Situation!

Once lunchtime was over, the second-year students hurried away.

The first-year students remained in the cafeteria. It was now their turn to watch the battle.

Everyone looked toward the central screen, buzzing with anticipation.

"I wonder whether Lin Fan or Fu Wu will take first place?"

"Hehe, didn't you get the news?"

Someone asked smugly. When everyone looked over, he deliberately put on an air of mystery.

"Don't ask. All you need to know is that in a melee of nearly five hundred people, surviving until the end won't be easy."

"Hehe, I don't care who gets first. I just want to see Li Qingshan get wrecked!"

The moment those words came out, they immediately struck a chord with every first-year student.

"That's right. Whoever wins is fine, but Li Qingshan has to die!"

"No, one clean slash would be letting him off too easily. The suffering we endured must be something he tastes too."

"Exactly. He dared to challenge across grades—I'm just waiting to see him chopped to pieces by a storm of blades!"

For a time, everyone waited in eager anticipation.

The door opened, and Zhao Hongzhou accompanied Li Qingshan back to the dormitory.

Li Qingshan turned his head toward Zhao Hongzhou and raised an eyebrow.

"You aren't curious?"

Never mind the shock of outsiders after news of his cross-grade challenge broke.

Even Zhong Xian had been unable to resist asking about it during lunch. Yu Lei and Hong Qian were no more optimistic about it either.

Yet Zhao Hongzhou, who was normally so talkative, had remained silent throughout.

"Brother Shan, I did want to ask at first, but..." Zhao Hongzhou grinned.

"I suddenly remembered how things were when you filled out the application form in class, so I decided not to ask."

Back in Class Seven, everyone had been just as unconvinced by Li Qingshan.

But the facts had proved that they were all wrong!

"Smart!"

Li Qingshan patted Zhao Hongzhou's shoulder, opened the pod lid, and lay down inside the Virtual Pod.

In the conference room, the teachers gradually arrived.

Wan Keshan picked up his teacup again and sat in the front row.

Lu Jing stood up and was about to operate the screen projection when Yuan Hongyan suddenly stepped in front of him.

"Old Lu, if you pull any more tricks this afternoon, don't blame me for getting rough."

In the second-year New Talent Competition, the strongest contestants were undoubtedly Fu Wu and Lin Fan.

If Lin Fan were surrounded in the middle by Wuyi's teams, he would truly be finished.

"That's a harsh thing to say. How could I possibly pull any tricks?"

Lu Jing frowned, his face full of righteous indignation.

"This morning was genuinely just the result of random assignment. Look, even Old Wan has no objections!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the teachers could not help bursting into laughter.

"Old Lu, give it up! You're still putting on an act at this point?"

"If not for Li Qingshan being such a trump card, Wan Keshan would've skinned you alive this morning."

"Hehe, I really don't have any objections!"

Wan Keshan took a sip of tea and casually spat out two tea leaves.

"Lu, how about you try putting Li Qingshan in the middle again? Don't worry, I guarantee I won't make a move."

Wan Keshan might not care, but Yuan Hongyan certainly did.

Her phoenix eyes fixed on Lu Jing like a tiger eyeing its prey.

Even with Lu Jing's thick skin, he could not hold on any longer. He could only laugh awkwardly.

"Don't worry, it's absolutely random. Truly random. How about we take a look first?"

As he spoke, his fingers tapped across the Communicator.

A hundred projection screens appeared at once, each covering an area a hundred meters across.

The entire platform, ten kilometers on each side, was the second-years' main battlefield.

Figures quickly appeared on the screens. In the blink of an eye, all 495 participating students appeared on the platform.

All the teachers swiftly scanned the hundred-odd screens, confirming the distribution of the students' positions.

The placements were still arranged by school teams. Since the battlefield was large enough, every team was separated by at least a hundred meters.

What deserved notice was that—

The teams from Wuyi's ten high schools, more than sixty people in all, had all been placed in the upper-left corner.

Clearly, Lu Jing was afraid that what happened in the morning would stir up public anger and leave the Wuyi teams besieged.

