The Brute
**Inside the Small World**
*Earth Fire Armored Dragon.*
Lu Yuan sensed the creature's overwhelming aura and narrowed his eyes, a dark-red heavy sword materializing in his hand.
This was the Dark Red Blade — a First-rank Elite armament. In the weeks of hunting that had preceded this assessment, he had cut down no small number of First-rank Elite Feral Beasts, and this sword had eventually dropped from one of them. With it in hand, his old Beetle Claw sword had earned a long-overdue retirement. He'd kept it carefully stored away rather than throwing it out. It had been his first Elite weapon, after all — it deserved a place in his collection.
The Dark Red Blade primarily enhanced strength, with secondary gains to defense. On top of that, every strike channeled a trace of fire through the blade, burning opponents with scorching heat on contact. A solid armament by any measure.
He gripped it tight. Crimson light pulsed across his entire body. His feet drove into the ground, and he launched himself forward toward the Earth Fire Armored Dragon.
The dragon had already spotted him. It halted, smoke curling from its nostrils and scorching the grass underfoot. Its dark crimson eyes locked onto him, cold killing intent radiating from its gaze.
*Let me see whether my current strength can hold its own against a Second-rank Boss Grade beast.*
As Lu Yuan charged in, the dragon unleashed the full pressure of a peak First-rank creature, opened its maw wide, and spewed a torrent of blazing red fire.
He squinted. One pivot — his body shot sideways. The inferno tore through the space he had just vacated, carving a scorched scar across the ground more than ten meters long, stubborn flames still licking at its edges.
The heat bled into the surrounding air. Breathing grew difficult.
**BOOM!!**
His heavy sword met the dragon's front claw head-on. The shockwave expanded in all directions, becoming a wall of wind that set the surrounding trees swaying and thrashing.
Both of them recoiled. Lu Yuan's expression didn't change. He moved with the dragon, tracking it.
**SHINK!!**
The blade screamed through the air and bit deep. A brutal gash opened in the dragon's side — bone-deep — and the creature shrieked.
The wound had fully enraged it. It let out a savage howl, the dark red of its hide deepening into a richer crimson. It lunged — gaping maw lined with savage fangs driving straight for him.
Lu Yuan's brow furrowed. He twisted aside, narrowly avoiding the bite. The dragon was already raising its front claw again, driving it downward with berserk force.
**BOOM!!**
Heavy sword against claw. Both recoiled again.
From the corner of his eye, a red streak swept in fast — trailing a howling gust.
*The tail.* The Earth Fire Armored Dragon's thick, powerful tail.
A cold smirk crossed his lips. He extended his left hand, palm open, and caught the sweep directly.
**BOOM!!**
Dead leaves exploded off the ground in every direction. A deafening crack rolled across the area. The dragon stumbled back several steps, its earlier wound splitting open further, blood flowing freely.
Lu Yuan retreated only a single step.
Without pausing, he brought the Dark Red Blade sweeping in a counter — a keen arc of sword-light, Black Steel Force erupting through every fiber of his body, all of it channeling into the blade as it tore across the dragon's hide.
**SHINK!!**
Scales shredded. Blood sprayed outward, staining the earth red.
The dragon raged and charged — but it was stumbling now, its movements growing ragged. Lu Yuan kept his face neutral and stayed on it, matching every step.
Two figures, one massive and one small, wove through a strip of forest at high speed. Every collision sent a deafening thud through the air; shockwaves rolled and spread; trees shook; leaves spiraled endlessly down.
**BOOM!!**
A huge frame slammed into a tree trunk and split it clean in two. The tree toppled, and leaves rained down like a green waterfall.
**Outside the Small World**
The smiles on Elder Yu's face and those of the other observers froze at exactly the same moment, replaced by a beat of collective stupefaction.
"A *peak* Earth Fire Armored Dragon — its raw strength *surpasses* same-rank Assault Type warriors — how is he blocking all of this so casually?! He hasn't even *flinched*?!"
