Gaud had already been training for many years, and he was making rapid progress. All sorts of barriers were easily passed, as though he had no bottlenecks. This sublimation in his life level in such a radical way was obviously dangerous, but he gave people the feeling that he was extremely familiar with this path.
In the eyes of both of them, even if Gaud’s talent was not as good as Black Star, who had broken all records, he was not too far off.
The drill sergeant gazed at the instrument’s readings, before exclaiming in amazement, “At this rate, I estimate he’ll enter the Beyond Grade A realm in two to eight years. This is the most efficient person I’ve seen… if we exclude Black Star.”
“It seems like we’re witnessing yet another rise of a Beyond Grade A.” The supervisor laughed, “The upper echelons have already sent down people twice. It seems like they’re very concerned with the progress of Gaud.”
It was a feat to be able to cultivate a Beyond Grade A of direct descent, so as long as Gaud completed his promotion, the supervisor would also experience a ‘promotion’
After idly chatting a bit more, both men went back to work topics.
“Has the list of new trainees this semester been compiled?” the drill sergeant asked. “It’s been completed. I was preparing to hand it to you.” The base supervisor called up a virtual screen to show a list.
VA
This secret training base would select talents from the dynasty for a targeted training every once in a while. If there was potential, the dynasty did not mind raising even an infant all the way to the Calamity Grade, branding them a direct descent of the dynasty. Thus, they not only recruited Calamity Grades but also divided them based on different ranks and classes according to their Grade.
The lower their grade, the more intense the competition. In Grades below the Calamity Grade, there existed an implementation system. Either one passed the assessment, or they would pack up and return to the army.
If you cannot make it, then leave. Don’t continue to occupy the pit even if you cannot sh*t.
The name list was quite long, and every one of them was accompanied by a resume and record. There were countless people with varying honors; they were the elites of each fleet.
The drill sergeant looked carefully, and when he came toward the end, he was taken aback. He saw that among the group of elites with gorgeous resumes, there was a person with almost no merits on his resume, and his bearing in his photos gave off a silly air without any class.
“Karlot? Where did this guy come from? Why would the top pick a completely ordinary fellow to come in?”
The drill sergeant had an expression of befuddlement, even scrutinizing Karlot’s resume, but the whole thing basically screamed ‘ordinary’.
While this secret training base did not only recruit elite students, they had to have some characteristics. How did such a guy who was indistinguishable from a grunt get in?
Could it be through connections?
Don’t tell me that even the dynasty’s upper echelons are also corrupted now!
The drill sergeant was heartbroken.
“I didn’t understand as well, so I specifically went to inquire.” The supervisor hesitated. “It seems that Black Star publicly expressed optimism about this person many years ago, but so far, there has not been any outstanding performance from him. The upper echelons plan to give him a chance to see if you can train him.”
“So, it turns out it’s like this…” The drill sergeant frowned. “I feel that this is a waste of space. So many years have passed. If he had the potential, then he would have shown it already. What’s the point of cultivating him with the mentality of a gambler now?”
“If you strongly object to this, I’ll help you pass him on.” The supervisor could not care less. It was not him who was going to teach the students any way.
The drill sergeant frowned as he pondered, finally shaking his head. “Forget it. Since they’ve decided from above, I’ll follow the orders and give him a chance… but I won’t deliberately give him any slack. If he cannot pass the assessment, he’ll still be eliminated.”
There was no such thing as fairness in education here. The drill sergeant only liked the top students and was too lazy to spend energy on the poorer students. He even thought that it was a waste of time to look at them. Concentrating the resources on those top students with outstanding talents was the solution to maximizing resource efficiency.
“That’s not bad.” The supervisor glanced at the list before saying, “Then I’ll put him in the most elite class and give him the most powerful opponent, so he won’t stay long. I estimate that he’ll leave in the first quarter.”
The supervisor had the same mentality. It would not help his political performance to train a poor student into an elite. Only when an elite was trained into a top-tier combatant would they then gain merit.
Thus, he did not mind using his power within the rules to eliminate those poor students with insufficient talents to the greatest extent, in order to free up more places to recruit better potential stocks.
In his eyes, this was the proper use of limited resources, and the survival of the fittest was a natural law.
Within the Crimson Dynasty’s Science Institute was the Wormhole Position Project Office.
The Science Institute was divided into many teams with different complex projects. The wormhole positioning was a large project, and any suspicious wormhole data collected by the dynasty was analyzed here.
The wormhole data left behind by EsGod was just one of the goals of the research team of this project, and it was a sample that was not so important.
As the research team leader was calculating the wormhole model in the laboratory, his secretary hurried in.
“Leader, the approval from above has been sent over. They rejected our batch of applications for the wormhole test.”
“Rejected?” The team leader was surprised. “Isn’t it just a procedure? Why did they stop us this time?”
After deducing part of the coordinates for a wormhole data, a directional shuttle test would usually be performed, and several multifunctional detectors would then be thrown through the wormhole for an on-site inspection and position to establish a more accurate coordinate system. This would allow them to test if there was any deviation in their data deduction, which was a conventional method of experimenting.
