Chapter 130: 48,000 Ability Points! Return!

"Huh——"

Xu Jingming exhaled a long breath, the heavenly thunder receding, and as he slowly opened his eyes, a faint glimmer of excitement lingered within.

He had ascended to Second Rank Upper Tier in mid-August, while still in the Yuan Shui Wasteland Zone.

Now, in December, barely three months had passed since then.

For a regular adept, breaking from Second Rank Upper Tier to Third Rank is utterly impossible without two or three years of accumulation!

Even among the prodigies of Magic University, most require half a year, even a full year, to complete such an ascent!

"It seems my innate cultivation talent isn't bad either..."

Xu Jingming smiled and opened his system panel.

【Name】: Xu Jingming

【Rank】: Third Rank Lower Tier (+)

【Ability】: Purple Thunder Doushen Shenlei (S)

【Physique】: 2032 Qi (++)

【Spirit】: 1513 He (++)

【Skills】: Spear Technique (Master), Heavenly Thunder Art (Beginner+), Nether Hell Mingyu Lei Kai (Beginner+), Fist Technique (Intermediate+), Thunder Cat (Advanced+), Chain Thunder Spear (Intermediate+), Lei Shan (Advanced+), Thunder Prison (Intermediate+), Lightning Gale Break (Master+)

【Body Cultivation】: Thunder Indestructible Body (Fourth Stage+)

【Ability Points】: 48429

From Second Rank Upper Tier to Third Rank Lower Tier, Xu Jingming's physique and spirit each increased by nearly 400 points!

His Qi had even breached the 2000-point threshold!

Xu Jingming could feel the rich, ceaseless Qi surging within him like a mighty river.

Yet when his gaze fell upon the Ability column, his brow furrowed slightly.

Before entering the Demon Cave, his system panel showed 13,000 ability points.

After entering the Demon Cave, he continuously slaughtered and accumulated another 35,000 ability points.

Combined, he had a total of 48,000 ability points!

But behind his S-rank ability, Purple Thunder Doushen Shenlei, there was still no plus sign.

"48,000 ability points—enough to advance from Third to Fourth Rank—yet still not enough to upgrade my ability..."

Xu Jingming felt a touch of helplessness.

Of course, compared to advancing from Third to Fourth Rank, evolving his S-rank ability into SS-rank was far more tempting.

After all, SS-rank isn't the end—if the Deep Blue System truly can evolve abilities,

then the legendary SSS-rank ability is within reach!

"I'll accumulate more. If I still can't upgrade my ability after reaching 50,000 ability points, I'll temporarily abandon it.

Prioritize rank advancement, then hunt beasts."

Xu Jingming silently made his decision, "But before that, I need to return to the supply base."

Today is the 8th; the day after tomorrow, the 10th, is when the third-year cadets' final rankings are confirmed—he wouldn't miss it.

"I recall the first-place reward is the right to choose any one combat technique from the three top universities' combat technique archives."

I wonder if there's an SS-rank lightning-based combat technique suitable for me...

Even before final scores were tallied, Xu Jingming was already looking forward to the first-place reward.

Of course, he had his own confidence.

"With my score, securing first place shouldn't be a problem."

Xu Jingming opened the smart bracelet on his wrist.

Hum~~~

A pale blue holographic image projected before his eyes.

Name: Xu Jingming

School: Magic City Institute of Psychic Arts

Score: 402341

Correct,

his score had accumulated to a full 400,000 points!

The reason for such a high score was that within this past month, he had slain over twenty Fourth Rank Lower Tier beasts!

Each Fourth Rank Lower Tier beast granted 10,000 points; over twenty of them gave him over 200,000 base points alone!

Add in the other beasts he hunted, and his total score reached a terrifying 400,000 points...

Of course,

hunting beasts wasn't always smooth sailing—Xu Jingming had faced several life-or-death crises.

The most perilous moment came

after he had slain a group of Third Rank Peak beasts, when he encountered a Fifth Rank Mid-Tier Wind Terror Wolf!

The instant he saw the Wind Terror Wolf, Xu Jingming knew this was the greatest life-or-death crisis he had ever faced!

Without hesitation, he swallowed three Grade-Three Blood-Explosion Pills, activated Thunder Extreme State, and unleashed Lei Shan to flee desperately.

Yet during his escape, he was struck by a wind blade.

That terrifying wind blade pierced through his S-rank Nether Hell Mingyu Lei Kai and B-rank combat armor before striking his back.

For a normal Second Rank Upper Tier adept, even a wind blade weakened by two layers would have sliced him cleanly in half.

But Xu Jingming's Thunder Indestructible Body had reached the Fourth Stage—his physique was formidable!

The wind blade penetrated about seven or eight centimeters into his back before losing momentum and vanishing into thin air.

And his entire back was dyed bright red by the blood gushing out!

The searing pain that came from it nearly caused Xu Jingming to pass out.

Still, he held on through sheer force of will, and only after great effort did he finally shake off that mid-rank-five Gale Terror Wolf.

Afterward, Xu Jingming drank a bottle of S-grade Earth Spirit Spring and recuperated for a full two days inside a cave.

During that time he took four or five second-grade Healing Pills refined by Jiang Chuxuan, and only then did he fully recover.

Even now, the faint mark of the massive wound left by that wind blade could still be seen on his back.

"Harvesting ability points inside the Demon Cave is efficient, sure, but it's also extremely dangerous."

Even with the Deep Blue System at his side, Xu Jingming had never arrogantly assumed he could stroll through the middle of the Demon Cave unchallenged.

It was precisely this caution that had let him escape life-and-death crises several times.

"Once my rank breaks through to third-tier, let's call today's training here. Tomorrow I'll head back."

Xu Jingming closed his eyes slightly, drifting into a light sleep.

Early the next morning, he set off running toward the direction of the Shun'an Supply Base.

December 10th,

Today was the day the three top-tier universities would determine the final score rankings of the new students.

Although it was only seven in the morning, the first-floor hall of the Shun'an Supply Base's main building had already gathered quite a crowd.

Most of these people were freshmen from the three schools, though there were also quite a few civilian ability-users there to watch the excitement.

Fortunately the main building's hall was spacious — otherwise it really wouldn't have been able to fit so many people.

And right at the very center of the hall stood a massive black machine.

This was the score-tallying machine — one only needed to place their smart bracelet back into it, and their score and ranking would be calculated.

Beside the score-tallying machine, the team leaders of the three top-tier universities — including Magic University Vice Principal Hearing Ling Shuang — along with numerous mentors, were all seated there.

From time to time, people also came in from outside, dust-covered from their journey.

They would drop their smart bracelets into the machine to determine their final score rankings.

"I got 1201 points, ranked 1023rd! What a shame — I almost made it into the top 1000."

"What's there to be ashamed about? You turned in your bracelet yesterday. The real big shots only show up today — your ranking will probably drop quite a bit more."

"True enough — those big shots, every single one of them is bound to have terrifying scores!"

"......"

The freshmen of the three schools were all chatting among themselves.

Most of the freshmen had actually returned to the supply base over the past few days already.

They had dropped their bracelets into the machine and gotten their rankings.

Still, they knew the most crucial part was this final day.

No — the final two hours!

These two hours would absolutely be when the big shots competed most fiercely!