Chapter 61

A star, like a shooting star, crashed toward Xu Jin at high speed.

Xu Jin even instinctively closed his eyes.

The moment he opened his eyes again, the world before him had turned into a brand-new world.

A dark forest, with daylight faintly filtering through, leaves swaying, wind whistling; Xu Jin even heard the sound of flowing water.

Xu Jin subconsciously reached out to touch the leaves, wanting to see if they were real.

"Newcomer?"

A voice rang out, and Xu Jin saw a man with a square face and broad ears step out from behind a large tree ten meters away, holding a long sword; seeing Xu Jin touching the leaves, he was slightly surprised.

As Xu Jin nodded, a voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

【Dense forest terrain; the challenge will begin in five breaths】

【Opponent Star Master: Green-Clad Divine Sword】

The leaves were real; it was just that the name of the star master opposite him was a bit tacky; when he played games in his past life, there were too many "Divine Sword" names.

"Looks like I'm in luck." Green-Clad Divine Sword smiled as he watched Xu Jin touching the leaves, as if he had found a treasure.

"I suppose!"

Xu Jin looked at the torn leaves in his hand, feeling incomparably surprised, or rather, shocked.

This Practice Arena Secret Realm was too damn realistic.

It was hundreds of times better than any 5D or 6D immersive experience from his past life.

He punched the tree trunk, and there was only one word for it.

Pain!

And at this very moment, the starlight between Xu Jin and Green-Clad Divine Sword dissipated instantly, and the battle began.

Almost in an instant, Green-Clad Divine Sword circled around the tree and rushed out; the moment the starlight lit up under his feet, his entire body accelerated instantly, weaving through the dense forest like a swimming fish.

In the blink of an eye, his long sword, spitting out two feet of starlight, slashed toward Xu Jin.

Xu Jin had already had ideas about this battle.

He wanted to test the application of his Basic Star Arts in actual combat.

Therefore, Xu Jin did not dodge or evade; before the long sword's starlight could reach his body, a Basic Star Shield appeared instantly.

It blocked the starlight spitting from the long sword.

The starlight from the long sword and Xu Jin's Star Shield collapsed at the same time.

"Instant cast? Grand Perfection?" A look of astonishment appeared on Green-Clad Divine Sword's face, but the long sword in his palm did not stop, continuing to slash rapidly as starlight surged out again.

But at that very same instant, Xu Jin flicked his finger lightly.

A Star Arrow blasted out like lightning.

It blasted directly into the forehead of Green-Clad Divine Sword, who was only three feet away from Xu Jin.

Green-Clad Divine Sword didn't even have time to mobilize his star power.

The Star Arrow had already entered his brain.

Leaving only an expression of extreme astonishment before Xu Jin, he collapsed into points of starlight and dissipated.

A series of sounds emerged in Xu Jin's mind.

【Star Master Qi Tian Da Sheng Equal to Heaven has won the challenge, gaining 3 practice points; current ranking: 1,665,345th.】

【Continue the challenge or exit?】

This ranking gave Xu Jin a huge fright.

One million, six hundred and sixty-five thousandth?

Were there that many Meal of Mist Realms?

No, that wasn't right; were there that many cultivators at the sixth layer of Meal of Mist or higher?

According to the activation requirements of the Star-Plucking Token, under normal circumstances, one had to be at the sixth layer of Meal of Mist to activate and enter the Star-Plucking Tower; someone like Xu Jin should be a special case, but definitely not the only one.

Currently, activating the Star-Plucking Token was related to the spirit.

Such special cases would definitely not be numerous.

Then the number of over one million cultivators at the sixth layer of Meal of Mist and above was terrifying.

But on second thought, Xu Jin understood.

This was highly likely a large region.

According to when Xu Jin pushed open the Star Gate earlier, places like the Heavenly Sun Star Palace and the Great Chu National Academy couldn't be entered, but he could enter this Practice Arena Secret Realm.

In other words, this Practice Arena Secret Realm had no requirements; as long as one could obtain a Star-Plucking Token, one could enter.

If calculated this way, it should be the number of cultivators at the sixth layer of Meal of Mist and above possessed by this world.

