After Shen Feng began his plan, he had already recruited many people at that time. These people were basically young people. The minds of these young people had not yet fully developed, so at this time, no matter what he taught them, they would learn diligently. Then, with a little benefit, a large number of young people would immediately become loyal and would not betray him at all.
Shen Feng did this in preparation for future battles. Only by possessing powerful strength could he have an absolute advantage in the subsequent competition for meteorites. Moreover, although the Divine Realm had disappeared, once the Divine Realm reappeared, only ability users would be useful. Therefore, cultivating elite ability users was urgent. Coincidentally, Yu Renshu had also seized a large enough meteorite fragment from Iceland, which allowed Shen Feng to produce enough ability potions. This made it very simple for him to cultivate elite ability users.
However, a rumor suddenly appeared in Yuzhou city. This rumor was rampant and had confused many people, making many people afraid to let their children participate in the selection.
The rumor was that Shen Feng was recruiting so many disciples now because he wanted to use them as cannon fodder. In future battles, ability users would be the absolute protagonists, so Shen Feng was preparing for war.
Many people believed this rumor from the moment it appeared, and the City Lord's Mansion had no intention of refuting it, so a large number of people believed it.
This selection was conducted outside the city. The young people who appeared here were those who did not believe the rumors circulating in the city, because they believed that the City Lord would definitely not use them as cannon fodder. Moreover, as long as they could become the City Lord's disciples, they would be able to shed their ordinary identities in the future. This was such a good opportunity; only fools would let such a good opportunity pass.
To become Shen Feng's disciple, one first had to pass a written test, then an interview, and finally a physical fitness test, and finally an identity check. If anyone who had participated in the previous civil service examinations appeared here, they would definitely be able to tell that Shen Feng's method of selecting disciples was the same as many previous methods of recruiting civil servants. Even if the names were different, the content could not be faked. The young people selected through this method could be said to be one in ten thousand.
Even people from other places came to participate in the selection. However, Shen Feng only recruited those under the age of fourteen. This age limit prevented many young people from participating, making them regret that they had missed a great opportunity to change their destiny.
Before the selection began, Shen Feng hovered in the sky. After seeing the countless young faces below, he felt a little sad because he knew that the subsequent battles would be terrifying, and his current choice of disciples was entirely for preparation for the future battles.
After a fierce battle, it was unknown how many people would survive in the end. His actions were undoubtedly sending these ignorant young people to the battlefield, not as cannon fodder, but as real soldiers.
At this moment, there were many people around these young people cheering for their children. They were the parents of the participating youths, and at this time, they also hoped that their children could change their own destiny and the destiny of their families.
If it weren't for the many soldiers maintaining order here, the scene would have been very chaotic, because there were at least tens of thousands of people outside the city. Besides the candidates and their parents, there were even snack vendors. Among the snack vendors, those selling boiled salted peanuts were the most numerous. Besides them, fried broad beans and roasted sunflower seeds were the most common, after all, many places could only grow short-term crops, and wheat and rice could not mature.
Shen Feng slowly descended from the sky and said to everyone present, "This examination is about to begin, but before that, I want to explain one thing to you! Once some of you become my disciples, you must do whatever I ask you to do. Although the treatment will be very generous, there may be wars in the future, and you cannot refuse. If you are willing to accept this, you can continue to participate in the examination, but if you are afraid, it is still not too late to leave now! After all, you will face challenges of life and death in the future, and you may die if you are not careful!"
Upon hearing this, many people on the ground began to whisper, and the scene immediately became noisy. Especially many parents of the candidates began to worry that if their children were not selected, they would be sad, but if they were selected, their children might go to the battlefield. This was a dilemma.
Shen Feng continued, "You will not be punished for withdrawing now, and no one will leave any record on your file. This is the last chance. If you want to leave, you can go now! No one will blame you!"
If there were no other options, many people would choose to give up when faced with the pressure of life and death, especially since many parents were now telling their children to give up this opportunity. After all, safety was the most important thing. Even if they were poor for the rest of their lives, it would be better than dying on the roadside.
Under this immense pressure, hundreds of young people could not bear it and left the examination venue crying. The soldiers maintaining order did not stop them and let them leave.
Seeing that no one else left, Shen Feng then said, "I want to explain one more thing, and that is that my goal from beginning to end is to end this doomsday. I said this ten years ago, and it was met with the approval of countless people at that time, but after so much time has passed, I still haven't been able to fulfill my promise. Now, the opportunity is right before my eyes, and I must consider if this is the only opportunity in my life! Now I want to end this doomsday and let people live peaceful lives! If you all agree with my idea, then make your voices heard!"
