My Apocalypse Territory
Chapter 505 - 457: Literary Battle Preliminary Selection (Large Chapter)_2

Commander Chi said, "No matter what, Green Shadow is still much stronger than us. However, we of the Fifth Epoch have had a shorter cultivation period and simply cannot compare with those old-timers from the Fourth Epoch. Alas, this time, most of the opportunities in the Holy Domain space will probably be taken by people from the Fourth Epoch."

No one had forgotten that martial combat was just the prelude, to determine the qualifying spots.

The real opportunity still lay ahead.

They had all failed to qualify, but deep down, they still supported Green Shadow, who was also from the Fifth Epoch and from Daxia Country... But now it seemed that their moral support had hardly made any difference.

It wasn't that their side was too weak, but that the opponent was devastatingly strong.

...

Mysterious powers replenished all of Tang Yu's consumption from the fight.

Source Power, physical strength, and spiritual power—but even as his tense spirit relaxed, he still felt waves of fatigue assailing him—it was a fatigue of the mind.

Especially integrating 'Intent Realm' control power into combat, every step had to be flawless; Tang Yu didn't dare guarantee that he could do it so perfectly again.

As time passed, the combat space thousands of meters high in the sky also diminished.

Finally, when all space had disappeared and five rounds of combat had ended, based on the number of wins and losses, two thousand qualifying spots were quickly determined.

Tang Yu raised his hand, and golden patterns slowly spread out on the back of his hand, like an invisible brush was painting, gradually forming a special and mysterious pattern.

"A symbol of the qualifying spot."

However, the true location of the Holy Domain hadn't yet emerged; Tang Yu estimated that he had to wait until the qualification selection ended.

At the same time, bathed in golden light...

That mountain-thick Transcendent Barrier was being weakened layer by layer, right up to the final step.

He had not broken through to Transcendent.

Tang Yu felt a bit regretful, but it was also within his expectations.

He turned his head to look around; Kong had already become Transcendent, while Grey Blade was just a last kick away from Transcendent.

Yet he saw him looking extremely disappointed.

"Didn't break through?"

"No, this damn gift, it simply can't help me cross the Transcendent bottleneck. It just made me feel a bit better. Breaking through must require fate."

After a pause,

Tang Yu understood.

The breakthroughs in Foundation Realm and Body-shaping Realm were just small bottlenecks, whereas Transcendent was a great leap in life-Tang Yu's perspective.

It's like a massive difference of a carp leaping through the Dragon Gate!

Talent, luck, opportunity... all are indispensable!

And fundamentally, it still depended on oneself, probably unable to rely on external forces to force a breakthrough—unless one is a Pseudo Transcendent.

Martial combat ended,

and just a few hours had passed from the start of the Holy Domain eligibility selection.

The Awakeners' own provisions weren't even finished yet, and those who had failed didn't leave.

The literary battle was still to come.

Although it was unclear what the competition would involve, since it didn't involve martial force, they... surely still had some hope?

Dreams must always exist; each person harbored such aspirations.

The mechanical and dull voice once again resonated in everyone's mind.

"Please choose three categories from 'Rune, Magic, Potion...' and other subcategories as your literary battle items. Based on the number of people selecting each item, entry spots will be allocated."

"00:09:59"

Tang Yu's gaze swept over several dozen subcategories.

He could opt out, considered as forfeiting, but... even though he already had a qualifying spot, Tang Yu felt this was all to his benefit.

After pondering for several minutes,

"Choose 'Rune,' 'Potion'..."

With Kevin's instruction in Rune Studies and several related Rune Language Books purchased from the market, Tang Yu now officially stepped into an Intermediate Rune Master.

Part of the core strength of Rune Masters, no longer a newbie.

Just a few months to achieve such accomplishments was extremely rapid progress; even Kevin once said it took him three years to move from a beginner to an Intermediate Rune Master.

—Kevin lacked resources, had no one to instruct him, and early materials for practice were extremely scarce, so he had to explore on his own... Tang Yu selectively ignored this.

