40: Chapter 40. He's gone mad, he must be mad!

"Holy crap, what kind of monster is Su Ming! Just a moment ago, the rankings were still stuck at tenth, and in just a short while, he directly surged all the way up to sixth!"

Across the Hanging Secret Realm, countless testers looked at the rankings within their tokens, each wearing a look of shock as sounds of discussion rose and fell.

Those capable of squeezing into the top ten of the rankings were without exception top prodigies carefully cultivated by major star domains, with extremely small differences in their foundations. Climbing even a single rank higher was by no means a simple task.

Yet Su Ming abruptly leaped across three ranks. Such an exaggerated rate of improvement was extremely rare since the opening of the Hanging Secret Realm throughout history.

"Sister Mu, your Blue Star has truly produced a true dragon this time. In that opportunity shortly hereafter, he will undoubtedly secure a spot."

Luo Li looked at the leaderboard and sighed with heartfelt emotion. Hearing this, Mu Qingge's lips also curved into a faint, gratified smile.

On the other side, Liu Hongfeng gazed at Su Ming, who ranked high at sixth on the leaderboard, completely extinguishing all unwillingness and urge to compare within his heart, leaving only lingering remorse.

Previously outside, he had deliberately made things difficult for Su Ming. Now, let alone seeking revenge or tearing up the wager, he did not even dare to harbor the slightest thought of antagonism.

Although he looked down on commoners, he was by no means a dull-witted person. At a glance, he could tell that Su Ming was a true dragon lying dormant waiting to take flight. If he thoroughly offended this person, the entire Liu family would follow along and suffer a disastrous calamity.

What he was calculating in his heart at this moment was long no longer striving to win or lose, but rather how to apologize and make amends for his previous rash mistakes after the secret realm ended.

Everyone's gazes were nailed firmly onto Su Ming's name, and no one paid attention to another part of the rankings where Gu Qingfeng's rank was likewise soaring rapidly.

It was just that Su Ming's sharpness was too dazzling, leaving almost no testers distracted to pay attention as Gu Qingfeng had already quietly entered the top hundred.

Su Ming, who held the attention of all in the secret realm, finally slowly awakened from his long comprehension.

At this time, he had already been teleported out of the Hanging Pagoda.

He raised a hand to rub his swollen and groggy temples, raised his eyes to look at the few people quietly guarding by his side who protected their Dao, and softly asked, "Ada, how long has passed since my slumber and comprehension this time?"

"God Lord, you have slumbered for a full six hours." Ada bowed his head, his tone respectful.

"Six hours have actually passed?" A trace of astonishment flashed across the depths of Su Ming's eyes. Having just immersed himself in the hundreds of millions of years of memory river of Ling Zhangge, to him it was merely the snap of a finger, yet the outside world had already turned for half a day.

With a thought in his mind, he pulled up his complete attribute panel, his gaze carefully sweeping across every line of text:

[ Deity: Su Ming (Demigod) ]

[ Divine Office: None ]

[ Divinity: 0 ]

[ Power of Faith: 3960 ]

[ Divine Power: 836 ]

[ Laws ]

Law of Death: 9.99%

Law of Soul: 9.99%

Law of Darkness: 5%

Law of Destruction: 9.99%

Law of Annihilation: 9.99%

Law of Space: 2%

Absorbing the lifelong memory inheritance of Ling Zhangge yielded results far exceeding Su Ming's expectations.

Both the Law of Death and Law of Soul had reached 9.99%. Wanting to break through to 10% would not be so easy, as every single percent of a law was a hurdle.

The Law of Darkness had also reached 5%.

What surprised Su Ming even more was that he had also comprehended three major laws this time: Destruction, Annihilation, and Space. Among them, Destruction and Annihilation had even caught up to the Law of Death and Law of Soul, and he had also comprehended the Law of Space, which was a top-tier law.

However, cultivating the Law of Space was also extremely difficult.

"Sigh, I wonder when I will be able to reach the point of condensing a divine office." Su Ming sighed as he looked at the laws on his panel.

Wanting to break through to True God not only required igniting the divine fire and condensing the divine persona, but also required condensing at least one divine office. Furthermore, the higher the grade of the divine office, the more requirements it had for laws, making it harder to condense.

Su Ming's gaze involuntarily turned toward Ganie at the side: "Ganie, how is your absorption of Senior Ling's sword dao inheritance coming along?"

Ganie did not speak, only swinging out a single sword!

There was no earth-shaking sword Qi, nor any sharpness that seized people's souls. yuanhong lifted lightly, rippling open a patch of gentle, clear, plain white halo.

The surrounding violent, scattering spiritual power instantly calmed, the cracked earth slowly healed, withered weeds sprouted greenness, and the scattered malevolent Qi completely melted away, leaving only peaceful and mighty Dao rhythms between heaven and earth.

Within the sword light, patterns faintly flowed. No slaughtering sword momentum could be seen, yet it carried the fragmented thoughts of hundreds of millions of living beings, with the lingering echoes of mortals praying for peace, vegetation seeking survival, and mountains and rivers returning to tranquility.

