Chapter 676 - 646: Pressure

When Lin Xinghai heard Xiang Tianhua say, "You don’t have to do anything," it was his turn to be taken aback.

"Really? It’s fine even if I don’t do anything?" Lin Xinghai asked.

"Of course. At the end of the day, it’s just an unwritten rule. But it’s an unwritten rule that almost everyone knows about, so you can take a look at their expressions." As Xiang Tianhua spoke, he gestured toward the outer area.

Lin Xinghai followed his gaze. Most of the people gathered in that direction were students from East Sea Academy.

At that moment, all those students—whether they were chatting or accepting missions—kept glancing over. When Lin Xinghai looked up at them, they all stopped what they were doing, their faces filled with anticipation.

"They’re all waiting for you to come up with a solution," Xiang Tianhua said.

Xiang Tianhua used to enjoy being the center of attention, basking in everyone’s expectant gazes.

It gave him a great sense of accomplishment.

But that was on one condition: that he could actually solve the problems everyone was facing.

But in this university league, with their side falling so far behind, everyone’s expectations had become an invisible pressure.

Xiang Tianhua was starting to buckle under that pressure, which was why he had been hoping for Lin Xinghai to break into the top ten on the Points leaderboard and share the burden.

Now, not only had Lin Xinghai entered the top ten, but he even had the strength to vie for first place. Naturally, that responsibility had been transferred to him.

Although Xiang Tianhua felt a faint sense of disappointment, he was mostly relieved.

Lin Xinghai met the expectant gazes of the other students from East Sea Academy and suddenly felt a weight on his shoulders. He now understood some of what Xiang Tianhua must have been feeling.

After a moment of reflection, he sighed softly. "Alright! I understand the situation."

Hearing Lin Xinghai say that, Xiang Tianhua couldn’t help but smile. He asked curiously, "So what’s your plan?"

"Improve my strength." Lin Xinghai’s answer was simple and direct.

"Uh... you’re not going to arrange anything else?" Xiang Tianhua looked taken aback.

"Then what kind of arrangements do you think we should make to get our total Points above the other two academies?" Lin Xinghai asked in return.

"I don’t know," Xiang Tianhua said after a brief silence. ’If I knew, I would’ve done it already.’

"There you have it. Instead of worrying about all this, it’s better to just focus on getting stronger. Once our strength is high enough, problems that seem unsolvable now might become easy to deal with," Lin Xinghai said.

Xiang Tianhua stared blankly at Lin Xinghai for a long moment before saying, "You have a better mindset. But you’re right. The most important thing for us now is to increase our strength."

"Speaking of increasing our strength, there’s something I almost forgot to mention."

"Maybe you’ve pushed them too far. I heard that the strongest students at the Peak of the Body Shaping Realm, from both East Sea Academy and Capital University, are planning to break through to the Divine Demon Realm as soon as possible. If they succeed, you’ll probably have a hard time holding on to your number one spot on the Points leaderboard," Xiang Tianhua warned with a serious expression.

Now it was Lin Xinghai’s turn to be surprised. "For real? Are they just going to ignore their foundations and force a breakthrough?"

’He was sure that if they could have broken through, they would have done so long ago. There’s no way they would have waited until now.’

’If they decide to force a breakthrough, not having reached the Perfect State in the Body Shaping Realm will have a significant impact on their future cultivation.’

’Ordinary geniuses would jump at the chance to break through to the Divine Demon Realm, regardless of the consequences.’

’But the top geniuses from these two academies would never be satisfied with just reaching the Divine Demon Realm.’

"It won’t necessarily affect their foundations," Xiang Tianhua explained. "You must know about the Blood Bags. With those, they can quickly reshape their bodies to the Perfect State and then break through."

"It’s not just them, either. I’m planning on it too. The only problem now is whether we can get enough Blood Bags."

Lin Xinghai was momentarily at a loss for words. ’He’d forgotten that if he could use Blood Bags to break through quickly, so could everyone else.’

If those students at the Peak of the Body Shaping Realm really seized this opportunity to break through to the Divine Demon Realm, the subsequent competition for the leaderboard would undoubtedly put a lot more pressure on him.

Lin Xinghai let out a breath and nodded. "Alright, I get it."

Xiang Tianhua was once again surprised to see Lin Xinghai accept this reality so quickly and act as if nothing was wrong. "Aren’t you worried at all?"

"There’s nothing to worry about. By the time they break through to the Divine Demon Realm, I’ll have broken through to the Body Shaping Realm. Defeating them from a full Realm below isn’t that hard," Lin Xinghai said.

Xiang Tianhua: "..."

Although Lin Xinghai’s words were absurdly arrogant, when Xiang Tianhua thought about his track record, he felt it might not be impossible after all.

"Then I’ll look forward to seeing you work your magic." Xiang Tianhua clapped Lin Xinghai on the shoulder and quickly left to do a mission.

Lin Xinghai, in turn, immediately led Little Fatty and the others toward the mission assignment window.

...

"Hello, I’d like to accept extermination mission 3-A50," Lin Xinghai said directly as he arrived at the mission window.

The person at this window was still the same female second lieutenant, Huang Nuomeng. Her eyes lit up with anticipation when she saw Lin Xinghai approach, and a smile spread across her face when she heard him state the mission number.

"Of course, one moment," she said, quickly processing the mission for Lin Xinghai.

After finishing, however, Huang Nuomeng hesitated for a moment before saying, "Lin, extermination mission 3-B513 is quite urgent. I heard the number of Abyssal Creatures in that area is still increasing rapidly."

"If no one has taken it by the time you get back, could you please consider it? I’ll make sure to maximize the rewards for you, of course."

"No problem." Lin Xinghai glanced at the mission details and nodded. ’To him, several of the extermination missions were pretty similar, so it didn’t really matter which one he chose.’

"Then I’ll thank you in advance on behalf of the Military Department. Also, 30 seconds have passed. Congratulations on successfully accepting the mission. Just like last time, you have an ammunition subsidy of 100,000 Huaxia Coins," Huang Nuomeng said, putting her palms together gratefully.

Lin Xinghai nodded and soon departed with the Xinghai Squad. Following the same procedure as before, they first went to the armory to restock on ammunition.

Of course, since they hadn’t used the Cloud Burst Bomb from last time, they didn’t need to pick up another one.

With their preparations complete, the group set off. Just like before, they hurried to the mission location, greeted the troops stationed there, and then Lin Xinghai immediately led his squad into the area to begin the extermination.

This time, there were no surprises.

Half an hour later, the mission was completed without a hitch.

In addition to the considerable mission rewards, they also obtained an extra 45 Blood Bags.

Everyone could clearly feel that the drop rate for Blood Bags from killing Abyssal Creatures was rapidly increasing.

After that, Lin Xinghai led the squad as they took on one extermination mission after another.

The afternoon quickly passed. By 6:00 PM, they had completed a total of six missions.

And from those six missions, the squad’s gains were immense.