Chapter 614: Rank Six Middle! Has Xu Jingming Had an Accident?

All that an adept relies on is competition! Struggle!

This is evident both at Magic University and at Lei Ting Martial Hall.

Hiding one's strength and talent is the stupidest approach.

Only by showcasing oneself and fully leveraging one's power to gain benefits is the correct path.

From the moment he began tracking Ailin, Xu Jingming had already decided to take the plant life she found.

If he were stealing from a Daxia citizen, he might have felt some psychological burden.

But since she was a foreigner, he would show no mercy whatsoever.

Blame it on Ailin's excessive carelessness.

If it were him, he would have scattered seeds along the way, secretly using his ability to accelerate their growth, preventing anyone from tracking or approaching...

After successfully securing the plant life, Xu Jingming resumed his hunt for ferocious beasts.

The ability points on his system panel also surged steadily.

By January 12, it was the final night before leaving Qingfeng Secret Realm.

The ability points Xu Jingming had accumulated on his system panel reached a staggering 510,000!

At the same time, another plus sign appeared beside his level.

"Although the density of ferocious beasts here in Qingfeng Secret Realm doesn't match the wilderness zones of Dayangzhou,

the advantage is that the beasts are of high rank—each at least Rank Four!

And they don't actively attack humans, greatly reducing the risk of me being discovered and assaulted by high-rank beasts."

In a cave, Xu Jingming silently summarized his gains over this period.

Compared to a month ago, his once ruggedly handsome face was now plainly exhausted.

The reason was simple: over the past month, he had slept only three times, each session under eight hours.

All remaining time was spent hunting ferocious beasts!

Otherwise, he wouldn't have accumulated so many ability points.

"I must leave Qingfeng Secret Realm at nine tomorrow morning. Before then, I still need to fight Norten.

With my current strength, I should be able to defeat him.

But for safety's sake, I'd better level up first."

With a thought, Xu Jingming decisively clicked the plus sign on his system panel!

Ability points: -510,000!

Level: Rank Six Lower → Rank Six Middle!

【Physique】: Blood Qi → Blood Qi!

【Spirit】: He → He!

BOOM!!

His muscles rapidly strengthened; his spiritual force surged in his consciousness sea.

These changes lasted over a minute before finally subsiding!

Xu Jingming's physique and spirit each surged by nearly 3,500 points during this advancement!

"I've broken through!" Xu Jingming suddenly opened his eyes, a flash of brilliance in them.

"Congratulations, S-Class, you've successfully advanced to Rank Six Middle."

The twin-tailed little girl Eva floated midair, swinging her glistening little feet as she giggled in congratulations.

Less than two months had passed since Xu Jingming's last advancement.

Even a prodigy like Catherine would need at least half a year, even over a year, to advance from Rank Six Lower to Rank Six Middle.

Xu Jingming's advancement speed was simply terrifying!

Fortunately, Eva had been with Xu Jingming long enough to be accustomed to this monstrous pace.

Fortunately, Eva had been following Xu Jingming for some time and was already accustomed to this monster's advancement speed.

The Thorned Sword Grass beside him also joyfully swayed its branches in celebration.

"Having advanced to Rank Six Middle, Norten is no longer a threat." Xu Jingming slowly exhaled a deep breath.

In addition to successfully leveling up,

the SS+ combat technique "Cang Lei Ba Wang Qiang" and the SSS-level technique "Wan Leitian Lao Yin" had both been learned over ten days ago.

The power of "Cang Lei Ba Wang Qiang" was astonishing—far stronger than the S+ technique "Lei Guan Mo Sha Qiang" by several times!

The activation range of "Wan Leitian Lao Yin" stretched a full ten kilometers!

Once released, the entire area would transform into a sea of lightning.

Before entering, Norten had warned him: hunting ferocious beasts was fine, but avoid damaging the forest environment.

Thus, though he longed to test the power of this SSS-level technique, Xu Jingming had no choice but to abandon it.

He could only wait until returning to Dayangzhou to try it.

"Eva, I'm going to sleep. Wake me in ten hours."

He hadn't slept for eight straight days and nights; constant combat had pushed him to his limit.

Though advancing to Rank Six Middle had restored some of his spirit,

it hadn't fully recovered—he needed more rest.

"S-Class, it's already 10:33 PM. Are you sure you still want to sleep ten more hours?"

Eva reminded him, "By the time you return to the Yuan Neng Pond tomorrow, you'll have less than half an hour left for the challenge."

"Don't worry—half an hour is more than enough."

The Thorned Sword Grass sprouted numerous branches, forming a thick, soft grass bed within mere breaths.

Xu Jingming lay down comfortably, unafraid of sudden beast attacks, and soon sank into deep sleep...

"Held for 34 seconds: reward one S+ resource."

"Held for 10 seconds: no reward."

"Held for 1 minute 23 seconds: reward one SS resource."

"Holding out for 1 minute 23 seconds rewards one SS-class resource."

January 13 was the final day of leaving Qingfeng Secret Realm.

It was still before six a. m., yet many contestants had already begun challenging Norten.

Though he suppressed his rank to Rank Seven Lower, his combat experience as a Rank Nine Martial Saint was utterly unmatched by these prodigies.

More crucially, the longer a contestant held out, the higher the rank of Norten's techniques and the faster his strikes became!

Thus, most could only last around ten seconds before being eliminated.

Slightly better ones lasted over thirty seconds, earning an S+ resource.

Nine contestants held out over one minute, earning an SS resource.

Only Catherine, Su Yu, and Andre lasted five minutes, earning an SS+ resource.

Among them, Catherine lasted the longest—over ten minutes.

Her strength was nearly equal to Norten's; neither could defeat the other, and Catherine eventually chose to end the battle.

Su Yu and Andre performed slightly worse, but only by a narrow margin.

Time passed swiftly.

Soon it was 8:31 a. m. —only half an hour remained before departure from Qingfeng Secret Realm.

All present contestants had completed their challenges against Norten.

Yet someone noticed that Xu Jingming, the top-ranked contestant, had not yet returned.

"What's going on? Has Lei Di run into trouble?"

"No one knows. Lei Di hasn't returned since day one."

"Didn't Norten say there are Rank Eight beasts in this forest? Could Lei Di have provoked one?"

"I heard from Lord Norton that there are eighth-rank ferocious beasts in this forest—could Lei Di have stirred up trouble with one?"

As the contestants murmured among themselves, suspicion grew that Xu Jingming had met with misfortune.

After all, though Qingfeng Secret Realm was a prize for the prodigy tournament, it still carried some danger.

While the probability of a prodigy dying in the realm was low, such incidents had occurred in past years.

Although the probability of a heavenly prodigy dying in a secret realm is very low, it has not never happened in past years.