Chapter 214

Xu Jin did not know about the confrontation between the high-ranking officials.

Since the early morning of October 7th, after Xu Jin withdrew with the Patrol Star Guard army from the Dachen Wan Yi branch of the Cangming Shang Xinggong, he began to cultivate quietly.

The fact that those ten fifth-tier Gather Battle experts were slaughtered in a very short time sounded an alarm for Xu Jin, who had been sailing smoothly for the past few months.

It instantly caused Xu Jin, who had become arrogant, to calm down completely.

Among the newly promoted disciples, Xu Jin was top-notch.

Among the third-tier Refine Star Realm experts, Xu Jin was also among the strongest handful of geniuses.

Among the fourth-tier Condense Star Realm experts, if Xu Jin's current strength were fully unleashed, he would also have the power to fight.

But if he encountered fifth-tier or even sixth-tier experts, these existences would kill Xu Jin just like killing a chicken.

The reason Xu Jin was free and unfettered now, without any constraints, was essentially because he was leaning on a big tree to enjoy the shade.

He had the Da Chen National Academy as his backer, and Grand Master Cheng Cheng Yuexiao was protecting him with all his might.

The most important point was that National Academy disciples, within three months of admission, cultivated with all their might and were not sent on any miscellaneous tasks.

Apart from the assassination, he had not encountered any danger.

Once the three-month period passed, it would be different, and he would have to frequently perform external training tasks.

This was the rule of the National Academy and was considered the foundation of the National Academy.

A disciple who could not complete tasks, no matter how high their cultivation, was of no use to Da Chen or the National Academy.

Therefore, the first three months of entering the National Academy were the most precious cultivation time for a group of disciples.

Once he woke up, Xu Jin began to cultivate and research with focus; the safe time left for him was not much.

During this period, the Da Chen National Academy imposed martial law again.

Xu Jin didn't care at all; let them impose martial law.

He was a small ant, so he wouldn't get involved in the struggle between giants.

On the night of October 7th, Xu Jin's cultivation in the Middle Shang Xinggong successfully broke through to the peak of the seventh layer of the Refine Star Realm, and the Star Patterns of the Middle and Lower Star Palaces were also completely inscribed.

For the eighth Star Pattern position in the Middle Shang Xinggong, Xu Jin inscribed the fourth-tier high-grade Great Handprint Star Pattern.

This Star Pattern was another one with extremely wide application and extremely strong practical combat effect, and it was highly recommended by his teacher, Liuzhou Qingzhu.

Xu Jin hadn't intended to learn it, but once Liuzhou Qingzhu said that General Manager Peng had used this Star Pattern that day and slapped a fifth-tier Gather Battle peak expert to death with one palm.

It was considered one of the very strong Star Patterns in single-target attacks.

As for the eighth Star Pattern in the Lower Shang Xinggong, Xu Jin inscribed the Sumeru Star Pattern, while the seventh Star Pattern position was the Object-Controlling Star Pattern.

The Object-Controlling Star Pattern was a very special Star Pattern.

Because object-controlling was divided into two types: Soul-Spirit Object-Controlling and Star-Power Object-Controlling.

But one must have Soul-Spirit Object-Controlling before one could add Star Power to control objects.

Therefore, to truly explode with power in object-controlling, one must inscribe an Object-Controlling Star Pattern in the Soul-Spirit Star Patterns, and one must also inscribe an Object-Controlling Star Pattern in the Star-Power Star Patterns.

What Xu Jin showed Ying Ge that day was the complete power of the Object-Controlling Star Pattern.

But what he showed that day was something Xu Jin had just learned.

To truly use objects to control enemies, one needed long-term practice and suitable weapons.

For example, small and sharp flying swords or flying needles.

Xu Jin had already taught the Flying Needle Technique to Ying Ge.

Moreover, Xu Jin didn't intend to use it himself.

