Monthly Exam, Battle for the Frontier City!

On the athletic field.

Most students had taken their places and were waiting for the monthly exam to begin.

But Yang Xiaobing kept running back and forth, drawing secret glances from almost every boy.

The blue-and-white school uniform did not make her look bulky at all. Instead, it lent her a fresh, youthful energy.

As the fabric fluttered with her steps, it revealed a faded red cord around her slender, snow-white wrist.

That had been many years ago.

Some penniless guy had given her a red cord for her birthday.

Yang Xiaobing hurried back and said, "She's a little angry. Quick, tell me what it'll take for you to fight her."

"If she joins our team, I'll fight her properly after the exam. I definitely won't run," Xu Yuan said.

"You're so sneaky! I'll tell her right now!"

Yang Xiaobing ran off again.

From afar, Xu Yuan watched her pull Jiang Xueyao aside to talk, his eyes narrowing.

You've got to be kidding!

That new sword of Jiang Xueyao's made an explosive burst of flame just now.

It has to be exclusive gear for a pay-to-win player!

I'd have to be crazy to fight her!

Besides.

This exam directly affects the Nightmare-level competition.

In a way, it could even decide whether I live or die.

How would I have time to play one-on-one with her?

The best strategy now is to unite every force I can and get the exam reward!

Only the highest score will do!

Yang Xiaobing whispered in Jiang Xueyao's ear for a while.

Jiang Xueyao said nothing.

Yang Xiaobing paid that no mind. She took Jiang Xueyao by the hand and led her over.

"G-Goddess Jiang is coming over—Xu Yuan, are we dreaming the same dream?"

Zhao Afei was trembling as he spoke.

"She's exactly the help we need," Xu Yuan said.

As they spoke, the two girls reached them.

"Ten times."

Jiang Xueyao's expression remained cool.

"Deal," Xu Yuan said without hesitation.

He would fight her ten times after the monthly exam!

"Fine. I'm in," Jiang Xueyao said.

"Team formed!" Yang Xiaobing cheered. She snatched up a talisman, signed all four names, and slapped it with spiritual power.

The talisman flew up to the platform and landed on the proctor's desk.

A thick stack of talismans already lay there.

Each represented a team that had formed.

Soon, the moment for the exam to begin arrived.

All the senior students held their breath.

The principal stepped onto the platform, cleared his throat, and channeled spiritual power into a voice that shook the entire athletic field:

"Now."

"I'll keep this brief."

Everyone stood there in a daze, letting his words go in one ear and out the other as they listened to more than ten minutes of incomprehensible droning.

At last.

The principal began speaking faster, excitement entering his voice:

"That's all I have to say. Students, I hope you stay calm, read carefully, and give this exam your best. Next—"

Every senior raised their head and held their breath.

Was the exam finally starting?

"Let's welcome the director of the Education Bureau, Mr. Zhang Guangshu!" the principal announced loudly.

Scattered applause broke out.

A plump, middle-aged man stepped onto the platform. With a kindly smile, he began:

"Hello, students."

"In this golden October, we face an extremely important exam."

"Now, I'll keep this brief."

Everyone stood there in a daze, letting his words go in one ear and out the other as they listened to more than twenty minutes of incomprehensible droning.

Still.

At last, he got to the substance.

"Students!"

Zhang Guangshu's tone grew weighty.

Most students remained unmoved. They kept their heads down and eyes closed, conserving their energy and regulating their breathing as they waited for the exam to begin.

But Xu Yuan caught something in that solemn tone.

He raised his head and looked toward the platform.

"As we've excavated various ruins, we've finally made a new breakthrough in artifact refinement."

"Today, an artifact that has only just been completed will send you into an event from a bygone era."

"Of course."

"This isn't the actual past. It's a place constructed through the artifact."

"Everything is real, yet everything is false. You will not lose your lives. Remember that well."

"Our teachers will oversee everything throughout."

"Finally, I must say this."

