Chapter 48: Mu Tian
Among the 100 or so people, the majority of them were below the Saint level, and had performed the event in the 2nd region. When the students that had Class 1 Monster Cores walked up, only a bit over 30 people remained. This made the students who did not know much about the 3rd region’s conditions puzzled.
Although the 3rd region had Class 2 Magical Beasts, they all had low attack powers. To a Saint that could condense a Saint Weapon, although it may not be possible for him/her to fight against the magical beast alone, as long as a few people worked together, hunting magical beasts within the 3rd region shouldn’t be very difficult to do. It should definitely be easier than a student that had not yet reached Saint level killing a Class 1 Magical Beast. After all, the Saint Weapons that Saints had were extremely powerful, and far surpassed those other ordinary weapons.
Logically, the chances of students completing their task in the 3rd region should definitely be much higher than those in the 2nd region. However, nobody had imagined that the event would end up with such results. In the 3rd region, only a pathetic 30 or so students had completed their task; this was much less than the people who had finished in the 2nd region.
When the first student arrived in front of the teacher inspecting the monster cores, he directly reached into his Space Belt and lightly placed all of his monster cores on the table. This student only took out 3 monster cores total.
Casually gazing at the three Class 1 Monster Cores, the approximately 50-year old teacher in charge of inspecting the monster cores nodded and said, “Hm, not bad. You qualify as passing. What’s your name?”
“Teacher, my name is Cheng Yun Feng.” The youth that was being inspected excitedly said. The two words “Not bad” had already confirmed the fact that the teacher was praising him. Being complimented by the teacher was the greatest honor to him.
The teacher picked up his pen and recorded the information on a piece of paper, then said, “Go return your Space Belt to the academy. Take your monster cores. Also, this is a badge that represents your glory. You must take good care of it.” The teacher pulled out a badge from underneath the table, and handed it to the student.
The student happily agreed. He carefully and tenderly took the badge, and then he walked off the platform in extremely high spirits.
“Next!”
…….
Afterwards, students walked up in succession and handed their monster cores to the teacher for appraisal, and at the same time, were recorded. The process was quite fast, and in the blink of an eye, dozens of people had already passed. The fewest number of monster cores among them so far had been 2, and the greatest number had taken out 8, which had made the appraising elder shocked for a moment.
At this moment, a handsome youth with an uncommon air walked up to get his monster cores inspected. The youth had a small scar on his forehead, and it was most likely a recent wound from the forest, since the scar still had a hint of blood on it.
The youth calmly walked up to the elder, and quietly took off his Space Belt. He then began to take out monster cores, and placed them on the table one by one. As he was removing them, the table was soon filled with 6 Class 1 Monster Cores, yet he showed no signs of stopping. He continued to leisurely pull out monster core after monster core from his Space Belt. His movements were not at all rushed, and the expression on his face was indifferent, giving off the impression that he was a very steadfast person.
When the youth first took out 6 monster cores, the inspecting teacher finally returned to his senses. A smile slowly formed on his face, and he lightly nodded while looking at the youth with an expression of admiration.
Soon, the youth had already pulled out 10 monster cores. At this moment, the expression of the elder inspecting the monster cores finally changed. His gaze towards the youth was no longer one of admiration, but one of shock. For a person that had not yet reached Saint level to have managed to kill and retrieve monster cores from 10 Class 1 Magical Beasts was definitely not an easy task. In addition, the youth still showed no signs of stopping, signifying to everyone present that he still had not finished removing all of the monster cores from his Space Belt.
The students lined up being this youth had already been shocked speechless at the sight of him pulling out so many monster cores. They thought back to how much energy they had consumed in the forest just to retrieve 2-3 monster cores; to them, this had already been quite an amazing achievement. Many of them had even felt quite proud of this. Yet the youth in from of them had pulled out many times more monster cores than they had received within the last 3 days in a single breath. How could they not be shocked? Having fought against the Class 1 Magical Beasts quite a few times, they had been left with a deep realization that without reaching Saint level, using an iron weapon to kill Class 1 Magical Beasts with such thick skin was extremely difficult.
The youth did not pay any mind to the onlookers’ expressions, as if he didn’t see them. His movements had still not stopped, and he continued to pull out monster cores from his Space Belt one after another without a pause. Soon, there were already 15 monster cores piled onto the table, yet the youth still didn’t show the slightest trace of stopping. He was still equally unhurried as before, and he very calmly continued to take out more monster cores from his Space Belt.
At this moment, all the teachers on the platform were gazing at the youth in shock and disbelief. For a person not yet a Saint to have killed more than 10 magical beasts within 3 days would perhaps be possible if he worked together with 5-6 people, but to have hunted so many magical beasts in 3 days alone was really something the teachers felt was impossible, unless those magical beasts were all seriously wounded.
