Sovereign of the Three Realms

Jiang Chen had previously guessed that their points were certainly over a thousand. But it looked like he’d still underestimated their speed in grinding out points.

When he saw Jiang Chen remain silent after hearing those words, Tang Hong—someone who had never known how to comfort someone, actually said, “Don’t worry boss. With your potential in strength of heart and pills, you’ll earn lots of points quickly.”

Jiang Chen, however, wasn’t worried about this. He was planning on the best way to earn these points.

“Tang Hong, normally speaking, what’s the fastest way to earn points in the advanced stage?”

“If your strength is strong and battle abilities astounding, then challenge others. You gain 20 points for every victory and lose 20 for every loss. Those ranked in the top for battle strength challenge others everyday, so they gain points very quickly.”

Tang Hong had obviously come up short in this area before and muttered angrily. “To hell with them. Those brutes just have more resources, treasures, and that little bit of superior cultivation. They make use of this to trample others and crazily grind points. How shameless.”

They would naturally use this advantage since they held it, Jiang Chen wasn’t that surprised.

He asked, “How difficult are the regular missions?”

Tang Hong thought for a moment and responded, “A first level mission is as difficult as our hardest foundation exams. But that’s not always the case, it depends on luck.”

“Second level missions double in difficulty and so forth as the mission level increases.”

“That difficult?” Jiang Chen was surprised. A constantly doubling difficulty level—this wasn’t normal!

Tang Hong nodded. “It’s very difficult indeed. If it wasn’t, that perverse lot would have probably gotten up to three, four thousand points long ago, perhaps even more.”

“Are the regular missions divided into various subjects like the foundation exams?” Jiang Chen asked.

"Of course, the exams are meant to uncover geniuses. As long as you're exceptionally strong in a certain area, you can keep taking missions in this area. Of course, there are still some restrictions to prevent cheating when grinding out points.” Tang Hong had been here for two cycles and was thus very familiar with all details of the rules.

“What restrictions?” Jiang Chen had already snapped to attention inwardly when he heard that the missions were divided into subjects.

“For instance, let’s say you're talented in the area of pills. You can apply for a pill related mission. But you can increase the mission difficulty by a single level each day. For instance, let's say you applied for a level one mission today, then you can only apply for a level two mission tomorrow, and a level three the day after. When you reach the peak of the level five, you must return to level one and can't continue tackling level five missions. In addition, if you continuously apply for missions in this area, you’ll be barred from applying in this area again for ten days should you fail.”

"Ten days? Isn’t it a five-day ban if you don’t complete the mission?”

“That’s under normal circumstances. If you continuously apply for missions in the same area, then you’ll be banned for 10 days. And that’s a ban on all missions. If you want to earn points during that time, you can only challenge other candidates.”

“I see.” Jiang Chen smiled wryly, having finally understood those rules.

Tang Hong chuckled, “However, if you fail when challenging other candidates, you’re also barred from issuing challenges for the next five days.”

Jiang Chen was aware of these rules.

They also made sense, preventing cheating when grinding out points.

If it wasn’t for these rules, those point fiends would likely leave others behind in the dust.

Jiang Chen made a careful estimation. If these people completed a level two mission every day and obtained all the foundation points, they would have at least four thousand points.

The restriction of five to ten days leveled the playing field to a certain degree.

“Boss, are you thinking of grinding out points in the pill area?” Tang Hong suddenly thought of something.

“What do you think?” Jiang Chen smiled leisurely.

Tang Hong grinned widely. “Alright, I fully agree!”

Jiang Chen did indeed have this thought. He’d just arrived and was far behind the others. If he did things slowly and steadily, who knew when he’d catch up?

Therefore, he had to use the craziest speed possible to earn points. Even if he didn’t reach those at the top, it’d be great if he could slowly catch up.

He’d have to at least ensure that he wouldn’t be eliminated in the first three months. If his score was in the bottom ten in the end, he’d have to return to the earth quadrant. This was the last thing he wanted to happen.

“But boss, you must be careful. I once had the same ambition in the pill area and tried that before as well. I challenged level two after completing level one and level three after level two, but ended up failing the third level. Damn depressing. It was a good thing I was banned for only five days.”

Tang Hong couldn’t help but voice a warning when he recalled his own tragic circumstances.

“Isn’t it supposed to be ten days?”

Tang Hong chuckled. “That’s only if you tackle five missions in a row in the same area. I only did that three times and hadn’t reached the point of being banned for a whole ten days, or I really would’ve been in for it!”

The two of them chatted a bit longer. One had to say, Tang Hong and Jiang Chen got along quite well, they actually felt like they’d known each other for a long time after chatting for a while.

