Chapter 64: The True National Top Scorer! A Demigod's Summons!

It was another skill book for an aura-type skill, and this was a skill that had once cost Lu Zheng dearly, making him covet it greatly at the time!

【Skill Book: Repelling Fire Ring】

【Effect: Cast with a minimum consumption of 10,000 points of mana, applying a Repelling Fire Ring to a single target, granting immunity to physical damage and spell damage below 10,000 points, and immunity to fire damage below 20,000 points; for any damage, the portion that overflows the immunity—half inflicts true damage on the user, and the other half is returned to the source of the damage as fire damage】

【Learning Requirement: Summoning-system professional, or aura-specialized professional, or fire-system mage professional】

This was the Divine Skill that the Fire God's projection had once wielded!

One difference from the Fire God's projection's skill was that the latter's overflow damage exceeding one hundred thousand points could be offset with mana, and would not inflict actual true damage—meaning that as long as mana was sufficient, one could kill enemies relying solely on this skill's damage reflection effect.

But with Lu Zheng's skill book, half of the overflow damage would inflict true damage.

Even so, this was still a Divine Skill!

After all, this thing not only granted immunity to a certain amount of spell damage and physical damage, but also produced a damage reflection effect—this was already enough to crush the vast majority of support skills.

Lu Zheng quickly learned this skill book; with this kind of Divine Skill, learning and mastering it sooner meant boosting his strength sooner.

Then he looked at the remaining items.

There were still two things in total: a piece of Purple Radiance equipment and a token.

The Purple Radiance equipment was for fire-system mages, which Lu Zheng couldn't use, so he could trade it with others for some high-level resources; the token was a bit interesting.

【Item: Abyss Demon Passage Token】

【Effect: While holding this item, the bearer may enter instances belonging to Abyss planes of Holy grade or above】

Lu Zheng had previously obtained an "Undead Plane Passage Permit," and these two things served a similar purpose.

It could be considered a decent item.

After all, ordinary instances now yielded too low a return for Lu Zheng; to quickly raise his summoned beasts' levels and ensure his third-class advancement quest could proceed smoothly—no longer completing quests like walking a tightrope as before—he truly needed to enter this kind of top-tier instance to level up!

Having one more option was also a good thing.

Aside from the items in the treasure chest, Lu Zheng remembered that the Flame Demon King had also dropped something else.

【Item: Flame Demon Heart】

【Effect: Contains the essence of a flame demon; any target that swallows it can transform into a flame demon】

Demons, angels, divine clans, and dragon clans all belonged to higher races, innately possessing powerful skills and base attributes; the lowest-grade flame demon was also a fourth-class creature, and as long as it grew normally to adulthood, it could reach level 200, which was the fourth-class limit.

A slightly more outstanding leader could step above level two hundred and reach the fifth class.

Overall, as a summoned beast, it should be a decent object for cultivation; Lu Zheng himself had no intention of swallowing this thing—he was proud of his human identity! However, if he had a flame demon as a summoned beast, it would likely be of considerable help when he entered the Abyss in the future.

Even if it was of no help, enslaving a high-and-mighty demon—just thinking about it was deeply satisfying!

Once he thought of it, he acted; Lu Zheng quietly slipped out of the city, found a deserted spot, and summoned a five-star elite beast pet Flame Ape—using this as a base, surely the resulting demon's quality couldn't be worse than what he had now? Taking out the Flame Demon Heart, Lu Zheng had it swallow it; the next moment, a mass of black flame enveloped the Flame Ape, the flames grew larger and larger, and its volume increased fivefold before finally stopping.

Then, the flames suddenly contracted.

The original Flame Ape was gone, replaced by a flame demon over eight meters tall, with a pair of demon wings on its back and demon horns on its head! It had succeeded; the level was still the original 80—now to check the quality.

Seeing that the quality was only three-star rare grade, Lu Zheng frowned; he wasn't exactly short of monsters of this quality.

However, he then noticed a line of annotation below.

【Note: By devouring the hearts of other flame demons, the quality can continue to improve】

Seeing this, Lu Zheng revealed an expression of pleasant surprise.

It could actually metamorphose; one must know that all of his summoned beasts had fixed qualities, so the appearance of one that could metamorphose truly caught him a bit off guard.

This meant that as long as enough flame demon hearts were provided, one day this flame demon could metamorphose into a Flame Demon King or even something stronger!

It still had some cultivation value!

His obtained treasure hadn't gone to waste, and Lu Zheng was fairly satisfied; he returned to the hotel contentedly, but he didn't sleep—instead, he began checking where there were abundant flame demons.

There had originally been quite a few in the Demon Domain, but after his indiscriminate slaughter yesterday, he had even killed the mutated Flame Demon King, and who knew how long it would take to respawn—at least ten days to half a month, during which there should be no monsters there at all.

High-level monsters already had very long respawn cycles to begin with; Lu Zheng had first set fire, then flooded with water, and finally sealed everything in ice for a thousand li—thank goodness it was an instance world; if reality had been subjected to such treatment, not even a blade of grass would grow! The next day, Lu Zheng was woken early in the morning by the Tianyang Commandery's examinee coordinator, who told him to eat quickly and then wait for the award ceremony starting at nine o'clock.

Although the National Professional Examination took place every year, and the ceremony was held every year as well, this year there was a legendary examinee like Lu Zheng; by eight o'clock, spectators had already packed the entire venue, and if non-staff weren't forbidden from flying, the place would likely have piled up into a mountain of people.

Under the gaze of the crowd, Lu Zheng and the other nine students threaded through the dense crowd and stood on the high podium.

There were no superfluous segments like leadership speeches or student reflections—they went straight to handing out rewards.

Sixth place through tenth place, each person rewarded with one piece of gold equipment and one hundred thousand gold coins;

Second place through fifth place, each person rewarded with one piece of Purple Radiance equipment and one hundred fifty thousand gold coins; first place, rewarded with one piece of Purple Radiance equipment, one self-selected skill book, and two hundred thousand gold coins! The Daxia Alliance was quite generous—one thousand gold coins equaled one hundred million, and for just a single examinee, the minimum reward was one billion; if this were an ordinary family like Lu Zheng's, the whole family couldn't spend it all in a hundred lifetimes.

Seeing Lu Zheng receive another two hundred thousand gold coin reward, Lu Yuantu and Fang Ya before the television couldn't help but frown; the previously rewarded one hundred eleven thousand gold coins still had them not knowing how to spend even the one thousand gold coin remainder, and now another two hundred thousand gold coins were rewarded—so much money, how should they spend it!? Actually, this amount of money wasn't really that much.

Professionals earned money easily, but spending it flowed like water too.

Take this examination for example: Lu Zheng had used up quite a few super mana restoration potions; this stuff cost one thousand gold coins a bottle, and consuming a dozen-odd bottles in a single battle was perfectly normal—that was one to twenty thousand spent right there.

Not to mention various other expenses like crafting equipment.

Lu Zheng didn't lack money to spend, because he had many summoned beasts killing large numbers of monsters every day, bringing in large quantities of materials that were sold for a steady stream of gold coins.

Other professionals without family support lived quite frugally!

Compared to gold coins, Lu Zheng cared more about the self-selected skill book reward; after the ceremony ended, he had thought he would be taken to choose a skill book, but who would have thought—the guide told him that a demigod was summoning him! Please vote with recommendation tickets! Please follow and read!

(End of this chapter)