It's still because of "Frequency Mark"!
As is well known, the Sea of Consciousness expels Echoer based on the strength of Frequency Mark.
As long as one remains in the Sea of Consciousness, the Frequency Mark will continue to deepen.
Once a certain threshold is reached, the spirit will be targeted by the Sea of Consciousness. If it does not evacuate in time, the spirit will be directly obliterated by the Sea of Consciousness!
Even if one wants to enter the Sea of Consciousness again, one must wait until the Frequency Mark fades to a certain extent.
However, now, because the Thousand Faces Card is under the "Infinite Weakening" buff, the Frequency Mark of Qiji is also "Infinite Weakening"!
In the eyes of the Sea of Consciousness, Qiji suddenly became "invisible".
In other words, he has the authority to remain in the Sea of Consciousness indefinitely!
The translation is:
He opened it again!
"Unlimited time" is enabled!
Plans changed, Qiji made a decision—
He wanted to strengthen the Echo Core to perfection in the Sea of Consciousness in one go before leaving!
After all, the "Blessing" will be reset to zero after the blessing ends, so it's important to maximize its effectiveness!
Qiji had originally planned to play for a little while and then get off the plane, but now there's no other way.
This is Golden Blessing!
Moreover, these are the three "speed-type Blessing" that are most suitable for his current situation!
Qiji had to consider whether this was his only chance in this life...
After all, the Academy Grand Tournament is approaching, and the destined "Awakening Day" is just around the corner. If he misses this opportunity, Qiji may never have the chance to achieve "perfect awakening" in his entire life.
This opportunity won't come again!
Anyway, before logging into the Sea of Consciousness, Qiji had told Liuli that he was going to take a nap.
I think there shouldn't be any problems... right?
Even if something goes wrong, we can always apologize properly afterward!
To become stronger, to achieve perfect awakening, to obtain the Origin Mark, and to uphold the King's Lineage, Qiji couldn't care less about anything else!
Anyway, he's lying in the hospital, and the doctors will vouch for him; his vital signs are stable!
On this side, Qiji seized the only chance he had in his life to practice his swordplay within the Sea of Consciousness.
On the other hand, in reality...
Xiwang pushed the wheelchair so hard it was practically sparking, rushing all the way to the hospital.
What I saw
However, the older brother fell into a coma and did not wake up for a long time.
"Brother... brother?!"
Chapter 101 The Essence of the Grand Competition! Myth Fragment! (3.5 in 1)
City of Kindling, internal meeting.
Director Qingye of the Civil Welfare Institute slammed the document on the table and vehemently criticized the Echo Association for its mishandling of the White Harbor incident.
Zhuyin listened expressionlessly, then casually attributed the whole affair to the World Purification Society.
He had already prepared for this, and his words were perfectly tactful.
Although Qingye was still angry, he had no way to refute her.
In fact, most people present knew perfectly well that:
The death toll in the White Harbor attack was far lower than expected due to the involvement of Poker Group.
For some, what should have been an "amputation" has now become a failure.
The incident has already occurred, and assigning blame and assigning responsibility at this point will not change the outcome.
Moreover, to some extent, the deaths of some citizens actually gave the City of Kindling a much-needed respite.
Although no one dared to say this out loud.
In any case, when Zhuyin flipped through the documents on the table and changed the subject to the upcoming Academy Grand Tournament, apart from a few people who still looked indignant, the rest tacitly took the opportunity to back down.
They all chimed in, changing the subject.
"I heard that Kalentia sent ten exchange students this time?"
"What?! Ten people?! Why don't they just rob them?!"
"They're robbing us! What else do you think they're doing?"
"Tsk tsk tsk, their appetite really gets bigger and bigger! This time, they're practically planning to wipe them out completely!"
At this point in the conversation, Xia Ming, as the dean of the college, felt somewhat embarrassed:
"Ahem, although this time there are ten exchange students..."
But one of them was originally a transfer student from our college—
Wuma Ling, a student from the original top-tier class.
She's Professor Qin's daughter; if she gets one of the seats, it wouldn't be considered a loss...
As he spoke, the dean's confidence waned, and he probably realized that this was too shameful.
To talk about the "exchange students" in the freshman competition, we have to start with the essence of the freshman competition and with the Sea of Consciousness.
In the world of Echo, the Sea of Consciousness is not a chaotic mess.
It has its own "rhythm" and "pulse".
Every few years, a phenomenon known as the "Echo Tide" emerges from the depths of the Sea of Consciousness.
As the tide rises, those "secret ruins" formed from ancient echoes that are usually hidden in the Sea of Consciousness will briefly appear in the sky above the Sea of Consciousness.
These mysterious ruins are said to originate from the previous era, or even earlier.
