned Behemoth existed, he could search the seas when the time came. With advance knowledge, he could probably force it out while it was still at Planetary Grade.

The Universe Adventurers, on the other hand, were the most troublesome. He would either have to deal with them before they reached Earth or buy Earth, just as in the original story.

All of this depended on one prerequisite: making contact with the universe.

And making contact with the universe inevitably meant dealing with Babata aboard the Yunmo Star Ship on Fog Island.

Even if he managed to activate the spaceship in Ruins No. 12 through his own research, Hu Yanbo's secret technique in the Dark Universe would mean he could leave but could not return.

He had to go to Fog Island on the Australian Continent.

Dongguan glanced at Luo Feng.

He had visited the Australian Continent before, but it was too vast, and he did not know where Fog Island was.

For now, he could only follow the original plot and see whether Luo Feng could find it.

Li Wei had died differently from how he had in the original story. Although Li Yao still disliked Luo Feng, being an indirect cause and being the actual killer were two different things. He might not hunt Luo Feng down.

The plot had already changed, but Dongguan could only try. If it did not work, he would simply invent a pretext, as he had with the Death Desert, and lure people there to search.

But the Australian Continent was enormous, far larger than the Death Desert. Even with identifying features such as the Ape Mountain Range, a river, and an island in the middle of a lake, finding it would take a long time.

Besides, if someone found an island with a Spirit of Plants and Trees, why would they share it with him?

Unless he could offer something more tempting than a Spirit of Plants and Trees. Unfortunately, he could not.

Dongguan glanced at Luo Feng again. He could only hope the protagonist would come through.

Luo Feng turned, saw Dongguan smile at him, nodded in response, and paid him no further attention.

A blood-red triangular fighter aircraft flew in from the distance and landed on the apron.

Hong had arrived.

The life-and-death trial was about to begin.