64: Four Cities Martial Arts Competition
Guan Zhenyue's speech once again sparked a wave of enthusiastic applause.
Wang Jie and the other challengers who had come to stir up trouble felt deeply ashamed.
They had come to challenge the hall solely to secure benefits for the Zhenhai Martial Arts Academy.
Yet, after winning, Guan Zhenyue's speech emphasized that both sides were contributing to the Human Race.
The difference between the two martial arts halls was immediately apparent!
On the scene, many passionate students, moved by the atmosphere, crowded forward, eager to sign up.
At a signal from Guan Zhenyue, the instructors of the martial arts hall took the students to handle the registration procedures.
Guan Zhenyue, meanwhile, brought Li Canglan with him to the hall master's office.
"This is the reward I promised you."
Guan Zhenyue took a box from the counter and handed it to Li Canglan.
Li Canglan did not hesitate; he opened the box directly to take a look.
Inside lay a crystal core radiating rich wind element energy: a Gale Shadow-Snatching Leopard!
He also noticed that there were dozens of similar boxes on the counter in Guan Zhenyue's office.
These were likely all incredibly valuable crystal cores!
Based on the drop rate of crystal cores, this wall alone likely represented the lives of hundreds, or even thousands, of Three-Star and Four-Star Demonic Beasts!
Seeing the undisguised greed in Li Canglan's eyes, Guan Zhenyue couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
"These are all treasures I obtained myself or traded for from other old friends."
Guan Zhenyue rarely offered an explanation.
At his status, maintaining appearances was still quite important.
Seeing Li Canglan's drooling expression, Guan Zhenyue suddenly had an idea.
"Do you want these crystal cores?"
"Yes!" Li Canglan grinned.
"Uncle Guan, are you going to give them to me?"
Guan Zhenyue rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"You really don't understand the principle of not accepting rewards without merit at all!"
"Hehe."
Li Canglan chuckled, "You and Uncle He are both my uncles; you're not outsiders."
Guan Zhenyue was speechless.
Are all Geniuses this thick-skinned?
"If you want crystal cores, it's not impossible."
While speaking, the assistant in the office, wearing a tight-fitting skirt, squatted down to pour a cup of tea for Li Canglan.
After the assistant left the office, Guan Zhenyue continued,
"A month from now, our Luofeng City and the surrounding Yugui City, Zhujin City, and Shanyang City will organize a Four-City Martial Arts Competition!"
"This competition is divided into three tracks: One-Star, Two-star, and Three-Star Martial Artist!"
"I hope you can represent our Jinghai Martial Arts Hall and win a top-three spot in the One-Star track during this Four-City Martial Arts Competition!"
As far as Li Canglan knew.
Luofeng City was located in the southeast of Shenxia Country.
Furthermore, Luofeng City, Yugui City, Zhujin City, and Shanyang City were merely satellite cities of Hanghai Base City.
The four satellite cities holding a martial arts competition.
Apart from determining the hierarchy between the martial arts halls, it was also about securing resource allocation for their respective satellite cities.
Satellite cities certainly didn't have as many resources as the Base City.
To develop, they had to strive to gain the attention of the Base City.
Whether it was the Martial Dao Examination or the martial arts competition, they were just some of the pathways to achieve that.
"This is the deposit I am giving you."
Guan Zhenyue was not a stingy person; he took three boxes containing crystal cores and handed them to Li Canglan.
"Rest assured, Uncle Guan, that first-place spot is in the bag!"
Li Canglan took the boxes and left, beaming with joy.
Guan Zhenyue nodded with satisfaction.
With Li Canglan's rocket-like progress speed.
A month later, he had a high chance of becoming an almost invincible existence among One-Star Warriors.
Even if other martial arts halls had recruited some Prodigies.
He still had a chance to place in the top three!
"Wait a minute..."
Guan Zhenyue suddenly realized something.
Just now, it seemed Li Canglan said, first place?
...
Inside the training room of the Jinghai Martial Arts Hall.
Relying on the martial arts hall card given by He Qianxun, Li Canglan could rightfully enjoy the highest-spec training room.
"This training room is quite Advanced."
Guided by the staff, Li Canglan walked into the wind element special training room.
Opening the door to the training room, a strong gust of wind rushed towards him.
This gust of wind felt like sharp little knives, scraping against Li Canglan's cheeks and causing pain.
"Hiss, this wind element is much stronger than what I can unleash!"
Li Canglan could release the wind element power from his Martial Artist Mark, but without using a Martial Skill, the power was merely a gust of wind.
It wasn't even as strong as a random gust of wind in this training room.
Hardening himself against the strong wind, Li Canglan walked inside.
After closing the door, the power of the wind blades was significantly reduced.
Li Canglan did not delay; he immediately sat cross-legged and activated Gluttony Desire.
The four Three-Star wind element crystal cores, including the Gale Shadow-Snatching Leopard, which were laid out before him, shattered one after another.
They turned into rich and explosive wind element energy, mixing into the surrounding wind blades and surging into his body.
Inside Li Canglan's body, more and more wind blades, like small knives, sliced through his Bloodline.
However, because of the weakening effect of Gluttony Desire, Li Canglan had long since grown accustomed to this level of damage.
After about ten minutes, Li Canglan suddenly discovered a problem.
"The energy from the crystal cores hasn't been absorbed yet?"
Based on his experience over the past few days, Li Canglan understood clearly.
The time required for Gluttony Desire to absorb crystal cores of different levels.
These four crystal cores shouldn't take this long.
Moreover, the wind element energy surging into his body seemed... gentler and thinner than before?
"Never mind, having something to absorb is always a good thing!"
Li Canglan closed his eyes and continued to devour with Gluttony Desire.
He didn't know how much time had passed when an alarm suddenly sounded in the control room of the VIP training room.
The staff member looked at the screen flashing with red light, and after a brief moment of surprise, he returned to normal.
"It's been such a long time; it's about time to replenish the energy."
The energy in the martial arts hall's training room didn't come out of thin air.
It was produced by releasing energy from a large number of crystal cores and then weakening it to a certain degree through specific instruments.
Although it was still far from being suitable for a Martial Artist to absorb directly.
It could be used to temper the body.
The staff member immediately made a call, asking someone to go and replenish the crystal core energy.
Soon, the alarm stopped.
He finally had some free time and prepared to browse his phone.
His job was like this; as long as he remembered to monitor the situation in the training rooms, it was fine.
However, just one hour later, the urgent alarm sounded again.
"What on earth is going on today?"
Looking at the number on the screen, the staff member picked up his phone and dialed a number.
"Old Zhu, replenish the wind element crystal cores for the Number 3 wind element VIP training room!"
A puzzled voice came from the other end of the line.
"Old Lin, you haven't lost your mind, have you?"
"Didn't the Number 3 training room just get its wind element crystal cores replenished? Why does it need more?"
Hearing this, the staff member was suddenly stunned.
He recalled the call he had made earlier.
It seemed... an hour ago, it really was this training room?