45: Chapter 45 Trial

A hurried telepathic transmission resounded through every cabin, completely waking all the sleeping trainees.

The students rubbed their sleepy eyes and successively walked out of their private cabins, their faces filled with confusion and incomprehension.

"We only set off yesterday and just entered the stellar navigation route, why is there a sudden emergency assembly?"

Everyone felt doubtful, but they didn't dare procrastinate, following the guidance to gather toward the warship's main cabin.

Su Ming supported his forehead and walked out slowly, a trace of undisguised pain knitted between his brows, his temples throbbing and his divine soul trembling slightly.

"The rejection reaction caused by the time-sequence dislocation between the Divine Domain and reality is indeed still hard to endure."

One day in reality, one year in the Divine Domain.

The extreme time flow rate difference is definitely not without cost, and time-sequence rejection is the most intuitive backlash; the spacetime dislocation tears apart the divine soul, and even a demigod physique can still hardly be completely exempt.

Seeing this, Gu Qingfeng shook his head helplessly, his tone carrying a bit of flex: "It's still better at home; with a time adjustment chamber around, there's completely no need to suffer this kind of hardship."

Hearing this, Su Ming raised his hand and patted him, looking disgusted: "Scram, you damn nouveau riche, show off less."

The time adjustment chamber is specially used to buffer time-sequence rejection and stabilize the divine soul's time-sequence. Its manufacturing cost is not cheap, and even the cheapest model costs tens of millions of divine crystals. Given Su Ming's financial foundation, he was simply unable to afford it.

Smiling, Gu Qingfeng wasn't angry. He raised his hand and tossed out a bottle of light-red crystal-clear potion, which landed precisely in Su Ming's hand: "Take it, exclusive benefit for brothers, a special potion to alleviate time-sequence rejection."

Without standing on ceremony, Su Ming raised his head and drank it all in one gulp.

The sweet and refreshing grapefruit flavor melted in his throat, and the warm medicinal power instantly coursed through his limbs and bones. His restless and chaotic divine soul quickly settled down, and the throbbing pain in his head instantly dissipated by more than half.

"Stop savoring it, let's go quickly." Gu Qingfeng withdrew his smile, his expression solemn: "Urgent summoning everyone at this juncture is definitely a big deal."

The two did not dare delay, hurrying over to the warship's main cabin.

At this moment, the main cabin was already bustling with voices, and most of the trainees had already arrived.

The moment Su Ming stepped through the cabin door, several gazes landed on him simultaneously.

Not only were all the trainees present secretly sizing him up, but Mu Qingge on the high platform also quietly glanced sideways.

However, her gaze did not linger, withdrawing in a flash, and her expression was cold and solemn.

A moment later, the last few trainees arrived, and everyone was fully present.

Mu Qingge had no unnecessary foreshadowing, getting straight to the point, her cold voice spreading across the audience: "Temporary notification of route change, this voyage will no longer return to Blue Star, all personnel will detour to the extraterrestrial territories to participate in the unified trial."

"This trial is voluntary. Those who are unwilling to go, when the warship arrives at the next spatial node, I will arrange special personnel to escort you back to Blue Star."

As her voice fell, the audience erupted in an uproar, and the faces of all the trainees were instantly filled with astonishment and shock.

The trial came too abruptly, no one knew in advance, and everyone was completely unprepared.

Amidst the noisy crowd, Gu Qingfeng leaned close to Su Ming's ear, suppressing his voice with hard-to-hide excitement: "Su Ming, this wave must definitely not be missed! This is a heavenly opportunity that can completely rewrite our future!"

Su Ming raised an eyebrow, his eyes full of curiosity: "You know the inside story?"

"I don't understand much, but I am roughly clear." Gu Qingfeng quickly whispered in explanation, "This trial is prepared for the Deity Preparatory Class."

"Deity Preparatory Class?" Su Ming was still puzzled.

"It's a talent selection plan jointly led by the Federation's Top Hundred Divine Mansions." Gu Qingfeng lowered his voice, explaining in detail, "The purpose is to lock onto the new generation of prodigies in advance and bring them under the command of various Divine Mansions. I heard that it also involves the game of high-level forces behind the scenes, and that level of matters is not something small fries like us can get involved in."

