Chapter 1133: The First Elimination Round

As the saying went, “If you don’t want people to know what you did, don’t do it.”

No one could have expected these minor issues to actually be recorded in their school files. Of course, these were the school’s internal records, which generally wouldn’t be made public. Besides, only trivial things were recorded, and the students’ background data wouldn’t be directly included in their files. If people really wanted to know more, they could only get the secret key for the files from the schools themselves for a look.

Moreover, most of these trivial notes were usually written by the teacher-in-charge.

Each person’s teacher-in-charge had eyes. Wang Ling sat at the back of the class, and naturally, had experienced this for himself; during the countless times that he had eaten crispy noodle snacks on the sly, he had seen Teacher Pan looking at him through the back window…

But Teacher Pan had never really stopped him. This was the stage when youngsters were growing. Studying also consumed brain cells, and students sneakily eating a little during class was very normal. As long as the teacher who was teaching didn’t catch them, it was fine.

But Wang Ling didn’t expect his eating on the sly to actually be recorded in such detail… It could only be said, as a teaching pioneer and a double gold-class teacher of No. 60 High, as expected of Teacher Pan.

After the second inspection round, Wang Ling and the others went through a third round of inspections before the entire thing could be considered over.

It was far stricter than they could ever have imagined.

Super Chen remembered that when they had gone to Beast King’s Remains before, the only thing that had been used was a special magnet to collect electronic devices and magic treasures; it had been far less strict and heavily guarded.

“I guess the Dark Network could be plotting something again… that’s why it’s so tense.” Super Chen thought nothing of it when he said this, but everyone around him suddenly became nervous.

Wang Ling was well aware of this attribute of Super Chen’s. Plus, he had used his Mind-Reading Ability to learn a few things from Odd Zhuo.

Everything stemmed from the theft of Dark Ancestor Xie Sanxiao’s skull. Furthermore, Huaxiu Alliance speculated that the mastermind behind this incident was trying to draw on this Dark Ancestor’s strength to act against the heavenly vein master valve that was under Nine Dragon Mountain.

Moreover, this matter could in fact also be related to the black shadow army…

Wang Ling himself speculated that the leader of the black shadow army and the mastermind behind the theft should be the same person.

The other party had a miraculous ability to resurrect the dead. It was because of this tricky ability that the Dark Network, which had already suffered multiple losses at the hands of the authorities, might borrow this strength to take revenge.

Last time in Beast King’s Remains, several experts of the Dark Network had been caught one after another: Myriad Faces Old Man, Bloody Butterfly, and Lord Dark Fragrance who cast the “Cells At Work Spell”… One by one, they had been arrested, and were currently waiting to be punished according to the law.

After putting everything together, a bad feeling sprouted in Wang Ling’s heart…

…

More and more students from around the country arrived on air immortal warships at the Nine Dragon camp. Everyone lined up neatly for the inspection under the direction of dozens of resident special force soldiers in red clothes, who maintained order.

After the inspection, Wang Ling and the other students were divided according to school and district, and gathered together in neat square formations.

Wang Ling noticed that the number of special force soldiers in red had increased.

In fact, this current security arrangement was just the tip of the iceberg. Security for this entire competition, along with the team of doctors as well as the medical troops, had been deployed at the highest level; the Alliance of Ten Thousand Cultivation Schools had mobilized tens of thousands of people for this competition.

The number might seem like an exaggeration, but it was in fact a sign of the high priority which the Alliance of Ten Thousand Cultivation Schools placed on security. Nine Dragon Mountain’s terrain was complex, and spanned a very large area. If students were to get lost here, they wouldn’t be found right away if insufficient manpower was deployed for the search.

And in this sort of wild environment, once you were in danger, every minute counted.

The contestants were the future flowers of the cultivation world. It was for this reason that security measures had to be exhaustive, unlike a certain variety show which had severely neglected safety measures and caused the sudden death of a celebrity after a highly intense physical challenge[1]. The most infuriating was that the variety show had even dallied in the first four minutes after he collapsed, when he could still have been saved!

Roughly five minutes before 5pm, just before the pagoda opened, the last student to be examined came out of the tent.

Almost the moment the student returned to his group, the image of a familiar figure was projected into the sky by a magic treasure projector.

It was a face that Wang Ling was very familiar with… That was right, it was Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal himself!

The schedule and activities for this national body technique competition on Nine Dragon Mountain had also been jointly designed by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Cultivation Schools and the Office of Strategic Deception!

This wasn’t a surprise to Wang Ling. Since becoming a True Venerated, Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal had had his finger in basically every pie. The Office of Strategic Deception’s reputation had spread far and wide. As the first True Venerated cultivator as well as the leader of the number one sect in the world, Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal bore the heavy responsibility of building up the motherland. In addition to going out every now and then to maintain world peace, he also took some time out to go on variety shows and continue to spread the Office of Strategic Deception’s fame.

The sect’s growing fame wasn’t entirely a bad thing for Wang Ling. At the very least, the Office of Strategic Deception now gave him extremely ample funds to buy crispy noodle snacks.

Wang Ling used his “Crispy Noodles Dao Monarch” clone to bear the title of leader of the snack team as well as head of the snack shop in the sect.

Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal’s projection in the sky looked just like the real thing: he was sunny and dignified, and fully demonstrated the weight of the number one sect; the many students present were able to witness the elegant demeanor of the first True Venerated cultivator in the world for themselves.

This projection hadn’t been pre-recorded, but was broadcast live. Hence, the moment Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal’s image was projected out, he saw Wang Ling in the crowd at one glance, and was extremely happy.

“Wow! Is the first True Venerated Cultivator really so amiable?”

“This is my first time seeing this Great Death-Courting Senior!”

The students talked among themselves in the square formations.

Meanwhile, Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal began to announce how the first elimination round would work. “Welcome to Nine Dragon camp. The first elimination round is called: Climb the pagoda! You need to climb the pagoda’s 700,000 steps in a set amount of time!”

Many students were already a little scared. “700,000 steps…”

“In addition, the competition has limited funds, so accommodation is limited. There are only four hundred rooms on the top floor, so in addition to climbing to the top, you also need to compete for rooms to ensure that you qualify for the next round. The rooms are all doubles, so there must be two individuals in a room in order for you to qualify,” Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal said.

Saying this, Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal then said with a benevolent smile, “Then, let the first round officially begin.”

As soon as he said the words, the thirty-two doors on the ground floor of the Nine Dragon Pagoda, which faced the students in all directions, opened…

[1] Reference to Godfrey Gao.