The God-blessed Land

Boom—!!!

An indescribable explosion erupted in the center of the arena!

This was a frantic strike into which Jiang Lin had poured all of his strength, far surpassing any previous sword qi explosion!

After using this move, Jiang Lin would have no means of counterattacking. If his opponent were not dead, he would be left at their mercy.

Furthermore, being at the center of the explosion himself, he would suffer the same damage.

This was truly a method of mutual destruction!

Energy from eight different attributes raged violently, completely swallowing both their bodies.

As for the Shadow of Blood, because it was at the epicenter and the source of the explosion was inside its own body, the impact it received was the most intense. Its body, which had been recovering frantically, began to collapse. Countless plumes of blood qi were instantly evaporated, torn apart, and decomposed!

However, it reacted quickly, curling its body into a tight ball to protect itself as much as possible from being shredded by the violent blast.

The explosion did not last long; before long, it completely subsided.

The arena instantly fell into a dead silence, as if everything that had just happened was fake, or perhaps a dream where nothing had occurred at all.

The only difference was that several more scratches and patches of undried blood were added to the already battered floor of the arena.

Only a single figure in the center of the field proved that everything just now had actually happened.

Indeed, the two figures that had been standing there were now reduced to just one.

However, this figure did not belong to Jiang Lin, but to the Shadow of Blood!

It had still not died in that terrifying explosion. It lay on the ground with an intact head and half of its body destroyed.

Since it was still wearing Jiang Lin's face, if Jiang Lin were to see this scene, he might have the illusion that he had been turned into an AI-generated video.

Because its body had sustained too much damage and a large amount of flesh had been blown away, its recovery was now exceptionally slow—a snail's pace compared to its previous speed.

It let out a roar of pain, looking at the empty arena before it in confusion, unable to understand why Jiang Lin had suddenly vanished.

That was right—Jiang Lin had suddenly disappeared!

Or rather, after detonating the longsword in his hand and releasing his strongest strike, Jiang Lin had vanished from the spot!

In fact, at the same time he detonated all of his power, Jiang Lin had activated the holy light mark left within his body.

In that instant, a transcendent pressure enveloped him, immediately severing his connection with the outside world.

Then, a strong sensation of spatial dizziness hit him, and he was teleported away once more, entering the so-called God-blessed Land.

Before his eyes was a golden holy light; he was still in the process of teleportation.

His body ached as if it were being torn apart. During the three minutes he had spent clashing with the Shadow of Blood, his body had been carved with hundreds of large and small wounds by the sword qi aftershocks, and they were still bleeding incessantly.

He had been so focused on the battle earlier that the adrenaline had helped him forget the pain, but now that he had relaxed, the agony gradually rushed to his brain.

Waves of dizziness hit him. His mental power had already been exhausted, and now, combined with the nausea of teleportation, his vision darkened repeatedly, bringing him to the brink of fainting several times.

However, drawing on his experience from numerous past faints, Jiang Lin bit down hard on the tip of his tongue to keep himself conscious.

Soon, the golden light vanished, and he was teleported into the God-blessed Land.

According to what he knew, his teammates should be around him now.

They should be within the safety barrier of a random teleportation point.

At that moment, he heard several anxious voices.

"Our last member is here! We might be able to carve a path out! Teleport as soon as the quest is finished!!"

"Damn it, to think we'd teleport into a demon outpost—they're camping our spawn!!"

"What's with this paladin?! How did he get so badly injured!!!"

"It's over, it's over. I'm afraid we're going to fail this assessment."

"Waaaah, I worked so hard to reach level 10 before the school exams. With a three-month cooldown ahead of me, I probably won't get into a good school..."

"Huh? Why does he look a bit familiar?"

"Holy crap?! Jiang Lin!! Why are you here!!!"

【Seven members present】

【Breakthrough assessment about to begin】

【Goal: Kill seven members of the foreign races in the God-blessed Land within seven days】

【Upon completion, you may leave at any time or choose to stay for the full seven days】

...

Jiang Lin's good deskmate from the Radiant Junior Magic Academy—the young priest girl, Aili—had completed the Junior Adventurer Exam with a fairly good score.

Such a score was a total overperformance for her, involving a certain amount of luck.

Consequently, her options had expanded significantly.

