Chapter 497: Grand Competition Day

He politely declined Di Yun's offer to spar, and Jiang Cheng came to a secluded corner where a figure was waiting for him.

"Chief."

Jiang Cheng shouted respectfully.

Just the fact that Chu Feng has been following him for these few hours already deserves this respect.

"No need to be so polite."

Chu Feng waved his hand, saying, "This time I didn't find anything amiss; once or twice doesn't prove anything. If someone really is scheming behind the scenes, doing nothing this time would be normal."

"I think the same," Jiang Cheng nodded, "but I still want to thank the Chief."

"Hehe, no need to be polite."

Chu Feng chuckled, "You've broken through to second-level Spirit Master?"

"Yes."

Jiang Cheng wasn't surprised either.

After all, the other party is a Level One maker; being able to clearly sense the change in one's own spiritual power is also easy.

"Really fast."

Chu Feng sighed, his tone tinged with envy.

He remembered that just two weeks ago, he had met Jiang Cheng.

At that time, the latter had just broken through to first-level Spirit Master; how little time has passed, and now he's second-level?

Even back when he was hailed as a genius by everyone, he didn't have such a fast cultivation speed, right?

"It's mainly thanks to the Chief's gift of the Seven Treasure Flowing Light Pendant; with its help, my spiritual power recovery speed increased dramatically, allowing me to break through in such a short time." Jiang Cheng explained.

"The Seven Treasure Flowing Light Pendant is important, but it's your talent in this area that plays the crucial role; otherwise, even if others had the pendant, they couldn't achieve what you have." Chu Feng praised, also feeling that guarding Jiang Cheng's path was very worthwhile.

"I'll convey your thanks to the Grand Chief; from now on, work hard and strive to break through to the Supreme realm as soon as possible."

After encouraging Jiang Cheng, Chu Feng then turned and left.

"It's time to practice in the Virtual Combat System."

Jiang Cheng's gaze turned toward the base.

After this week passes, next week will be the start of the Academy Grand Competition; during this period, he also needs to raise his sword technique proficiency.

Practicing psychic weapons isn't impossible, but once he compresses his spiritual power to the level of a tenth-level Spirit Thought Master, he can use at most six psychic weapons of the same grade at a time; any more would either slow his speed or lower his accuracy.

If he wants to increase the number, he can only lower the grade of the psychic weapons used; then, although the quantity is greater, in battle the psychic weapons are likely to be shattered by the opponent's weapons, ultimately leaving him empty-handed.

Changing tack, if his proficiency with psychic weapons is sufficient, he can fully use fourth-grade elementary psychic weapons with the spiritual power of a tenth-level Spirit Thought Master, thereby destroying the opponent's weapons in combat and even directly breaking through the defense of a tenth-level Force Warrior.

Moreover, he can also use fourth-grade intermediate psychic weapons.

Unfortunately, the rules also state that neither weapons nor psychic weapons may exceed the corresponding grade of a Force Warrior or Spirit Thought Master; otherwise, it counts as an automatic forfeit.

Thus, this path is completely cut off.

So, he must shift his thinking; since the Shadowless Blade Technique is just a little shy of perfection, he should intensively practice swordsmanship and movement, pushing both to the extreme of a Force Warrior to increase his chances of winning.

If he can win first place, that's one million contribution points!

At his current rate of earning contributions—about forty to fifty thousand per month—accumulating that much would also take two years.

……

Before he knew it, another week and more had passed.

During that week and more, the proficiency of the Seven Treasure Flowing Light Pendant remained at the mastery stage; plus, he spent considerable time improving his martial arts proficiency, so Jiang Cheng's spiritual power remained at the second-level Master level.

Fortunately, the breakthrough is only a few days away.

Besides that, Jiang Cheng followed Yu Yang and a few others on another mission; this mission had no special incidents, merely being attacked by several exotic beasts midway, which a few people of their strength could easily handle with ease.

And today is the long-awaited Academy Grand Competition.

The matches for students from grades one through ten had already ended two days earlier; today's main participants are all the teachers who signed up, of course, plus some students who have already become Masters.

In the assembly hall, over a thousand people were seated, about half of them students from various grades, gathered in small groups, chattering away.

"If you ask me, the one who will definitely win first place this time is Teacher Yao; the reason is simple—he was first place last time!" a male student said confidently.

"Nonsense," a male student beside him immediately objected, "Last time it was him, this time it's him again? Then the person who won first place the time before should have won first place in the previous Grand Competition, shouldn't they?"

"Exactly, Teacher Yao is indeed strong, a seventh-level Spirit Master, but Teacher Ziwei isn't weak either—she's also a seventh-level Force Master, and she's beautiful to boot!"

Upon hearing this, many male students in the hall showed excited expressions, and a vision of a graceful figure in white robes automatically appeared in their minds.

In private, many were saying, whoever could marry Teacher Ziwei as his wife would truly be blessed with ancestral graves emitting green smoke.

"Cough, cough, let me say a fair word: I think the top three from last time all have a chance to win first this time; haven't you forgotten that in the last final, Teacher Yao narrowly defeated Teacher Gu?"

"That's true."

Many around nodded.

Looking back, that battle was certainly due to strength, but also had a factor of luck.

This time, I heard Teacher Yao and Teacher Gu both signed up; they're likely to meet, and then it's anyone's guess who will win.

"Our seventh-grade Teacher Chen isn't weak either; last time he got a respectable sixth place, and after a year his strength has grown even more—he can definitely take first!" someone objected.

Some other lower-grade students, hearing this, dared not speak up against him because he was an upperclassman.

However, they didn't dare, but someone did.

"How can you boast about a sixth place? Our eighth-grade Teacher Ye previously got fourth, just shy of the top three."

"Our teachers aren't bad either!"

"Hmph, although our teachers didn't win last time, this time they'll surely beat yours!"

The hall erupted into a noisy uproar.

(End of chapter)