Teacher Fang was also the homeroom teacher of First High School's gifted class.
Bai Wushuang, whom he had pinned such high hopes on, had actually failed.
Of course he felt awful.
But he still tried to comfort him. "It's all right. With your abilities, you don't need to choose a secondary profession. You can repeat the year and take the exam again next year! Just make sure you learn from this experience and don't get careless again!"
"Yes, Teacher Fang!" Bai Wushuang could only pull himself together and nod firmly.
He still had the chance to repeat the year!
He wasn't willing to choose a secondary profession.
Nor was he willing to settle for an ordinary academy. Next time, he would compete for the top score in the city! He would study at a prestigious university!
After seeing Bai Wushuang's failure, Zhong Wenshan, the principal of First High School, looked troubled too.
Bai Wushuang was the face of First High School, yet now he had actually lost!
The director beside him said quietly, "Principal, Bai Wushuang may have lost, but we still have Sun Ze. And there's Ling Zhan, that dark horse."
At that, Zhong Wenshan felt a little better.
Still, he said rather gloomily, "We don't know how Sun Ze is doing yet, but as for Ling Zhan... let's forget it."
"He could handle the earlier stages with his extensive combat experience and perfect use of his skills, but the second-to-last stage has an elite monster!"
"Its health, defense, speed, and skill power are all countless times greater than those of the monsters in the earlier stages!"
"And Ling Zhan is only a Jobless Freelancer... It'll be hard for him to get far!"
The director beside him fell silent too.
He knew the principal was telling the truth.
By contrast, Qi Mu, Ling Zhan's homeroom teacher, said with conviction, "Principal, let's keep watching. You never know!"
Zhong Wenshan and the director of academic affairs said nothing.
Clearly.
In their eyes, there was no chance of a "you never know" when it came to such a powerful stage of the trial!
After taking a moment to recover, Bai Wushuang headed to the stands.
He was ready to receive comfort from countless junior students.
Because Bai Wushuang had topped the rankings year after year, the students in their first and second years idolized him.
They had even formed a Wushuang Fan Club.
After his failure, countless juniors were sure to come comfort him.
He didn't really care about the junior boys. What mattered to him were the beautiful junior girls.
As he reached the stands, he put on a dejected expression, hoping his junior fans would comfort him.
But he suddenly realized that nobody was paying him any attention!
Not a single person!
Every junior was staring up at the screen, completely absorbed.
At the same time, they were muttering to themselves.
"Damn it, why haven't they switched the broadcast to Ling Zhan's side yet?"
"Exactly! Senior Ling Zhan's probably already fighting the elite monster!"
"Change the channel already!"
Bai Wushuang: "..."
He stood there alone, utterly bewildered.
Why wasn't anyone looking at me?
I'm the senior Wushuang you all love and admire most!
So why is nobody paying attention to me now?
Have I become completely irrelevant to you?
So much for all that devotion.
And besides—
Who was Ling Zhan?
Was he some top genius from another school?
"Teacher Fang..."
Bai Wushuang turned to his homeroom teacher with a pitiful look.
Seeing Bai Wushuang, who used to be so popular, being ignored like this, Teacher Fang almost laughed.
But he managed to hold it in and waved him over. "Wushuang, come over and watch with us."
Teacher Fang was actually very curious about how Ling Zhan was doing.
He wanted to know whether that dark horse, who had stood out so much earlier, had what it took to compete for the top score in the city.
As for the top score in the province... he could forget about that.
That would come down to how quickly he cleared the boss stage!
That's right. It wasn't enough simply to beat the boss. They would look at how quickly you defeated it!
Because for the geniuses ranked at the provincial level, beating a boss was easy as pie!
They were focused on finding the fastest way to take down the boss!
In Teacher Fang's view, Ling Zhan would probably hit his limit at the elite monster stage.
If he could win, he was all but guaranteed a place in Haicheng's citywide top ten.
And if he cleared it quickly enough, he might even have a good chance of taking the top spot in Haicheng!
At that moment, the other students, the principal, and the teachers were thinking almost exactly the same thing as Teacher Fang.
The truth was, if Ling Zhan had always been a prodigy, he might not have drawn so much attention.
But the key point was that he was a Jobless Freelancer! And he was clearing the secret realm solo!
What's more...
His test results had always been as ordinary as they could possibly be!
Those were precisely the reasons
Ling Zhan attracted so many eyes and so much attention when he suddenly made a name for himself.
Put simply, there was a genius and a dark horse that had appeared out of nowhere.
People would naturally focus on the dark horse first!
Amid the eager anticipation of the crowd,
the fragmented images on the screen finally merged back together.
At the same time,
the view finally settled on that tall, slender figure!
"He's here!"
"Senior Ling Zhan's about to take on the elite stage!"
Inside the Evil Emperor Desert Secret Realm.
The desert palace of the third stage.
Countless scorpion corpses lay motionless in a vast pool of blood.
The stench of monster blood filled the entire palace, nauseating anyone who smelled it and sickening anyone who saw it.
If you didn't know any better, you'd think this was some kind of hell.
Amid the mountains of corpses and seas of blood,
a tall, slender figure stood proudly.
He lowered his head and looked at the bow in his hand, seeing that its string was almost snapped.
After countless draws, the durability of this basic Archer weapon had finally hit zero.
Snap!
Ling Zhan gave it a light tug, and the bowstring broke.
"Goodbye, old friend."
Ling Zhan tossed the completely ruined bow into the pool of blood, then turned toward the very depths of the desert palace.
There stood a towering bronze gate.
A ghostly blue light seeped through the cracks.
So did the sharp, shrill roars of monsters.
It seemed as if that place didn't lead to the next stage,
but to a hell filled with suffering.
Without hesitation, Ling Zhan lightly touched down with his toes and floated up to the Bronze Gate. He reached out and pushed it open.
Stench!
A foul stench!
It smelled like rotting flesh left for several days, mixed with the rank odor of some monster, filling the stage until it made you want to throw up.
Aside from the stench,
there was nothing but pitch-black darkness.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The lamps around the room ignited on their own, giving off a ghostly blue light.
Under their glow, the darkness lifted, revealing the room's true appearance.
When Ling Zhan used the lamplight to see the stage clearly, his eyes narrowed at once.
Outside, the spectators let out shocked cries at the sight!
They could see, inside the stage...
Before you continue