Chapter 358 - Jing Jing’s Divine Realm
Han Wu and Qin Shuang were sick with worry, watching Jing Jing’s suffering in the Scorching Sun Civilization. Han Wu thought angrily, If I ever find out who came up with this shitty test, I’ll beat the sick bastard to death!
Thankfully, Jing Jing was a Crystal Skeleton, the strongest species of skeleton, which gave her a higher resistance to light damage compared to regular skeletons. She painfully endured the next ten days, continuously shifting between looking for shelter and dealing with unexpected problems.
When the tenth day passed, Jing Jing was finally transported back, but she was extremely feeble from the test. Han Wu quickly gave her several Bone Stones produced by his Refinery, but it still took her half a day to recover enough to slowly sit up.
“Jing Jing, you did an amazing job!” Qin Shuang praised. “You passed the test and are now officially a transfer student!”
A stiff smile appeared on Jing Jing’s pale face. She also thought it was good news, since becoming a transfer student meant she could spend more time beside Han Wu to grow as Gods.
The group was getting ready to celebrate, but a visit from Saliya cut their plans short.
“Professor, thanks so much for your help!” Han Wu said in gratitude. “Is something wrong, by any chance?”
With a smile, Saliya said, “The academy sent me a notification recognizing Jing Jing as a transfer student. I have her rewards here; would you mind passing them on in my stead?”
She handed a large wooden chest to Han Wu and left with a smile. After her departure, he passed the chest to Jing Jing and said, “This is the reward from the academy. Go on, open it.”
Jing Jing opened the chest, her curiosity piqued. It was far from full, but the few items inside were clearly very precious. Among them were a few sets of uniforms, a set of 1-Star God equipment, a student card, and a peculiar crystal.
Han Wu immediately recognized the student card, knowing it was used to record points. However, the peculiar crystal baffled both him and Qin Shuang; they had never seen anything like it.
Jing Jing picked up the crystal, and it suddenly released a blinding white light. Immediately, strings of notifications began to ping from within Jing Jing’s soul.
[Examining host’s skeletal structure... Approved.]
[Confirming host’s species... Crystal Skeleton.]
[Confirming host’s strength... God.]
...
[All verifications complete. Initiating divine realm.]
The stream of information ended, and the crystal sank into Jing Jing's body. Han Wu and Qin Shuang looked at her curiously, and Qin Shuang finally asked, “Did anything change with your body?”
Jing Jing’s eyes grew wide with shock. Without warning, she grabbed both of them with her slender hands and teleported them into her own divine realm.
The scenery shifted rapidly, and Han Wu and Qin Shuang were suddenly in Jing Jing’s divine realm. It was a dark place filled with a deathly silence, and it was completely different from their own divine realms.
This was Jing Jing’s new divine realm, a space for the undead. It was tiny, only 1 sq km since it had just been formed, but she wasn’t too worried. As a God, she could simply purchase pieces of other divine realms from the market to expand her own.
Moreover, undeads had no need for lush environments to live; in fact, the death aura they constantly exuded turned any land into a desolate wasteland, and they didn’t need to be fed, allowing them to survive perfectly fine in the cheap barren desert.
Jing Jing, however, was more interested in her new Core. She had learned how important it was during her time as Han Wu’s unit, especially since she had even tried to destroy his. Now, after passing the Imperial College test, she finally had a Core of her own, officially making her a member of the Divine Civilization.
Although her Core level could reach Level 30 as a God, her newly formed divine realm limited her to a starting level of 1, allowing her to equip only one Rank 1 Sacred Object. Conveniently, Han Wu hadn’t increased his Core level yet. So, after recognizing Jing Jing’s situation, he decided to invite the two girls to the Blood Coliseum to get Core fragments.
The Blood Coliseum was as busy as ever. As he looked around at the powerful life forms loitering around, Han Wu realized that most of them were from the Divine Civilization. The rewards here must be very compatible with the inhabitants of the Divine Civilization, he thought to himself.
Feeling a hint of nostalgia, Han Wu brought them to register, and the two officially became novice contenders. From now on, they could simply register for a match and be automatically paired with a fighter.
