The skulls of the fire ants were extremely hard and by the time he got his hands on six Fire Energy Cores, Dongfang Wanyu had already killed a large portion of them.
Mu Sheng suspected before that if he waited until three days later, he would likely be eliminated.
But this was no longer his concern.
Having killed a large group of Level 2 Fire Ants, Dongfang Wanyu immediately took off.
"Why are we leaving so fast?" Mu Sheng struggled, in fact, he wanted to kill two more, it was so hard to encounter unresisting beasts, he didn't want to give up.
Dongfang Wanyu said, "Shut up, someone's coming."
After they left, a small group of five people suddenly appeared, "This group of level 2 beasts were slaughtered, we were too late."
The five of them went over to the fire ants' corpse to check it out and found that the corpse's wounds showed two distinctly different techniques, one very violent, directly smashing the fire ant's brain with bare hands and gouging out the core, and the other technique looked very juvenile, seemingly like they had used some kind of sharp object.
"Two people."
"Two people killed so many second-grade magical beasts, too cool." One of them couldn't help but whistle.
Dongfang Wanyu looked at the numbers on her jade tag and snickered, "Let's continue."
Mu Sheng could release the poisonous mist ten times in a day, they specifically picked the time when the beasts were in groups and were unbeatable, killing many level one to level three beasts.
The numbers added up and even Mu Sheng's numbers rose to five hundred, out of the top three reported an hour ago. Dongfang Wanyu's big-name had already shot up the top 3 ranks, in third place at 1093 just a little short of first place!
Mu Sheng was full of awe towards Dongfang Wanyu, but right now he really felt like he was about to die. The other person was completely a workaholic hunting beasts day and night as long as they found any, it's like she didn't know what exhaustion was.
But he was different, he couldn't even lift his arm holding the sword right now.
"Don't you need to take a break?" Mu Sheng couldn't walk any further and leaned against a tree to catch his breath.
Dongfang Wanyu kicked him, "Get up, the real fighting is in the last twelve hours. I've given you a break."
Mu Sheng rolled his eyes, they'd only been resting for a few hours…
But watching her gradually walk away, Mu Sheng quickly climbed up and stumbled after her.
"You're already in third place, why are you still working so hard." Mu Sheng couldn't understand, if anyone was going to be anxious it should have been him right? Since he was only ranked five hundred…"
"Shut up and save some energy to kill the beasts."
After that, they encountered a wave of magical beasts, the beasts seemed to be frightened by something. It's as if they were being chased as they panicked and ran around haphazardly for their lives.
"Wow, so many magical beasts, should I let Little White release the poisonous mist?" Mu Sheng had already done this thing very smoothly, seeing the magical beasts he wasn't as scared as before but instead excited, it seems his courage had improved.
Dongfang Wanyu shook her head, to be able to scare off a group of level three magical beasts like this it was either a holy beast or at least a magical beast two levels higher in rank that had shown up.
"A hundred meters away, there are two rank six magical beasts approaching, you should find a place to hide." Qing Mo warned.
Level six magical beasts were equivalent to a human level Spiritual Monarch, which was not as simple as the realm of Great Spiritualist but a realm three levels higher than Great Spiritualist.
Dongfang Wanyu instantly knew the limitation and grabbed Mu Sheng before quickly running off, she could barely handle a Great Spiritualist, but for her to handle a Spiritual Monarch, that was a joke, unless she wanted to die.
"W-what happened?" Mu Sheng was tugged on the collar and almost strangled to death. But when he saw the other's serious face, he asked subconsciously.
Dongfang Wanyu was following the magical beasts and didn't know where they had run to, but sensing the surrounding area, she didn't find any magical beasts with big energy fluctuations.
"Since level six magical beasts have been spotted, the danger factor has increased substantially, your assessment time will probably end early." Qing Mo judged.
Dongfang Wanyu nodded, everyone was still considered a new student, even if their talent was good, they were all still at Spiritual Master or at most Great Spiritualist, dealing with two Level 6 Magical Beasts was far more than they could handle.