As for flying needles, every time Xu Jin used them, he thought of Dongfang Dongfang Bubai, and his crotch felt chilly.

Flying swords were cooler!

His childhood dream was to travel the world with a flying sword, but he knew after growing up that he could only dream.

But he didn't expect that in this world, there was a possibility of realizing it.

On the night of October 7th, Xu Jin came to the Star-Plucking Secret Realm silently.

Just as he entered, a series of curses rushed into Xu Jin's ears.

"You bastard, you haven't come for so many days, you're killing me with anxiety!"

"The sequel! I want the sequel!"

"If you don't come again, I'm going to curse your ancestors and descendants for the hundred-thousandth time!"

The Star Spirit's irritable cursing entered his ears; at first, Xu Jin didn't pay attention.

But the last sentence made Xu Jin very dissatisfied.

Ancestors—Xu Jin, who had traveled to this place, didn't know if he had any.

But descendants—it was truly possible!

If you curse his ancestors, Xu Jin was indifferent, but if you curse his descendants, Xu Jin was not happy.

"Give me the sequel quickly, tell me what official position this monkey was sealed with." The Star Spirit, however, did not notice Xu Jin's dissatisfaction and continued to pursue the question.

Xu Jin narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly, but he wasn't in a hurry. He directly took out a blank jade tablet, moved his mind, and recorded another story of *Journey to the West*. When he recorded it to the point where the monkey was put into the Eight-Trigram Furnace, he left a life-and-death cliffhanger and threw it to the Star Spirit!

The Star Spirit took the jade tablet, like a ferocious beast that had been hungry for ten days or half a month, and vanished with a *whoosh* after taking the jade tablet.

Seeing this, Xu Jin chuckled.

He wasn't afraid of you watching; he was afraid you wouldn't love watching!

The next instant, Xu Jin's mind moved, and he directly began to challenge the Copper Star.

Xu Jin's cultivation had only improved by one tier, and the cultivation of the gatekeeper he faced had also only improved by one tier compared to last time.

Xu Jin had crushed the Gold Star-level Heart Demon when he was at the sixth layer of the Refine Star Realm.

And at this moment, many of the methods he had been holding back until he challenged the Refine Star sixth-layer Star-Plucking could now be used.

So it was extremely easy.

Let alone Copper Star or Silver Star, even Gold Star was crushed.

But before obtaining the Gold Star, Xu Jin specifically used the Star-Plucking Token to hide all the information about his Gold Stars in the Star-Plucking Secret Realm, according to the method the Star Spirit taught him last time.

In other words, from today on, even if Xu Jin plucked Gold Stars, they would not be displayed on the Star-Plucking Secret Realm leaderboard.

There would be no situation of plucking ten Gold Stars in a row.

To be honest, Xu Jin himself was a bit afraid.

It was impossible not to pluck them.

The preciousness of Gold Stars could be imagined.

But if he kept plucking them, every consecutive plucking would trigger a storm, and over time, it would eventually be exposed, and Xu Jin was afraid he wouldn't be able to grow up.

Now it was good; the information was directly hidden, so even if Xu Jin plucked more Gold Stars, others wouldn't be able to see them.

Even the Grand Master wouldn't be able to see them.

As for the Da Chen National Academy, Xu Jin had already thought it through: the six Gold Stars he plucked before must be contributed to the Da Chen National Academy; the grace of preaching and teaching must be repaid.

But the Gold Stars he plucked after this, Xu Jin would arrange for himself.

How to use them, how to pass them on, and what direction to choose would be Xu Jin's own decision.

As for when to use the Star-Plucking, Xu Jin currently had no fixed plan.

This was related to future harvests.

If Xu Jin could pluck two or three more Star-Pluckings later, then what if he used one or two to directly improve his strength?

Keeping this thing and using it after ten-plus years was purely a waste.

If Xu Jin died during these ten-plus years, it would be a huge loss.

If there was a suitable opportunity, he still had to convert it into strength early.

