"Yeah, exactly! It's not like someone wiped out a hundred Tier-2 elite units in a single wave without taking any damage, right?"
Guo Wenbin was startled by the comment. When he first heard the rankings, he felt a bit unwilling to accept it.
After all, in such a short time, he had managed to cultivate nearly 200 Tier-2 elite Werewolves warriors, plus a Tier-3 exceptional Werewolves chieftain.
Even when facing an invasion of fifty direwolf riders, he'd only lost fewer than twenty soldiers—yet he was ranked only third.
Now, hearing that second place had completely annihilated a hundred Tier-2 serpentmen without a single casualty, and that there was an even more outstanding first place, he couldn't help but realize—there's always someone stronger.
"Zhou Wei's follower race is kobolds. So far, he has raised over 500 of them."
Xiao Jianghai spoke calmly, but he hadn't even finished his sentence before the classroom exploded in noise.
"Five hundred is a lot, but kobolds? Seriously?"
"I thought he made the rankings because he was some kind of monster. Kobolds? Hahaha! Tier-1 common trash! And you're telling me they wiped out a hundred Tier-2 serpentmen without casualties? Do you actually believe that?"
The class erupted in debate again—but this time, it was full of disbelief. After all, everyone knew just how weak kobolds were.
"…Among them are twenty kobold warlocks."
Xiao Jianghai waited for the noise to settle before dropping the final piece of information.
---
The classroom went utterly silent. Especially those who had just mocked the kobolds—they could feel their faces burning. If not for being inside the artifact realm, they probably would've wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.
Kobold warlocks!
Guo Wenbin immediately understood. No wonder Zhou Wei could achieve a flawless victory.
Kobold warlocks were Tier-2 elites, and as spellcasters, they were among the most powerful at that tier.
Despite their name, kobolds resembled lizards more than dogs—and more importantly, they carried traces of dragon blood in their veins.
Kobold warlocks only knew one spell—Fireball.
But that wasn't the key. The real potential was that, if nurtured properly, kobold warlocks had a chance to awaken their draconic bloodline and become dragonblood warlocks, a Tier-4 extraordinary species.
After Xiao Jianghai finished, he glanced around at the now-silent class, then looked at the girl in the front row, eyes closed in meditation.
"As for student Zhuo Yiyi, her starter race is the Elves."
"Elves!?"
"No way!!!"
"What was she thinking? Nine years of compulsory education and a full year of high school, and she didn't remember what the teachers said?"
"A Tier-3 exceptional starter race? Won't her divine domain collapse under that pressure? Even if it doesn't, how many can she actually raise? And how can she guide their faith?"
This time, the uproar was even louder than before. Some students, wary of being slapped by the truth again, double-checked their textbooks before voicing their opinions louder than ever.
Guo Wenbin was just as shocked.
The path to godhood was no easy journey. Every step was filled with challenges.
After years of trial and bloodshed, the Divine Alliance had established the optimal development route:
Never inject too many resources into a newborn divine domain.
Never choose a starting race that's too powerful.
These rules existed for good reason.
First, a nascent divine domain was unstable. Overloading it with resources could alter its laws, causing the god to lose control—or worse, lead to total collapse.
Powerful starter races also posed similar problems.
Normally, a new divine domain covered about 50 square kilometers. Not exactly small, but certainly not huge either.
The space and resources were limited. The higher the race's tier, the more energy they consumed.
And the most important resource for gods? Faith.
If your early followers were too few, the faith points you gained would be insufficient to condense divine power.
Without divine power, you couldn't even form your divine role.
And without that, you couldn't become a demigod, let alone ignite divine fire and ascend to true godhood.
Moreover, students like Guo Wenbin, who had just opened their divine domains, were only divine-blooded beings.
Yes, they were invincible inside their domains.
But to convert high-tier intelligent beings into believers was incredibly difficult.
Tier-3 creatures were already top-tier in most divine domains. They had no natural enemies and adapted easily to the environment. Even when faced with a god, they wouldn't easily offer their faith.
That's why everyone was so shocked when they heard that Zhuo Yiyi's followers were elves.
Not to mention, elves were notoriously slow to reproduce.
Generally speaking, choosing a Tier-3 species as your starter race was a dead end.
Some might argue that starting strong would give you an edge in the early game.
But that wasn't the case.
For divine-blooded students, high school was the most critical period.
Year 1: Let the divine domain stabilize and evolve.
Year 2: Guide your followers' faith.
Year 3: Prepare for the Divine College Entrance Exam.
Each year had its purpose.
Year two's goal was to cultivate enough followers, generate sufficient faith, and condense your first drop of divine power.
Only with that could you begin preparing for your final exams in year three.
And since they had chosen the warpath route, the combat effectiveness of their followers couldn't be ignored either.
So the most suitable starter race for sophomore year students was Tier-2 elites.
But Guo Wenbin also understood—Xiao Jianghai was a true god. Rumor had it he took a teaching post to stockpile resources for raising his divine kingdom.
Someone of his caliber wouldn't pick a student with no future potential as the top scorer of the class placement exam.
Sure enough, after the noise died down and Zhuo Yiyi still hadn't said a word, Xiao Jianghai spoke again.
"Zhuo Yiyi's divine domain spans 100 square kilometers, and she currently commands thirty Tier-3 elven followers."
"Is she insanely gifted? Or just filthy rich?"
"Either way, we can only look up to her."
"Hey… if we get close to her now, you think we could become her subordinate gods? Maybe she'll take us with her into the final exams."
As the chatter continued, Guo Wenbin felt the pressure piling on.
He originally thought that with his cheat-like advantage, he'd dominate the class.
Yet here he was, sitting in third place, clearly outshined even by second.
"If I had fully unleashed the energy from the Civilization Seed… could I have raised a Tier-4 extraordinary species? Or at least pushed for more Tier-3 elites? Damn… I got careless.