44: Chapter 44 The Call to the Provincial Tournament

The aftermath of the City-level Competition continued for several days.

Walking through the campus, Shen Ye could always feel gazes cast upon him from all directions.

It wasn't the shock and admiration from when his awakening test results were first announced, but something more complex—awe from his peers, worship from the lower grades, and feigned composure from the upperclassmen.

When he went to the cafeteria for food, the auntie gave him two spirit beast eggs instead of one.

When he went to the training ground, the guard at the door made an exception and let him in early, saying that Instructor Qin had given instructions: "This person can come in at any time, open up for him whenever he arrives."

As he bought water from the vending machine, girls from the class next door passed by in a group, walked several steps away, then turned back, blushed, and said, "Great job in the finals," before running off.

Liu Yang clicked his tongue beside him: "You're a celebrity at Nanjiang No. 7 High School now."

Shen Ye pulled the tab on his drink can, took a sip, and said nothing.

Liu Yang added: "But you don't have the 'I'm a celebrity' look on your face at all."

Shen Ye thought for a moment and said: "The opponents in the Provincial Tournament don't care about expressions."

Qin Shu's training escalated starting the next day.

The parameters for the projection training were raised directly from military-grade Void Race standards to the internal standards of the Pathfinder sequence. These were the parameters Qin Shu had used before he retired—he had used this set to train himself and his team members when he was killing the Void Race in the Gray Zone back in the day.

When Shen Ye entered the projection with the new parameters for the first time, he was beaten through after holding out for a very short time.

It wasn't three Void Race lords, but five, and they weren't scout-level, but true lord-level projections.

Qin Shu stood behind the observation deck, the data pad in his hand glowing. He said nothing, just restarted the projection.

The second time, he held out longer.

The third time, he held out for nearly an hour.

The fourth time, he almost killed one of the lord projections.

Qin Shu made a note on the data pad, and for once, his face wore an expression that looked like satisfaction.

"In one month, if you can hold out against five lord projections for an hour simultaneously, you won't be broken through in the single-player match of the Provincial Tournament."

Shen Ye walked out of the projection, his entire body soaked with sweat.

He sat down on a bench and gulped down a few mouthfuls of concentrated spirit spring liquid.

Qin Shu sat down beside him and handed over the data pad.

On the screen was a list—the seeded players for the Provincial Tournament.

"There are thirty-two provinces in the Eastern Divine Realm, and the top three from each province advance to the National Competition. Adding in those with reserved qualifications from previous years, there are 128 people in the Provincial Tournament in total."

Qin Shu said, "Nanjiang City is at an above-average level in the province. Last year's City-level Competition champion from Nanjiang City ranked in the twenties in the Provincial Tournament and didn't make the top ten. If you want to enter the National Competition, you must make the provincial top ten."

Shen Ye looked at the list.

Every name was followed by brief notes: a City-level Competition champion from some city, SS-grade talent, Wind and Thunder dual-element, Thunder Pool attribute; the top player from another city, S-grade talent, bloodline atavism, Wild Ancient Land; Provincial Capital No. 1 High School even had an SSS-grade player who was rumored to be the strongest in the province, with stories saying three stone steles shattered when he awakened.

None of them were weaker than Lu Chuan, and some were even stronger.

"The format of the Provincial Tournament has two stages."

Qin Shu said, "The first stage is single-player combat, a single-elimination tournament of 128 people, with the top sixteen advancing to the second stage. The second stage is secret realm exploration. The sixteen people enter a provincial secret realm and stay there for three days, with the overall ranking based on exploration depth, resource harvest, and the number of Void Race killed. Secret realm exploration allows teams, with a maximum of three people per group. Team scores count towards the individual total score simultaneously—but the prerequisite is that teammates must also be among the top sixteen. You don't know who your teammates will be unless you all fight your way into the top sixteen."

Shen Ye understood.

This meant that if he wanted to get a high score in the secret realm exploration, he needed to build rapport in advance with someone who could also make it into the top sixteen.

Su Wanqing.

She was an A-grade Spirit Plant Garden, her frontal combat power wasn't dominant among her peers, and it was almost impossible for her to fight her way into the top sixteen of the province solo.

But if she could make it into the top sixteen, her large-scale crowd control with the Thorn Queen combined with Shen Ye's single-target reaping as a cultivator would far exceed the score of a solo player in the secret realm exploration.

