Chapter 458: Challenge Mode

Of course, a high spiritual power level brings benefits not only in offense but also greatly aids defense.

For example, the Gold Bell Visualization Method can manifest spiritual power as a large bell covering the body's surface to block incoming attacks.

Unfortunately, it can only block attacks from Force Warriors of level 10 or lower; against a first-level grandmaster, it's as flimsy as paper, breaking with a single poke.

Jiang Cheng followed Dai Jun into a room beside the hallway.

Opening the door, I saw several devices resembling massage chairs inside; besides that, a huge screen was placed at the front.

"That's the virtual cabin; put on the helmet and lie in, and your real‑world data will be uploaded into the virtual world. As for weapons, psychic weapons, treasures, etc., you can select them in the system. Since this is an assessment mode, you may choose only one weapon, plus at most one psychic weapon. If you pass the assessment, later challenge mode works the same way, because this system aims to cultivate our combat ability and does not advocate using various treasures."

Jiang Cheng nodded and asked, "What if I want to practice treasures?"

"There's a free mode."

Dai Jun smiled and said, "In free mode you can choose any treasure to try; of course, if you don't have the corresponding treasure in reality, it's not very meaningful, and winning in free mode yields no reward."

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng realized something and hurriedly asked, "In challenge mode, does defeating an opponent grant a reward?"

Dai Jun and Qin Lao exchanged a smile.

"Hahaha, of course there are many benefits, but well, we'll talk about it after you pass the assessment."

Jiang Cheng nodded.

Under Dai Jun's guidance, he put on the helmet and lay into the cabin.

Opening his eyes again, he found himself in a wilderness, with no one around.

At that moment, the large screen outside also displayed the scene before Jiang Cheng's eyes, including Jiang Cheng himself.

Dai Jun and Qin Lao watched Jiang Cheng on the screen, but he could not see the two of them outside.

"The assessment mode has been activated. Examinee Jiang Cheng detected: Force, first‑level grandmaster; spiritual power, ten‑level spirit thought master. Shall we begin the assessment?"

A voice sounded in Jiang Cheng's mind.

At the same time, a virtual screen appeared before him.

Jiang Cheng raised his hand and clicked "yes".

He felt the scene before him was somewhat wondrous.

"Okay, assessment begins. Please choose your weapon."

The screen showed a large number of weapons.

Jiang Cheng searched and quickly found the familiar S‑grade alloy battle knife.

After arriving here, he specially borrowed an alloy weapon from Qin Lao to practice the Shadowless Blade Technique; as for psychic weapons, Qin Lao had none.

Upon confirmation, an alloy battle knife instantly appeared in his hand.

"Please choose your psychic weapon."

A female voice sounded again in his mind.

Jiang Cheng glanced and chose to skip.

A ten‑level spirit thought master versus a first‑level grandmaster basically has no chance of winning.

Choosing a psychic weapon would only distract him in battle.

"Shall we start the battle?"

"Yes."

The next second, a man suddenly appeared more than ten meters ahead.

The man's appearance and build were ordinary; he held an alloy battle knife in his hand, his expression dull.

"The battle will begin in ten seconds; please get ready."

"Ten." "Nine."

At that moment, the large screen outside also began the countdown.

"It's about to start."

Dai Jun laughed heartily.

Qin Lao beside him nodded, looking somewhat nervous.

As soon as the countdown ended, the opposite man stomped his foot, instantly appearing before Jiang Cheng; his long knife tore the air and slammed down heavily toward Jiang Cheng's chest.

Jiang Cheng's eyelid twitched, and he immediately swung his knife to block.

"Clang!"

A crisp ringtone came from the blade; the recoil forced him to retreat two steps involuntarily.

"What incredible speed!"

Jiang Cheng thought to himself.

Not only his movement, but his swordsmanship was likewise at mastery level.

Just as he spoke, the opponent lunged again, swinging his knife and actually producing three afterimages, making it impossible to tell which direction the real blade came from.

Seeing this, Dai Jun outside furrowed his brow.

This move is a technique of the Heaven Martial Phantom Blade Technique; countless challengers have fallen to it before.

Frankly, even he felt that letting a virtual shadow master such a blade technique during the grandmaster assessment was overly heaven‑defying.

But the assessment is meant to select combat talents with talent; better to lack than to excess, otherwise it would be irresponsible to the examinees and would bring hidden dangers to Hope City.

Just then, a clear "clang" rang out; the Jiang Cheng on the screen blocked the blow, and both stepped back two paces.

"You blocked it?"

Qin Lao's face showed surprise.

"This kid is not simple."

Dai Jun narrowed his eyes.

On the screen, the two fought again; after just a couple of moves, the virtual shadow once again employed the phantom blade technique, three blades of light shooting toward Jiang Cheng's eyes, throat, and chest.

The next moment, Jiang Cheng's long blade in his hand suddenly accelerated, with a clang, he blocked a slash aimed at his chest.

"It's the Shadowless Blade Technique."

Qin Lao took a deep breath; last time he hadn't paid much attention, but this time he finally saw it clearly.

The secret technique of the Shadowless Blade Technique can instantly multiply the blade's speed severalfold; Jiang Cheng couldn't tell whether that blade light was real, so he didn't bother to discern it, directly intercepting all three blade lights, and thus knew which one was genuine.

"Yeah, it seems he'll pass the assessment; it's a sure thing."

Dai Jun laughed.

Undeniably, the Virtual Shadow is very strong and absolutely calm, unaffected by emotions in battle.

But no matter how strong it is, it's still virtual and lacks intelligence; after a prolonged fight, its patterns will be discovered—its moves are just a few repeats, easy to figure out, and once the pattern is known, the subsequent battle becomes simple.

Not only in assessment mode, but also in challenge mode, the projections of those dozen or so Supreme experts have the same issue; the difference is that they have more moves, which they can combine randomly, making the pattern hard to discern, and furthermore, they have basically mastered all their moves to perfection, making it hard to find a flaw, so victory can only be won by sheer strength.

Of course, even so, there remains a large gap compared to a real person.

In the virtual world, Jiang Cheng watched the proficiency on the panel increase little by little, his heart filled with joy.

Indeed, gaining proficiency through combat is much faster than slowly grinding in the real world, and besides, this is real combat, with intensity several times higher than sparring in reality.

(End of chapter)