The Cruelty of the Divine Examination and Yu Xiaogang's Worries

Gangzi was beyond belief.

Lin Yuan couldn't bear to look at him. He turned straight to the others.

"Tell me what you think of this Divine Examination.

And what do you plan to do?"

Qian Renxue's eyes flickered.

"Although I had a divine inheritance, it disappeared when I came here. I can no longer sense the Angel God's position, so I'm going to take part in the Divine Examination.

I was born at rank twenty, and no one my age can match me. The highest position will be mine."

Qian Renxue was full of surprises.

The original Lin Yuan had already explained to everyone that they were merely characters in a book, figures on a page, and had only become real after arriving in this world.

Lin Yuan didn't actually know whether they believed this wasn't a world on a page. But this world was real.

He didn't need to explain any further. His predecessor had already done that, and they were willing to believe him. They were doing well now, too.

Without the burden of her family's supposed destiny, Qian Renxue no longer agonized over why Bibi Dong hated her. Or perhaps it was the influence of the comic world: this Qian Renxue was surprisingly carefree.

Ever since arriving in the world of Legend of the Dragon King, she had spent each day either exploring or eating to her heart's content, as though she intended to try every dish the world had to offer.

Now she was making such a bold declaration with that cool, adorable face. The contrast was so striking that Lin Yuan couldn't help giving her a victory sign in his mind.

But when Gangzi heard Qian Renxue, disbelief spread across his face.

"How could a God-Level Martial Soul exist?

Innate Soul Power can only reach rank ten. How could anyone be born at rank twenty?

How could I, the Grandmaster, not know about it?"

"There's plenty you don't know."

Qian Renxue shot him down with that one sentence.

The man was nothing but a fame-hungry clown who loved drawing attention to himself. If they hadn't belonged to the same academy, she would have cut him down with a single stroke long ago.

She would wait to hear the headmaster's arrangements. In any case, there was no way she could teach at the same academy as him.

Then Yu Xiaogang spoke slowly.

"The Qian family of Spirit Hall inherits the Angel Martial Soul. There are rumors that it's a God-Level Martial Soul, but no one has ever said that such a Martial Soul can grant Innate Soul Power at rank twenty. That must be a closely guarded secret.

But rank ten absolutely cannot be the upper limit of Innate Soul Power. Over the past few days, I've carefully studied the records of this world's strongest people. Yun Ming, the strongest of this era, reached Titled Douluo in his twenties.

He has only one Martial Soul, yet he became a Titled Douluo at such a young age. His talent must be extraordinary.

An ordinary genius with Innate Full Soul Power couldn't reach that level so quickly. His Innate Soul Power must have been above rank ten. So being born with rank twenty Soul Power is entirely possible."

Qian Renxue's expression softened as she listened. This Yu Xiaogang was much easier to listen to.

What was that other one supposed to be?

Qian Renxue had made her position clear. She intended to compete for the highest position: Supreme Dragon God.

The others spoke up as well.

"We want to become gods too."

The Shrek Six Devils' eyes burned with eagerness.

"Wulin and I want to as well, but neither of us can qualify for the Divine Examination. I guess we don't have much hope!"

Huo Yuhao looked pitifully dejected.

The Shrek Six Devils formed one group, while Huo Yuhao and Tang Wulin formed another. Those two were the weakest.

No one was deliberately excluding them. They simply hadn't settled in yet and weren't familiar with one another, so they gravitated toward the people they knew best. That was how they had ended up like this:

Qian Renxue stood apart on her own, the two Gangzis clashed every day, and the two poor souls stuck together.

Everyone had expressed a strong desire to become a god.

Lin Yuan nodded slightly and was about to lay out the next steps when Yu Xiaogang quietly closed his book and spoke.

"This is no longer a question of whether you can become gods."

He looked at the Shrek Six Devils.

"Once you receive a Divine Examination, you can't stop. You can only force yourselves to keep moving forward.

Because there will be only a dozen or so final winners. One person will become the Supreme Dragon God, and nine will become Dragon Kings. I don't know whether more divine inheritances will appear later, but there can't be many.

Everyone else who takes part in the examination will die."

For the first time, a different emotion appeared in the Shrek Six Devils' eyes: fear.

They had thought only of the rewards of becoming gods and forgotten how cruel the path could be.

Yu Xiaogang continued.

"This Divine Examination is cruel in the extreme. I suspect the Dragon God is deliberately taking revenge on Shrek. He intends to use this examination to slaughter every last person from Shrek.

And one Shrek isn't enough for him. He's even dragged countless Shrek Academies from Parallel Worlds into this slaughterhouse."

Hearing Yu Xiaogang's analysis, Lin Yuan gave an awkward smile. That really had been his intention. The whole scheme had been aimed at Shrek, though a few small things had gone awry.

"Once you receive a Divine Examination, there's no turning back. If you don't want to die, you have to fight your way to the very top.

You'll have to complete your own examination while guarding against hunters, and you'll have to survive the Elimination Tournament.

The rules are brutal, time is short, and the odds are heavily against us.

The people of this era are terrifyingly gifted. As your teacher, I can't even see a way for you to win.

You may be geniuses, even monsters, but in this era, anyone without Innate Full Soul Power doesn't qualify as a genius."

Genuine worry showed on Yu Xiaogang's face. He didn't want to see the Shrek Six Devils die.

He couldn't qualify for the Divine Examination, nor would he take part in it. He knew his limits.

Even if he received a Divine Examination and everyone's age was brought down to the same level, he had only ever reached rank twenty-nine. Against a rank-thirty or rank-forty soul master, he would still lose. The Divine Examination meant nothing to him.

He only wanted to do everything he could to train the six children who had been caught up in the Divine Examination by accident, so they might survive it.

But surviving meant succeeding!

That was far too difficult.

Lin Yuan could see that Yu Xiaogang's concern was sincere. He understood exactly what worried him.

The Shrek Seven Monsters weren't actually that outstanding in talent. Even Oscar, who had Innate Full Soul Power, didn't have a particularly impressive Martial Soul.

He hadn't reached rank thirty until he was fourteen. With normal training, he would at most reach Soul King by eighteen.

But in The Unrivaled Tang Sect and Legend of the Dragon King, a normally trained eighteen-year-old genius with Innate Full Soul Power would be at least a Soul Emperor.

The others needed even less discussion.

Ma Hongjun suffered from the effects of Evil Fire. This Ma Hongjun could suppress it with food, so he didn't need to do anything improper. His body was in good shape, unlike that brothel-going phoenix, who had worn himself out while still young.

But none of them was the greatest concern. That was Ning Rongrong. Her Martial Soul was only the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.

At this point, none of them had eaten an Immortal Herb. Without that boost, everyone except Tang San was merely an ordinary genius.

Yu Xiaogang's worries were entirely understandable.