Chapter 613 Ancient Pagoda

The Shadow Abode of Jiang Xiao's Calamity was devoid of its usual hustle and bustle. It had taken him quite a bit of effort, together with the Bait, to clean the place up. Looking at the empty Shadow Abode of Calamity, Jiang Xiao's heart felt empty as well.

Jiu Wei remained in the Shadow Abode of Calamity, practicing his swordsmanship all day long, the air becoming his imaginary enemy. It was quiet here, with no one to disturb him, making it suitable for diligent study.

After Er Wei left, Jiang Xiao resumed his training career as a wasteland apprentice.

However, after a week, Jiang Xiao's apprenticeship had to come to a temporary end, because the school issued a notice that the three members participating in the national team's singles competition selection would set off on April 15th for Xu Du City in Central Plains Province.

The school had already contacted a training base for the three students, a "Summit of the Ancient Pagoda" outside of Xu Du.

Although it wasn't a competition venue, the terrain of the Summit of the Ancient Pagoda was similar, and the creatures of other dimensions were exactly the same.

The school's intention was clear: to allow the three participating students to familiarize themselves with and adapt to the Summit of the Ancient Pagoda before the big exam.

The Star Martial World Cup would begin on June 1st, while the national team selection competition was scheduled for April 28th, with the competition lasting about a week.

The final members of the national team would also have about a month of intensive training and adjustment time before embarking on their journey to the world arena.

The profession of Star Warrior is different from other athletes. Participants in other sports need long-term training to acquire skills, improving bit by bit to achieve success.

Of course, the skills of Star Warriors are the same, but due to the special nature of Star Techniques and Star Charts, Star Warriors may experience a surge in strength in a short period of time. In addition, the Star River stage is a threshold, a leap over the dragon gate of quality. Therefore, the national team has delayed the selection competition until the end of April, which is the latest possible time.

On April 15th, Jiang Xiao had to bid farewell to Han Jiangxue, Xia Yan, and others.

The selection locations for the national team's singles and team competitions were different. Jiang Xiao, Hou Mingming, and Zhao Wenlong were about to head to Central Plains Province, while Han Jiangxue and her team would remain in the Imperial Capital City, waiting for elite teams from all over the country to gather here to participate in the team selection competition.

Helpless, Jiang Xiao could only secretly wish Han Jiangxue, Song Chunxi, and others good luck.

Compared to the teams staying in the Imperial Capital, Han Jiangxue and others were obviously more worried about Jiang Xiao, who was going it alone.

Fortunately, Teacher Fang Xingyun really applied for the position of team leader, leading the trio to the Central Plains competition venue, which put Han Jiangxue at ease.

Imperial Capital Star Martial, in front of the school gate.

"Remember to listen to the teacher when you're out, don't be naughty, okay?" Han Jiangxue gently instructed Jiang Xiao, giving Jiang Xiao a sense of helplessness.

Han Jiangxue certainly sensed Jiang Xiao's attitude, but pretended not to see it and continued softly, "You've already formed an alliance with the other two players in the preliminary stage. Make good use of this. Whether you're fighting creatures of other dimensions or opponents from other schools, hide behind them and don't try to be a hero."

Han Jiangxue wasn't usually a talkative person. Today, the crowd who came to see them off were completely amazed.

Whether it was Jiang Xiao's two roommates, or the Tianjin trio, or Han Jiangxue's World Cup teammates, no one could get a word in. Even Xia Yan, who was usually noisy, couldn't find a suitable opportunity to cut into the conversation, which worried the buzz-cut girl...

Well, Xia Yan doesn't have a buzz cut anymore. She's been growing her hair for more than a month, and it's gotten a lot longer.

Unable to get a word in and unable to touch her own buzz cut, Xia Yan had no choice but to fiddle with Jiang Xiao's buzz cut, only to be gently kicked in the butt by Han Jiangxue. Finally, Xia Yan pouted and stood aside obediently, no longer saying anything.

Jiang Xiao reluctantly bid farewell to his friends. Under the leadership of Teacher Fang, the trio took a car to the train station. The high-speed train from the Imperial Capital to Xu Du took about four hours, making it convenient and fast.

That night, the four teachers and students arrived at the Ancient Pagoda Summit other-dimensional space outside the western suburbs of Xu Du City. They didn't immediately enter it for training, but chose to spend the night in the military camp and enter it the next day.

The development level of this Ancient Pagoda Summit other-dimensional space was obviously extremely high. It was open on a high mountain, surrounded by a military camp.

Although the Ancient Pagoda Summit was an open other-dimensional space, the creatures inside were too ferocious, so practitioners entering it had to undergo strict scrutiny.

The Star Power realm was limited to Star Cloud and above. This was a hard indicator, and Star Dust awakeners were prohibited from entering. But even if you were in the Star Cloud stage, there was still an additional condition: you must have a Star River Star Warrior escorting you.

If you didn't have a Star River bodyguard, you could hire Star River soldiers here, and you had to hire two of them.

Obviously, whether for practitioners or soldiers, the military attached great importance to their lives.

The next morning, everyone had breakfast in the military camp, full of energy, and went to the main building in the center of the military camp together.

With Fang Xingyun, a Star Ocean King, leading the way, Jiang Xiao naturally had an unobstructed path. However, when Jiang Xiao passed through the Star Power detection gate, the total Star Power value he received attracted the attention of the soldiers.

