Instructor Sheng flashed his Medallion to the Student in charge of the Exchange desk and said, “I would like to buy that “Asura Fiend Armour”. The Student’s mouth opened lightly in astonishment as he accepted the medallion. After withdrawing 2.9 million Merit Points from it, he went to the back and retrieved a set of leather armour.
After Instructor Sheng had appraised it to be the right thing, he handed it over and the exchange as done. Instructor Sheng then casually threw the armour to Curo and said, “This was a good choice in armours, it’s restriction of movement is minimal while offering an absurd amount of defence.” He approved of Curo choosing this armour and bought it purely because he didn’t let greed overcome him.
There were several armours that were much higher quality than this up for sale here however, they would hinder his movements too much and were very clunky for his battle style.
His battle style was the kind that emphasized on movement, so to wear a heavy battle suit would be simply stupid as it would slow him down and negate the advantage of his battle style. Leather armour’s were most suitable as they were light, durable and didn’t restrict his movements.
Curo accepted the armour and stored it inside his Spacial Ring. After doing so, the two headed out of the Merit Points Exchange. Curo currently had 23 000 Merit Points, just enough to buy a High Grade Courtyard. Although a High Grade Courtyard wouldn’t amount to much, it was still over a dozen times better than the Freshman courtyard he was given. Inside each Freshman Courtyard, there was a Peak Low Rank Qi Gathering Formation.
The Qi inside those courtyards was already several times better than outside, speeding up ones cultivation several times. Inside the High Grade Courtyards, however were High Grade Qi Gathering Formations. Training inside those courtyards shortened ones cultivation time by dozens of times. However, these courtyards weren’t exactly cheap either. To rent a High Grade Courtyard, one needed top pay 500 Merit Points per month.
To purchase a High Grade Courtyard for the remainder of their time in the Academy, one needed to pay 50 000 Merit Points. As for now, Instructor Sheng had decided to pay the remaining 27 000 Merit Points and Curo would pay him back when he could. Instructor Sheng had more than 100 million Merit Points but it was the thought that counted here. Tomorrow, Curo would get 20 000 Merit Points for ranking first on the Human Ranking. Couple in the rewards Human Rankings Number One gets every month, he would only need a month to pay him back.
He couldn’t gift everything for free to Curo, however, he couldn’t really neglect him either. He was a talent once seen in a million years and he was also from the Jing Bloodline. Whether he wanted to or not, he couldn’t help but dote on him a bit.
With Instructor Sheng’s help, Curo managed to purchase a High Grade Courtyard. After taking a look around the courtyard, Curo nodded his head in excitement. Seeing Curo act so happy, Instructor Sheng let out a laugh and said, “Come on, let’s go to the Purgatory Formation. I want to see how high your Battle Score is. Also, I want to see how far you have reached in the [Nether Dragon Halberd Art].”
Curo turned serious as he nodded his head and donned the “Asura Fiend Armour” before following Instructor Sheng towards the Battle Hall.
Inside the Battle Hall, there were over a hundred Purgatory Formations laid down and Curo followed Instructor Sheng towards one in the back, where there were the least people. When the Instructor in charge of the Formation saw Instructor Sheng come, his back was drenched in cold sweat.
He had been scolded by the man more than once and that had left an impression on him. As he racked his brains over what he had done wrong, to warrant this Demon to come look for him, he was shocked to see that there was a young boy following behind him.
When the two reached the Formation, Instructor Sheng said seriously, “Give it your all and down worry about suffering injuries. Once you can’t take it any more, I will pull you out before you come to any harm.” Curo nodded his head and stepped inside the Formation. The Instructor hurriedly activated the Formation and when Curo opened his eyes again, he was inside the desolate wasteland again.
A voice sounded out, “Your highest score is 18 Waves. Do you wish to start from the beginning or continue from the 19th wave?” Hearing this, Curo was surprised but he immediately understood why it was like this. It would be extremely unfair for people that had reached 45 or 54 waves to always start from the beginning.
So the Academy had set it so that every time you completed 9 waves, you would be able to continue from there. For example, if one completed 26 waves, they would still have to start over from wave 18. However, if they managed to complete 27 waves before exiting, they could continue from the 27 waves he had completed.
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Curo thought about it for a moment before he asked, “Can I start from the 10th wave?” A monotonous voice answered, “10th wave has been selected. The monster will arrive in 30 seconds.” Hearing this, Curo was surprised as he hurriedly withdrew his Halberd from the Spacial Ring and stored his Academy Robes inside the Spacial Ring.
