Chapter 1 The Quiet Valley

Xu Jingming looked at the quiet valley before him, surrounded by jagged and strange-looking mountain peaks, from which the occasional ape's roar could be heard.

"This is the fourth level of the Star Tower?" Xu Jingming held his spear, cautiously observing his surroundings.

Whoosh.

In the distance, on a mountain peak, a figure leaped up, drawing a huge arc as it landed on a large tree within the valley. It stood on the tree's thick branch, staring at Xu Jingming.

"This is... a monkey?" Xu Jingming wasn't sure.

Standing on the tree was a rather thin monkey with brownish-black fur, holding a dark black stick in one hand, its eyes carrying a coldness as it glared at Xu Jingming with hostility.

It was indeed a monkey in appearance. Xu Jingming wasn't certain because looking at this monkey felt like looking at an intelligent being.

"Its eyes are too intelligent. It's not like a wild beast; it's like a sentient creature," Xu Jingming thought as he looked at it.

"Roar!"

The monkey suddenly let out a low roar and shot out from the tree trunk like lightning.

"Its speed is comparable to Lei Yunfang's," Xu Jingming immediately became more cautious. "I can't compete with it in terms of speed."

They were only a few dozen meters apart. In just half a second of sprinting, the monkey had already reached Xu Jingming. Xu Jingming suddenly dodged, and his spear stabbed out like lightning.

"Bang!" A shadow of a stick struck Xu Jingming's spear. Xu Jingming felt an immense weight and immediately rotated the spear to dissipate the force, intending to stab again. However, after the impact, the stick shadow followed through with a thrust! The end of the stick aimed at Xu Jingming…

Xu Jingming instinctively drew an arc with his spear, barely intercepting the blow, and still retreated a step to dissipate the force.

"Its strength is slightly greater than mine, but its speed is much faster. And it has a powerful set of stick techniques. This is the first time I've encountered an opponent using a weapon since entering the Star Tower," Xu Jingming felt the pressure.

The first three levels consisted of wolves, bears, and tigers, whose behavior was more like that of wild beasts, relying on their physical advantages.

The monkey encountered on the fourth level not only had a weapon but also knew stick techniques.

"Bang, bang, bang."

The stick mainly used techniques like hacking, sweeping, and thrusting. Originally, it was at a disadvantage compared to the spear. After all, any technique the stick could use, the spear could also use. The spear was much stronger in terms of penetration. However, this monkey's use of stick techniques suppressed Xu Jingming.

Because the monkey was too agile and fast, even though its strength was only slightly superior to Xu Jingming's, its stick techniques came one after another, the speed of its strikes much faster than Xu Jingming's, forcing Xu Jingming to focus on defense.

"Bang, bang, bang."

Xu Jingming and the monkey moved around, constantly shifting, constantly fighting. The sound of the weapons colliding echoed again and again, and some trees in the valley were affected, broken by the impact of the weapons.

These movements attracted the attention of other monkeys in the surrounding peaks.

Only roars and howls were heard, as monkey figures leaped out from the surrounding peaks, drawing arcs as they landed in the valley. Some landed in trees, others on the grass, but every monkey was carrying a dark black stick.

The monkeys varied in size, some being thin, but a few were extremely stout.

There was even a monkey with slightly reddish fur, surrounded by other monkeys, vaguely acting as their leader.

"The first three levels involved dealing with packs of wolves, bears, and tigers. Am I going to have to deal with a group this time as well?" Xu Jingming understood this point. His master, Liu Hai, and the others hadn't cleared the fourth level. Xu Jingming was just trying this time, probing the reality of the fourth level and didn't care about failing.

Although he was distracted, Xu Jingming's mind was detached, controlling the entire battlefield. His spear techniques were still extremely fast, one move after another, changing moves very quickly, and he persisted for a full five minutes under the monkey's strong pressure.

"Roar." Among the many monkeys watching the battle, one suddenly became impatient and rushed into the battlefield with its stick. Its sudden attack tore through the air, causing Xu Jingming's pressure to increase sharply.

Bang, bang, bang!!! All that could be seen were continuous stick shadows raining down!

Xu Jingming barely blocked a few strikes before being smashed on the head, his entire body turning into nothingness, dissipating in the valley.

