The Angry Blazing Sun, Casting the Net

Xie Wutong still didn't know what had happened.

Her consciousness slipped away for an instant, but the powerful self-repair ability of an awakened forced her awake again.

A buzzing rang out, accompanied by dizziness and a sharp, stabbing pain that swept through her head.

Her vision was blotched with black spots like a monitor with a faulty connection. She could dimly make out Mu Li's broken sword and Gong Lingling's shattered limbs.

But Xie Wutong lay sprawled on the blood-soaked earth. She couldn't muster any strength to fight back, and she was breathing her last.

Li Gao glanced at the black-haired young man who had gravely injured someone at the Middle Stage of the Second Realm with a single blow. His expression turned ingratiating as he complimented Chen Haoyu, who was walking slowly over.

"As expected of Young Master Chen! Even one of your underlings is astonishing!"

Although the Li Family of Mao City was more powerful than the Chen Family of Yin City, they were on the front lines, where strength naturally reigned supreme.

With such a powerful trump card in hand, Chen Haoyu had naturally reversed their positions and taken the lead.

Lou Shisui, who was using the alias Chen Xiao, stepped over Xie Wutong's body and quietly returned to the Chen Family's group.

A Radiant Feather slipped unnoticed into the soft earth, and spatial energy further activated the severing points in the secret realm's space as it gradually separated from the outside world.

The setting sun was red as blood. The examination grounds' secret realm had officially entered evening.

"Crack!"

The connection between the secret realm's space and the outside world officially began to break.

"Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack—"

The cracking grew increasingly rapid, alerting all the examinees who had been focused on farming points.

"What happened?"

"No idea."

"Huh? Why isn't my examination brooch showing my individual score?"

"What? Then what about the points I just farmed?"

Quite a few examinees noticed the abnormality with their examination brooches and began double-clicking the edges to contact the proctors in charge of their examination grounds.

But all their attempts at communication disappeared without a trace.

The proctoring room.

At that moment, everyone responsible for the unified examination sprang into frantic action. Hectic, overlapping footsteps mingled with a clamor of voices.

The instant the sun began to set, the entire Unified Exam Secret Realm space had lost contact with the outside world.

This was no mere mistake. It was a major incident!

There were two hundred thousand young members of the Human Race in there!

If contact with all of them was lost, every last person responsible would have their nine generations exterminated!

"How is it? Can you connect?"

"Still no. Someone changed the passwords for the surveillance equipment inside the secret realm space. Forcibly resetting them and reconnecting will probably take around two days."

"Fuck! Who the fuck messed with the secret realm space's connection lock? The secret realm space has been cut away from our area of control!"

"Report! There were abnormalities in the last data collected from the secret realm space! We suspect there's a signal jammer inside!"

At the same time, anxiety and panic spread as the surveillance feeds of examinees in various cities went dark.

The examinees' parents charged toward the unified examination departments at every level like panicked beasts.

A few inconspicuous logistics workers slipped into the chaotic crowds and withdrew after completing their task, leaving the area swept up in the storm without incident.

"Boss, that was the unified examination, right? We cut their energy transmission pipeline. Is that really going to be all right?"

"What? We just took the money and did the job. Worst comes to worst, we'll run off somewhere outside and lie low."

"True. Boss, let's hurry up and run."

"From the sound of it, the people outside have succeeded!" Li Gao excitedly sensed his surroundings and discovered that the surveillance equipment that had constantly been nearby had stopped working.

"It isn't dark yet. It's a little earlier than expected, but it doesn't matter."

Chen Haoyu murmured indifferently, then ordered, "Hurry up and finish off the trash in the pit. We'll go find the next batch."

"Don't... even think about it!"

A magnificent blaze erupted from Xie Wutong's body. The girl's meager remaining Psychic Energy and life force ignited her high-level talent, turning it into a suicidal attack that surged toward the enemies not far away.

The glorious flames even outshone the setting sun in the west, brilliant and dazzling.

Inside the pit, the dying Li Jie was roused by the blazing sun that had suddenly burst into bloom.

He was already at the end of his strength. His less-than-formidable talent couldn't even be burned as a foundation for revenge.

So he moved his fingers and sacrificed his last breath to use the enhancement skill [Activation] on his unconscious friend.

Song Haomiao felt a warm power pour into his body. He forced his heavy eyelids open and vaguely saw Li Jie's bloodless, pale face.

A bad premonition rose in his heart, and he realized what that familiar power was.

The scorching flames illuminated his gradually awakening face. Before anger and unwillingness came an uncontrollable grief.

Trembling, he took his longtime friend's hand and silently activated his talent, [Fire Thief].

Without a sound, he absorbed some of the angry flames ignited with a life.

He couldn't die here, nor did he deserve to die here.

This was the best chance to escape. The scions of the great families were doing everything they could to withstand Xie Wutong's final attack; no one would notice the pit beneath their feet.

Having recovered a little strength, he hoisted Li Jie's corpse onto his back and fled in the opposite direction from the blazing sun.

As he left, a tiny crystalline Radiant Feathers appeared out of thin air and attached itself to the hem of his clothes.

Shisui let a witness go. Only when he saw that the young masters and misses were close to being unable to hold out did he leisurely make his way over.

"Whoosh!"

A whip kick swept across!

A sharp rush of wind cut through the scorching heat, instantly dispersing the defeated woman's counterattack.

Chen Haoyu stared at Shisui, his face dark. "Chen Xiao, react faster next time."

"Tsk, dragging your feet like that."

Beside him, the other Chen Family scions rolled their eyes at Lou Shisui.

"Yes, young master."

Lou Shisui ignored the whispers around him and sensed the Radiant Feathers he had scattered while following Chen Haoyu from place to place throughout the day. In a rather good mood, he casually agreed.

He finally understood why the Chen Family's decision-makers had taken such a drastic approach.

So the great families and clans were all cut from the same cloth, from top to bottom. They all wanted to make a big move and purge the younger generation, did they?

Throughout the day, Chen Haoyu had met up with teams from different forces. They all shared one trait: they belonged to the Aristocratic Faction.

Lou Shisui had continuously scattered Radiant Feathers, and the intelligence relayed by those left on the great-family scions filled in the finer details of the purge plan.

As for the plan itself, he had already overheard its general outline using the Radiant Feathers' spatial ability when he entered the Chen Family residence to prepare for the examination.

First, they established a channel into the departments responsible for the unified examination. Then, working together from inside and out, they temporarily severed the connection between the secret realm space and the outside world.

Finally, they would kill all examinees who didn't belong to the Aristocratic Faction and pin the blame on the Beastfolk.

That was the plan in brief.

It was simple and brutal, but it suited Shisui just fine. So he gave it a little push, using the Steel Feathers' [Absolute Cutting] to permanently sever the connection between the secret realm and the space outside.

In addition, while scattering Steel Feathers capable of severing space, he had also scattered Owl Wings Radiant Feathers, which could open teleportation wormholes, on the ground and on examinees he had touched.

As a result, he could now reach most areas of the Unified Exam Secret Realm in an instant.

Now he only had to wait for the other force watching from the shadows to surface, and he could hunt without worry.

So, with the space already cut off, who would remain hidden?

Shisui trailed at the back of the group, thinking about the kid with a spatial talent he had encountered that day.

Chen Haoyu paid him no attention.

His slacking throughout the day had stirred murderous intent in the petty future head of the Chen Family. Once the Chen Family joined forces with the Aristocratic Faction from the other cities, he would most likely be the first one targeted.

How frightening. If Shisui really were a member of the Human Race, he would have been done for this time.

Unfortunately, he was a Ghoul.