Other than that—

The other three corners belonged respectively to Luoying, Wuyuan City, and Pingshan City, whose strength ranked only below Wuyuan City.

All four corners were the furthest away from the other teams.

In a melee format—

A remote location meant being able to preserve one's strength and enter the chaotic battle later.

After Yuan Hongyan swept her gaze over the setup, she said no more.

Teacher Li sat beside Wan Keshan and said quietly,

"Old Lu placed Luoying in the lower-left corner. It should be because of what happened this morning—he wants to apologize to you."

"Who needs his apology?" Wan Keshan raised an eyebrow and said sullenly,

"That Lu bastard just loves playing the fool. I'd rather he put Li Qingshan right in the center."

"The very center?" Teacher Li frowned.

"In the lower-left corner, he can still drag things out until the end and have some chance. If he's placed in the center, even with Li Qingshan's Mastery-level Mystic Steps, he won't be able to last long."

"Hehe, who said he's only at Mastery?" Wan Keshan chuckled twice.

Teacher Li's pupils shook, and his eyes slowly widened.

"You mean..."

"I don't know either. Just watch!"

Wan Keshan took a sip of tea and looked up at the screen.

He truly did not know, but he believed Li Qingshan could do what he said.

"Old Lu's 'randomness' this time is really interesting!"

In the back row, a teacher remarked teasingly, while the other teachers nearby all revealed knowing smiles.

Lu Jing had placed the strong teams in the corners. It seemed perfectly reasonable, but he had undoubtedly treated all the students they had brought as "accompanying examinees."

Yet this was precisely what they wanted.

Wuyi could band together, and the more than sixty cities could band together as well!

Who was really there to accompany the examination was still uncertain!

They would just have to see whether Fu Wu and Lin Fan could survive the siege of more than four hundred people until the very end!

Inside the battle space—

The moment Wuyi's ten teams landed, they swiftly gathered toward Fu Wu's location.

In less than half a minute, more than sixty people had formed into one group, firmly occupying the upper-left corner.

They each drew their weapons and stood ready in strict formation.

"Something's wrong!"

Fu Wu pushed aside the student blocking his way and walked to the front of the group.

The reason they had gathered so quickly was because they feared that, due to what had happened in the morning, the other small teams would target them.

Yet not only were there no pursuers, none of the other teams paid them any attention. Instead, they were all converging toward the center of the platform.

Even stranger, some teams were less than ten meters apart yet still had not made a move.

This scene left the Wuyi students' hearts hanging in their throats.

"Senior, they haven't even drawn their blades. What exactly are they trying to do?"

Fu Wu looked toward the "harmonious" center of the platform, his brow gradually knitting together.

"They must have discussed it in advance. They're preparing to band together!"

"Band together?!"

The hearts hanging in the air finally died.

Indeed, apart from banding together, there was no second explanation.

But more than four hundred people banding together?

Everyone looked toward the center of the platform, where people were still gathering, and swallowed hard.

Once those people finished gathering, Wuyi would definitely be their first target.

At the upper-right corner of the platform—

The group of seven from Wuyuan City had likewise noticed something was off.

Someone could not help laughing mockingly.

"Who told Wuyi to do so many wicked things? Now Fu Wu is about to be besieged!"

Yet Lin Fan showed not the slightest joy. He said in a low voice,

"If Fu Wu dies beneath a storm of blades, who do you think the next target will be?"

The laughter abruptly stopped, and everyone fell silent.

At the lower-left corner of the platform—

"Fu Wu and Lin Fan are both in for trouble!"

Li Qingshan looked into the distance with an easy expression.

More than four hundred people were banding together, so their targets would naturally be the two strongest—Fu Wu and Lin Fan.

This would undoubtedly greatly ease his own pressure.

"Cough, cough... Junior, have you forgotten your 'record' from this morning?" Zhong Xian coughed twice and reminded him,

"More than sixty cities have banded together, yet they excluded us Luoying. Haven't you considered why?"