As Zhou Yan finished naming the sacred artifact, a voice resounded from the sky: "The trial has officially begun. All disciples, prepare yourselves!"
"Oh, the trial has finally started?" Zhou Yan flew up, landing on the dragon-headed city wall of the main gate, and looked into the distance.
Several graceful figures flew from below the city to the ramparts. Zhou Yan turned around and saw Diao Chan and the others. He asked, "Why are you all here?"
"I was tired of being cooped up practicing these past few days, so I came out for a stroll," Diao Chan replied.
"Has the academy's trial begun? What changes will occur?" Zhen Mi asked curiously.
"Are those monsters in front?" Nie Xiaoqian looked at the monsters that suddenly appeared in the distance.
"It looks like a monster siege. This difficulty seems quite low," Xiao Qiao was very clear about the territory's strength.
Within the city walls, the soldiers were already on high alert. However, the territory currently only had two bridges. Zhou Yan felt that after this trial, he would specifically purchase two good quality bridge buildings.
The territory was so large, yet only having two bridges to connect to the outside was far too few.
Outside the city, the monsters were numerous, densely packed, stretching as far as the eye could see.
This was a plain, and there was no fog outside, allowing one to see monsters from a great distance. Zhou Yan roughly observed the levels and quality of these monsters.
The monsters' levels were not high, ranging from twenty to fifty. No matter how many such monsters appeared, they would be useless.
The monsters' levels were simply too low. Even at max level, as long as their quality wasn't too high, they couldn't withstand the attack of the first wave of defense towers.
Monsters surrounded the territory on all sides. As the monsters approached the range of the defense towers, the towers unleashed their attacks.
Inferno blazed, a sea of fire engulfing the monsters, which were immediately reduced to ashes. The power of the top-tier fire sea tower was enough to burn these monsters into nothingness.
However, after the monsters died, a pile of treasure chests dropped outside and were all automatically collected into the territory.
"These monsters can actually drop treasure chests!" Zhou Yan was very surprised. He was currently short on soul coins, and unexpectedly, this trial had begun by showering him with a large number of treasure chests.
This trial was truly excellent, allowing him to gain a considerable amount of soul coins to use.
A layer of ice covered everything, turning the monsters into ice sculptures, though they shattered into ice shards.
The sound of sharp blades echoed, and myriad sword energies, like those of celestial swordsmen, sliced all the monsters into fragments.
The wind howled, and a gale tore the monsters into bloody mist. The monsters' levels and strength were too low, making it impossible for them to even enter the territory's perimeter.
Veils of poisonous mist covered the monster piles, poisoning all the monsters to death and dropping countless treasure chests.
A wave of monsters charged towards the territory. Instantly, the ground cracked open, and all the monsters fell into the fissures. The ground then closed, burying all these monsters underground. The treasure chests that dropped also automatically entered the territory.
Giant meteors descended from the sky, smashing countless monsters to death. After landing, these meteors also erupted in massive explosions, and their terrifying energy annihilated the surrounding monsters.
The sound of "dada da" rang out. From the barrels of the机关塔 (Mechanism Tower), a string of sparks erupted, shooting and piercing all the monsters in the distance. Not a single monster could cross the threshold.
A rain of arrows ascended into the sky, then fell among the monsters, pinning countless creatures to the ground.
Seal runes formed brilliant rays of light, flying into the midst of the monsters and creating terrifying energy explosions.
Darkness erupted within the monster hordes. The monsters immediately collapsed, their deaths bizarre.
...
The territory's defense towers were simply too powerful. Seeing that the monsters couldn't be stopped anytime soon, everyone said to Diao Chan and the others, "You guys can open the treasure chests too."
"Alright."
Since they had nothing else to do, they opened the territory interface and began opening treasure chests. The territory immediately gained countless soul coins. As for other items, there were simply too many, and Zhou Yan was too lazy to check them. He would look at them when needed.
Monsters were killed by the territory at all times, and the territory's soul coins increased ceaselessly.
Outside the trial grounds, a group of instructors watched the scene and said, "I wonder how long these disciples can last."
"The number of monsters should be calculated based on the territory's area. The larger the territory, the more monsters encountered. The outer disciples' territories are generally much larger than those of the inner disciples."
"Among this year's inner disciples, quite a few have very large territories. Look at the territory levels; they truly surprise us."
The instructors looked at the inner disciples' territories. They were instructors for outer disciples and were not very familiar with inner disciples. Seeing that many disciples had vast territories, they were quite astonished.
"Whose territory is this golden one? It looks quite strong."
"It seems to belong to a disciple named Ye Bufan."
"Ye Bufan, surname Ye. Could this be from the Ye family's Dragon King lineage?"
"It should be."
The many instructors looked at the students' territories and discovered that several of them had quite high levels and impressive strength, effectively blocking the monsters outside.
These territories were at a very high level, at least fifty. To upgrade a territory to level fifty or above in such a short time was truly remarkable.
Suddenly, the instructors' eyes fell upon the largest territory. Upon seeing its size, they were completely stunned.
This wasn't the most important thing; what was most significant was how magnificent and powerful this territory was.
The entire outer wall of the territory was shaped like a dragon, and a large moat outside securely protected the entire territory.
"This, this, this, could this territory be max level? It's so huge!" They were instructors, and such a large territory, by normal standards, would only be possessed by a max-level territory.
However, the occupants were only inner and outer disciples, and it was impossible for them to reach max level so quickly. The instructors clearly understood that this must be due to a special territory.
Only special territories could possess an area several times larger than ordinary ones. There were no such territories among the outer disciples, so this territory must belong to an inner disciple.
"This is your inner disciple's territory?"
"Of course it is, and he's the strongest guy among us inner disciples, named Zhou Yan. That guy's territory far exceeds your imagination."
"Zhou Yan? I seem to have heard of him. Wasn't he the one who won the Lord championship in the last freshman competition?"