"I’m off. We can talk again when we have time!"

"Goodbye, Sis."

Seeing the students arrive, the woman in white stopped chatting and prepared to leave.

Li Xiaoshuang also said quickly.

Just as Chen Che was about to say goodbye, the woman turned, reached out, and patted his head:

"Kiddo, do your best on the exam..."

"Thank you."

Chen Che’s mouth twitched. ’She really holds a grudge.’

He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but as she was leaving, she seemed to give him a deliberate look.

"Teacher Li, is she your sister?"

"You don’t believe me?"

"Yeah!"

Chen Che nodded.

Based on looks alone, she was no different from a middle schooler. It would be more believable if she were Li Xiaoshuang’s younger sister.

Just now, he had secretly tried to sense her, but he couldn’t feel any True Essence in her body at all.

But Li Xiaoshuang’s next words left him a little shocked:

"Yeah, she looks young, right? She has a Celestial Spirit Root and reached Foundation Establishment in her first year of high school, so she’s always looked this way. She’s the chief examiner for the Hui Province competition, and she came today specifically to inspect the examination site. She was passing by, remembered I teach at First Middle School, and just dropped in to ask how I’ve been."

Li Xiaoshuang lifted his thermos, took a sip of tea, and said teasingly:

"You’ve got some nerve, daring to touch the head of a Nascent Soul grandmaster?"

"Nascent Soul? How old is she?"

Chen Che’s brows shot up.

’These grandmasters have some twisted hobbies. With such high Cultivation, why pretend to be a mortal?’

"You’re in good form today. Looks like you’re pretty confident about the competition!"

Li Xiaoshuang didn’t intend to dwell on the subject:

"But, I have to give you a warning before the exam. Even a lion uses its full strength to catch a rabbit. Be careful not to stumble over an easy task. No matter who your opponent is, you must give it your all, and don’t show any mercy..."

"Got it."

Chen Che nodded.

As they were talking, the other students began arriving at the gathering point one after another.

Li Xiaoshuang repeated what he had just said and also gave a piece of advice tailored to each student’s specific traits.

To Huang Zhongfei, he said not to underestimate his opponents. To Ye Youwei, he said to be decisive and not hesitate...

Finally, he added one more thing:

"If students from the same class run into each other in the exam area, don’t attack. We don’t want you killing each other."

"Teacher Li, what about me?"

Zong Yudao saw that Li Xiaoshuang had spoken to everyone but him and quickly asked.

"You..."

Li Xiaoshuang seemed to be at a loss for words. He sighed, "Just do your best!"

...

...

A moment later, Li Xiaoshuang led the group to a large gate made of Jade.

Besides them, many other students were also lining up to enter.

This was a detection gate designed to check if examinees were carrying items like Talismans, Weapons, or Pill Pills into the exam area.

However, before the exam, Li Xiaoshuang had already stressed that carrying such items was strictly forbidden and would be treated as cheating. So, as expected, everyone passed through the detection gate without any issues. As for the students’ parents and the teachers who had escorted them, they were all stopped outside the gate.

Following the signs along the path, everyone walked into the waiting area together.

"There are so many people!"

Lin Yi exclaimed.

Chen Che was also sizing up his surroundings, but his focus was slightly different.

’A hundred or so candidates from one school... about seven hundred from all of the Six Continents... and only ten can win. That’s a one-in-seventy chance!’ 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

He grumbled to himself.

Of course, he knew that wasn’t the right way to calculate it. Most of the participants were from the top one hundred students of each school. Factoring in all the students who didn’t participate, the chance of advancing would be closer to one in a thousand.

Moreover, this was just the city-level competition.

Just then, a student suddenly shouted:

"Everyone, look! There are two people above the exam area."

A commotion broke out. Chen Che looked up, and everyone else followed suit.

Above People’s Park, two figures were sitting cross-legged. He didn’t recognize one of them, but the other was dressed in a retro style, with a white dress, looking like a celestial fairy.

"Teacher Li’s sister!"

Chen Che heard someone cry out in surprise. He looked into the distance and immediately recognized her.

As everyone looked up.