The team leader was quite interested in this batch of test samples, which included the wormhole data left by EsGod.
He did not care much about what was on the other side of the wormhole, and the reason was mainly because the sample was extremely difficult to calculate. After finally determining the scope, he was eager to know if his calculation was right.
The secretary pushed up his glasses, hesitantly replying, “I don’t know the details, but it seems like this was a suggestion from His Excellency Black Star. The upper echelons thought his words made sense, so the review standards for most scientific projects have temporarily been tightened.”
“What is this about Black Star again?”
“He seems to have mentioned something about the Super Star Cluster Alliance being ready to move. Once a conflict breaks out, the three Universal Civilizations will not have any time to take care of anything else, so it is best to reduce the possibility of any random risks. The management accepted his proposal about our wormhole project.”
The team leader could not help but grumble, “Black Star is only a half-baked scientist. Isn’t he just causing us more trouble?”
At this moment, one of the researchers carefully asked, “Team leader, then… do we still do the shuttle test?”
Hearing this, the leader huffed in annoyance. “What do you want to do? Without approval from the upper echelons, do you dare study in private? You’re really good, not even respecting your superiors. I must correct your teaching. Come here, take this uncalculated wormhole data and do the calculations! If you can’t figure this out, then your holiday this year is cancelled!�
��
“… Eh, so we actually have holidays?” The researcher in question scratched his head in confusion. Then, where have all my past holidays gone?
Chapter 1145 - The Third Sanctum and Awakening Project
In the Central Galaxy, the Abyss of Stars, the Shadow Realm…
The planet filled with dark gaseous air was still suspended here, as though it had existed since ancient times.
Streams of light could be seen a distance away from the planet, and a fleet arrived.
The dark planet suddenly became restless, the energy flowing on its surface rumbling and setting off a wave thousands of feet tall. Like shaking off a full body of lice, shadow servants appeared from the waves, ready to launch an overwhelming attack any time.
The spaceship at the head of the fleet suddenly released a burst of black-colored soul flames, which spread rapidly and quickly swept across the dark planet. The next moment, the pitch-black planet turned quiet, and the countless shadow servants returned to the black ocean, merging into the surface of the planet and disappearing.
Oathkeeper stepped out of the spaceship, hovering in space and staring at the dark planet in front of him whilst speaking through mental fluctuations.
“The date has been brought forward. We must perform the ceremony immediately, otherwise we will not be able to keep up with the agreed date…”
“But I haven’t completely transformed all the materials yet…” “There’s no more time. If I miss the date of this appointment, even if I enter The Third Sanctum, I will not be able to bring anyone back. There’s no set cycle to this date, and I am not sure how many years it will take till the next date. We cannot miss this opportunity.”
“… Alright, I’ll try my best.”
Oathkeeper nodded before turning to the fleet and commanding, “Prepare to synthesize the final key.”
As he spoke, the fleet moved. They spread out in the four cardinal directions, docking at different positions of the dark planet and forming a specific formation. The armor plates at the bottom of each spaceship shifted to reveal a circular device which let off a hazy light. These lights linked with each other to form a translucent energy cover, encapsulating the planet within.
A silvery white cannon muzzle then appeared from all of the spaceships, aimed toward the dark planet.
In the mental network built by Oathkeeper, the voices of the officers could be heard. “The 12th-level energy stabilization and compression force field has been constructed, and the target has been covered.”
“Transmitter has been activated. All Primal Esper Ability Entities have been loaded and sequenced.”
“Information Form template is loaded. The reconciliation process has been calibrated. The preparations are complete.”
“All standby, wait for my orders,” Oathkeeper solemnly said as he raised his palm.
Everyone stared at Oathkeeper’s palm, holding their breath. Law and Fay as well as the other officers clenched their fists, their chests rising and falling
Seeing that the mission of the Holy Accord over these years would end with the wave of this hand, everyone had some sort of fluctuations in their mood.
Looking around, Oathkeeper slightly closed his eyes, waving his hand resolutely. “Begin!” Just as he spoke, it was as though they had pressed a start button on a sophisticated instrument. All the operators present had practiced this process thousands of times without any mistakes, and they started to synthesize in strict accordance with the steps of the ceremony.
Bang, bang, bang! The silvery-white cannons shot out colorful beams of light, each beam representing a Primal Esper Ability Entity, which was submerged into the dark planet.
Thousand Shadows’ abilities was the base behind the synthesis. Through its own ability mechanism, it began to compress and fuse the many Primal Esper Ability Entities. The dark planet changed in an instant, the energy of different entities shuttling and flowing in the black sea on the surface of the planet, as though painting on the canvas.
Various energies of a different nature reacted fiercely, and the color of the dark planet turned brighter, gradually transforming into an incandescent ball, like a super large light bulb.