Even if all five hundred students attacked together, they wouldn't be able to beat those two.
Mu Sheng breathed heavily, "Did something just happen?"
"Yes, the tournament will probably end early, how many beasts have you hunted?" Dongfang Wanyu suddenly asked.
"Almost 536." Mu Sheng was used to her cold words, and the sudden mild tone made him dazed before he quickly responded, "How do you know? Aren't there still five hours left before the contest ends?"
Dongfang Wanyu didn't explain and kicked him, "Go, we'll make up some more numbers for you."
The two went south, following a path inside a dense forest, there were many gale rabbits hiding in the dark, Dongfang Wanyu took out a porcelain bottle from her space ring and sprinkled the medicine on the grass outside, creating a full circle.
"Seventh sister, this is definitely good stuff, it's called the Condensed Flower Dew Pill, don't look at its simple name, actually it's for seducing foodies. It's a special recipe I made myself, it's very attractive to animals especially rabbits! If you can't find food in the future, scatter it on a tree and I reckon a lot of little rabbits will get caught."
Dongfang Wanyu showed a smile, she still remembered Ninth Sister saying that to her. She just didn't know how effective this medicine would be.
Mu Sheng looked at her quizzically, "What's the point of this?"
Dongfang Wanyu made a shush hand signal to him, and they squatted for half an hour before they saw a red-eyed gale rabbit in the tree cave quickly jump into the trap she had prepared. One of them was hit, and the others were still stupid enough to jump inside, more and more started jumping in until it became a big group.
Mu Sheng was dumbfounded, how could there be such stupid little things in the beast world.
"Quickly let Little White make a move." Dongfang Wanyu saw that he was still dazed and couldn't help but kick him.
"Uh-huh."
He almost forgot that they were here to hunt magical beasts, Mu Sheng immediately summoned his little friend, "Little White, go. "
Little White lurched down and bobbed its head, spreading the poisonous fumes vigorously, soon the gale rabbits sniffed and one by one they were all knocked out.
"Move quickly." Dongfang Wanyu kicked Mu Sheng on the buttocks.
Mu Sheng though didn't know what she was in a hurry for, but he still obediently took out a sword and removed the energy cores one by one from their heads.
The light green energy cores were still very pretty, but they were first-grade wind types and he couldn't use them for now, so he put them into his space ring.
The jade tag had been making a tinkling sound, meaning his numbers were climbing, just as he was about to finish them all, a prompting sound stopped him abruptly.
"Greetings, students, I am your assessment officer, and now I am going to announce a piece of news. Due to an accident during the assessment, the elders of the assessment board have unanimously agreed to end the competition early. All candidates listen up, put down everything unimportant in your hands, and quickly exit the trial ground."
The voice that came out of nowhere was played three times in its entirety, and the entire trial ground's participants could hear it clearly.
Mu Sheng was dumbfounded, this situation was guessed by Dongfang Wanyu an hour ago, so the other party scrambled to help him complete his task.
"Let's go."
The three-day-long first round of elimination ended completely in an abnormal state.
Mu Sheng smiled stupidly as he looked at the last number 687 that remained on the jade tag. If it had been three days ago, he wouldn't have believed that he could hunt so many beasts.
"Qian Wanyu, thank you so much for this time."
Dongfang Wanyu waved her hand, "Don't be too happy yet."
According to the previous rules, depending on the number of magical beasts hunted in the rankings, all those below two hundred would be eliminated. When the data was announced, Mu Sheng hid on the side and watched nervously, he was both apprehensive and scared.
The fear part was in case he passed, how would he pass the second round of the competition? The apprehensiveness is from him having gone through three days of struggles to go from someone who knew nothing about killing beats to someone skilled at doing it.
"Congratulations." Dongfang Wanyu patted him on the shoulder, scaring the wandering Mu Sheng.
"Congrats on what?"
