Chapter 81: Special Exam (8)
Joint examination of three schools, the third day in the examination room, seven hours later in reality.
As the three days of exam time passed, the number of candidates still in the examination room dropped sharply to just over 200.
Among these more than 200 people, only a very small number were still deliberately hunting down the Nine Nether evil creatures.
Most of the remaining candidates chose to hide, trying to survive as long as possible while aiming for good scores.
After this period of testing, the strength of most students had been fully demonstrated.
Among them, there were only seven students who stood out the most, namely...
Jiangnan No. 1 High School: Su Chen, Lu Xiaoye, and Bian Shouyi.
Jiangnan No. 2 High School: Chu Gucai and Jin Shanli.
Jiangnan No. 3 High School: Liu Zhaodao and Shen Feiyang.
Among these individuals, Su Chen was not the only one who accomplished the feat of killing evil creatures in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Two other students also achieved the same.
Without exception, these two individuals had awakened their innate magical powers.
They were Lu Xiaoye, who awakened the 'Red Flame Phoenix Tribulation,' and Shen Feiyang, who awakened the 'Soul Binding Order.'
The teachers were not particularly surprised that Lu Xiaoye could defeat an evil creature in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
After all, her Red Flame Phoenix Tribulation is not only powerful but also has a strong inhibitory effect on evil creatures.
Even if a Nine Nether evil creature in the Foundation Establishment Stage encountered her, it would be difficult to deal with her terrifying Phoenix Tribulation Fire.
Not to mention that the Red Flame Phoenix Tribulation can also feedback to the user by burning the enemy's vitality.
It could be said to be a top-level talent specially created for combat.
But Shen Feiyang from No. 3 High School was different.
This guy's rise was just like Su Chen's—far beyond everyone's expectations.
Before the joint entrance examination of the three schools, Shen Feiyang was just an ordinary student in the human dao class of No. 3 High School.
Not only was his talent mediocre, but his personality was also very eccentric.
In No. 3 High School, he was almost an unknown figure.
What no one expected was that this child had unknowingly awakened his innate magical power—the 'Soul Binding Order.'
He can forcibly imprison some ghosts in his body and use them under his control.
The most important thing is that this kid had somehow obtained a ghost in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Even though he was only at the seventh level of the Qi Gathering Stage, he possessed a powerful strength comparable to that of an ordinary person at the Foundation Establishment Stage.
This enabled him to easily defeat an evil creature in the Foundation Establishment Stage in the joint examination battlefield.
For a time, he even overshadowed Liu Zhaodao from Jiangnan No. 3 High School, who had also awakened his innate magical powers.
In the meeting room outside the examination room, many Taoist Academy investigators were still seated.
Many had already stood up and were making phone calls outside the meeting.
The reason for this was simple: they wanted to contact the Taoist academies behind them and inquire about what price the Taoist academies could offer to recruit these geniuses.
Especially Su Chen, Lu Xiaoye, and Shen Feiyang, who had records of killing evil creatures in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
They were also the targets they aimed to win over.
Yushan City ruins, East District.
"It's so annoying! No matter how hard I try, I can never kill them all."
"What a shame! The school can't just give each student a map so we can see everyone's location?"
"Asking me to look for someone in such a big place is like searching for a needle in a haystack, isn't it?"
While Lu Xiaoye was complaining about the inhumane design of the joint entrance examination, she caught sight of a giant armored worm ferociously attacking her.
Looking at the disgusting appearance of the giant armored worm, a trace of disgust flashed in Lu Xiaoye's eyes.
"Roll!"
Lu Xiaoye shouted, and the complex red patterns on her right arm suddenly lit up, as if flames were burning.
The next second, she punched the attacking giant armored worm hard, hitting it on the head.
Bang!
This punch was so powerful that it not only dented the giant armored worm's head.
A visible wave of fire spread out from the center of her fist, blasting the giant armored worm away on the spot.
The terrifying force caused the ten-meter-long giant armored worm to roll on the ground several times, and it finally stopped after crashing into a shop.
