Grinding to Become the Master of the Universe

Chapter 420: Chapter 180: Seeing Shi Potian Again, a Shocking Cultivation Speed, and a Several-Fold Improvement for the Ten-Complete Hand

The immense pressure and sense of urgency from Shi Dang that had been weighing on Qin Feng were greatly alleviated at that moment.

He smiled.

A heartfelt smile.

He immediately began to revise the long-term training plan he had established long ago.

He set a brand new goal for himself, one that would have seemed like a complete fantasy before—

Before this Warband Ranking Competition was over, he would completely fuse every single acupoint in his body!

Forty years to open his acupoints!

Thirty years to fuse his acupoints!

He would spend a total of seventy years to complete the entire path of the Top-grade Acupoint Opening Technique—a journey that took ordinary geniuses several hundred, or even thousands of years!

And after that, he would truly be a fish in the vast ocean, a bird in the boundless sky!

Smooth sailing from there on out!

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While Qin Feng was still reeling from his huge breakthrough with the Ten-Complete Hand, setting a new and magnificent training goal for himself...

...the atmosphere inside the Fearless Warband’s high council chamber was heavy, as oppressive as the sea before a storm.

Planet-level Strongman and soon-to-graduate Battle Commander, Feng Zhiyu, stood quietly before a massive holographic screen with a dozen or so Ninth-level Martial Artists who held key positions within the Warband.

On the screen, the latest scores for each division in the current Warband Ranking Competition were displayed in real-time.

And on either side of the main screen, smaller displays floated in the air.

These displays showed first-person, real-time footage of various Warband members on their missions.

There were scenes of desperate battles against hideous cosmic beasts within the Meteorite Belt, of stealthy assassinations inside heavily guarded Interstellar Fortresses, and of bloody clashes with Alien Race armies on war-torn planets...

Each scene was brutal, filled with blood and fire.

But right now, no one’s attention was on this harrowing combat footage.

Everyone’s eyes were locked onto the main screen displaying the overall scores.

"In the Fourth Level Division, as well as the divisions for Levels Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine—in all five of these High-level Martial Artist divisions, our scores aren’t far from the Iron Blood Warband’s. We’re essentially holding steady."

The female Ninth-level Martial Artist in charge of data analysis, a woman with sharp eyes, was the first to speak, breaking the silence in the chamber.

Her voice was a bit dry.

She paused, her tone growing even more grave.

"But... in the Fifth Level Division, a huge gap has opened up between us and the Iron Blood Warband."

She lightly tapped the holographic screen with her finger.

The score data for the Fifth Level Division was instantly magnified, appearing before everyone in shockingly large characters.

[Fearless Warband - Fifth Level Division Total Score: 119,743 Points]

[Iron Blood Warband - Fifth Level Division Total Score: 231,586 Points]

The gap was nearly two-fold.

Staring at the cold, cruel numbers, Battle Commander Feng Zhiyu fell into a long silence.

A hint of helplessness and deep exhaustion flashed through his eyes, which were as profound as a Star River.

Everyone present knew exactly how this gap had formed.

It was a historical problem.

Roughly two hundred and fifty years ago, for certain internal reasons, the Fearless Warband’s leadership briefly relaxed their recruitment efforts for that year’s new students.

Meanwhile, their old rival, the Iron Blood Warband, had astutely seized this golden opportunity.

By offering benefits and resources several times greater than Fearless, they had furiously poached a huge number of top-tier talents from that year’s class—students who had chosen to practice the Top-grade Acupoint Opening Technique.

Although the Fearless Warband reacted quickly afterward, taking measures to correct their mistake and ramping up their recruitment efforts once more.

Furthermore, by leveraging their prestigious, millenniums-long reputation as the First Battle Group, they succeeded in replenishing their numbers of Level 4 Martial Artists practicing the Top-grade Acupoint Opening Technique in the subsequent years.

But the damage had been done.

That batch of Level 4 geniuses practicing the Top-grade Acupoint Opening Technique, who were poached by the Iron Blood Warband all those years ago, had now grown to become the pillars of the Fifth Level Division.

And while the Fearless Warband’s strength in the Fourth Level Division hadn’t suffered...

...a massive and irreparable gap had opened up in their Fifth Level Division roster.

"The Warband Ranking Competition has been going on for eleven years now."

Another burly Ninth-level Martial Artist stared at the data on the screen and extrapolated in a voice that boomed like a great bell.

"Based on the current rate of point accumulation and the disparity in the number of top-tier fighters in the Fifth Level Division, by the time the thirty-year competition is over, our final score deficit in the Fifth Level Division will likely be around three hundred thousand points."

"If we can only manage to tie with the Iron Blood Warband in every other division... then this single, massive disadvantage will cause us to lose the throne of the First Battle Group and be forced into second place."

His words landed like a heavy stone in a quiet pond.

Although everyone present had already anticipated this outcome...

...hearing it laid out so clearly and bluntly made the air in the council chamber feel even more suffocating.