Kick away

Just as Long Chen had expected, throughout the journey, Long Chen and his group became the focus of everyone's attention.

However, when they looked at Long Chen, there was absolutely none of the admiration and worship they held for Ye Zhiqiu and Tang Waner; their eyes were filled only with anger and jealousy.

"Who is that brat? How is he walking with the two beauties? Look at his expression! It's practically a provocation. That's it, I can't take it anymore. I'm going to challenge him to a duel. I'm going to beat him into a pulp!" A dark-faced man said, his face full of anger, clearly consumed by jealousy.

"We support you. But before you go, leave your spatial ring behind, take out everything valuable on you, and finally, write a will," a tall, thin man beside him said indifferently.

"What do you mean?" The dark-faced man was stunned.

"I mean that once you go, don't expect to come back alive. Even Zhao Wu was burned to death by him; do you think you're stronger than Zhao Wu?" The tall, thin man said.

"Could it be… is he Long Chen?" The dark-faced man was shocked.

"Isn't that obvious? Who else could walk so closely with Tang Waner besides him? Hey, are you still going to duel? We're all waiting to watch you beat him into a pulp," someone on the side added, not forgetting to fan the flames.

The dark-faced man suddenly felt his face burning like fire, but since his face was already dark, it wasn't very noticeable.

"Ahem, how could I not know who Long Chen is? I was just joking with everyone. See, you guys actually believed it," the dark-faced man laughed loudly, looking up at the sky.

"Boring."

"Show-off."

"Despicable."

Under the mockery of those around him, the man slunk away into the distance; he would rather be mocked than dare to challenge Long Chen to a duel.

As the three of them moved forward, the number of people around them began to increase. Long Chen did a rough count and found that there were actually over ten thousand people.

"Don't be surprised. Not everyone has collected all their Nameplates. After all, having come all this way, they also want to see what the final assessment is," Tang Waner explained, seeing the confusion on Long Chen's face.

Although the assessment map was extremely vast with countless Opportunities, with so many people entering at the same time for such a long period, most of what could be gained had already been harvested.

As for some of the Opportunities guarded by powerful Demonic Beasts, if things went wrong, they could lose their lives. No one was willing to take the risk, so they simply followed the crowd to watch the excitement.

Even if they couldn't pass the assessment, it was good to see the world. When they went back, they would have some capital to brag about, right?

Now everyone had reached the edge of the assessment map. There were no more Opportunities to be found here, so they just kept their heads down and hurried along.

As they moved forward, people gradually began to gather toward Long Chen; these were all forces affiliated with the two of them.

Long Chen had once secretly asked Tang Waner if becoming a Core Disciple was really that good.

Tang Waner told Long Chen that after becoming a Core Disciple, one could establish their own faction, and there were fixed rewards distributed every month.

Additionally, one could earn more cultivation resources by completing Sect missions. The Sect conducted a faction assessment every month, and powerful factions had the right to select missions first.

Most importantly, these rewards belonged to the individual. In other words, the rewards obtained on Tang Waner's side were completely under her control, and she could allocate them freely.

This made Long Chen very worried. He often offended Tang Waner to death. Long Chen secretly asked Tang Waner if she would make things difficult for him.

Tang Waner didn't answer, just looked at Long Chen with a grin, the implication being: "I'll give you a look, you figure it out yourself."

Through Tang Waner's explanation, Long Chen finally understood the importance of factions, because the rewards distributed by the Sect were limited, and to earn cultivation resources, one had to rely on taking missions.

And missions were not unlimited; they also required competition. Without a large faction to rely on, one would truly starve.

"Boss."

Long Chen was walking with his head down when suddenly an exclamation came to his ears. He turned to look and saw that it was none other than that kid, Guo Ran.

"Not bad. I was worried you wouldn't make it." Seeing Guo Ran made Long Chen feel much more at ease.

"Greetings, Young Miss Waner. Greetings, Young Miss Zhiqiu."

Guo Ran was very observant. The moment he saw Long Chen, he called out, then hurriedly bowed to the two beauties.

Ye Zhiqiu just nodded indifferently. Tang Waner glanced at Long Chen and said to Guo Ran, "Hmm, not bad. You're much more polite than your boss. Pay attention in the future and don't learn bad habits from him."

"Yes, yes, yes. Young Miss Waner's words are golden and precious. I will definitely keep them in my heart. Please rest assured, Young Miss, I will strive to be like a lotus emerging from the mud…"

"Smack." As Guo Ran was about to continue, he was suddenly slapped on the head. Long Chen scolded, "Whose side are you on? I feel like you're turning your elbow outward!"

Tang Waner pursed her lips and smiled, saying to Long Chen, "You guys chat first. I'm going to go ahead and take a look, to gather our people early."

After speaking, Tang Waner waved at Long Chen and walked quickly forward with Ye Zhiqiu. The assessment was about to begin, and they needed to gather everyone and count the number of people.

Seeing them leave, Guo Ran gave Long Chen a thumbs up. "Boss, I really admire you. In all the intelligence I've collected, this is the first time I've heard of someone killing people. And to be able to continue the assessment after killing? Boss, you are definitely the undisputed number one."

