Look What I Found!

Perhaps because his soul as a transmigrator had merged with his own, even though he was a sixth-level Martial Apprentice like the others, Ji Ruo's reflexes were faster.

Besides, Ji Ruo had lived two lives. He had far more life experience than these ordinary high school students. So even if his behavior seemed a little childish because he was trying to trigger an achievement, he had never let down his guard.

The instant those green shapes shot out of the grass, Ji Ruo spotted them first and was the first to react and strike back.

Because of where they were standing, the green shapes' primary target was Liu Neng, who had his back to them.

"Watch out!"

Ji Ruo cried, shoving Liu Neng aside. Then he used the Basic Movement Technique, darting and weaving as his palms flushed red and struck one after another!

Iron Sand Palm!

The green shapes were fast, but Ji Ruo was faster!

In the blink of an eye, he struck out five palms, each hitting one of the green shapes squarely in the head. His Iron Sand Palm had reached the Entering the Hall level, and the moment his palms made contact, they crushed all five heads. The creatures died on the spot.

Iron Sand Palm was seriously powerful!

The green shapes died almost simultaneously. Ji Ruo scooped them up in one swift motion. Hunting Monster Beasts counted toward their Martial Exam scores, after all!

"Emerald Snakes?"

Ji Ruo raised an eyebrow. He recognized them at a glance.

His predecessor had studied hard, and Ji Ruo had done the same after taking over. He knew the Monster Beast compendium for high school students inside and out.

Liu Neng had been a little annoyed when Ji Ruo suddenly shoved him aside. He had been caught completely off guard and stumbled, nearly falling.

But after seeing Ji Ruo kill the Emerald Snakes, Liu Neng felt deeply grateful.

If Ji Ruo hadn't reacted so quickly, he might have been bitten several times.

But Ji Ruo didn't even stop to think. He barked, "Why are you thanking me? Run!"

Emerald Snakes weren't really Monster Beasts—or rather, they were low-grade Monster Beasts.

They had paralyzing neurotoxins, were fairly fast, and were good at Camouflage.

If there had been only one or a few, they wouldn't have stood a chance against Ji Ruo, a sixth-level Martial Apprentice with Iron Sand Palm at the Entering the Hall level.

But these things lived in groups. Five of them hardly counted as a group.

This was where you could tell how well everyone had mastered the basics.

After recognizing the Emerald Snakes, Ji Ruo took off running without hesitation. Liang Shixian froze for a moment, then followed him.

Liu Neng and Zhang Quan, however, stood rooted to the spot, unable to understand why the two Cloud City students they had just met were running.

Then they saw a terrifying sight.

The entire grassland began to tremble violently. Hundreds upon hundreds of Emerald Snakes raised their heads from the grass, fixing their cold, sinister eyes on the group as their forked tongues flicked in and out. The dreadful hiss made their scalps prickle.

"Run toward the lighter-colored grass!"

Ji Ruo shouted.

All around them, the plants began to thrash wildly. Countless Emerald Snakes burst from the darker grass, and the same thing was happening in the treetops.

These creatures were actually using this trick to mislead humans!

As they fled, Ji Ruo still found time to look around.

What was this nonsense about using the different shades of the grass to figure out which way to go? It was all the same color! Where were they supposed to find lighter or darker patches?

Liu Neng and Zhang Quan were a step too slow. A tide of Emerald Snakes surged behind them, nearly catching up.

"Keep up!"

Ji Ruo turned and struck with his palms, driving Iron Sand Palm to its limit. Their red glow intensified, and the Emerald Snakes instinctively tried to flee as soon as they drew near.

Driven by Iron Sand Palm at the Entering the Hall level, the temperature of his bare palms was so high that even these cold-blooded creatures felt an instinctive aversion to them.

Ji Ruo hadn't planned on killing many. He couldn't kill them all.

As the number of Emerald Snakes grew, Ji Ruo refused to get bogged down in a fight. He turned and ran.

They were all high school seniors taking the Martial Exam. The average student was a sixth-level Martial Apprentice, so when they ran at full speed, these low-grade Monster Beasts couldn't catch them. All four of them could only watch as the students drew farther and farther away.

