29: Chapter 29: Suppressing the Goblin's Bloodlust, Demonstrating God-Level Domination

The seventh day of the assessment on the Abyss Shattered Continent.

The competition among the top tier had reached a fever pitch.

The numbers on the leaderboard had inflated to a staggering degree.

Su Yueying's Holy Angel Legion formed the Holy Radiance Battle Formation.

They forcefully pushed into the heart of the Shattered Continent, beginning to surround and annihilate the Tier 3 monster, the [Abyssal Corrupted Giant Serpent].

Chu Yunxuan's mechanical wolf pack coordinated with his Thunder Spirits, using high-energy particle cannons to scour the ground, effectively leveling a Silver-grade monster nest.

The points of the top ten had breached the terrifying tens-of-millions mark.

Various glows of divine power flashed deep within the Shattered Continent, like brilliant stars.

In contrast, inside a dark red canyon in the Third Defense Zone, the atmosphere was grim to the extreme.

"Squelch!"

A power chainsword, emitting black smoke, sliced open the chest cavity of the last [Shadow Lich].

Shrivelled organs mixed with an aura of death gushed out.

The Tyrant grabbed the Lich by the neck with one hand and squeezed hard, crushing the Silver high-tier undead creature into a cloud of bone dust.

It casually tore the dark magic core from the Lich's skull and tossed it into its mouth, crunching it to pieces.

The canyon was a scene of devastation.

This was the toughest battle Lin Yuan's Mutant Goblins had encountered.

The Shadow Liches possessed powerful long-range death energy attacks; although the [Scarlet Link] could distribute the damage, it could not completely negate the life-eroding effects of the death energy.

Out of the fifty thousand Mutant Goblins, over four thousand lives were lost in this meat grinder of a battle.

The ground was littered with the remains of Liches sawed into pieces.

Lin Yuan hovered in mid-air, scanning the battle damage data on his Divine Domain panel, his brow furrowed deeply.

"The death energy erosion has reached a critical threshold."

He looked down at the remaining forty-five thousand plus Mutant Goblins.

They were still gnawing on the remains of the Liches to replenish their stamina.

However, the bone armor on many of the Mutant Goblins had taken on a grey, decayed hue, and the roar of their engines sounded much duller.

Their weapons were severely worn, and their stamina was dropping.

Most importantly, a pulse of energy was coming from deep within the canyon ahead.

A Gold-grade lord.

The Tyrant also sensed that presence.

It swallowed the magic core in its mouth, its scarlet eyes fixed intently on the depths of the canyon.

"Roar!" The Tyrant turned and let out a low growl at Lin Yuan.

Its battle intent was boiling.

It hungered to challenge that Gold-grade lord and obtain higher-tier flesh.

The surrounding Mutant Goblins, infected by the Tyrant's emotions, raised their broken chainswords and let out bloodthirsty shrieks.

They had lost their heads in the fighting.

The madness inherent in Wasteland creatures was overriding their reason.

"Shut up."

Lin Yuan's voice echoed in the minds of all the Mutant Goblins.

"Form up right here, switch from offense to defense."

Lin Yuan raised his hand, his fingertips tracing through the void, forcefully cutting off the Tyrant's command to advance into the depths of the canyon.

"We have no reinforcements and no logistical support. What are we going to use to match the life of a Gold-grade lord?"

Lin Yuan's eyes were clear.

You only have one life; preserve our effective fighting force.

Digesting the points we've already gained is the only way to go.

The fanaticism in the Tyrant's eyes was suppressed by the god's will.

It let out an unwilling low growl toward the depths of the canyon, then turned around and slammed its alloy tower shield heavily onto the ground.

The forty-seven thousand Mutant Goblins quickly tightened their formation, with the Tyrant at the core.

They formed an impenetrable iron hedgehog formation at the canyon entrance.

Engines idled.

"Only kill the low-tier monsters that approach. If anyone dares to take a single step forward, I will drain their blood."

With the command given, the entire legion fell completely silent, like a solid slab of iron lurking in the shadows.

Over the next three days, the growth rate of Lin Yuan's points showed a clear downward trend.

He gave up on active attacks and relied only on clearing out stray monsters attracted by the scent of blood to slowly accumulate points.

On the leaderboard, Lin Yuan, who had been firmly in eighth place, began to be slowly overtaken by several top-tier conglomerate heirs behind him.

Thirteenth place, fourteenth place... seventeenth place.

On the high platform at Starport Plaza.

In front of the holographic projection screen, several conglomerate executives and military bigwigs were staring intently at Lin Yuan's feed.

Watching him tighten his defensive line, they showed no signs of disappointment; instead, they became even more focused.

"He stopped."

The executive from Starsea Biotechnology stared at the screen, fingers tapping lightly on the railing.

"Faced with the temptation of a Gold-grade lord, he actually forcibly suppressed the bloodlust of these berserk units."

He turned his head to look at the observer from a top university nearby.

"Professor, what is your take on this?"

The white-haired professor stroked his beard, his eyes full of admiration: "He knows when to advance and when to retreat; he understands trade-offs!"

"Look at his current formation. Shields facing outward, chainswords crossed; this is the most standard iron-wall defense."

"Faced with glory and points within reach, he can suppress his greed and preserve the effective forces of his Divine Domain. This level of composure is far superior to others his age."

The professor pointed at the heirs of noble families on the leaderboard who were still pushing forward, even as their kin's casualty rates skyrocketed, and sneered.

"Those pampered young masters who rely on resources to get ahead only know how to charge blindly; they don't understand what war attrition is at all."

"If this were a real Abyss battlefield, they would have already been worn down and killed by monsters deep in the interior."

General Raymond crossed his arms and nodded slightly.

"He comes from a commoner background with no reinforcements. To reach this point is already his limit."

