Cooperation?

In Secret Realm No. 7, everyone was transported to the same place;

It was a bare stone platform, covered in signs of human activity.

It looked as if a massive mountain had been cut clean through the middle, leaving this platform...

Chu Yuan extended his Spiritual Sense and confirmed his guess was right.

They had appeared by dropping from a blood-red Vortex two meters above the platform. The Vortex was huge and circular, about five meters in diameter;

It was still continuously spitting people out...

When it was time to return, they would use this Vortex too. They just had to jump straight in.

Before he could properly observe his surroundings, a long howl suddenly rang out. It seemed to come from... the foot of the mountain?

The crowd erupted into commotion, and Chu Yuan immediately swept the area with his Spiritual Sense!

But all he saw was a blood-red figure leaping away into the distance...

"Blood Beasts have a sense of belonging to a group, like... ancient wolf packs?

"Of course, they're even more intelligent. You could consider them a low-ranking Alien Race..." Li Hong came over, still wearing his warm smile. "This one was probably left here to monitor the teleportation rift;

"I expect all the Blood Beasts in the Secret Realm will soon know that humanity has come again!"

Chu Yuan nodded. He had thought the same thing;

Great Qin had a firm hold on Secret Realm No. 7, and its legions "harvested" it every year.

The Blood Beasts here must have been terrified of humanity for a long time!

That was why the Blood Beast at the foot of the mountain, though about as fast as a third-realm Warrior, had no desire to come attack them at all;

As soon as it saw people, it had run.

"We're from the same school. Want to team up?" Li Hong asked.

Chu Yuan looked at him, utterly baffled.

In this trial, everyone could be considered a competitor!

If they teamed up, how would they divide the credit in the end?

Li Hong raised the terminal on his wrist. "The trial task is to kill Blood Beasts;

"One point for a first-realm one;

"Ten points for a second-realm one;

"One hundred points for a third-realm one... You're very strong. If you can help me take first place, I can promise on behalf of the Li Family that you'll receive a reward beyond your imagination!"

"If you could speak for the Li Family, would you have been sent off to Chenyang City?" Chu Yuan said expressionlessly, unmoved.

Li Hong froze for a moment, then smiled wryly. "You really don't mince words...

"Of course I can't speak for the Li Family, but if I can take first place in the trial, maybe I'll have a little standing?"

"The Li Family is so powerful. Did you really come alone this time?

"Why not team up with your own people?" Chu Yuan asked. He didn't believe Li Hong had come to the Secret Realm trial alone;

If Li Hong was trying to obtain a cultivation technique, it would obviously be better to work with his own family;

It would also be easier to agree on how to divide the rewards afterward.

Li Hong shook his head and looked in one direction. "They and I... don't get along very well."

Chu Yuan followed his gaze and saw a young man who bore some resemblance to Li Hong, watching them impassively;

While most people were wearing school uniforms, he stood out, dressed in a pure-black training outfit that looked like satin.

His hair was cropped short, giving him a neat, fresh look;

A young man and woman followed behind him, seemingly with him as their leader.

When he noticed Chu Yuan's gaze, he shot him another cold glance, then pushed off the ground and left the platform.

"That's Li Ji," Li Hong briefly explained, then pressed him again. "Well? Want to team up?

"You can probably imagine that fighting alone will put you at a disadvantage... After all, not everyone is here for the reward for first place, and there are quite a few scions of Martial Aristocrat Families like us in this trial;

"Our Li Family... isn't the strongest, either."

"Not interested." Chu Yuan didn't wait for Li Hong to try again. He immediately used Smoke-Drifting Steps and left the platform.

The smile gradually faded from Li Hong's face as he watched Chu Yuan leave, his expression shifting;

The girl who had brought Jiang Fei a drink on the way here hesitantly came over. "Um... I wasn't deliberately eavesdropping on your conversation;

"I just wanted to ask, can I join a team?"

"Of course."

There were no Blood Beasts near the platform. Even the densest ones knew to stay away from such a dangerous place;

So if they wanted to hunt Blood Beasts, they had to go deeper inside.

The terminal issued by the military had a detailed map, with areas marked in different colors according to their danger level;

As Chu Yuan traveled, he browsed the information on the terminal.

To his surprise, the information was extremely brief;

There were only three sections.

The first section was the trial task: hunt Blood Beasts!

The terminal had a recording function, and the final rankings would be based on points.

The second section covered the general conditions in Secret Realm No. 7, and it was also the most detailed;

It included a map, illustrations of rare medicinal herbs, edible plants, and creatures in the Secret Realm, information on safe water sources... and so on.

The trial lasted five days. At the students' current level, only the extremely rare Warriors in the Internal Breath Realm could go five days without food or water.

The third section was the fallback mechanism;

There were no high-ranking Warriors watching over this trial, and besides, there were too many students to keep an eye on anyway;

Anyone who encountered danger, or simply wanted to quit, could return to the Stone Platform and jump straight into the Vortex to go back.

The Stone Platform had a protective mechanism. It didn't affect humans, but for other creatures... any that came near would die!

That was all. The terminal seemed to impose no restrictions at all on them as trial participants?

Chu Yuan had expected a rule like "participants must not kill one another," but no such rule appeared...

Given how serious this trial was, he could rule out the possibility that whoever had made the rules had "forgotten" to include it.

Chu Yuan looked at the terminal in his hand... So had the higher-ups done this on purpose, allowing students to attack one another;

Or was this... another test?

Since the military-issued terminal could record their kills, adding a video recording function shouldn't be difficult either...

As he pondered, a gust of force suddenly hurtled toward him!

Chu Yuan instinctively tilted his head. A rock whizzed past his ear;

"Not bad!"

A mocking voice rang out, and a figure leaped down from a tree nearby;

Chu Yuan raised an eyebrow and realized it was the young man who had been following Li Ji earlier.

He couldn't be bothered to speak. He flicked a finger, and the Wind Cutter Sword at his waist landed in his hand;

The young man didn't seem to care. He folded his arms, looking curious:

"Could you tell me how a country bumpkin from some backwater place like you... managed to offend Brother Ji?"

"You're about to find out..."

Wind Control: Swift!

A pale-green light blazed along the sword's edge, as if a true gale had taken shape!

In an instant, it was upon him...