Sitting on top of the platform, the vice headmaster Chang Bai En smiled and said, “His name seems to be Mu Tian. He only entered the academy last year. After only a single year, he went from the 8th Saint Force layer to the peak of the 10th layer. This speed is quite good. It’s said that he even tried to attack a Saint. Although he ultimately failed, it has to be admitted that the Mu clan really did send a good young successor this time.”
The vice headmaster Chang Bai En paused for a bit, then shifted his gaze towards the lined up Changyang Xiang Tian and Tie Ta and muttered, “I really anticipate Changyang Xiang Tian’s and Tie Ta’s harvests. It’s said that the two of them had actually ran to the 3rd region to hunt Class 2 Magical Beasts on the last day. Their powers are clearly not at the Saint level yet. Heavens, to have relied on iron weapons to hunt Class 2 Magical Beasts, that is really too unfathomable. If I hadn’t personally witnessed the two of them kill a completely undamaged Class 2 Magical Beast, I would not dare to believe that such a situation was true. It seems that not only did the headmaster accept a good apprentice, Lore City’s Changyang clan which has been silent for so long will soon return to their former glory because of Changyang Xiang Tian in the near future.”
Only after the youth had taken out 23 Class 1 Monster Cores did he finally stop. He calmly looked at the inspecting elder taking notes, and said, “Teacher, these are the monster cores I retrieved.”
The elder in charge of the inspection swept a glance at the 23 monster cores and let out a long breath. He looked at the youth with bright eyes full of emotions and asked, “What’s your name?”
“Mu Tian!” The youth replied in an indifferent tone.
The elder’s gaze gradually became more serious as he continued to ask, “Mu Tian, did you gain these monster cores by yourself, or did you work together with others for them?”
Mu Tian’s expression did not change, as he had long since expected this would happen. “Teacher, these monster cores were gained by my hard work alone.”
Hearing this, the elder’s expression immediately changed. He looked intensely at Mu Tian with an expression beyond admiration, then smiled and nodded, “Good! Good! Good! Mu Tian, right? Very good. Your results are extremely outstanding. I hope that you continue to work hard in the future.” The elder did not ask how Mu Tian had gained the 23 monster cores; that was not important at all. The important part was that he knew that these monster cores had been gained through Mu Tian’s hard work alone. After all, in the Tian Yuan Continent, strength represented everything. As long as one could achieve the final victory, no matter what kind of dishonest methods were used, nobody would say anything about it.
Hearing the elder’s words of praise, Mu Tian could not help but smile.
At that moment, the elder took about a sky blue belt and badge. He handed them over to Mu Tian and said, “This is a Space Belt you had previously given us, and this is your badge. Take proper care of them.”
Mu Tian calmly accepted the Space Belt and the badge of glory, and re-inserted the 23 monster cores into his Space Belt, before walking off the platform. From beginning to end, Mu Tian had not shown a single trace of arrogance or pride; he always had the same, indifferent expression.
Jian Chen’s gaze followed Mu Tian until he walked off the platform. In his heart, he had already committed Mu Tian’s name to memory. Based on his intuition, he felt that Mu Tian was probably quite a complex person, and hadn’t used his full potential yet either. In the future, he would definitely accomplish much more; it was simply still unknown which of the two paths he would choose to advance on.
Because Mu Tian had taken out over 20 monster cores, the following students didn’t induce any type of reactions when they removed their monster cores. Majority of them had only the minimum 2 monster cores; the number of people that had more than 2 was very few. Aside from Mu Tian’s 23 monster cores, the highest harvest had been the previous 8 monster cores.
The inspection went by quickly, and it was soon Jian Chen’s turn. At this moment, the gazes of the vice headmaster sitting in the chairperson’s seat, as well as a few other teachers, immediately lit up. Their eyes closely followed Jian Chen, showing expressions of extreme concentration. The vice headmaster Chang Bai En who had previously been reclining in his seat could not help but straighten his back, as he gazed at Jian Chen, full of expectations. Although he knew that Jian Chen had killed quite a few magical beasts in the forest, he didn’t know the exact numerical value of this “quite a few”.
Jian Chen calmly walked up to the elder in charge of inspecting the monster cores and lowered his head to look at the 2 meter long table. A troubled expression showed on his face, and after some hesitation, he said, “Teacher, can you please change to a larger table?”
“Huh?” Hearing Jian Chen’s words, the elderly man who was closely inspecting paused, and asked in confusion, “What did you just say?”
Seeing that the table was originally not very large, and that there were already some items of little value on top of it, Jian Chen could only show a helpless expression. This table was really too small; there was absolutely no way he could fit all of his monster cores that pretty much completely filled his Space Belt.
“Yes, teacher. Can I please ask you to change this table to a slightly larger one? This table is too small.” Jian Chen continued.