["What if I get caught..."]

["Bro, without this trick, could you have made it to the third round? Either way, you're screwed, so you might as well take the gamble. Cheating just means disqualification; the Holy Land won't do anything serious to you."]

[Wang Mingbai followed the advice. Though he didn't succeed in bribing everyone, it was enough to get him through to the third round.]

["Congratulations to the twenty talents for passing the second trial. The final round, and also the hardest, is 'Slay Demons and Vanquish Evils!'"]

Outside the simulation.

Chen Yi: "What? Slay what? Say that again?"

[The Free and Unfettered Holy Land truly embodies the style of the Shen Family from back in the day, handing you an easy question on a silver platter.]

[The third trial requires you twenty to split into ten teams. Add thirty Holy Land disciples, making five per group, and accept the 'Slay Demons and Vanquish Evils' mission distributed by the Holy Land.]

[These missions come in various types: eradicating a demon infestation in some area, capturing demonic path martial artists, quelling wars, saving lives and healing injuries, enlightening the populace, spreading martial arts, and so on.]

[The reason for the five-person teams, with three Holy Land disciples in each, is that the cultivation levels among you twenty vary greatly.]

[Those with higher cultivation team up with lower-level Holy Land disciples, and vice versa, creating a relatively balanced overall strength for each group.]

[Everyone still carries a Recording Stone. The missions have a maximum time limit of three years. If completed early, you can return to the Holy Land early and hand in the stone.]

[The Holy Land will score each person based on their individual performance recorded by the stones.]

[The five men and five women with the highest scores will become candidates for this term's Saint and Saintess.]

[Dongfang Shuo stated that mission success isn't the key to scoring.]

[The Holy Land wants to assess your comprehensive abilities—character, morality, social skills, adaptability, intelligence, combat power, and more—through your performance during the missions.]

[The missions for the ten teams are announced one by one.]

[You unhesitatingly choose the "Demon Hunting Team."]

[The contestant on your team is Long Yang, the undisputed first place in both the first and second trials.]

["I didn't expect an 'individual trainee' like you to make it to the third round."]

[You let out a faint smile.]

["All thanks to my fellow contestants for making me look good."]

[Long Yang immediately fell silent.]

[He coughed and said to the whole team.]

["I'll say this upfront: I have the highest cultivation in this team! After we enter the Wild Sea to hunt demons, all actions will follow my orders! No one is allowed to hold us back, or don't blame me for kicking them out of the team so they don't drag everyone down!"]

[As he said this, he glanced at you a few extra times, clearly implying something.]

[You smiled at him, so much so that it made his scalp crawl.]

Wang Mingbai didn't know which team to join to perform better, so he came to you for paid advice again.

You recommended the peacekeeping team.

Overseas, there are many island nations that frequently wage war due to scarce maritime resources, causing immense suffering for the people.

The Holy Land often sends disciples to mediate conflicts and stop the wars.

"But I've been pampered since I was a child. I don't understand war or diplomacy. How can I quell chaos?" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"You don't need to understand any of that. Have your family send money, grain, cloth, iron, Spirit Crystals, and all kinds of resources. Give those supplies to whichever soldiers are fighting. If they keep fighting, keep sending until they stop."

"It's that simple?"

"It's that simple."

Year Twelve, age thirty-one.

You, Long Yang, and three Holy Land disciples sailed eastward and arrived at the Wild Sea.

This is the easternmost place you've ever been in the human world.

According to the Holy Land disciples, this ocean stretches endlessly.

It's said that in the Free and Unfettered Holy Land, there was once a frivolous old senior at the Martial King Realm who, with nothing better to do, flew east, trying to cross the Wild Sea to see what lay on the other side.

He flew for over a decade, and below him was still the ocean, seemingly boundless.

In the end, he could only spend another ten-odd years flying back to the Holy Land, recounting his experiences to everyone.

Not long after, he died of old age.

After that old senior, no one else was bored enough to try exploring the edge of the human world.

What a pure waste of life.

Your mission site is not far from the archipelago where the Holy Land is located, on an isolated island called Octopus Island.

There are several thousand residents on the island, who have recently been suffering from sea demon attacks.

They used to live off the sea, relying on fishing and hunting.

But with the sea demons causing havoc, their livelihoods are unsustainable.

Sea demons are aquatic beings, a branch of the Demon Tribe.

The fish demon sealed in the Ten Thousand Souls Banner is also a type of sea demon.

The sea demons in the human world have mediocre bloodlines and average strength, with not a single one at the Martial King Realm.

The orthodox Demon Tribe in the Great Wastes looks down on them and generally doesn't associate with them.

When you arrived, you happened to encounter over a dozen sea demons coming ashore, chasing and killing the island residents.

Long Yang waved his hand grandly.

"Don't anyone move! These sea demons are extremely vicious; engaging them could be life-threatening! Let me subdue them, and then you junior brothers can handle the cleanup!"

Long Yang wanted to stand out alone to earn more performance points.

You and the three Holy Land disciples obediently stayed put on the boat, watching Long Yang's performance.

At first, Long Yang showed decent strength on the shore, beating the sea demons back step by step.

He was at the ninth level of the Spirit Sea Realm, so naturally, facing this group of sea demons that were at most at the Golden Body Realm posed no problem.

But don't forget, demons are intelligent.

They saw that Long Yang was impatient for success.

So they lured him deep into the shallows, where the water was about a meter deep.

Long Yang couldn't fly, and the seawater severely hampered him.

In the water, however, the sea demons were in their element.

Combined with their overwhelming numbers ganging up on him, Long Yang was soon beaten black and blue.

"Brother Long seems like he can't hold out much longer. Should we help him?"

In the Holy Land, seniority is based on cultivation level; whoever has the higher realm is the senior brother.

You said with a smile.

"Brother Long said all actions follow his orders. He hasn't called us in yet, so we can't act rashly."

"But Brother Long looks like he's about to kick the bucket."

"You don't get it, do you? This is Brother Long's feigned retreat strategy. See, he hasn't even called for help. Clearly, everything is under his control."

"Hmm... that makes sense."

Long Yang was absolutely miserable at this moment.

Surrounded by dozens of sea demons, trapped in the water, unable to escape, and too embarrassed to call for help.

What the hell was he supposed to do!

In the end, life was more important than face.

"Four junior brothers, lend me a hand quickly... glug glug..."

He had been dunked underwater by a sea demon.

Of course, you weren't going to let Long Yang die here.

Standing by and doing nothing would definitely cost you points.

So, with a righteous air, you charged forward.

"Brother Long, don't panic! I'm coming to save you!"

As always, you made your entrance with the sound system on your shoulder.

Even if you could only exert the strength of the Golden Body Realm, these demons were no match for you, the strict father.

Besides, you now had the Heartsteel!

"Ding ding ding!"

"Dang!!"

"Ding ding ding!"

"Dang!!"

...