The spacious classroom at Demon Academy was filled with interweaving dim light. The grain of the oak floor and the carpets carried an inexplicable air of desolation and intoxication. Only the clear footsteps of the examiners echoed through the examination room, like murderous intent roaming about.
The back row of the examination room.
Hughberlian held her head low, her eyes trembling slightly, her mind completely blank.
She had never imagined that she would end up in a Shadow World where she had to play a demon.
For her, this was an extreme form of execution.
Unlike the other challengers, who had been temporarily disguised as demons by the Shadow World's setting, her usual Disguise Magic had been directly removed, revealing her true demonic form.
This was how she looked—a form she would rather die than let the people of the royal capital see in full view. Hughberlian did not even know how she was supposed to face Lanchi in this appearance.
Yet at this moment, there was only one thing she could clearly understand—
The screens throughout the school were repeatedly broadcasting scenes from the Shadow World where she and Lanchi were.
This was a performance, and also an execution.
She could only force herself to calm down and try to read the questions in front of her.
Although the half-demon-blooded Hughberlian had an extremely high affinity for the Demon Magic Text and was naturally capable of using some demonic magic,
she had grown up as a duke's daughter in a human kingdom and had no idea how to write any of these messy demonic spells.
If even she could not do it, that meant these questions were certainly not meant to be solved by the challengers themselves.
If they wanted to pass the exam and leave the examination room safely, the answer was obvious—
The challengers in the examination room had to figure out which other candidates could solve the questions, copy the answers from them, and avoid the eyes of the two examiners at the same time.
Hughberlian and Lanchi also needed to cooperate. Otherwise, they might not be able to gather enough passing answers within two hours.
The demon students were wary of one another as well. For example, the students in the front rows were especially careful not to let other students see their papers. It was even possible that some malicious ones might deliberately use wrong answers to trick and mislead others.
"Phew..."
Hughberlian worked hard to steady her disordered breathing.
The only thing that still gave her a sliver of reassurance was that she could sense Lanchi's calm presence not far beside her.
He had probably understood the rules for clearing this examination room as well.
Of course.
Hughberlian was not certain that the strategy she had envisioned matched Lanchi's, so she made no move.
The agreement between her and Lanchi was—
Lanchi would watch the enemies, while she only needed to watch Lanchi.
Not far to Hughberlian's right,
Lanchi leaned back in his chair, raising his head as he watched the two examiners, deep in thought.
Their clothing was impeccable. They appeared courteous and refined on the surface, yet carried an utterly undisguisable aura of terror.
One was an Owl-Human Demon. Its black fur was sleek and glossy, and its two scarlet eyes were cold and cunning. It wore a sharply tailored classical suit decorated with intricate golden details, giving it the air of an ancient, mysterious sect.
The other was a demon with dragon horns and dragon scales. Its bearing was filled with majesty and strength, and its pupils seemed to burn with blazing flames. It likewise had a humanoid body, and complex patterns were embroidered onto its luxurious vintage suit, making it look like some symbol of authority.
They both appeared to be teachers of considerable standing at this school.
Although the two examiners also noticed Lanchi's gaze, they said nothing.
Lanchi's eyes were perfectly upright, as if his heart were clear as a mirror. He did not look like he wanted to cheat in the slightest. Rather, he looked as though he had grown tired from writing and wanted to relax his eyes.
More importantly, directing one's gaze respectfully at the examiners did not count as communicating with anyone.
Even so, doing this would indeed attract a certain amount of attention from the examiners, and accordingly make cheating much more difficult.
But it was not meaningless.
After observing for several minutes, Lanchi had already discovered quite a few things.
For example, the two examiners' routes and speeds were highly regular.
And.
There really was cheating in the classroom—
Quite a few demon students in the front rows would begin making small moves whenever they noticed a brief blind spot shared by the two examiners.
Some methods of cheating were plain and straightforward yet precise and efficient. Others directly used magic and technical tricks. It was truly a case of every demon displaying their own special abilities.
For example, some unknown demon in the front row seemed to have just used Mental Magic at close range to forcibly occupy Lanchi's field of vision for an instant, making everything go black.
Afterward, Lanchi felt that he had apparently been labeled a poor student. It seemed that after a small cheating group discovered he could not answer the questions, the demon students nearby stopped giving him any chance to peek, completely excluding him as if they refused to let him join their academic fraud.
"Fortunately, my mental and spell resistance is high enough. Otherwise, having my vision controlled by that kind of magic would be disgusting."
Lanchi thought to himself.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling that he had gradually understood everything.
Then it was time for him to show off a little of his own ability.
At Lanchi's location, an opportunity for both examiners to fall into a blind spot appeared roughly once every minute.
There was a brief one-second window in which he could attempt to cheat. It was also the best time to act.
This rare moment was about to appear again.
At that moment, the two demon students in front of Lanchi could not help turning sideways. They gripped their papers in their hands, their bodies taut with tension.
Their plan was to each write down the questions they knew, then use this opportunity to exchange the examination papers in their hands.
Lanchi watched all of it.
Though simple and crude, it was indeed effective, because both demon students had been clever enough not to write their names on the papers.
Hughberlian quietly observed Lanchi from the side.
Following Lanchi's gaze, which had locked onto its prey, she also noticed the movements of the two demon students in the front row.
Hughberlian had to admit that although Lanchi's bold choice to "calmly watch the entire room" had increased the examiners' attention on him, it had also allowed him to gather a tremendous amount of information with exceptional efficiency.
For example, this moment that was about to arrive.
The two candidates in the front row were very likely about to exchange papers.
As long as he reacted quickly,
Lanchi could use the attached function of the tool spell card Shadow World Recording Program to record, to a certain extent, the information on the two papers during the instant the students in front exchanged them.
He could then view it within his own field of vision.
This was a convenience and information advantage possessed only by challengers!
The blind spot appeared, and the two demon students in the front row began to move.
Hughberlian looked forward to Lanchi successfully capturing the answers.
If they used the two front-row students as stepping stones and successfully copied the answers of even more students, perhaps the two of them would not need to write for the full two hours. They could hand in their papers and leave the examination room ahead of time.
Just as Hughberlian was thinking this,
Lanchi raised his right hand on the spot.
"Teacher, they're cheating!"
His righteous, stern voice echoed throughout the classroom.
In an instant, both invigilators abruptly turned their heads, their gazes locking onto the two cheating demon students who had failed to complete their attempt and were halfway through exchanging papers!
The two demon students reported by Lanchi also instinctively turned around. Their eyes widened in disbelief as they stared at Lanchi in the back row, as if they were looking at a dog!
"You two. I saw you."
The Dragon Horned Demon closer to the cheating candidates strode toward the front row, while the more distant Owl Demon clicked its tongue and turned back to continue walking forward.
A brutal slaughter began.
The shrill screams seemed compressed into the air, making the other demon students feel suffocated.
The next second, the classroom held nothing but the sounds of bones being crushed and blood and organs splattering everywhere.
The cheating demon candidates became two corpses in the span of a few brief moments!
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