64: Chapter 64 Your abacus beads are almost hitting my face!

Within the fortress, countless gazes were firmly locked onto Su Ming within the light screen.

When everyone witnessed with their own eyes the fall of the ninth-grade knight Gavin, the entire viewing area instantly plunged into a dead silence.

A Divine Palace instructor stared fixedly at the image, unable to help muttering in a trembling, low voice: "He actually holds five hero-grade familiars in his hands, and every single one of their combat powers is extremely formidable!"

His tone was full of disbelief, and he continuously pressed with the doubts in his heart: "Su Ming has awakened for just over a month, so how on earth did he accomplish this? Even among the graduated senior students of our Divine Palace, not necessarily everyone can gather five hero-grade familiars! For this batch of trial students, being able to have one or two hero-grade familiars already makes one a top-tier standout. Could it be that he has mastered a special familiar bloodline activation secret technique?"

These words instantly won the approval of all the instructors present.

"That is not all." Another instructor added in a deep voice, "He can directly transform corpses for his own use on the battlefield, and mechanical familiars have even appeared under his command. This is definitely an exclusive talent ability. To achieve such an effect, his talent grade must be at least Grade A."

Having said that, he casually retrieved Su Ming's official trial file.

But when the dazzling [Grade E Talent] on the file came into view, his entire person completely stiffened in place.

"Impossible! With this kind of terrifying combat power and transformation ability, how could it possibly be just a Grade E talent? Could the federation's statistics be wrong?"

Hearing this, everyone successively retrieved the files to cross-check. The data was clear and correct without any flaws.

"The federation database has never made an error. The only explanation is that his talent underwent an extremely rare mutation, and moreover, a positive mutation." A veteran instructor slowly spoke, piercing straight to the key point: "This kind of situation is rare in the world, but it is not completely non-existent."

Everyone present nodded one after another, and the gazes they directed at Su Ming in the light screen completely transformed into intense curiosity and covetousness.

Among the tens of trillions of people in the Human Federation, talent mutants were extremely rare, and those with positive mutations were even rarer than phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Moreover, almost every single such mutant was a peerless monster with boundless potential.

"This little fellow is far too extraordinary. His Netherworld Divine Domain has an extremely high compatibility with our Sky Dome Divine Palace. Since that is the case, our Sky Dome Divine Palace will reluctantly take him under our wing." An instructor spoke up first.

Hearing this, everyone secretly rolled their eyes, thinking inwardly: "The beads of your abacus are practically flying right into my face!"

"Stop putting on an act!" Another person immediately retorted, "Our Red Lotus Divine Palace is better at nurturing slaughter-oriented Netherworld deities. Coming to our place is what suits him best!"

For a time, the instructors of the major divine palaces spoke up one after another to compete, refusing to yield to each other.

After several days of observation, everyone understood clearly in their hearts.

Among all the trialists, although the forces under Su Ming's command did not start out the strongest, in their view, Su Ming's performance was nevertheless at the very top.

Such a good sapling—no one was willing to easily let him go.

Just as the argument was growing increasingly fierce, a light cough suddenly sounded, suppressing the clamor of the entire venue.

Following the sound, everyone looked over. After seeing that the newcomer was Mo Tiance of the Shenwu Pavilion, their expressions changed uniformly. They instantly reined in all their disputes, and a profound sense of helplessness rose from the bottom of their hearts.

"Oh no, even the Shenwu Pavilion has set its sights on him. Now we completely cannot compete anymore."

Just as everyone thought, Mo Tiance swept his gaze across the venue, his tone calm yet carrying an unquestionable dominance: "Su Ming has been taken a fancy to by our Shenwu Pavilion. I hope everyone can grant some convenience."

As his voice fell, all the instructors present sighed and shook their heads, full of regret.

With the Shenwu Pavilion making a personal move, they simply didn't have half a shred of competitive strength.

The overwhelming majority of people directly gave up the competition, with only two Divine Palace instructors of considerable heritage still hiding a trace of unwillingness in the depths of their eyes, yet not daring to openly oppose.

Mo Tiance took in all these subtle expressions, but didn't take them to heart at all.

Among the divine palaces present, the only one capable of wrestling with the Shenwu Pavilion was Haoran Academy.

Yet ever since its establishment, Haoran Academy had never recruited Netherworld-attributed deities.

In other words, here and now, except for Haoran Academy, as for the rest of the divine palaces, he could completely say that everyone present was trash!

This was the absolute confidence of the Shenwu Pavilion.

Inside the Mingkong City garrison governor's mansion,

Su Ming sat upright in the primary seat.

Through Gavin's confession, he had already learned the news that Wilson had escaped and gone to seek reinforcements.

I'm afraid it wouldn't be long before the dynasty's encircling army would inevitably arrive at the gates of Mingkong City.

But Su Ming's heart had no ripples whatsoever.

He had long been prepared for this; conquest and expansion were naturally the mandatory path, and this battle would have to be fought sooner or later.

He immediately established his strategy: taking Mingkong City as the frontline bridgehead, steadily expanding outward, accumulating heritage, and nibbling away at various forces.

As for Xuanming City where he had initially taken root, he chose to completely conceal and seal it, using it as his final Divine Dao anchor point and retreat route, never to be easily used or exposed.

Compared to the dynasty's encircling army rushing from afar, the most fatal crisis right now was the monstrous greed of the various trialists.

Su Ming was exceptionally clear that the trialists who had previously been defeated and fled would by no means let the matter rest.

After fleeing, this group of people would either lobby for allies everywhere to group up for revenge, or wildly spread information about the wealth and abundance of Mingkong City, tempting more trialists to come and carve up the spoils of victory.

Especially that good brother of his, Wang Haoyu. Having suffered such a huge loss, resentment would inevitably grow in his heart, and he would definitely spare no effort in spreading the news of Mingkong City.

Su Ming predicted that in less than half a month, a large batch of trialists would inevitably come to probe the truth and falsehoods.

Once the strength he displayed was slightly insufficient and unable to deter them, what awaited him would be a dead-end encirclement from all directions.

Only by completely defeating all invaders and beating the various covetous trialists into submission could this Mingkong City truly be firmly controlled in his hands.

To control the overall situation, Su Ming dispatched all tens of thousands of Flying Hunter Falcons under his command, blanketing a territory of a thousand li outside the city to inspect the movements of all directions around the clock.

The densely packed Flying Hunter Falcons wove an invisible heavenly net, thoroughly detecting the movements within a hundred and a thousand li around Mingkong City.

Anyone who stepped into this region would be precisely locked onto, with nowhere to hide.

The development of events was exactly as Su Ming had predicted.

Over the next few days, quite a few of his Flying Hunter Falcons were shot down, but a considerable amount of intelligence was received as a result.

In just ten short days, the otherworldly trialists gathered outside the city already numbered as many as twenty, encompassing almost the majority of trialists in the surrounding region.

Having endured for many days, this group of greedy predators was already nearing the limit of their endurance.

The next day, as dawn broke, the morning light pierced through the long night.

The wilderness outside the city was dead silent, without wind or noise, yet it suppressed a suffocating aura of killing.

Suddenly, the uniform sound of marching boomed forth with a sonorous rhythm, causing the earth to tremble slightly!

A coalition of as many as 200,000 familiars of various races formed a battle formation for encirclement and pressed on, densely blanketing the entire wilderness outside the city, their malevolent aura soaring to the heavens and their oppressive might being monstrous.

At the very front of the military formation guarded layer upon layer by thousands upon thousands of familiars, twenty figures stood proudly, their eyes flashing with undisguised burning greed as they stared fixedly at Mingkong City.