Upon arriving at Class A's Base, Ming Hao was waiting at the front door, ready to receive us.

"Welcome," he said, briefly meeting my gaze before quickly breezing over it to avoid rousing any suspicion. "Brother Long, please come in."

He welcomed Long Lu into his meeting room while the rest of our class was led inside the temple by the other Class A students, who had been informed of this 'alliance' beforehand by Ming Hao. Naturally, they, just like the rest of the Class D students, were not told the full story.

I slipped away discretely to head for the meeting room as well. The girls, who were surrounding me, noticed this, but didn't question. After all, they knew what I was going to do and that the true partnership Ming Hao had was with me, not Long Lu.

When I knocked on the door, Ming Hao's voice answered.

"Come in."

I did as told, closing the door behind me as I did so and grabbing a seat without being offered.

"Alright… now that the real leader is here, I can go, right?" Long Lu joked with a chuckle.

"No," I replied in full seriousness. "You have to tell the other students what we're going to do next, so you have to stay here and listen."

"Yeah, I know…"

"So? What do you say we do, Xuan Kai?" Ming Hao asked, resting his face on his hand lazily. "You're the leader here."

"We launch an attack. Tonight."

At this, both Ming Hao and Long Lu blinked a few times in surprise.

"E-Eh? This quickly?"

I snorted. "When else? I hope you remember, this exam only lasts for a week — that's not a lot of time for us to pull ahead. Right now, Class B and C are both still busy strategizing and setting up their defenses. They'll be assuming we are doing the same. We should attack now and earn a preemptive first strike."

"I see… but how exactly will we do it?"

"It's simple. Leave behind about 5 people to guard just in case — even though I doubt they'll think of counterattacking — then send the rest of your class with us on the assault. Class D will attack them head-on, while Class A supports from the sides and slips in to get the flags. It will be an overwhelming 45 to 25 numbers advantage."

"I see… got it," Ming Hao nodded firmly, standing up. "Alrighty! There's no time to waste — let's get this show on the road!"

*****

After that, our conversation ended. I gave Ming Hao the five flags stored in my Space Locket, allowing him to place them in a secure room in the exact center of the temple, right at the very top floor. It was directly above the meeting room where we had talked moments earlier.

The temple was big, but there were only a few buildings and the flags stood out quite a lot. Rather than hiding it somewhere, it was much better to just place it in the most secure location possible. The five guards who were appointed to stay behind were stationed all around the top floor, right next to where the flags are. They weren't at the bottom, since enemies who had Sky Magic could fly in from the air and leave the same way without them even noticing.

The other students, having been alerted by surprise of this sudden attack we're launching, were still trying to prepare their mind for what's to come as we walked through the dark bamboo forest in the direction of Class C's Base, on the western side of the map.

The students were all quite nervous, as this would be their first time fighting together with these classmates of theirs. Class A and Class D also didn't trust one another completely yet, so there was that to worry about as well. And of course, the creepy dark silhouettes of the bamboo shoots which looked like sharp pikes in the night didn't help either.

Luckily, the journey didn't take all that long. Before we knew it, we had crept up to Class C's Base. By that, I mean literally right next to it. The gates had two guards standing at it, but that was about it. The temple walls didn't have anyone standing on top of them, so we could've easily slipped through there, but we needed takedown points.

Why? Because I had a feeling the individual points we got would contribute to the total amount of CP (class points) we receive at the end of the exam.

[Mei Gui.]

[Understood, Master.]

I didn't even need to tell her what to do — just calling her name was enough.

She leaped out from beside me and, like an invisible assassin, used Vanishing Shadows to creep up behind the two guards and knock them both out cold with a sweeping kick that bumped their heads together.

"Ugh…" The two guards collapsed to the floor with a soft thud, blood leaking out of their heads.

[Mei Gui, did you…?]

[Worry not, Master. They are not dead… though they may wake up with a heavy concussion and lifelong amnesia.]

[… Right. Good work, regardless.]

Mei Gui backed off as our whole squad infiltrated the Base, unbeknownst to the students inside.

I praised Mei Gui because her ruthless actions reminded me of something important — the exam rules only stated that you couldn't kill other students… it said nothing about torturing them or using cruel, underhanded methods to force them to do certain things. Perhaps, now was a good time for me to use that Legendary-Tier Poison Element spell I learned from the library the other day…

Of course, I would have to do this discretely without revealing my identity just to be safe, but it was certainly a tactic.

In any case, our group of 45 spotted lights coming from a room deeper inside, along with various faint silhouettes inside. I counted there to be about five in total.

"What's the plan?" Long Lu asked.

Ming Hao was the one to respond, since I couldn't interject here with all these people around.

"We take these buildings one by one and search them. This way, we'll be able to find the flags, and also earn 25 takedown points for free. I think only final hits count towards your points, so don't bother trying to share targets or anything. Remember the creed of Class A — plans organized, execution swift."

We all raided the building closest to us first. The lights were off on this one, and it seemed to be two stories tall. Just when we were about to get up from the bushes — our cover — however, two female students who seemed to be chatting happily walked over in our direction.

To prevent them from alerting the whole class, we all retreated back into the tall bushes and awaited the perfect opportunity. When they passed, I tapped on Feng Mian's shoulder, who flinched a bit in response but understood immediately what I wanted her to do.

She seemed to have grown quite a bit stronger in the Void Realm, as she was able to cast spells without chanting out loud just fine now.

'Vanishing Shadows.'

She turned into a shade of darkness and appeared behind the two girls, striking them on the neck lightly. She was being exceptionally gentle, perhaps because they reminded her of her past self, but the chops were enough to make both of them faint and fall to the ground. Feng Mian dragged their unconscious bodies into the tall grass on the other side of the pathway and hid them well, before returning to her original spot by my side.

I patted her head affectionately, to which she blushed in return. It was dark, but because of how close she was to me, I could still see it.

Because sending all 45 of us into that small building would be overkill, we decided to just send 5 in. They were all from Class A, naturally, while the rest of us stayed out here to watch for any other oblivious students.

A few minutes later, our teammates came back out from the building.

"Nothing in there," one said. "It's just a storage room for food and water. We checked every shelf, every corner, every fridge. Didn't find anything."

"I see. Let's keep going, then."

"Wait," I interjected. "Have two people stay here in this patch of grass, in case they come hide the flags here later. There's a chance they haven't decided on a hiding location yet, after all."

"He's got a point," Long Lu agreed. "Two of the five of you who just went in, stay behind. The rest, follow us and keep going."

The group swiftly made their adjustments, two people staying behind while the remaining 43 of us kept going.

Ming Hao turned back one last time before heading out of the grass. "If they to put the flags here and station guards, send me a message. If there aren't any guards, still send me a message to let me know, then just take the flags and get the hell out of here."

The two staying behind nodded. "Understood, class rep."