Chapter 171 : Chouyuan Star
Chapter 171: Chouyuan Star
“Are you kidding me, a ten percent mortality rate!”
“The casualty rate for serving in the Immortal Alliance army is only forty percent, yet this Immortal Alliance Entrance Exam retest actually has a fifty percent casualty rate. This is far too exaggerated!”
“We came to take the entrance exam, not to die!”
Hearing the person in charge say this, the entire examination venue immediately fell into an uproar.
Some examinees’ expressions flickered with uncertainty, and some even began to think of giving up on the Immortal Alliance retest.
‘A bunch of cowards clinging to life, unworthy to stand with me.’ Seeing the panic and unease on everyone’s faces, Shen Qiong’s eyes suddenly turned sharp.
Perhaps the Immortal Alliance was right to reform this retest.
The struggle for cultivation had always been cruel.
A group of greenhouse flowers might look beautiful, but they could never withstand wind and rain.
It was better to give resources to cultivators like them who dared to face life and death.
Chen Beiwu did not speak, but quietly watched the old man on the giant screen.
Since he dared to sign the Life-and-Death Pact, he naturally had the awareness to face death.
If he did not even have this awareness, he could not possibly have cultivated to the Qi Refining Surpassing Limit realm.
“Once you enter this examination, there will be no option to quit.”
“In the case of irresistible force, you may choose suicide to withdraw, avoiding death in the God-Void Realm from sustaining more severe injuries.”
“However, choosing suicide will cause your retest evaluation to plummet drastically.”
At this point, the old man revealed a look of interest: “Will you choose to escape and become cowards, or will you choose to press forward and prove your excellence? The choice lies in your hands.”
“I announce that the unified retest for ordinary higher cultivation schools officially begins now!”
“Buzz!”
As soon as his words fell, a light screen appeared before every examinee present.
It was the Guiding Light of the God-Void Realm.
Touching the Guiding Light would project both the examinee’s own power and their Companion Beast to Chouyuan Star, where they would face a battle of life and death.
‘I must seize first place!’
With this firm conviction, Shen Qiong stepped forward without hesitation.
“The Guiding Light of the God-Void Realm will vanish after three breaths. During this time, any examinee who does not step forward will be deemed to have forfeited the Immortal Alliance retest.”
The power-infused voice of the person in charge resounded throughout the periphery of the blessed land, causing countless examinees’ faces to flicker with indecision.
Hearing this, Chen Beiwu’s eyes shone with battle intent as he too stepped forward.
His goal was not merely to survive this Immortal Alliance Entrance Exam retest, but to sweep through the heroes, seize the highest evaluation, and shake the Thirteen Immortal Sects in one fell swoop.
……
Chouyuan Star.
Chen Beiwu opened his eyes and found himself in a forest where spiritual energy was thin.
To avoid being discovered, he immediately performed the Concealment Technique to suppress his presence, then activated his divine sense to survey his surroundings.
‘Another end-of-law era with spiritual energy decline?’ Chen Beiwu frowned slightly.
Unlike the Southern Wastes of the Immortal Alliance, this world had no spiritual essence, and the air carried a strange metallic stench that made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. He instinctively sealed all his pores.
Fortunately, the mana in his dantian circulated on its own. Even without drawing in the world’s essence, he could maintain his state for a long time.
“Gulu?”
At this moment, Gold Egg coiled around Chen Beiwu’s waist like a golden belt, looking dazed.
‘Keep your aura suppressed.’ Chen Beiwu cast a glance at Gold Egg.
The latter obediently complied, its pair of golden vertical pupils curiously observing the surroundings.
In the distance, dozens of ragged farmers struggled to swing their hoes upon dark black soil. Each had a black iron ring around their necks.
The iron rings were linked by heavy chains, binding the farmers within the fields, unable to leave.
At the field’s edge stood a gray ape about two meters tall, wearing tattered jeans and clutching a brick-sized smartphone, occasionally letting out excited cries.
Whenever a farmer dared to pause, the gray ape would pick up a whip and lash them frantically.
Seeing this scene, Chen Beiwu’s eyes narrowed.
Even a weak, powerless ugly ape could enslave dozens of grown men.
This world was truly unpleasant to look upon.
……
Meanwhile, at the periphery of a northern military base on Chouyuan Star.
“Kucha!”
Facing six ugly apes with wary eyes, a woman in green robes sighed helplessly.
She had not expected her luck to be so bad — just as she descended through the God-Void Realm, she was surrounded.
‘Since you wish to die, blame no one but yourselves.’ To avoid exposing her tracks, Zheng Lan decisively struck to silence them.
Several fireballs exploded, instantly shattering the skulls of five ugly apes.
Seeing this, the last surviving ape’s expression changed drastically. It raised a handgun and aimed at Zheng Lan.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Bullets fired in rapid succession, streaking towards her at a speed of 360 meters per second.
‘A boring toy.’ Zheng Lan’s eyes gleamed with disdain as she channeled her mana, dodging with ease before closing in and knocking the ape unconscious with a single punch.
She had not spared it out of mercy, but to extract information.
Just then, a powerful sense of danger welled up inside her. She instinctively formed a protective barrier with her mana.
“Boom!”
With a concussive blast, a metallic bullet, over thirteen centimeters long, stopped just before her eyes.
Yet Zheng Lan’s face grew darker.
“Boom!”
“Boom!”
“Boom!”
In the next instant, her protective barrier shattered. Blood flowers burst from her head, heart, and chest, leaving bowl-sized holes.
‘Impossible!’
Zheng Lan’s pupils shrank as she lost consciousness, becoming the first examinee to fall and be eliminated.
……
Bixiao Immortal Sect.
At the outer plaza of the blessed land, countless small screens merged into one enormous display.
Before it stood twenty Golden Core True Persons, releasing their divine sense to carefully observe the examinees’ performance in order to give evaluations at any moment.
Suddenly, one of the small screens flickered black.
“A cultivator at the Sixth Level of Qi Refining, killed under the barrage of dozens of sniper rifles — this is rather exaggerated.”
“This girl’s reaction was too poor. She spotted the bullets’ trajectories yet failed to dodge in time, choosing instead to rely on her protective mana to block them all.” One Golden Core True Person shook his head.
Such incompetence did not even merit their evaluation. The God-Void Realm would automatically assign a Grade D.
As the chief overseer of this retest, Jiang Chuan also shook his head slightly.
Although the ugly apes on Chouyuan Star did not cultivate mana, the technological weapons they had developed were indeed formidable.
Especially the thermonuclear weapons capable of instantly destroying entire island ecologies — their core power was nearly equal to a Golden Core True Person’s self-detonation, capable of killing even Foundation Establishment peak cultivators in an instant.
But such weapons were almost impossible to land on a Golden Core True Person, let alone cause their fall.
Because the detonation of nuclear weapons was too rigid.
Before the blast, a Golden Core True Person would have long since shifted away from the explosion’s center.
‘Hopefully, this year there will be an outstanding seedling.’ Jiang Chuan’s gaze turned back to the screen.
On the surface, this examination was a survival task: the longer an examinee lived, the higher the evaluation. In truth, however, it was a test of their temperament.