Moreover, her family's conditions were quite good, enough to support her studying at some of the more expensive magic schools.

Thus, she had set her sights on the Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy in Clearwater City.

However, her level at the time was still a bit short of the minimum requirements for the Saint Brilliance Middle Magic Academy.

So, she had been working hard to raise her level over the past few days.

Finally, after a month of almost sleepless cultivation assisted by potions, she broke through to level 10 just a few days ago!

She hurriedly went to the Temple to receive her breakthrough quest.

After adjusting her condition to its peak, she teleported into the God-blessed Land.

Team formation in the God-blessed Land was not always full; sometimes, one had to wait.

Furthermore, the matchmaking mechanism would try its best to group people of similar age and close geographical proximity together.

So, after teleporting into the God-blessed Land, she didn't start the quest immediately but waited at a random location.

However, this starting point could not be called perfect; in fact, it was utterly disastrous.

This was because it was an outpost established by demons within the God-blessed Land. Many demons who knew the terrain of the God-blessed Land would come here to exchange information or form additional teams.

Yes, it wasn't just humans who needed to pass through the God-blessed Land for their rank breakthroughs.

Many demons, beastkins, elves, and others with religious heritages needed to go to the God-blessed Land.

Demons generally worshiped the demon god, elves worshiped the primordial elf, and beastkins were a hodgepodge, worshiping whoever was closest to them without a fixed deity.

Only demonic beasts like Little Black or cultists who worshiped an evil god did not need to enter the God-blessed Land and could breakthrough directly.

Therefore, ordinary demonic beasts relied entirely on bloodline—the stronger the bloodline, the greater the combat power and the higher the upper limit.

If the bloodline was weak from the start, unless they had a stroke of massive luck like Little Black being possessed by an evil god, they could only remain carefree, low-intelligence demonic beasts, farmed as common mobs by other races.

In contrast, the other races had the opportunity to change their fate.

For example, even if one's bloodline was relatively low, if their aptitudes like comprehension were heaven-defying, they could still climb to higher levels through hard work and change their destiny.

...

As the saying goes, where there is intelligent life, there is Jianghu.

Since everyone teleported into the God-blessed Land within a roughly random range of their region, the various races had built their own outposts.

They even drew maps so that those entering could find their own outposts.

This had even given rise to some 'caravans' that specialized in carrying people through the trials.

Several old geezers who were invincible within the same rank would enter the God-blessed Land together, form a team, find their clients at the outpost, and escort them to a steady promotion.

Then, they would intentionally fail the quest and wait for the three-month cooldown to expire before coming back out to take more orders.

Of course, doing this meant they would occasionally encounter situations where they were split into different teams.

In such cases, they would either eliminate the unlucky person to let them go home early and try again next time, or if they encountered someone they couldn't beat, they would end their criminal career and advance to the next rank.

Naturally, this almost only happened to humans.

This was because only the seven righteous gods of humanity had so many requirements, such as forcing seven people of different classes to form a team.

Other races could enter alone.

As a result, there were many more professional boosters for the other races.

For instance, in this outpost right now, there were at least twenty professional boosters waiting for their clients.

As for where the boundaries of the God-blessed Land were, no one knew.

After all, one could only wait inside for seven days at most. In all the years since the birth of the various races, no creature had ever run to the edge of this world.

Some adventurers who knew how to calculate astronomical geography found that their knowledge was useless here.

Because the sky of the God-blessed Land had no stars and the time always remained as daytime, it was impossible to judge the size of the world.

The horizon was also a void.

It was as if it were a flat world.

Most physical laws were the same as the outside world, making it seem as though the world's existence was created by the gods solely for their followers to slaughter each other within it.

Of course, that was all beside the point.

Right now, Aili was utterly distraught.

Originally, as the other five members arrived one after another, they had been discussing a plan: once the protection barrier dissipated, they would immediately find a way to coordinate, forcefully hunt down seven demons in a certain direction, and leave this place as soon as they completed their breakthrough quest.

However, after waiting so long, the person teleported in was a guy covered in blood, with tattered clothes and a dying breath.

What kind of sin had they committed?!

Why did they have to have such a disastrous start??!!

This was clearly someone who had encountered danger and then forced a teleportation into the God-blessed Land for breakthrough just to temporarily save their life.