In the past, Ganie's sword intent was solitary, cold, and sharp, cleaving away all falsehoods in the world;

At this moment, a single sword stroke was gentle and inclusive, concealing a compassionate heart to save the world.

He retracted his sword into its sheath, his white robes fluttering without wind. The solitary chill dissipated from his eyes, leaving only profound weight.

Ganie's voice was steady and calm, "This is the Common People's Sword Dao, not a slaughtering sword dao. The sword does not cleave the innocent, its edge does not harm living beings. It bears the will of the common people and holds the heart of halting weapons. A single sword can pacify mountains and rivers, ferry away malevolent Qi, and protect all spirits, rather than slaughtering all living beings."

Hearing Ganie's words, Su Ming was slightly stunned. He truly had not expected Ling Zhangge's sword dao to be a protective type of sword dao.

However, after pondering for a moment, Su Ming discovered that this Common People's Sword Dao was incomparably suited for Ganie. Ganie's previous sword dao was a slaughtering type; having the Common People's Sword Dao could instead make up for his shortcomings.

After communicating with Ganie and the others for a while, Su Ming lowered his head to look at the secret realm token at his waist.

"My rank has dropped quite severely. Comprehending for six hours caused me to fall directly outside the top twenty."

Yet Su Ming did not become anxious because of this, muttering to himself, "Next, it is time to reap points."

Su Ming urged his mind, opening the Gate of God's Domain. Nearly two hundred thousand pitch-black skeletons of the Undead Army poured out like a tide, covering the entire wilderness.

Above the firmament, fifty thousand machine legions flew and circled through the air, all forged in batches using various mechanical debris recovered from the previous battlefield and relying on the demigod-artifact Mechanical Spark.

[ Name: Flying Hunter Falcon ]

[ Potential: F- ]

[ Race: Machine / Netherworld ]

[ Realm: Extraordinary Third Stage ]

[ Skills ]

Thin Steel Flying Body: The fuselage is thin and light, capable of resisting low-intensity physical strikes. Sharp blades and energy attacks can easily pierce the armor, and damage-resistance capability is weak.

Pulse Micro-Particle Cannon: Equipped with a miniature long-range cannon on the abdomen, continuously spraying metal micro-particle bullets. The range is passable, but individual power is meager, making it difficult to break through heavily armored targets.

Spark Micro-Healing: Built-in low-configuration spark energy storage core, capable of repairing minor dents on the fuselage. Once the wings, barrel, or power core are damaged, the automatic repair function completely fails.

[ Description: Mass-produced low-end flying ranged unit of the Mechanical Spark. Raw material consumption is extremely low, and mass production speed is extremely fast. Relying on low-altitude rotor hovering for continuous ranged harassment, it excels at large-scale reconnaissance and exhausting enemy stamina. Individual combat strength is weak; only by operating in coordinated groups can it play a role. ]

Gazing at the massive Scourge legion under his command totaling two hundred and fifty thousand undead and machines, Su Ming found it hard to conceal the excitement in his heart.

Wielding an army of this scale, looking across the entire Hanging Secret Realm, testers capable of contending with him head-on were probably few and far between.

"Set out!"

With an order, the two hundred and fifty thousand troops spread out in all directions, exploring the wilderness in all quarters of the secret realm separately.

All kinds of monsters wandering along the way were surrounded and killed by the legion. Corpses were continuously transported to Su Ming's side, where they were instantly infected by the netherworld yin Qi and resurrected once again, turning into undead under Su Ming's command.

Su Ming's vassal race scale expanded crazily like a snowball rolling, and concurrently skyrocketing along with it were the secret realm points, with his ranking on the leaderboard surging wildly against the trend all the way up.

The deities watching the battle from the outside gazed at the rapidly jumping ranks, feeling it was absurd to the extreme.

"Crazy, this person is completely crazy!"

Su Ming's rank was like a rocket launching into the sky, rushing straight up all the way from twenty-sixth. Twentieth, sixteenth—within a mere three hours, he returned to the top ten of the leaderboard once again.

And this was merely the beginning, far from reaching his limit.

"What kind of fortunate encounter did Su Ming actually obtain? The rate at which his points are rising is simply unimaginable!" Luo Li gazed at the point values jumping on the leaderboard, eyes filled with confusion. Then, she turned her head, cautiously tugged at Mu Qingge's sleeve, and asked in a low voice, "Sister Mu, tell me quietly, could Su Ming be a seed candidate chosen in advance by Blue Star's upper management?"

As soon as these words were spoken, several spectator deities nearby turned their heads, their eyes full of curiosity as they awaited Mu Qingge's reply.

But Mu Qingge was also clueless at this moment, gently shaking her head: "I do not know about this matter. The elders in the clan have never mentioned any related arrangements to me."

Luo Li and the crowd of onlookers had no way of knowing that at this moment, the layout of the entire Hanging Secret Realm had already undergone earth-shaking and drastic changes because of Su Ming's Scourge legion.