Wei Yuan thought that the boy was weird. He couldn’t figure out why he was looking furious.

Unlike the others, the boy continued to move swiftly even after their fortunes were mingling with each other. Although his fortune still suppressed the boy’s, it wasn’t to the point of Big Brother Xu’s turtle pace, much less everyone else’s snail pace. His Three Thousand Lotuses was as impressive-looking as it was cunning as well. The large majority of the technique was actually aimed at the boar, not him. As a result, his mount was killed in one hit.

Wei Yuan thought from the bottom of his heart that the boy was pretty good. That was why he paid due respect to him and even made sure to keep his tone sincere. Alas, it would appear that the boy didn’t accept his feelings.

Meanwhile, the boy was still growing increasingly angry. Rivers of stars suddenly shattered in his eyes, and his sword shone much brighter than before. It was as if a green sun was slowly rising into the sky!

Green light filled Wei Yuan’s vision and blinded him completely. At the same time, he heard an innumerable amount of clinks similar to that of pearls falling into a jade plate. God only knows how many times he was struck again. He also heard the boy yelling furiously:

“A Winding Stream is Like Sorrow!”

“Loneliness Knows No Flutes and Drums!”

“Water Flows Eastward to a Fisherman’s Song!”

“A General Seeks Immortal Karma In the Pavilion!”

......

“Eat sword, barbarian!!!”

......

Wei Yuan felt like he was standing in the middle of a raging storm. The green light was such that he could barely see the boy at all. However, Outlawed by Heaven and Earth was still channeling, and black wisps were still rising from his body. Somehow, they caused cracks to appear in the sea of green light and exposed his opponent again and again.

Wei Yuan raised his spear and unleashed a flurry of spear thrusts. However, he missed all of them as the boy flickered in and out of existence!

Anger welled inside his heart. A heavy grunt escaped his nostrils, and his fortune abruptly both suppressed the storm of green light for an instant and caused the boy to appear at a certain location. Without hesitation, he grabbed his spear with both hands and swung it at his opponent like a stave!

Thud! The boy flickered twice in an attempt to dodge the attack, but it was a swing, not a thrust. In the end, the powerful blow struck him in the waist and bent his body at an unnatural angle, causing him to dissolve into light.

When the storm of green light faded, Wei Yuan noticed that his heavy armor was covered in dents and scratches from head to toe. He couldn’t help but feel a bit of lingering trepidation. The boy truly nearly hurt him this time.

After the fight was over, Wei Yuan turned his attention to the hilltop once more. By now, only four people were left standing. The girl standing in the middle of the group looked indescribably beautiful, gentle, and frail. Despite grabbing her sword with both hands and watching him warily, he thought she looked more like a dancer who was about to perform a sword dance.

The girl strained a little to lift her sword before assuring those beside her. “I guess I have to enter the battlefield after all! Don’t be afraid, he’s just a barbarian. It won’t take much to defeat him.”

No one stepped out to defend her this time. It was because the remaining youngsters didn’t even possess a secret technique of fortune. The most they could do was cheer her on and adorn the background.

Wei Yuan strode up the hilltop and thrust his spear at the girl. To his great surprise, she blocked it.

The spear thrust contained as much strength as the swing he used to break the boy’s waist. Just how on earth did she manage to block it with her twig-like arms?

Something inside Wei Yuan slowly awakened as if slighted by the resistance. It was ancient and powerful like a lofty true immortal who looked down on anything and everything.

This wasn’t the first time he felt this. It was when he thrust a short spear into a refugee’s heart at the age of three.

Black Wisps rose out of his armor as Outlawed by Heaven and Earth cycled on its own. Wei Yuan gathered his strength and threw his spear forward into another thrust despite the sword. The next moment, he heard a pop like he had just popped an invisible bubble.

The girl felt an irresistible strength pressing down on her, and the next thing she knew, her sword shattered to a million pieces. The fragments flew everywhere and killed all three of her companions, causing them to dissolve into white light. She herself was covered in blood as she collapsed on the ground.

Seeing that the girl had collapsed, Wei Yuan let out an imperious grunt and looked around.

Sss!

A long, extended inhalation that seemed like it would never end later, every wisp of black qi in the surroundings was absorbed into his heavy armor. As his perception and senses kept expanding outward, he looked at the few beasts running in his direction. He saw a rabbit, a wolf, and a lynx, but none of them seemed capable of bearing his weight. In the end, his gaze settled on another mountain boar. A wisp of black qi shot out of his forehead and entered its body.

