Special Retainers and Ordinary Retainers

In Xiūshé City Second Middle School, the Star Lord class had thirty-four students in total. Twenty-seven of them remained, having reached the passing score of thirty minutes.

However, a wave of failure soon followed among the remaining students. In less than ten minutes, ten more students had to end their assessments.

These students' retainers had passed the passing score but not the forty-minute mark, placing them in the lower-middle tier. They were basically from ordinary families, refined the Spotted Snake Demon Cores provided by the school, and their retainers were ordinary Spotted Serpentfolk.

Nevertheless, their homeroom teacher, Teacher Du, meticulously analyzed each of their performances during the assessment, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses while offering plenty of encouragement.

These students had average foundations but significant room for improvement. With focused effort over the next two months, they might be able to advance further in the college entrance exam.

After all, every step forward in the college entrance exam could mean surpassing thousands, even tens of thousands, of people, which would greatly benefit their future cultivation at the Academy.

After forty minutes, seventeen students were still participating in the assessment.

These seventeen students had at least achieved above-average results.

Unsurprisingly, fifteen of them had not used the Spotted Snake Demon Cores provided by the school but had instead used special Demon Cores purchased from their families, cultivating special retainers.

Although the school and teachers had repeatedly emphasized during daily lessons that ordinary Spotted Serpentfolk retainers also had excellent development prospects; even during this mock exam, Teacher Du's own retainer was a Spotted Serpentfolk, fully demonstrating the development potential of ordinary Spotted Serpentfolk retainers to the students.

However, it was undeniable that the dozen or so students in the class from wealthy and influential families, who had specifically chosen special retainers, were simply stronger than ordinary Spotted Serpentfolk at this initial stage.

Furthermore, not only could they choose special retainers, but they also had no shortage of money for pay-to-win options, ensuring their respective retainers were fully prepared. It was hardly surprising that they achieved results far exceeding ordinary students and ordinary Spotted Serpentfolk retainers in this assessment.

If they were defeated by the ordinary retainers of ordinary students, that would be the real surprise, and a disservice to the vast amount of Spirit Stones and resources their families had spent on them.

While it was said that all Star Lords had the potential to become saints, some people simply had a higher starting point and moved faster; others started low and moved slowly, needing to take more steps than others.

However, whether one could reach the end and ascend to sainthood did not necessarily depend on the starting point or the speed of progress.

Some people took one step and then all subsequent steps, charging forward like a broken bamboo, reaching the First-Rank Celestial realm; but more people steadily advanced, step by step, slowly ascending to the Celestial realm.

The choices, gains, and losses were all within personal cultivation.

Homeroom teacher Teacher Du swept his gaze across the remaining seventeen assessment projections, then pointed to one, enlarging it and displaying it before the dozen or so students who had already finished their assessments.

In the projected image was the retainer of classmate Xu Hong, also an ordinary Spotted Serpentfolk retainer, but one that had persisted until now.

Out of the seventeen students, fifteen had special retainers. The other two were Liang Ji's mutated Half-Dragonfolk and Xu Hong's Spotted Serpentfolk retainer.

In the current assessment area, Xu Hong's Spotted Serpentfolk retainer had less than two hundred members remaining, while the teacher's Spotted Serpentfolk retainer, responsible for the assessment, still had over ninety members.

It was evident that Xu Hong's Spotted Serpentfolk retainer had inflicted very limited damage on the teacher's assessment retainer during this assessment.

However, Teacher Du, by showcasing Xu Hong's assessment footage separately, loudly praised, "Xu Hong's retainer performed exceptionally well in this assessment."

"His retainer is also a Spotted Serpentfolk, equipped with the simplest Rune Artifact shield and Rune Artifact saber, much like many of yours."

"Why was he able to persist until now?"

"Carefully observe your retainer's performance in combat, their tactical arrangements, use of the terrain, and squad coordination, then compare it with your own retainer's combat performance to find the gap."

"As I clearly stated at the beginning of this mock exam, the results are determined by the length of time the retainers persist in the assessment, not by the amount of damage inflicted."

"Yet some of you, in combat, have no tactical arrangements and your retainers' coordination is a complete mess, insisting on engaging the teacher's retainer head-on. What? You still think you can defeat the teacher's retainer?"

"If you could win these fights, then all my years of cultivation would have been wasted!"

"How could I possibly face you as your teacher?"

Homeroom teacher Teacher Du pointed at Xu Hong's retainer's assessment footage, using the combat scenes to educate the students.

During this process, in the assessment area, Xu Hong's retainer finally couldn't hold on any longer. After barely breaking the forty-five-minute mark, they concluded their assessment.

Almost at the same time, four other students failed and ended their assessments.

Following that, between forty-five and fifty minutes, another four students successively failed and ended their assessments.

Thus, there were nine students whose assessment scores fell within the forty to fifty-minute range, their results considered upper-middle.

Teacher Du also analyzed each of their performances during the assessment, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses.

These students achieved above-average results because their foundations were very solid. As long as they could address their shortcomings, they would generally achieve excellent results in the college entrance exam and could potentially aim to study and cultivate at the 'Penglai Star Palace'.

At this point, in the assessment area, the retainers of eight students were still continuing their assessments.

Eight light screens materialized in mid-air, displaying Peng Yue, Fang Xiaohan, Wang Zhihe, Bai Lingling, and others. Most of the students in the class knew they were either from Star Lord families or from influential, wealthy families in the city. Their daily cultivation had already far surpassed everyone else's, so their continued presence didn't surprise the students.

What truly astonished everyone and drew the most attention was the starlight projection of Liang Ji's retainer participating in the assessment.

Among the remaining eight, Liang Ji was the only one from an ordinary family. When he refined his Demon Core, he had used the ordinary First-Rank Spotted Snake Demon Core provided by the school.

Furthermore, during daily studies and cultivation in class, Liang Ji had never stood out, appearing like a silent, transparent figure. Some classmates might not even know his name.

His only notable performance was perhaps in a previous trial, but the process of that trial was not made public, nor did it reach a level where the school or teachers would publicize it.

Therefore, perhaps among the top Star Lord students from Xiūshé City who participated in the trial with him, he, Liang Ji, might have had some reputation, enough for the Yun Family to extend an olive branch and try to recruit him.

However, among the forty-plus students in the Star Lord class of Xiūshé City Second Middle School, few paid attention to him.

Even those who did pay attention likely did so more because of Peng Yue and Fang Xiaohan.

After all, the three of them were relatively close in class.

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