In the 24,520th year of the Immortal Alliance, at Shouhe No. 2 Middle School in Far Sky County.
The Great Sun hung in the sky, like a pearl of heaven and earth, illuminating the imposing school buildings, their floors arranged in orderly tiers.
By the classroom window, a slender, luminous hand gripped a black ballpoint pen and swept it freely across the exam paper.
[10. A Ninth Layer of Qi Refining cultivator has been bitten on the arm by a Red-Striped Scorching Fire Serpent and injected with a large amount of snake venom. How should the injury be treated correctly? ()]
A. Amputate the arm at once and take an antidote pill.
B. Immediately report the Red-Striped Scorching Fire Serpent's exact location to the Immortal Alliance.
C. Seal the Shenmen Acupoint around the wound and repeatedly flush it with Magic Power.
D. Use no Magic Power; cut open the wound to let it bleed and suck out the poisoned blood.
Chen Beiwu glanced at the question and filled in answer B without a moment's hesitation.
This multiple-choice question was far from easy. The knowledge it tested was outside the scope of high school textbooks, and could stump almost everyone in the class. But it couldn't stump him, who had studied the Three Years of Qi Refining Mock Exams, Five Years of College Entrance Examinations and Ten Years of Foundation Establishment, and the Compendium of Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha Beasts inside out.
The Red-Striped Scorching Fire Serpent was one of the top ten most venomous Treasure Beasts on the Earthly Sha List, also known as the Three-Breath Treasure Serpent. Its venom was so potent that even a Golden Core True Person would die within three breaths if struck by it, let alone an ordinary Ninth Layer of Qi Refining cultivator.
If a cultivator was unlucky enough to encounter a Red-Striped Scorching Fire Serpent and get bitten, the best response was to report the information to the Immortal Alliance at once, preventing further casualties, while also leaving a will so their family could receive the Immortal Alliance's enormous reward.
According to the bounties announced by the Immortal Alliance, information on an unclaimed Earthly Sha Treasure Beast was worth at least ten Upper Grade Spirit Stones, equivalent to a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
What did a hundred thousand Spirit Stones mean in the Immortal Alliance?
With such an immense supply of Spirit Stones, one could probably pile up enough to establish a Foundation Establishment lineage. With the right connections, one might even have a chance to exchange them for the Calamity-Breaking Golden Elixir that Foundation Establishment Rogues longed for but could never obtain.
Unfortunately, ordinary Qi Refining cultivators could never run into a Red-Striped Scorching Fire Serpent within the Immortal Alliance's jurisdiction.
"Thump, thump, thump!"
"Thump, thump, thump...!"
That was Chen Beiwu's heart pounding rapidly.
His spiritual intuition stirred. Following the sensation of Nine-Breath Chaos in his heart, he looked out the window.
Boom!
There, high in the Firmament, a golden sun hung aloft, like the pearl on the seat of a Divine King. It radiated seven-colored light across the universe, as if an eternal being had descended with a crash.
What is that? Chen Beiwu's mind went blank.
In the eyes of ordinary people, the Spirit Power radiating from the Great Sun was gentle and warm, giving all things vibrant life. But in Chen Beiwu's eyes, the Great Sun had undergone a terrifying mutation.
Its aura had become overwhelmingly domineering, like an eternal deity gazing down on heaven and earth, capable of annihilating any ant that dared look upon it.
I'll die!
If I keep looking, I'll definitely die! A sudden understanding rose in Chen Beiwu's heart.
At that moment, the organs, bones, flesh, and even cells in his body all groaned under the strain. His consciousness, too, was like a candle flame in a gale, ready to go out at any moment. Yet Chen Beiwu still couldn't tear his gaze away.
"Buzz!"
Fortunately, at that critical moment, the treasure residing in Chen Beiwu's heart suddenly stirred.
A mysterious and profound power, unlike Magic Power or Dao Practice, forcibly cut off a sliver of the Great Sun's radiance and actively healed the exhaustion rising from the depths of Chen Beiwu's soul.
"Huff, huff."
Coming to his senses, Chen Beiwu was drenched in sweat, his body trembling uncontrollably.
That was close. I almost died!
What exactly caused the Great Sun's sudden mutation this time? Did I accidentally glimpse a forbidden secret of the Immortal Alliance, or was it the Fortuitous Encounter triggered earlier by my Orange Fortune...
Chen Beiwu's mind was a muddle. He didn't dare think too deeply, much less look at the Great Sun outside again.
"Student, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Why don't you go to the infirmary for a checkup?" Noticing that something was wrong with Chen Beiwu, the proctor asked with concern.
Chen Beiwu wiped away his sweat and forced down his horror. "Teacher Lei, I'm fine. I just happened to have a realization about the Ten Thousand Beasts Art."
After speaking, he shifted his attention to the exam paper on his desk, picked up his black ballpoint pen, and continued answering.