A 180-second countdown timer simultaneously appeared in the sky.

"Attention all examinees! Please remain in the waiting area and do not leave. Do not whisper among yourselves, do not roughhouse, and do not engage in any behavior that violates the exam rules. Otherwise, you will be disqualified!"

Following the announcement.

The chattering waiting area instantly fell silent.

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the countdown.

’The atmosphere suddenly got so tense!’

Chen Che felt a jolt of focus and also looked up.

...

"The exam begins!"

As the countdown hit zero.

A dazzling light suddenly erupted in the waiting area, enveloping all the examinees.

The world spun around him.

When Chen Che opened his eyes again, he found that he was already inside the exam area.

The surrounding examinees were gone, as if he were the only person left in the entire world.

The Array teleported them randomly. Roughly seven hundred people were scattered across a large park, over a thousand acres in size. Like throwing a handful of sand into water, it was normal not to see any other examinees.

"718!"

Chen Che glanced at the sky. That was the number of surviving students.

’The exam has already started! I need to survive as long as possible and defeat every other examinee I see!’

The entire exam was limited to eight hours, and the survival zone would begin to shrink after four hours.

The competition would only end when the final ten people were left.

"There’s a light over there!"

While surveying his surroundings, Chen Che suddenly noticed several spots in the park faintly glowing.

Without a second thought, he hurried toward the nearest one.

These were random items within the exam area.

Before the exam, Li Xiaoshuang had stressed that they should collect these items whenever possible, as they could change the tide of battle. If one was lucky enough to find a Talisman or a Pill Pill, they would definitely have an advantage in a fight.

Of course, these random items could also be traps.

That was why Li Xiaoshuang hadn’t argued when Chen Che had commented that this type of competition involved a certain amount of luck.

’It’s on the beach.’

The glowing spot wasn’t far. It was right where he had fought Xiao Yang before. Because he had already familiarized himself with the exam area beforehand, he reached it quickly.

A longsword was stuck in the sand.

Although it was an ordinary, standard-issue longsword, it was glowing because a Magic spell had been cast on it.

However, what Chen Che didn’t expect was that when he arrived at the beach, a cute girl with twin pigtails had also arrived at the same time.

’Are we supposed to fight to decide who gets the Weapon?’

Chen Che glanced at the sword, then at the pigtail girl.

When the girl saw Chen Che, she recognized him immediately and froze on the spot. She wanted to run, but didn’t dare turn her back, so the two of them were stuck in a standoff.

"You want this sword?"

Chen Che cleared his throat, breaking the silence.

"Yeah!"

The pigtail girl paused for a second, then nodded.

Chen Che pretended to consider it. "In that case, you can have it."

"Really? Thank you! Thank you! You’re such a good person!"

Hearing this, the pigtail girl’s eyes lit up. ’The guy ranked number one on the short video list of the ten most dangerous people isn’t as terrifying as the rumors claimed,’ she thought. ’He’s being such a gentleman, letting me have the sword.’

’Could it be because he thinks I’m pretty?’

She’d heard that at First Middle School, he was known as the "cold and handsome god" who never gave girls the time of day. Now it seemed the rumors were a bit false.

’Maybe we can even go on a date after the exam!’

While thinking this, the pigtail girl walked up to the sword, bent over, and reached out to pull it out.

She was even saying:

"My name is Wang Xiaoran, a student from Third Middle School. After the exam, I’ll treat you to some spicy hot p..."

Before she could finish her sentence.

Chen Che took a step forward, surging with a gust of wind, and appeared directly in front of her. A knee strike slammed squarely into her chin, knocking her backward. Then, a whip kick came crashing down from above. BOOM! A loud crash was heard.

It was like a meteorite crashing to earth.

The entire beach shuddered, and countless grains of sand exploded into the air.

Her entire body was smashed hard onto the sand, creating a huge crater, and she instantly transformed into a flash of light and disappeared.

Clearly, she had been eliminated.

Chen Che reached out, pulled the sword from the sand, and gave it a casual flourish, tracing an arc of light.

"What kind of teacher raises such a naive student? I was just saying that, and you actually believed me?"