An hour later.

The four finally made it out of the woods.

The situation had been too urgent for them to figure out which way they were going. Now, they were lost.

But no one cared about that. As they caught their breath, they all felt relieved to have made it out alive.

"Ji, Ji Ruo, th-thanks for earlier."

Liu Neng and Zhang Quan gasped for breath as they thanked him.

They were strangers who had crossed paths by chance. Though they were all taking the Martial Exam, they didn't attend the same school. Neither of them had expected Ji Ruo to turn back and save them under those circumstances.

"Whew. We're teammates now. Teammates should look out for each other."

Ji Ruo said.

He had thought he might trigger an achievement. He'd even come up with a name for it: "Saving Two Lives Is Better Than Building a Fourteen-Story Pagoda."

But it hadn't triggered. What a pity.

"Class monitor, which way should we go now?" Ji Ruo asked.

Liang Shixian looked around and sighed. "I don't know either. The methods the school taught us to find our bearings won't work for now."

The Emerald Snakes had settled back into the woods behind them, and the grass had returned to its patchwork of darker and lighter green.

But after what they had just experienced, they all knew Emerald Snakes were lurking in the darker areas.

Zhang Quan timidly raised his hand. "How about we wait here for now? I got a little scared earlier, so I activated the rescue device."

Ji Ruo: "?"

They'd already made it out, and he was saying he'd activated the rescue device?

Liu Neng said awkwardly, "I activated mine too."

Ji Ruo and Liang Shixian looked at their wristwatches. The display read, "Distress signal being sent. Please do your best to ensure your own safety."

Ji Ruo: "..."

They had indeed activated it, but the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm was enormous. Even the martial artists serving as examiners and rescue personnel, who had opened their Qi Vessels and surpassed the limits of ordinary human bodies, couldn't reach every distress signal the instant it was sent.

In ordinary circumstances, if things were truly dire, activating this device wasn't much use.

As far as Ji Ruo knew, the rescue workers at previous years' Martial Exams had spent most of their time collecting students' bodies.

Even after powerful martial artists had cleared the exam grounds, countless dangers remained.

That was why the death rate at the Martial Exam remained so high.

But there was no way around it.

Martial artists had to be tempered in blood before they could stand on their own.

Faced with countless foreign races and Demon Monsters and Monster Beasts, humanity barely had the time to look after itself. A safe, injury-free Martial Exam was out of reach for the time being.

Zhang Quan apologized. "Sorry. We were so scared that we activated them without thinking. But don't worry, only ours were activated. You're still eligible to take the exam. The examiners will only take us away, so it won't affect you."

Liu Neng added, "Yeah. Do you want to wait with us? We've lost our eligibility anyway, and now we're lost too. When the examiners arrive, we can ask them for directions."

Ji Ruo and Liang Shixian exchanged glances.

"All right. We'll wait with you."

But neither of them noticed that Liu Neng and Zhang Quan's wristwatches still displayed "Distress signal being sent." The message hadn't changed, and there was no indication that anyone was coming to rescue them.

It was everyone's first time taking the Martial Exam, and they weren't familiar with the rescue device. The teachers at school had only told them to find somewhere safe and wait patiently after activating it.

Suddenly, Ji Ruo's eyes lit up.

"Look what I found!"

The others froze for a moment, then followed his gaze.

Ji Ruo was already heading that way, his eyes shining.

Then they watched as Ji Ruo bent down and picked up a stick, looking delighted.

Liang Shixian asked curiously, "Ji Ruo, why did you pick that up?"

"Class monitor, look how straight this stick is!"

Ji Ruo struck a pose with a proud grin. "It's just like a sword. Look at me—don't I look cool?"

The others: "???"

You've got a real sword strapped to your back!

Liang Shixian said helplessly, "Ji Ruo, don't you know how to read the room? Could you stop being so childish?"

But Ji Ruo softly sang, "I don't wanna, I don't wanna~ I don't wanna grow up~ In the grown-up world~ There are no fairy tales~"

The others: "..."