However, because the head was dented too much, the giant armored worm, which was originally ten meters long, was damaged.
At this moment, it resembled a thousand-layer pancake, with more than half of its body twisted and folded together.
Lu Xiaoye's strength was evident as she killed a giant armored worm comparable to an eighth-level Qi Gathering cultivator with just one punch.
On the street, Lu Xiaoye put her fists away, stood up straight, and brushed the dust off her hands.
Then, she bit the hair tie in her mouth, grabbed her hair with both hands, quickly tied up the hair that was scattered during the battle, and took a deep breath.
The next second, all the red flames that were still on the evil creature's corpse returned to her body.
Then, the special red lines that covered her body slowly dimmed and disappeared completely.
She looked around at the charred corpses of more than a dozen giant armored worms, and after confirming that no more evil creatures would appear, she curled her lips in disdain.
"I just accidentally killed your boss. Is it necessary for you to keep biting me?"
Perhaps to facilitate combat and prevent her clothes from being burned by the Phoenix Fire,
Lu Xiaoye was wearing a pair of black shorts and a vest similar to those worn by track and field athletes, revealing her well-proportioned, muscular legs and well-defined abdominal muscles.
Combined with the corpses of giant armored worms all around her, the scene was striking.
Lu Xiaoye, with her ponytail tied, turned around and looked at the eight candidates from various schools standing more than ten meters away.
She said calmly, "If you don't want to die, don't follow me."
Hearing this, the eight candidates subconsciously straightened up and nodded obediently.
They had to behave; after all, they were afraid that if they said something wrong, they would offend Lu Xiaoye.
With their skinny arms and legs, they were not strong enough to withstand a punch from her.
It's hard to imagine that Lu Xiaoye, who usually behaves like a sweet girl in front of Su Chen and can't even open a bottle of mineral water, is so wild in private.
Indifferent, sharp, and arrogant...
The words traditionally used to describe a domineering woman are not an exaggeration when applied to Lu Xiaoye at this moment.
Even... very appropriate.
Su Chen has never understood why the students from No. 1 High School are so afraid of Lu Xiaoye.
After all, in his eyes, Lu Xiaoye has always been the little girl who followed him around and cried when she was eight years old, with no deterrent power at all.
But he had no idea that Lu Xiaoye had always maintained that false "soft girl" persona in front of him.
Otherwise, how could a physical cultivator who had awakened top-level innate magical powers not even have the strength to open a bottle cap?
Let alone the bottle cap; if she wanted, she could even easily pry open the skull of an evil creature without breaking a sweat.
Her so-called gentleness was only towards her childhood sweetheart, Su Chen.
For other students, especially when he was not present, she had always been the undisputed domineering physical trainee in No. 1 High School, and she always had the final say.
Lu Xiaoye became the well-deserved top student in her grade at No. 1 High School, and that was the result of her punches!
---
[Innate Magical Power: Scarlet Flame Phoenix Tribulation]
[Effect: A special flame containing the power of the ancient phoenix that can burn everything and absorb the pure energy left after burning.]
---
Top-notch talents, wild personality, domineering fighting style...
This is how Lu Xiaoye is seen by teachers and other students.
As for Lu Xiaoye in Su Chen's eyes...
All he can say is that the prettier a girl is, the more likely she is to lie.
On the street, Lu Xiaoye looked up to the west of the ruins of Yushan City.
After thinking for a moment, she walked in that direction.
Although she didn't know where Su Chen was now,
She knew that he was never a complacent person.
After all, how could a peaceful person dare to fight against powerful evil creatures with a knife at the age of eight?
So her intuition told her that she just had to head west to the base camp of the Nine Nether creatures.
Then she would most likely meet Su Chen.
After Lu Xiaoye left, the eight candidates finally couldn't help but walk forward and come to a huge, charred corpse.
It turned out to be a giant snake with a body length of over 20 meters.
Although it was dead, they could still feel how powerful this creature had been when it was alive.
And it was the leader of the giant armored worms, the evil creature in the Foundation Establishment Stage—the black armored worm.
