At nine in the morning, Guan Tong was in the garden of Konia Manor, listening as the Fire Thief's voice sounded.

[Congratulations on passing the trial of the sixteenth Doomsday Rule]

[Your final competition points are: 4144]

[Your final competition ranking is: Third place]

[Ranking tier rewards have been issued to your Storage Box]

[The seventeenth Doomsday Rule will be announced in seven days]

"Third place... that's not bad."

Guan Tong hadn't really been aiming for the ranking in the first place. If Lucifer hadn't taken Valeri's commission to kill him, he wouldn't have had the chance to counter-kill and seize points.

But over four thousand points only got him third place, meaning the top two had even more points.

If you added up everyone in the top ten thousand...

"How many Ascendants died during this rule?"

Online, there had been constant voices advocating that this rule was specifically released by the Fire Thief to target Ascendants and reduce their numbers. They argued that Ascendants should unanimously abandon the pursuit of ranking rewards and not engage in slaughter and plunder.

This argument wasn't without merit, but everyone's thoughts were different. Some Ascendants who believed their combat strength was high would inevitably want to leverage their strengths to gain more advantages. Getting these people to give up competition was easier said than done.

Although Beixing exerted powerful official control, prohibiting private fights between Contestants within its borders, it couldn't control Contestants who were abroad.

Not to mention there were maniacs like Lucifer — his points definitely didn't come from normal competition. He must have been killing every Ascendant he saw along the way, snatching points from who knows how many people.

But speaking of competition...

Guan Tong thought about the chain of explosions at the Suroma finals venue yesterday and shook his head.

"...I'd better check the rewards first."

He opened his Storage Box. Inside was an additional treasure chest.

[Ranking Tier Treasure Chest]: Divided into eight tiers based on the ranking rules of the sixteenth Doomsday Rule.

The first tier is first place, the second tier is second place, the third tier is third place, the fourth tier is places four to ten, the fifth tier is places eleven to fifty, the sixth tier is places fifty-one to one hundred, the seventh tier is places one hundred and one to one thousand, and the eighth tier is places one thousand and one to ten thousand.

"The top three each have their own tier... after that, the groups get larger, especially the last nine thousand all belonging to the eighth tier with identical rewards, probably not much. Open it."

After opening the chest, there were three rewards in total.

[Ability Obtained: Killing Intent Perception]

[Title Obtained: Bronze Hunter]

[Ascension Coins Obtained: 3000]

Three thousand Ascension Coins was a decent amount, but for Guan Tong, who could make money by selling Hidden Rules, it wasn't much. He was more focused on the ability and the title.

[Killing Intent Perception]: Passive ability. You can perceive strong hostility directed at you by others and perceive attacks that threaten you. Effective range radius: five kilometers.

"This ability..."

Guan Tong pondered in his heart.

If it only allowed him to perceive others' killing intent, it wouldn't be very meaningful for him.

Because currently, he could already somewhat perceive the existence of "killing intent."

And it wasn't just him; any Ascendant with a certain Mind Power upper limit had this sense. The higher the upper limit, the more clearly one could perceive it when someone harbored killing intent towards them.

But this [Killing Intent Perception] ability, besides perceiving others' killing intent, could actually also perceive attacks that threatened him... This meant that if someone launched a long-range attack, he could also sense it.

Guan Tong thought of the few times he had suffered long-range missile bombardments... If he had possessed this passive ability back then, when the missiles entered within five kilometers of him, he could have perceived them and responded in time, such as immediately using Body Swap to get as far away as possible.

Looking at it this way, this passive skill held extraordinary significance for safety. Guan Tong was fairly satisfied.

After checking the ability info, he summoned the Terminal panel.

[Name: Guan Tong]

[Nickname: Shadow]

[Title: Civilization Observer]

[Mind Power: 989 (989) (2127)]

[Ascension Coins: 7148280]

[Overall Biometric Rating: Outstanding]

After the rule ended, the mandatory "Contestant" title had disappeared, reverting to his previous title.

His Mind Power upper limit was still 11 points short of breaking through one thousand. It wouldn't have been this fast originally, but after the battle with Lucifer, it seemed to have increased by several points.

Regarding reserve Mind Power, after the battle with Lucifer, it had fallen below the ten-thousand level and needed to be replenished quickly.

Regarding Ascension Coins, during the Rule Period these past few days, there was a fixed daily expenditure of twelve thousand for purchasing flowing Mind Power from Black Star. By today, nearly one hundred thousand had been spent.

This spending rate wasn't slow, but Guan Tong still felt the efficiency wasn't high enough. Therefore, he planned to obtain more items capable of storing flowing Mind Power as soon as possible to speed up the recovery of a large reserve, preparing to deal with more threats.

He opened the title list to check the effect of the newly added "Bronze Hunter."

[Bronze Hunter]: Equipping this title increases stamina recovery speed by 100% and Mind Power recovery speed by 50% when fighting other Ascendants.

The two buff effects were pretty good, but still not as good as 'Civilization Observer.'

