136: Support Group

No matter how much Xu Yan himself wanted to deny this persona, the various "facts" piling up made a portion of the Combat Department increasingly believe this rumor.

Furthermore, while this group firmly believed the rumor, some "big brain" proposed a new hypothesis based on it.

Isn't the current situation a bit like a World Boss in a game? For those who haven't defeated Xu Yan but found their own strength significantly improved after the battle, aren't they a bit like participation rewards obtained after defeating a World Boss?

According to the information collected so far, those who truly achieved major breakthroughs were basically the ones who performed well in battle against Xu Yan. This also proves the characteristic of Xu Yan as a World Boss: "The higher the participation, the better the reward."

If even just the participation rewards have such significant effects, then what about defeating the big boss, Xu Yan, directly? Could one obtain even higher and more effective improvements?

Furthermore, besides these potential invisible rewards, there are the blatant rewards laid out by the Combat Department, as well as the foreseeable attention and resource allocation from the Combat Department after defeating Xu Yan.

As soon as this theory was proposed, it was accepted and promoted by those hardcore metaphysics enthusiasts and trolls.

And as this rumor spread wider and became increasingly absurd, people outside the Combat Department, and even outside the freshman year, developed the desire to participate. However, considering that there was only one Xu Yan, this idea was eventually jointly rejected by the Combat Department and the Cultivation Department.

Because Xu Yan basically spent the last semester running between the dormitory and the Experimental Building and didn't show his face often, although he achieved extremely high accomplishments and there were many people in the Third Academy who felt goodwill and admiration toward him, they only knew of a person named Xu Yan, nothing more.

However, because of this somewhat bizarre rumor, driven by trolls and hardcore metaphysics enthusiasts, Xu Yan had his first "support group" within the Third Academy.

However, the name of this "support group" was "World Boss Raid Strategy Group," and its purpose was to communicate and share information to ultimately defeat Xu Yan and obtain the so-called "grand prize" that might exist.

As for the nature of the group and so on... emmm, just looking at the behavior of these people.

They hold affection for Xu Yan (or rather, his special effects), try their best to collect all information about him, pay attention to the opponents Xu Yan is about to face and those he has already defeated, and hope that Xu Yan can keep winning (until he meets them) to secure an opportunity to meet (challenge) him. How can such a group not be considered Xu Yan's support group?

The result of the "support group" appearing was that the number of people sending challenge applications to Xu Yan increased once again.

Furthermore, as time entered the third week, the strength of the subsequent challengers became increasingly powerful.

Although there were no existences who had fully broken through to the Commander Rank, after a winter break of accumulation and nearly half a month of resource allocation and guidance from the Combat Department after school started, more than half of the challengers Xu Yan encountered in the third week possessed spirit beasts at the Commander Rank.

Moreover, because Xu Yan had been using Wuxiang to fight for the previous two weeks, some information about Wuxiang was gradually learned by the challengers, including its summoning attributes and the output power of the mechanical greatswords, all of which were figured out, and they made countermeasures based on their own situations.

The result of this situation was that in the third week, Xu Yan found that his opponents had become stronger and had means to resist and dodge Wuxiang's attacks, no longer having the efficiency of one shot per person as before.

After spending a bit more time finishing off the first day's challengers, Xu Yan changed his fighting style the next day. The mechanical greatsword above the sky turned from one into two, and beams carrying high heat and extreme cold descended from the two mechanical greatswords, restoring the original combat efficiency once again.

By the last battle of the third week, there were already three mechanical greatswords hanging in the sky behind Xu Yan, and because of this, Wuxiang acquired the nickname "Cyber Sword Immortal."

Three consecutive weeks of fighting, although he hadn't encountered opponents who had truly broken through to the Commander Rank, still earned Xu Yan 63,000 academic credits. At the same time, during these three weeks of battles, both the fighting Wuxiang and the challengers saw a relatively significant improvement in their strength.

However, this period of winning streaks and gains did not make Xu Yan arrogant or complacent; instead, it made him hold more regard and anticipation for the upcoming battles.

According to the news from the Cultivation Department Counselor, in the final ten days ahead, at least one or two Combat Department students who had truly reached the Commander Rank would participate in challenging Xu Yan every day.

The strength of these challengers who had truly reached the Commander Rank was naturally incomparable to those who were still at the General Rank.

Whether by coincidence or deliberate arrangement, in the challenger information Xu Yan received from the academic affairs system, the first battle of the fourth week—and the first opponent Xu Yan encountered in this event who had truly reached the Commander Rank—was his old acquaintance, Jing Xing.

The next day, on the battlefield, looking at Jing Xing standing opposite him, even Xu Yan couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache.

Xu Yan might not know much about others, but as the supplier of spirit food for the four of them, Xu Yan had a certain understanding of their strength, especially since they had held a special gathering to exchange pointers near the end of the last semester.

During that exchange, although Jing Xing did not use his full strength, the defensive capabilities displayed by Jing Xing's two spirit beasts during the exchange were already extremely powerful.

At the very least, the beams fired by the mechanical greatswords that Wuxiang summoned before could be relatively easily withstood by the two spirit beasts, even a month ago.

Furthermore, after the exchange ended, Jing Xing specifically sought out Xu Yan to modify the diet recipes for the two spirit beasts, strengthening their capabilities in physical strength, energy circulation, and affinity.

A month's time, while not enough to elevate the effects of the spirit food to the extreme, had definitely yielded relatively obvious results.

It could be said that for Jing Xing's spirit beasts to have their current strength, Xu Yan had played a part in it.

And now, the boomerang that Xu Yan had thrown out back then was flying back toward him.