If nothing was amiss, the other party should be A-rank.
Based on Su Mo’s guess, this white-bearded old man was definitely from the Western God Church. And before this, the Western God Church already had one A-rank.
The white-bearded old man walked step by step towards Su Mo. His expression was unreadable, but as he got closer, Su Mo actually thought he looked somewhat kind.
“Young lady, would you be interested in joining our Western God Church?” the white-bearded old man brought up again.
Su Mo declined politely: “Thank you, but I’m already with Beidou. I have no intention of joining any other organization.”
The old man showed a look of regret: “Beidou again… How does Beidou have so many talented people…”
Actually, he was just asking. Seeing that Su Mo had no such intention, he had to let it go.
“Very well. Since you are friends with Vael, I appreciate your willingness to guard her during her breakthrough. But now that I am here, you may leave.”
A light flickered in Su Mo’s eyes, and he persisted: “Based on my personal principles…”
Before he could finish his sentence, the old man raised an eyebrow: “Few dare to mention the word ‘principles’ in front of me. Do you know why?”
Su Mo remained silent.
“Because my principle is—whoever has the bigger fist makes the rules.”
Su Mo glanced at the vast ocean behind him, thinking to himself that indeed, lacking strength makes one easy to look down upon.
At that moment, the world suddenly changed color.
One moment it was dark, the next, light descended from the horizon. Within seconds, the entire world became as bright as day.
Su Mo marveled at the strange phenomenon accompanying Vael’s breakthrough. He saw her body acting like a sponge thrown into water, frantically devouring the spiritual energy around her.
Because the replenishment rate of spiritual energy couldn’t keep up with her absorption, the area for miles instantly became a vacuum, devoid of any detectable spiritual energy.
Just as Su Mo wondered how the white-bearded old man would handle this, he saw him take out a silver stone. It looked extremely dazzling, and its spiritual energy concentration was so high that a faint mist surrounded it.
A top-grade spirit stone!
Su Mo couldn’t think of any other name for it.
The old man placed the top-grade spirit stone beside Vael, gently guiding the spiritual energy from within it. Washed by this incredibly pure spiritual energy, Vael’s face turned deep red.
Her breathing became rapid, as if to intake spiritual energy faster, and soon she was panting heavily.
Because of this, the old man no longer tried to make Su Mo leave, instead focusing on assisting Vael. This allowed Su Mo to observe the entire breakthrough process.
The moment her breathing calmed, the supposedly priceless top-grade spirit stone suddenly shattered with a crack.
Su Mo was stunned: Good grief, the first time I lay eyes on a treasure like a top-grade spirit stone, and you put on a show making it look cheap?
To summarize, the birth of a powerful expert requires not only talent but also considerable resources. This is why most high-level superhumans come from wealthy families.
An ordinary person might not even get their hands on a proper cultivation method.
Seeing that Vael had successfully broken through, Su Mo quietly left. Dawn was breaking, with faint purple hues in the eastern sky; the day was beginning anew.
If he had to assess these past few hours, he certainly hadn’t come away empty-handed.
Su Mo secretly set a standard for himself: When I break through to B-rank in the future, it must be on this same scale!
Qingyi too, she must have the same.
Su Mo was determined to make it happen and would certainly take action. As for where to get the top-grade spirit stones, he was confident that the vast Island Nation could probably scrape together two.
Doing a quick mental calculation, the Temple Ruins event in September was still five months away. That would be his best opportunity to amass wealth.
Before that, he needed to find a plausible reason to go to the Island Nation. Going there legitimately would make it easier to acquire valuable things and save a lot of trouble.
Over the next few days, apart from occasionally going out for secret meetings with Ye Qingyi, Su Mo mostly stayed in his room cultivating, preparing for the condensation of the third Jade Seed.
Slowly, people almost forgot about his existence. When mentioning ‘Lin Qianye,’ they only felt the name was somewhat familiar.
One week later.
All members of the Talent Camp were assembled on the training ground—over two hundred in total. Young people from the seven major powers—Xia Kingdom, Mi Kingdom, Island Nation, Western God Church, Northern Nation, Fan Kingdom, and the Ten Thousand Beasts Alliance—made up over eighty percent.
Among them, the members from just the three major organizations—Xia Kingdom, Mi Kingdom, and the Western God Church—accounted for more than half the total number.
This wasn’t only because youths from these powers had more opportunities; on the other hand, their overall strength was also among the highest of all factions. It was rare for someone from a minor power to rank at the top.
If there was one, after coming here, they wouldn’t belong to a minor power anymore.
According to the ISO’s plan, the head instructor of the Talent Camp was Long Tianyu, the deputy instructor was Howard, and the other instructors came from various powers, all being B-rank experts—like Yang Jie.
Apart from instructing the trainees, the other duties of these instructors were unknown for now. But they were probably important; otherwise, why insist on having B-ranks do it?
Once everyone had gathered, a very manly middle-aged Asian man walked up to the podium. He scanned the crowd below and nodded with satisfaction:
“You are all the elite among the younger generation of humanity. The very purpose of establishing this Talent Camp is to train you into warriors who can hold your own. When disaster strikes, you will be the hope for all mankind.”
The trainees below all had their assigned positions. They were lined up according to height, boys in one line, girls in another, arranged in order. This gave Su Mo a feeling of being back in middle school during calisthenics.
Not far from him, Zhuge Zhi and Wu Heng were whispering about something. Ye Qingyi, hearing them, moved closer and then showed a shocked expression.
As luck would have it, the moment she looked up, their eyes met.
Ye Qingyi smiled at him, a smile full of youthful charm.
A girl nearby immediately couldn’t help but exclaim softly: “Wow, he just smiled at me, he’s so handsome!”
“Don’t flatter yourself, he was smiling at Lin Qianye.”
Hearing the name ‘Lin Qianye,’ the girl immediately said with disgust: “Hmph, so what if she’s prettier than me? Her character isn’t necessarily better than mine.”
“Shh, keep your voice down, she can hear you from this close.”
“I want her to hear! Ugh—disgusting. She seduced our Su Mo, hmph!” The girl got more and more worked up, forgetting the setting, and attracted the attention of a black instructor, who promptly pulled her out of the formation.
Su Mo listened quietly up front, not angry in the slightest.
What does their scolding of Lin Qianye have to do with me, Su Mo?
Just as he was thinking this, Long Tianyu’s voice on the stage suddenly grew louder: “Alright, that’s all. Everyone, prepare well. Dismissed.”
Su Mo was baffled: “Wait, what did he just say?”
He had been distracted right at the crucial part, and by the time he snapped back to attention, the speech was over.
Well, well, well. It’s all your fault, cursing me behind my back and distracting me!
Su Mo thought this to himself, completely ‘unaware’ that what had initially caught his attention was actually Ye Qingyi.