59: Chapter 59 17-Star Grand Champion, A-Rank Martial Arts Stele

The sound of the divine core projection shattering was still echoing on the Tianqiong Battle Platform.

Xiao Xuan stood on the eastern high platform, his entire body frozen in place as the demigod divine kingdom projection behind him dimmed inch by inch.

That embryonic divine fire, which had once suppressed the entire audience to the point of suffocation, was also forcibly pulled out of the battlefield by the System rules.

The remaining citizens of the Golden Armor Legion continuously turned into points of light.

They still wanted to form formations, fall back, and protect Xiao Xuan's last shred of face, but the divine core projection had already shattered.

In divine kingdom projection confrontations, the divine core was the Foundation.

Once the Foundation shattered, all resistance lost its meaning.

Above the Tianqiong Battle Platform, the System prompt finally descended.

[Xiao Xuan's divine core projection has shattered.]

[The finals have ended.]

[Wang Pingan wins.]

These short three lines threw the Seventeen-Star livestream room into a prolonged silence.

No one sent bullet comments immediately.

No one cheered immediately.

Everyone was still stuck in that punch thrown by Wang Shan.

A Divine Being defeating a demigod.

The Immortal Martial Legion, composed of Qi Refining Stage 9 and Body Forging Level 9 cultivators, crossed Realms to violently kill Foundation Establishment citizens, and then shattered the demigod divine core projection.

This matter was too ruthless.

So ruthless that many people found it hard to recover their wits for a moment.

The next moment, the grand voice of the System spread throughout the entire virtual square and across the main livestream screens of the seventeen habitable planets.

[The final rankings for this year's Xuanyuan Star Region Seventeen-Star Nova Assessment are confirmed.]

[First place: Tianhai Star, Tianhai No. 1 High School, Wang Pingan.]

[Second place: Liumang Star, Xiao Xuan.]

[Third place: Qingteng Star, Ye Lan.]

[Fourth place: Titan Star, Kyle.]

[Champion rewards are about to be distributed.]

[Wang Pingan becomes the overall champion of this year's Xuanyuan Star Region Seventeen-Star Nova Assessment.]

As the last sentence fell, earth-shaking cheers erupted from the Tianhai Star audience area.

Zhao Yang jumped straight onto his seat, waving his fists and shouting loudly.

"Champion! Pingan is the champion! Number one in the Seventeen Stars!"

Wang Qingyan stood in place, her eye sockets turning red, yet the corners of her mouth couldn't stop curving upward.

At this moment, she finally understood that signing the logistics contract with Wang Pingan back then was the most correct decision she had ever made in her life.

Wang Jincheng stared at the big screen, his lips moving slightly, and finally he only said a single sentence.

"He really won."

After he finished speaking, his entire person relaxed instead.

Losing to such a person was not humiliating.

In the spectator area of Tianhai No. 1 High School, countless students excitedly slapped their seats and guardrails.

Some shouted Wang Pingan's name.

Some shouted long live Tianhai Star.

Others shouted until their voices cracked, yet still refused to stop.

Old Li sat in the front row, his eye corners red, the teacup in his hand long since lost to who knows where.

He had taught many students.

There were those with great talent, those with good Family backgrounds, and those who fought desperately.

Yet he had never seen a person like Wang Pingan.

Daring to burn money, daring to suppress Foundations, daring to calculate every step right onto the edge of a knife.

What was even more terrifying was that his calculations hit the mark.

Zhou Mingyuan stood beside Old Li, his throat rolling before he finally spoke after a long while.

"Tianhai No. 1 High School has produced a champion."

Deputy Director Xu Zhenhai stood in the spectator seats of the Department of Education, still in a daze.

After quite a while, he suddenly burst out laughing.

"Good! Very good! Let's see who dares to cut Tianhai Star's budget next year!"

As soon as these words came out, several staff members from the Department of Education nearby all joined in the laughter.

The laughter carried the catharsis that had been bottled up for many years.

Tianhai Star had been silent in the Seventeen-Star Joint Entrance Exam for too long.

Every year when resources were distributed, Liumang Star and Tianlang Star could always suppress them by a head.

The reason was simple: their results weren't hard enough.

Now, Wang Pingan had smashed the hardest result right into everyone's faces.

The overall champion.

Furthermore, it was an overall champion won by crossing Realms to defeat the demigod Xiao Xuan.

Whoever wanted to suppress Tianhai Star again would first have to explain clearly why the champion planet shouldn't get more resources.