Su Ming's eyes suddenly lit up, and his heart beat violently: "Led by the Top Hundred Divine Mansions? Then doesn't that mean the legendary Nine Divine Mansions might also be present?"

Being able to pass the examination into any of the Top Hundred Divine Mansions is already the lifelong pursuit of countless new generation prodigies, enough to bring honor to one's ancestors.

And the Nine Divine Mansions, which override all Divine Mansions, are the human race's top-tier deity cradle, gathering the peerless geniuses of the entire stellar domain, and are the ultimate palace dreamed of by all practitioners.

Gu Qingfeng's expression stiffened, then he shook his head with a bitter smile: "Hard to say. We originate from Blue Star, our foundation is shallow, and we are too tiny in the entire human stellar domain. There is a high probability we won't catch the eyes of the Nine Divine Mansions, and the probability of them attending in person is extremely minimal."

A flash of disappointment swept across Su Ming's eyes, but he calmed his mood in an instant.

He knew that what Gu Qingfeng said was not false; Blue Star was just a remote small domain in the vast human territory, and it was indeed difficult to attract the attention of top-tier academies.

But he would never let go of this opportunity.

Even if he couldn't squeeze into the Nine Divine Mansions, as long as he could be noticed by an academy ranked high among the Top Hundred Divine Mansions, it would still be an opportunity.

Even if all the trainees present did not know the deep inside story of the trial, they vaguely understood that this was a rare opportunity, so naturally no one was willing to actively give it up.

Mu Qingge stood quietly on the high platform. After waiting for a long time, not a single person proposed to withdraw.

"Since everyone participates voluntarily, then I will lead the team to the trial station. The voyage is about ten days, you will each return to your cabins to rest and cultivate."

As her voice fell, Mu Qingge's figure blurred and she quietly left.

Su Ming and Gu Qingfeng looked at each other and each returned to their private cabins.

Interstellar navigation is boring and long; during the next ten days of voyage, Su Ming hardly left his cabin for a single step.

He sorted out all the massive resources hoarded within the Jiuyou Divine Domain and listed them on the divine network for public sale.

Previously, he had already converted 30% of the resources into nether-attribute materials, which had an extremely high premium. After a round of sales, he reaped a full 1.3 million divine crystals.

Before this huge sum of money could even warm up, it was entirely squandered by Su Ming.

The trial shortly hereafter was related to his future, so Su Ming naturally chose to convert all the divine crystals into combat power.

Outside the pitch-black porthole, the eternal deep space was dead and boundless, and the stellar river was dim. Su Ming looked at the vast void and let out a soft sigh: "I wonder how much longer it will take to reach the trial station."

As soon as his voice fell, the unchanging deep space scenery outside the window suddenly changed. The dim light and shadow of the spatial tunnel faded, and the warship successfully jumped out of the jump channel, driving into normal stellar domain airspace.

"We're about to arrive!" Su Ming's gaze congealed, and his spirit instantly invigorated.

The next second, the mechanical prompt sound of the warship's brain spread throughout the entire ship: "All trainees please note, this ship has left the spatial jump channel, remaining voyage to the trial location is three hours."

Three hours passed in a flash.

"All trainees immediately proceed to the outside-ship platform to gather and undergo entry security inspection!"

Su Ming did not dare delay, setting off immediately and hurriedly arriving at the outside-ship platform with everyone.

The moment they raised their eyes to look into the distance, everyone froze in place, earth-shaking ripples rising in the depths of their eyes, filled with extreme shock.

At the end of the boundless pitch-black deep space, a giant void fortress that traversed the stellar domain and was boundless unexpectedly crouched.

The entire fortress was cast from rare dark matter divine steel. Layer upon layer of thick armor plates circulated with deep blue, chilling law halos, and dense interstellar defense turrets and plane-balancing arrays covered the ramparts. Every single main gun was comparable to the volume of a small star, and a single shot could shatter stars.

Between the gaps of the ramparts, reciprocating void barriers slowly circulated, and a dense law light screen enveloped the entire fortress, firmly locking a side of airspace, extremely stable.

Countless streamlined warships shuttled back and forth, taking off, landing, and patrolling in the fortress corridors and surrounding airspace.

In the void, massive mechanical guards lined up to patrol, deterring all directions.