8: Chapter 8 The Ghost Soldiers' First Display of Power

[Starting opponent matching!]

[Matching successful.]

[Su Ming VS Xu Jiayin]

Su Ming's vision turned white, and the next second, he was suspended in the void above a piece of land. Not far away, a female student was standing quietly.

The two did not know each other and simply nodded slightly to acknowledge one another without any superfluous pleasantries.

Soon, a massive portal simultaneously materialized beneath both of their feet.

With a thought from Su Ming, one Yin Soldier after another stepped on black mist, walking out of the portal in a neat and orderly fashion;

Meanwhile, out of the portal on the opposite side, three hundred green-headed figures rushed out first.

"Goblins? A female student actually chose this type of unit?" A trace of doubt flashed through Su Ming's eyes.

He then looked closely and saw that these were not ordinary goblins, but Goblin Warriors clad in light armor and wielding short axes.

Goblin Warriors were quite different from ordinary goblins; even among F-rank dependents, their combat power was not weak.

When Xu Jiayin saw the Yin Soldiers under Su Ming's command, the astonishment in her eyes grew even greater, and then she revealed a bitter smile. "To think they are nether-attribute dependents! I didn't expect to encounter a nether deity on my very first match. How unlucky."

But she quickly steadied her mind and secretly cheered herself on. "I can't give up. His dependents don't look all that strong either, and my Goblin Warriors aren't bad!"

"All forces, attack!" Xu Jiayin ordered in a deep voice.

Hearing the command, fanaticism welled up in the eyes of the three hundred Goblin Warriors as they howled and charged toward the Yin Soldiers.

Su Ming's expression remained calm without a trace of worry as he calmly commanded, "Attack! Crush them!"

Unlike the howling charge of the goblins, the Yin Soldiers advanced in complete silence, the deathly aura lingering around their bodies making the surrounding air freezing cold.

As they marched, they swiftly changed formations, rapidly closing in on the Goblin Warriors in a flanking maneuver.

Upon seeing this, Xu Jiayin was greatly shocked and hurriedly ordered a formation adjustment, but it was already too late.

The dependents of both sides collided instantly.

The nether bone blades in the hands of the Yin Soldiers slashed mercilessly; with every blade that fell, a Goblin Warrior collapsed and died.

In merely an instant, nearly fifty goblins fell in pools of blood.

Fear instantly welled up in the eyes of the remaining Goblin Warriors, and a few even turned around and fled directly.

Cowardice was a fatal flaw of goblins to begin with, and the same held true for Goblin Warriors. They could still fight when things were going their way, but once they fell into an unfavorable situation, they were extremely prone to a rout.

Xu Jiayin's expression was extremely ugly, yet she quickly reacted, desperately commanding the Goblin Warriors to counterattack.

But the situation was already somewhat out of control.

A Goblin Warrior narrowly dodged a Yin Soldier's blade, but before it even had time to rejoice, it was beheaded by another bone blade;

Another Goblin Warrior seized an opening and hacked an axe onto a Yin Soldier, only to be forcefully blocked by the chilling bone armor without leaving even a trace.

Seeing this, that Goblin Warrior revealed a hint of confusion, seemingly unable to understand why its hitherto unfailing axe had missed its mark.

However, the very next moment it no longer needed to ponder this question, because a long saber had chopped it straight in half at the waist at some unknown point.

The Yin Soldiers were elusive and coordinated seamlessly; before long, fewer than a hundred of the three hundred Goblin Warriors remained, plunging them into a complete rout.

No matter how Xu Jiayin commanded, she could not turn the tide.

The routed Goblin Warriors died even faster; a moment later, all three hundred Goblin Warriors fell to the ground, whereas only a few Yin Soldiers under Su Ming's command sustained minor injuries.

"You win." Xu Jiayin wore a sullen look, her tone full of unwillingness.

Su Ming shook his head faintly. "You flatter me."

A cold mechanical prompt immediately sounded in the void: [Su Ming wins!]

Outside the simulation pods, Teacher Yan Ruyu and the other four teachers were also gazing at the hundreds of light screens before them, each corresponding to a participating student.

"Interesting, a nether deity actually appeared this year, and his dependents are not weak in combat power. Which family's scion is this?" A voice rang out, and everyone's gazes turned toward one of the light screens.

It happened to be playing the footage of a Yin Soldier beheading the last Goblin Warrior.

