Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Steel of the Heart

"Bang!"

As the last bull fell, Xiang Bei seemed to be bathed in blood.

A large amount of blood had stained his entire body crimson. He gripped a halberd tightly in his hand, his body standing upright, panting heavily, yet his eyes still revealed a mad killing intent!

"It took 45 minutes and 19 seconds to kill 190 low-level beast general-level wild bulls and 10 medium-level beast general-level wild bulls. You have passed the C-level stage. Congratulations on passing the first level of the Trial Tower, Xiang Bei."

On the grassland, the emotionless electronic voice rang out again, and the madness in Xiang Bei's eyes gradually faded.

"Phew! It worked!"

This battle was extremely difficult for Xiang Bei, who narrowly escaped death several times.

However, despite this, such all-out life-or-death battles are also extremely beneficial to martial artists. Under the pressure of the continuous herd of wild bulls and in the relentless fighting, Xiang Bei clearly felt that his combat skills were becoming more and more proficient and his power exertion techniques were becoming more and more refined.

"Give me a little more time and I'll be able to break through in terms of power generation techniques and halberd skills." Xiang Bei's eyes were burning with fervor.

"Let's try the second level of the Refinement Tower; it's not too difficult!"

After resting for a while, Xiang Bei immediately started the second level of the trial.

"Xiang Bei, your objective for the second level, stage A of the Trial Tower is to kill fifty low-level Beast General-level Ironclad Scorpions within 10 minutes. Good luck."

In an instant, the scenery before Xiang Bei's eyes had changed drastically.

The once lush grasslands were quickly replaced by a rugged desert.

Yellow sand filled the sky, a desolate and bleak scene.

Beneath the boundless yellow sand, scorpions the size of calves emerged, their black stingers standing tall on their tails, indicating that these creatures were definitely not to be trifled with!

Taking down fifty beast-general level monsters in ten minutes is already quite difficult; it might be possible to accomplish this on land.

But it's much more difficult in the desert!

Xiang Bei stepped on it and his entire foot sank into the yellow sand, making it impossible to put any weight on it!

However, now that he had come this far, Xiang Bei naturally would not back down.

With his halberds flying like rainbows, Xiang Bei charged straight forward!

Seven minutes later, a series of "crunching" sounds rang out from under the yellow sand, and then quickly returned to silence!

"Damn it, I got bitten by a scorpion!"

When the spatial transformation and other phenomena reappeared, the surrounding environment had returned to a sky full of stars.

Xiang Bei just rushed in recklessly, and then he was sent to his death.

The harsh conditions of the desert significantly reduced Xiang Bei's combat strength, and these armored scorpions would also burrow into the sand to launch surprise attacks.

Xiang Bei was caught off guard and attacked by the armored scorpions, which triggered a chain reaction. Several scorpions worked together to drag Xiang Bei directly under the yellow sand. The potent venom flowed into Xiang Bei's body through his wound, leaving him with no strength to struggle as he was devoured by the scorpions under the sand.

Xiang Bei swore this was the first time in his life he had experienced death, and being bitten by a scorpion felt terrible.

He desperately hopes that the virtual world doesn't have to be simulated so realistically!

Outside Thunder Fortress

When Xiang Bei appeared, almost everyone's eyes were on him.

Just now, Xiang Bei's ranking jumped twice.

After jumping from 68th to 60th, it jumped again to 51st.

However, in less than ten minutes, Xiang Bei's ranking improved by three places, and he is now in 48th place.

If Xiang Bei hadn't already made it clear that he had joined the Xia Kingdom's military, the major powers across the globe would probably be in an uproar by now!

Even so, the world is not at peace.

To break into the top 50 of the Thunder Martial Arts Academy's elite training camp within a month—this talent absolutely crushes most geniuses!

In particular, many people in the Xia Kingdom were so excited after learning the news that they couldn't sleep all night.

The biggest difference in the withdrawals is that the "Water of Life," which was still in the approval process, was delivered to Xiang Shan within ten minutes of receiving the news.

Forget about going through the formalities; if it had been any later, someone else might have delivered the Water of Life!

"Xiang Bei is amazing!" Fu Bin gave Xiang Bei a thumbs up.

A sense of curiosity lingered within him: "Could it be that Belinda's twisted logic really work? Xiang Bei's strength has improved so much after just one month of training by that madwoman!"

Sun Ruoruo stood behind Fu Bin, holding onto Fu Bin's clothes with one hand, her eyes filled with envy as she looked at Xiang Bei.

She had been in the elite training camp for over a year and tried her best, but could only hover around 70th place. Xiang Bei, on the other hand, broke into the top 50 in just one month.

"Brother Fu, Sister Ruoruo, after the assessment ends the day after tomorrow, I'll treat you to a meal!" Xiang Bei, feeling triumphant, naturally wouldn't be stingy.

At this rate, he will definitely become a God of War next month.

Xiang Bei didn't care about the cost of a few meals at all.

at the same time

In a conference room at the headquarters of the Thunder Martial Arts Academy, several virtual projectors were turned on simultaneously, displaying three figures with different skin tones and appearances.

One of them looked like a burly man from the Goose Kingdom, with a thick beard on his chin and wearing a bronze-colored battle suit.

A man with dark skin, several dirty braids on his head, and wearing golden armor.

The last person was a bit thinner, with black eyes and black hair, and yellow skin that was slightly darker.

These three are the current three inspectors of the Thunder Martial Arts School.

The bearded creature is called Goodstaff, a first-order planet.

The Black man's name was Odescaville, a first-order planet.

The last person is named Li Chengqing, but he is not a proper Xia citizen. He is a mixed-race person of Xia and South China Sea Islands, and is currently the only Planetary Level 2 expert in the Thunder Martial Arts Academy.

"Gentlemen, I believe you have all seen the news just now. What do you all think of Xiang Bei?" Li Chengqing said slowly, his gaze sweeping over the two men.

"What do you mean, 'how do you see it'? This guy isn't from my Thunder Martial Arts School. Didn't he already sign a contract with Xia Guo?" the bearded Goodstaff said bluntly.

"Goodstaff is right. Our Thunder Martial Arts Academy has already done more than enough to help Xia Kingdom cultivate talent. It is impossible for us to invest more resources for outsiders."

The black man, Odeskesville, also shook his head and said, "Li, although you have Xia blood, I have to remind you that you are the inspector of the Thunder Martial Arts School. You should consider the school's interests, not Yichun's. Even if he has great talent, there is no need to continue to provide him with additional resources if he is not a member of our Thunder Martial Arts School."

"Goodstaff, Odeskesville, please don't question my loyalty to the martial arts school! I just think he's a promising talent." Li Chengqing glared at him, then sighed and said, "Forget it, he's just a kid who just passed the first level of the Trial Tower. It's not worth investing too much energy in him. Let's talk about it later."

"Heh, who knows!" Goodstaff and Odeskesville exchanged a glance and sneered at the same time.