One million, six hundred thousand—that was normal.

Perhaps, after Xu Jin's three points, there were still tens of thousands of people ranked behind him.

There might even be many people who hadn't obtained a Star-Plucking Token yet.

Currently, Xu Jin still didn't know other channels for obtaining Star-Plucking Tokens.

Next, Xu Jin wasn't in a hurry to challenge; instead, he began to explore and think.

First, he explored the situation of this Practice Arena Secret Realm clearly.

There were points, so there were leaderboards.

The Practice Arena Secret Realm only displayed the top one thousand on the leaderboard; according to the prompts of the Practice Arena Secret Realm, if one's ranking entered the top one thousand and was maintained, one could obtain one strand of Star-Plucking Tower Starlight for every seven consecutive days the ranking was maintained.

From the one thousandth to the top one hundred, the rewards were all like this.

If the ranking reached the top one hundred to the top ten, one could obtain two strands of Star-Plucking Tower Starlight for every seven days the ranking was maintained.

From tenth to sixth, one could obtain three strands of Star-Plucking Tower Starlight for every seven days the ranking was maintained.

For fifth and fourth, one could obtain four strands of Star-Plucking Tower Starlight for every seven days the ranking was maintained.

For third, one could obtain five strands of Starlight for every seven days the ranking was maintained.

The reward for second place was six strands.

The reward for first place was seven strands.

At the same time, different rankings also had different Practice Arena Secret Realm titles; after obtaining a title, one would receive different benefits in the Star-Plucking Tower.

This made Xu Jin greatly surprised.

He had to push for this ranking; breaking into the top one thousand was the most basic goal, and he hoped to maintain it within the top one hundred; the benefits would be quite good then.

As for the top ten, Xu Jin didn't dare to think about it yet.

Those who could break into the top ten must be the top-tier geniuses of this world.

After figuring out the basic rules of the Practice Arena Secret Realm, Xu Jin continued to ponder. When he fought Green-Clad Divine Sword just now, the reason Xu Jin didn't dodge or evade and instead used Star Arts to meet the challenge was to study and determine a direction.

Xu Jin had seen many TV shows and novels in his past life, and there were many cultivation directions.

But almost all cultivation actually followed the path of "skill approaching the Dao."

Constantly practicing martial arts, contemplating, comprehending, improving techniques, comprehending the true meaning of martial arts, and so on.

But in this world, the few battles Xu Jin had experienced since arriving felt completely different.

It felt like Star Arts and martial arts were like the difference between thermal weapons and cold weapons.

The battle with Green-Clad Divine Sword just now was exactly like that; no matter how fast your speed was or how fancy your moves were, a single Star Arrow, like a handgun, would cost you your life.

So, in this world, Star Arts were the priority; honing pure saber techniques and sword techniques no longer had much meaning.

Like when he fought Yue Chong earlier, Yue Chong held a First Tier Star Weapon, and the starlight spitting from his long saber was two or three meters long; what was the use of practicing refined saber techniques?

The other person's big saber was three meters long, and yours wasn't even one meter.

Even when the Blood Butcher Tian Zhang made a move earlier, with one strike, his saber light split out over a hundred meters.

Truly holding a hundred-meter-long big saber to hack at you—no matter how exquisite your saber technique was, it wouldn't be of much use.

Of course, under the same cultivation level, saber techniques were still useful.

It was at this moment that Xu Jin determined his direction: Star Arts and Star Patterns were the priority, and techniques were secondary.

【Challenge】

After thinking clearly about this direction, Xu Jin continued to choose to challenge.

Not just for points, but to verify whether the direction he had chosen was correct.

According to what Ning Yuchan and Cui Tianqi had said earlier, even for those with high talent, under normal circumstances, it would take about two or three years to practice Basic Star Arts to the level of Grand Perfection instant casting.

So for most people, it was over two or three years.

Theoretically, among these millions of Meal of Mist Realms in the Practice Arena Secret Realm, there shouldn't be many who could instantly cast Basic Star Arts.