The atmosphere in the Liumang Star audience area felt like it had plunged into an ice cave.

All of Xiao Xuan's supporters fell silent.

Those who previously shouted about demigod suppression didn't even dare to open the public channel now.

It wasn't that they didn't want to find an excuse.

It was that there were no excuses to be found.

Xiao Xuan had mobilized demigod Divine Might, used Foundation Establishment citizens, and even utilized the resource Foundation of the Xiao Family of Liumang Star.

Yet he still lost.

He lost on the frontal battlefield.

He lost in a hard-on-hard clash.

He lost in the Realm suppression he was most confident in.

That was what made it the most unsightly.

Inside the connection pod, Xiao Xuan was forcibly ejected by the System.

After the hatch opened, he did not get up immediately.

He slumped onto the ground, his face ashen, his eyes filled with incredulous disorder.

The Xiao Family guards outside hurriedly crowded around.

Someone reached out wanting to help him up.

Yet Xiao Xuan shoved them away with a fierce push.

"Impossible."

His voice was very soft, yet carried an uncontrollable collapse.

"I am already a demigod."

"I possess the Xuanhuang Divine Physique."

"I have Foundation Establishment citizens."

"By what right does he win against me?"

No one answered.

Because the answer was right on the battlefield just now.

Wang Pingan's legion used artillery fire to cut through, sword webs to control the field, Evil Qi to break armor, and extreme-Realm Foundations to slay across Realms.

Every step was crystal clear.

Every blade strike hit Xiao Xuan's most painful spot.

Xiao Xuan was not ambushed.

Was not trapped by the terrain.

Was not restricted by the rules.

He was punched straight through by Wang Pingan from the front.

This kind of failure hurt the most.

Xiao Xuan raised his head to look at the livestream light screen, watching Wang Pingan's name hanging at the champion position as the light in the depths of his eyes dimmed bit by bit.

Ever since his Awakening, he had been nurtured by the Xiao Family as the future signboard of Liumang Star.

The Family Old Ancestor deduced routes for him, the Council of Elders allocated resources for him, and the Department of Education also regarded him as the predetermined candidate for number one in the Seventeen Stars.

He had never doubted that he would lose.

Until today.

A Wang Pingan who hadn't even ascended to demigod stepped on his demigod divine kingdom and climbed to the number one spot of the Seventeen Stars.

Xiao Xuan supported himself with both hands, wanting to stand up, but heavily sat back down on the ground.

This defeat shattered the path paved for him in his heart since childhood.

In the virtual square, Wang Pingan's consciousness projection reappeared.

Behind him, Wang Mu and Wang Shan led three thousand Immortal Martial citizens standing in formation.

This battle was a projection battle; the citizens didn't truly die, yet they suffered extremely heavy mental shocks.

Wang Shan's chest armor was shattered, the blade of the crimson flame saber was dim, the edges of the command flag in Wang Mu's hand were charred black, and multiple heavy cannons of the Artillery Battalion also showed cracks.

Yet they were all standing.

That was enough.

Wang Pingan looked toward them and slowly spoke.

"You've worked hard."

Wang Shan grinned and said, "Divine Lord, that was a satisfying fight."

Wang Mu also lowered his head in a salute.

"We have not failed our mission."

As this sentence fell, the three thousand Immortal Martial citizens knelt in unison.

"Willing to fight the myriad races for the Divine Lord!"

The voices converged into a torrent, shaking the virtual square to the point of producing ripples.

The federal examiner appeared at this moment.

He was not the ordinary examiner who hosted the preliminaries earlier, but a middle-aged deity clad in silver-white divine robes.

His aura was unfathomable; when he stood in the center of the square, all participating contestants instinctively quieted down.

The chief examiner's gaze fell upon Wang Pingan, his tone carrying undisguised approval.

"Wang Pingan, you defeated the demigod Xiao Xuan at the Divine Being stage. Your battle record is true and valid, and the ownership of the championship is undisputed."

"According to the reward rules of the Xuanyuan Star Region Nova Assessment, you will receive the exclusive reward for the overall champion."

He raised his hand and waved.

A pillar of golden Law light descended from above the virtual square.

Amidst the pillar of light, an archaic stele slowly emerged.

The stele was about a zhang tall, dark gold throughout, and densely carved with martial arts patterns.

Those patterns were not flashy, but carried a martial arts aura so heavy it felt oppressive.

Wang Shan only took a glance, and his breathing immediately became heavy.

Wang Pingan's divine kingdom panel simultaneously popped up a prompt.

