The sole-heir Knight strode forward and kicked open the newly appeared door, leaving the mirror-lined room behind. Zhang Yuanqing followed, leading his staggering teammates out into the hallway.
Having lost a massive amount of blood, Brother Red Chicken collapsed with his back against the corridor wall, panting heavily.
Guan Ya, Sun Miaomiao, World Returns to Fire, and Zhao Chenghuang either slumped cross-legged in exhaustion or leaned against the wall, trying to soothe the agony caused by having their character cards nearly ripped from them.
Even though Zhang Yuanqing had pulled back in time, to them it still felt as if their souls had been stabbed. The bleeding had been stopped, but the wound remained.
After gasping for breath several times, Brother Red Chicken pulled a vial of concentrated Life Source Fluid from his inventory, injected it into his carotid artery, and popped an emerald bead into his mouth.
He closed his eyes with an expression of sheer bliss.
Within seconds, pale bones sprouted from his mangled wrist, followed by dividing new flesh, and a tender, fair-skinned hand grew back.
The other members also took out healing items one after another to restore their conditions.
Just then, Zhang Yuanqing saw Zhai Cai drifting over, his coat fluttering. The sole-heir Knight said with a beaming smile, "I seemed to sense the aura of an evil class just now. Don't bother denying it. In the eyes of an upright, masculine, strikingly handsome, and exceptionally virtuous Knight, evil aura is as glaring and distinct as a firefly in the dark."
Zhang Yuanqing scoffed without missing a beat, "I didn't see upright or masculine, nor overflowing virtue, but aggressive is definitely right."
Saying this was not only to counter the insufferable Knight, but primarily to keep his current persona distinct from Xiaoyao Jianxian. Xiaoyao Jianxian was aloof and cold.
Jumang, on the other hand, was sweet and soft, aggressive and receptive, perfectly versatile.
Zhai Cai clicked his tongue and looked him up and down. "You brat, you're pretty much asking for a beating! By the way, what has Xiaoyao Jianxian been up to lately? I kind of miss him."
Zhang Yuanqing chuckled. "He misses you too, and he thinks very highly of you."
"What did he say about me?" Zhai Cai asked, intrigued.
"He said you're a total loafer among Knights."
"What does 'loafer' mean?" Zhai Cai was of Chinese descent, but he had spent his childhood and youth in the Free Confederation. Though he had lived in his ancestral homeland for a few years, his grasp of regional slang was limited.
"'Loafer' means clever and sharp," Zhang Yuanqing said.
"I don't believe you!" With his sharp intuition, Zhai Cai eyed him suspiciously. "Unless you swear an oath before me: whoever lies returns to the Spirit Realm!"
*You actually know yourself pretty well...* Zhang Yuanqing ignored him.
After resting for half an hour until everyone had recovered, Zhai Cai clapped his hands to draw the team's attention and said:
"Our objective this time is Room 503 on the fifth floor. We're currently on the fourth floor. As long as we clear one more room, we'll reach our destination.
"Everything has been fairly smooth so far. If our luck holds and we run into a stage corresponding to Level 6, I can guarantee your safety. Now let's discuss which room to pick. I consider six my lucky number, so let's go with 406."
"Objection!" everyone chorused.
The sole-heir Knight intended to push his case, but seeing the steely resolve in their eyes, he shrugged flexibly. "Fine, majority rules. Whoever has the best luck can pick."
Brother Red Chicken spoke up first. "Let's choose Room 401."
"Get lost. You're a mobster; you have the worst moral standing of all," Sun Miaomiao spat back at him.
Zhang Yuanqing pondered briefly, then said, "Clearing the fourth floor will lead us straight to Old Berent's storage room. If we use Stargazing now, we should be able to accurately pin down the difficulty level of the fourth floor. Liushui, give it a try."
Sun Miaomiao nodded eagerly. She opened her Star Eyes and read everyone's astrology.
Moments later, her expression turned dreadfully grim. "A bloody calamity..."
It was still a bloody calamity, just like last time.
Zhang Yuanqing had already anticipated this outcome. When entering Room 306, the physiognomy readings Sun Miaomiao and Zhao Chenghuang saw showed that everyone, including Zhai Cai, would face a life-or-death crisis.
Yet the danger in Room 306 had never truly threatened Zhai Cai.
That meant the crisis lay on the fourth floor.
The sole-heir Knight fell silent for a moment, then said, "Then we might as well pick 406. It's not like the outcome could get any worse."
The atmosphere grew solemn.
Brother Red Chicken complained, "The risk and the reward aren't matching up at all. Can't we steal a few Dominator-grade materials?"
