Chapter 73: First Level Astral Realm 'Moon Demon'
Returning to the martial arts room, Li Yuan asked while drinking water, "Gu Qiang, are you going to participate in the practical combat assessment?"
"Sigh, I have to," Gu Qianghan sighed. "Yesterday, my mom told me that if I don't pass the practical combat assessment, my dad will break my legs when I get home."
Li Yuan laughed. Gu Qianghan always emphasized, "My dad will beat me, and my mom is unhappy with me," but it was clear that his parents loved him very much. If parents truly didn't care, children would keep their feelings hidden.
"I'll go on the virtual network first," Li Yuan said with a smile. "I need to sign the documents."
"Alright, I'll sign in a moment. Let's have some watermelon today."
...Consciousness connected. Directly entering the Jiangbei Martial Arts Campus Network.
"Death Waiver." Li Yuan flipped through the document, scanning it briefly. There were many clauses, but it boiled down to one sentence: "If you die in the practical combat assessment, Jiangbei Martial Arts will compensate with 500,000 Blue Star Coins."
That was it.
"500,000 Blue Star Coins?" Li Yuan clicked to agree, then returned to his personal space on the virtual network to complete the online signature.
In his personal space, Li Yuan pondered, "Practical combat assessment? I hope it won't disappoint me."
Li Yuan was determined to participate. First, to meet the special training contract requirements of Kunlun Martial Arts University. Second, for the Blue Star Coins reward.
"In the skill assessment, the cage melee was divided into six rounds, so I didn't need to compete directly with Wu Dongdong or Tian Dazhuang. I easily took first place," Li Yuan thought. "But in the practical combat assessment? There's only one first place."
Winning the 2 million Blue Star Coins reward was extremely difficult. Not to mention, "Wu Dongdong's spear skills are better than mine, and her physical fitness is as high as 10.5," Li Yuan thought. "Overall, her strength is far superior to mine. The chance of beating her is very low."
Over the past few days, Li Yuan had used 'Divine Palace Investigation' on many students. As the number of investigations increased, Li Yuan noticed that the weaker the opponent, the less mental energy was consumed.
According to the results of these days' investigations, Li Yuan found that most of the thousands of elite students participating in the event had physical fitness levels between 8.0 and 8.5. There were very few students below 8.0 or above 9.0.
Those with physical fitness above 10.0? Only Wu Dongdong and Lin Lanyue. Next was Wang Yu, at 9.5. Tian Dazhuang, possibly due to family reasons and limited cultivation resources, had a physical fitness level of only 8.5.
In other words, Li Yuan's physical fitness level of 8.9 was actually among the top 5% of all elite students. During the January adjustment test, Gu Qianghan's physical fitness was similar to Li Yuan's. Now, it was only 8.7, falling behind Li Yuan.
In the past year and a half, in terms of physical fitness improvement speed, Li Yuan was among the top in Jiangbei Province's million students.
"Competing for first place is difficult."
"But, I must strive to enter the top ten." Li Yuan felt that with effort, he had a great chance to win the 500,000 Blue Star Coins.
Money was very important. "My younger brother and sister's martial arts training will require a lot of expenses in the future," Li Yuan thought. "To give them the best conditions, a few million Blue Star Coins won't be enough until they reach their third year of high school."
The investment in martial arts training was endless. The more, the better.
Lastly, and most importantly for Li Yuan, was the spiritual nourishment.
Li Yuan had always been concerned about this matter. "According to Dean Li, everything has a spirit, and I shouldn't be an exception," Li Yuan thought. "So, the spiritual awakening level on my Divine Palace panel... is it referring to the 'advanced spirituality' noted on the Divine Palace panel initially?"
Was what he awakened advanced spirituality? This was Li Yuan's guess.
"Last time, before I killed the astral realm creature, I received a reminder and then obtained 0.6% spiritual nourishment after killing it."
"When I investigated human martial artists, I didn't receive any reminders about obtaining spiritual nourishment," Li Yuan pondered. "Do I have to kill astral realm creatures? It seems so!"
"Does the target need to be an entry-level life form? Not confirmed!"
Li Yuan hadn't seen other astral realm creatures, so there was no comparison.
"Is this spiritual nourishment something my Divine Palace palace takes and absorbs from the deceased... or is it a reward from some mysterious existence for killing astral realm creatures?" This thought suddenly flashed in Li Yuan's mind.
