Nearly two thousand people followed the school officer to the exam site.
The exam site was located in the northeastern part of Divine Bird City. It was a large forest connecting with Warland Thicket in the east.
Peacock School had already prepared the exam site by setting a perimetric wall around the area. Even so, the area inside was still vast. Normal people would need hours to travel from one side to another.
There were also many ancient ruins and debris amongst the trees scattered across the exam site, making it a little more tactical to test cultivators’ quick-wittedness of using terrains to their advantage.
In front of the exam site’s entrance, there was a two-stories wooden stage. On the stage, there were several figures standing and waiting for the applicants.
One figure standing in front of others was this year’s exam proctor, the Mei clan and Peacock School’s Second Elder, Mei Hongli’s Father, named Mei Hongyi.
His appearance did not seem so different from his son at all. As he was a very chubby extremely rich-looking middle-aged man. However, unlike his son, he strongly exuded an overwhelming aura of the Wing Realm Master, allowing him to look down on most people within Divine Bird City.
Once all participants had gathered in front of the stage, Mei Hongyi began his speech: “Good morning, everyone!! My name is Mei Hongyi. I am Second Elder of the Peacock School and will be your exam’s proctor today.”
Mei Hongyi signaled at his men behind him to activate the formation on the stage. After that, dozens of image projections were displayed for everyone to see.
Mei Hongyi started explaining: “These images were currently projected from inside the exam site. Anything that happened in the exam site will be shown here.”
Following that, Mei Hongyi activated his Theríon, and thousands of figures that looked similar to him randomly appeared on the exam site.
Mei Hongyi: “Do you see them? They are my illusion clones. As you can see, some of them are big, some are small. Some are robust, and some are thin. Of course, due to the difference in their physiques, their attributes in battle will be different. Some are faster, some are stronger, and some are both. The rule of the exam is very simple. Defeat them as many as you can. You will get ten points for defeating one. Get a hundred points and you will pass the exam. When you enter the exam site, you will be randomly teleported to different locations. You may link your Theríon to form a party so that you can be teleported together to the same place. When partying, the points you get from defeating the illusion clones will be divided among your party. If any of you get defeated, or rather … being seriously injured, you will be teleported back here. Our team from Alchemy Center will take care of your wounds. Rest assured that no one will die from participating.”
Hearing the words such as ‘seriously injured’ and ‘die’, the exam participants were taken aback. Was the exam that harsh?
Mei Hongyi continued with his explanation: “After one hour, all of those who remain inside will be teleported back here. And the exam will be over. The total points you get from the exam will be shown here.” He raised his hand, and a scoreboard projection appeared above the exam site’s images with everyone’s name and score on it.
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Mei Hongyi elaborated further: “This exam will be mainly testing your combat prowess. But more than that … is to test your judging ability. I must warn you one thing. There are some of them with the strengths of late-stage Fang Realm. And there is also one Talon clone. Pick the wrong one and you will be sent back right here in an instant!! Those with less than one hundred points after being teleported back here one way or another will fail this entrance exam.”
With the word ‘fail’, the crowd became dejected.
“A Talon Realm clone? Meeting this one among thousands of clones, it must be a hell of bad luck. We must avoid this one at all costs.”
“Not only that, a late-stage Fang Realm would be enough to wipe us out!! Who knows how many they are? It’s exactly as we’ve heard. Peacock School’s entrance exam is really difficult.”
“I really have no hope in this exam after all.”
Noticing that the participants started to waver, Mei Hongyi interjected: “Oh, I forgot. The one who could take the top ranking, the one who can obtain the most points after the exam is over will be able to acquire this as their reward.”
Mei Hongyi took out an item and showed it to the crowd.
An apple-sized round gem with crimson color was hovering above his hand. With its aura and radiance, one could determine what it was.
“A Talon monster core?! And a late-stage one at that! Senior, are you seriously going to give this to the first rank?”
Mei Hongyi answered: “That’s right!! And by the way, if you can defeat this Talon clone I was talking about, you will get … FIVE THOUSAND points!!”
“F-Five thousand!?” The number of points shocked the crowd.
“That means if we party into the 50-man group and defeat this clone, we will all pass this exam?”
Mei Hongyi confirmed: “That’s right!!”
“Wow!! Let’s do this together, and we all can pass the exam!!”
Some cultivators, who knew that they were not on the same level as those top geniuses and would surely not be able to take the top rank, only cared about whether they would pass the exam or not. After knowing that there was one clone with five thousand points, they immediately thought of a plan and began looking for others to party with.
As for those top geniuses, five thousand points would definitely be able to ascertain their prize. They too started to form their own strategies to deal with this Talon clone.
Mei Hongyi added: “And as you all may already know; the top three ranks will have the privilege of becoming the direct disciple of Peacock School’s elders.”
Crowd: “Oh? Never mind that. We can’t take the top three anyway.”
Mei Hongyi: “…”
Ignoring the top rewards, the crowd had their own thinking to easily pass the exam. They all boiled up with excitement.
On another side, Mei Hongli jeered at the rest of the crowd: “Heh, look at these fools!! They think numbers can make up for that gap. It will be genocide if they really challenge a Talon clone.”
Mei Hongyi announced: “Now go!! Let me see who will take the top and be able to get this reward!!” With this, he signaled the start of the exam.
Everyone quickly rushed into the exam area.
Ying Lizhua glanced at Feng Luotian’s group before entering the area by himself.
Mei Hongli walked up to Mei Yue’er and invited her: “Shall we go together, Yue’er? You will definitely get the top three if you form a party with me.”
Mei Yue’er directly refused: “Never mind me, Hongli. I will go with Luotian and Wuji!!”
Getting rejected in the face, Mei Hongli gritted his teeth and gave a hateful glance at Feng Luotian, then turned to Mei Yue’er: “Just you wait!!” Mei Hongli along with his men charged into the exam area.
Feng Luotian flatly said: “You two, go ahead without me.”
Mei Yue’er and Sun Wuji simultaneously turned to him: “What?!”
Feng Luotian: “At the first stage of the exam, partying with me will not yield a good result. Go and get as many points as you can. When you guys are confident that you are already in the top three, you can come back and help me get the remaining points and pass this together. And truthfully, I rather drop this exam than see you guys get the low rankings.”
Feng Luotian turned serious when he said the last sentence.