On the parallel orbit of the Beast Garden Planet, the Star Sea-level civilian spacecraft that carried Chu Nan and the other examinees had already been here for three days.
In the huge control room inside the spaceship, Sun Xiangren looked at the huge virtual screen in the middle with a frown and an extremely serious expression.
A cup of steaming coffee was suddenly handed out from the side.
Sun Xiangren turned around and discovered that Zhao Zhiming had appeared with two cups of coffee.
He smiled and took the coffee. He took a sip and asked, “What? Are you done over there?”
“How is that possible?” Zhao Zhiming shook his head and sighed, “As long as the little guys are still below, it’s impossible for my work to be over. I’m only seeing that it’s fine for the time being and letting myself relax a little. Otherwise, if I continue like this for a few more days, I’m afraid I won’t be able to hold on.”
“Be content. At the very least, we can stay in the spaceship and chat and drink coffee in peace. Those little guys are being besieged by all kinds of ferocious beasts and are in a nervous state every day,” Sun Xiangren said.
“We’re even more nervous than them.” Zhao Zhiming glared, “Don’t be so stubborn in front of that reporter. If anything happens to any of the examinees, we’ll be in big trouble.”
“We can only do our best in this. We can’t care so much. However, from the looks of it, it’s quite smooth these few days. Those who can’t persist have long been eliminated. There shouldn’t be any problems for those who remain.”
Zhao Zhiming glanced at the huge virtual screen and chuckled.
“It’s only been less than three days, but nearly a thousand people have been eliminated. The next few days will only get harder and harder to endure. What do you think we should do if less than 300 people can last for a week?”
“What should we do?” Sun Xiangren answered, “So be it if there are less than 300 people. We’d rather take a few good ones than many bad ones. You know why we want to undergo such an assessment this time.”
Hearing Sun Xiangren mention this, Zhao Zhiming’s expression became serious.
He thought for a moment and said, “Do you think… the Declan Empire will really fulfill all their promises?”
“The royal family of Declan has always valued their reputation very much, so there should be no problem. Moreover, according to the rumors, the reason why the Declan Empire is so generous this time is because they have their own considerations.”
“What do you mean?”
Sun Xiangren shook his head. “I’m not too sure about that. However, according to some information, this might be related to the selection of the heir to the royal family of the Declan Empire.”
Zhao Zhiming was immediately stunned, “No way? How can our inconspicuous entrance test of a small academy in the small Earth Federation be related to the heir to the royal family of the Declan Empire?”
“I’m not sure about that. Perhaps we can figure it out when the Declan Empire makes the next move,” Sun Xiangren said. “No matter what, since the Declan Empire is so generous and actually made an exception to open up the Beast Garden Planet to us, we have to make good use of it. The students our academy has recruited in a row have not been satisfactory. I hope we can recruit some good seedlings this time.”
Hearing Sun Xiangren mention the students, Zhao Zhiming smiled and pointed at the virtual screen. “From the current situation, I don’t think we need to worry about the quality of this batch of students.”
Sun Xiangren’s gaze landed on the real-time points ranking that had been displayed on the virtual screen. He smiled and nodded.
“That’s right. Not to mention the number one Feng Mingxi, even the dozens of examinees below him performed very well. If they can persist in the end and be pulled into the academy to be nurtured, there should be many talented people in the future.”
Zhao Zhiming thought for a moment and suddenly laughed, “I saw that Angie Prairie was still ranked 71st just now, but now, she’s actually fallen to 84th. Did Supremacy Oville send her here to slack off?”
Sun Xiangren glanced at Angie Prairie’s name on the ranking and could not help but smile.
“Supremacy Oville asked her to register. If nothing unexpected happens, she’s probably here for the Arhat Overlord Golden Body. I don’t mind imparting the Arhat Overlord Golden Body to an outstanding young martial artist like her, but if she doesn’t perform well enough, how can we rightfully hand it to her?”
“Since Supremacy Oville sent her here, she wouldn’t have not told her this. Therefore, she must have been lazy these few days. Otherwise, even if she wasn’t first, she shouldn’t have been so low,” Zhao Zhiming shook his head and said.
“Speaking of low…” Sun Xiangren opened his personal terminal and entered the name ‘Chu Nan’ to search. Then, the large screen displayed Chu Nan’s current real-time ranking, “287th? Eh, why did this guy jump so much in a short period of time?”
