Once Jiang Chen had thoroughly digested the assessment rules of the Heavenly Spirit Zone, he felt much more at ease.
"The base points — I need to secure as many of that hundred as possible. Among the advancement points, I can take on some challenges where appropriate. But the more reliable approach is to apply for the regular tasks. A Tier One task alone earns ten points, and I can apply every day. As for special tasks, even though the point rewards are generous and don't cost any points to attempt, you can only do one per month at most — they're few and far between."
"At this stage, I've only just started. I need to play it safe. No blind charges or reckless moves."
Jiang Chen set himself a baseline. He had no foundation whatsoever in the Heavenly Spirit Zone — everything was starting from scratch. Playing it steady was the way to go.
"The previous warriors here have already completed two cycles of assessments. They must have accumulated a massive number of points by now. My starting position is already far behind these fellows. Fortunately, there's still plenty of time. Three years total, and only half a year has passed. I have two and a half years to catch up. That's still ample time. Of course, the prerequisite is that I don't get eliminated. If my points aren't enough and I end up in the bottom ten after three months, I'll be sent slinking back to the Earth Spirit Zone."
Jiang Chen would absolutely not allow that to happen.
"I wonder how many points the top warriors have reached by now?" Jiang Chen had never participated in an assessment here, so he really couldn't give a precise estimate.
"Even if I can't pin it down for the moment, it's pretty much a given that the top-tier people each have over a thousand points."
After all, six months meant one hundred and eighty days. Even completing just one Tier One task per day would yield eighteen hundred points.
And that wasn't even counting the two hundred base points earned every two months.
Of course, points weren't a one-way street. Failed tasks would deduct points just the same. And once you failed, you couldn't apply for any tasks for the next five days. That would inevitably put a damper on your point accumulation.
Jiang Chen could see that the Heavenly Spirit Zone's assessment rules, relatively speaking, were primarily designed to nurture these warriors — to give these geniuses a full three years to grow and mature.
Compared to the other assessment zones, the Heavenly Spirit Zone would have fewer life-or-death clashes. This was clearly intended to prevent the top geniuses from going head-to-head too early and to avoid the premature fall of any exceptional talent.
When top-tier geniuses clashed, the resulting collision could well prove fatal.
Therefore, combat-based assessments in the Heavenly Spirit Zone were significantly fewer.
That didn't mean they were entirely absent, though. Challenging another warrior could earn you twenty points. For warriors who were confident in their fighting ability, this was undoubtedly a popular avenue for earning points.
Moreover, the assessments ran continuously, and occasionally there was a genuine need for some bouts so warriors could gauge each other's growth rates.
Such challenges rarely turned into fights to the death. The intensity of combat wouldn't be nearly as fierce as in the other assessment zones.
Jiang Chen knew this was deliberate on the part of the four great sects.
After all, when the time came to select the strongest sixty-four for the finals, warriors would have plenty of opportunities to display their martial skills and settle who stood above whom.
The finals three years down the road were the true stage for these geniuses to showcase their martial dao potential. These three years, instead, were meant for cultivation, improvement, and advancement.
Conditions in the Heavenly Spirit Zone were superb in every respect.
On top of that, geniuses from all the major sects were gathered here. Everyone existed in a state of intense competition, pushing one another forward. Felt that competitive pressure — it was hard not to strive harder even if you wanted to.
With rivals came motivation, and progress came all the faster.
Having familiarized himself with the rules, Jiang Chen drew up an initial plan. First: complete the twenty base assessments as quickly as possible and lock in that hundred base points.
With those hundred points in hand, he could then branch out and have a shot at earning more.
It was like a gambling den — those hundred points were his starting stake. He had to use that hundred as his capital, growing it bit by bit through steady accumulation.
Right now, he was a rank newcomer who could only play within the beginner's arena. Even if he earned all hundred base points, he still wouldn't be able to apply for a Tier Five task.
A Tier Five task offered a reward of two hundred points.
A two-hundred-point reward required a two-hundred-point deposit.
"Never mind all that. I've only just arrived in the Heavenly Spirit Zone — I should walk around, take a look, and scope out the other competitors." Back in the Xuan Spirit Zone and the Earth Spirit Zone, Jiang Chen hadn't made a point of studying his rivals.
In those two zones, he'd held the advantage. Understanding his opponents wasn't necessary — he could dominate regardless.
The Heavenly Spirit Zone was a different matter entirely. Every warrior here had been handpicked from among the four great sects — the cream of the crop, the elite among the elite.
None of these opponents could be taken lightly. And most critically, they had already spent two six-month stints in the Heavenly Spirit Zone. Their familiarity with the place and their grasp of the rules were bound to be far superior to newcomers like him.
Of course, like every other zone, the Heavenly Spirit Zone only allowed access to designated areas. Venturing into restricted zones meant being attacked by various prohibition formations.
The areas open for roaming were the warriors' residential quarters and the Great Heavenly Spirit Plaza. The plaza housed the base assessment area, the task board, and the combat arena.
As for the residential area, apart from the public roads, everyone's dwelling was private territory. Without the owner's permission, Jiang Chen naturally couldn't barge in.
After circling the grounds for a while, he discovered that there was absolutely no one wandering around outside.
"Looks like I was too naive. An inch of time is worth an inch of gold — with such prime cultivation hours available, no warrior would be idling about outside."