The People's God: Sacrificing Trillions to Ascend

The major class this time was specifically designed as an opportunity for the seniors to powerfully demonstrate their strength to their juniors. Huang Shengjun, being the valedictorian, would be disgraced if he were to lose to Han Wu at this crucial moment.

“Han Wu, I have to admit that you are strong, but it’s still not enough to win against me,” Huang Shengjun declared, intertwining his fingers together to form a seal and activating his Divine Skills.

[Legion Divine Skill: Fighting Spirit. Increases the fighting spirit and mobility of units, and reduces their perception of pain]

[War Divine Skill: Slaughter. Absorbs 25% of damage dealt to an enemy upon slaying them. Absorbed damage is converted into healing energy to mend the wounds of units. Excess healing energy is converted into a buff that increases units’ mobility proportionally to their current stats]

[Earth Divine Skill: Protect. Projects a damage-absorbing film over all units to absorb incoming damage. Also absorbs the energy directly from the earth to help units recover from injuries]

The three Divine Skills transformed into brilliant rays of light that swiftly enveloped every single goblin in the army. The goblins immediately howled with renewed vigor as the injuries inflicted by the exploding Mourning Deathcaps swiftly recovered. The thin, protective membrane of the Earth Divine Skill also insulated the goblins’ skin, causing all remaining Mourning Deathcaps to detach and fall away.

Seeing his trump card rendered useless so easily, Han Wu was taken aback. He had never thought that combined Divine Skills could be so incredibly powerful.

Despite his success, however, Huang Shengjun wasn’t looking too good. He was already panting heavily after using three Divine Skills in rapid succession. Given the restrictions of the major class, he couldn’t access his full power, and activating all three Divine Skills in one go had already pushed him to his absolute limit.

Empowered by the Divine Skills, the goblins fervently prayed.

“The Goblin God has given us his favor! Everyone, kill those insects!”

“Kill them all for the glory of our God!”

The remaining 60 million goblins or so launched another fierce attack, leaving numerous locust carcasses scattered in their wake. Despite their numbers, the locusts found themselves unable to retaliate against the now powerfully reinforced goblin forces.

Han Wu lamented deeply in his heart when he saw his core race being slaughtered, but he was utterly powerless to fight back. All he could do against such overwhelming force was to order his locusts to avoid as many attacks as possible in an attempt to reduce the mounting number of casualties.

Meanwhile, Lina and the other lecturers were observing the state of battle unfolding within each students’ divine realm, occasionally discussing promising students.

“Qin Shuang’s Lord Golden-Crown Thunder Sparrow has potential, and the overall strength of her Thunder Sparrows is quite impressive. She definitely has the qualifications to enroll into Imperial College.”

“Xu Tie’s Iron Skins are quite strong as well. They are a rare race, and I’m certain that many lecturers will be eager to research them. Furthermore, I’ve heard that his brother’s core race, the Steel Soldiers, is even rarer. We might be able to persuade him to enroll his brother in our college as well.”

“Hmm... Sun Qingnian’s core race is the Foxman. While their combat abilities are average, they are noted for their remarkably high intelligence. Sun Qingnian himself expressed an intention to specialize as a Support, and I do indeed think he’s a good candidate.”

The lecturers judged each student based on the battle’s unfolding events, their individual performance, and the capabilities of their core races, before finally assigning a score. Eventually, only Han Wu’s evaluation remained. They observed his battle intently, but no one uttered a score even as the minutes ticked by.

Based on the battle’s progression, Han Wu was steadily being pushed back and would have normally been failed under typical circumstances. But how could they possibly bring themselves to label him weak when they looked at the sheer scale of the battle? His Unique locust army, a force of nearly ten billion, had already left everyone in awe.

Han Wu could only blame his bad luck, as he was fighting against Huang Shengjun, the first-year valedictorian. Remarkably, Huang Shengjun had also been pushed by Han Wu to use all of his strength within the given class limits. Even an official first-year student would find it incredibly challenging to repel Huang Shengjun’s attack when he activated all three Divine Skills, much less Han Wu, who was merely a student on the reserve list.

Han Wu had initially performed quite well during the first half of the battle, managing to eliminate many of Huang Shengjun’s goblins. He also did his utmost during the second half, employing dynamic formations to significantly minimize his own casualties.

His performance was particularly noteworthy, especially when considering that he had fought solely with his core race and hadn’t even deployed his other five races. Given all this, it was truly difficult to say who had won this time.

Lina made her decision. She regarded Han Wu as a student possessing remarkable guts. In the latter half of the battle, despite being clearly outmatched and pushed back by Huang Shengjun, he had never surrendered—a quality she deeply admired and wished to see in all her students.

“Han Wu’s performance was stellar. Despite this loss, I believe he deserves an excellent grade,” she said.

“I agree.”

“I agree as well.”

“I have no objections.”

With nods of approval from the other lecturers, the major class then came to an end, following the finalization of each student’s score.

Huang Shengjun begrudgingly recalled his units and halted the battle after receiving the message from the lecturers. Although he had clearly won the battle, he wasn’t happy.

The battle had cost him dearly; over half his goblin forces were annihilated, with the losses heavily concentrated among his elite units. He originally commanded thousands of Heroic goblins, but fewer than a hundred had survived the brutal battle. To make matters worse, one of his Goblin Lords had also been killed by the three Locustman Lords.

In contrast to Huang Shengjun, Han Wu’s casualties among higher-ranking units were much lower. Of his initial 100,000 Heroic Locustmen, 80,000 remained. Furthermore, thanks to the Hyper Regeneration trait, his three Locustman Lords had survived, and had even improved their battle skills, especially the Dark Locustman, who had acquired the new skill, Dark Domain.

Nevertheless, the casualties on Han Wu’s side weren’t negligible. He had sent out about 10 billion locusts, and 8 billion of them had been annihilated. While this would have been a terrifying and crippling loss for any other individual, it didn’t affect him much. He still had 2 billion locusts remaining, and he could effortlessly restore their numbers in a matter of days.

After sending the seniors away, Lina began announcing the scores for her students. There were four possible scores for this major class: excellent, good, pass, and fail. Those unfortunate enough to receive a failing score would be removed from the reserve list and sent back to their original school.

She listed out the names of five students, and a wave of despair washed over them. It was common knowledge that Imperial College provided exceptional resources, a privilege they would no longer receive after this day.

The other students shuddered, but none of them pleaded on behalf of the five students, knowing it would be futile. Even if the failing students somehow managed to stay this time, much harsher tests awaited them, and they would undoubtedly fail for certain in the future.

After sending away those five students, Lina proceeded to list the names of those who had received a passing score. These students would not be sent away, but they would also not receive any rewards. Following this, she called forward the students who had received a good score, each of whom was rewarded with a Divine Essence for their commendable performance.

A frown creased Han Wu’s brow; he had fully expected to be dismissed. A wave of confusion washed over him as he still hadn’t heard his name called yet.

Did I get an excellent score? That can’t be right. I was beaten up black and blue...

As he kept his confused thoughts to himself, Lina proceeded to announce the names of those who had received an excellent score.

“And now, for those who achieved an excellent score: Qin Shuang, Xu Tie, Sun Qingnian, Qian Lili, Niu Fang, and Han Wu! You will be granted the opportunity to participate in a war against a foreign civilization! This is a truly rare chance, one that many past students have grabbed with both hands to ascend and become Demigods!”

The other students eyed the six enviously.