33: The art of controlling objects has reached its pinnacle.

Entering the white light gate.

The environment of the Secret Realm numbered Hebei-0186 was a mountain forest.

The space of the Secret Realm was only a dozen or so kilometers in circumference, and the light membrane at the boundary of the Secret Realm was clearly visible; it was much, much smaller than the Gobi Secret Realm experienced last time.

"Brother Sheng, Yao Beasts!" Wu Xingyang said excitedly.

In fact, everyone had seen the several Yao Beasts in the mountain forest. Their appearance was eighty percent similar to wild boars, but their body size was a circle larger.

A not-so-short single horn on their heads emitted a metallic luster. The Spiritual Qi aura emanating from their entire bodies could be clearly felt, completely different from the Yao Spiders in the Gobi Secret Manual.

"All squads pay attention: this Secret Realm is a small White-Grade Secret Realm, with a danger level of Grade One Low. All squads are to act freely," the Armed Police leading commander ordered.

Grade One Low is the lowest level in the official Secret Realm danger level assessment. Drones had already transmitted the scanned map data of the surroundings to the smart terminals of Zhang Sheng and the others.

"This is a One-Horned Wild Boar," Zhang Sheng recalled the description in the Yao Beast Compendium.

It is equivalent to the Refining Essence into Qi Realm; as long as one is a little careful, there won't be too much danger.

"Let's go! We're heading to the northwest!" An Shenhu's eyes flickered with purple light as he suggested.

Bang!

Bang!

Zhang Sheng and An Shenhu's sniper rifles hit the weak points of the One-Horned Wild Boars from hundreds of meters away, completing the kills.

Lin Xiaotian's submachine gun was not very effective, so he had to start close combat.

With the Shadowless Sword paired with shield defense, Lin Xiaotian easily eliminated several One-Horned Wild Boars in a row.

The fatty fired a rocket at a spot where the boars were densely packed, then threw away the launcher and began shooting with a rifle.

There were over three hundred people in total, but the number of Yao Beasts contained in a Secret Realm a dozen kilometers in circumference was not many.

Within the entire Secret Realm, there was only one species of Yao Beast: the One-Horned Wild Boar.

A white jade plaque appeared beside a dead One-Horned Wild Boar, and Zhang Sheng conveniently pocketed it.

Time passed minute by minute.

Seeing that the wild boars in the Secret Realm were about to be completely wiped out, Zhang Sheng hurriedly threw out a flying dagger.

"Object Manipulation Art!"

With a thought from Zhang Sheng, the flying dagger turned into a silver-white stream of light.

The silver stream of light passed through the One-Horned Wild Boar's neck. In its struggle, the boar's eyes lost their luster, and it crashed to the ground.

Zhang Sheng was also startled by the scene before him.

In addition to being activated instantly, the Transcendent Object Manipulation Art allowed Zhang Sheng's flying dagger to move as freely as his own arm within a certain range.

The flying dagger would fly however he wanted it to fly. Its speed was extremely fast and its destructive power was incredibly strong.

Zhang Sheng controlled his flying dagger to shuttle through the battlefield, with the controlled distance reaching a full three hundred meters.

Beyond three hundred meters, the flying dagger became difficult to control.

The shuttling flying dagger quickly harvested boars one by one; some people were even in the middle of a fierce close-quarters fight with a boar, only to find the boar in front of them had already fallen the next second.

The flying dagger was small and fast. On the battlefield, aside from a few people with keen perception, no one noticed the flying dagger Zhang Sheng was controlling with the Object Manipulation Art.

Among those few people was An Shenhu, who looked at Zhang Sheng with disbelief in his eyes.

Zhang Sheng held his right index finger up to his lips, making a "shh" gesture.

An hour later.

Only one living One-Horned Wild Boar remained in the Secret Realm.

This living One-Horned Wild Boar had been intentionally left by the Armed Police officers and soldiers; it was currently locked in a specially made alloy cage.

Once this One-Horned Wild Boar was killed, the Secret Realm would shatter, and everyone would be directly teleported back to the Secret Realm's entrance.

The resources inside would be wasted. Now, they only needed to control this last Yao Beast, and the logistics troops could confidently begin mining all the materials within the Secret Realm.

The corpses of the Yao Beasts, every flower and blade of grass inside, and even every single stone—anything that could be taken out of the Secret Realm would be taken out as much as possible.

The logistics department would classify and process these materials, and a significant portion would be sent to Huaxia's scientific research institutions for study.

They only needed to kill this last Yao Beast before the seven-day period ended.

