Xu Jingming looked at the silent valley in front of him. He was surrounded by strange stone mountains, and ape roars could be heard from them.
This is Cosmos Tower’s fourth floor? Xu Jingming held his spear and carefully observed his surroundings.
Whoosh.
A figure leaped up from a distant mountain and followed a huge trajectory to land on a tree in the valley. It stood on the tree’s thick branch and stared at Xu Jingming.
This is… an ape? Xu Jingming was a little uncertain.
Standing on the tree was a relatively thin ape with brownish-black fur. It held a black staff in one hand, and its eyes were cold as it glared at Xu Jingming with hostility.
It did look like an ape. Xu Jingming wasn’t sure because the ape appeared to be an intelligent life form.
Its eyes are too intelligent. It doesn’t look like a wild beast but like an intelligent creature. Xu Jingming stared at it.
Roar!
The ape suddenly let out a low roar and shot out from the tree trunk, moving as fast as lightning.
Its speed is comparable to that of Lei Yunfang. Xu Jingming immediately became much more cautious. I can’t compare to it in terms of speed.
The ape arrived in front of Xu Jingming in just half a second, covering a distance of dozens of meters. The latter abruptly flashed and stabbed out with his spear at lightning speed.
Bam.
A staff projection struck Xu Jingming’s spear, causing him to find it extremely heavy. He immediately spun the spear and diverted the force, intending to stab out again, but the staff projection stabbed out after the collision! The head of the staff went straight for Xu Jingming…
Xu Jingming instinctively swung his spear in an arc to block the strike, but he still took a step back to deflect the force.
It’s slightly stronger than me, but it’s much faster. Moreover, it has a powerful staff technique. This is the first time I’ve encountered a weapon-wielding opponent since I entered the Cosmos Tower. Xu Jingming felt pressured.
The first three levels consisted of wolves, bears, and tigers respectively. Their behavior was more like that of wild beasts, and they relied on their physical advantage.
The ape he encountered on the fourth level not only had a weapon but also knew staff techniques.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
A staff’s main attacks were cleaving, sweeping, and thrusting. It was originally at a disadvantage when compared to a spear. After all, the moves one could execute with a staff could also be done with a spear. A spear’s penetration ability was much stronger, but this ape suppressed Xu Jingming by using its staff technique.
As the ape was too agile and fast, even though its strength was only slightly inferior to that of Xu Jingming, it struck out repeatedly with its staff technique. Its strikes were much faster than Xu Jingming, forcing him to prioritize defense.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Xu Jingming and the ape constantly moved as they exchanged blows. The sound of weapons colliding boomed time and time again, and some trees in the valley were affected.
The weapons collided, and the trees broke apart.
This commotion attracted the attention of the other apes in the surrounding mountains.
With a roar and a whistle, apes leaped out of the surrounding mountains, drew out arcs, and landed in the valley. Some landed on trees while others landed on the grass, but every ape carried a black staff.
The apes were of different sizes. Some were thin, but some were extremely muscular.
There was also an ape with slightly red fur. It was surrounded by other apes and was probably the leader.
The first three levels dealt with wolves, bears, and tigers respectively. Do I have to deal with a group this time as well? Xu Jingming came to this realization.
His master—Liu Hai—and the others hadn’t cleared the fourth level, and Xu Jingming only wanted to give it a try. He didn’t mind failing while probing the fourth level.
Although he diverted his attention, Xu Jingming’s mind was transcendent; he grasped the entire battlefield and still executed his spearmanship extremely quickly. He kept up one strike after another and changed moves extremely quickly. Under the ape’s domineering pressure, he lasted for a full five minutes.
Roar!
An ape among the many spectating apes suddenly became impatient. It charged toward the battlefield with a staff in hand, and its sudden attack tore through the air, increasing the pressure on Xu Jingming.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
Continuous afterimages of the staff enveloped him!
Xu Jingming barely blocked a few strikes before being struck on the head. His entire body was pulverized and dissipated from the valley.
One ape is already capable of suppressing me; I’m no match for two apes. Xu Jingming stared at the dark-red-furred ape king when he turned ethereal. That ape king must be ridiculously terrifying. I won’t be able to clear the fourth level any time soon.
