Zheng Xue was standing outside the door, holding her tablet and quietly waiting there.
After Jiang Kai came out, the three of them headed straight for the barrier training room.
Inside the glass room, Jiang Kai went in together with Old Wang and Zheng Xue. Zheng Xue turned on the device, and the training room instantly simulated a vast grassland scene.
In the endless grassland, a War God was fighting against a pitch-black humanoid beast.
"Hm? Isn't that the senior War God who previously gave me the Battle of the Eight Desolations?" Jiang Kai recognized the War God at a glance.
Zheng Xue nodded and said, "Don't rush. Uncle Yuan and the others knew that no one had ever successfully comprehended the eighth step of the Battle of the Eight Desolations, so before they set out, they recorded these images. They'll take turns fighting that map BOSS. What you need to do is see if you can learn anything about the Battle of the Eight Desolations from it."
Jiang Kai's heart stirred—these 17 War God teachers had even left him such a great gift!
In fact, Jiang Kai had never seen a map BOSS before. The last time District Eighteen challenged a map BOSS, his mission was to lure away a King-rank BOSS, and he hadn't actually witnessed the Deer Ridge map BOSS battle with his own eyes.
"So this is the map BOSS? I thought its body would exceed a hundred meters, some giant creature. I didn't expect it to be so small."
Old Wang gave a cold snort. "Big ones are easier to deal with. Small ones—much scarier! Watch carefully, Little Yuan won't last long."
Even a sixth-rank War God was nothing before a map BOSS!
Jiang Kai fixed his eyes on the battlefield.
Uncle Yuan wasn't taking any offense at all, instead relying on extreme speed to dodge again and again. The shadow naturally wasn't letting him escape, chasing him relentlessly.
"That's the Battle of the Eight Desolations!" Jiang Kai recognized the steps of the shadow.
Every movement let it flicker tens of meters away in an instant—several times farther than Jiang Kai's own strengthened eight meters!
"One step covers that much distance?!"
Old Wang said, "Its physique isn't on the same level as ours. If it entered the Special Training Hall, it wouldn't even need training to last a long time."
Jiang Kai nodded and kept watching the shadow.
Several times Uncle Yuan was caught up to, but he narrowly dodged each time, twisting and darting away at top speed.
Uncle Yuan's speed was already extremely fast. He was using some kind of body technique skill, faster than War God No. 7 and with more flexible movement.
But even so, against the shadow he still couldn't fully shake it off.
Jiang Kai couldn't help but sweat for Uncle Yuan, but he also knew what he needed to learn was the Battle of the Eight Desolations. So instead of worrying, he focused on studying the map BOSS's footwork and how it used its movement in battle.
After holding out for a while, one perfect feint let Uncle Yuan widen the distance between himself and the shadow.
But right then, the shadow suddenly vanished from the grassland. The next second, it was already at Uncle Yuan's side.
Its claw immediately slashed, and black mist passed straight through Uncle Yuan's body!
Next, its body turned into black mist and drilled directly into Uncle Yuan's body… and at that moment, the grassland and map BOSS in Jiang Kai's eyes all vanished.
Only Uncle Yuan remained, kneeling on the ground, hands clutching his own throat, coughing violently.
Apparently, even the end of the battle was recorded. But when Jiang Kai saw Uncle Yuan coughing, he couldn't help feeling puzzled.
"Wasn't this a simulated battle? Why does it look like Uncle Yuan was actually affected?"
Zheng Xue explained, "We only simulated the Dark Lord's attacks. But we didn't expect—even just simulated imagery—the Dark Lord still carries a very strong mental attack power… Don't worry, Uncle Yuan's fine."
Jiang Kai's eyes widened. Just a simulated Dark Lord could affect a sixth-rank War God?
If that thing were real, how terrifying must its mental attack power be!
"Old Wang, the Dark Lord's already been killed?"
"Killed." Old Wang said, "But at the time, the casualties were terrible. It nearly counterattacked and wiped everyone out. Luckily, our Huaxia has plenty of experts. After paying a heavy price, we finally won."
Jiang Kai let out a long breath. Honestly, a BOSS like this—you'd never want to fight it a second time after facing it once.
"Learn anything?"
Jiang Kai shook his head. "I just noticed, when it used the last step of the Battle of the Eight Desolations, it disappeared from the grassland instantly… but I didn't really see clearly."
Old Wang nodded. "Not seeing clearly is normal. I couldn't either… Zheng Xue, continue."
The War Gods who had taught Jiang Kai before appeared one after another.
Their goal was the same: to force the Dark Lord to use the eighth step of the Battle of the Eight Desolations as quickly as possible.
After observing 17 demonstrations, Jiang Kai again and again saw the Dark Lord vanish after performing the eighth step—sometimes shifting over a hundred meters!
"What powerful movement…" Jiang Kai couldn't stop sighing.
Then, combined with the blank page of the eighth step in the manual, he frowned. "No wonder it's a blank page—the eighth step is basically teleportation!"
