41: Inferior sacred stone

Xu Le was excited. Could the True Flat Peach, which could upgrade a professional's grade, finally speed up its growth?

Currently, it was still smaller than a soybean. Relying on reaching Rank 99 to upgrade it wasn't even a guaranteed method.

He had almost given up hope.

He didn't expect hope to suddenly leap in front of him.

He forcefully composed himself and scanned the items one by one.

Besides Xu Le, there were two men and one woman who were also Hong Yuantai's students.

Song Yixing from the First District.

Bao Bao from the Fifth District.

Xiang Zixi from the Eighth District.

The three were also immediately attracted by the items on the ground.

Seeing his plan work—especially seeing Xu Le, who had splurged seventy million and owned four SSS-Rank contracted beasts, attracted by the things on the ground—Hong Yuantai felt that all these preparations were worth it.

As a teacher, if you can't awe your students at the first meeting, you'll have to spend at least ten times the effort to educate them later.

Step one: success!

"Ahem!"

Drawing everyone's attention, Hong Yuantai pointed at the items on the ground and said, "As your teacher, these are your introductory gifts. If you want anything else in the future, you'll have to exchange academic Credits for it."

As the only girl, Xiang Zixi had been brought over from the Eighth District by another teacher and didn't know the new teacher. Following the principle of asking when in doubt, she raised her hand immediately.

"Teacher, may I ask how we earn academic Credits?"

"Smart! Since you're the first to ask, I'll reward you with 1 academic credit."

Hong Yuantai gave a thumbs up and continued, "In our War God Department, besides the tasks I assign you, if you want academic Credits, there's only one word—fight!"

"Hold Ranks one to ten on the freshman leaderboard; rewards decrease from 10 to 1 credit respectively."

"Defeat challengers from other schools; 2 academic Credits per person."

"Make it into the top 100 of the National Freshman Ranking; rewards increase by 1 point for every 10 Ranks, from 1 to 10 points." (Example: Ranks 81–90 reward 2 Credits.)

"Make it onto the qingwu ranking, and you'll be directly rewarded with 100 points..."

There were many rules for earning Credits, but they were all extremely difficult.

Anyone under 40 can participate in the qingwu ranking. Just ranking in the top one hundred is incredibly difficult, as the Geniuses every year are exceptionally gifted.

"I've already sent your basic tasks and passing standards to your phones."

Xu Le glanced at his end-of-term task and was instantly stunned.

On the other side, Xiang Zixi raised her fair little hand again: "Teacher, I'm only Rank 22 now. Isn't it too hard to reach Rank 35 by the end of the term? I also need to earn 6 academic Credits; I don't think I can do it."

Xu Le: "..."

Song Yixing: "..."

Bao Bao: "..."

The three were bewildered. They looked at each other and finally calmed down; it turned out they were all in similar situations.

Xu Le's passing standard was actually 20 academic Credits, and his basic task was to reach Rank 50.

After Rank 30, the experience required for each level increases by 1 million.

To go from Rank 32 to Rank 50, he needed 225 million experience points.

Without a special channel, it would be as difficult as climbing to heaven.

Xu Le stared at Hong Yuantai: "Teacher, do you have a way to get a large amount of experience?"

"I do!" Hong Yuantai's lips curled into a wicked smile. "Our school has a Rank 60 Abyss Dinosaur dungeon. The first entry is at a 99.9% discount."

"How much?" Bao Bao was tempted.

If he ran the dungeon a few more times, wouldn't his Rank 40 task be easy to complete?

"10,000 Credits, or 1 academic credit," Hong Yuantai paused intentionally, then added, "After that, it's 10 million Credits, or 20 academic Credits."

Everyone: "..."

With their current strength, even the easy difficulty would be hard.

Even Xu Le didn't dare touch the Rank 60 dinosaur dungeon right now.

Although those things couldn't compare to a true Dragon, they were definitely SSS-Rank creatures not far off. Clearing it would be very difficult.

"There are other dungeons too, but you'll have to explore them yourselves. I won't spoil the mystery."

"But the discount is only for one time. Make it count."

"Now, pick your items first."

"I know every item well. Its use, data, and so on—it's all in my head."

This was Hong Yuantai's second step.

To conquer the four with his rich experience and leave them with the impression that their teacher was profoundly knowledgeable.

Xu Le acted first. Taking a step forward, his hand was already on a fist-sized, pitch-black stone.

Little Peach Tree's longing, excitement, and frantic emotions erupted, reaching a new level.

The emotions were transmitted through the link.

Even he was somewhat affected and felt like laughing out loud.

He hurriedly cut the Mind Link.

"This is..." Hong Yuantai was at a loss for words.

This damn stone was just something used to make up the numbers.

Its texture was hard, it wouldn't burn, and it couldn't be cut. It was undoubtedly a treasure, but the problem was that no one had figured out how to use it. How could he introduce it?

A bad start!

Forget it, let them choose for themselves.

Hong Yuantai lost interest and leaned back in his chair, his mind wandering.

But even though he didn't speak, Xu Le wanted to know more about the stone.

"Teacher, what kind of stone is this?"

"It was dug out of the stomach of a demonic creature killed near the Abyss."

"Could it be a Golden Core?" Xu Le was shocked.

"What Golden Core? Those brain-dead demonic creatures accidentally ate it, and it stayed in their stomachs because they couldn't digest or pass it."

Many people had thought it was a treasure before. The teachers and students of the God of Learning Department had studied it for three years without any results.

They even fed it to lab rats; the only result was the rats being stuffed to death. There was nothing special about it.

"Do you really want this thing?"

Xu Le nodded and took it, not forgetting to use his Divine Eye to investigate.

[Item] Inferior Divine Stone

[Grade] Legendary

[Item Details] A stone that grew on the edge of the Abyss. Long-term exposure to Abyss pollution has imbued it with a faint trace of divinity.

Xu Le was greatly surprised.

When he first saw his talent, he suspected there were gods in this world.

Now, seeing the description of the Divine Stone, he was finally certain—the Abyss has deities!

But humans do not.

He had to level up as quickly as possible.

The other three had originally thought the treasure they wanted had been snatched. After realizing it was a mistake, they hurriedly picked their equipment and skills to avoid any further accidents.

Once they had finished, Hong Yuantai waved his hand and put all the items away.

He looked at Xu Le with an ill-intentioned gaze.

"Xiao Le, you were the fastest just now, and you're the top scholar of the Ninth District with the strongest power. You go first and set an example for your three Junior Brothers and Junior Sister."

The three curled their lips. Why should a Contractor be the Senior Brother? Just because he was personally recruited and joined first?

Xu Le didn't agree immediately but asked, "Are there any benefits?"

"Yes! If you can last for 1 minute, I'll reward you with 1 academic credit."

"Does it stack?" Xu Le asked again.

???

Hong Yuantai cracked his knuckles. This was a slight against his strength as a teacher.

He had already disrupted the second step, and now he was going to ruin the plan for the third step.

How bold!

He gritted his teeth and said, "Very well. I'll save some Face for you as the Senior Brother. I'll let your Junior Brothers and Junior Sister test my skills first."

Hong Yuantai had a straightforward and generous personality. He wouldn't think Xu Le could last a minute just because of the cowardly performance of Zhu Daxiang and the others, thus affecting his grand image.

He was just worried that his Disciple would care too much about Face and wouldn't be able to accept it for a moment.