The cry instantly drew everyone's attention.
"What? How is that possible?!"
"Let me see! It's true! Even her clothes are spotless!"
"She's not just unhurt. Look at the exploration progress bar in the upper right corner! My god! It's already reached sixty percent?! How is that possible?!"
Everyone's eyes snapped to the corner of the screen, where a set of numbers and a progress bar were clearly displayed:
[Nanshan No. 3 Mine Cave, exploration progress: 62%].
The entire hall fell silent in an instant. A pin drop could have been heard.
Everyone knew that when Chu Feng had been carried out, the exploration progress had been a pitiful 34%.
Yet this girl, whom everyone had been certain would die, was not only alive and well—her exploration progress was already past the halfway mark!
What on earth was going on?
Jiang Ruoxue was stunned too. The composure and indifference on her face instantly crumbled as she stared fixedly at the small figure on the screen, her eyes full of disbelief.
Impossible!
She had clearly ordered the pain feedback turned up to its maximum of 130%, and both the number and levels of the Demons had been raised to their highest limits!
At that hellish difficulty, let alone Lin Luoluo, even a Contract Spirit Master Xingning who had just reached the second tier couldn't have completed 60% of the progress so easily!
How did that lowborn wretch do it?!
Just then, Lin Luoluo seemed to sense something in the footage and glanced back.
Everyone present was even more shocked.
"Did she... did she see us?"
"No way. You shouldn't be able to see outside from the assessment room. It must just be a coincidence."
"Did you notice? This girl has white hair! The picture's a little blurry, but she's so beautiful! That strength and those looks—unbelievable!"
As soon as those words were spoken, someone chimed in sourly:
"She's so pretty, no wonder her background is so tragic. A beautiful woman really is a calamity."
Some went even further, already discussing how Lin Luoluo would definitely be school belle material if she attended their school.
Every word of their discussion reached Jiang Ruoxue's ears, making her expression grow ever darker. The venom in her eyes was almost palpable.
She didn't want to hear anyone praise Lin Luoluo.
What right did a lowborn wretch from the slums have to other people's attention and praise? What right did she have to survive the death trap Jiang Ruoxue had so carefully laid for her?!
Just as Jiang Ruoxue's fury was about to burst free, someone in the crowd suddenly screamed:
"Look! What's that?!"
Following the direction of the person's pointing finger, everyone saw pairs of tiny points of light suddenly appearing in the darkness behind Lin Luoluo.
Those points of light were scarlet and densely packed, like stars in the night sky, yet they carried a malice that made their scalps tingle.
"Crystal Scorpions! Oh my god, those are Crystal Scorpions' eyes! There are... at least a hundred of them!"
"Wait! Look in the middle! There's a bigger cluster of light! That's... the Crystal Scorpion King! The Crystal Scorpion King is coming!"
A middle-aged man who looked quite knowledgeable cried out, his face deathly pale:
"The Crystal Scorpion King? Isn't that the elite Demon that only has an extremely low chance of appearing deep inside the most dangerous No. 1 Mine Tunnel?"
"It's second in strength only to the final boss, the Cave Crystal Scorpion! Wasn't she taking the easiest route through the No. 3 Mine Tunnel? How could she run into something like that?!"
Earlier, some people had guessed that Lin Luoluo had lasted this long because she had taken the easiest route. But now, it seemed that was very likely not the case at all!
At this sight, Jiang Ruoxue's lips finally curled into a smug smile she could no longer suppress.
She stared fixedly at the screen and whispered gleefully in her heart.
Lin Luoluo... I didn't expect you to be lucky enough to last until now... But your luck should be running out...
Against a swarm made up of the Second Tier Crystal Scorpion King and over a hundred Crystal Scorpions... I don't believe you can survive!
At that moment, inside the simulated Mine Tunnel in the assessment room.
The two had already traveled a long way in and had agreed to rest for a while before continuing.
Bai Chen suddenly seemed to sense something and spoke in Lin Luoluo's mind:
"Xiao Luoluo, I think I can feel someone watching us."
"Huh?" Lin Luoluo was startled. She hurriedly glanced back, and after finding nothing, asked in confusion, "Could it be the surveillance here?"
Neither of them knew that footage of their assessment had already begun broadcasting live in the hall.
"Maybe..."
In fact, Bai Chen had been injured along the way, but he couldn't feel the slightest bit of pain.
Besides, though the lesser Demons earlier had been numerous, they hadn't really posed much pressure for Bai Chen.
And Lin Luoluo had been well protected by him, without so much as a hair harmed.
So even now, the two of them seemed not to have realized at all that this was a trap Jiang Ruoxue had set for them in advance.
They simply took it to be the assessment's normal difficulty.
And now.
After spending some time getting used to each other, the two could already work together well.
What troubled Bai Chen, however, was that he and Lin Luoluo still hadn't developed a Life Skill.
Normally, aside from certain races born with Life Skills, most Demons needed dozens or hundreds of years, or even thousands, to comprehend a single Life Skill.
Even Demon Gods were no exception.
Humans, however, were uniquely blessed. Once they contracted a Contract Spirit, they could comprehend a Life Skill very easily.
What was more, Lin Luoluo had the S-rank talent ten thousand arts sovereign.
This left Bai Chen deeply puzzled. Could it be because the contract he had signed with Lin Luoluo wasn't a master-servant contract with the human as master?
Was that why they still hadn't comprehended a Life Skill?
As the two rested briefly, Bai Chen beneath Lin Luoluo was a little downcast, and she reached out a finger to poke his jelly-like body.
"Xiao Bai, do you think it might be because I'm too stupid?"
There was a hint of dejection in the girl's voice.
"According to you, with our top-tier aptitudes, it should be easy for us to comprehend our first Life Skill, right?"
Looking at the troubled Lin Luoluo, Bai Chen reached out a hand and rubbed the sole of her foot, comforting her:
"Don't worry, Xiao Luoluo. What I told you was only a rumor I heard back on the Demon Continent from Demons who came through the Blue Star Rift. It might not be accurate."
"Of course, it could also have something to do with us fighting simulated Demons. They lack a little reality."
Just then, Bai Chen's words of comfort stopped abruptly, and his whole body went still in an instant.
Lin Luoluo immediately sensed something was wrong. "What is it, Xiao Bai?"
Bai Chen's normally limp body suddenly went taut.
"There's danger..."
Before his words had faded—
"Rustle... rustle, rustle..."
A dense rustling of crawling things came from the deep darkness ahead.
Immediately afterward, pairs of eerie blue points of light lit up one after another in the dark.
In the blink of an eye, the darkness filling the entire passage ahead was lit up by over a hundred densely packed pairs of eerie blue eyes.
Lin Luoluo's heart sank. There were more of them than all the Crystal Scorpions they had just encountered put together.
Before she could recover from their terrifying numbers, heavy vibrations came through the ground.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
It was as if some enormous creature were slowly emerging from behind the swarm, taking heavy steps.
A huge figure, dozens of times larger than an ordinary Crystal Scorpion, pushed through the crowded swarm and appeared in their view.
Its entire body was covered in a heavier, deep-purple crystalline shell. Its two massive pincers were thick and powerful, and its tail was raised high, with a huge crystal at the tip.