Chapter 244

"Huh—"

Xu Jingming, surrounded by golden lightning, slowly exhaled a turbid breath.

Thunder God Finger is an S-class top-tier combat technique, even though he has already reached the upper tier of the third stage.

Yet releasing it once still consumes a quarter of his energy.

Of course,

its effect is astonishing—the five Storm Thunder Bears were instantly obliterated!

In close combat, those five fourth-stage peak Storm Thunder Bears would have taken him at least three to four minutes to defeat.

"Stage 26 trial cleared. Stage 27 trial: a fifth-stage low-tier Earth Black Wolf."

"S-class, would you like to rest, or continue the challenge?"

The petite girl in midair asked brightly.

Her two green pigtails, trailing down to her feet, swayed gently in the breeze, smooth and supple.

"Fifth-stage low-tier Earth Black Wolf..." Xu Jingming's gaze sharpened slightly.

His solid knowledge of ferocious beasts instantly brought up the relevant details about the Earth Black Wolf.

It was a wolf-type ferocious beast that controlled earth element energy, beyond standard earth element usage.

It possessed two innate skills: one, "Earth Wall," capable of forming thick earthen barriers to block attacks.

The other, "Earth Chunk," able to condense earth energy into stone projectiles for ranged strikes.

Compared to dragon-type ferocious beasts, wolf-type ones were undoubtedly the most common among the vast ferocious beast population.

Yet any ferocious beast reaching the fifth stage was no simple foe.

After advancing the Thunder Indestructible Body to its fifth level, Xu Jingming had confidence to fight a fifth-stage ferocious beast.

But since he had never actually engaged one in close combat, he still felt some uncertainty.

"Let me rest for a bit," Xu Jingming said after a moment's thought.

From Stage 1 to Stage 26 of the virtual trial, he had not paused once, his energy continuously depleted.

Then he activated Thunder Extreme State and used the highly energy-consuming Thunder God Finger.

His current energy reserves were down to roughly three-fifths.

The next battle would be fierce—he needed to restore his state to peak condition first.

"Alright, S-class, you have three minutes to rest."

"Good." Xu Jingming nodded slightly, then exited Thunder Extreme State.

He was about to sit cross-legged and restore his energy through the energy cultivation method.

But he sensed his energy was recovering at an extremely rapid pace.

"Huh?"

Xu Jingming's eyebrows lifted slightly—what was this? Could energy regenerate automatically?

"In reality, energy requires cultivation to recover. But in this virtual space,

energy recovery is entirely under my control—a single thought is enough."

EVA giggled from midair, vanishing instantly and reappearing beside Xu Jingming.

Instantly, he caught a faint, feminine fragrance.

This once again made him marvel at the terrifying realism of top-tier AI humanization—even such details were perfectly handled.

"Is this not cheating?" Xu Jingming hesitated.

He didn't want to be accused of cheating just because of these three minutes of rest.

"Of course not. Every student participating in the virtual trial

recovers energy at ten times their normal cultivation rate.

I've merely removed the need for meditation—you're free to speak."

EVA said softly, then plopped down on the grass and tugged at Xu Jingming's battle suit with her small hand:

"Standing all the time isn't tiring? Sit down and rest a bit."

"With my physical condition, I could stand for ten days and nights without fatigue," Xu Jingming replied with a smile.

Still, he didn't refuse, and sat down on the ground as well.

Watching EVA sitting quietly beside him, Xu Jingming suddenly felt curious and asked:

"EVA, you were excavated from an ancient ruin. Can you tell me what ancient civilization was like?"

"EVA doesn't know. When I was excavated from the ruin, all my data had been erased.

Only the core content for humanization remained."

EVA shook her head.

"Really?"

Xu Jingming felt disappointed. "Do other top-tier AIs have the same situation?"

"Yes. The AIs from Jingda and Jinda are the same as me."

"That's strange. It seems ancient civilization hides some great secret."

"..."

Ancient civilization was extremely mysterious—its technology and energy development reached their peak, then vanished abruptly.

Xu Jingming found this deeply intriguing.

But online resources were scarce; even the Mo University database contained almost nothing on it, so his knowledge was limited.

Now that he had EVA, a living fossil, he wouldn't miss this chance.

Even if her data had been erased and she couldn't recall the specifics of ancient civilization,

having spent over a century at Mo University, she could still provide vast information through conversation.

Of course,

only Xu Jingming, with his S-class clearance, could do this—ordinary students wouldn't even get a response from EVA...

"Finally stopped. That was exhausting."

Inside the villa, seeing Xu Jingming's combat power surge to 710, 00,

and remain stagnant for over a minute, Tao Guan and the others finally exhaled in relief.

If he kept slaughtering like that, they feared their hearts couldn't handle it.

"Big Brother Kong, Xu Jingming must have cleared Stage 26. What's Stage 27?"

Tao Guan asked curiously, turning to Kong Shi.

"I don't know. It could be dozens of fourth-stage peak ferocious beasts, or a fifth-stage low-tier one."

Kong Shi shook his head.

In the virtual trial, you only learn the type and number of beasts in the next stage after clearing the current one.

He had been stuck at Stage 26's five fourth-stage peak Storm Thunder Bears and couldn't even clear it.

He had no idea what Stage 27 held.

"A fifth-stage low-tier ferocious beast? That seems unlikely," Tao Guan hesitated.

Fifth-stage ferocious beasts completely crushed fourth-stage ones!

Even hundreds of fourth-stage peak beasts couldn't defeat a single fifth-stage low-tier one.

"It's probably dozens of fourth-stage peak beasts," Kong Shi nodded slightly.

The virtual trial's difficulty shouldn't jump so drastically.

"Dozens of fourth-stage peak beasts? That's an insane number—even lightning-type energy users might not clear it."

Zheng Heng remarked beside him.

Fourth-stage peak ferocious beasts possessed intelligence comparable to an 18-year-old adult and could form complex battle formations.

Xu Jingming's powerful lightning combat techniques might instantly kill five or six of them.

But the remaining dozens would be extremely hard to handle.

"The difficulty is indeed immense. Xu Jingming will likely fail here," Kong Shi said gravely.

He paused, then added: "Still, even then, he'll remain Mo University's strongest."

With Kong Shi's current cultivation progress, clearing Stage 26 before graduation would be impressive enough.

As for the higher Stage 27, he didn't even dare to imagine it!

Yet what Kong Shi and the others didn't know was:

Stage 27 was not the dozens of fourth-stage peak beasts they imagined.

It was something far more terrifying—a fifth-stage ferocious beast!