Rise of the Zerg in the World of Gods

No. 1 and No. 6 High Schools had already finished their matches, with one having a bye. The remaining sixteen schools made up eight matches, taking place simultaneously in eight venues.

Only No. 1 High School could afford such extravagance; for other schools, even accommodating so many people was a challenge.

The eight matches naturally had winners and losers, but there were no more one-sided situations.

A streak of twenty victories wasn't something everyone could achieve.

With wins and losses, some showing average strength and others standing out, this was normal.

"Come on, let's go cheer!" As No. 16 High School's second-year match was about to start, Wang Xiaoling quickly pulled Xu Luo and Cha Lei to go support.

"Xiaoling, are you obsessed? Nothing's even happened yet, why are you in such a rush?" Cha Lei couldn't stand it anymore.

Taking the initiative was one thing, but this seemed like she was throwing herself at him.

"What's wrong with that? If I don't move fast, don't you see how many eyes are on him? When you find someone you like, you should bravely go for it!" Wang Xiaoling said, unperturbed.

"Hmm~" Cha Lei dragged out the sound.

"Fine, who told you to be my friend?"

Xu Luo didn't mind and followed along to watch the match.

Most students from these schools chose unit battles. The current situation was such that units were always prioritized, so those focusing on personal strength were a minority.

After waiting a while, Xu Chengzhi finally appeared, with No. 16 High School erupting in cheers.

Although he hadn't been there long, Xu Chengzhi had already conquered these students and teachers with his strength.

Previously, No. 16 High School's student had lost, and the opponent chose a Demi-God battle, so Xu Chengzhi had no choice when he went on stage.

Now both people appeared on the arena in their own forms.

Xu Chengzhi had a crew cut. Although his face was ordinary, he looked very energetic, with a body of strong muscles that seemed to possess explosive power.

He was now facing a blood mage, with the entire arena shrouded in a faint bloody aura.

Outside the arena were cheers from both sides' supporters, while inside were two silent figures.

Xu Chengzhi didn't choose any weapon, standing there bare-handed, with a faint golden light on his body blocking the silent invasion of the blood aura.

"An ascetic monk?" His opponent, with a pale face, showed a hint of surprise.

One of the three major human unit types, the only remaining Gold-tier advancement direction.

This was an extremely difficult path of cultivation, jumping directly from Bronze to Gold. Even units found it hard to cultivate, let alone students.

Many people gave up halfway because it was too difficult.

When Zuo Tianyao was still alive, he wanted to solve the big leap problem by adding a level between monk and ascetic monk for a smoother transition, but he had an accident before succeeding.

Unlike other directions, there were no shortcuts from monk to ascetic monk. One could only progress step by step, painstakingly tempering their body and refining their spirit and will. Only when the mind reached a certain level could one naturally advance successfully.

There were no auxiliary methods to use in this process, nor any way to speed it up.

Many humans possessed human race units.

Even if their initial units weren't human, they could later develop in this direction.

But among so many developing human race units, very few cultivated ascetic monks, and the input-output ratio was too disproportionate, so few people delved into this area.

Now, seeing Xu Chengzhi's light golden skin, very much in line with the characteristics of an ascetic monk, the blood mage couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Among the spectators, many people suddenly stood up.

"What a pity!" However, many people with good eyesight quickly saw that he wasn't a true ascetic monk. Although very close, he hadn't crossed the final step.

Xu Chengzhi could now be said to be standing at the boundary between monk and ascetic monk.

If he crossed over, he would become a Gold-tier 2 ascetic monk. If not, he was just a monk.

Although his power level had risen to the peak of Silver, a monk's essence was still only Bronze, putting him at a disadvantage against others.

A monk versus a blood mage, this match was quite interesting to watch.

"Unexpectedly, he's a tough one!" Seeing that Xu Chengzhi was almost an ascetic monk, Cha Lei was very surprised. This wasn't something an ordinary person could achieve; it required great willpower and enduring much painful hardship to succeed.

