Second-stage mission, one star in three elements

"Is this your true strength?"

In the command room, Yang Xue stood before the screen in shock, staring motionlessly at Qin Chen.

Meanwhile, after killing Zhao Liang, Qin Chen turned to the newly arrived Luo Bin and smiled faintly. "Instructor Luo, you got here fast!"

Luo Bin glanced at the corpse on the ground, then looked at Qin Chen's calm expression. Towering waves of shock surged in his heart.

Qin Chen had actually killed the third-rank Zhao Liang, nearly beating him to death with a single punch. If Luo Bin hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it, no matter how monstrously Qin Chen had performed lately.

"Sigh, forget it. What's done is done." After calming down, Luo Bin waved his hand.

After a moment's thought, he continued, "I originally wanted to keep him alive. If he confessed to what the Zhao Family did to your father, and admitted that Zhao Wanshi was also involved in this attempt to kill you, we could have convicted Zhao Wanshi too."

"Now that Zhao Liang is dead, Zhao Wanshi will surely claim he knew nothing and wash his hands of it."

"Thank you, Instructor, but a conviction alone isn't enough!" Qin Chen shook his head.

As for a conviction, who knew what crime Zhao Wanshi would be convicted of? As long as he lived, he would get out someday. Qin Chen didn't want to leave any future trouble behind, even if that trouble would be nothing more than an ant in his eyes later on.

"As long as you have a plan!" Luo Bin gave Qin Chen a serious look.

He hadn't expected Qin Chen to be not only decisive in killing, but also utterly merciless toward potential enemies.

"Your assessment ends here!" Luo Bin said.

They had originally sent Qin Chen to take the assessment to give him some experience in actual combat. But he had killed a Three-Star Martial Artist without batting an eye. There was no point in continuing the assessment.

"Also, I'm declaring you the winner of this assessment!" Luo Bin continued.

[ D ing, congratulations on completing the first-stage mission of the General Star Selection]

[Ding, your rewards have been issued. The second-stage mission will now begin]

[Mission: obtain the title of Jiang Province's number one genius]

[Mission rewards: one earth sensitivity enhancement pill, three talent enhancement pills, and one martial arts gift pack]

The system's voice rang out, and Qin Chen was delighted to learn the new mission rewards.

Earth elemental cultivation talent is on its way! He was looking forward to it.

Of his three elements, fire was primarily for offense, while wind could boost his speed. Ice was inferior to fire in attack and inferior to earth in defense, but it combined both offense and defense.

So, if he cultivated the earth element, his defense would rise to another level, greatly increasing his strength.

There were also three talent enhancement pills. He could use them to improve his cultivation talent for the ice and wind elements, greatly increasing his cultivation speed in the future.

"All right, go back to the training camp. I'll handle things here. Zhao Liang died because he barged in here without authorization. No one will give you any trouble over it!" Luo Bin said, then walked toward Zhao Liang's corpse.

"What about me?" Zhou Lei finally came to his senses and hurriedly asked.

"Carry on!" Luo Bin glanced at him and said offhandedly.

Zhou Lei had wanted to quit the assessment, but seeing that Luo Bin was ignoring him, he had no choice but to look around and sneak away cautiously.

Qin Chen didn't leave right away. Instead, he went over to the Fire Cloud Tiger's corpse and split its head open, unexpectedly discovering a beast crystal.

Demonic beast crystal: fire element, level one (can be devoured)

The system notification filled Qin Chen with delight.

Ferocious beast crystals could speed up body tempering, so demonic beast crystals would most likely speed up the formation of Divine Marks.

"Instructor Luo, how much does this demonic beast crystal cost?" Qin Chen couldn't help asking.

Luo Bin turned to look at the level-one fire-element beast crystal and said in surprise, "This Fire Cloud Tiger actually had a beast crystal."

"A level-one beast crystal costs around five hundred thousand. You're quite lucky!"

"Five hundred thousand?"

Qin Chen was startled. That wasn't cheap. A top-grade ferocious beast crystal cost only around a hundred thousand; this was a full five times as much.

"Five hundred thousand isn't expensive!" Luo Bin suddenly said seriously. "Even ten demonic beasts might not yield a single beast crystal. And you have to understand that every beast crystal might have been paid for with the lives of warriors on the front lines."

In the rear, all officially sold beast crystals were brought back from the front lines. After they were sold, the authorities deducted the costs incurred during the sale, and only then was the remainder returned to the warriors on the front lines.

So, for a level-one beast crystal, the warriors actually received less than five hundred thousand.

Qin Chen nodded. "I'll be going, then!"

Without lingering, he headed straight for the mountaintop.

Half an hour later, he returned to his lounge.

Only then did he look into the System Space.

With a turn of his palm, two mark fragments appeared in his hand. Without hesitation, he swallowed them in one gulp.

[Ding, Wind Elemental Mark fragment devoured successfully. Your Wind Elemental Mark has reached full formation]

[Ding, Ice Elemental Mark fragment devoured successfully. Your Ice Elemental Mark has reached full formation]

Boom!

At that instant, Qin Chen felt the wind- and ice-attribute powers inside him surge.

The next second, he felt a marvelous change come over him.

"A double breakthrough. Now I'm a true three-element martial artist!" Qin Chen clenched his fist, feeling his suddenly enhanced strength.

A moment later, he looked at the other reward in the space.

A special booklet lay inside. With a thought from him, its pages began turning on their own, and streams of information poured into his mind. Once he had received it all, the booklet vanished of its own accord.

"Star Body Tempering Art, Volume One"

Martial art description: regards the human body as the universe. Volume one, Star Body, a ninth-rank martial art.

The description was very simple, but no matter how Qin Chen looked at it, it was anything but simple. Both "universe" and "ninth rank" left him shaken.

The universe was easy to understand. The space he occupied, this world, was part of the universe.

But this martial art was called the Star Body Tempering Art. Clearly, it had something to do with the stars in the universe.

According to the information he had received, completing the first volume would allow him to cultivate a Star Body, making his body like a star.

As for ninth rank, that went without saying. As far as he knew, the highest-ranked martial arts among all of humanity were currently ninth rank.

This is only the first volume. Could the second volume be even higher? The thought stirred Qin Chen's heart.

Soon, he stopped dwelling on it. For now, he would start cultivating the first volume.

This martial art could be said to be tailored for him, because an ordinary martial artist's body would be unable to withstand the power it brought.

But he cultivated multiple elements at once, and his body had been tempered by different elements. Cultivating it would be no problem at all.

Finally, Qin Chen took out the level-one fire-element beast crystal and swallowed it in one gulp.

Once inside his body, the beast crystal began to digest rapidly.

He hurriedly sat cross-legged and began forming his Divine Mark.

Soon, he discovered that the beast crystal's energy was actually beginning to form a fire-element Divine Mark.

Name: Qin Chen

Fire-element realm: One-Star Martial Artist (second Divine Mark progress: 20%)

Wind-element realm: One-Star Martial Artist (second Divine Mark progress: 0)

Ice-element realm: One-Star Martial Artist (second Divine Mark progress: 0)

Combat power: 2100

"Five hundred thousand, gone!"

Looking at the twenty-percent progress on his second fire-element Divine Mark, Qin Chen felt both joy and worry.

He was glad that he could devour demonic beast crystals to form Divine Marks, but worried that he was too poor.

A single level-one beast crystal cost five hundred thousand. He had thought that having over two million made him well-off, but it turned out he was still broke.