In two minutes, Xu Jin had two Gold Stars in his account.

Xu Jin specifically looked at the leaderboard of the Star-Plucking Secret Realm, and the number of Gold Stars for the current year remained at nine, without any change.

Xu Jin was finally relieved.

Subsequently, Xu Jin went over the established combat tactics for challenging the Star-Plucking in his mind several times before choosing to challenge.

【Do you want to challenge the Star-Plucking of the current realm?】

【Challenge】

The next instant, the light changed, and Xu Jin was pulled into the illusion battlefield, where the Gold Star-level Heart Demon and the Gold Star-level gatekeeper were still one in front and one behind, forming a pincer movement against Xu Jin.

The light screen vanished.

But what made Xu Jin feel strange was that the Gold Star-level Heart Demon and the gatekeeper, who should have chased him, did not chase him; instead, after joining forces, they fully supported their defense and then slowly pressed toward Xu Jin to kill him.

Did they change their tactics?

It was very obvious that the Heart Demon and the gatekeeper had changed to steady and solid tactics, and the difficulty had increased.

"Could it be that there is another existence adjusting the combat plan? I'll have to find out from the Star Spirit later."

The Gold Star-level Heart Demon and gatekeeper, who had changed to steady and solid tactics, were harder to kill.

Because if you attacked, you would be attacked with full force by another expert whose strength was higher than yours by a major realm.

As long as you made one mistake, you would be slaughtered!

Even if Xu Jin had the Wandering Fish Star Pattern, Rain Curtain Fire Shield, and other heavy, powerful defenses, he could only withstand the full-force attack of a terrifying enemy who was one realm higher than him once.

Withstanding a second time meant being slaughtered!

He unleashed the Soul-Swinging Jin Lian and performed the Purple Thunder Boom, preparing to kill the Gold Star-level Heart Demon.

A scene that surprised Xu Jin appeared: at the critical moment, the Gold Star-level Heart Demon directly activated the Thunder Wings and avoided Xu Jin's fatal Purple Thunder Boom at the last second.

The next instant, Xu Jin, who had lost the initiative, was besieged.

After struggling for two and a half minutes, Xu Jin was shattered into starlight! The challenge to the Star-Plucking failed!

He failed.

Xu Jin stood frozen in place for a full quarter of an hour.

This was not discouragement.

It was reviewing.

Reviewing the tactical mistakes made in the previous battle.

Xu Jin discovered that he had ignored another thing: restriction!

Restriction or control-type tactics could not stop!

The next instant, Xu Jin chose to challenge the Star-Plucking again!

This time, the Gold Star-level gatekeeper and Heart Demon were still using steady and solid tactics.

After the Thunder Wings chose the opportunity to rush close, the moment the Soul-Swinging Jin Lian created a combat opportunity, he directly launched a Soul-Extinguishing plus Warm Dream, extremely briefly hard-controlling the Gold Star-level gatekeeper. The moment he took a hard hit from the Gold Star-level Heart Demon's attack, he unleashed the Thunder Net and Soul-Swinging Jin Lian in succession, instantly severely injuring the Gold Star-level Heart Demon!

At this time, the Gold Star-level gatekeeper had already broken free from the Soul-Spirit attack, and Xu Jin did not hesitate to flash away with his Thunder Wings.

The Heart Demon and gatekeeper chased after him like shadows.

They took the bait!

The next instant, the Fire Great Handprint and the Soul-Swinging Jin Lian were unleashed simultaneously.

The former blocked the Gold Star-level gatekeeper for a split second, while the latter directly exterminated the Gold Star-level Heart Demon that had been severely injured earlier.

With only one left, it was simple.

Ten breaths later, Xu Jin killed the Gold Star-level gatekeeper without any danger.

【Congratulations, Xu Jin, challenge victory, obtained one Star-Plucking.】

Xu Jin was overjoyed.