Because geniuses cultivated fast and had already broken through the Meal of Mist Realm to Star Forging, while those with ordinary talent cultivated slowly and hadn't broken through the Meal of Mist Realm to Star Forging, and they also hadn't practiced Star Arts to the state of Grand Perfection instant casting.

Xu Jin's only doubt now was, what were the subsequent advanced Star Arts like?

If he knew, the focus of his future cultivation would be clear.

The second battle was even easier than the first.

A guy using gauntlets was finished off by Xu Jin with three Star Arrows before he could even get close.

Xu Jin won five consecutive victories.

In the sixth match, a woman using a long spear caused difficulties for Xu Jin.

The starlight spitting from the long spear plus the length of the spear exceeded three meters, while the range of Xu Jin's Star Arrow was only four feet.

This battle was fought extremely arduously, and he almost lost.

In the end, it was Xu Jin who used his Star Shield to hard-carry the close combat, then used a Star Ring eruption to knock the opponent down, followed by a continuous burst of Star Arrow shots to blast the opponent to death.

Six consecutive victories.

After six consecutive victories, Xu Jin wanted to continue, but suddenly he felt a trace of inexplicable fatigue.

He felt a bit sleepy.

In an instant, he reacted.

This was excessive consumption of spiritual power.

It seemed that this Star-Plucking Tower practice wasn't without consumption.

Although it didn't consume Starlight, it consumed spiritual power.

In comparison, the consumption of Xu Jin's own Star Lamp practice in the Arena Platform was extremely small.

Even practicing in the Star Lamp for several hours didn't consume much.

This was also Xu Jin's advantage.

With a thought, the information of the Practice Arena Secret Realm appeared before Xu Jin.

【Star Master: Qi Tian Da Sheng Equal to Heaven】

【Practice Points: 18 points】

【Practice Ranking: 1,325,826】

Six consecutive victories, and his ranking had improved by over three hundred thousand; this ranking improvement speed was quite fast.

But that was also normal, because winning one match in the Practice Arena Secret Realm added three points, but losing one match also deducted three points.

In this situation, many people who lost more than they won or had the same number of wins and losses still had zero points.

Having this ranking was very normal.

Leaving the Practice Arena Secret Realm, Xu Jin returned to the Star Gate Hall of the Star-Plucking Tower, but he didn't conduct any more excessive exploration.

However, before exiting the Starlight Hall, Xu Jin discovered a light orb named "Starlight Message" beside him.

It meant one could receive and send messages through the Star-Plucking Token.

Receiving messages was free, but actively sending a message consumed one strand of Starlight per message.

If calculated in silver, one message was one hundred taels of silver; if calculated at the Star-Plucking Tower's recycling price, one message was two hundred taels of silver.

Even China Mobile in the "Big Brother" era of his past life wasn't this expensive.

Moreover, there was a range limit.

A One-Star Star-Plucking Token could only send and receive messages within a hundred-mile radius of the Star-Plucking Tower.

Xu Jin had no interest in studying this function, which was expensive to the point of being black-hearted, and left directly.

The starlight before his eyes converged, and Xu Jin was still standing in his small courtyard, holding the Star-Plucking Token.

But the Star-Plucking Token in his hand now had a feeling of being connected to Xu Jin by flesh and blood.

"Spiritual power!"

Xu Jin focused his mind to look inward, carefully examining the faint Clear Spirit Star Pattern in his Upper Star Palace.

Entering the Star-Plucking Tower Practice Arena Secret Realm today, besides deciding the direction of his future cultivation focus, Xu Jin's greatest discovery was the importance of spiritual power.

Spiritual power was even more important than he had previously imagined.

He had already been trying his best to overestimate the importance of spiritual power before.

But in the battle in the Practice Arena Secret Realm, Xu Jin discovered that the influence of spiritual power was everywhere.

It might be more than ten times more important than he had imagined.

Then how precious must this Clear Spirit Star Pattern, which could improve spiritual power and accelerate the recovery speed of spiritual power, be?

Wherever it was placed, it had to be at the level of a sect-suppressing ultimate art, right?

Why did the green-clad person teach it to him?

Then tonight, would the green-clad person come?

(End of chapter)