Dongfang Wanyu pointed to the 168th place on the screen, the name was Mu Sheng, from the wooden temple.
Mu Sheng's heart landed on the ground and he jumped for joy, "Wow, I finally did it."
He then searched carefully and found Qian Wanyu's name right in third place, Hall of Thunder.
"Sister Wanyu, you're really amazing!"
Saying top three and actually achieving it, Mu Sheng still remembered that when the other party arrogantly said she'd get into the top three ranks, he didn't quite believe it, now he was deeply convinced by her.
It was only after the excitement that Mu Sheng felt his body ached everywhere, and he was so tired that he wanted to lie down.
"Now that you've all seen the results on the screen, those who didn't make it into the top two hundred step aside."
A large group of people walked out silently, they were the ones who were eliminated in the first round.
Mu Sheng covered his mouth, he felt like he was almost one of them too.
"All of you stand to my left. An assessment officer will send you out in a few moments."
"Next, I would like to congratulate you all for passing the first round of elimination and successfully entering the second round of testing. I am your assessment officer, Ouyang, and you can call me Teacher Ouyang. Next, in the second round, I will announce the rules to you. From now on, I will put five spirit stones in your jade medallion, spirit stones are the medium of exchange for the medicinal plants and can be used to allow you entry to the ivory tower for training, and much, much more… I just want to say here that the spirit stones are necessary for survival. The second round of assessment is the same as the first, survival of the fittest, whoever has the most spirit stones in their hands would advance. However, in the test, there are senior brothers and sisters who are one year higher than you, and they will try rob you of your spirit stones, when all five of the spirit stones in your jade medallion have been snatched and you can't snatch someone else's within an hour, your score will be zero and you'll be directly eliminated."
Blatant robbery! The whole place was in an uproar.
Mu Sheng was a bit confused after hearing the rules of the competition, and he leaned towards Dongfang Wanyu in fear as he looked around at the group of freshmen who were staring at each other like wolves.
"They're not going to rob me, are they?"
"Maybe."
Dongfang Wanyu smiled at him, then looked at the jade medallion in his hand.
Everyone had already formed a new team when they entered the testing ground.
Dongfang Wanyu had wanted to ditch Mu Sheng and go in alone, but the other party's pitiful look reminded her of Ninth Sister, and she'd have felt a little guilty if she hadn't taken the other party with her.
"Sister Wanyu, do you think those senior siblings will ambush us somewhere and then rob us?" Mu Sheng's little head was still spinning pretty fast, ever since the assessor announced that the senior brothers and sisters of the higher year would rob them, he hadn't felt safe!
Dongfang Wanyu glanced at him, "Definitely, but I guess if I wanted to rob someone, I'd rob you too."
The test takers entered the new testing ground in small groups, and soon Dongfang Wanyu and the others encountered some test takers that had been robbed by the seniors.
"Help, is there anyone there!?"
A large group of people shouted for help, and a small group of five people were directly tied together with strips of trees, tying each other into a ball.
Dongfang Wanyu continued on her way as if she had heard nothing and seen nothing.
"They seem to be screaming for help, Sister Wanyu, should we go over there and take a look?"
"Yes, you can go over and see if you want."
Is that an agreement? Mu Sheng's little brain thought for a moment, and then he ran over.
"Hey, Mu Sheng, come over here and help us out."
Mu Sheng looked at the five people and one of them was a familiar face, "Xiao Ruo, what are you doing here?"
Both of them entered the Royal Academy at the same time and were both new students recruited by the Wood Hall, because they met in the first round of assessment and asked for directions, their relationship was better than ordinary students.
However, this was just Mu Sheng's opinion.
"Just now there was a team of the previous year's senior brothers they robbed us and tied us up afterward." Xiao Ruo said pitifully.
Mu Sheng helped them out as he said, "Then you should be more careful next time, don't meet them again."
"Mu Sheng, are you alone?" Xiao Ruo asked nonchalantly.