"I was suppressed by one monkey, I can't fight against two monkeys at all." As Xu Jingming turned into nothingness, he also glanced at the dark red-furred monkey king, "That monkey king must be terrifyingly strong. I have no hope of passing the fourth level in a short time."

...

While Xu Jingming was trying to pass the fourth level of the Star Tower, the outside world had already completely boiled over.

If other countries were paying close attention to the newly appeared name on the Star Ranking, frantically digging up all the information about this Xia country's Xu Jingming, then... the Xia country's own media had completely fallen into a frenzy.

It should be known that during the Fire Seed Cup competition, the appearance of the global seventh place led to more than half of Xia country's numerous live broadcast rooms and media discussing the global seventh place.

Now that the competition was over! The global eighth place was born, and it was a Xia country's own person. The degree of frenzy within the Xia country was conceivable.

"Just now, just now! The eighth name has appeared on the Star Ranking, global eighth: Xu Jingming (Xia country) ..."

"The top eight in the world, our Xia country occupies three! This is the strength of Xia country!"

"If Liu Hai and Lei Yunfang are the older generation of martial artists, then Xu Jingming is only 29 years old and is definitely considered a younger generation. Our Xia country's younger generation of experts can also be ranked among the top ten in the world."

On the virtual world viewing platform, countless live broadcast rooms were excitedly discussing this topic.

As for Li Miaomiao's live broadcast room, the original number of viewers was only a few hundred thousand, but suddenly the number of viewers rapidly increased.

Two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, one million...

The rate of increase was getting more and more exaggerated!

"What's going on?" Li Miaomiao was still a little confused. She only saw the number of viewers in the live broadcast room increasing sharply and immediately looked at the countless floating comments.

"Brother-in-law is eighth in the world!"

"Eighth in the world!"

"Xu Jingming, eighth in the world!"

"Brother-in-law, the Star Ranking eighth in the world!"

"Meow Meow... Brother-in-law is too awesome!"

The comments were completely crazy.

Li Miaomiao blinked her eyes, watching her heartbeat accelerate and her face turn red.

"Jingming has finally passed the third level of the Star Tower?" Li Miaomiao thought. Although Xu Jingming had said earlier that he would be able to pass within three days, Li Miaomiao still felt extremely excited and proud of Xu Jingming when that moment arrived.

Li Miaomiao gently tapped her right hand, opened her friend list, and looked at Xu Jingming, who was ranked first. Xu Jingming's status was 'fighting in the Star Tower,' which made Li Miaomiao suppress the idea of going offline. If she went offline now, she wouldn't be able to see Xu Jingming.

Li Miaomiao also opened the viewing platform and looked at other live broadcast rooms.

Other live broadcast rooms had screenshots of the 'Star Ranking', which clearly showed the newly appeared name of Xu Jingming.

"I've seen everyone's comments." Li Miaomiao said in the live broadcast room, her eyes slightly red, smiling, "I'm also very happy for Jingming."

"Brother-in-law is awesome!!! (voice cracking—)"

"Brother-in-law, you're too awesome."

"Meow Meow, you must reward brother-in-law well."

The comments were still rolling non-stop, and the number of viewers was still soaring, already heading straight for ten million online viewers. For a personal live broadcast room, this was an unbelievable number.

There were also viewers who couldn't suppress their excitement and gave tips.

Li Miaomiao watched the comments, chatting while constantly paying attention to her friend's status.

When she discovered the moment Xu Jingming left the Star Tower.

"Your brother-in-law is looking for me, I'm going offline first." Li Miaomiao said, and immediately left, even carelessly not closing the live broadcast room. Only leaving the ten million viewers in the live broadcast room, facing the empty live broadcast scene.

...

Xu Jingming had just failed and returned to his personal space.

He discovered that Li Miaomiao had arrived outside the courtyard door and was knocking.

According to his settings, only Li Miaomiao could come to his personal space without an invitation.

"Miaomiao." Xu Jingming went to open the courtyard door. There was snow outside the courtyard door, and Li Miaomiao was standing there in thin clothes, but she didn't feel cold at all, her heart was full of fire.

"Jingming." At the same time as Xu Jingming opened the courtyard door, Li Miaomiao jumped up excitedly and leaped onto Xu Jingming.

Xu Jingming quickly hugged his girlfriend.

"The whole internet is going crazy now." Li Miaomiao said, "My live broadcast room is also crazy, there were ten million people just now, all because of you."

"Okay, okay, I know, 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.