That whole night, Jiang Kai didn't know how many video recordings he watched. But the more he watched, the more confused he became.
How exactly should that blank page be understood?
By the time the three of them left in the latter half of the night, Jiang Kai still hadn't comprehended the eighth step.
"Sorry, I…" Jiang Kai felt deeply ashamed, shaking his head and blaming himself.
Old Wang patted his shoulder. "Silly boy. If it were that easy, all those who practiced the Battle of the Eight Desolations in the past would've already mastered the last step. In fact, many couldn't even grasp seven steps. You already count as having high comprehension."
"As for the last step, I think maybe it requires something more than ordinary understanding."
Jiang Kai frowned. "Then what's needed?"
"Enlightenment!" Old Wang said. "Sudden enlightenment in a certain situation. In other words, you need a trigger. Right now that trigger hasn't appeared. Who could comprehend such a high-level movement technique from a blank page alone?"
On the way back to the dorm, Jiang Kai sat deep in thought.
Enlightenment… he didn't know if he'd ever have that kind of chance.
...
The next day, Jiang Kai didn't want too many people to see him leaving. He and Old Wang agreed to leave the special training camp early.
Early in the morning, Jiang Kai neatly folded three sets of gray clothes, placed them by the bed, and pushed the door open to head out.
Fortunately, everyone else was still asleep. On the way out, he hardly saw anyone.
Just as he was about to leave the training camp, someone chased up from behind.
"Stop! Jiang Kai!"
Jiang Kai turned in surprise and saw it was Tech Bro.
"It's you?" Jiang Kai said in surprise.
Tech Bro nodded. "Uh…" He hesitated for a long time but said nothing, then simply pulled out a card and handed it to Jiang Kai. "This is my business card. In reality. If you ever need me, come find me."
"Oh, and don't let anyone else know my number. I don't like being disturbed by unrelated people."
Jiang Kai looked at the card in his hand.
[Chief Designer of the Eastern Military Department, PhD Supervisor at Shangjing University, First-Class Designer at the Huaxia Military Design Institute, Zhuang Yan.]
"Eastern Military Department? On par with the Xuanwu Military Department?"
Zhuang Yan frowned. "Who said on par? We're stronger. Right now, in Huaxia's weapon systems—War Gods' weapons—we hold five tenths, they only hold three. The Wushen Military Department holds one and a half, private research companies the remaining half."
Jiang Kai stared in surprise. "You're also a PhD supervisor at Shangjing University?"
"Mm. But I haven't taken students for some time. I have a fixed team under me, and at most take one or two especially talented newcomers. Otherwise it would affect weapon research progress."
"Hiss… that's impressive! Uh, my little sister wants to get into Shangjing University."
"Your sister? Fine, I'll look into it later. If she's interested in applying to my PhD program, I'll give her special consideration." Zhuang Yan said with a smile.
Jiang Kai thought about it, then shook his head. "Forget it. My sister's proud at heart. If she doesn't get in by herself, she probably wouldn't want to go."
Zhuang Yan chuckled. "She's got a temper, huh… Hey, can you sign an autograph for me?"
"An autograph?"
"Yeah!" Zhuang Yan pulled out a notebook, opened to the first page, handed Jiang Kai a pen, and held it out with both hands. "Didn't expect to meet the Huaxia Jiang Kai here. Leave me a keepsake."
"Don't pull this…" Jiang Kai said nervously.
"Just sign one. Next time you come to Shangjing University, I'll treat you to a meal! And if your sister runs into trouble there, she can come to me."
Jiang Kai thought—it'd be convenient for his sister to know someone in Shangjing… so he picked up the pen and scribbled his name.
"This notebook can be cashed out?"
"Yeah. It's made of cash-out material. I had some leftover from experiments, so I made a notebook."
"Wow… Brother Zhuang, I've got to go. Till we meet again."
"Wait! Uh, is your guild still recruiting?"
Jiang Kai looked at him strangely. "You don't mean you want to join my guild? My guild barely has a few members."
"I tried last time, but got kicked out. Your guild's threshold is too high. And I can't stay on Ghost Star all the time, so I had to give up."
Jiang Kai immediately thought of those five women… Back then, after he made some waves, the best time to recruit members had been completely ruined by them!
"Uh, Brother Zhuang, with your status, joining any of the top ten guilds would be no problem. Doesn't the Eastern Military Department have its own guild?"
"Yeah, but I don't want to go. I don't want to be protected. I want to explore Ghost Star normally!" Zhuang Yan said. "There's some connection between Ghost Star's depths and the Beast God. I have to uncover it!"
Jiang Kai suddenly understood why Zhuang Yan was so obsessed with leveling.
He wanted to uncover the truth himself!
Thinking for a moment, Jiang Kai said, "Brother Zhuang, if you really want to join my guild, next time just submit an application directly at the guild. I'll approve it."
"Really? Awesome! As soon as I finish training, I'll apply!" Zhuang Yan said excitedly.
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