Mu Sheng naturally shook his head but wondered why Wanyu seemed to be missing. He looked back and saw Wanyu standing farther away and understood the meaning of her "yes".
"Well, it looks like I'm alone now." Mu Sheng was particularly frustrated. He didn't expect Wanyu to leave just like that.
After the five men gave him a look, one of them suddenly overpowered him, and then they tied him to the tree that they had just been untied from with hands tied behind his back.
Mu Sheng was confused, "What are you doing? Why do you guys want to tie me up?"
Xiao Ruo stood in front of him with a guilty face, "Mu Sheng, I'm really sorry, but the rules said that if we don't get any spirit stones within the hour then we'll be eliminated. Now, there are exactly five in your jade medallion, so give us one each and we won't be eliminated."
Mu Sheng face fell..so he will have to be eliminated instead?
"Xiao Ruo, what are you doing with all this chattering with him, even if he doesn't give it to us now, he'll still meet those jackal like senior brothers and sisters later and get eliminated, quickly go and get his spirit stones."
Mu Sheng looked confused by how fast the situation had turned against him. He felt 10,000 points of damage from this dark world!
The five of them took the spirit stones and just dashed away.
Mu Sheng wanted to cry, he'd tried his hand at being a good guy, and what made him even more heartbroken was that his friend actually told him to stay here, saying that someone would pick him up in an hour.
"Oooh, what should I do? I don't want to be eliminated at all."
He had worked so hard for so long to get into the top 200 from the 500 test-takers, and the second round had just started yet he was going to be eliminated in less than an hour, he was so unhappy.
"Woooo, Sister Wanyu."
Mu Sheng cried as he mouthed Qian Wanyu's name in pain.
"Noisy, what's the shouting for?"
Dongfang Wanyu smashed a fruit straight into his face. It broke apart and spurted fruit juice all over his face.
"Elder Sister Wanyu!" Mu Sheng originally still looked like he wanted to cry but then he saw a person lying on a tree he immediately smiled stupidly, "Sister Wanyu. So you're still here."
Dongfang Wanyu smashed a fruit over again, Mu Sheng didn't get mad when she smashed it in his face, smiling stupidly and even licked the juice off his face.
"Rest for an hour."
Mu Sheng was even more desperate, "Sister Wanyu, I was wrong, please let me go."
One hour of rest and he'd be eliminated straight away, okay?
Dongfang Wanyu glanced at him coldly, "Aren't you the one who wanted to go and release people?"
Mu Sheng nodded guiltily, "I thought-"
"You think just because you saved people they'll thank you? Since the examiner has made the rules so clear, don't you understand that you need to be wary of your fellow partners let alone strangers."
Dongfang Wanyu had learned all these sorts of nefarious tactics back in the Dongfang Family, which was why she had made herself so ruthless.
Mu Sheng hung his head and mumbled, "I was wrong, I'm sorry, Sister Wanyu."
In fact, she was just sitting on a tree watching the good show, she could have made a move to stop it, but for a person to grow up, he must experience what it's like to be cheated and betrayed, because only then will he remember the pain.
Mu Sheng then said, "Sister Wanyu, just help me out, I promise that the next time I see them, I will take back all that they took from me."
"You will huh? Gonna try to steal the spirit stones from them?"
Dongfang Wanyu leaped down from the tree and smilingly slapped him in the face, "If I let you go, don't you think I'd think you'd rob me of my spirit stones? You think I look stupid?"
Mu Sheng was completely dumbfounded, how could he dare to rob her of her spirit stones.
"Sister Wanyu, don't joke around, even if you give me a hundred gallbladders, I wouldn't dare to rob you." Mu Sheng was about to swear his innocence to the heavens if his hands weren't tied.
As a result, Dongfang Wanyu waved her hand and just walked away.
Gone, gone, gone…Mu Sheng thought with lifelessness.
Full chap thanks to donors, another full one tomorrow oyasumi ~