The force field covering it shuddered violently as it withstood the impact. It flickered uncertainly, trembling as though it would be disintegrated at any time. At this moment, the information form template came into play. It was as if an invisible big hand began to knead the ball of light, changing its shape and shrinking its original volume. Under everyone’s eyes, it slowly decreased from a huge planet to a circle not past a hundred meters in diameter. However, the energy density was untold times higher in that slowly spinning circle, so dazzling that it could hardly be seen directly. “Success!”
Seeing this scene, the members of the Holy Accord cheered.
Oathkeeper suppressed the excitement in his heart, loudly saying, “Put in the other keys and open The Third Sanctum!”
The troops acted again, taking out the ‘keys’ they had gathered before and putting them into the center of this white ball through the traction field. It seemed that there was a special force present within, holding up these objects and making them rotate around the light circle.
When the last ‘key’ was thrown in, the circle suddenly emitted a bright light, projecting a picture in the cosmic space not far away, like the reflection of the world in a mirror.
Within the picture, there were six vague doors of light, which were also slowly rotating. They did not look far away, but they appeared untouchable, just like a mirage, as though they were in another world.
This scene only lasted for a moment, and five of the light doors suddenly disappeared, the remaining one growing rapidly as though turning from illusory to reality. The edge of the doorway was still shaking slightly and seemed quite unstable. There was only the radiance of the door within the passage, and nothing could be seen on the other end.
“This is the portal to The Third Sanctum. According to the information handed down, the time flow inside is strange. It’s not long to the agreed date, and I’ve to go in early now…” This thought passed Oathkeeper’s mind, and he took a deep breath, prepared to fly across the door of light.
At this moment, the white halo that was transformed from the dark planet suddenly trembled violently, and the black mist separated itself, turning into a face. Its mouth opened and let out an unwilling roar, which exploded in everyone’s mind.
Buzz!
The sudden changes made the passage of The Third Sanctum turn fuzzy and illusory again, as though it was about to disintegrate any time.
“Thousand Shadows!”
Oathkeeper snapped his head around, his eyes spraying raging Soul Flames that instantly hit Thousand Shadows, burning the mist into nothingness.
This blow completely killed off the remaining consciousness of Thousand Shadows, and now, it was truly dead.
“He indeed counterattacked at the last moment…” Oathkeeper was not surprised and secretly sighed.
The Holy Accord initially wanted to wait until Thousand Shadows’ consciousness was completely swallowed up before performing the ceremony, but the agreed date was pushed forward, so they had no time to wait.
While Oathkeeper could have easily destroyed Thousand Shadows’ consciousness before, under normal circumstances, Thousand Shadows and its ability were one, unable to be forcibly separated. If he killed it, then even the ability itself would be wiped out, removing this Primal Esper Ability Entity forever from this world.
The synthesis ritual was able to eliminate anything superfluous to them, so Thousand Shadows had taken this chance to counterattack. It was only then that it briefly separated, giving Oathkeeper a chance to kill it.
It was just that even though Oathkeeper reduced the influence of the Thousand Shadows to the minimum, it still had a negative impact. Everyone saw that the portal to The Third Sanctum was turning unstable.
Without any delay, Oathkeeper rushed into the passage of The Third Sanctum,
only leaving behind a sentence. “Before I’m back, Law and Fay will be the temporary leaders. Keep a low profile until I bring the rest back.”
The next moment, the passage toward The Third Sanctum collapsed, and the many keys disintegrated.
Other than the Primal Esper Ability Entities, the other keys were basically a one-time use, and what the Holy Accord had spent many years gathering all disappeared into smoke.
As Oathkeeper disappeared, the locators that he specially carried on his body all became invalid, as if they no longer existed in this world.
A little more than a month later. In an asteroid belt somewhere within the Flickering World, two figures, one black and one red, shuttled through it, fighting fiercely.
“Torrent-Getta Hadoken!”
A bright blue ray was emitted, and the asteroids that were along the ray’s path were instantly vaporized and annihilated, leaving behind a blank path.
The red figure teleported to avoid the attack before backhandedly fanning out a red energy wave to retaliate.
The space around them flickered as the two of them continuously exchanged blows. They were Han Xiao and Hila, who were enjoying a routine spar.
The two of them fought against each other many times, so they knew each other’s bottom line. Following Han Xiao’s hit to Hila’s abdomen with a heavy knee drop, he smashed her down so she could not stand up before landing a heavy neck chop with his palm, ending the battle.
“Cough cough cough…” Hila kneeled on a small star as she grabbed her neck and coughed. She said in a muffled tone, “I lost
again.”
“There’s no need to be discouraged. Your progress is already fast enough. The Underworld is really a good thing.” Han Xiao felt a little jealous.
Since acquiring the Underworld secondary dimension, Hila’s growth rate also began to skyrocket. The faster the Underworld recovered, the stronger her Esper Ability would get.
Thus, in Han Xiao’s recent battles with Hila, he had gone as heavy as he could. If he relaxed, Hila would complain that he was going easy on her.
The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385 Page 812
