When Lin Xiaolu followed the route she had sensed and stepped past an intersection, a feeling like needles pricking her back made her abruptly stop.
"Wait!"
She shouted, almost instinctively balancing on one foot. As she retreated, she condensed a mana bullet and threw it in front of herself—
—"Boom!"
The sudden explosion made both Mint and Bai Jingxuan, who were standing behind her, raise their hands to shield themselves from the blast.
"Whew... cough, cough..."
Lin Xiaolu, naturally being closest to the explosion, did not fare well either. She landed and coughed twice before getting to her feet with a frown, her voice hoarse. "There are actually traps this dangerous in the exam? That's way too vicious, isn't it?"
"Are you okay, Sister Xiao Lu?" Bai Jingxuan walked behind Lin Xiaolu and gently patted her back. "Was that a Hidden Rule?"
"I'll check." Mint volunteered, passing by the two of them and carefully making her way to where the explosion had occurred. After searching around briefly, she straightened up and said:
"No, it probably wasn't a Hidden Rule, because I don't think the examiners set this thing up."
"Huh?" Hearing that, Lin Xiaolu crouched down and looked up, her gaze immediately sharpening. "What do you mean?"
"If I'm not mistaken, it was probably a trap laid by another team?"
Mint stroked her smooth chin, looking thoughtful. "We haven't found what the examiners actually hid yet, but I've more or less figured out how they set their questions. No matter what form the test takes, they always provide clues. Yet there weren't any hints around this exploding trap—no mana fluctuations, no highlights, no sounds... A trap like this doesn't seem like the examiners' work."
"Someone's trying to hurt us?" Lin Xiaolu did not question Mint's analysis, because even she felt