"The artifact is still unstable, and our techniques aren't mature enough. Teachers in the Foundation Establishment Realm can only provide protection, while those of you in the Qi Refining Realm may fight freely inside."

"If you discover valuable intelligence or a secret unknown to others, report it immediately."

"There will be generous rewards!"

"All right. Everyone, prepare yourselves!"

Xu Yuan sank into thought.

The ability to simulate a bygone era suggested that the civilization he now lived in was ahead of Earth's.

He had already learned that this world's technological civilization was no less advanced than Earth's.

If its cultivation could also "simulate an entire bygone era," then he needed to reassess his understanding of this world.

On the athletic field.

Scattered applause sounded.

The senior students all perked up.

The monthly exam was about to begin!

Under the supervision of Education Bureau officials, thirty-six teachers formed hand seals together, activating the great formation on the athletic field.

Waves of spiritual power hummed with a magnificent resonance.

Before the reporters' cameras.

Education Bureau director Zhang Guangshu announced in a ringing voice:

"The joint examination of Jiangnan Province's eight schools officially begins!"

As his words fell.

Dazzling spiritual light shot skyward from the athletic field. It swept up every senior student, and in an instant, they vanished.

Education Bureau director Zhang Guangshu and the principal stood on the platform and waited.

"The formation is functioning normally!"

"The large-scale soul technique has stabilized and is unfolding!"

"All students have entered the Zhou Tian Instrument!"

Reports came one after another.

Zhang Guangshu let out a long breath. Hands clasped behind his back, he stood watching the formation operate.

"Director Zhang, why don't you sit down for a while?"

The principal spoke.

"I don't dare sit. This exam... I'll rest once it ends smoothly," Zhang Guangshu said.

"That's far too much work," the principal said.

"We're not the only ones working hard. I'm afraid many people like me are holding things together with their hearts in their throats."

Zhang Guangshu gave a wry smile.

"That person offered the Zhou Tian Instrument for use and set this enormous soul technique in motion... but would still be displeased by this?" the principal ventured.

"Don't talk about it! Don't invite trouble!"

Zhang Guangshu went pale and quickly pointed to his ear.

The principal immediately shut his mouth.

Could even a conversation inside a school be overheard?

That was frightening.

For the sake of his future and his life, there were indeed some things he should not discuss.

True enough.

In this era, the nation's affairs were controlled by the leading cultivators of the great factions.

But—

The human realm had a master, after all.

Thick smoke drifted on the wind.

Xu Yuan coughed a few times before opening his eyes.

"How do we divide the work?"

Jiang Xueyao's cool voice rang out.

She looked at Yang Xiaobing.

Yang Xiaobing looked at Xu Yuan instead.

Xu Yuan did not speak at once. He narrowed his eyes and surveyed their surroundings.

A jumble of ragged sounds came from every direction, mingled with piercing screams and cries.

Beneath the night sky.

Broken silhouettes darted across the tall buildings.

Police sirens sounded, then fell silent.

Boom—

A violent explosion came from the distance.

The ground and the glass kept shuddering.

Frost covering the walls shook loose from the blast and floated through the air like another sudden snowfall.

Zhao Afei kicked a shattered wolf's head to the roadside and said, unable to contain himself:

"How could it be this event?"

Before his words had faded.

A twisted human skin slid down a wall and dropped to the ground. Using both hands and feet, it scuttled toward the four of them.

Zhao Afei formed the seal for the Cinnabar Flame Art and unleashed a burst of fire.

Boom—

The human skin burned with a crackle and turned to drifting ash in moments.

"It's the demons' massacre of Northern Frontier City ten years ago!" Yang Xiaobing said at once.

"Yes," Xu Yuan said as the memory came back to him. "Wasn't this covered up? They don't even allow people to discuss it online."

Human skins, wolf heads, a city of ice and snow, and the restless spiritual energy in the air.

They were the hallmarks of that event!

Ten years ago.