"Do you want to be hunted down by a Dominator?" Zhai Cai narrowed his eyes and sneered. "Old Berent doesn't know the true nature of the Holy Plate fragment. Taking it won't cause any unexpected trouble, but Dominator-grade materials are scarce. If even one goes missing, he'll notice immediately.
"Once we gather the Holy Plate fragments and open the Holy See treasury, trust me, you'll reap the biggest harvest of your lives."
These words stirred the Saints present.
This was precisely what Yuanshi had promised them before the operation: as long as they secured the Holy Plate fragment, they would get a share when the Holy See treasury was opened in the future.
As the largest organization of a century ago, the treasury left behind was bound to be immensely rich.
*As expected of a boss, tossing out pie-in-the-sky promises that instantly get people fired up...* Zhang Yuanqing inwardly quipped, then urged, "We've rested enough. Let's enter the room. The sooner we get the Holy Plate fragment, the sooner we can get out of this godforsaken place."
Zhai Cai nodded. "Then 406 it is. Six is my lucky number."
He strode toward Room 406 and turned the doorknob. Beyond the door lay a pitch-black expanse where nothing could be seen.
Zhai Cai stepped through and vanished into the darkness.
Zhang Yuanqing and the others followed quickly. Once they crossed into the darkness, their vision instantly cleared. Before their eyes appeared a spacious classroom furnished with a blackboard, a podium, and ten student desks.
Written on the blackboard was:
*Welcome to the Wise Men's Amusement Park—Examination Hall!*
*Examination Rules:*
*1. Thirty seconds remaining until the exam begins!*
*2. The number of exam candidates must not be fewer than six.*
*3. No items may be used during the exam. Once the exam begins, the examination hall will be sealed.*
*4. Each incorrect answer will result in punishment.*
*5. Examination duration: Ten minutes.*
In the upper right corner of the blackboard, a thirty-second countdown appeared.
"An exam?" Brother Red Chicken's eyes went wide. Wearing a look that suggested he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, he exclaimed, "Why is there an exam in a labyrinth? I came here to fight monsters, not to take an exam!"
He seemed to possess an instinctive terror and aversion to exams, completely bewildered by the concept of a testing room inside a labyrinth.
"Pan's Labyrinth has sixty rooms in total, and each room holds a different danger across all sorts of formats. There's nothing to make a fuss about." Zhai Cai clearly knew a fair bit about the labyrinth, adapting easily.
"An exam is better than hacking and slashing," Zhang Yuanqing said.
"I'd rather be hacking and slashing!" Brother Red Chicken shouted.
"Me too!" Sun Miaomiao mumbled.
"From elementary school all the way through high school, her grades were always below average," Zhao Chenghuang sold out his childhood friend without hesitation.
"While the failing students are babbling nonsense, the straight-A students are already studying the rules." Guan Ya interrupted coldly, keeping her eyes fixed on the blackboard. "Just like the mirror room, it seals the inventory, but it won't restrict the use of skills. The hall being sealed means we can't actively enter the Spirit Realm.
"I don't know what kind of questions will be on it, but it shouldn't be as hopeless as the mirror room."
"Don't go raising flags!" Zhang Yuanqing cut his girlfriend off. "In the mirror room, the Knight was never in mortal danger, but here he is. Where did you get the confidence to think this isn't hopeless?"
Zhai Cai vowed confidently, "No problem. I graduated from MIT as a top student. A measly exam is a walk in the park for me. The rules say no using items, but they don't say we can't cheat or share answers. When the time comes, you can all just copy off me."
World Returns to Fire shook his head. "It's obviously not that simple. The test definitely won't cover questions within our everyday knowledge. I doubt an item would dish out a Free Confederation curriculum test."
By this point, only ten seconds remained before the exam began.
Everyone hurriedly took out handy weapons, suits of armor, vine armor, heart-protecting mirrors, and other defensive gear.
Although the rules explicitly stated that items could not be used, at most that sealed their magical functions; the physical objects themselves remained unaffected. Take the sword Guan Ya drew, for instance.
Even if its enhancement and piercing abilities were sealed, it was still a sharp blade that allowed a swordsman to make the most of sword skills.
The same applied to armor—its inherent structural durability wouldn't change.
Zhang Yuanqing also brought out the Form and Spirit Annihilation Blade and the Purple-Gold Shield. Zhai Cai wasn't familiar with Yuanshi Tianzun, so seeing the Purple-Gold Shield didn't matter; it was impossible for him to deduce Zhang Yuanqing's identity from an item he had never seen before.
In fact, even within the Second District, few people had seen the Purple-Gold Three-Piece Set, and fewer still knew it was soul-bound to Yuanshi Tianzun.
At that moment, the countdown ended, and a line of text surfaced on the blackboard:
*The exam has begun. Please be seated within three seconds. Those not seated within the allotted time will be shot dead!*
Square panels slid open across the ceiling, from which long, dark, heavy-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns extended—ten in total, five on the left and five on the right, providing complete, dead-angle-free coverage of the classroom.