"Ah..." Many young people on the ground suddenly had their faces turn red, and they all shouted loudly. It could be seen that they were very excited at this time, otherwise, they would not have responded so fanatically.
Shen Feng then pointed to the distant high mountain and said, "This place is more than ten kilometers away from that distant mountain. Whoever reaches the summit first will pass the test first. However, please remember that I will only accept the top 100! So if you fall behind, do not appear before me!"
After saying this, Shen Feng took out a flare gun from his body. "Bang," a flare was fired into the sky, and the young masters on the ground immediately rushed out, running towards the distant mountain peak. At this time, there was a flagpole above the mountain peak, and there was a red flag on the flagpole, which was their goal.
After that, Shen Feng flew directly to the summit and watched the young masters below running wildly. These young people had also exerted all their strength, and even though their legs were heavy, they did not stop. Unfortunately, reality was very cruel. Thousands of people participated in this selection, and only the top 100 passed the test.
Afterward, Shen Feng began to train these disciples. First, he made them drink a potion to become ability users, and then he selected those suitable for combat. If they were other ability users, they would prepare to study theoretical knowledge and participate in various management tasks in the future. However, if they were suitable for combat, they had to go to the battlefield; they no longer had the right to choose.
Two years passed like this, and the group of young boys who were once green had become vibrant and full of energy, looking like spirited young men. There were also quite a few female students, and there were quite a few suitable for combat. A total of 71 combat-type youths were selected.
During this time, the sky had also become brighter. Many people could vaguely see the blue sky when they looked up. In fact, the sky itself had no color, but when sunlight appeared in the sky, it was refracted by the atmosphere, eventually appearing blue.
Afterward, blue represented purity, hope, and ideals in many places. Some people discovered that the Earth's temperature seemed to be starting to rise. Although it was still frozen in winter, at least the freezing period was shortening. If this continued, the temperature would return to its previous level in another five or six years.
Upon learning this, Shen Feng could not help but murmur to himself, "It seems that Xiao Yue's plan has taken effect. The volcanic ash in the stratosphere is settling, and then sunlight will reach the ground, and the Earth's temperature will surely return to normal!"
At this time, Shen Feng's youngest daughter, Shen Qingrou, also had stronger resistance. She could go outside for two hours every day, but she was not very close to Shen Feng and Chu Chaoyan. Instead, she was inseparable from her sister-in-law, Zhou Yuyao.
This was unavoidable, after all, the child would be closer to whoever they spent the most time with.
This made Chu Chaoyi often complain to Shen Feng, "It's all because I'm too busy every day, so I can't visit the children often, which has led to the children not liking to be around me anymore!"
Shen Feng could only comfort him in such matters. As long as his plan was completed, he would have plenty of free time.
However, Shen Feng's preparations were not yet complete, and the training of these disciples was still ongoing. Many of them had not yet mastered the true power of their abilities when suddenly a piece of news came: "Meteorites have appeared!"
This news came from the Americas. It turned out that the people in North America had been searching the sea for many years by warships but had not found any sea beasts or meteorites. So, these people changed their approach. Since they couldn't find sea beasts in tropical and temperate oceans, they must be in the Arctic or Antarctic directions. These people first went to the Arctic Ocean to search, and near Iceland, they encountered a large number of sea beasts, and their warships were sunk on the spot. However, this also meant that the army of sea beasts had appeared before everyone.
When this news arrived, it immediately attracted the attention of countless people. Thus, countless forces began to gather their ability users, preparing to march towards Iceland. This operation must secure the meteorites.
Shen Feng did not expect that he thought he still had ample time to train the youths under his command, but he did not expect that others were not fools. Just one counter-intuitive approach had already found the lair of the sea beasts, and now they had directly locked onto the location of the meteorites. Time was suddenly insufficient.
At the same time, Yu Renshu, who was at Iceland, sent a message: "These sea beasts are also intelligent. They have discovered that their location has been exposed and are preparing to escape. Next, do I need to seize the meteorite or follow these people?"
"Don't do anything foolish. These sea beasts are very powerful. Although you have great combat power in the water, you are not an opponent to so many of them. Just follow them from a distance and maintain contact at all times!" Shen Feng then issued such instructions.
Shen Feng thought for a moment and said to Chang Haojie beside him, "Quickly go and call your sister back. I am preparing to lead my people to set off, and then the family matters will be handed over to your sister again!"