Chapter 16: ; Superior Horse

In the sealed town, slaughter continues endlessly; killer and victim, nowhere is absolute.

Some novice warriors are wounded in their first kill against a monster, helplessly pressing the communicator watch button for help, a helpless choice that fails.

Some novice warriors, after killing a monster, turn pale with fear.

Some formidable novice warriors, after slaying a monster, become excited and frenzied.

Not far from the sealed town, inside a large building, numerous monitor screens broadcast everything happening in each area of the town.

This monitoring room differs slightly from a typical exam invigilation room; it is crowded and everyone wears military uniforms, serving as the military's overall monitoring room for this examination.

"Tie Houzi, I've come to find you for a drink!"

This visitor is no ordinary person; he is Wang Heng, one of the Four Great Leaders of the Thunder Martial Hall in Jiangnan Base City.

"Old Wang! Hahaha, it's been a while since we drank together, but you brat coming to my place surely isn't just for drinks, right?"

With age comes wisdom; Wang Heng, using his connections to come to the monitoring room, certainly isn't just here to catch up—scouting promising talents through the monitors and poaching them is something the Major General knows all too well.

But this is allowed within his authority, and the Major General doesn't stint on providing this convenience; after all, they're close comrades who've faced life and death together, so just regard it as a little leisure over drinks.

"Of course it's just for drinks, hahaha," Wang Heng, not being that snobbish, said drinking and catching up are still the main purpose.

"Take a look at this; after seeing it, you might not feel like drinking as much." the Major General said with a smile.

"What are you looking down on?" Wang Heng said, setting down a large jug of wine on the side table while shifting his gaze to the projection screen.

"Drink while watching, hahaha."

On the main projection screen, a youth clad in black combat gear, wielding a black Square Heaven Halberd two or three meters long, stands amidst the beast horde.

"A halberd?"

Wang Heng furrowed his brows; as a warrior newcomer, choosing a halberd as a weapon is quite rare.

After all, the halberd's drawbacks are obvious; its advantages, compared to swords and such, are not particularly evident either.

What's even more striking, of course, is the youth's surroundings.

Standing atop a pile of ruins, the monster corpses below and around have piled up into a mountain, without any exaggeration—the heap resembles a small hill, and monsters continue to gather from all directions.

The youth stands atop the corpse mountain, alone with his halberd; each monster falls in less than a single move, because each strike is enough to kill several beasts.

"Is this really… a newcomer?"

Wang Heng swallowed and said.

Looking at the youth's build and face, still slightly immature, Wang Heng could believe he's in his early twenties.

As for strength, though he's only dealing with h‑level monsters, corresponding to a low‑warrior level, such performance against a swarm of that number—even a Warrior General, let alone an outstanding one, might not last long.

Humans aren't machines; their bodies get injured and tire.

"How about it? Still in the mood for a drink?"

"Tie Houzi" Major General beside him teased Wang Heng.

"Drink! Why not drink? Jiangnan has produced such a genius—what great news!"

"Hahaha, indeed!"

Wang Heng, while speaking, pulled two cans from the large case he brought and tossed one to "Tie Houzi".

After the two drank heartily, Wang Heng continued to ask.

"Which family does this youth belong to? Surely not your military's?"

The candidates for the warrior examination are only from those few families; no information had been leaked beforehand, so the military is naturally the most likely.

"Tie Houzi" shook his head and said:

"I wish it were, but sadly it's not; the one who brought him for the examination is from the Extreme Martial Hall."

"What!"

Wang Heng straightened up a bit.

Wang Heng's feelings toward the Extreme Martial Hall differ from those toward other powers.

Just as the world's strongest and second‑strongest warriors vie, the two great martial halls under them naturally have a rivalry.

In each base city, a martial hall's reputation also represents its future recruitment and thus its own future.

For a base city's martial hall chief, the talents it uncovers and the strong cultivators it trains both expand the local hall's power and contribute to the headquarters' performance.

Publicly or privately, Wang Heng certainly does not want to see the Thunder Martial Hall harshly suppressed by the Extreme Martial Hall.

Unfortunately, the strength of the Thunder Martial Hall in Jiangnan Base City has always fallen short of the Extreme Martial Hall's……

"No way! If it were that Zhuge guy, with such talent he'd probably have already shot up to heaven!"

"The Extreme Martial Hall hasn't discovered this youth!"

Wang Heng spotted the "highlight".

"I said you brat couldn't sit still, hahaha."