He sent a message to Su Wanqing: "The second stage of the Provincial Tournament allows teams. If you can make it into the top sixteen, let's team up."

Su Wanqing replied in seconds with two words: "Practicing."

After leaving Qin Shu's office, Shen Ye went to the Su Family Chamber of Commerce warehouse in Nanjiang City—it wasn't his first time here, but every time, he was shocked by the sheer scale of this three-story stone building.

The outer walls were carved with law patterns for freshness preservation, moisture prevention, and pest control, with a few new ones added compared to the period during the City-level Competition preparation.

Su Wanqing was waiting for him in the extraction room in the deepest part of the warehouse. The room was filled with the herbal fragrance of spirit plant essences, and the finished products of the second batch of foundation establishment pills were lined up on the table, alongside samples of the Thorn Queen's third evolution extraction liquid.

Su Wanqing handed the data pad to him.

On the screen was a material flow list—apart from the portion for personal use, the rest of the first batch of foundation establishment pills had all been acquired by the Su Family Chamber of Commerce at a price significantly higher than the market rate.

It wasn't just the foundation establishment pills.

The newly harvested moonlight vine petals, sword leaf orchid leaves, and spirit gathering grass from Shen Ye's divine kingdom spirit field were all sold under contract to the Su Family Chamber of Commerce at a premium price for high-quality goods.

Below the accounts, a line was specifically listed—sword leaf orchid metal-attribute mutated leaves, because the trial feedback from the Flying Sword Forging Workshop was excellent, the other party took the initiative to request a contract renewal at a higher price.

"Before, even a sword intent stone that cost hundreds of thousands on the black market had to be considered carefully before buying."

Shen Ye returned the data pad to her.

Su Wanqing took the data pad, the corners of her mouth curving up: "Now your monthly net resource income is enough to buy out that stall on the black market that ripped you off."

As they walked out of the extraction room, Su Wanqing took an ice-blue spirit plant from her pocket and handed it to Shen Ye.

"The second ice condensation grass that Han Xu asked me to pass on."

Shen Ye took it, looking at the ice-blue leaves, remembering how Han Xu had looked in the contestant tunnel, pale-faced while drinking spirit power supplements, earnestly reminding him to watch out for Lu Chuan's right hand clenching.

He put the ice condensation grass into his resource bag along with the previous one—he remembered all of these.

Just before he left, Su Wanqing suddenly called out to him.

"For the Provincial Tournament, you're still missing one person."

Shen Ye stopped in his tracks.

Su Wanqing looked at him: "For the second stage, secret realm exploration, it's a team of three. Your cultivator is responsible for single-target reaping, and my Thorn Queen is responsible for large-scale crowd control. But secret realm exploration isn't just combat—the mechanisms, arrays, and ancient texts in the secret realm are things neither of us is proficient in."

In Shen Ye's mind, the stone door covered in vines in the City-level secret realm surfaced, along with the back of someone crouching on the ground, tracing ancient texts with their fingers.

Jiang Yue.

That B-grade talent, divine kingdom attribute archaeology intern researcher.

She said those texts weren't human, weren't from the Void Race, but were the remains of a third civilization.

She said that civilization was called "Twilight."

It belonged to the same civilization as the eight characters he saw on that stone stele in the deepest part of the Land of Gods and Demons.

"I know her. She helped me decipher Void Race texts in the City-level secret realm."

Shen Ye said, "But I don't have her contact information."

Su Wanqing tucked the data pad under her arm and smiled.

"I do."

She said that the Su Family Chamber of Commerce had long-term business dealings with the City Association, and Jiang Yue was an intern researcher at the Association, responsible for archiving ancient ruins.

She had already contacted her.

"Jiang Yue said that the stone stele rubbing you gave her in the secret realm last time, she is still deciphering it to this day."

That evening, Shen Ye found Jiang Yue at the City Association library.

This place was much older than the Su Family Chamber of Commerce warehouse; the bookshelves were all built of ore, and the air was mixed with the smell of old books and aged spirit ink.

Jiang Yue sat in a workstation in the corner, the table spread with rubbings, ancient text comparison tables, and a few stone stele fragments the size of half a palm.

She looked up when she heard footsteps, her glasses sliding down to the tip of her nose. Seeing it was Shen Ye, she was stunned for a moment, then stood up, her movements too fast and almost tripping over her chair.

She was a bit thinner than when he saw her in the City-level secret realm.

