Chapter 56: With Such Combat Power, Who Could Teach Him!?

After Junyin finished the assessment, his gaze toward Lu Zheng became more complicated.

Originally Lu Zheng completed three assessments in two minutes, and he thought the Abyss difficulty shouldn't be especially dangerous.

But after he began the assessment, he realized that Lu Zheng's results required what kind of strength to obtain—at least above level 100, that is, combat power of third breakthrough!

As an epic-level professional, his combat power was not weak, barely reaching the level of a typical third‑breakthrough professional, but crushing victory was impossible.

He could only try to earn as many points as possible.

"Congratulations, county exam first place, it must be you."

Junyin smiled and said to Lu Zheng.

Lu Zheng politely replied:

"Congratulations on taking second place."

The words sounded a bit awkward, but thinking that he had only narrowly lost to a monster that slayed dragons and killed gods, Junyin didn't mind as much.

He even made a joke of his own:

"I hope you can also get first in the Alliance Exam, so I and others can vie for second."

Such behavior was something he would never have shown before; back then, after his first breakthrough he had become an epic-level professional, looking down on everything, proud and complacent.

Now, however, he was completely impressed by Lu Zheng's greatness.

A person's growth may lie in this very moment!

The county exam ended that afternoon.

Unsurprisingly, although the scores weren't very high, Mu Yunlan, Dantan Mingyue and others all successfully advanced.

Except for the students who passed the second round and will go to the Imperial Capital for the third‑round Alliance Exam, for the vast majority of students the national professional college entrance exam was already over.

According to the schedule, students who did not advance could return home and await notice; advancing students would travel to the capital via teleportation array that evening, rest one night, and start the Alliance Exam the next morning.

The Daxia war zone, also known as the Daxia Empire, has twenty‑four counties; after unified selection, only 3,427 examinees could enter the third round, averaging less than 150 per county!

One county had six to seven hundred thousand examinees; the whole nation this session had over 15 million examinees.

Each year so many professionals join, yet national defense remains insufficient, showing how severe the Abyss and Demon Realm invasions are now.

It can be said that each of these students who entered the third round is at least a future pillar of the Alliance.

That night, everyone took a direct teleportation array to the Imperial Capital, where they were received by staff and lodged in a hotel; the food and lodging were excellent, and a self‑paid room cost two silver coins per night!

After a stable night's rest, the next day they gathered at 8 a. m. after breakfast; at 8:30 all examinees from the twenty‑four counties arrived at the western suburb testing site of the Imperial Capital, re‑verified their identities, received admission tickets, and entered the waiting area.

The Alliance Exam no longer divided ranks; all examinees entered the same instance, which had only two assessments.

At the front of the huge waiting area stood a large screen displaying the assessment methods.

First assessment: solo extreme kill level.

Within the time limit, a solo battle against monsters starts at level 41 and increases stepwise; the higher the monster level killed, the higher the score. Each monster allows up to ten minutes to defeat; failure to kill within ten minutes ends the assessment.

Second assessment: solo extreme damage output.

Within the time limit, a solo battle against monsters starts at level 31 and increases stepwise; each level spawns 100 monsters, and when all monsters of the previous level are slain, the next level spawns instantly. The greater the total damage output, the higher the score.

Each person has only one hour; after the hour, total damage output is tallied.

Both assessments occur within a single instance, supporting up to five hundred students simultaneously, allocated to different assessment spaces.

Inside the assessment space, mana is instantly restored after consumption, and HP is locked, preventing injury.

The above assessments target combat professions; support professions in the third‑round Alliance Exam have a separate scoring standard and will be taken to different instances for testing.

Overall, it remains relatively fair for everyone.

Moreover, compared with previous city and county exams, the locked HP and infinite mana settings fully ensure student safety and eliminate the disadvantage of ordinary students lacking the funds to buy potions for endurance compared to noble students.

Everything is to guarantee relative fairness and the safety of these Daxia Alliance talents.

While Lu Zheng and others carefully studied the third‑round assessment rules, cities across the nation released this year's city and county exam results and overall rankings.

Lu Zheng burst onto the scene, not only taking first place in the city exam with a perfect score but also securing first in the county exam, leading the second place by nearly double, a solitary champion! The three violet‑gold titles and one black‑gold title became widely spread.

Being the sole direct disciple of Dragon‑Blood War God Fu Cangli added another legendary line to his résumé! The whole Liyang City boiled over.

They seemed to see once again the rising Fu Cangli of the past, and Lu Zheng's results were clearly superior to Fu Cangli's; even Fu Cangli had not accomplished slaying dragons and killing gods before the college entrance exam! Not to mention others, Fu Cangli himself was very surprised when he learned of the titles Lu Zheng displayed during the county exam.

He knew nothing at all about Lu Zheng's dragon‑slaying and god‑killing deeds.

After all, he is not a summoner, so he only helped Lu Zheng find some resources, never guided his cultivation, and he didn't even know which summons Lu Zheng possessed.

All this time, he never had an intuitive judgment of Lu Zheng's personal combat power.

It wasn't until he saw Lu Zheng's Cloud Burst technique nearly blow up the entire instance during the county exam that he realized his disciple was not as simple as he imagined.

He already thought Lu Zheng was very strong; students who reached level 100 before the college entrance exam were virtually nonexistent! Yet after watching that assessment video, he found his thinking still a bit conservative.

The disciple's combat power was far stronger than he imagined!

It seems that based on this combat power, he can look for higher‑grade resources for him.

Teaching is impossible now; even confronting that skill that almost blew up the county exam instance would cause serious injury. At level 100 without third breakthrough, he already has such combat power—who can teach him! On the day the results were announced, Lu Zheng's family was visited in succession by three groups of people.

Lord Fan Qingli of Liyang City, on behalf of Liyang City, presented Lu Zheng's parents with one thousand gold coins as a reward for nurturing such an outstanding child.

Chen Dongming of Fengdu City, on behalf of Fengdu City, gave ten thousand gold coins as a reward for Lu Zheng's city exam first place.

Jun Meizhu of the Education Department of Tianyang City, on behalf of Tianyang County, awarded one hundred thousand gold coins for Lu Zheng's county exam first place.

In an era where one gold coin equals ten thousand purchasing power, Lu Zheng's family effectively received 1.11 billion gold coins! Normally a county or city first place wouldn't bring that much, but Lu Zheng is different; at level 100 he has essentially secured the Alliance Exam first seat, and his results are unprecedented, thus earning a tier‑skipping reward.

After the three groups left, Lu Yuan Tu and Fang Ya were completely stunned! So much money—how to spend it!? (End of chapter)