The trio had very different experiences in the arena. Qin Shuang, still a Demigod, was quickly paired with an opponent. Jing Jing had to wait longer for a match, as Gods were far less common than Demigods. Meanwhile, no one dared to challenge Han Wu due to his status as a Blood Coliseum candidate. He had to wait for half a day before he finally received a challenge from another candidate.
Han Wu had no choice but to accept the challenge. He had already used up his chances to decline a match and knew that refusing this one would result in him being stripped of his candidacy.
He didn’t want to lose access to the Blood Coliseum now that he knew how valuable it was. Using his moniker as the Locust Plague, he stepped into the arena to face off against a middle-aged person from the Divine Civilization.
Han Wu immediately put his guard up. The age of a Divine Civilization inhabitant was a telling sign of their strength. For example, while he was officially 19, the time he had spent in his divine realm and other civilizations added up to several hundred years. The middle-aged man before him definitely had a lot more experience and had accumulated more resources.
“Lightning faction, Purple Heaven,” the middle-aged man said. He introduced himself with his faction to prevent any incident of accidentally hurting an ally.
“Death faction, Locust Plague.”
The moment he heard Han Wu’s faction, Purple Heaven’s breathing quickened. The Death, Life, Destruction, and Creation factions were all top ranking factions within the Divine Civilization and were categorized as tier one, while the weaker elemental factions like Lightning, Fire, and Ice were categorized as tier two.
The strength of their respective factions put Purple Heaven at an immediate disadvantage against Han Wu. However, in the Blood Coliseum, personal strength mattered most. They were both candidates and far stronger than regular Gods.
Purple Heaven decided to take a chance, banking on Han Wu’s youthful appearance. “Locust Plague, how about we do it this way? We each summon half of our units and fight to the last one, or until one of us surrenders. What do you think?”
After a moment of silence, Han Wu shrugged and nodded. He didn’t mind the proposal at all. “Sure,” he agreed. “Let’s do it that way, then.”
The gate to his divine realm opened, and a massive swarm of locusts flew out, completely blotting out the sky. Purple Heaven paled and then frowned. Even though the locusts are individually weak, there are just too many of them! Is this really just fifty percent?
As Purple Heaven was still in a daze, a massive troop of 10 billion Tigermen marched out of Han Wu’s divine realm. They were followed by a diverse army of Epistians, half-dragons, skeletons, minotaurs, treants, Scorching Dwarves, and many others.
What in the @*€©?! Purple Heaven screamed internally. This is clearly not fifty percent! I’ve been a God for years, and even I don’t have this many units in my divine realm!
“Locust Plague... We promised to summon half our units, but you...”
“Ah, I apologize. The locusts aside, the rest are truly just fifty percent of their total numbers in my divine realm.”
Purple Heaven was slightly upset, having caught the first half of Han Wu’s sentence. He hated it when someone went against their word in the arena. “We said fifty percent, no more, no less,” he stated. “Please respect your agreement.”
From what he could tell, there were at least 150 billion locusts in the air. Purple Heaven realized that if he could reduce their numbers, he would have a much easier time in the fight.
Han Wu sighed at the scolding. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll do as you’ve said. I’ll summon exactly half my locusts, which should be around... 230 billion.”
Purple Heaven’s mind went blank. He had previously believed that Han Wu was using more than half his units to intimidate him, only to realize Han Wu had been holding back. As another 80 billion locusts flew out from the gate, Purple Heaven wanted to slap himself for jinxing the situation.
“I’m done,” Han Wu said with a nod. He then noticed that Purple Heaven hadn’t moved. “Hmm? Why aren’t you summoning your units?”
Purple Heaven continued to curse himself. He couldn’t possibly contend with the number of units before him. There were close to 300 billion enemy units on the field, and his core race, the Lightning Beasts, only numbered 9.7 billion. He was helpless against them.
However, he refused to back down. He chose to face the impossible with dignity rather than flee, and he summoned 100 million of his core race, the Lightning Beasts.