Age of Evolution#

Chapter 673: Chapter 675: The Time of Battle Begins (Part 3)

Upon entering the Divine Punishment Star, Lin Zhen felt his Star Power being greatly weakened.

An irresistible pressure compressed Lin Zhen’s Star Power by a hundredfold, reducing it to forty thousand.

However, Lin Zhen was not worried, as this was not solely aimed at him. Every Martial Artist entering the Divine Punishment Star had their Star Power reduced a hundredfold. Everyone was still on an equal starting line.

His body landed on the ground, and Lin Zhen immediately surveyed his surroundings.

The landing spot of Lin Zhen was a wilderness. The billion Martial Artists were spread evenly across this planet, making the population similar to Earth during the Common Era.

As soon as Lin Zhen landed, not far from him, a beam of white light flashed past, revealing another Martial Artist.

This person was two meters tall, with a robust and sturdy body, and was a Level Eight Domain King.

“Ah! Divine Punishment Star, I’ve finally made it. This slot that cost me 1.2 trillion will be the first step towards my rise, Zhang Tianba!”

With that, the cold gaze of the Martial Artist fell on Lin Zhen.

“Tsk tsk! A Level Eight Domain King coming to the Divine Punishment Star is practically courting death. Even though there aren’t any points now, I don’t mind warming up with you.”

Lin Zhen noticed the two words ‘Bei Wei’ on this Martial Artist’s shoulder.

‘Bei Wei’ was the name of a nation, a vassal of the Wei Kingdom, and it bordered Nan Liang, which was quite coincidental.

Lin Zhen’s shoulder also displayed the name ‘Nan Liang’ indicating his identity.

“Hehe, little guy, technically you don’t have any points now. Bei Wei and Nan Liang are neighbors, and I should spare you, but I can’t help myself. This is the real slaughterhouse. Remember to tell others after you get out that you were eliminated by Bei Wei’s Feng Biao!”

Rumble!

The ground trembled. Feng Biao drew out a long spear and attacked Lin Zhen.

Everyone’s Star Power had been suppressed by a hundredfold, so many previous battle strategies had to be altered — the scenes of moving heaven and earth would no longer occur.

Lin Zhen, with numerous experiences of combat in the arena, was well-versed in battling. Using the long-forgotten Plum Blossom Piles footwork, he dodged Feng Biao’s strike. The Yin-Yang Spear in his hand lashed forward, killing with a single point!

The angle of his spear attack was unusually tricky, accompanied by the faint sound of booming thunder.

Feng Biao countered with his long spear, but Lin Zhen suddenly unleashed a Mental Shock. Although Feng Biao’s power was impressive, his spiritual power was significantly inferior to Lin Zhen’s.

In the brief moment Feng Biao was taken aback, Lin Zhen’s forceful spear had already arrived. Yin-Yang Spear successfully hit!

“Pfft~!”

Blood splattered. Feng Biao, on the verge of death, was enveloped in a flash of green light, which immediately healed his wound.

The green light enveloped his body and whisked him away. Feng Biao was eliminated!

His eyes were filled with a strong sense of unwillingness, primarily incredulity.

A Level Eight Domain King was actually unable to withstand a single move from a Level Eight Domain King. Exactly how monstrous was this Domain King?

“What a pity, everyone’s points are still zero. Killing an enemy doesn’t yield any points. I should head to the town quickly to hunt undead creatures.”

“Chris, analyze my current location.”

“Yes, Master. There are four continents on this planet, and you have landed on the Eastern Continent of the Divine Punishment Star. The continent has been divided into various war zones, which are currently inaccessible from one another. They will only be opened once the number of undead creatures is reduced to below a hundred billion. Each continent has a hundred war zones. This is War Zone 68 of the Eastern Continent, with twenty-five million Martial Artists in each zone.”

“Oh! Equal distribution.”

“Yes, each war zone has a city. The city is the place where mutated beasts and walking corpses roam. There isn’t much to gain in the wilderness, so to earn points, Master has to hurry into the city.”

“Get into the city… Let’s not rush into things. Everyone’s points are low, entering the city would just mean hunting undead creatures everywhere, earning negligible points.”

“Then, where does Master plan to go?”

“First, help me find a safe place. I need to rest for a while. I’ll come back out after a while.”

Chris immediately began searching: “Master, there is an abandoned mansion a hundred kilometers from here. There isn’t even a single undead creature nearby. You can go there.”

“Ok, I will head that way now.” Lin Zhen attempted to summon his Double-Headed Demon Dragon, but he found that he couldn’t summon it.

“Master, there is divine pressure here, you have to rely on your own strength. Transport pets can’t be used.”

“Well, since nobody else has them either. Fair enough.”

Lin Zhen sprinted off, turning into a beam of light, heading directly towards the direction indicated by Chris.

In the wilderness, one after another, illusory figures swept past like the speed of wind and lightning. The Martial Artists were all advancing towards the city.

Some Martial Artists saw Lin Zhen sprinting in the other direction. They were tempted to stop but thinking of how everyone had zero points right now, they simply flew past.

The further he went, the fewer people he saw. Gradually, Lin Zhen couldn’t spot any other people.