If the starting point had been anywhere else, they might have been able to help this compatriot recover from his injuries and give him some weapons, magic potions, and magic scrolls. Regardless of whether they completed the quest, they would have tried to help him survive and return to the outside world.

Even if they couldn't save him, he could have told them the location and the enemies so they could inform the Temple and at least help him get some revenge.

But they had no more time left.

In ten seconds, the barrier would dissipate, and surrounded by demons, they wouldn't last long before being sent back home.

And there was no time at all to treat the other's injuries.

Now, it seemed that the young priest girl actually knew that blood-covered youth.

This would probably be the last time the two of them ever met.

The other five felt a bit melancholy, sighing that this youth was indeed unlucky. In such a vast God-blessed Land, he had actually encountered the tiny probability of teleporting into an enemy's nest.

"Jiang Lin, what happened to you?!!"

Aili hurriedly treated Jiang Lin while asking anxiously.

However, dazed by the repeated long-distance teleportations, Jiang Lin had no strength to speak.

He merely used what little mental power he had left to take a rank-2 mana recovery potion out of his spatial ring.

"Hey... I..."

Jiang Lin signaled for Aili to feed him the rank-2 mana recovery potion in his hand.

Aili had no other choice now. She obediently took the magic potion from Jiang Lin's hand, knelt on the ground, and rested Jiang Lin's head on her smooth, white thighs, lifting his upper body slightly to make it easier for him to swallow.

She then brought the magic potion to Jiang Lin's lips and slowly poured it in.

Because Aili had no experience in feeding someone, she poured it a bit too quickly, causing quite a bit of the liquid to spill from the corners of Jiang Lin's mouth and wet her thighs.

As the rank-2 mana recovery potion was swallowed, Jiang Lin's own mental power began to recover rapidly.

At the same time, he hurriedly cast a combined version of low, mid, and high-level healing—the 【Ultimate Healing】—on himself. Together with Aili's healing magic, they worked to treat his physical body, which had been battered by the Shadow of Blood.

"Jiang Lin, what exactly is going on? Is there anything you need? I have some magic scrolls here. Although these spells can't be used in here, if you take them outside, they might help you hold on a bit longer!"

Even though her own rank breakthrough might fail, her good deskmate Jiang Lin was on the verge of death. She naturally knew which was more important.

After he had gone to the Saint Brilliance Magic Academy, he had written to her a few times. While they weren't exactly best friends, they were certainly on good terms.

As his body healed, Jiang Lin felt that he once again had the strength to fight.

Even if he failed to advance in the God-blessed Land, he should still have the strength to fight the heavily injured Shadow of Blood upon his return.

However, he wanted to clarify the current situation and why she was so anxious.

When he was first teleported over, he had only vaguely heard a few things, but his mind had been too foggy to think.

So he asked:

"Gulp, gulp, gulp~"

Seeing that Jiang Lin wanted to speak, Aili hurriedly stopped feeding him the magic potion.

At the same time, she glanced at the label on the potion bottle in her hand.

"Oh my god, a rank-2 magic potion?! Aren't you afraid of overdosing?!"

Jiang Lin ignored her question. After swallowing the potion in his mouth, he asked:

"What's the situation here? Why are you all so nervous??"

And just then, the ten-second preparation time ended, and Jiang Lin clearly saw his surroundings.

He saw what appeared to be a marketplace, with many humanoid creatures surrounding them and staring with ill intent.

The reason they were called humanoid creatures was that although they had the basic shape of humans, they were distinctly different.

For example, some had horns on their heads, some had wings on their backs, and some were three meters tall with scales covering their bodies.

These were clearly the demons within the outpost.

At this moment, the other five teammates surrounded the two of them, turning their backs to them to face the demons who were staring at the seven of them like tigers watching their prey.

"If you have any last words, say them now! We won't be able to hold out for long!!!"

One of them shouted.

They had no chance of winning now. Since the breakthrough was going to fail anyway, they might as well give this youth a bit of time to leave his last words.

'So I was born into a demon outpost?!'

Looking at the five unfamiliar teammates around him, Jiang Lin felt a bit moved.

He thought to himself:

'This luck... isn't it a bit too good?'