[a-grade martial arts stele.]

[Contains the complete martial arts cultivation System of five major stages: Body Forging, Bone Refining, Blood Condensation, Martial Master, and Martial Ancestor.]

[The main stele can be placed within the divine kingdom, and sub-steles can be differentiated for citizens to comprehend and cultivate.]

[Long-term comprehension can increase the Breakthrough probability of martial arts citizens and stabilize the Foundation of martial arts Legacy.]

Wang Pingan's gaze condensed.

This reward was even more important than mere Source Power points.

What he lacked the most right now was not ordinary resources.

It was systematic Legacy.

In terms of cultivation, he had Cultivation Techniques, breathing techniques, and Wang Mu constantly deducing and improving them.

In terms of martial arts, although there was the Mysterious Blood Pool and Wang Shan's actual combat deductions, the overall Legacy was not complete.

Especially after ascending to demigod in the future, a large number of Body Forging Level 9 extreme-Realm citizens would break through to Blood Condensation; how to continue cultivating to Martial Master and Martial Ancestor afterwards required a stable route.

The a-grade martial arts stele happened to fill this Foundation.

This wasn't for a batch of people to use.

This was for the martial arts civilization of the entire divine kingdom to use.

The chief examiner continued, "This stele can be directly bound to the divine core. After being placed into the divine kingdom, it will generate a martial arts Legacy field, allowing citizens to automatically comprehend it."

"If you ascend to a First-Order Deity in the future, this stele can still play a role, sufficient to support the martial arts civilization of your divine kingdom all the way to the Martial Ancestor stage."

As soon as these words came out, the livestream room erupted into an uproar once again.

Martial Ancestor.

That was the upper limit that citizens at the First-Order Deity stage could touch.

Wang Pingan was currently only a Divine Being, yet he had obtained the martial arts Legacy leading straight to the Martial Ancestor stage in advance.

This reward was too heavy.

And it suited him far too well.

Wang Shan's eyes could barely look away.

If Wang Pingan hadn't spoken yet, he would have loved to rush up and hug the stele right now.

Wang Mu also watched very attentively.

Although he was a Cultivation Citizen, he understood better than anyone that Wang Pingan's Immortal Martial System had to walk on two legs.

The sturdier the martial arts Foundation, the stronger the front line of the Xianwu Meat Grinder Array.

The stronger the front line, the safer the output space Cultivation Citizens would have.

Wang Pingan stepped forward and received the a-grade martial arts stele with both hands.

The moment the stele was in hand, a heavy stream of information surged into the divine core space.

From Body Forging to polish skin and flesh, to Bone Refining to temper Foundations, to Blood Condensation to gather Qi into gang, followed by Martial Master opening domains, and Martial Ancestor condensing momentum, the complete path unfolded layer by layer.

Wang Pingan did not comprehend it immediately.

He put away the stele, his expression still calm.

Yet he knew very well in his heart.

With this stele, the divine kingdom's martial arts System would truly complete its underlying Legacy.

When ascending to demigod in the future, Wang Shan and that batch of extreme-Realm martial arts citizens breaking through Blood Condensation would only be the beginning.

The chief examiner looked at Wang Pingan and took out another golden badge.

"In addition, you will officially obtain the qualification of a key cultivation candidate of the Xuanyuan Star Region Federation. Subsequent resources and cultivation plans will be notified separately by relevant federal departments."

Wang Pingan received the badge.

"Thank you, Examiner."

The chief examiner nodded.

"This is what you deserve."

On the virtual square, all participating contestants watched this scene with complex expressions.

Some felt envy.

Some felt unwillingness.

Others were utterly convinced.

Fighting all the way here, Wang Pingan did not rely on talk, nor did he rely on luck.

In the preliminary abyss ruins, his points were cliff-like first.

In the secondary tournament, the mechanical stream, insect-controlling stream, and corpse-cultivation stream were all swept flat horizontally.

In the finals, he even defeated the demigod Xiao Xuan head-on.

For this championship, no one could pick out any faults.

Wang Pingan gripped the stele emanating an archaic aura, his Divine Thought sweeping across the neatly arrayed citizens within the divine kingdom.

Wang Shan stared at the stele, his eyes so fiery they were almost spitting flames.

Wang Mu also rarely revealed a smile.

The three thousand Immortal Martial Legion quietly awaited the Divine Lord's new commands.

Wang Pingan did not speak grand words.

He simply put the martial arts stele away into the divine core space.