The burly man's mouth worked. He spoke with obvious uncertainty:
"That power... it's already beyond peak Assault Type warriors, isn't it?! Is this kid a Guardian Type or an Assault Type?!"
Li Qinghe and the others watched the battle intently on the screen. After a moment, the mature woman tilted her head:
"Maybe he has trump cards we don't know about."
"Probably," the tall thin man said.
"His inscribed gene is Boss Grade, isn't it?!" the burly man pressed. "Then how is his physique *this* strong?! What genes does he have inscribed? How is he this well-rounded?! Does he have some powerful Body Technique?"
Those who had been watching other screens had already glanced over. None of them raised a word of disagreement.
"Qinghe, your eye for talent is exceptional," Elder Yu remarked.
"Naturally," Li Qinghe said, crossing her arms with a small smile.
**Inside the Small World**
The Earth Fire Armored Dragon struggled to rise — and a blur flashed past. Lu Yuan appeared at its side in an instant. His expression was cold, the Dark Red Blade leveled with sharp, unwavering intent.
He drove it through the dragon's neck.
The struggling stopped. Four limbs buckled slowly, and the Earth Fire Armored Dragon went still.
Blood gathered along the channels of its scales and trickled down to the earth in thin red streams, soaking the ground beneath it.
Lu Yuan let out a quiet breath and looked at the corpse.
*Dragon-type — strength, defense, and speed are all its strengths. And it commands fire on top of that.* Among Boss Grade beasts, the Earth Fire Armored Dragon was an exceptionally powerful existence. The fact that it had endured dozens of exchanges against him was genuinely impressive.
But it had never been his equal.
His score surged by 5,000 points, reaching 23,322.
**Outside**
Elder Yu watched Lu Yuan with quiet satisfaction, a smile settling onto his face:
"Put this kid in the current Talent Camp, and he'd rank in the top fifty by talent alone."
The tall thin man glanced at the burly man with a grin:
"Bex, forget Yang Ping — even *you* weren't up to this back in the day, were you? When you were First-rank, could you have taken down an Earth Fire Armored Dragon?"
The burly man stiffened. He shot the thin man a sideways look:
"...Elder Yu, I don't suppose you could have, either?"
Elder Yu smiled without blinking:
"Of course not."
The two exchanged a glance and said nothing more.
Li Qinghe had been somewhat taken aback by Lu Yuan's performance herself, but hearing the assessment, a smile pulled at her mouth:
"That's exactly what I'd expect from my Yuan-didi."
She reached for a cigarette and was about to light it when she caught Elder Yu watching her with that serene smile of his. She stiffened and put the cigarette away with a look of resigned disappointment.
The test was still ongoing. All four candidates continued their hunts.
As the assessment entered its final hour, Lu Yuan's score had already climbed to 103,286 — more than double the 49,843 held by second-place Min'er. A gap that had long since become insurmountable.
Yang Ping and Lin Wei were also encountering high Boss Grade and even peak Boss Grade beasts by now. Their strength was enough to barely kill the high-grade ones; peak Boss Grade forced retreat. Min'er was a cut above the two of them — she handled peak Boss Grade more readily — but even she could only fight the most powerful peak Boss Grade creatures to a standstill, not a kill.
Compared to the other three, Lu Yuan had actually been the unlucky one in terms of encounter frequency, running into Boss Grade beasts less often. But none of it mattered. Whatever grade of Boss Grade creature crossed his path ended up dead.
The observers watching from outside had long since abandoned any thought of competing for first place.
"It's not just in one category," the tall thin man noted. "Strength, defense, *speed* — all of it runs several tiers above same-rank geniuses with Boss Grade genes inscribed. That kind of breadth simply isn't possible for ordinary talent."
Hearing him, the others nodded.
"Bear in mind, he has one Boss Grade gene and one Chief Grade gene inscribed," the burly man added uncertainly. "His physique really shouldn't be anywhere near this powerful..."
"He's even cultivated a Body Technique as potent as Black Steel Force," the mature woman said with a small smile. "Maybe there are things about him we simply haven't seen."