Tang Hong’s personality was unreserved, and he’d never bowed his head to others. He was a loner within his sect as well. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to socialize, but that he couldn’t abide by the lifestyle within the sect. The two great families holding up the sect only knew how to play politics everyday. This wasn’t the sect life that Tang Hong wanted.

“Boss, let’s go to the comprehensive area tomorrow.”

When they left, Tang Hong waved his fan-like hands in farewell as he left for his own residence.

When Jiang Chen looked upon this fiercely-built man, traces of a smile appeared on his face. “This fellow is big, but his thoughts are as innocent as a child’s. Very refreshing and direct. That such a person could make it to this level in a sect speaks volumes of his potential and personality.”

In the world of martial dao, being innocent and direct isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not being embroiled in politics meant that one could focus even more on cultivation.

That was because people like this had simple thought patterns, held fast to reason and were indomitable and resolute. These types of people could often display enormous potential.

Of course, the disadvantages of being unable to play the game were also apparent. Unless his potential was strong enough to crush all other geniuses, he would be ostracized and marginalized amongst peers, unable to receive the focus of attention and resources.

The sects also had their considerations. As opposed to raising an unbridled and uncontrollable genius, it’d be better to raise someone on the same level that was malleable and had a sweet mouth.

When he returned to his residence, Jiang Chen went through the exam contents again in his mind.

“It looks like I can’t fail any of the foundation exams at all. Tang Hong is right. To the geniuses with enormous potential, the 100 points from the foundation exams are almost a gift. No wonder they say they’re looting points. They’re not looting points, but rather time instead.”

Even if the foundation exams were of ordinary difficulty, he’d have to complete them as fast as possible to avoid impacting his time to gain more points.

According to what Tang Hong had said, the missions in the advanced stage were quite difficult.

The difficulty of a level one mission was the same as the most difficult foundation exam. When he thought back on things, Jiang Chen recalled that his last exam in the martial dao area had been a face off against an examiner.

And one at the sixth level spirit realm at that.

If the advanced stage missions were that difficult, then the martial dao subject area was not the way to proceed for gaining points.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of challenge, but that he needed to be shrewd in his current stage and gain points as fast as possible, making his score rise rapidly.

If he went to attempt some martial dao missions, the level one mission would be on the sixth level spirit realm, much less level two and three.

Although Jiang Chen wasn’t afraid, it was obviously not worth the time.

To spend so much effort and undertake the risk, he might as well go to the pill area to easily grind out points.

He only had one chance a day to attempt an advanced stage mission.

Naturally, he should spend it in the area that he was most confident in, and the one that would take the least bit of effort.

Right now, he had the most confidence in the area of pills.

“Mm. Let’s not overthink it. Let’s take care of the five exams in the comprehensive area tomorrow and obtain all 100 foundation points.”

Considering the difficulty of the previous exams, he should be able to obtain the last 25 points with no problem at all.

Having formed a plan, Jiang Chen thought no further and sat down cross legged, continuing to cultivate.

Having cultivated in the Eternal Spirit Mountain for half a year, there were signs of Jiang Chen’s spirit ocean finally breaking through in the sky quadrant.

He could feel that he’d reached the critical point in the fourth level spirit realm. He only needed a catalyst to break through.

Therefore, Jiang Chen was trying quite hard now to successfully enter the fifth level spirit realm in one go.

“I may be the only fourth level spirit realm in the entire sky quadrant right now. The others are mostly fifth level, with a small few at the sixth level. There are likely some in the sky spirit realm, but I just haven’t seen them yet.”

The candidates of the sky quadrant were different from the others. They didn’t congregate near the arena everyday, and appeared in different areas as well, so it was normal not to run into each other.

Most importantly, the top geniuses of the sky quadrant all valued themselves greatly and felt that their identities were too grand to show themselves that often.

They seemed to either enjoy playing mysterious, or were worried that revealing themselves in the public too often would allow others to see through their trump cards.

In conclusion, the ones at the apex in the sky quadrant were all as elusive as ghosts.

Jiang Chen trained madly, spending the entire night tempering his spirit ocean, feeling the moment of breakthrough was edging closer and closer. He only needed one last push.

“Mm, it looks like some special development is needed to bring this about. I needn’t rush, it will come together when the time is right.”

When the next day arrived, Jiang Chen wasn’t depressed. Rather, he was filled with fighting spirit.

Tang Hong came to find him not long after he’d opened his eyes, inviting him to go to the comprehensive area together.

This huge man with a wild and rugged appearance seemed to have truly taken Jiang Chen as his boss.

And so, the two traveled together to the foundation testing site.