On his journey, Chris reminded Lin Zhen: “Master, the leaderboard is up already. You can view it anytime inside the Dimensional Universe.”

A golden leaderboard appeared in Lin Zhen’s vision.

Ranked first, Western Jin Empire, Ruan QiJue, No.5 Battle Zone of the Southern Continent, with 105 points!

Ranked second, South Sea Empire, Xie Tianxing, No.36 Battle Zone of the Eastern Continent, with 73 points.

Ranked third, Da Jin Empire, Situ Lang, No.91 Battle Zone of the Western Continent, with 72 points.

Ranked fourth….

Many of the seeded players they’d seen initially didn’t make the list. At this beginning stage, the scores were highly erratic. The current ranking doesn’t mean much.

A multitude of martial artists had zero points, all the way to over a thousand. Every subsequent rank was zero!

“Hehe, I killed someone yet got zero points. I wonder if this situation will be discovered by others.”

“However, this is only temporary. Soon, they’ll realize the Divine Punishment Star is a world of powerful Spiritual Mind Masters!”

After running for a while, he finally arrived at the residence Chris had mentioned.

This area, spanning dozens of miles, was completely deserted, as if it was a forgotten region.

“Great, there is no one around here. It’s the perfect place for me to make a potion for spiritual power.”

After the previous battle, Lin Zhen felt the importance of spiritual power in this Divine Punishment Star. As everyone’s star power was quite low, they couldn’t use some of their powerful moves. That’s where his spiritual power came in handy.

Upon entering a room, he tidied up and camouflaged the surroundings to prevent disturbances from other people or undead creatures. Then, Lin Zhen took out his Pill Furnace and started alchemy right away.

*********

The leaderboard was being closely watched in various places in the Original World and simultaneously broadcasted within the Dimensional Universe.

The same was true for Nan Liang. The names of all 1,000 participants were listed, and each one came with a detailed introduction.

Inside the Imperial Palace, Liang Zhihuan hosted a banquet for both civil and military officials, while also keeping an eye on the situation on the first day of the Divine Punishment Star.

Next to his throne, Ning Qingxuan, dressed in splendid palace attire, sat on another chair. Liang Zhihuan would occasionally become distracted by her pure and tender face.

He initially believed that Ning Qingxuan might not attend this banquet due to her quiet nature. However, to his surprise, she accepted his invitation, causing some suspicion within him.

At the banquet, the civil and military officials praised Liang Zhihuan’s marital bliss with the queen.

“For this battle in the Divine Punishment Star, I believe our Nan Liang will definitely achieve excellent results. The situations of a thousand participants have been listed. Please read, Your Majesty, and Your Majesty, the queen.”

All eyes fell on the personnel list of Nan Liang.

What caught their eyes first was the current Crown Prince, Liang Chen!

One had to commend Liang Chen for his power and luck. The Divine Punishment Star had been active for only two hours, but his points were already among the best.

“Haha! My queen, look at Chen’er’s points. He is ranked first in our Nan Liang, and even in the entire list, he is within the top billion!”

Liang Zhihuan immediately bragged to Ning Qingxuan, and indeed saw a gratified smile on her face.

“Chen’er is really striving hard. All my years of teaching weren’t in vain.”

“Haha! Your Majesty has contributed greatly. I do know that.”

Liang Zhihuan signaled for the screen to scroll further, to view the situation of the other martial artists.

Among the 1,000 martial artists, three had already been eliminated. After almost an hour, nearly everyone had earned some points, more or less.

Each martial artist’s performance was reported to the Emperor and his queen. Liang Zhihuan listened quietly while watching Ning Qingxuan’s expression. However, the queen seemed indifferent as if she was not interested.

He waved his hand, signaling the reporter to speed things up.

Soon, the names and scores of nearly 900 people floated across the screen. The ones at the bottom had very few points, mostly in single digits.

However, to their surprise, someone at the very bottom had zero points!

Upon seeing the name of this person, Liang Zhihuan showed a slight smile, and then his face turned serious again: “Why is there still a person with zero points? Check who this person is. It’s a disgrace to our Nan Liang!”

“Your Majesty, this person is named Lin Zhen, a Great Elder from the Alchemist Guild.”

“Lin Zhen…..it seems I’ve heard this name somewhere. What’s his realm?”

“Level Eight Domain King!”

“That explains it. Even a Level Eight Domain King may enter the Divine Punishment Star. It seems alchemists do have money. This must be someone who bribed their way in. Letting such a person remain here, he’s pulling down the overall level of our Nan Liang. Skip quickly to the top, don’t let such trash tarnish the eyes of the queen.”

He sneakily glanced at Ning Qingxuan’s face as he spoke, with a probing intent.

Ning Qingxuan waited patiently for Liang Zhihuan to finish before she slowly started, “Although I have not participated in the battles of the Divine Punishment Star, everyone can kill the undead. Only those who can kill enemies can laugh last. I see that at the end, Lin Zhen has killed an enemy. The others have many points, but few have killed any enemy, right?”

Everyone turned their eyes to Lin Zhen and saw that, indeed, Lin Zhen had zero points but had a kill count of +1.