But her eyes were still the same—focused, quiet, looking at people not at their faces, but at how many ancient secrets they carried that she didn't know.

"You're here."

Jiang Yue pushed her glasses up to her forehead, her knuckles still stained with ink from the rubbings, "Those stone stele rubbings you gave me last time, I've deciphered them."

She lowered her head and rummaged through the table, the pages rustling, finally pulling out a notebook with frayed edges, opening to a page covered densely with phonetic annotations and interpretations.

She had deciphered most of the text; "Four Keys Gathered" meant four keys, and "Light and Dark Return to Origin" meant holy light and the abyss returning to the primal state together.

But there were two characters she had repeatedly compared against all currently known ancient text systems, yet could never find a match.

"These two characters have no direct correspondence in any ancient text system. But if compared with the sacrificial texts used internally by the Void Race royal family—there are two symbols in the Void Race sacrificial texts whose structural logic is highly similar to these two characters. That set of sacrificial texts was inherited by the Void Race royal family from mysterious ancient ruins from before the establishment of the Abyssal Empire, and they are still used in royal sacrificial ceremonies today. In terms of glyph structure, they share the same origin. But the Void Race sacrificial texts themselves have only been deciphered in a very small part by humans to this day."

She looked up, her glasses sliding back to the bridge of her nose, "Can you tell me, which civilization's text is this exactly?"

Shen Ye was silent for a while.

That stone stele in the depths of the Land of Gods and Demons, that Twilight Spirit Spring spontaneously modified by angels and succubi, the posture of Chen and Ye looking up at the sky simultaneously at the intersection of light and dark.

He had hidden it for long enough, but there was no interrogation in Jiang Yue's eyes, only pursuit—not wanting to pry into his secrets, but wanting to know the truth.

This was different.

"Twilight."

He said, "I have a stone stele engraved with these two characters. It existed in the ancient era before the birth of humans and the Void Race, and it once attempted to fuse light and dark—not confrontation, but coexistence. Later, it disappeared."

Jiang Yue slowly took off her glasses and placed them on the table.

"I've found records of the Twilight Civilization in ancient books, but I've always treated them as myths. So the unrecognizable text on those rubbings... is real. That civilization really existed."

She looked up, "Thank you for telling me."

"It might not just be 'existed' for much longer."

Shen Ye said, "The second stage of the Provincial Tournament is secret realm exploration. If there are ancient ruins, I need someone to help me decipher them."

Jiang Yue looked at him.

"You need me."

"I need you."

Jiang Yue put her glasses back on, bent down to pick up a canvas bag from the ground, which contained her deciphering notes and the stone stele rubbings.

"Deciphering the Twilight text is the biggest research topic I could ever encounter in my life. I am willing to go with you. However—"

She shouldered the canvas bag, "I'm only B-grade. You have to tell me what you need me to do."

Shen Ye said: "Your archaeology skills can trigger much higher exploration progress in the secret realm. Mechanisms, traps, hidden passages, and the cracking of ancient arrays—these are your domain. I am responsible for protecting your safety."

He said, "As far as you can go, I will accompany you."

Jiang Yue pushed her glasses to the bridge of her nose.

Outside the window, the sunset dyed the ore walls of the library a faint orange-red.

"The Provincial Tournament, I will go."

Her voice was very soft, as if promising something.

In the divine kingdom, Chen and Ye opened their eyes simultaneously.

There was less than a month left until the Provincial Tournament.

Less than a month in the outside world, nearly a hundred years in the divine kingdom.

Jin Lin was teaching the sword cultivator hundred-man team the triple sword strike in front of the sword stele, Mu Sheng was leading the array mages by the spirit field to simulate the dual guidance technique of vines and water flow, and Elder Quan was teaching the magic cultivators the group casting of the Spiral Water Curtain by the spirit spring.

The alchemy room of the Fire Spirit Root Artificer never went dark day or night; the second batch of foundation establishment pills were being produced one after another, and the number of kin at the Foundation Establishment Stage was steadily climbing.

The Angel Legion and the Succubus Legion were lined up in the Land of Gods and Demons, and the twilight glow of the Twilight Spirit Spring was becoming increasingly dense.

And that black stone stele wrapped in mist was waiting for Jiang Yue's arrival—to decipher the line of Twilight text on it that Shen Ye had never fully understood.

Twilight Shelter.

Four keys gathered.

Light and dark return to origin.

Everything was ready.