The second Star-Plucking was in hand.

With this second Star-Plucking in hand, Xu Jin's subsequent arrangements were much freer.

Xu Jin only needed to keep one Star-Plucking in his hand, and he could convert the other Star-Plucking into combat power early.

This thing, anyway, wouldn't be wasted.

Of course, he still had many Gold Stars in his hand, so Xu Jin wouldn't waste the precious Star-Plucking until he reached the limit.

Obtaining a Star-Plucking made him very happy, but Xu Jin's eyes still held hidden worries.

The difficulty of the Star-Plucking was increasing visibly to the naked eye.

Previously, Xu Jin felt that he should be able to continuously obtain Star-Pluckings when he was in the Refine Star Realm.

But now, he didn't have such great confidence!

When his cultivation broke through to the eighth layer of the Refine Star Realm, it would be difficult to obtain Star-Pluckings without other trump cards!

Xu Jin finished challenging the Star-Plucking, but the Star Spirit hadn't come out yet.

Xu Jin wasn't in a hurry; there would be a time when he would be in a hurry.

The next instant, Xu Jin directly turned into the Third-Tier Practice Arena Secret Realm.

He continued to challenge the Third-Tier Practice Arena Secret Realm.

These past four or five days, apart from the day he surrounded the Dachen Wan Yi branch of the Cangming Shang Xinggong, Xu Jin had been challenging the Third-Tier Practice Arena Secret Realm every night.

The rule of the Third-Tier Practice Arena Secret Realm was that after entering the top one hundred, one had to challenge the rankings one by one. If the challenged person was not there or did not accept the challenge, one could challenge up to three rankings higher.

After several days, Xu Jin's ranking in the Third-Tier Practice Arena Secret Realm had risen to fifty-seventh.

Today, naturally, he continued to challenge upward.

When challenging the fifty-sixth place, Xu Jin's gaze suddenly moved.

【Fifty-sixth place, Treading Star River, Refine Star ninth layer】

This Treading Star River, who once made Xu Jin look up to him as the first place in the First-Tier Practice Arena Secret Realm, had finally been caught up to by Xu Jin.

This person had forged his stars a month earlier than Xu Jin, but his cultivation had already reached the ninth layer of the Refine Star Realm.

This was nothing but normal.

For genius disciples, cultivation always improved relatively quickly.

Especially for many genius disciples who received key cultivation from their sects, the speed of cultivation improvement was much faster than the speed of inscribing Star Patterns.

It was very normal for their cultivation to arrive while their Star Pattern positions were still empty.

【Challenge】

The next instant, Xu Jin was pulled into the secret realm battlefield, which was the Mountain and River Battlefield.

There were forests and large rivers!

Because of the starlight shielding, he couldn't see Treading Star River's face clearly, but he could tell it was a young man of medium build, carrying a long spear on his back!

The moment the countdown light screen vanished, a torrential water curtain instantly roared toward Xu Jin, and Treading Star River's figure vanished.

But in the feeling of the Mingji Star Pattern, a point of extremely strong and extremely cold Star Power fluctuation was roaring toward Xu Jin.

The next moment, all the water curtains turned into cold ice, and the moment Xu Jin was frozen for a split second, Treading Star River rushed over, and a cold glint exploded directly toward Xu Jin's head!

Firelight erupted.

The moment Xu Jin broke free, purple thunder roared down directly at Treading Star River's head.

In an instant, Treading Star River was directly blasted into a pile of ashes.

Instant kill!

The spear shadow also vanished accordingly.

This Purple Thunder Boom, which Xu Jin had infused with twenty percent of his Star Power, could even severely injure a Gold Star-level Heart Demon, let alone Treading Star River.

Xu Jin won!

But the next instant, a challenge application came.

【Fifty-seventh place Treading Star River applies to challenge you, do you accept?】

【Accept】

The next instant, Xu Jin was pulled into the battlefield again.