It is a small world formed from the fragments left behind after the collapse of the Mental Image Palace of those fallen powerful Echoer, which settled, intertwined, and evolved at the bottom of the Sea of Consciousness.
It contains rare materials that are hard to find outside, lost Echo circuit imprints, and may even capture the prototype of "Concept Armament" in its wild state.
The entrances to these secret realms and ruins need to be guided and fixed using "coordinate anchor points".
The City of Kindling has its own anchor point, as does Deep Blue City and Kalentia.
However, the number of passageways that each anchor point can support is limited.
The allocation of seats is not determined by the administrative bodies or high-ranking officials of any city-state, but by the "laws" of the Sea of Consciousness itself.
A thousand years ago, the human kings made a "contract" with the Sea of Consciousness, the contents of which are related to this—
Seats near the anchor point will be automatically assigned to the winner through a "trial".
The so-called "trials" have evolved over a long period of time into a grand competition for new students in various countries and cities.
Therefore, the essence of the freshman competition is not a simple exam held by the school, but a qualification selection process "proctored" by the Sea of Consciousness.
The arena itself was a modified "ritual site" connected to the Sea of Consciousness.
The moment a student wins a competition, their Sea of Consciousness directly senses the winner's "spiritual frequency" and imprints the "mark" of their seat onto the core of their consciousness.
This process is irreversible, non-transferable, and inalienable.
All the school can do is organize the competition, confirm the rules, and maintain order.
They have no control over the allocation of seats, and even if they wanted to designate a seat to a student they favored, they were powerless to do so.
Because the "recognition of a master" of a seat is directly executed by the Sea of Consciousness.
This is precisely the origin of the "exchange students" in Kalentia.
Although Kalentia also has its own competitions and its own seats.
But for a powerful kingdom like Kalentia, ambitious and still rapidly expanding, why would anyone complain about such a boon that raises the bar for the next generation?
Therefore, Kalentia adopted a "low-cost, high-return" strategy:
They selected from the younger generation of their own country those "near-first-class talents" who were destined not to rank among the top in the national competition of Kalentia, but whose strength was still far superior to that of students from other city-states. Under the guise of "academic exchange" or "friendly visit", they sent them in batches to other city-states to participate in the local competitions.
As for why the strongest prospects should be kept domestically?
Because Kalentia also has to deal with the challenges posed by "exchange students" sent by other kingdoms.
Yes, in countries with monarchies, "exchange students" are already a basic practice.
To possess royal power means to be superior to others and to be able to set the rules.
Only between kingdoms can there be equal opportunities for dialogue, and only then can they send "exchange students" to learn from each other's strengths and make progress together.
Just as Kalentia sends exchange students to other kingdoms, other kingdoms can also send exchange students to Kalentia.
As for city-states like the City of Kindling, which have lost the king's protection, they'd be lucky to even hold onto a few of their own spots, let alone send exchange students.
The students sent by Kalentia could not outcompete the true geniuses in Kalentia.
However, in a rural place like City of Kindling, where talent is scarce, it is enough to be a force to be reckoned with.
City of Kindling was fully aware of this, but was powerless to stop it.
Therefore, for the local students of City of Kindling, each "Tidal Year" competition is not only a battle for honor, but also a battle to defend it.
To protect the interests of their own city-state from being taken away by foreign "exchange students".
The City of Kindling anchor has a total of ten seats.
In previous years Kalentia had been more mindful of appearances and only sent three or four exchange students.
This time, for some reason, the other party didn't care about saving face at all and directly sent ten exchange students, not intending to leave a single spot for them!
When the topic of the competition came up, everyone in the conference room turned somber.
The acting city lord looked at Dean Xia Ming:
"Didn't I hear there's a super genius among the freshmen named Qiji? If it's him, could he win a spot?"
"Perhaps it's possible, but..."
"But?"
Seeing that the conversation had reached this point, Zhuyin took the initiative to continue, saying:
"During the White Harbor incident the previous day, Qiji was seriously injured and hospitalized after saving civilians from the fourth-tier Echoer of Deep Blue City."
"So?"
"He's probably unable to play."
"Then, what about the Thousand Faces Family's Suyo?" someone asked at the meeting.
Xia Ming sighed softly and slowly shook his head:
"I'm afraid we can't count on that one either."
Not long ago, he challenged Qiji, but was humiliated by Qiji... Sigh!
I heard from the faculty that his behavior at the academy was very abnormal after that battle, and he probably won't be able to get over it for a while...
The atmosphere in the meeting room suddenly became even more oppressive.
The hot-tempered Chief of Military Affairs slammed his fist on the table and angrily said:
"Does our City of Kindling really not have a single usable prospect at a time like this?!"
After saying that, he got up, slammed the door, and left.