—That Eileen was already an Advanced Rune Master... Tang Yu also ignored that.

In the field of Potions, Tang Yu had even higher talent, just through his own research, he had now reached the standard of an Intermediate Pharmacist.

—What Rune Language Books, what countless materials for practice, what research institutes deduced, those were all just supports!

As the current Pharmacist of the Territory, 'Potion' was a must-choose.

The last one, his gaze lingered on "Magic, Cultivation, Forging, Command, Array..." and other items.

Suddenly his eyes brightened, settling on one of the subcategories.

"You're the one."

He chose "identification."

...

Literary battles are divided into two parts, the first one being the Basic Period selections—eliminating most of the filler Awakeners.

The second part involves one-on-one competitions, just like in martial combat, where the winner advances, and the loser is eliminated.

"Rune" as a subcategory ranked near the top, and the selections began promptly.

The familiar teleportational force descended again, and Tang Yu found himself thousands of meters in the air once more. This time, every few meters, there was an Awakener. They were densely packed as far as the eye could see.

Only a mysterious force prevented him from making out the faces of other Awakeners, and even his perception ability could only extend two or three meters.

In front of Tang Yu, a table appeared measuring one by two meters in size.

Behind him, there was also a chair, which he could pull over to sit down.

These familiar scenes reminded him of the fear dominated by exams in the past.

"This the hell..."

Tang Yu opened his "Insight Eye," peering beyond appearances to see the underlying truth, "It is actually an illusion, but it has already interfered with reality."

He plopped down on the chair, which felt solid and unbreakable.

He was just about to study it closely when the voice in his mind appeared again.

The selection for the "Rune" category had begun.

Above his head,

a huge, fiery red, complex pattern appeared.

"Copy this rune. Those who succeed will pass; those who fail will be eliminated."

Tang Yu looked up and quickly recognized it as a basic rune.

It was relatively simple.

A Fire Series "Burning" rune.

When engraved on a weapon, it could add a burning effect, but... eyes wide, he concentrated to observe.

"This 'Burning' rune isn't the same as the one Kevin knows; some of the turns in the strokes are different, the branching points are the same... wait, it's missing an energy node!"

The fewer energy nodes, the quicker the rune activates, and the more stable it is.

With the "Burning" effect nearly the same, Tang Yu, with his rich experience from engraving the "Burning" rune hundreds of times, judged that the one provided by the Holy Domain space was more advanced than Kevin's!

This trip was worth it!

If he had a chance to enter the true Holy Domain space, he would have to scour knowledge in this area... especially high-end knowledge.

He picked up the Rune Engraving Knife from the tabletop, weighed it in his hand—it felt similar to the rune pen and had a similar use. By channeling Source Power or using the Source Crystal's power from the knife, he could carve the rune with the tip of the blade.

With that thought,

without a second glance,

his wrist flicked, and the blade danced lightly, swiftly engraving the exact same "Burning" rune on the table.

...Always felt like carving "was here," defacing cultural relics.

Truly a sin.

The rune pen was more eco-friendly!

...

When Tang Yu spent a minute successfully engraving the rune and was teleported back to the ground, most people were still confused.

The number of people who had chosen the "Rune" category was not small.

Most were attracted by the reputation of rune equipment, hoping to uncover the secrets through the literary battle examination.

This was crucial for some powers that had not mastered rune technology.

When the "Burning" rune appeared, they became excited.

"So this is a rune!"

"Beautifully intricate, profoundly mysterious, makes you dizzy just looking at it."

"Gets you dizzy +1."

"Gets you dizzy +2."

"Gets you dizzy +Orz."

When the time stipulated for the literary battle selections ended and countless Awakeners were teleported back to their original places, they realized through communication—Understanding runes? Copying runes? Your servant really can't do it, ah!

Many who failed to copy repeatedly, in frustration, simply carved phrases like "gets you dizzy" on the table.

An Awakener from Green Shadow did just that.

Tang Yu thought to himself that if these carved phrases were collected and made into a bulletin, this proper literary battle selection... might turn into a roast session.