Curo stood there with a Halberd at the ready, wearing black, leather armour. On the Armour, there was the Academy Insignia embroidered with red. As Instructor Sheng observed at the outside, a small commotion rang out. All the older students and Freshmen all recognized Curo. From their Instructors they had heard that he would most certainly dominate the Human Ranking for the next ten years. When they had been shocked about it, they had simply explained, that Curo had reached a Battle Score of 18 000 with 98 Qi Kindling’s. Right now, he was at the 36 Qi Spring Stage and his Qi was purer and more abundant than any other person that trained in a Top Grade Art and was at the 36 Qi Spring Stage. Hearing this, the student’s couldn’t help but have a complicated expression on their faces.
Now that they had the option of seeing the person in action, they immediately took the
chance. When almost all of the people in the Battle Hall had converged at Curo’s Formation to observe him, he had already passed the 18th wave. The reason he had started from the 10th wave and not the 19th was because he wanted to test out a few things on weaker opponents first. The last time he entered, he had gained the knowledge of his Art’s flaws. Using the insights he gained, he had managed to fix most of them but some flaws were still present. As he tested out these fixed moves and flaws, Curo couldn’t help but sigh, “Battle truly is the fastest way to help a person grow.”
Whether it be their cultivation or techniques, only battle could provide the necessary stimulation for improvement. Now he understood why Hidden Dragon Academy only accepted 1000 Student’s each year and why they put such an emphasis on Battle Score. It was to only accept the strongest and people most willing to follow the path of battle. The more they battled, the higher their Score and more the benefits, meaning that the faster their cultivation would be. This created an endless cycle of strong getting stronger while those that were lacking could only stare enviously from the behind.
However, no one could blame anyone as everyone’s Rankings and Battle Score were the direct result of ones own hard work. If they wanted to blame any one, they could only blame themselves for not working hard enough.
With a loud bang, two shadows flew away from each other inside the Formation. On one side, there was Curo with a grim expression while on the other side, there was an identical copy of him with a blank expression. Curo stared at the copy and pondered, “It knows every move I make and mirrors it. It has all the same equipment that I do, the same cultivation level and the same comprehension of Arts….”
As Curo thought that to himself, his eyes suddenly lit up as he muttered, “Same comprehension, same flaws.” Curo’s eyes turned serious as he charged ahead again and the dragon by his side locked with the dragon of the copy. After an intense bout of a hundred moves, the two separated again with a bang. However, this time, they didn’t look the same. On Curo’s face was a sly smile as a trickle of blood slowly rolled down the copy’s cheek.
Curo then thought to himself, “The 27th wave is meant for one to see their own flaws and overcome them.” He couldn’t help but sigh at the thought of how many student’s had remained stuck on this step. A Battle Score of 18 000 already let him sit at the top of Human Rankings without a care in the world. When he thought about how the top Score of the Earth Ranking was 26 000 he couldn’t help but ponder what would happen when he defeated this copy of himself. Curo’s eyes turned serious as he charged forward again, trying to discover every flaw of the copy. Every flaws the copy had in it’s movements, Art, comprehensions was the same as Curo’s. The more flaws he found, the more of them he could fix. The more flaws he could fix, the more he could grow in strength.
After an intense half an hour fight, Curo and the copy separated again. Curo was breathing heavily while the copy looked at him with a blank expression. It’s body was now covered in wounds. Some were deep, some were shallow. As Curo stared ahead with a grim expression, he couldn’t help but sigh. He couldn’t see any more flaws and if he gave up here, there next time he would come back, it would be more difficult than this time. Curo had a complicated expression on his face as he debated on whether to use his trump card or not.
The next time he would come to the Formation, Curo didn’t doubt that he might not be able to defeat the copy. Curo grit his teeth as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A moment later, his cultivation started to climb. 40 Qi Springs, 50 Qi Springs, 60 Qi Springs all the way up to 98 Qi Springs. He then opened his eyes and a tinge of pain flashed on his face. His body was bursting with Qi and if he didn’t finish this soon, he would face extremely dire consequences.
Without wasting any time, he shot forward, several times faster than before and charged towards the Copy. As the copy deflected the Halberd flying towards him, Curo’s body used the momentum of the deflection and spun his body in the same direction. With a bang, a kick landed on the copy’s ribs and the copy shot towards the ground like a cannon ball. Just before the copy could hit the ground, Curo appeared below with a red face and hit the copy in the back with a knee.
As a sickening crunch echoed out in the desolate wasteland, a Halberd rained down from above with a swishing sound. A red line formed on the neck of the Copy and his head slowly slid off. With that, the Dragon fighting Curo’s Dragon dissipated and the corpse of the Copy also dissipated. Curo breathed heavily as he sat down and hurriedly sent Qi into the [Dragon Cross Seal] and his cultivation began to slowly decline back o the 36 Qi Spring Stage.
When his cultivation was sealed again, Curo spat out a mouthful of blood as he laid down on the ground panting heavily. His body was rampaging with immense pain and even batting his eyelids caused torturous pain for him.