Night fell, darkness shrouding the land. Tonight seemed especially quiet and desolate. A half-moon hung slanted in the sky, while scattered stars gave off faint glimmers of light.
Shrek Outer Academy, New Student Assessment Area.
The new student assessment had concluded successfully. Match after match had dealt these eleven- and twelve-year-old youths a tremendous psychological blow, teaching them how uneven the world could be and that there was always someone stronger.
Eager to catch up with their more powerful peers, the new students rushed back to their dormitories to cultivate, terrified of wasting even a minute. At this moment, only a few figures remained in the Soul Arena, and it was utterly silent.
"Tap, tap, tap!"
Heavy footsteps and harsh panting suddenly rang out. A crimson figure burst into the assessment area, braced herself against a pillar to catch her breath for two seconds, then looked up at the person in the stands and rasped out word by word:
"Ling Bai, you're really something!
"Ning Tian has gone missing, and you can still sit there motionless like a dead turtle!"
Wu Feng's face was a mixture of frustration and anxiety. The back of her white academy uniform had long been soaked through with sweat; one hard squeeze would have wrung water from it.
The moment Ning Tian ran out of the assessment area, she seemed to vanish into thin air. Wu Feng had nearly turned Shrek Outer Academy upside down, yet she had not found the slightest trace of Ning Tian.
"Are you truly stupid, or just pretending to be?" Ling Bai looked down at Wu Feng, who was glaring angrily up at him, deeply disappointed by her failure to understand.
"Ning Tian is obviously avoiding us. She's finding somewhere to lick her wounds alone. Why do you have to