This path was too difficult, and in the end, it was just Gold-tier. In current society, there were many directions to choose from, with many paths to reach Gold-tier. Many people felt there was no need to take this path.

"Have you decided which path you'll take?" Xu Luo was also surprised by Xu Chengzhi's choice, not expecting someone to still follow the monk to ascetic monk system nowadays.

"I'm definitely going to be a Kobold priest! I'll become the God of Kobolds in the future." Cha Lei shouted a slogan.

"For the glory of Douglas!"

"Give it up, you're still on about being the God of Kobolds? Are you going to take down the Main God of the Mocloud Civilization?" Wang Xiaoling rolled her eyes and mocked him.

Without Xu Chengzhi around, she was a girl with normal intelligence.

Kobolds might be low-tier, but out of every hundred new players, at least three started with Kobolds. Along with humans, Kobolds, goblins, slimes, troglodytes, and other races, they were popular starting creatures, easy to obtain.

But this didn't mean Kobolds were weak.

God's Domain was fair. Powerful beings had their advantages but also disadvantages, while weak creatures had their own strengths.

Dragons, for instance, were individually strong but grew slowly, had difficulty reproducing, and were costly to raise.

Kobolds, on the other hand, came in litters of several, were easy to feed and raise. Though individually weak, they easily formed collective strength.

One might not be talented, but among thousands, there would always be one with outstanding aptitude.

So although Kobolds seemed unremarkable, many Gods used them as a foundation to ascend, valuing their numbers.

In the Hall of Gods, there was a Main God of Kobolds from the Mocloud Civilization, which didn't border humans and seemed to be a level five civilization.

Besides this, there were nineteen God Kings, over a hundred True Gods, and countless High Gods.

Want to become the God of Kobolds?

That would require becoming a Unique God to earn that title, but the prerequisite was defeating all other Kobold-lineage Gods.

In the Hall of Gods, there were many Unique Gods, but none were easy to deal with.

The Angel God, also known as the Lord of Light, was a Unique God, an existence above Main Gods. Any light-aligned God would automatically become his subordinate God, including Angel Gods. Disagree?

You would be abandoned by light power and betrayed by angels.

The Dragon God was similar, as one of the strongest native Gods, also the only God of dragons, likewise an existence above Main Gods.

Anyway, becoming the only God of a certain group wasn't an easy task and would face many obstacles.

"I'll just be a Moon Elf priest, and later can transition to a Moon God priest. Becoming an Elven God won't be affected," Wang Xiaoling wasn't too conflicted.

There were many types of elves, and their professions were very diverse, with many directions to choose from. Moreover, elves didn't have a Unique God, so becoming a God wouldn't be too troublesome.

Hearing their choices, Xu Luo wasn't surprised. Race-specific professions that matched one's creature were the best development direction, and after becoming a God, they would also match that race.

However, he was troubled.

Zerg had no professions, not developing in a professional direction, but relying on genetic evolution. What could he learn?

But the Zerg didn't have a God yet, so his resistance could be said to be the smallest.

In the Hall of Gods, there were Butterfly Gods, Bee Gods, and other such deities, but no God named after the Zerg.

Currently, when Xu Luo strengthened himself, he basically used Vivi as a template, having some spellcasting ability and also learning close combat.

Among these, he learned the human race's Sword Saint for close combat.

Although the Beast Sword Saint was also powerful, it was too ugly, so Xu Luo still chose the human race.

More importantly, the human Sword Saint not only had a similar appearance to him but also a similar body type, so there weren't too many differences when learning.

The human Sword Saint had no next advancement direction, which wasn't a problem for Xu Luo.

Moreover, he was just using this as a transition.

For Gods, there were no restrictions on learning skills. As long as two powers didn't conflict and one could learn them, learning several wasn't an issue.

As long as one wasn't suicidal, insisting on learning conflicting powers like light and darkness coexisting or water and fire fusing, otherwise, one could learn as much as possible throughout their life.

In the arena, Xu Chengzhi's attacks were very simple, each move unadorned, incomparable to the blood mage's various blood magics.