But such a powerful creature was killed just a short while ago by Lu Xiaoye, who had stepped on its head and beaten it to death with punches one after another.
Recalling the scene when Lu Xiaoye did that, the eight students present couldn't help but shiver.
Then a student from No. 3 High School couldn't help but look at the only student from No. 1 High School among them and ask with a complicated expression, "Has your No. 1 High School student Lu always been so wild?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the candidate from No. 1 High School who was asked the question seemed to think of some bad memories and trembled subconsciously.
He looked at Lu Xiaoye leaving and said with a little fear, "If we only look at her style of doing things... then she has always been like this."
"After all, in our grade, except for one person, most of the others have been beaten by her, and they were beaten very badly."
"Hiss..."
Hearing this, the others took a deep breath and then looked at him with sympathetic eyes.
After all, they could imagine what would happen if they had to fight against someone like Lu Xiaoye.
A bruised face and nose could be considered minor. If they got hit by a punch, they might have to stay in the hospital for a while.
However, they heard that someone had survived Lu Xiaoye's iron-fist teaching.
They couldn't help but ask curiously, "Is that person who hasn't been beaten by Lu Xiaoye very strong? How come even someone like Lu Xiaoye can't defeat him?"
A high school student gave him a strange look, then said in a complicated tone, "No, he is not strong. At least I don't think he is as strong as Lu Xiaoye."
"Then why didn't he get beaten?"
"Because he's... handsome."
"And he and Lu Xiaoye are childhood sweethearts, do you understand?"
"I understand, brother. No need to say more."
It hurts—it hurts so much!
In the ruins of a vegetable market in the south district of Yushan City.
A pale-faced young man with dark circles under his eyes was sitting bored among a pile of corpses of Nine Nether evil creatures, yawning constantly as if he had not fully woken up yet.
Not far from him, a five-meter-tall evil ghost with a green face and fangs, wearing ancient armor, was holding a big knife and chopping the corpses of evil creatures, seemingly enjoying the process.
This young man is none other than one of the only three people in the current exam who have defeated an evil creature in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
The third high school student... Shen Feiyang.
Shen Feiyang looked at the knife ghost who was still playing with the corpses and sighed helplessly.
Then he scratched his hair that looked like a chicken coop, looked at the ancient evil ghost with dead fish eyes weakly, and said, "Okay, Daogui, don't kill them; these are all fake."
Although the young man said so, the ancient evil ghost continued to chop the corpses at its feet.
Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that what it was chopping was the corpse of an evil creature in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
The young man sighed helplessly when he saw that the ancient evil ghost did not listen to him at all.
Then he raised his hand, and a pair of red lips suddenly appeared in the palm of his right hand.
When the red lips opened, a terrifying suction force was released from them, directly sucking in the ancient evil ghost who was still "playing."
After doing all this, the boy raised his head and looked towards the west side of Yushan City.
He secretly thought to himself, "I don't know what the deputy leader is thinking by letting me enter the four major academies."
"As for the important places of the Immortal Alliance like the Four Great Daoist Academies, there are many old monsters who have not been out for a long time. Isn't this just letting me walk into the tiger's mouth?"
"If I make a mistake, even death would be the best outcome. I'm just afraid that life would be worse than death."
Although the boy's heart was full of complaints against the Deputy Leader, he knew he had no right to refuse.
If he were admitted to one of the four major Taoist academies, he would probably live a life worse than death.
But if he refused the deputy leader's order, he would suffer a fate worse than death.
No need to explain how he would choose.
If he had known earlier that he would be assigned such a dangerous mission after joining the Black Lotus Cult, then he would never have joined the Black Lotus Cult, even at the risk of his life.
Right now, it's easy for him to go up the mountain, but difficult to go down.
"Ah, I need to perform well. After all, if I can be directly admitted to one of the four academies, then I will have completed most of my mission, and I will have more time to do my things."
With this thought in mind, the young man walked towards the west of Yushan City.
If Shen Feiyang wanted to be recommended by the Taoist Academy, he must demonstrate his worthiness to be recommended in this exam.
