Chapter 770 - 765: Miasma Spring
"The Major General promoted through the Second Refinement and the Major General promoted through the First Refinement—what ranks are they?" Bai Pu asked.
"Those promoted to Major General not through the Spirit Realm Battlefield but within the ordinary Spirit Realm Plane are all B-level or below. It depends on the difficulty of the Trial Tasks; there are two levels, B and C." Salacia was indeed knowledgeable.
Bai Pu quickly regained his composure.
He realized that Gaia’s Will hadn’t actively assigned different ranks to Major Generals. The S, A, B, C grading was summarized by the Awakened of the Silver Heart Great World themselves.
Even the Gaia Group hadn’t directly informed Bai Pu that he was an S-level Major General.
Perhaps, in the eyes of Gaia’s Will and the upper echelons of the Gaia Group, the level of a Tier One Awakened World is too low, like elementary school exam questions.
Scoring 100 points on elementary school papers doesn’t prove much.
At least, one has to advance to the middle school (Tier Two Evolver World), where the difficulty of the questions increases significantly, and the subjects multiply. Only then, with excellent grades, can a student prove their potential to enter a top academy (step into the Extraordinary).
Of course, this doesn’t contradict the "Preparatory Core Member Combat Power Assessment" that the group is about to hold. This assessment counts as a subject competition at the elementary school level, and those students who can place high in the competition can still aspire to top academies.
Bai Pu finally understood why Venerable Envoy Li Yan said, "Ranking in the top ten in the Combat Power Assessment will earn you focused cultivation by the group."
It’s roughly equivalent to winning in an elementary school math competition or essay competition and being specially recruited into the advanced class of an excellent middle school...
In this way, another question Bai Pu had long held was answered—that is, why, when he initially failed the trial to be promoted to Major General, the punishment was that he couldn’t reapply for promotion for a year, yet Salacia applied for the Second Refinement shortly after failing the First Refinement.
Promoting to Major General on the Spirit Realm battlefield versus in the ordinary Plane World are inherently two different pathways. One is the pathway of A-level, S-level Major Generals; the other is B-level, C-level Major Generals.
Back then, Bai Pu was on the Spirit Realm battlefield, where the task was to kill the strongest Otherworld Traveler by leapfrogging levels; this was inherently an S-level Major General task difficulty. Even if he failed, how could he increase the difficulty by 50% next time? By directly strengthening the enemy Otherworld Traveler’s power by 50%? That’s unrealistic.
Only during trials in the ordinary Plane World is there room for a "50% increase in difficulty."
After entering the Corruption Forest, the demons they encountered were visibly different.
There were spore demons with decomposed material covering their bodies.
There were fungi demons with twisted growths, bearing human-like faces under their mushroom caps.
There were also Flower Demons, Tree Demons, and more.
These demons were clearly more organized and disciplined than those in the Red Annihilation River region. They formed patrol teams based on their Special Attributes, conducting routine patrols in specific areas of Bone Dao.
Fortunately, "Star Trace" Leia was a good support, with a mystical arts skill for group invisibility, allowing them to just barely evade the demon patrols.
The group walked within Bone Dao for two days.
When choosing paths at junctions, they turned and traveled northeast.
Bai Pu took every opportunity to quietly summon the Gray-spine Fire Rat to confirm Dongbo Cheng’s direction. He discovered that the Furnace Squad’s direction was similar to Dongbo Cheng’s!
This puzzled Bai Pu—could it be that Star Trace Leia’s task was related to Dongbo Cheng?
However, he didn’t ask.
After all, he was under Rein’s employment, and when the time was right, they would surely tell him the answer.
Finally, after two days, they reached the exit of one of Bone Dao’s branch roads.
"We’re here; get ready to leave Bone Dao."
Ashes Rein looked at the slowly opening exit of Bone Dao, vaguely making out the gloomy scenery outside. He said slowly:
"I won’t hide it from you now. Leia’s promotion task is to destroy the ’Miasma Spring’ in the Corruption Forest. According to the intelligence we gathered in Mudong Village, Miasma Spring is guarded by a powerful Demon General ’Demon Throat’, who commands a large number of demons..."
Bai Pu glanced at Salacia; indeed, there was a big difference in difficulty between the First Refinement and the Second Refinement.
Leia’s First Refinement promotion task required only to destroy the Miasma Spring guarded by a Demon General. Salacia’s Second Refinement task was to destroy the Tide Demon Mother Pool on the Shadow Island Chain, where the Black Emperor stationed himself!
No wonder they weren’t on the same track. If Salacia participated in these First Refinement contenders’ race, it would be too despairing.
Rein continued, "Our goal is to divert Demon General ’Demon Throat’ and its main demon force, allowing Leia to sneak into Miasma Spring to conduct the disruption alone."
Bai Pu said, "If we lure away the Demon General, wouldn’t the Spirit Realm Will determine that Leia didn’t ’complete the trial task independently’?"
"You’re overthinking it, brother." Rein smiled. He still remembered Bai Pu’s previous advice, avoiding calling him "Bai Yujing" in front of Salacia. Instead, he referred to him as "brother," so Salacia wouldn’t notice anything unusual.
Leia nodded and added, "To complete it independently, I just need to enter the range of Miasma Spring alone to carry out the disruption work. As for who lures away the Demon General guarding Miasma Spring, or who defeats it, it has nothing to do with me."
Major General trials could be operated this way?
No wonder those promoted in ordinary Spirit Realm Planes were not granted ’resource exchange privileges’ by Gaia’s Will... this definitely has loopholes.
Bai Pu learned something, realizing the top-level Awakened of the Silver Heart Great World had gathered much experience for Major General trials. He then asked, "What’s the range limit of this ’entering alone?’ How far do we need to stay away from you?"
This time, even before Leia spoke, Salacia interjected, "For these trial tasks with ’independent completion’ requirements, there are no clear range limits. But from historical summaries, the Spirit Realm Will doesn’t allow allies of the Trial Taker to enter a range that can ’influence’ the task. Generally, keeping a distance of more than five kilometers is enough to ensure that no Awakened skill can influence it, thus adhering to the Spirit Realm Will’s requirements."
"I see..."
Bai Pu nodded. His skill with the longest range is undoubtedly the Prismatic Domain in Deformation state, transforming it into a conical range to extend its reach.
But even with Bai Pu’s current Fighting Qi purity, he can only extend the range of the Conical Prism Domain to one kilometer.
A five-kilometer range would be difficult even for a Remote Spellcaster to achieve.
With the plans set, everyone exited Bone Dao, officially entering the Corruption Forest.
Towering ancient trees reaching the dome, vines with decaying exteriors oozing slime, large bizarre mushrooms with withered edges, and unnamed Demon Beasts infested with spores...
The territory of the Corruption Forest under Emperor Qing exudes a pervasive air of decay and desolation.