Chapter 8

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

–

The Talent Awakening Ceremony was still ongoing.

Many students felt encouraged and a great boost in morale after witnessing Su Hei’s awakening results.

All of them approached the altar with great confidence, but their results were less than satisfactory.

There were close to a hundred people left, but only two successfully managed to awaken their talent.

Those two were Chu Chen and Jiang Jinyu.

Chu Chen awakened his Warrior talent and Earth Elemental power. As for his Vitality, it had hit 20.

When compared to the average population, that result was considered to be really outstanding.

However, when Chu Chen saw everyone gathered around Su Hei, he felt a huge wave of disappointment flood over him.

As for Jiang Jinyu, she had awakened a surprising talent—Assassin talent.

Compared to the other talents that were combative in nature, assassins had overwhelming attack power. If they paired it with martial arts secret manuals, they could cause explosive physical damage.

The school belle, who was loved by all, had awakened such a chilling talent.

Even Su Hei was taken aback by the results.

However, recalling how Jiang Jinyu had a cold personality, Su Hei felt that her talent was a perfect match for her.

After the Talent Awakening Ceremony ended.

There were close to 200 students in Class D, but among them, only slightly over 30 people successfully awakened their talents. The success rate was less than 20 percent.

It was obvious that Class D’s students were not talented at all.

After that, including Su Hei, all of the students assembled outside the assembly hall.

Students from the elite classes had ended their ceremony early and left the hall.

The students who had gathered outside were from Class C and Class D.

After a short pause, everyone got up to the armored personnel carriers, which then drove out of the martial arts academy.

They were being taken to participate in the recruitment examination. Only martial artists who had passed the examination could become official members of the City Defense Team.

Qin Feng told Su Hei to stay back. He wanted to bring the latter directly back to the barracks to meet with the captain.

As the two of them were about to drive off, Qin Feng’s phone rang.

He answered the call and said, “I understand,” before ending the call.

Following that, he looked at Su Hei. “Looks like you won’t be exempted from the recruitment examination, after all.”

Seeing that Su Hei had a puzzled look, Qin Feng started up the vehicle and explained to him the reason behind that.

“The higher-ups want to see your performance in actual combat. I’ll let you in on a secret. You’ve already caught the attention of the captain of the City Defense Team.”

Captain.

The captain was the strongest person in Quilton’s survival base. He was a luminary in everyone else’s eyes.

The fact that Su Hei could catch that person’s eye meant that he could make his way in the world and become successful.

Qin Feng sighed before driving behind the line of military vehicles.

–

To maximize their power, humans narrowed their scope of activity. Cities were built in the middle of the survival base, with a 100-meter steel wall around their perimeters to defend humans against the outside world.

Initially, Su Hei assumed that the recruitment examination would be held where the City Defense Team was located, but he knew that he was wrong when the vehicles drove past the city walls.

“The examination is set outside the survival base?” he asked.

To humans, the world outside the base was vastly different from that within.

Inside the base was safe, whereas outside was akin to the very depths of hell.

After they left the protection of the 100-meter steel wall, dire beasts roamed about everywhere, and there were endless demon beasts.

For a martial artist who was already a Grandmaster, if he went out of the city, no matter how careful he was, there was still a chance of him being besieged by beasts and then getting ripped apart by them.

Not to mention them, who had just awakened their talents and were new to martial arts.

In response, Qin Feng nodded his head.

Su Hei was surprised and teased, “People from the City Defense Team are not only powerful but brave too.”

After hearing Su Hei’s words, Qin Feng gave his take on it.

“Only those who have experienced bloodshed can become qualified fighters.”

Su Hei felt that Qin Feng’s words made sense.

After driving past the massive city walls, the vehicles all slowed down.

They wanted to reduce the noise made to avoid unnecessary trouble.

–

Fast forward to some time later. All of the vehicles had arrived at their destination and stopped.

There was already a group of people waiting there for the new arrivals.

Martial artists who were from the martial arts academy all wore white standardized combat uniforms, so Su Hei could recognize them at a glance.