As his strength increased step by step, Li Yuan occasionally thought about the origin of the Divine Palace palace and the Divine Palace panel. Was it some kind of special talent of his own? Or did it come from some unspeakable existence? Or the legendary immortals? Gods? Demons? All were unknown.
"Take it slow. When my strength becomes greater, I will have the opportunity to understand it," Li Yuan thought. "This practical combat assessment is a test."
Suppressing distracting thoughts, Li Yuan directly opened the other video file sent by Lin Lanyue.
Buzz~ The light screen emerged, displaying a panoramic projection. Li Yuan stood in place, as if he was there.
Under a dim sky, a red moon hung high, with dazzling red light flashing across the sky from time to time, looking quite eerie.
"Is this Blue Star?" Li Yuan wondered.
His view extended far, with rolling mountains and howling winds, accompanied by the occasional howls of wild beasts. At the end of the sky was a huge war fortress.
As the camera zoomed out, this vast world was presented before Li Yuan.
Simultaneously, a narration began: "First-level Astral Realm 'Moon Demon Astral Realm', the entrance is located in Jiangbei Province 'Jiangbei Martial Arts University'. It is a fully developed Astral Realm, bordering the extraterrestrial civilization 'Moon Demon Civilization'... The maximum diameter of the entire Astral Realm is about 2341 kilometers... A forward base has been established, completing the control and secretly monitoring the entire Moon Demon Civilization."
"The uses of the Astral Realm are: first, secretly capturing Moon Demon Civilization creatures for experiments."
"Second, the military conducts technological weapon experiments in a 'high source force environment'."
"Third, as the practical combat assessment site for Jiangbei Martial Arts University students."
Li Yuan watched the video in shock. He could easily understand that this was definitely classified information.
Moon Demon Astral Realm? Located in Jiangbei Martial Arts University? Li Yuan, a native of Jiangbei Province, had never heard of it.
"In Jiangbei Province, there is clearly only one first-level Astral Realm 'Fish Spirit'," Li Yuan couldn't help but think. "Fish Spirit Astral Realm is located in the area between Shizhou and Yizhou, more than 2000 kilometers away from Jiangcheng."
Fish Spirit Astral Realm, as the name suggests, is the origin of the Fish Spirit Clan. The entrance of Fish Spirit Astral Realm intersecting with Blue Star is very large, with small entrances constantly appearing, making it impossible for China to completely seal it off.
Fish Spirit Clan often invades, which has caused multiple towns along the Xiang River to be attacked by extraterrestrial creatures for decades.
Fortunately, Fish Spirit Astral Realm is only a 'first-level Astral Realm', and the invading creatures are only first-level, capable of launching small-scale attacks, not fatal to Jiangbei Province.
"So, there is another Astral Realm in Jiangbei Martial Arts University?" Li Yuan held his breath.
According to high school textbooks, Astral Realms are the areas where human civilization intersects with extraterrestrial civilizations.
Although according to the video description, the Moon Demon Astral Realm is under human control and very safe, who can guarantee absolute safety?
Any Astral Realm is like a super volcano ready to erupt at any time.
"No wonder Jiangbei Martial Arts University is a military base and has built war fortresses," thoughts flashed through Li Yuan's mind. "It's probably to seal the Astral Realm entrance immediately in case of an emergency."
Countless thoughts crossed Li Yuan's mind, and he had to admit, Lin Lanyue's background was indeed impressive, being able to obtain such a video.
Suppressing his thoughts, Li Yuan continued watching.
"Today, the focus is on the third point, about the practical combat assessment site," the narration in the video continued. "This is the latest detailed explanation for 2043."
"The following are introductions to the practical combat assessment site, distribution of alien creatures, their physical structures, and typical combat methods..."
"Moon Demon creatures are primarily beast-like. Their adult forms are generally around level 8, but their intelligence is low, usually equivalent to a 6-year-old human... However, there have been flying-level life forms born, slowly absorbing the source force emitted by the 'Moon'. Second-level Moon Demon warriors have intelligence equivalent to a 12-year-old human..."
"The main form of Moon Demon creatures resembles 'wolves', with predominantly black or red skin, scales growing on their abdomen... Their weak points are..."
"In the practical combat assessment site, the distribution of Moon Demon creatures is..."