Elder Yu watched Lu Yuan's screen with a quiet, satisfied expression. Lu Yuan's performance had exceeded even his expectations.
**Inside the Small World**
The screen showed Lu Yuan moving through a stretch of wasteland — broken stone and scrub grass underfoot in every direction.
He had already found his assessment marker and recorded it.
He was crouching behind a pile of boulders standing more than two meters tall. Several hundred meters away, a massive bull lay resting on the open ground — shoulders rising over two meters high, two sharp horns jutting from its head like paired blades, its entire body clad in gray-white stone armor.
*Stone Armor Wild Bull. Second-rank, Low-level Boss Grade.*
Among Boss Grade Feral Beasts, a formidable existence by any measure. Not a dragon-type, so it didn't rule its tier the way some creatures did — but a Second-rank Boss was still a Second-rank Boss.
*Testing myself against a Second-rank Boss was one of my goals here anyway.*
He wanted to know: with his current strength, could he genuinely match a Second-rank Boss Grade beast?
A sharp gleam crossed his eyes. Force Groups resonated throughout his body in quiet readiness, Black Steel Force gathering at his core.
**Outside**
Li Qinghe was stretching out lazily, a faint smile on her face — and then her expression froze. Her eyes widened slightly as she stared at Lu Yuan's screen.
"Yuan-didi... what exactly are you doing?"
Those who had been watching other screens turned at the sound of her voice.
"Interesting kid," the mature woman said. "He must have some strategy for dealing with the Stone Armor Wild Bull — right?"
"...Probably?" The burly man's mouth twitched, the word coming out more as a question.
The tall thin man's eyes went wide: "The Stone Armor Wild Bull might not be a dragon-type, and it might not be the strongest beast at its tier — but it is still a *Second-rank Boss*! Where does this kid get the nerve to even be eyeing it?!"
"He probably has a plan," the mature woman said with a confident little smile.
Li Qinghe's eyes narrowed. Her crossed arms tightened slightly, a flicker of worry crossing her face.
*From everything I know about him,* she thought, *that kid isn't really the type to come up with some clever angle...*
If he had even prepared a little — set up an ambush, rigged some kind of sneak attack — she could have lived with that.
She reached for her cigarette again. Elder Yu was still watching her with that serene smile of his. She stiffened and put it away with a sullen look.
*I have a very bad feeling about this.*
While she was still thinking—
The crimson light blazing across Lu Yuan's body erupted to full intensity. Dark Red Blade raised, he burst from behind the boulders and charged straight at the Stone Armor Wild Bull.
**Outside**
The atmosphere went very still.
The burly man stared at the screen, eyes wide, all expression drained from his face.
A moment of dead silence.
Then:
"He just... *went straight in*?!"
Not just him — the tall thin man and the mature woman wore the exact same expression.
After another long beat, the burly man found his voice:
"Is this kid just a complete *brute*?!"
Li Qinghe gave a single twitch of the mouth.
*I knew it.*
**Inside the Small World**
The resting Stone Armor Wild Bull was jolted awake. A bloody gleam flashed through its eyes as it lurched to its feet, spinning to face the intruder.
**BOOM!!**
Two powerful auras surged — colliding and intertwining in the space between them.
Lu Yuan's eyes sharpened. His Force Groups resonated through every corner of his body; Black Steel Force erupted outward. He gripped the heavy sword with both hands and swung with everything he had at the bull's head.
*Berserk Combat Technique.*
The bull let out a low bellow. Its horns — sharp as blades — swung up to meet the descending sword.
**CLANG!!**
The ring of metal on metal rang out across the entire wasteland.
Under the collision—
Lu Yuan's body was sent hurtling through the air.
The observers outside, who still hadn't recovered from their earlier shock, found their eyes going wide all over again, mouths falling open in fresh disbelief.
**"MOOO!!"**
The Stone Armor Wild Bull bellowed.
Lu Yuan faced the beast as it bore down on him — and a gleam of pure excitement flashed through his eyes.