The boar let out a terrible howl as all sorts of immortal pain ravaged its body. It instantly swelled into another giant beast that was one zhang tall and several zhang long.

Wei Yuan’s boots thudded heavily against the ground as he walked toward his new mount. When he took his last step, he just happened to step on an exquisite sand table and crushed it. He paused in his tracks and looked down on the final intact corner of the sand table. It was a miniature but incredibly realistic-looking hill. He wondered who was the one who sculpted it. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

He didn’t continue forward. Instead, he turned on his feet and began walking back the way he came from. As he did this, a toe box swept across the final hill and cut it in half.

A bloodied girl was still lying prone on the hilltop. It was impossible to say if she was dead or alive.

Wei Yuan raised and dropped his spear after he reached her. The next second, white light rose into the air.

Meanwhile, the examiner’s hall was deathly silent. The young cultivator was covering his face with both hands and remaining still for a very, very long time. The other examiners were wearing interesting expressions as well. Even Daoist Fu Feng was lifting an eyebrow and hiding a gasp of shock.

The two Confucianists were calm and even pleasantly surprised at first. Then, they saw Wei Yuan climbing onto his boar and heading south. Their faces instantly turned as stiff as stone.

On the way, Wei Yuan replayed the battle inside his head. The main commander of the northern blue team—the girl wearing a goose yellow dress—had subordinates who carried out her orders without question, and powerful elites empowered by various secret techniques of fortune. The girl herself was both a masterful strategist and a powerful elite who managed to take a hit from him. And yet, he had singlehandedly wiped them all out.

To reduce the enemy’s warships to ashes amidst laughter and jokes—was this not the hallmark of a master strategist? A thought suddenly occurred to Wei Yuan: Am I actually a great military strategist?

In any case, the boar ran like the wind, carrying Wei Yuan past the central zone and into the southern zone in just a short time.

Meanwhile, Lee Zhi was stewing in anxiety and unease while a fierce battle was raging around him. The blue team had dispatched two squads—each comprising thirty candidates—to attack his flanks, but he dispatched only two squads of twenty to block them. His main force—especially the thirty elite soldiers that comprised his personal guard—didn’t move a muscle and kept their gaze firmly northward.

Seeing that the forces on both flanks dwindled over time, and Lee Zhi was still refusing to commit his main forces, a girl beside him said urgently, “Senior Brother Lee, our men will be wiped out if you don’t rescue the flanks now!”

Lee Zhi suddenly flew into a rage and yelled, “You understand nothing! If I mobilize our main force, and Bao Yun were to attack us now, then it would be a disastrous loss for our side!”

The girl flinched at his outburst and replied timidly, “But she hasn’t shown up yet, has she?”

Lee Zhi exclaimed in realization and confusion, “You’re right. What’s taking her so long?”

Bao Yun had consistently outmaneuvered him long before the military test had begun. For starters, she had organized her forces well in advance. Not only did she outnumber him, she also boasted a far greater number of elites possessing secret arts of fortunes. During the test, she had crushed his vanguard force in one go as well.

The flanking forces attacking him right now was an overt plot to grind down his forces little by little. Frankly, her advantage was already absolute. The reason he didn’t dare to mobilize his main force was because he was afraid that the girl’s main force would show up without warning and catch him off guard at the worst possible timing. If that happened, then it would truly be a crushing defeat.

Lee Zhi knew that his defeat was practically set in stone at this point, but how he lost still mattered greatly. If he panicked and mobilized his main force to take out the flanking forces, only for Bao Yun to ambush him and rout him as a result, it went without saying that his score would plummet significantly. He had his backers, yes, but the girl had even greater support. His score would definitely trail behind hers if he allowed himself to make such a critical mistake.

There was also the option of taking the fight to Bao Yun, but Lee Zhi knew the reason her main force hadn’t shown up yet was because she was waiting for him. With his current numbers, taking the fight to her would result in an eventual loss anyway, so he might hold his ground and wait. He refused to believe that Bao Yun could transform a bunch of children into battle-hardened veterans in such a short time. He was certain that they would dissolve into an unorganized mess by the time they traveled from the north zone all the way to the south zone.

When the time came, his main force and especially his personal guard would be fully rested for the decisive battle. He had purposely collected everyone’s pills so that his thirty elites could fight from the start of the battle until the end as well. Assuming everything went well, he had a serious shot at defeating Bao Yun. He was also betting on the likelihood that the girl wouldn’t resort to the same underhanded tactics as him because she cared about her image and reputation.