The raw stone in Xu Jintang's hand instantly turned into a pile of powder.
She was also momentarily stunned.
It exploded?
Chapter 107
[What a pity! I thought she would succeed this time.]
[The explosion was likely caused by the overflow of power from the berserk formation diagram.]
[Yes, this formation diagram gets increasingly difficult as you progress; even the slightest mistake can trigger an explosion.]
After a moment's hesitation, Xu Jintang began to review and reflect on the incident.
She frowned and stared at the array diagram on the light screen for a while before realizing the cause of the explosion.
She rubbed her temples, composed herself, and tried again.
Not long after, explosions were heard from the other players' positions as well.
After his fifth failure, Jiang Xiangyang shook his head with a serious expression, closed his eyes to adjust his mindset, and continued his next attempt.
As time went by, the atmosphere at the competition venue became increasingly tense.
The contestants were all on high alert, their faces grim after repeated defeats.
"Bang--"
Xu Jintang looked at the raw stone that had exploded again and rubbed his temples.
After resting for a while, we continued with the next attempt.
Inside the villa at this moment.
With nothing else to do, Yan Yuting and the others sat in the living room watching the live stream.
After two hours of sleepless nights, Yan Yuting kept yawning and tearing up, "I'm so tired, how come only three hours have passed?"
Song Tianqi lay sprawled on the sofa beside him, his eyelids drooping completely.
"I suggest we come back in five hours to see the results," Jiang Shiyi suggested, seeing how tired everyone was.
Song Tianqi was the first to raise his hand in agreement, "Sure, sure! I'll go back to my room and catch up on some sleep first."
So the three of them got up and went back to their rooms to rest.
Many viewers in the competition's live stream shared this sentiment and gradually left to attend to other matters.
At the competition, after his sixth failure, Xu Jintang finally discovered the root cause of the explosion.
"Hoo..." She slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, regained her spirits, and began her seventh attempt.
Time flies.
The contestants sighed more and more, and their brows furrowed deeper and deeper.
Jiang Xiangyang went from being confident at the beginning to questioning the meaning of life.
I don't know why, but when I get to the core formation diagram in the later stages of the game, the Berserk Inscription always fails to connect.
The competition time was already halfway through, but his engraving progress was only a quarter complete.
Jiang Xiangyang shook his head impatiently, got up and went to the service counter, ordered a cold drink, and gulped down more than half of it before his agitation slowly subsided.
There are still four hours left in the assessment; you still have another chance to try.
Jiang Xiangyang calmed down, turned around and returned to the assessment area. As he passed Xu Jintang's position, he pretended to glance at him casually.
As he glanced over, the rough stone in Xu Jintang's hand exploded again due to a mistake.
He, who had been a little worried, immediately relaxed.
Qian Duoduo is currently his biggest threat, but since even Qian Duoduo is failing, he is no longer a threat.
After returning to his seat, Jiang Xiangyang quickly buried himself in a new round of attempts.
Two long hours passed.
Mu Zhongbai had just gone for halftime, returned to the field and began his inspection.
He circled around and came to Xu Jintang's side.
At this moment, the array diagram on the raw stone in Xu Jintang's hand had been engraved to one-half completion, and the light emanating from the raw stone was much stronger than before.
Mu Zhongbai's eyes flashed with shock upon seeing this scene.
In such a short time, she has already progressed to one-half.
He designed the array diagram of the inscription himself, so he was naturally aware of its complexity and difficulty.
Qian Duoduo actually learned half of it in such a short time; such talent can only be described as freakish.
Mu Zhongbai's gaze toward Xu Jintang became extremely serious.
As time went on, the other contestants also made new progress.
But compared to Xu Jintang, he's obviously no match.
Jiang Xiangyang failed on his nineteenth attempt, but there was no disappointment on his face; on the contrary, he seemed rather elated.
Because of this recent inscription, his formation diagram has progressed to a quarter of its full potential.
It's probably because he was in excellent form during today's competition, even performing exceptionally well, that he achieved a result that surpassed his previous level.
A relieved smile appeared on Jiang Xiangyang's face. He stretched his body with his arms outstretched, and his tightly furrowed brows relaxed.
He had a feeling that there was a high probability that no one would be able to complete today's test successfully.
Therefore, the final scoring criteria will likely be based on the progress of the completed formation diagram.
If he can complete a quarter of the progress, advancing shouldn't be a problem.
But he was more worried about Qian Duoduo.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xiangyang raised his eyes and glanced at the row of people with lots of Qian Duoduo in front of him.
