Exam Difficulty (Please Bookmark! Please Keep Reading!)

"Class Monitor." After Liang Quan left, Li Yi saw that Xu Wuhu looked unpleasant and hurried over.

Xu Wuhu waved a hand at Li Yi. "It's nothing. Just focus on the exam. He won't dare pull too many tricks during it."

As the most important exam in university, the Combat Preliminary Exam was a turning point in many people's lives. Precisely because of that, although it was an academy-run exam, it often drew the attention of many big shots.

Especially since Xin'an Beast Taming Academy was one of the earliest Beast Taming Academies.

Though Liang Quan was the direct-line son of the Liang family of New Guangdong, he still did not dare make any overly obvious moves against them during the Combat Preliminary Exam.

Still, Zhou Lu had already prepared himself for the first round to be extremely difficult.

Huohuo, cradled in his arms, was seeing so many people for the first time. It excitedly swayed its branches and leaves as it looked around.

Looking at the plaza packed to the brim with students, Li Yi said with a smile, "This is probably the most classmates we've seen since our freshman opening ceremony."

Previously, all the students had been preparing for the Combat Preliminary Exam, while Zhou Lu did not live in the student dormitories, so he had barely met any of his classmates.

And after the Combat Preliminary Exam, a batch of students was destined to be ruthlessly eliminated.

To be honest, although the Combat Preliminary Exam drew the most attention, it was already the easiest of the university's six Beast Taming Exams. After all, it was the only one that allowed teams, making it possible to cling to someone powerful and ride their coattails through the exam.

Xu Wuhu had told Zhou Lu that because the Combat Preliminary Exam had a scoring standard, prodigies often deliberately sought out students with poorer grades to form teams with, so they could make themselves stand out more and earn better scores.

The Class Monitor was straightforward as well. Though he had teamed up with Zhou Lu and Li Yi intending to carry them through the exam, he truly did plan to steal the spotlight and earn a high score during it.

"My eldest brother will be coming to watch this exam," Xu Wuhu said, lifting his head toward the VIP stands.

Li Yi gave him a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, Class Monitor. We'll definitely make you the coolest guy in the whole place!"

As they spoke, the Combat Preliminary Exam began.

Zhou Lu and the others were in the third group to take the field. Though that was somewhat early, they could at least use the first two matches to observe Liang Quan's combat style.

The examination grounds had been set up as a swamp, the absolute home turf of the Mud Monster.

This was also the standard approach for such exams. The more open-book the exam was, the more the venue tended to favor the examiner.

In truth, the Combat Preliminary Exam was not even the most extreme.

The Exploration Permit exam was. The Explorer Association had clearly stated that the Exploration Permit exam required Beast Tamers to fight against unfavorable attributes.

If you could not defeat wild spirit beasts even when at an attribute disadvantage during secret realm exploration, then you were unqualified.

As they spoke, the first examination had already begun.

At the center of the massive swamp stood a cement-cast platform. A red pearl sat in the middle of the platform—the "clearance item" the examinees had to do everything in their power to seize.

Liang Quan sat on the platform with a cold expression, the red pearl behind him.

According to the rules, examinees passed if they seized the pearl or defeated the examiner. If the examiner used a second spirit beast during the exam, that also counted as the examiner being defeated.

The moment the three examinees landed, the solid ground beneath their feet abruptly turned into swamp.

Other than one examinee who reacted swiftly enough to mount his flying spirit pet, the Hunting Eagle, the other two were swallowed by the swamp before they could even summon their own spirit pets.

"Knowing this is a battlefield yet still letting your guard down—you're unqualified." Liang Quan's icy voice came from the center. "You don't think this is cricket fighting, do you? The moment you step into this examination ground, whether spirit pet or Beast Tamer, you may become a target."

Cricket fighting was the derogatory term Pioneer Army soldiers, exploration squads, and other secret realm explorers used for Beast Tamer competitions.

Though the sole remaining examinee had narrowly escaped, the sight still filled him with fear.

The instant Liang Quan's words fell, a huge, hideous giant burst violently from the mire.

Its entire body was covered in thick sludge. The mud dripping down its body formed hollow cavities, like enormous, greedy mouths.

Ugly. Terrifying.

Empowered by the swamp, the three-meter-tall Mud Monster radiated an overwhelming pressure.

The examinee had wanted to flee, but the Mud Monster instantly spread apart, transforming into mud that blotted out the sky and covered the earth, swallowing both him and his spirit pet whole.

All the examinees present, even the freshmen who had come to observe, were dumbstruck.

What the hell, was the Combat Preliminary Exam really this terrifying?!

"By doing this, Liang Quan is raising the difficulty of this exam."

The students were not the only ones who felt that way. Even Principal Wu Sicheng could no longer stand watching. He frowned and looked toward the dean of studies beside him.

Meng Daoxuan, the dean of studies, chuckled. "Being a Beast Tamer is an extremely dangerous profession. When they enter secret realms in the future, a single misstep could cost them their lives. Raising the exam's difficulty a little and eliminating students without talent is for their future safety too, isn't it?"

Wu Sicheng gave Meng Daoxuan a long look. "I remember that you also tested your way out of a mountain village through the Beast Taming Exam, didn't you, Teacher Meng?"

"Ah, yes," Meng Daoxuan answered.

Wu Sicheng pointed at the examination grounds, his face instantly turning stern. "Then do you think students from ordinary families can raise their spirit pets to a level sufficient to pass an exam like this in the mere three months after contracting a spirit beast?"

"This... now..."

"Don't talk about now, Teacher Meng." Wu Sicheng cut him off. "I'm only asking you this: if you had just become a Beast Tamer, could you have passed an assessment as difficult as Liang Quan's?"

There were some things Wu Sicheng could not say outright. Meng Daoxuan had set things up this way expressly to eliminate students who lacked the resources provided by a Lineage.

This trend had already been growing more and more intense.

But some things could be seen through without being spoken through.

"Lower the difficulty of the remaining two rounds." Wu Sicheng stopped questioning Meng Daoxuan and instead spoke to him in a commanding tone.

Meng Daoxuan abruptly raised his head in surprise. "But there's never been a precedent for this!"

In the Combat Preliminary Exam, the first round, where information was public, was usually the easiest. The latter two rounds involved random combat and were considerably more difficult.

This arrangement was meant to make the difficulty distribution more reasonable, so truly outstanding Beast Tamer students could be selected.

Clearly, the final two rounds Meng Daoxuan had arranged were even harder than Liang Quan's test.

Wu Sicheng stared coldly at Meng Daoxuan. "There has never been a precedent for the first round being this difficult either. Meng Daoxuan, other people are watching this exam."

Please bookmark! Please keep reading!