But a monk's physical qualities were terrifying, especially for someone just a step away from becoming an ascetic monk. Sometimes he endured the opponent's attacks, forcibly approaching to deal significant damage with his fists.

If not for the blood mage using his ability to transform into blood to dodge at these moments, he would have been beaten to death long ago.

Xu Chengzhi was also helpless. He hadn't become an ascetic monk yet and didn't possess mental power. His current attacks were basically all physical, making it difficult to cause fatal damage to the blood mage.

The blood mage couldn't do much to him, but wasn't he in the same situation?

However, one point was that every time he got close, the blood mage could only transform into blood, but this move was very draining. Now it was just a matter of seeing who would give up first.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, basically no student would choose to surrender.

This was a points match; surrendering was meaningless. It was better to fight with all one's might, exhausting the opponent's power as much as possible. Even if one died, it could lighten the pressure for those coming after.

The two entangled for a while, but in the end, Xu Chengzhi's skill prevailed.

After winning, Xu Chengzhi switched to possession battle mode, where both sides sent out their strongest believers to fight.

The result was Xu Chengzhi's overwhelming victory. Relying on his powerful combat abilities and borrowing his believer's strong power, his fighting ability was finally unleashed without restrictions.

Although not as exaggerated as a streak of twenty, defeating all the opponent's remaining people alone was still very impressive.

At this point, Xu Chengzhi's popularity soared, directly entering the top ten on the overall ranking board.

Wang Xiaoling's eyes were almost crescent moons, happier than if she had won herself.

Now, on the popularity rankings, Fang Shuo was far ahead, looking down on everyone, with the bar representing his popularity much higher than others.

Second was Xu Luo.

Although he was a first-year newcomer with no previous popularity base, just one performance of a twenty-win streak had already gained him countless fans.

Behind were some veteran students, all aces from various schools.

Ninth was Xu Chengzhi, who had just squeezed in.

Fang Shuo's high popularity was due to his accumulation over the previous two years. As a top student representing the 11th district in competitions beyond Tianhai, his popularity base wasn't just in Tianhai, incomparable to others.

However, Xu Luo, a newcomer, surpassing other top students still surprised many people.

Top students from No. 3 and No. 8 High Schools were also very strong, similarly representing the 11th district in competitions, with some fans, but they were still surpassed.

After No. 16 High School's second-year matches finished, the first-year matches began.

The three became attentive.

After all, these people would be their opponents in the future. Observing their strength now would be very helpful for dealing with them later.

However, the strength of No. 16 High School's first-years left Xu Luo somewhat disappointed. Although not weak, they weren't strong either, especially compared to Xu Chengzhi's earlier performance - there was no comparison.

Thinking about how Xu Chengzhi had been hiding his units in the previous battles, Xu Luo had some guesses.

Perhaps his unit development wasn't going well, so he focused on improving his own strength.

But it was also possible that his units were too strong, and he didn't want to expose them so early.

Considering Xu Chengzhi's strong military bearing, Xu Luo leaned towards the latter possibility.

However, he only paid a little attention to this, as the main opponents were second-years, and it wouldn't be his turn to face them.

Whether he would face Xu Chengzhi in the team battles was still unknown.

Watching Wang Xiaoling run to show concern for Xu Chengzhi, Cha Lei and Xu Luo exchanged glances, both shaking their heads helplessly at this person who forgot her friends for a crush.

They didn't want to be third wheels either, so they turned to watch the ongoing matches.

With so many venues, they could wander around freely.

Usually, they never had the chance to come to No. 1 High School.

The newly famous Xu Luo also experienced being treated like a celebrity, with people enthusiastically greeting him wherever he went.

However, maintaining a smile, Xu Luo's facial expression was almost stiff.

Cha Lei just laughed on the side, showing no intention of helping to share the burden.

What are friends for if not to laugh at you when you're in trouble?

Xu Luo was very helpless, but with media reporters around taking pictures, he didn't want such scenes captured, so he could only restrain himself.