"Alright, stop spouting nonsense. Did you collect all your Nameplates?" Long Chen asked.

"Hehe, a piece of cake." Guo Ran took off his boots right in front of Long Chen, used a knife to pry open the soles, and two Nameplates clattered out, leaving Long Chen dumbfounded.

After prying open the other one, he had exactly a full set of Nameplates. Guo Ran said triumphantly, "One was snatched, and the other two were bought. Hehe, after I collected them, I kept them here. I encountered quite a few robbers along the way, but not a single person discovered them. Boss, look, this is a genuine set, oh."

"Enough, enough, don't show me. I'm afraid of catching athlete's foot." Long Chen hurriedly stepped back a few paces. This kind of method was probably something only someone like Guo Ran could come up with.

However, regardless of everything, Guo Ran had collected a set of Nameplates using his own abilities, which made Long Chen admire him endlessly, because Long Chen's own set was given to him by Tang Waner.

"Let's go. Put the Nameplates away. With me here, no one can snatch your Nameplates," Long Chen said with a smile.

Guo Ran put the Nameplates away. Since they couldn't be placed in a spatial ring, he put them directly against his chest. As they walked, Guo Ran asked, "Boss, I heard you were hit by Lei Qianshang's Lightning Seed. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Long Chen shook his head and said.

Just as Guo Ran was about to speak, someone suddenly walked over, looked Long Chen up and down, and said coldly, "You are Long Chen?"

Long Chen frowned slightly. That person's posture of looking at people through his nostrils was very annoying.

"Something up?"

"I heard you're very powerful, hailed as the number one person beneath the monsters. I'm going to weigh you and see if you're actually just living up to a false reputation," the man said coldly with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Get lost. I, Long Chen, am not someone just anyone is qualified to weigh." Long Chen hated this kind of provocation the most. Couldn't you save some energy for the final assessment? Why do you have to be so full of yourself and make things difficult for me?

While Long Chen was speaking, his footsteps didn't stop, and he didn't put that person in his eyes at all, even though the man's strength was quite formidable.

The man narrowed his eyes and pointed at Long Chen. "I'm not qualified? Then take a punch from me, and then talk big."

The man shouted angrily, and suddenly his entire Aura erupted, causing the Void Realm to explode with sound. It immediately attracted the pedestrians on the road, who all turned to look this way.

"What a powerful Aura!" Someone couldn't help but exclaim. The man's Aura climbed very quickly, reaching its peak in almost the time of a single breath.

"Take this!" The man shouted loudly. Light surged on his fist, tearing through the space, and he charged straight at Long Chen.

"Boss, watch out! He is…" Guo Ran hurriedly called out.

"Boom." Just as Guo Ran was about to announce the other party's name, an explosion sounded, and people could feel the earth tremble violently.

A figure flew into the sky like a cannonball, flying directly to a height of over a hundred zhang before slowly falling, falling faster and faster.

"Bang!" The earth trembled again. The ground was smashed into a large pit by that figure. In the center of the pit, a person was like a green onion, half of his body buried in the soil, with only his two legs left outside, trembling non-stop.

Guo Ran's mouth could almost fit two fists. He knew that person was an expert, yet he was finished off with just one kick?

Everyone almost didn't see how Long Chen made his move. By the time they reacted, Long Chen's foot had already kicked that person.

After kicking the person away with one kick, Long Chen didn't even blink and continued walking forward, looking as if he had casually kicked away a stone blocking his path.

As expected, in a big enough forest, there are all sorts of birds. People like this were definitely spoiled by their families. In a real battle, how could one not guard against others' attacks? Why would anyone honestly take your punch?

If this were a life-and-death duel, it would be purely courting death. He finally understood why there were those Demonic Beasts in the assessment map.

It was to let these flowers in the greenhouse see what real bloodshed was. Otherwise, no matter how strong these guys' combat power was, they were still trash.

A large Sect wanted absolute elites and would never spend great effort to cultivate idiots.

No wonder the assessment had just begun and it was already going to eliminate a quarter of the people with life-threatening dangers. There were too many idiots here. Even if they were Geniuses, they were Genius-type idiots, and they weren't of much use.

By the time Guo Ran reacted, Long Chen had already walked far away. He hurriedly followed, his heart filled with excitement. Following such a boss, eating good food and drinking spicy drinks in the future was absolutely guaranteed. He admired his own judgment more and more.

When Long Chen and Guo Ran had walked a hundred miles, they reached the end of the road, where there was a high mountain.

What was shocking was that a thousand-zhang high mountain seemed to have been cut off by someone with a single blade, revealing a patch of rock that looked like it had been carved by a knife.

The rock was as black as ink and covered with dense holes, numbering in the tens of thousands. They were like the eyes of a devil, emitting an eerie Aura that made one's bones feel cold.

After Long Chen arrived, he discovered five groups of figures standing neatly in front, which were the forces belonging to the five great monsters.

"Long Chen, come quickly."