Although he had killed an evil creature in the Foundation Establishment Stage, he did so by exorcising ghosts.
So he worried that the four major academies might think that he was taking advantage of this and would not give him the qualification for admission.
Therefore, if he wanted to secure admission, he must show more talent.
In addition to his innate magical power, the Soul-Binding Order, he also had a talent for talismans.
Only in this way could he ensure that he would be noticed by the investigators and qualify to be admitted to one of the four major academies.
In the ruins of Yushan City, the western district of the city.
Because three evil creatures in the Foundation Establishment Stage had died in succession within three days, the remaining evil creatures in the Foundation Establishment Stage all returned to the mysterious black tree.
Just look at the five evil creatures in the Foundation Establishment Stage that have returned.
The ant-like evil creature in the Foundation Establishment Stage on the treetop said dissatisfiedly, "Where is the white-faced spider? Why didn't he come back?"
"Didn't I tell you that a few powerful individuals have emerged among the human race recently, so you'd better be careful and not act alone?"
---
[Name: Gold-eating Ant-Man (Royal Family)]
[Race: Nine Nether Clan]
[Strength: Fifth Level of Foundation Establishment Stage]
[Features: A special humanoid creature evolved from black-striped ants, containing part of the Nine Nether royal family bloodline, with outstanding boxing talent, extremely dangerous]
---
Hearing this, the giant hornworm that was with the white-faced spider before scratched the back of its head and said puzzledly, "The white-faced spider came back with me, but it suddenly said that its children seemed to have found a handsome boy, so it went out alone again."
"You know, it has no resistance to beautiful creatures. I think it has had enough fun and will be back soon, right?"
Upon hearing this, the Gold-Eating Ant-Man's face instantly turned dark.
But just when he was about to say something, he suddenly stopped.
Then he stood up and looked in a certain direction at the ruins of Yushan City with a grim expression.
"You all feel it, right?"
The other evil creatures around nodded one after another and looked in the direction of the Gold-Eating Ant-Man with serious expressions.
Because just now, they sensed the breath belonging to the white-faced spider... disappearing.
This means that the other party either left the "Black Rock Tribe" and chose to join other Nine Nether clans, or he was dead.
But now they are in a brand new world, and there are no other Nine Nether Clans around.
So the disappearance of the white-faced spider's breath could only mean one thing—that it had just died.
Thinking of this, the Gold-Eating Ant-Man couldn't help but curse this guy as an idiot.
They had told it to come back and stay put and let their men go out to explore. After discovering a strong enemy, they rushed forward.
Now, it insisted on going out alone.
As a result, this trip... led to no return.
Ten minutes ago, at a subway station in the west of the city.
---
[You killed a Nine Nether Parasitic Spider (not upgraded) and gained 0.5 experience points...]
[You killed a Nine Nether Spider-Faced Man (Qi Gathering Stage 4) and gained 40 experience points...]
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Su Chen was in a good mood as he looked at the densely packed spider cocoons in front of him.
He felt that he had discovered an excellent place to spawn evil creatures.
As expected, this should be the lair of the evil spider-faced men he encountered when he first entered the examination room.
It was after coming here that he figured out the origin of the spider-faced men.
It turns out that the so-called spider-faced men are a new species born after a parasitic spider takes over a human body.
In this nest, he saw at least tens of thousands of parasitic spiders and a large number of spider-faced men.
If he could kill all these creatures, he would gain a huge amount of experience points.
How many experience points could this yield?
Su Chen conservatively estimated that it would be at least in the tens of thousands.
Therefore, facing such a huge temptation, how could Su Chen miss it?
He looked at the parasitic spiders and large numbers of spider-faced men who were startled by him and then rushed toward him like a tide.
Su Chen smiled with a rare expression.
The last time he laughed so happily was when the Jade-faced Mantis came to him without any hesitation.
After dealing with these creatures, he might be able to upgrade his Dragon Roar Breaking Sky Strike Sword Skill to the 'Dao entry-level.'
Thinking of this, Su Chen smiled even more happily.
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