For most Star Cloud awakeners, the Star River Initial Stage followed after the Star Cloud Peak Stage.

However, the total amount of Star Power detected on Jiang Xiao's body had obviously exceeded the scope of the Star Cloud Peak Stage, but interestingly, the total amount of his Star Power had not undergone a qualitative change, and it was far from reaching the standard of the Star River Initial Stage.

Jiang Xiao called himself a Half-Step Star River, the reason being the Star Cloud Stage Lv10 in his Inner Vision Star Chart.

Of course, the soldiers didn't stop Jiang Xiao from entering. They secretly thought that perhaps this child had a special Star Pet, or a special Star Technique.

Under the leadership of the soldiers, the quartet changed into the uniform camouflage military uniforms that practitioners had to wear and plunged into the teleportation gate.

As soon as he entered here, Jiang Xiao was stunned.

Because he had made full preparations and searched online for all the information about the Ancient Pagoda Summit.

This Ancient Pagoda Summit other-dimensional space was, to put it bluntly, a stone ancient pagoda. A busybody had once tried to smash the walls to see the world outside the stone walls, but was swept into the space-time turbulence and never heard from again.

From then on, the military clearly demanded that it was strictly forbidden to damage the walls of the ancient pagoda. Once discovered, not only would one be prohibited from entering the Ancient Pagoda Summit for life, but one would even be subject to legal trial.

Of course, these stone walls were made of special materials and were not so easy to destroy, at least not with pure output. Something like Jiang Xiao's Qing Mang (Cyan Glow), which had a special function, might be able to punch a hole in it...

Getting back to the main topic, why was Jiang Xiao curious?

Because the conventional Ancient Pagoda Summit was relatively dark, with only the stone pillars in the center providing a little light to each floor.

But here at the Ancient Pagoda Summit, torches were lit on the walls...

The country was really doing its best to train practitioners. He wondered which floor the torches were placed on.

Don't think that the terrain of each floor is small. On the contrary, the terrain here is very large, and the area of each floor is probably no less than a small village.

The key was how to quickly find the entrance to the upper floor. Fortunately, the terrain here was flat, and if you had perception-type Star Techniques, you could see very far at a glance.

The upper and lower floors were connected by stone steps, and the passage wasn't wide, about five meters or so. Therefore, there was a big difference between defending the pagoda and attacking the pagoda.

Jiang Xiao marveled and stepped forward, and the others followed. A hundred meters away, there was a huge stone pillar, about ten meters in diameter, with a white body.

On the surface of this milky-white stone pillar, there were a large number of jet-black light spots, twisting and wriggling upward along a special trajectory, like strange black snakes.

Following the trajectory of the black light spots, Jiang Xiao looked up and saw the ceiling of this floor six meters away.

In a normal Ancient Pagoda Summit, only this stone pillar emitted light, providing a large range of brightness to the surrounding area.

But each time, the area was too large, and the areas that the stone pillar couldn't illuminate became the wandering grounds of the grimace monks.

It wasn't that the grimace monks were afraid of light, they just didn't want to expose themselves to the sight of others.

Therefore, in the Ancient Pagoda Summit, if you want to avoid encountering creatures of other dimensions as much as possible, it's best to get close to the stone pillar. The closer you are to the stone pillar and the brighter the place is, the safer it is.

"Teacher Fang, may I act alone?" Hou Mingming looked at Fang Xingyun, who was accompanying Jiang Xiao to observe the stone pillar, and asked.

Fang Xingyun turned around, but saw Hou Mingming's arrogant appearance. Fang Xingyun thought for a while and said, "Your preliminary stage is a team mode, not a solo fight."

Hou Mingming frowned and pondered for a long time, and finally reluctantly nodded.

Fang Xingyun looked at Hou Mingming's extremely uncomfortable appearance and comforted her with a smile, "Let's climb a few floors first to familiarize ourselves with the surrounding environment and train how to quickly kill enemies as a team. In the later days of training, I'll allow you to act individually and enter your own training mode and rhythm."

Obviously, Hou Mingming was a solitary king. Even though she knew that the preliminary stage was a team mode, her habits and inner thoughts led her to pursue solitude.

Jiang Xiao suddenly said, "Xiao Ming."

Hou Mingming frowned and looked at Jiang Xiao. Compared to Sister Pea, Hou Mingming disliked the name "Xiao Ming," which was commonly found in Chinese and math problems.

Jiang Xiao said, "Cherish the opportunity to team up with me. You won't find a support like me anywhere else in the world."

Hou Mingming's eyes suddenly lit up, her fighting spirit soared, and she looked at Jiang Xiao.

She liked opponents like this. Just like she couldn't help but shatter her own image in the mirror, that confident, even arrogant, expression always gave her an extremely strong desire to fight.

The Imperial Capital Star Martial's singles king wasn't just a name.

It wasn't so easy to be above others.

Powerful Star Techniques, powerful Star Power, plus a powerful body, could that create a powerful warrior?

No, absolutely not.

Among these three students,

Whether it was the arrogant and conceited Hou Mingming, or the mischievous Jiang Xiao, or the seemingly calm and indifferent Zhao Wenlong, they all had a kind of stubbornness in their bones.

Just like the old saying: Not crazy, not alive.

Jiang Xiao looked at Hou Mingming, smiled, and raised his head, "Lead the way?"

Hou Mingming grabbed at random, and a black bow quietly appeared, the corners of her crystal lips slightly raised: "As you wish."