“Chu Nan…” Zhao Zhiming looked at Chu Nan’s name with a strange expression, “I’m also paying attention to this guy. However, on the first day, he was even ranked more than 2,000. He slowly climbed a little the next day, but he has always been in the top 1,000 and has never even entered the top 500. How did he jump to the 287th?”
Sun Xiangren frowned and thought for a moment. He simply operated his personal terminal and opened the detailed data changes of Chu Nan recently.
“Eh, he increased 37 points in the morning. He’s much stronger than two days ago. No wonder his ranking soared.”
“Ha, let me see…” Zhao Zhiming leaned over and looked carefully for a moment before exclaiming, “Heh, this kid’s luck suddenly exploded. Look, in the past half an hour, he actually hunted two Giant Spiritual Bulls in a row. Those are both D-rank ferocious beasts. Two of them are worth 20 points.”
“Compared to his luck, I’m more concerned about his strength,” Sun Xiangren pondered and said, “Although the Giant Spiritual Bull is not especially strong among D-rank ferocious beasts, he was actually able to kill two in a row in such a short period of time. I’m afraid his strength is far from being evaluated by an initial-stage Internal Breath Realm Martial Artist.”
“Of course.” Zhao Zhiming had a matter-of-fact expression, “When this kid was still an Overlord Body Realm Martial Artist half a year ago, he could defeat a third-stage Internal Breath Realm Martial Artist like Maruk. Now that he has broken through to the Internal Breath Realm, his strength will definitely be stronger. Of course, he won’t be like ordinary initial-stage Internal Breath Realm Martial Artists.”
“Hmm… that’s indeed the case.”
Zhao Zhiming glanced at Sun Xiangren and asked, “Old Sun, do you think… after this kid enters the academy, should we specially nurture him?”
“Why?” Sun Xiangren looked at Zhao Zhiming in surprise, “I know you’re paying special attention to him, but remember, our academy’s resources are limited after all. It’s impossible to waste them on a martial artist who can’t even break through the Cosmic Heaven’s Gate, understand?”
Zhao Zhiming frowned and was a little unconvinced.
“It’s not like he definitely can’t break through the Cosmic Heaven’s Gate. Even Supremacy Mu Yutong only said that it’s very difficult for him to break through.”
“It’s ‘almost impossible’.” Sun Xiangren emphasized, “Moreover, even if it’s only ‘very difficult’, we can’t take such a huge risk to invest in him. Look, there are so many outstanding geniuses in this batch of students, and many of them are much better than him. Why don’t we focus our limited resources on these true geniuses and gamble on him?”
Zhao Zhiming fell silent.
He knew very well that Sun Xiangren was right.
Although Star Cloud Academy was the number one academy in the federation, its resources were still limited. It was impossible for it to invest all its energy and resources in nurturing every student. It could only choose a few especially outstanding students or even one individual to specially nurture and strive to produce truly powerful martial artists.
Under such circumstances, it was clearly unnecessary to place resources on Chu Nan, a student who could not break through the Cosmic Heaven’s Gate.
It could even be said that if they purely considered the interests of Star Cloud Academy, they should even reject Chu Nan’s entry.
After all, even if he was only an ordinary student of the academy, he would still enjoy the resources of the academy.
However, if he could not even break through the Cosmic Heaven’s Gate in the future, these resources would be completely wasted.
Zhao Zhiming thought for a moment and asked unwillingly, “Then… what if Chu Nan breaks through the Cosmic Heaven’s Gate in the future?”
“If he can break through in the academy in the next few years…” Sun Xiangren’s expression was serious, “Then he can choose any resource or cultivation method he wants in the academy!”
“Oh?” Zhao Zhiming was a little surprised by this answer, “Why?”
“If he can even overcome the judgment of two Star-Grade Martial Artists, his talent is definitely beyond our imagination. In the future, he will definitely become an extremely powerful martial artist, and he might even become the next Star-Grade Martial Artist in the federation. In that case, why don’t we nurture him well?”
“That makes sense…”
Zhao Zhiming nodded and turned to look at Chu Nan’s name again. He discovered that after the two of them spoke for a while, Chu Nan’s ranking had increased again and he was already ranked 263rd.
“Heh, kid, you still have a chance. It’s up to you to grasp it. All the best!”
