The Unreturned

Great Xia.

The Martial Exam had only been open for half a day before it was forced to an abrupt halt.

This was an annual event for humanity, involving a massive number of people—who didn't have a child in their family? Every year, the Martial Exam touched nearly every industry across Great Xia.

But this year's exam was different.

The Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm suddenly experienced large-scale geological movement, throwing all previously designated safe zones into chaos.

Though the problem was discovered relatively quickly, how could a group of high school examinees safely navigate a Secret Realm in such disarray?

By the time the Education Bureau identified the issue, half a day had already passed. In the following half day, news of the exam's termination and the problems at the exam site swept through every industry like a storm.

The scope was too broad—this information simply couldn't be hidden.

After all, every department in Great Xia had employees whose children were participating in this year's Martial Exam!

The examinees were only Martial Apprentice-level reserves—Martial Artist Reserves. After entering the Secret Realm via the Secret Realm Teleportation Device, they could only wait seven days for the next teleportation to pull them back with their 'World Mark.'

If they left before seven days, their bodies couldn't withstand multiple teleportations in such a short time.

Great Xia's high command urgently activated the highest-grade Secret Realm Teleportation Device and dispatched a large number of martial artists to the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm to rescue as many examinees as possible.

Nearly every martial artist in Great Xia who met the strength threshold was mobilized, entering the Secret Realm immediately for rescue operations.

Millions of martial artists spent an entire night conducting a thorough, grid-by-grid search within the areas originally controlled by humans in the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm, successfully rescuing 768,361 examinees.

That number was less than half of the total examinees for this year's exam—after all, the Martial Exam covered all of Great Xia!

And this was only because the problem was discovered relatively early; otherwise, even fewer examinees would have been saved.

Due to the large-scale geological shifts, the geographical positions within the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm were constantly changing. The basic network infrastructure humans had set up in the Secret Realm completely collapsed, making it impossible to locate each examinee through their wristbands.

After those 760,000 examinees were rescued, the remaining ones were scattered far and wide, and some had already met with misfortune.

The large-scale geological movements also forced powerful Monster Beasts and Demonic Beasts out of their original territories, severely impacting rescue efforts.

Many of the original Patrol Examiners had also gone missing.

The Director of the Education Bureau moved through the forest, relying on his powerful martial perception to constantly monitor the area within three li of his position. Whenever he detected an examinee nearby, he immediately rushed to rescue them and send them back to the real world.

He had been running nonstop for half a day and an entire night.

During that time, he had encountered powerful Monster Beasts and successfully saved many examinees.

Running, sensing, fighting, rescuing. For half a day and a night, his mind had been stretched to its limit. Even at his current cultivation level, he was utterly exhausted.

But he couldn't stop, and he didn't dare to.

Because if he stopped, who knew how many of the still-unfound examinees might die in the jaws of Monster Beasts or under the claws of Demonic Beasts?

Time was life!

With such a major failure in this year's Martial Exam, he, as the Director of the Education Bureau, could not escape blame. Whatever punishment came afterward, he would accept it. But now, thinking of the countless young examinees who might be in grave danger, he couldn't stop.

At the very least, he had to save more!

In half a day and a night, this Director of the Education Bureau had used his formidable strength to rescue nearly 7,000 examinees.

But it wasn't enough!

Nearly 60% of the examinees were still missing!

He couldn't stop yet!

"Children, I'm sorry. You have to hold on."

A deep guilt weighed on the Director of the Education Bureau's heart, nearly drowning him.

On the first day of the Martial Exam, as night gave way to dawn, he had rescued nearly 7,000 examinees.

But on the second day, nearing noon, he had only saved about 300. It wasn't that he lacked strength—it was that the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm was too vast, and the remaining examinees were too scattered.

Coupled with the ongoing, subtle large-scale geological shifts in the Secret Realm, which constantly altered geographical positions, the rescue effort grew increasingly difficult.

Cloud City No. 1 High School.

Grade 12 Class 4 classroom.

Homeroom teacher Li Bindao stood at the podium, deep exhaustion in his eyes.

A thick, lingering smell of blood clung to him—he had also participated in the rescue.

But due to his age and a severe injury from his younger days that had left him with weak vitality, he had only managed to last half the night before being forced back to the real world.

Though he wanted to continue the rescue, he knew that if he pushed himself further, he might become someone who needed rescuing himself. That would only add trouble to the operation, so he wisely withdrew.

Fortunately, his class's students seemed to have good luck. By dawn, most of them had been rescued. Though fear still lingered on their faces, at least they were alive—that was what mattered.

"Class, the teacher knows you're scared right now and want to go home, but you can't yet," Li Bindao said, his voice hoarse. "We still have two classmates who haven't come back. Please wait here at school for a while."

He tried his best to calm the students' emotions, asking them to stay at school until the rescue operation ended and casualty statistics were compiled.

The same was happening in other classes. The rescued students sat quietly in their classrooms, recalling the terrifying scenes they had encountered in the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm, waiting.

Teachers who weren't fit for rescue—either because they weren't suited for it or had already expended too much vitality—did their best to soothe the students.

Grade 12 Class 4 had 46 students. So far, 44 had returned.

Li Bindao soothed the students while glancing at the two empty seats left in the classroom.

Two students still hadn't returned.

Class monitor Liang Shixian, and... classmate Ji Ruo.

"There's a voice announcement too? Not bad, this one alone is enough for a bachelor's degree."

Ji Ruo muttered happily.

Normally, the Martial Exam venue would be cleared before the exam began, and in theory, students would only encounter Monster Beasts or Demonic Beasts at or below the sixth-level Martial Apprentice tier.

But it wasn't absolute.

There were still special cases—for instance, some Monster Beasts or Demonic Beasts breaking through to a higher rank on the spot, or high-level beasts from other areas wandering in.

In the Martial Exam, such situations were called 'Out-of-Syllabus Exam Questions'.

In past years, nearly thirty percent of the roughly three percent mortality rate came from encountering 'Out-of-Syllabus Exam Questions'.

It was certainly dangerous, but if you managed to kill one, the rewards were naturally very high.

The scoring method for the Martial Exam was a bit complicated.

But in Ji Ruo's understanding, one 'Out-of-Syllabus Exam Question' was theoretically equivalent to scoring a perfect hundred and fifty on one of the subjects in the college entrance exam from his previous life.

In other words, a perfect score on one subject!

An ordinary Goblin Lord was normally equivalent to a human eighth-level Martial Apprentice.

And this one could even speak human language, so its strength was bound to be higher—possibly even reaching the ninth-level Martial Apprentice tier!

Ji Ruo had purely stumbled into a bargain, so of course he was happy.

Of course, this was just Ji Ruo's own guess about the Goblin Lord's strength; he didn't actually know how strong it really was.

After all, when he encountered it, the thing was already on its last legs, barely clinging to life. Even if Ji Ruo hadn't slapped it with the Iron Sand Palm, it wouldn't have lasted much longer.

So Ji Ruo had no idea what level the creature's strength was.

He only knew one thing: since it triggered the voice announcement on his wristwatch, it was definitely an 'Out-of-Syllabus Exam Question'!

Thanks to reader 'Yu Xuelishang' for the 240-point tip~