185: Chapter 185 The Eighth Assessment: Dimensional Competition

In the Southwest District, within a medium-sized secret realm.

Gu Changming stood in the center of a woodland that had been trampled into a mess. Not far ahead, a C-rank Giant Ape Exotic Beast, as large as a small house, was panting heavily.

Its brownish-black fur was matted into clumps by blood, and several deep, purple gashes that reached the bone were scattered across its shoulders, back, and chest.

However, the two sides were not in a standoff; from the giant ape's appearance, it clearly wanted to flee, but Gu Changming had blocked its path.

Seeing that Gu Changming still had no intention of letting it go, the giant ape was completely infuriated, hot white steam snorting from its nostrils.

It gave a low growl, pounded the wound on its chest heavily with its massive fist, let out a roar, and then lunged toward Gu Changming.

Instead of retreating, Gu Changming charged straight at the giant ape.

He clenched his right fist and rushed toward the giant ape.

No fancy techniques, just a clash of pure strength.

At the moment they were about to collide, Gu Changming twisted his waist and hips, throwing a straight right punch from his waist.

The two collided, fist against fist, body against body in a hard impact.

A shockwave erupted from the point where their fists met, flattening the already ruined vegetation around them once more.

This strike caused the giant ape's forward momentum to come to a sudden halt, and a human-like expression of shock and pain flashed across its face.

Its knuckles let out an overwhelmed cracking sound, and its entire arm was swung back by an irresistible force.

Gu Changming's body only swayed slightly before he exerted force from his waist again, landing another punch on the giant ape's abdomen.

"Ugh!"

The battle lasted for about two minutes.

Gu Changming's final heavy punch slammed into the side of its neck.

The giant ape let out a mournful cry, its massive body losing balance and crashing forward.

After hitting the ground, the giant ape still tried to struggle, but eventually, its strength failed, its crimson eyes gradually lost their luster, and it died completely.

Seeing that the opponent had completely stopped breathing, Gu Changming finally stopped, slowly exhaling a long breath and stretching his body as post-battle maintenance.

After letting the Mimic Beast on his shoulder devour the giant ape's corpse, Gu Changming also opened his personal status panel.

[Strength: 517]

[Constitution: 533]

[Agility: 462]

[Spirit: 814]

Scanning the four basic attributes, Gu Changming's gaze finally landed on the rank at the top.

[Rank: B]

After consuming the potion refined by Chen Yiming, he had specifically sought out C-rank exotic beasts like this giant ape—thick-skinned and possessing formidable strength—to engage in direct physical combat for specialized training.

Now, his rank was finally firmly established at B-rank.

Unfortunately, the small probability of obtaining a Dragon Innate Skill mentioned in the potion's description didn't happen for him.

Gu Changming shook his head in regret; with such bad luck, he could only wait for the next rebirth.

When the time came, he would try drinking it again at a different time and place to see if he could get lucky and obtain a Bloodline Skill.

B-rank was already enough to deal with the final Beast Tide crisis of the early stages.

After the Beast Tide, it would be a completely new stage and Assessment...

Thinking this, Gu Changming waved his hand, letting the Mimic Beast, which had finished devouring the corpse, jump back onto his shoulder.

Then, with his hands in his pockets, he walked toward the exit of the secret realm.

It was almost time; this Assessment was about to arrive.

...

On the way to the exit.

Gu Changming diverted a sliver of his attention to his Ring Space.

At this moment, within the Ring Space, there was a void of several thousand cubic meters.

Inside the space, those Blurry Figures he had captured earlier were drifting about.

He wasn't trying to catch one to use as fuel; rather, he was driven by a touch of inquisitive curiosity.

This space of several thousand cubic meters wasn't actually created by him injecting Mental Power into it.

His current B-rank Mental Power value was already sufficient to maintain a ten-thousand-cubic-meter space with basic rules over the long term.

However, after trying a few times, Gu Changming gave up on that plan.

It only added some basic rules without any fundamental changes; compared to before, the biggest change was simply that the space had grown larger.

Gu Changming wasn't interested in this; he didn't have that many things to store yet.

However, after "forgetting" about it for a while, he discovered the latest change here.

Even without him intentionally injecting Mental Power and only letting it maintain the basic space, the space had actually expanded automatically.

From the basic one hundred cubic meters, it had gradually expanded to the current several thousand cubic meters.

Upon careful study, he discovered the source of the change.

It was the Mental Power automatically emitted by the Blurry Figures he had thrown inside that was propping up and expanding the space within the ring.

Later, he had the Mimic Beast enter voluntarily.

The Mimic Beast had even more Mental Power, and after staying inside for a while, it indeed managed to expand the space using its own vast Mental Power.

After noticing this effect, Gu Changming's lost interest was piqued once again.

If that were the case, this ring seemed to have quite a bit of potential for experimentation.

Once expanded to ten thousand cubic meters, basic physical laws would manifest inside.

Under those conditions, using methods similar to the Blurry Figures or the Mimic Beast to continue maintaining and supporting the space...

Perhaps he could create a self-circulating space?

Although it didn't seem particularly useful.

But creating a small, self-operating world of his own sounded quite fun.

Of course, Gu Changming was only thinking about it and had no intention of starting immediately.

He still had serious business to attend to.

Calculating the time, the eighth Assessment would descend once he went out.

...

At the secret realm's exit, a halo of light swirled like a giant water mirror standing in the woods.

Gu Changming took a step out, and the scene before him shifted instantly, with familiar blue skies and white clouds greeting his eyes.

Just as the sensation of solid ground returned, Gu Changming sensed the secret realm entrance behind him changing.

He turned to look, and the spatial entrance of the giant water mirror was gradually shrinking, finally vanishing completely before him as if erased by an eraser.

Seeing this, Gu Changming was not surprised.

This Assessment was also related to these secret realms, and the two were in conflict.

Therefore, before the Assessment began, these regular secret realm passages would be closed, "driving" all participants into this single Assessment.

Gu Changming continued forward to a slightly open slope, then stopped and looked up at the sky.

He watched for about a few minutes.

The change happened abruptly.

A blinding blood-red light erupted without warning from a point on the horizon, then spread out at a frantic speed.

In the blink of an eye, the blue sky was completely covered in blood-red.

Following that, in the center of the blood-colored sky, massive pure white characters appeared like a brand.

[The Eighth Assessment: Plane Competition]