Although Ji Ruo had been here for several months and had long since absorbed the original owner's memories, he hadn't really embraced the original owner's social relationships.
Ji Ruo seemed quite familiar with his classmates, but only he knew that these "familiar" classmates still felt strangely unfamiliar to him.
The original owner's memories were, in the end, just that: the original owner's memories.
As far as Ji Ruo was concerned, these "familiar" classmates were merely people the original owner had known.
Earlier, when Liang Shixian, as class monitor, had decided to lead by example and stay behind to protect Ji Ruo and the others, his "ordinary classmates," Ji Ruo had felt a deep jolt.
That line, "I am the class monitor, after all!" had struck like a heavy hammer, smashing through the faint barrier in Ji Ruo's heart.
It was easy to say something noble, but what would happen if he stayed behind?
He would die!
Did Liang Shixian not know that? Of course he did!
And yet, Liang Shixian had still decided to stay behind. Even though he was scared, even though his voice was trembling, he had still activated his Iron Cloth Shirt at the First Glimpse of the Path level.
Ji Ruo's heart had been shaken.
The original owner's memories held countless little moments from school.
Liang Shixian wasn't the only one who had helped Ji Ruo.
Cloud City High School Grade 3 Class 4 was a close-knit class. There had never been a single case of bullying.
Liang Shixian's "I am the class monitor, after all!" had been like a sword piercing the barrier between the original owner's memories and Ji Ruo's, forcibly fusing Ji Ruo's life with the original owner's.
The scenes in his memories had grown vivid. At that moment, Ji Ruo suddenly felt that having classmates like these wasn't so bad after all.
And so he stopped, turned around, grasped a sword technique, and faced the Demonic Beasts!
Liang Shixian wanted to learn the sword technique, and Ji Ruo had no intention of holding anything back.
The technique wasn't anything particularly precious to Ji Ruo at this point.
Besides, Liang Shixian had earned it with his life.
Although Liang Shixian had never actually faced danger in the end, his courage in stopping at the outset was worth remembering. He was the class monitor Ji Ruo had known for only a few months, but Ji Ruo would remember him!
"Let's go this way. I'll teach you as we walk." Ji Ruo glanced around to get his bearings and spoke.
Ji Ruo had been leading the way the entire time, but the correction percentage for Absolute Sense of Direction hadn't increased.
It made sense. If an ability this overpowered were that easy to improve, it would be downright unreasonable.
"Okay." Liang Shixian nodded.
Now he had no doubts at all about Ji Ruo's ability to find the way.
Only a day had passed since the Martial Exam, and every one of them had already earned a place at a university. Luck had played a major part, but in the end, it was thanks to Ji Ruo's guidance.
In theory, if all of this had been luck, then it had all been Ji Ruo's luck.
As they walked, Ji Ruo taught Liang Shixian the Nine Swords of Dugu: Arrow Breaking Form. Liang Shixian studied earnestly, but stayed alert, watching for every stir in the surroundings.
They were in the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm. They couldn't afford to let their guard down.
Zhang Quan and Liu Neng looked at the two enviously, but didn't get too close.
They had survived this long thanks entirely to these two good Samaritans from another school, whom they'd met along the way.
They'd already been rescued by Ji Ruo several times. His style was a little childish, and he liked singing nursery rhymes they'd never heard before, but his strength spoke for itself.
And Ji Ruo was genuinely a good person. He'd brought two strangers he'd met by chance this far. Earlier, when the Tail-Stinger Demon Bees had chased them, Zhang Quan and Liu Neng had never stopped running. Now, even though they wanted to learn Ji Ruo's sword technique, they didn't feel right asking.
They slowed their pace a little, too embarrassed to ask Ji Ruo to teach them.
If they wanted to learn, they could pay for it after the Martial Exam was over.
Zhang Quan glanced at his wristwatch. The distress signal displayed on it still hadn't changed.
He frowned. "Why is it taking so long? A whole day has passed, and the Patrol Examiner still hasn't shown up. Our teacher never said anything like this could happen!"
Liu Neng hesitated. "Could something have gone wrong?"
Zhang Quan raised an eyebrow. "Impossible! The area open for the Martial Exam wouldn't have Monster Beasts or Demonic Beasts capable of threatening a Qi Pulse Realm martial artist. Even if something happened to us, nothing could happen to the Patrol Examiner!"
"But why hasn't a Patrol Examiner found us after all this time?"
Zhang Quan froze for a moment. "Yeah, why not?"
"Renxu District."
Panting heavily, the Director of the Education Bureau identified the area's original designation from the traces around him.
Humanity had divided the parts of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain under its control into sixty regions, each named after a Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch.
Renxu District had originally been the second-to-last region, with an extremely high danger level!
Now, after a massive geological upheaval, Guihai District, which had originally been the last region, had been displaced to who knew where. Renxu District was no longer in its original location either, and had instead become the region closest to the "mountainside."
In simple terms, outside the current Renxu District lay territory that humanity had never brought under its control.
Second-to-last had become last.
"I hope there aren't any examinees here." The Director of the Education Bureau took a deep breath. If any examinees had been unlucky enough to be transported to this region, they were probably already beyond saving.
He couldn't bring the dead back to life. Even if he found them, all he could do was collect their bodies.
In the span of a single day, this Director had rescued thousands of examinees with his formidable strength. But many more had died, and all he had been able to bring back were their broken corpses.
Every time he came across an examinee's body, it pained him deeply.
The Director didn't stop, charging straight into Renxu District.
He didn't expect to find anyone, but he still had to search.
Even if he couldn't save them, he had to collect the students' remains.
Even if the worst had already happened, he couldn't let these young students be buried in a foreign land!
"Huh? Why is the smell of blood so strong?" The Director froze. "Could it be...?"
He sped up, his entire body becoming a brilliant streak of light as he raced toward the source of the stench.
In the blink of an eye, the Director had crossed dozens of miles of mountain forest and reached the corpses of more than a hundred Monster Beasts and Demonic Beasts.
Above the bodies, a huge swarm of Tail-Stinger Demon Bees was slowly hauling away the bloody feast.
"This place..."
The scene, like something out of hell, didn't frighten the Director. After all, he was the Director; he had seen plenty.
"It looks like the Demonic Beasts and Monster Beasts clashed for some reason, causing chaos until both sides were badly hurt. The strong smell of blood must have attracted the Tail-Stinger Demon Bees."
The Director was still thinking it over, making no effort to conceal his presence. The Tail-Stinger Demon Bees quickly spotted him.
They'd just let a few running meals escape, and now another meal had come knocking. How could they resist?
They attacked the Director at once.
"Hmph! You don't know when you're beaten!"
The Director had been on the move for a day and had seen too many deaths. Now, guilt and worry gnawed at him. And these Tail-Stinger Demon Bees dared to attack first?
They were practically asking to die!
"Heavenly Stele Palm!"
His surging qi and blood roared without pause. The Director struck with one palm, and his dense qi and blood formed a gigantic golden hand in midair, thirty feet across, its palm lines clear as day.
The giant palm unleashed an extraordinarily powerful suction, drawing hundreds of Tail-Stinger Demon Bees into its grasp before crushing them all with a single blow!
After dealing with the Tail-Stinger Demon Bees, the Director stepped into the mound of corpses.
Although he no longer expected to find anyone, he still needed to check for traces of students or missing Patrol Examiners before leaving Renxu District.
"Huh? This is... Iron Sand Palm?!"
On the chest of a Goblin Chieftain's corpse, the Director was astonished to discover a pair of charred palm prints.
The Director knew those marks very well.
They were unmistakably left by Iron Sand Palm!
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