…
The outside world had already boiled over when Xu Jingming was attempting the Cosmos Tower’s fourth level.
If it was said that the other countries were paying close attention to the new name on the Cosmos Ranking and were frantically digging up all the information on Xu Jingming from China, then… China’s own media was in a frenzy.
It had to be known that during the Firestarter Cup, half of China’s countless livestreams and media outlets were talking about world number seven.
Now that the competition was over, the eighth world champion was born, and he was a member of China. It was obvious how fervent China was.
“Breaking news! Just a while ago, an eighth name appeared on the Cosmos Ranking—World Number Eight: Xu Jingming (China)…”
“China has three of the world’s top eight! This is China’s strength!”
“If Liu Hai and Lei Yunfang are considered warriors from the older generation, then Xu Jingming being only 29 definitely puts him as one of the younger generation. An expert of China’s younger generation has also been ranked in the global top ten.”
Countless livestreams on the virtual world’s spectator platform were excitedly discussing this topic.
As for Li Miaomiao’s livestream, which only had about 100,000 viewers, suddenly experienced a rapid surge in viewers.
200,000, 300,000, 500,000, 1,000,000…
The growth speed was getting more and more exaggerated!
“What’s going on?” Li Miaomiao was still a little stunned. She saw the number of viewers in the livestream increase rapidly, and she immediately read the countless floating comments.
“Brother-in-law is world number eight!”
“World number eight!”
“Xu Jingming, world number eight!”
“Brother-in-law, eighth on the Cosmos Ranking!”
“Cat… Brother-in-law is amazing!”
The comments went crazy.
Li Miaomiao blinked and read as her heart raced, and her face turned red.
Jingming has finally cleared Cosmos Tower’s third level? Li Miaomiao thought. Although her boyfriend had said that he would clear it in three days, she still felt extremely excited and proud of him the moment it happened.
Li Miaomiao tapped her right hand gently and opened her friends list to look at Xu Jingming, who was in first place. The latter’s status was ‘battle in Cosmos Tower,’ so Li Miaomiao suppressed the thought of going offline. She wouldn’t be able to see him even if she went offline now.
Li Miaomiao opened the spectator platform and looked at the other livestreams.
The other livestreams had screenshots of the Cosmos Ranking, and Xu Jingming’s name could be seen clearly.
“I saw everyone’s comments.” Li Miaomiao’s eyes were slightly red as she smiled in the livestream. “I’m also happy for Jingming.”
“Brother-in-law is impressive! *voice cracking*”
“Brother-in-law, you’re amazing.”
“Cat, you have to reward Brother-in-law.”
The comments were still flooding in, and the number of viewers was still rising—it had already reached ten million online viewers. This was an unimaginable number for a personal livestream.
Some audience members couldn’t help but tip her excitedly.
Li Miaomiao read the comments and chatted while paying attention to her boyfriend’s status.
The moment Xu Jingming left Cosmos Tower—
“Your brother-in-law is looking for me. I’ll go offline first,” Li Miaomiao said before immediately leaving. She didn’t even close the livestream out of carelessness, leaving the millions of viewers in the livestream facing the empty livestream scene.
…
Xu Jingming had just failed and returned to his personal space. He found Li Miaomiao outside the yard, knocking on the door.
According to his settings, only Li Miaomiao could enter his personal space without an invitation.
“Miaomiao.” Xu Jingming went to open the courtyard door.
There was snow outside, but Li Miaomiao stood there in a one-piece. She didn’t find it cold at all because her heart was burning with excitement.
“Jingming.” The moment her boyfriend opened the courtyard door, Li Miaomiao jumped up excitedly and landed on him.
Xu Jingming immediately hugged his girlfriend.
“The entire Internet has gone crazy,” Li Miaomiao said. “My livestream has also gone crazy; there were more than ten million viewers in just a moment. It was all because of you.”
“Alright, alright. I got it. Get off me first,” Xu Jingming said with a smile.
“No, carry me into the house.” Li Miaomiao shook her head.
“Alright.” Xu Jingming could only carry his girlfriend back to the house..