The Demon Race and monsters had joined forces to slaughter a human border city.

The event had shaken the entire human world.

It had also left no room for the isolationists who advocated peace and staying out of affairs between demons and monsters.

The human world's vast war machine began turning at full speed.

Each successive war among the three races grew more brutal.

"With exam content like this, and a joint exam between eight schools at that, I'd bet it'll cause an uproar as soon as it's over," Zhao Afei said with a sigh.

"Even with the new artifact-refining technology, they must have mobilized quite a few soul cultivators to construct this exam," Yang Xiaobing added.

To construct a "real" scene, Soul Artifacts alone weren't enough. It also required the soul arts of soul cultivators.

An event as vast as the slaughter of an entire city...

Who knew how many soul cultivators had been mobilized, or how much money had been spent, to prepare it all?

"There will only be more exams like this from now on."

Jiang Xueyao said it calmly.

Holding her sword, she stood amid the night and swirling snow. Lit by the towering flames in the distance, she looked like a celestial maiden cut off from the mortal world.

A city-destroying event...

Xu Yuan pondered it in silence, then suddenly sensed something wrong.

The scent of grass and wood ash spread through the air.

An invisible, seething stench of rot welled up from underground. Like a swamp, it made him feel as though he were sinking.

Fire.

A fire without heat had been born somewhere.

He could feel it.

...There's no mistake.

It was the aura that poured into the human world from "that world" when the Netherworld Communion Technique was performed, along with the imagery the entire ritual gave off.

Why could he sense something like that during a monthly exam?

More to the point—

What exactly is this?

A feeling stirred in Xu Yuan's heart, and he looked up almost without thinking.

In that instant,

time seemed to sink into a mire.

Everything in the world became a silent, flowing backdrop.

On the side of a nearby skyscraper, he saw a woman with seven or eight long black legs standing on the sheer wall.

She wore a long black dress. Her hair flowed like a waterfall, spilling across the wall and covering the entire face of the building.

In the dead silence,

Xu Yuan could almost hear his own heartbeat.

No.

This isn't a normal creature.

It isn't one of the demonic beasts from the textbooks, either.

It filled him with an overwhelming sense of ill omen. It was even more uncanny than the bronze figure scattered across the "other world."

And it was alive!

As if sensing Xu Yuan's gaze—

the woman whipped her head around to look at him, silently mouthing something.

"Release me from suffering."

Her voice sounded beside Xu Yuan's ear.

Every hair on his body stood on end. He couldn't help drawing his sword and shouting:

"Everyone, watch out..."

It was pure instinct.

Xu Yuan even thought his hand was shaking.

Afraid?

I'm afraid?

It's only an exam. Why would something like this appear?

Suddenly—

"What's wrong with you?"

Zhao Afei gave him a hard slap on the shoulder and followed his gaze upward.

"There's nothing there."

Xu Yuan said, "How can there be nothing—"

His voice stopped short.

The woman was gone.

Had his eyes really played tricks on him?

He turned to Jiang Xueyao and Yang Xiaobing.

They looked just as baffled.

"...Did either of you hear anything just now?" Xu Yuan asked.

"No. Did you find something?" Yang Xiaobing asked in return.

In an instant,

Xu Yuan suddenly smiled and shook his head.

"No. I just thought I heard something in the distance."

—The entire city was falling into chaos. Of course there was noise in the distance.

All manner of sounds came riding on the wind, setting everyone's nerves on edge for no clear reason.

Once they heard his explanation, no one thought much of it.

Xu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Yang Xiaobing was at the Qi Refining Third Layer. He didn't know Jiang Xueyao's level, but it could only be higher.

Neither of them had noticed.

Why could I see that woman?

If—

If I'm the only one who can see that monster, what a staggering thing that would be.

The notice before the competition had explicitly stated that "observer groups from every faction in the current world are in position."

Someone is watching the monthly exam!

I absolutely cannot reveal this unknown ability.