He wanted to check on her progress, but then there was another "bang," and an explosion came from Xu Jintang's seat.
Not seeing any progress from the other party, Jiang Xiangyang had no choice but to turn his attention away and continue with the next attempt.
Time flew by, and the countdown on the foreground screen drew ever closer.
With only thirty minutes remaining, an electronic announcement sounded, "Thirty minutes left in the match. Players, please take note."
By this time, it was already dark outside.
Due to the long duration of the competition, many contestants were so exhausted that they appeared numb.
Xue Zhongqi also slumped onto the table, looking utterly devastated, as if he had lost his soul.
Oh well, there's only half an hour left anyway.
No matter how hard we try, it's impossible to make any significant progress in this short period of time.
Xue Zhongqi completely relaxed and simply started to give up.
He quietly raised his eyes and glanced at Xu Jintang's position.
He wanted to check on the progress of the class monitor's work, but his seat was blocked by the student in front of him, so he couldn't see the monitor's situation at all.
Xue Zhongqi sighed softly, shook his head, and continued to slump back onto the table, listless.
He wasn't alone in thinking this way; many of the players around him started to collectively give up.
From the perspective of the live broadcast room, there were a total of eight contestants, and five of them were just lying there in a daze.
[Hahahaha, I'm dying of laughter! Why is everyone just lying around doing nothing?]
[Don't even mention it, I've been staying up for eight hours straight in the live stream, I'm practically exhausted, let alone these players.]
[Being an inscription master is really a tough job. The matches are boring enough, but then you have to endure them for so long.]
Why isn't the camera focused on Qian Duoduo? I want to see how far things have progressed for her.
At this moment, Xu Jintang had just completed his twenty-ninth attempt.
The formation diagram is two-thirds complete.
She put down the broken raw stone, interlaced her fingers, and stretched her body.
Although the engraving is not yet complete, this progress should be enough to advance.
With that in mind, she got up and went to the bar counter, where she ordered an iced drink.
She chewed on a straw, leaned back on the sofa at the bar, and began to rest in a daze.
More and more contestants started to give up and space out; some lay down on their seats, while others, like Xu Jintang, went to the rest bar to space out.
Seeing that all eight contestants had stopped fighting, Mu Zhongbai smiled and asked, "Are you all planning to give up?"
One contestant immediately responded, " Teacher Mu, the main problem is that your questions are too difficult. Even if we racked our brains, it would be very difficult to complete them."
"Yes, eight hours is simply not enough."
Mu Zhongbai's smile widened. "In that case, let's end this round of assessment early."
The intense concentration required takes a heavy toll on an inscriptionist's mental energy.
Therefore, he understands that even if the players continue to work hard, it will be difficult for them to make any further progress.
Let's calculate the final score for each player in this round.
Xu Jintang had a straw in her mouth, her gaze glancing at the light screen in front of her.
The data rankings on the screen began to flash wildly.
A few seconds later, the rankings were finalized.
Among them, Qian Duoduo's name topped the list, and the competition results were announced.
[Contestant: Qian Duoduo ]
[ Berserk Inscription Progress: Two-thirds complete]
[Time taken to reach this progress: 7 hours and 30 minutes]
[Overall Score: 100 points]
The air at the scene seemed to freeze.
All the contestants stared wide-eyed at Qian Duoduo's score displayed on the screen.
"Two-thirds of the inscription is complete? How is it possible for anyone to reach that figure? Did the proctoring system make a mistake in its calculations?"
"No, I thought reaching one-fifth was already a good achievement."
Jiang Xiangyang was also dumbfounded.
He ranked second overall, with one-third of the inscription completed, and it took him even longer than Xu Jintang.
He thought his score was enough to secure him first place.
The contestants gradually came to their senses and turned their attention to Xu Jintang, who was leaning against the bar sofa.
She held her cold drink, sipping it slowly, completely ignoring the probing gazes of the crowd.
Mu Zhongbai looked at her with a smile, " Miss Qian, congratulations on advancing again with the highest score this round."
Xu Jintang then put down his cold drink, stood up, and replied modestly, "Just lucky."
The competition ended, and the contestants who ranked outside the top four were unfortunately eliminated.
Xue Zhongqi just barely made it into the next round, finishing in fourth place.
Upon seeing the result, he breathed a slight sigh of relief and patted his chest.
Just as he was about to go find Xu Jintang, a figure walked past him first.
A staff member from the competition approached Xu Jintang, smiling and gesturing for her to speak. " Miss Qian, Teacher Mu would like to invite you to speak privately. Would that be convenient for you?"