This Treading Star River still had great practical combat value.

This was the first time Xu Jin had encountered water-type, especially ice-type, Star Techniques.

Moreover, Treading Star River's practical combat ability was extremely strong, and his grasp of combat opportunities was also very fierce.

After fighting seven matches, Treading Star River used a cold ice Star Technique Xu Jin had never seen before to trap Xu Jin and defeat him.

Xu Jin had wanted to use Soul-Extinguishing plus Warm Dream or the Soul-Swinging Jin Lian to counter-kill, but he didn't use them in the end.

It was just practice; there was no need to expose his killing moves.

Using conventional Star Techniques was enough.

But it was very obvious that Treading Star River had used his killing moves.

In the fifth exchange, Xu Jin learned the name of this killing move of Treading Star River: Cold Ice Hell!

It was to continuously add and arrange from the beginning of the battle, and when the opponent reacted, the Cold Ice Hell would be formed, and he could kill!

But what made Treading Star River despair was that he fought Xu Jin seven times, with six losses and one win!

"May I ask who you are? Reasonably speaking, with such strong combat power, I should know you?" Treading Star River asked.

"I am Qi Tian Da Sheng!"

Xu Jin smiled, killed Treading Star River in the eighth match, and continued to challenge upward.

In a short time, Treading Star River no longer had any value for tempering, but he should have it in the future.

Therefore, Xu Jin readily accepted Treading Star River's friend request.

After challenging seven more times, Xu Jin pushed his ranking to forty-ninth.

Just as he was about to leave, suddenly, another starlight message came.

【Han Yue Han Yue Zhongying applies to add you as a friend, do you agree?】

【Reject】

Inside a palace located at the peak of high mountains and clouds, a young girl wearing a blue dress suddenly stepped out of the Star-Plucking Tower and then screamed like she was going crazy.

"Ah Immortal Yueyue, I want to find this bastard and kill him!

He rejected me again, he rejected me again!"

"This girl must slaughter him!"

Han Yue Han Yue Zhongying was about to be driven crazy by Xu Jin.

At the same time, another young girl with bare, fair little feet looked at Han Yue Han Yue Zhongying like this and laughed until she couldn't close her mouth.

"Little Ying, you can't even beat him; how are you going to kill him after finding him?" the girl called Immortal Yueyue asked with a smile.

"Does it have to be me who kills him?" Han Yue Han Yue Zhongying sneered.

The next instant, Han Yue Han Yue Zhongying leaned over and hugged Immortal Yueyue directly, "No, Immortal Yueyue, you have to help me later, find a way to help me get his true identity, even if it means using sex appeal!"

"Why don't you go yourself? I'm not going!"

"He... he won't add me as a friend, so this girl doesn't even have the chance to show off her beauty!"

"Then it must be that your sex appeal isn't enough..."

Amidst the jokes, the two girls began to play and fight.

【Seeing that your performance has been good lately, I forgive you. Let's have a match in the Third-Tier Practice Arena Secret Realm tomorrow night.】

Xu Jin, who was about to exit the Star-Plucking Tower, suddenly received a starlight message from Zuiyue Zuiyue Xianzi.

It directly left Xu Jin with a head full of fog.

What good performance?

He didn't perform!

Forgive him?

Forgive his ass.

He didn't commit any mistakes!

On October 8th, after the morning lessons, Xu Jin began to focus on cultivation, continuously taking one-essence high-grade Refine Star Pills.

An hour later, the morning lessons ended, and Xu Jin's cultivation in the Middle Shang Xinggong also successfully broke through to the eighth layer of the Refine Star Realm.

At the same time, inside the Danxia Academy, General Manager Peng suddenly arrived, appearing behind Grand Master Cheng Cheng Yuexiao, who was handling official business, and then reported in a low voice, "Palace Master, Xu Jin's cultivation has broken through to the eighth layer of the Refine Star Realm."

(End of chapter)