Tiannan Star.
The sunlight was peaceful.
The spaceship landed at the airport, and Bai Xiaodu stepped onto the ground once more.
He couldn't help but stretch his arms and legs, loosening his joints.
These past few days, he had been buried in training or catching up on his studies with Xin Hai'an.
No wonder submarine crews got the highest meal allowances; enclosed environments were simply too suffocating.
Bai Xiaodu took a few deep breaths of fresh air, feeling much better as his silver tail wagged happily.
A young man with orange fur, a cat demihuman with black-rimmed glasses, noticed him and walked over.
“Are you Student Bai Xiaodu?”
“Oh, are you Teacher Los?”
After Xin Hai'an helped Bai Xiaodu with the paperwork, the admissions office of Tiannan Star Military University didn't delay. They immediately arranged for a teacher to receive him personally.
An underprivileged student, exceptionally talented, of a rare race, and on the Spellcasting Pathway.
With his buffs stacked to the max, Los had to treat him with utmost seriousness.
After a brief chat, Los brought him to a training room and got straight to the point.
“Since you didn't take the Federation's official college entrance exam, you can only enter the university through special recruitment.”
“Are you ready to take the assessment? Or do you want to wait a few days?”
“Right now is fine. I'm ready.”
Los smiled and nodded.
“You certainly have confidence. Good.”
He clapped his hands, and a heavy thudding sound echoed. Bai Xiaodu looked over.
Three mechanical training constructs clad in white armor walked out from three different doors.
One had eight spider legs for a lower body, with a lean and capable human upper body. It dual-wielded short daggers, their blades faintly glowing with a pale green light.
One was massive and clumsy, looking like a tank with a human head. Its arms, where hands should be, had been replaced by a pair of massive split shields. Every step it took made the ground tremble.
The other was completely beastial, resembling a monstrous eagle covered in white armor. Its feathers were layered, and small gun ports were installed under its legs and wings.
A Rogue, a Tank, and a Ranger.
Los clapped his hands again, bringing the observing Bai Xiaodu back to reality.
“Their strength has been set to Rank 0.9. You need to defeat them all within ten minutes. The less time you take, the higher your score. The university might even assign you a better territory.”
With that, his figure vanished from the arena and reappeared on the spectator stands not far away.
“Do your best, Bai Xiaodu. I have high hopes for you.”
“Of course, if any accident occurs, remember to call out. I will step in to protect you,” Los reminded him. “Don't be careless. You only recently advanced to a transcendent. In previous years, there have been cases of official transcendents getting caught off guard by their coordination and suffering a bitter defeat, even getting so exasperated that they had to use their precious Origin.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the three training constructs opened their eyes simultaneously.
Their cold, mechanical eyes glowed red, locking onto Bai Xiaodu with precision.
Rumble!
Without giving him even a fraction of a second to react, the shield-bearing construct slammed its arms together and charged like a mad bull!
Its massive white body bore down on him like a small mountain. It was hard to imagine how a Tank could possess such speed.
With their teammate spearheading the attack, the other two constructs naturally didn't idle. Unlike teammates in online games who wouldn't show up even if called eight hundred times, they moved almost simultaneously.
The spider Rogue moved rapidly, its eight legs leaving afterimages on the ground. Its upper body leaned forward as it held its dual poisoned daggers in a reverse grip, pouncing toward Bai Xiaodu's flank with murderous intent.
The flying eagle used its thrusters to soar into the air, fully spreading its wings. Dozens of gun ports of various sizes were exposed, opening fire decisively at Bai Xiaodu's head, heart, and other vital spots.
Witnessing this, Bai Xiaodu couldn't help but nod.
No wonder some transcendents had been caught off guard by these things.
In this fight, one had to deal with the rapidly approaching projectiles first. Anyone with slow speed or slow reaction time would swallow a bitter pill right from the start.
After dealing with the projectiles, the Tank would immediately crash into them like a heavy semi-trailer.
Even worse, there was a sneaky Rogue constantly waiting to launch a surprise attack!
The choices left for Bai Xiaodu were very clear.
Either dodge quickly and counterattack the Rogue, or use spells to face the onslaught of the shield and projectiles head-on.
But both options would leave him open to the spider Rogue's attack, and that bastard was wielding poisoned weapons.
This meant that even if he was just grazed, the best outcome of this assessment would be a pyrrhic victory.
But Bai Xiaodu's choice was...