The school year had only just begun, and today was the school's placement exam.
Whether the Great Sun's mutation just now was an Orange Fortuitous Encounter or not, he needed to answer the questions seriously. Focusing on the exam would help his mind calm down.
Besides, Chen Beiwu's score on this placement exam mattered a great deal. It would determine how much Spirit Stone subsidy the school gave him afterward.
At that, Teacher Lei gave Chen Beiwu a long look but said nothing more, continuing to patrol the classroom.
Several minutes soon passed. Teacher Lei seemed tired and sat down on the other side of the classroom, but the corners of his eyes kept drifting toward Chen Beiwu's face and exam paper.
Just then, feeling a drowsiness rise from the depths of his mind, Chen Beiwu forced himself to stay alert. He circulated the Visualization Method, Great Mystery Guarding the One, which he had practiced since childhood, while turning over the exam paper and looking at the final question.
[Faced with an adult Iron Calamity Bear less than a hundred meters away, how should an ordinary Fifth Layer of Qi Refining cultivator carrying a Swift Movement Talisman, a Lesser Thunder-Summoning Talisman, and a Small Sword Casket escape correctly?]
This question is a little tricky, Chen Beiwu thought.
Heaven and earth were infused with spirit; all things could absorb the Spirit Power of heaven and earth and nurture Magic Power and Dao Practice, drawing the power of the universe into themselves. Such beings were honored by humanity as Cultivators.
In the Primordial Era, however, humanity was weak. The mighty demons, blessed with extraordinary gifts, could ravage heaven and earth with nothing but the Divine Abilities flowing in their Bloodlines. Even the Cultivators whom countless humans looked up to were no match for them.
In the eyes of all the demons of that time, humans were no more than ants they could crush at will, while in the eyes of humanity, the demons were unstoppable natural disasters.
Some humans, in order to survive and reproduce in such a harsh environment, did not hesitate to use blood sacrifices to gain the demons' protection.
Yet among humanity were also ancestors who refused to submit to the demons' rule. Overcoming countless hardships, they gradually forged, through the long passage of time, the supreme Immortal Dao of Cultivating the True through Borrowed Beasts. They thereby seized power surpassing that of the demons and opened up a new world for humanity.
By now, the Immortal Alliance had established a splendid civilization of Cultivation. Its prosperity could be summed up in one sentence: wherever the sun and moon shone, wherever rivers flowed, all was the territory of the Immortal Alliance.
The Demon Race, which had once ruled Heavenly Abyss Star, had been driven to one corner and exiled by the Immortal Alliance to the depths of the Creek-Cavern Earth Abyss, where they struggled to survive.
The Demon Race now living within the Immortal Alliance's territory was no longer made up of demons alone, but of demon beasts. They were divided by Bloodline level and potential ceiling into Variant Beasts, Spirit Beasts, Treasure Beasts, and Mystical Beasts, corresponding respectively to Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul cultivators.
As for demon beasts above Mystical Beasts, that was information Chen Beiwu had no way of knowing.
The Iron Calamity Bear in the question was a relatively obscure Third-Tier Treasure Beast listed in the Ten Thousand Beasts Manual. In theory, it could possess more than five hundred years of Dao Practice, equivalent to a Golden Core True Person. A casual swipe of its paw could crush a whole group of ordinary Qi Refining cultivators.
At that thought, Chen Beiwu gathered his thoughts and filled in his answer.
"The ordinary cultivator should throw away the talismans and sword casket, lie still, and play dead to escape safely."
Seeing Chen Beiwu's answer, Teacher Lei furrowed his brow.
What kind of nonsense was this?
We cultivators must defy the natural order, tread the steps to the ninth heaven, and break through the shackles of lifespan with an unyielding will. How could we lie down and play dead?
Granted, the Iron Calamity Bear shared a temperament with certain cat-type Treasure Beasts. It liked to toy with its prey and feed on fear.
The more its prey struggled during this process, the more excited the Iron Calamity Bear became.
Conversely, when faced with prey that gave up resisting, the Iron Calamity Bear would most likely lose interest in hunting, except when it was extremely hungry.
But the correct answer to this question should be: the ordinary cultivator must hold fast to the resolve to brave death in order to survive, and use the Lesser Thunder-Summoning Talisman on themself.
The Iron Calamity Bear was a Yin-Attribute Treasure Beast, naturally averse to lightning. To it, the lightning summoned by the Lesser Thunder-Summoning Talisman was like the filth humanity avoided at all costs; it would want to get away from it, let alone swallow it.
However, the trap in this question was that if an ordinary cultivator dared to use the Lesser Thunder-Summoning Talisman to strike the bear, they would most likely provoke its ferocity and die a gruesome death.
After all, no one could endure the humiliation of being pelted with a rival's shit-least of all the vicious and brutal Iron Calamity Bear.
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