With a collective rush, Zhang Yuanqing and the others dove toward the desks.
A line of text appeared on the blackboard:
*[Commencing Exam!]*
*[State the value of Pi to 20 decimal places. Value: 10 points.]*
*[Time limit: 30 seconds. Countdown begins!]*
"Fuck!" Sun Miaomiao cursed on the spot. "I only know 3.1415926!"
"Fuck, what even is Pi?!" Brother Red Chicken also cursed.
World Returns to Fire, Zhao Chenghuang, and Guan Ya all wore solemn, even somewhat despairing expressions.
Everyone turned their gaze toward Yuanshi Tianzun, the active college student.
"Who the hell memorizes that when going to school?" Zhang Yuanqing said with a grim face, equally desperate, before looking at the sole-heir Knight. "MIT straight-A student, it's on you."
Zhai Cai's face slowly stiffened. "Who the hell memorizes that when going to school?"
Thirty seconds slipped away while everyone stood frozen in dread.
*[Time's up! Score for this question: Zero points!]*
*[Firing Penalty: Twenty seconds!]*
A faint metallic click resonated overhead, followed by a torrent of bullets raining from above. Gleaming golden rounds bathed in faint light swept through every corner of the classroom.
Desks and chairs were shredded to splinters under the relentless barrage, amidst a deafening cacophony of metallic clatter and smashing wood.
Brandishing his sword, Zhai Cai sprinted toward the corner of the room, shouting, "Get behind me!"
The group squeezed into the right-hand corner, which sat in the blind spot of the five machine guns on that side; they only had to face the remaining five.
Zhai Cai planted his knightly longsword into the floor before him. A bronze radiance flared, conjuring an illusory wall in front of him.
*Bang, bang, bang!*
Bullets slammed violently into the barrier, kicking up rain-like ripples of yellow light. Zhai Cai held on initially, but in less than ten seconds, his arms began to tremble. Five seconds later, fractures spiderwebbed across the once-indestructible phantom wall.
"I can't hold it! Five seconds left—you're on your own!" Zhai Cai roared.
The bronze wall shattered, and a storm of bullets enveloped the group.
Shielded no longer, everyone deployed their own means. Brother Red Chicken conjured a fireball, hurled it several meters away, and used Fire Traveling to dodge the initial wave before the bullets could strike him.
World Returns to Fire used the fireball Brother Red Chicken had thrown to execute Fire Traveling as well.
The three Stargazers dissolved into starlight and dispersed.
Clad in vine armor, Guan Ya had no flashy tricks. She spun her longsword into a tight, impenetrable shield, deflecting incoming rounds with frantic clangs.
A Scout's Insight allowed her to perceive the trajectory of every bullet, but caught in a downpour of fire, no amount of predictive ability could dodge them all. Within moments, two bullets punched clean through her lower abdomen and right chest.
Her Saint-grade vine armor failed to stop the faintly glowing munitions.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing threw caution to the wind and lunged forward, shielding Guan Ya behind him and taking the brunt of the bullet storm with his own body.
The only protection he afforded himself was raising the Purple-Gold Shield to guard his vital head.
*Thud, thud, thud!*
Cavities erupted across Zhang Yuanqing's body in an instant, and dense fractures cracked across the Purple-Gold Shield in his grip.
Even this Dominator-grade defensive item couldn't endure for long.
Fortunately, the five seconds soon expired. The ten anti-aircraft machine guns ceased firing, their barrels smoking with gunpowder.
Guan Ya immediately caught hold of her lover, and both slumped limply to the floor. Instinctively, she went to open her inventory to grab Life Source Fluid, only to remember that her inventory was sealed.
"I'm fine, won't die..." Zhang Yuanqing coughed up blood and froth. "Check on the others."
Guan Ya raised her head and quickly looked around. The other four teammates all had bullet wounds, but thanks to their rich combat experience, they had protected their vitals and faced no life-threatening peril.
Sun Miaomiao and Zhao Chenghuang were Stargazers; their non-fatal wounds would heal quickly. As for World Returns to Fire and Brother Red Chicken, several through-and-through bullet wounds bled profusely across their bodies.
In a sealed chamber where items were forbidden, they could only rely on the vigorous vitality of Fire Masters to endure it.
"The second question has started," Zhai Cai warned in a hurried voice, two bullet holes in his chest.
Their hearts skipped a beat, and they hastily looked at the blackboard.
*[Commencing Exam!]*
*[What classes did medieval witches, werewolves, and vampires each belong to? Value: 10 points.]*
*[Time limit: 30 seconds. Countdown begins!]*
Chapter 737