Chapter 351: Chapter 280: Skill Upgrade Summary, the Shovel Assassin Strikes
Although Chen Suifeng had given Su Ze the contestant profiles, he didn’t pay them much mind, tossing them aside after a cursory glance.
The file only contained some basic information and wasn’t of much value.
This time, Snowfield Continent and Flame Emperor Continent had each sent two contestants. Lin Hua Continent, including Su Ze and Mr. Ya, had a total of four, bringing the grand total to eight.
But even without considering Su Ze and Mr. Ya, Lin Hua Country still sent two of its own contestants. In other words, every participant this time was an absolute genius, an elite from one of the three great continents!
Not a single opponent could be underestimated.
This was a showdown between the young geniuses of the three great continents. The fifty-year-old age limit barred the old-timers who had languished at the Overlord stage for centuries.
What Su Ze didn’t know was that at this very moment, the contestants from Snowfield Continent and Flame Emperor Continent had all fixed their attention on him.
After arriving on Lin Hua Continent, the contestants from the other two continents had quickly gathered some information about Lin Hua’s four participants.
Among them, Su Ze was particularly conspicuous because of his age—he was only eighteen!
An eighteen-year-old Saint-level Overlord... They had never even heard of such a thing.
And for Lin Hua Continent to send him as a representative meant its officials recognized his strength!
An eighteen-year-old Overlord was already terrifying enough. If he also possessed outstanding combat prowess... wasn’t he completely broken? How was anyone supposed to compete with that?
After all, out of the eight contestants, the next youngest after Su Ze was twenty-eight—a full ten years his senior!
"Did Lin Hua Continent submit a falsified report? This has to be impossible!" a contestant from Snowfield Continent said in disbelief.
"By the Flame Emperor! Did this guy start absorbing extracts in the womb?" a contestant from Flame Emperor Continent exclaimed, completely stunned.
It was a good thing Su Ze couldn’t hear their discussions. Otherwise, he would have surely added a thought of his own: ’Strictly speaking, I’m not even a year old yet.’
...
「Chen Suifeng’s Villa, Second Floor.」
Ever since arriving in Lin Hua Country, Mr. Ya had also taken up residence here, becoming Su Ze’s next-door neighbor.
He was currently standing guard outside Su Ze’s room, waiting quietly.
The lock clicked, and Su Ze opened the door and stepped out.
"Boss, how did it go?" Mr. Ya asked.
"All my skills are upgraded. This tournament is in the bag!" Su Ze declared, brimming with confidence.
He had absorbed all the materials Chen Suifeng had acquired for him from the Lin Hua National Treasury, finally upgrading his last three Tier-3 skills to Tier-4.
With all of his skills at Tier-4, he immediately felt a distinct elevation in his life’s essence, which in turn brought about a substantial boost to both his physique and his Spiritual Power.
’So it’s true,’ he thought. ’Getting all your skills to Tier-4 really does trigger a major boost.’
Each skill corresponded to a genetic sequence. After Su Ze became a Saint-level Overlord, these sequences had begun to hold him back.
Now that his skills were all at Tier-4, Su Ze’s entire being had fully transitioned to the Saint-level, achieving a state of complete perfection. A corresponding increase in power was only natural.
Mr. Ya grinned. "In that case, Boss, you’ve got the championship locked down. My goal is to take second place!"
Su Ze laughed. "We’ll send the folks from Snowfield Continent and Flame Emperor Continent home in tears."
However, a hint of worry lingered in Su Ze’s eyes. Even after upgrading all his skills, he had the nagging feeling that something was still flawed.
It seemed there was still a weak link in his genetic makeup—the "short plank" in the bucket theory. A bucket’s capacity is determined by its shortest stave.
Because of this weak link, it seemed he was unable to ascend to a higher level of existence.
’It’s the Divine Grace of Evolution!’
Su Ze had a sudden realization. The incompleteness of his Evolution Divine Grace Skill was holding him back, acting as a stumbling block on his evolutionary path and creating a fatal flaw in his genetic code.
The rank of the Divine Grace of Evolution skill was far beyond that of a mere Tier-4 skill. Even in its incomplete state, it was superior to any Tier-4 skill.
But because it was incomplete, one couldn’t say it had reached the Tier-4 threshold. Could a skill that became ineffective at the Overlord stage truly be considered Tier-4?
It was a flawed, incomplete skill—and a severely flawed one at that.
’If the Divine Grace of Evolution skill is a cake,’ Su Ze suspected, ’I’ve probably only had a lick of the frosting.’
He could feel it. If he didn’t complete the Divine Grace of Evolution, his evolutionary path would end here. He would never get the chance to undergo his fifth evolution!
The Divine Grace of Evolution... it was a gift, but also a trap. A curse!
Su Ze sighed. Even if he could suppress his craving for the complete Divine Grace of Evolution, ignore its powerful effects, and willingly abandon the skill, it was already too late.
To abandon the Divine Grace of Evolution would mean abandoning his future, severing his evolutionary path entirely.
Pushing his emotions aside, Su Ze didn’t dwell on the matter. The task at hand—winning the tournament—was what mattered most.
He had a lot riding on this tournament, having even wagered his Bloodline Crystal. He had to take first place.
And with all of his skills now at Tier-4 or higher, Su Ze was incredibly confident in his own strength.
The three skills he had just upgraded—Needle Strike, Furious Waves, and Celestial Sea Wings—had all seen significant improvement.
The upgrade to the Flying Skill, Celestial Sea Wings, wasn’t particularly noteworthy. A Flying Skill was meant for travel, and upgrading it simply meant he could fly faster.
His ability to traverse water, on the other hand, had seen a breakthrough. Su Ze could now use Water Escape.
After the Furious Waves skill was upgraded, the "ground strike" activation requirement was removed. Previously, he had to slam the ground to activate it.