As everyone walked out of the Secret Realm, the logistics troops entered quickly with various mining equipment, their numbers even exceeding those of the combat troops.

The first formal Secret Realm subjugation mission had ended.

Zhang Sheng's clothes weren't even dirty.

"Brother Sheng, I didn't expect it to go so smoothly. I was so nervous last night I couldn't even sleep," the fatty said easily.

An Shenhu gave Zhang Sheng a deep look and did not mention the matter of competing to kill Yao Beasts.

"Let's go, back to school!"

Having easily completed the White-Grade Secret Realm subjugation mission, the haze of the past few days was swept away... "The First Cultivation University unified recruitment examination has begun. Members admitted through the early batch must also participate in some exams; those who fail the assessment will be sent back to their place of origin."

Zhang Sheng looked at the notice posted on the campus official website.

Out of fairness considerations from the upper levels, students admitted in the early batch also had to participate in some tests, including speed, agility, and strength tests.

Talent would not be assessed again.

Zhang Sheng completed the relevant assessments that same day.

"Brother Sheng, what is going on with you? You're simply ridiculously strong!" Wu Xingyang stood in the first-floor lobby of the training hall, looking at the rankings above in shock.

"First Place: Zhang Sheng: Speed 15.2 m/s; T-run 3.8 seconds; Punch Force 1641 kg."

These results far exceeded the records from before the world's great change, but as far as Cultivators were concerned, his strength was still far from the Qi Sea Realm.

"Brother Sheng, is your Talent really just Body Strengthening? Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, Brother Sheng, how exactly do you train?" Wu Xingyang said in surprise.

"Body Strengthening? Like hell I believe you!" An Shenhu, who happened to have also finished his testing nearby, muttered softly. The scene of Zhang Sheng controlling the flying dagger surfaced in his mind. Could it be a Telekinesis Talent, or a Dual Talent?

"Let's go! Just Cultivate well."

Zhang Sheng pulled Wu Xingyang and left the training hall.

The early batch admitted personnel had basically all completed the three tests.

After returning to the apartment, Zhang Sheng was thinking about his next plan.

Originally, he intended to continue subjugating White-Grade Secret Realms, but Zhang Sheng found that with his current strength, White-Grade Secret Realms could not provide any exercise at all.

Especially with the Perfected State Object Manipulation Art, killing Yao Beasts at the Refining Essence into Qi level was like slaughtering chickens.

Should he apply to participate in the subjugation of Yellow-rank Secret Realms?

That was a question.

The top priority was still Cultivation. Zhang Sheng went to the alchemy room to continue his previous Cultivation mode.

Since the beginning of the world's great change in early May, Zhang Sheng had never stopped his Cultivation of the Heavenly Circulation Method.

Unfortunately, even with a Proficient level Heavenly Circulation Method, it still took half an hour to complete one cycle of Refining Essence into Qi. It was impossible to switch Cultivation Techniques because this was the only known Cultivation Technique capable of Refining Essence into Qi.

He summoned the talent panel.

"Cultivation Technique: Heavenly Circulation Method (Proficient: 682/1000)"

It takes nearly half an hour to circulate once and refine ten points of Spiritual Qi. To Cultivate it to the Transcendent stage would take at least half a month.

I'll endure for another half a month.

The students in the class could basically already refine 10 Qi in one go; they had finished their practice of the Heavenly Circulation Method and turned to major in Primordial Chaos Qi Refining to expand their Dantian Qi Sea.

Ordinary people outside the school would even start majoring in Primordial Chaos Qi Refining after refining only 2 Qi in one go, which was clearly very unwise.

However, Zhang Sheng had calculated that based on refining ten Qi per cycle, by practicing Primordial Chaos Qi Refining to enter the first layer of the Qi Sea Realm and condensing one Dragon of Qi after 999 cycles, the Spiritual Qi contained in the Dantian would be 9990 points.

At the ninth layer of the Qi Sea Realm Perfection, condensing 9 Dragons of Qi, the Spiritual Qi contained in the Dantian would be 89,910 points.

If the Heavenly Circulation Method were only at the Proficient level, refining 2 Qi per cycle, the Spiritual Qi that the Qi Sea Realm Perfection could contain would only be one-fifth: 17,982 points.

The gap in Spiritual Qi would be as much as four times, and the gap in combat power would inevitably be even larger.

Zhang Sheng intended to Cultivate the Heavenly Circulation Method to the Transcendent stage, or even the Perfected State. If he could then achieve First Refinement One Hundred Spirits, the time delayed now would all be worth it.