General Raymond's gaze passed through the screen, watching the black-clad youth hovering in mid-air, watching the battlefield with cold eyes.

"He is neither arrogant nor impetuous, and he isn't held hostage by the vanity of the leaderboard. This kid is not only a genius at deducing biological weapons, but also a natural-born commander."

"His brain is more valuable than the Mutant Goblins under his command."

The bigwigs exchanged glances, each seeing a strong sense of determination in the others' eyes.

The tenth day.

Above the dark red Abyss sky, a golden fissure suddenly cracked open.

"Dong—"

A grand bell toll resonated throughout the entire Shattered Continent.

The assessment period had ended.

The boundary extraction beam descended from the sky.

Azure teleportation array patterns lit up beneath the feet of every surviving student.

Lin Yuan took one last look at the Mutant Goblin legion below, covered in battle damage but still maintaining a tight formation.

"Return."

The Divine Domain passage opened, and the Tyrant led the Mutant Goblins into the passage in unison, disappearing into the Wasteland.

The next second, Lin Yuan's consciousness was forcefully pulled away.

Starport Plaza.

Flashes of light appeared one after another.

Over a thousand students appeared one after another on the wide alloy ground.

Some were ecstatic, some collapsed on the ground wailing, and others passed out directly.

They were quickly carried into stasis pods by military medics nearby.

Ten days of real slaughter had completely transformed these flowers from the greenhouse.

The air was thick with the scent of blood and the lingering fluctuations of divine power.

"Look up!"

An exclamation erupted from the crowd.

Everyone looked up at the giant holographic projection screen in mid-air.

The final points leaderboard froze.

[1st Place: Su Yueying, Points: 85,000,000.]

[2nd Place: Chu Yunxuan, Points: 69,000,000.]

[3rd Place: Lin Yao, Points: 53,000,000.]

...

The top rankings were still firmly occupied by those arrogant top-tier conglomerate prodigies.

But everyone's attention, coincidentally, swept down the list.

At the end of the first tier, there was a name with no family suffix and no conglomerate affiliation.

It hung there all alone, appearing incredibly stark.

[12th Place: Lin Yuan, Points: 12,000,000.]

The entire place went dead silent.

First in the commoner sequence, by a massive gap!

You have to realize, the other top-tier conglomerate heir ranked thirteenth had only just barely broken the ten-million mark.

Other than Lin Yuan, the highest-ranked commoner student hadn't even touched the threshold of the top one hundred.

Lin Yuan walked out from the fading light of the teleportation array.

He was still wearing that faded school uniform, his face looking somewhat pale due to the massive consumption of mental energy.

The surrounding crowd automatically cleared a path for him.

Countless gazes fell upon him.

Awe, jealousy, wariness, disbelief.

"Is that Lin Yuan?"

"Twelfth place... what kind of monsters did he use to grind for points? I heard that he even suppressed many elites from top noble families."

"A Wasteland Divine Domain can achieve such results? Has the world gone mad?"

Lin Yuan turned a deaf ear to these discussions.

He walked straight toward the back of the line, his hands habitually shoved into his pockets.

In the crowd, Zhao Tianze stood at the four-hundred-fiftieth position.

Watching Lin Yuan pass by, he subconsciously took half a step back, hiding half his body in the shadow of the person next to him.

Zhao Tianze's hands were trembling slightly.

Twelve million points.

His pride and joy, the Flaming Orc legion.

After fighting for their lives in this assessment, they only managed to get less than eight hundred thousand points, ranking outside the top three hundred.

The gap was too huge.

So large that he didn't even have the right to be jealous.

"Fortunately..." Zhao Tianze swallowed, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, "Fortunately, I didn't offend him too badly in class before."

He recalled the provocation he had directed at Lin Yuan in the classroom a month ago.

If he had actually made a move back then.

Given Lin Yuan's ruthless methods that allowed him to hack out twelve million points in the Abyss, he would probably have had his ashes scattered by now.

"Good thing I conceded early..."

On the high platform.

The assessment had officially ended, and the bigwigs had also dropped their final pretenses.

"Everyone."

The executive from the Starsea conglomerate suddenly stood up and straightened his exquisite suit.

He walked to the edge of the high platform and spoke to the other faction representatives nearby with a fake smile.

"The prodigies of the Su and Chu families have their own family backgrounds; we at Starsea wouldn't dare dream of them."

He extended a finger, pointing from afar at the solitary, proud figure in the faded school uniform below on the plaza.

"But this Lin Yuan, we at Starsea are determined to have him. A top-tier S-class contract, resource allocation, and guaranteed admission into Starsea's core research lab. I hope everyone will give us some face and not compete with Starsea for him."

Just as he finished speaking, an unceremonious sneer came from the side.

"How much is 'face' worth?"

Another representative, burly and wearing a crossed battle-axe badge on his chest, stood up.

It was the representative of the "Thunder Military Industry" conglomerate, which specialized in ordnance and heavy kin armament.

"You want to dismiss a commander-level genius with a few lousy potions?"

The representative of Thunder Military Industry slammed his hands heavily on the railing, staring intently at Lin Yuan.

"A talent like this, capable of perfectly fusing biological weapons with broken ordnance in such extremely harsh environments."

"Only in the hands of our Thunder Military Industry can he realize his maximum value!"

He turned to look at the Starsea executive, his tone firm.

"After the final assessment summary meeting, let's compete based on our financial resources. We at Thunder Military Industry don't have much else, but we have plenty of mines and plenty of money!"

"You!" The Starsea executive's face darkened.

General Raymond stood to the side, not stopping the argument between these conglomerate executives.

He looked at Lin Yuan, who was standing quietly in the crowd below, a meaningful glint flashing in his eyes.

How would this piece of prime meat, targeted by all the major forces, choose next?