"This gamble isn't just for our lives. It's also a gamble for fortune!"

The sudden statement caused Ye Lingchen's eyes to narrow immediately. If not for him being sure of the safety of that area, Ye Lingchen's hair would have stood on end.

His gaze remained focused at the front as a figure sped up to him at an extreme speed, arriving in the blink of an eye.

"Little Boy Ye, you're quite brave and strong. No wonder Lin Tianxiong and the others are full of praises for you."

The other person was wearing a dark green Warrior outfit. He had a squarish face with thick brows and a healthy complexion. His voice was deep and strong, watching over Ye Lingchen with a smile on his face.

"D-D-Director!"

Little Li straightened his body instantly, standing at attention and saluted.

"I'm Xiang Guocheng, the director of the Warrior's Department. At the same time, I'm the instructor of the Martial Arts Pavilion," Xiang Guocheng introduced himself after nodding at Little Li.

"Nice to meet you, Director. I'm Ye Lingchen," Ye Lingchen replied in a calm manner.

Nevertheless, a storm was going on within his mind.

Although he had always expected the existence of experts, he held up hopes that he might be very strong. After all, he was bestowed with a hack. Add to it his life from young in a peaceful environment, he would hardly come across anyone that was slightly powerful, let alone true experts. Would there really be someone stronger than him?

The moment he saw Xiang Guocheng, his hopes were banished without a trace.

In Ye Lingchen's eyes, Xiang Guocheng's body was surrounded by an extremely dense Qi, one that had gone through a qualitative change. It was no longer acquired Qi, but innate Qi instead!

That Qi gave Ye Lingchen a sense of dread, sending a chill down his spine.

To have transformed all the Inner Force into Innate Qi, that meant...great completion of the Innate Stage!

One should know that Ye Lingchen had only barely set foot in the Innate Stage. The acquired Qi in his body had only been compressed to 10%. In other words, he did not even have a shred of Innate Qi in his body.

The difference was...huge!

Before Xiang Guocheng, he would go down in one…no, half a move!

Ye Lingchen sighed with great relief that he had acquired the system and knew how to keep a low profile. Even with his growing strength and confidence of being the best in the world, he would not be brazen enough to assert his authority. Otherwise, his gravestone would have weeds growing all over it by then.1

'Damn it. Since when did Earth become so dangerous?'

"Hahaha, not bad. You're quite steady." Xiang Guocheng guffawed. "Let's go, I'll lead you to the Martial Arts Pavilion."

Meanwhile, Little Li looked at Ye Lingchen in surprise. He did not expect this young man that was about his age to be greeted personally by the director himself. Following that, he went off on his own.

"Director Xiang, you were saying that entering the battlefield was a gamble for fortune as well?" Ye Lingchen questioned.

Xiang Guocheng replied with a laugh, "The spiritual energy on the battlefield is much higher than over here. Although it's dangerous to be in the proximity of the battlefield, it's beneficial to the growth of one's martial arts. Moreover, if you survived, that would be meritorious service. Those merits can be traded for cultivation resources, which can also greatly benefit the training of one's martial arts.

"Of course, there's also the slim chance of a fortuitous encounter in the Void Realm that could transform your very being and achieve great power with ease."

Ye Lingchen's expression changed slightly. "Fortuitous encounter in the Void Realm?"

"The Void Realm is filled with treasures. It contains a lot of things we can't find on Earth, a definite treasure trove. Once, someone stumbled into the Void Realm and accidentally ate a fruit inside it, allowing him to ascend to the Innate Stage immediately. Such cases are not impossible. Therefore, a lot of them that can't manifest their Inner Force or brave enough to push their luck would risk death to enter the Void Realm."

Suddenly, his tone changed. "Moreover, Warriors have their roots. At times like these, one should be prepared to contribute after enjoying all the benefits and resources from the Warrior's Department."

Ye Lingchen nodded.

"Oh, you actually agree with this line of thought?" Xiang Guocheng smiled.

"The idea of give and take is fair," Ye Lingchen replied.

"You have quite the matured mindset. If those words I said were to leak out, the entire internet would drown me in a sh*t storm," Xiang Guocheng joked and continued, "The spiritual energy here is much denser than the outside world. Being able to cultivate here is already a benefit on its own. In our current situation, we can't afford to have people enjoy these benefits without contributions."

"That's understandable," Ye Lingchen agreed.

If one was cowardly, even greater achievements would only be a waste of resources.

As they were chatting, they arrived before a building.

It was built in a modern style with the appearance looking like a university building. It covered a wide area and had an easy to see layout.

"This is the Martial Arts Pavilion," Xiang Guocheng explained patiently. "It can be separated into four sections. The training grounds, lecture grounds, merits exchange, and the last one is the field.

"The four sections can be further separated. The places more useful for you will be the training grounds. Depending on your level, the training efficiency will be different. The next one will be the merits exchange. It's used to calculate your merits and you can use them to exchange for corresponding items."

"Merits can be used to exchange for items?" Ye Lingchen was surprised.

"That's right. There are a lot of items up for exchange. If you have enough merits, you can even trade them in for spiritual fruits from the Void Realm!" Xiang Guocheng stated.

Ye Lingchen's eyes brightened up. "Spiritual fruits from the Void Realm? That means we can already enter the Void Realm?"

He remembered Lin Tianxiong saying that the Void Realm was still inaccessible ten years ago as it was impossible to leave the place.

"The Void Realm is huge. The unknown lifeforms do not dominate every corner of it. We have entered the Void Realm since six years ago. As long as we keep a low profile, it's very possible to leave that place alive. The reason for us not being able to enter in the beginning was because assault weapons are unusable in the Void Realm. Moreover, we did not have any sufficiently strong Warriors back then. It was as good as suicide to enter."

Having said that, Xiang Guocheng contemplated for a moment before flicking his wrist. Within his palm was a piece of translucent crystal.

The size of the crystal was about half a fingernail. Under the sun, the refracted lights were more glorious than that of diamond. Most importantly, it was surrounded by a layer of mist-like Qi.

Ye Lingchen's pupils shrunk immediately as he unconsciously licked his lips. "T-t-this is…"

"This is a spirit stone."

"From the Void Realm?" Ye Lingchen forced his raging heart to calm down.

That was too shocking!

There were actually spirit stones like those in the fantasy novels?

From the spirit stone, Ye Lingchen could clearly sense the rich spiritual energy as they have already consolidated into a solid. Just what kind of concept was that?

"That's right. This is a specialty product of the Void Realm." Seeing Ye Lingchen losing his composure, Xiang Guocheng's lips curled up slightly. "Do you want it?"

Ye Lingchen's eyes brightened up. "Can I?"

"Of course...NOT." Just as Xiang Guocheng finished his statement, he quickly kept the spirit stone away…

"Weeds growing on the grave" is a saying that implies someone being dead for a long time, sufficient for weeds to grow all over the grave.