Among those people who were waiting for them, the majority of them dressed casually and seemed to have a wide age gap from Su Hei and the rest.

“Those people are martial artists from various regions of Quilton who aren’t under any organizations,” explained Qin Feng.

He could tell that Su Hei was perplexed.

What Qin Feng said next allowed Su Hei to understand more about this world.

Martial arts academies were similar to military schools in their past lives. Only those who met the age requirement and whose talents were up to their standards could enter the martial arts academy.

In this world, nobody was willing to be mediocre. Everyone wanted to become legendary-level martial artists who could kill thousands of beasts with a wave of their hand.

Thus, many people established martial arts dojos. Martial arts dojos were a common sight here, and they were of different sizes.

The founders of the dojos did not care about the students’ ages or their talents. So long as they could afford to pay for it, anyone could learn to cultivate and learn martial arts.

The arrival of the vehicles aroused the attention of the group of people.

Seeing Su Hei, Qin Feng, and the rest of the people getting out of the vehicles, that group of people looked in their direction.

“It’s the normal classes’ students from the martial arts academy.”

“Normal class? I thought they don’t have much talent?”

“I can’t believe that we waited for people like these. Empty vessels indeed make the most noise,” someone said, scorn dripping from his words.

The person who spoke was a youth with permed hair. He was an independent martial artist who was unaffiliated with any martial organization.

When he finished speaking, the youth with permed hair looked toward an older male beside him.

“Loong, I have a relative working at the martial arts academy as a toilet cleaner. I heard him mention that students from normal classes have a pathetically low chance of awakening their talent. Only one in a hundred people can awaken their talent,” he reported.

“For our martial arts dojo, the success rate of the students awakening their talents has reached 70 percent.”

“Usually, these students from the martial arts academies look down on us. Should we take them down a notch?” the youth with the permed hair asked.

Most of the independent martial artists detested students from the martial arts academy.

The reason was that if one were to compare them, those from the martial arts academy would be seen as hailing from rich families while they were seen as peasants.

The students in the academy easily had access to resources, while they had to work hard to get those resources.

At least, that was how things were like from their perspective.

They were now in the same group, had the same status, and were competitors.

Naturally, conflicts were bound to happen between them.

That middle-aged man was called Li Daloong, and he was the most powerful martial artist among the dozen or so martial artists in the Flaming War Dojo.

His talent was Drummer. For some time, the Human Alliance had thought of it to be an entertainment type of talent. They felt that it was only suitable for leisure and recreation, but not for combat.

However, Li Daloong was unconvinced by that. After joining the Flaming War Dojo and having cultivated for many years, he had finally gained enough power to join the recruitment examination for the City Defense Team.

He did not care whether it was the elite class or the normal class. So long as they were his competitors, they were his enemies.

“If the people from the City Defense Team don’t stop you, then beat the hell out of them. Show them no mercy,” Li Daloong said casually.

The better their performance, the higher chance they had of passing the examination.

“Rest assured, Loong!”

“I’ll make sure that these sissies, who live in their ivory tower, know that they’re not in the same league as us. After all, we’re martial artists who do combat training every day.”

The combat training he was referring to was the street fights that they got into after getting drunk.

Su Hei walked toward Wang Dong, Li Hua, and the rest.

He was about to speak, but he was interrupted by the youth with the permed hair, who was walking toward them menacingly.

The youth said, “Hey, losers! What right do you have to keep us waiting for so long? Don’t you know that time is money?”

“Give us 100,00 dollars for us to buy alcoholic drinks, and we won’t be mad anymore.”

When they heard that, the martial artists from Class C—including Cao Guangning—gloated as they watched Li Daloong and his men making trouble for Su Hei.

“You should leave now, while you still can,” said Su Hei.

He could not be bothered to waste his time on such gangsters.

The permed-hair youth was seething with anger. “How dare you speak to us like that?”

With that, he clenched his fists and swung them at Su Hei.

However, very soon, the youth saw a fist that was as big as a sandbag swinging toward him.

The next instant, there was a loud sound.

Boom!

Su Hei’s punch sent the permed-hair youth flying more than ten meters away, and he passed out.