"But this person, you probably can't poach him."

"Tie Houzi" Major General gave a mysterious smile and said.

"How? You think I can't offer conditions that would move him? That just shows your intel is outdated—these past years the Extreme Martial Hall has plenty of talent, but the resources it can allocate are scarce; compared to that, my authority far exceeds that old sneaky Zhuge."

"Te Houzi" Major shook his head and continued:

"You think only you're excited? Our military is excited too—this guy, once grown, might become a guardian‑state powerhouse… I already looked into his file before you arrived."

"Oh? So someone's already placed a bet? Which family?"

Wang Heng had vaguely guessed a possibility, but still asked.

"From birth he looks quite ordinary, raised in an orphanage from childhood…… the only clue I found is his weapon…… because the requirements are special, we and the Underground Alliance can't conveniently provide it; it's actively specially supplied by the World Tree."

The warrior practical exam is originally held jointly by all major powers, with each contributing differently.

For example, the military handles most of the exam monsters, venue and personnel monitoring, etc.; the Two Great Martial Halls provide some rescue and invigilation staff; the HR Alliance supplies standard equipment.

As for the emerging force World Tree, it only joined the warrior practical exam in the past two years, mainly responsible for healing.

Of course, the various functions are not few and are clearly divided; take the invigilators, each faction will have some.

As for providing weapons and equipment, as long as it does not seriously violate the fairness of the evaluation, the military also allows each faction to specially equip its own seed contestants.

"Indeed?" Wang Heng thought to himself.

Whether it's the label of genius or this trait of being an orphan, in recent years it has been related to the gradually rising World Tree.

"But that's fine, the World Tree…… really suits such talent."

If it were four or five years ago, when it comes to cultivating martial artists, even facing various governments, the Two Great Martial Halls could confidently claim they had stronger cultivation resources.

But only after the World Tree appeared, after several years of accumulation, it has indeed become a thriving place for cultivating young martial artists, the so-called cradle of the strong. And among the many forces, only the corner of the World Tree's wall cannot be dug.

But not being a person of the Extreme Martial Hall, for Wang Heng it is also good news.

"Drink, drink!"

Wang Heng didn't know whether he was happy or sulking, picked up the wine bottle and had another.

"Hahaha, come, let's drink!"

All are martial artists; even during duty, this little drink doesn't affect reason at all, so Tie Houzi also shows no restraint.

But this time, the two of them just couldn't finish this round of drinks.

On the other side of Monster Town, the corpses of seven shadow cats fell one after another, and the killer didn't even get a drop of blood on them.

The one who killed those shadow cats was no one else but Jiāng Jiāng, who had separated from Chén Chén.

"According to the book, the speed of a shadow cat is a bit faster than that of an average intermediate martial artist, but compared to me it's still lacking quite a bit, meaning my current speed is at least that of an advanced warrior."

Besides that, strength and reaction are absolutely not Jiāng Jiāng's weak point.

"In that case, in this exam I am at least a top-tier horse."

As for strength, Jiāng Jiāng is not at all surprised; on the contrary, such strength is actually within her estimate.

Moreover, even after stabbing the cats' den and facing nine shadow cats at once, it didn't force Jiāng Jiāng to reveal all her strength; she could handle it easily with a not-so-convenient longsword, let alone her ultimate trump card of spiritual mental power.

Attack with three parts, keep seven for oneself.

Then the remaining ninety percent is the trump card.

Although to obtain the "special training quota" one must expose more strength, as long as the spiritual mental master's trump card remains, Jiāng Jiāng still retains a basic sense of security.

After storing the left ears of the nine shadow cats in her backpack, Jiāng Jiāng entered the "stealth state" again, seeking the next prey.

And all of this was naturally seen clearly by the various bigwigs in the monitors.

"Damn it, why is it the Extreme Martial Hall again!? The Extreme Martial Hall is just lucky!"

"Let's go apply to the higher-ups; we must carve out a piece of meat from the Extreme Martial Hall's teeth!"

Many forces are not as meticulous as Major General Te Houzi, assuming that Chén Chén and Jiāng Jiāng are both "free agents".

At the same time, the discovered Luofeng, whose strength was not ordinary, this time did not become a coveted target.

After all, compared to Luofeng, who had already signed a contract with the Extreme Martial Hall in advance, these two "free agents", Chén Chén and Jiāng Jiāng, are more suitable as targets for poaching.

"Damn, I can't drink this wine!"