Hearing "nether deity", Teacher Yan Ruyu immediately looked over as well.

He knew clearly that among all the students in the school who had condensed their Divine Domains this time, only Su Ming possessed the nether attribute.

He had originally thought that since Su Ming was a civilian specially-recruited student, he might not even be able to afford dependents, and this simulation battle was merely a companion run. But looking at the Yin Soldiers shrouded in deathly aura within the light screen, as well as Su Ming sitting gracefully in the void, Teacher Yan Ruyu fell silent.

"This is a student in my class. His name is Su Ming." Teacher Yan Ruyu slowly spoke.

Confusion instantly welled up in the eyes of the four. "Su Ming? That sounds so familiar... Could he be someone from the Gusu Su Family? I've never heard of such a person in their clan."

Teacher Yan Ruyu shook his head. "He is not a scion of a noble family; he's a specially-recruited student of the school."

As soon as these words were spoken, the teachers present all fell silent, their gazes looking toward Su Ming's light screen carrying a bit more scrutiny.

A nether deity of civilian origin with such outstanding potential would surely have many noble families willing to recruit him as a son-in-law.

Furthermore, Su Ming's own appearance was also extraordinarily captivating.

After a long while, a teacher broke the deadlock. "I have never seen this kind of dependent of his before. Does anyone here know their origin?"

Everyone looked at each other in dismay, and no one spoke.

Clearly, no one recognized the Yin Soldiers under Su Ming's command.

"It seems that this Su Ming has likely already been recruited by some family." Someone chuckled lightly.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

In their view, as a commoner, Su Ming could simply not possibly possess such formidable dependents. He must have defected or allied himself with some noble family or financial conglomerate to obtain such an opportunity.

However, Teacher Yan Ruyu did not think so. Having taught Su Ming for two years, he still had some understanding of Su Ming's personality.

He knew that although Su Ming was poor, he was a very proud person. Such a person would not allow himself to bow down, or rather, just a little bit of resources was not enough to make him abandon the pride in his heart.

Moreover, he also knew that Su Ming was on good terms with Gu Qingfeng and Mo Beichen. In his view, Su Ming's current dependents were probably obtained from the Gu Family or the Mo Family.

While they were discussing, the assessment was still ongoing.

At this time, Mo Beichen had also just finished off his opponent. His Divine Domain attribute was light, and the dependents he recruited were called Twilight Elves, which could be considered a pretty good kind of dependent.

Yet his opponent's dependents were not weak either—they were Lesser Demons.

Both sides could be said to restrain each other, but ultimately Mo Beichen's superior skill won him this victory.

However, over half of his Twilight Elves sacrificed their lives, and even the ones that survived were not in good condition.

Mo Beichen looked at his dependents and shook his head. "Fortunately this is a virtual battle; otherwise, the losses from just this match alone would probably make my heart ache to death. As expected, being a deity is really a money-burning business."

Not every battle was a virtual battle; in reality, when dependents died, they were truly dead.

"Thinking about it this way, I'm a bit envious of that guy Su Ming." Mo Beichen couldn't help thinking of Su Ming.

At this time, Gu Qingfeng's situation was completely different. Down below him, a dozen or so giant beasts were currently running amok. Even though the opponent's dependents outnumbered these fierce beasts by dozens of times, they had completely no resistance in front of these giant beasts.

Like Su Ming, Gu Qingfeng also possessed a rare special attribute named Barbarian!

This attribute also consumed a massive amount of resources because the dependents it could recruit were all primeval giant beasts.

Wanting to nurture a primeval giant beast cost an astronomical sum; the amount of food consumed every day alone was unimaginable.

However, for someone like Gu Qingfeng, this was completely not a problem. As long as he was willing, a massive amount of resources would be delivered right before him.

Gu Qingfeng's dependents at this moment were called Savage Skull Beasts, which were E-rank dependents specially purchased by the Gu Family from outside the Blue Star.

With the Gu Family's immense financial resources, purchasing even higher-tier dependent cards was naturally not impossible, but the problem lay within the Divine Domain itself.

A low-level Divine Domain could not withstand high-tier dependent cards; forcefully using them would only shatter the dependent cards and might even cause turmoil in the Divine Domain.

After weighing the options, using dependent cards that matched the current Divine Domain level or were slightly one level higher was the safest choice.