Guan Tong thought to himself, if he fought an enemy in the future, he could first use the [Civilization Observer] title to gain intel on the enemy's abilities and items, then switch to this buff title to start fighting. That way, the gains could be maximized. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

After checking the title effect, he wanted to switch back, but was surprised to find that behind the [Civilization Observer] title in the list, a prompt reading "Experience can be increased" had appeared.

He remembered this title was upgradeable, but previously he hadn't found the upgrade method and gradually forgot about it. He didn't expect it could gain experience now.

He immediately switched to this title to check the prompt details.

[Consuming the currently held item "Nano Swarm" can increase this title's experience]

"Consume the Nano Swarm..."

Guan Tong was slightly taken aback and began to understand.

The [Nano Swarm] in his possession couldn't generate swarm intelligence due to insufficient numbers, but it was indeed a type of special life form.

To increase the experience and level of the [Civilization Observer] title, it seemed he needed to feed it "food." This "food" appeared to be different types of life forms?

But...

Guan Tong looked at the black glove formed by the Nano Swarm on his left hand, hesitating in his heart.

This item was currently very useful to him. Not to mention anything else, during the battle with Lucifer, the large net it transformed into decomposed most of the storm formed by Lucifer's four wings, contributing greatly to his victory.

If he fed it to the title now, what if he needed it later? Moreover, judging from the prompt, feeding it would only give the title experience, not enough to level up.

Not leveling up meant no new effects, which would be a complete negative for his overall strength.

"Let's wait and see for a while."

After hesitating for a moment, Guan Tong decided to keep the Nano Swarm for now.

But if his guess was correct and the title upgrade required different life forms, would capturing a few parasitized forms work later? Or perhaps because parasitized forms are human bodies, they don't count as other life forms... he could only know by trying.

After checking the rewards from this rule, Guan Tong felt it was about time for him to return to Beixing.

From the fifteenth rule until now, with the sixteenth rule ended, the time he spent in Xisiya wasn't very long, but it was not short either.

He had made an agreement with Yelanka to protect her until her position was stable and domestic threats were cleared. Currently, this objective could be considered achieved.

The faction led by Lijeka, with Valeri as the main power holder, had almost all been cleaned up. Even if there were small, overlooked remnants left, they could no longer pose a threat to her.

Moreover, Yelanka had been taking continuous actions these past few days, reclaiming various state powers into her own hands. As for the rebels, regardless of their numbers, she executed them all without mercy, showing no leniency.

Such a hardline stance quickly established her prestige. On Xisiya's local network, Guan Tong had already seen that many Xisiyans had started calling her by the nickname "Blood Maiden." The situation was evident.

Thus, his mission was considered complete. Staying longer would only involve collecting Mind Power from Black Star, with nothing else to do.

Meanwhile, during this Interval Period, returning to Beixing meant he had many things to do.

Finding Shi Jingyi to learn about methods to accelerate the improvement of his Mind Power upper limit was an important matter. Also, he planned to meet friends along the way — Chen Na, Xu Xiaotian, even Silver Fox — he hadn't seen them in a long time.

Besides that, he also planned to communicate with the Countermeasures Research Office.

After the Fire Thief Worship Cult launched the terrorist attack on the Suroma Competition Arena, the Human Consortium could no longer tolerate the existence of this cult organization and needed to eradicate it as soon as possible.

Although Guan Tong had promised Gao Liangwei that he was willing to lead a team to Fahe to deal with the Fire Thief Worship Cult's higher-ups, actually implementing it would definitely require a lot of preparation, which would take time.

"Teacher."

Just as Guan Tong was thinking about these things, Yelanka walked into the garden and came to his side.

Guan Tong looked over. Yelanka was dressed as usual in her efficient casual suit, but she looked much more spirited and energetic than before. It was clear that although she had been extremely busy these past few days, her mood had been consistently good.

"Teacher, did you receive the ranking rewards?"

"Yes, I did. Seems I should say thank you to Lucifer."

"Heh."

"Oh, Yelanka, you came at the right time," Guan Tong said. "I think now that you've reclaimed various military and political powers and your position is stable, your personal safety is also secured. This way, I can't be of much more help. It's about time for me to return to Beixing."

A shadow passed through Yelanka's eyes, but she quickly adjusted. "I know you have many things to do, Teacher. I'm already very grateful that you could stay here to protect me for so long... Without your help, it definitely wouldn't have gone so smoothly."

"Don't be so polite. Although we are teacher and student, we are also friends. Friends help each other. There's no need for thanks."

"...Mhm." Yelanka pursed her lips slightly, gazing into Guan Tong's eyes. "However, I hope Teacher will have time to visit me in the future. Because I... am afraid I cannot easily leave this place."

Guan Tong sighed softly in his heart.

He knew that Yelanka, now holding great power, would also be bound by that power. As the Administrator of Xisiya, she naturally couldn't come and go as she pleased like others.

"I will." He said seriously. "I will visit you often. When I make new friends, I'll introduce them to you too."

Yelanka's purple pupils widened slightly, shimmering with a crystalline light. She nodded firmly, burying the reluctance in her heart within the cold wind of late February.