To completely ignore all three attacks, activate the Roaming Dragon Technique, and sprint away in one direction!
The fastest one, the spider Rogue, quickly followed in hot pursuit, but it actually couldn't catch up to Bai Xiaodu!
Los stroked his chin and chuckled.
Those on the Spellcasting Pathway were mostly Mages or Warlocks, so Bai Xiaodu's approach was indeed correct.
Leaving the battlefield temporarily to ensure a safe distance before casting spells was a standard tactic.
Though it was a bit cowardly.
Still, this speed was truly surprising. It seemed Bai Xiaodu's plan was to constantly reposition with the Roaming Dragon Technique and then spam spells to wear them down.
This tactic was classic and effective, though the Tank would absorb most of the damage first, making it very time-consuming.
However...
Once Bai Xiaodu confirmed that the spider Rogue had pulled a certain distance away from the other two, he actively slowed down.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he calmly stared at the rapidly approaching spider.
“But that's a loser's way of thinking.”
Then, under Los's suddenly astonished gaze, he abruptly halted his steps and spun around.
Boom!
Searing crimson light flowed through his legs. Bai Xiaodu leaped into the air, executing a beautiful spin kick!
The force was so immense that it actually triggered a sonic boom. The spider Rogue had absolutely no time to react.
Its eight legs were still rushing toward Bai Xiaodu, but its upper body took the full force of the kick.
Bearing such monstrous force, cracks instantly spiderwebbed across the spider Rogue's impacted area, and its entire body flew backward like a cannonball.
And the direction of Bai Xiaodu's kick...
Was precisely toward the flying eagle circling and firing in midair!
The flying spider Rogue was like a thrown shield. Bullets and artillery of various calibers bombarded its body.
All three constructs were of the same rank, and the spider Rogue had high attack but low defense. Even though the eagle had reacted and stopped firing, its metallic body was still riddled with countless craters!
Seeing this, Los pumped his fist.
He almost cheered out loud.
Beautifully done!
With just their first clash, he had eliminated the most troublesome one!
Though he didn't know why a Warlock possessed such powerful physical strength, Los knew that a spellcaster who excelled in both melee and ranged combat was terrifying.
Thinking of this, his gaze toward Bai Xiaodu grew warmer with appreciation.
No matter where one went, the strong deserved respect.
He wondered if he could find an opportunity later to quietly recruit him into his own class.
After all, an instructor's performance was directly tied to the performance of the territories managed by their students.
With this in mind, he eagerly continued watching.
With the spider Rogue crippled, the shield construct would enter a defensive state, closely guarding the eagle from all directions without leaving its side.
Bai Xiaodu's melee capability was outstanding, and his ranged ability probably wasn't lacking either.
Next, he wanted to see how quickly Bai Xiaodu could defeat the shield construct.
As Los kept his eyes on Bai Xiaodu, he was shocked to find that the boy was no longer standing in place.
Where did he go?
At that moment, a silver-white figure appeared behind the spider Rogue.
Bai Xiaodu stomped down hard on it, completely crushing it in half in midair!
“But that is also a loser's way of thinking.”
Using the momentum to leap higher into the air, Bai Xiaodu suddenly reached out a hand and tightly grabbed the flying eagle's head.
He exerted sudden force, and amidst the sound of crackling electricity, he violently crushed its head, sending countless parts scattering everywhere!
“Dragging things out is such a waste of time. A clean sweep is more my style!”
Unsheathing Kalugar's Remnant Sword from his waist, a silver flash of sword light rapidly swept through the air, silently melting into the Tank construct's body.
Then, the single slash split into several, and a faint crackling sound echoed in the air as Bai Xiaodu landed back on the ground.
He sheathed the long sword and, without looking back, walked straight toward Los.
Clatter!
The Tank construct's massive body disintegrated into hundreds of fragments, crashing to the ground. The metal at the clean cuts glowed with molten heat.
Los swallowed hard, his throat feeling incredibly dry.
As a peak transcendent cultivator, Los had clearly seen all of his movements just now.
Generally speaking, weapons used by Domain Lords required Origin to be activated to unleash their true power.
This long sword had not been activated in such a way, meaning the strength shown was within the allowed limits of the assessment.
In other words, Bai Xiaodu's performance just now was purely due to his own raw physical strength.
“The time is...”
Los's voice trembled.
“Eight seconds!”
Rate on N.U.
