The atmosphere was chaotic. The expressions of the students were extremely heavy.
Tong Yiming stripped that short-haired student of his participating qualifications, and this caused everyone to feel an immense sense of pressure. They experienced the cruelty of this competition.
Even before the competition started, the group should display the most correct response measure. If they were one step behind, they would never win the championship. “Do you still need to consider this? We naturally must bring our teacher along!”
Lu Zhiruo had a look of panic on her face. Only by being with Sun Mo would she feel at ease.
“Our ranking will be pushed back by one if we bring a teacher!”
Although Wu Jitong’s stature was small, he was very opinionated and self-confident. “This is a competition between students. I don’t believe we won’t be able to do it without our teachers!”
“That’s right, bringing teachers is too embarrassing!” Xu Dingjiang was originally hesitating but after hearing Wu Jitong’s words, he immediately stood on his side.
“Is this even a question of things being embarrassing or not?”.
Li Fen argued, “Don’t forget that if we ask our teachers to intervene mid-way, our ranking will drop by three. We might as well just bring the teachers right now!”
“The other groups would bring their teachers too!”
Peng Kunqi interjected.
“However, schools ranked in the top five would surely not bring their teachers!” Zhang Yanzong returned and spoke a single sentence to seal the deal. His gaze swept through everyone here.
“What’s our purpose in coming here? For entertainment? To get a barely passable grade in the ‘D’-ranked tournament? No, Sun Mo is correct. We are here to get the championship. Hence, we have to set the championship as our goal. This is why we mustn’t bring our teachers!’
Tantai Yutang’s lips twitched. One couldn’t help but say that this fellow truly had a way with words.
“I still suggest bringing our teachers!”
Li Ziqi spoke, “We have to consider the safety of students. Since the judge said that our ranking will fall by one if two in our group is out of commission, this means that the competition process is filled with danger.” “If we don’t bring our teachers and only drop by one ranking if two members are out of commission, we can still afford the loss.” Zhang Yanzong glanced at Li Ziqi. “Humans have a tendency to depend on others. If we brought our teachers, we would instinctively seek their help at every hurdle.” “That’s right. Only in absolutely hopeless situations would one’s potential be stirred!”
Xuanyuan Po banged his fists together.
After hearing this, Li Ziqi rolled her eyes. (Do you think everyone is the same as you? The combat addict that would grow increasingly excited the more dangerous things are?) The other new student groups were also arguing because this involved game theory. How should they maximize their benefits?
Everyone had different views.
“Last minute. The countdown will begin now!”
Tong Yiming glanced at his pocket watch and announced.
60!
59!
“Four minutes passed so quickly?”
Lu Zhiruo grew pale as she paced back and forth.
“Now isn’t the time to be concerned with this problem!”
Tantai Yutang chortled and patted the papaya girl’s shoulder.
“Can you be more serious? We are discussing an important thing now!”
After seeing Tantai Yutang’s attitude, Wu Jitong became unhappy. The student that Tantai Yutang had replaced was actually someone from the same village as him. They had quite a good relationship.
“Let’s raise our hands to vote!”
Li Ziqi and Zhang Yanzong both thought of this solution because they discovered that arguing wouldn’t provide any results.
“40!”
Tong Yiming pressed the sound amplification stone and spoke again, “Those groups that have already decided can set off right away.” As the sound of Tong Yiming’s voice faded, seven groups rushed out of the A1 zone’s exit. “It seems like they didn’t want to bring any teachers?”
“Let’s move out quickly. We will not bring a teacher either!”
“That’s right, since they decided not to do so, we can do the same as well!”
“Can you compare with them though? They came here to fight for the championship. As for us, it’s already not bad if we can maintain our ranking.”
The other groups started to argue even fiercer. Besides, as the clock ticked, the sense of pressure on everyone increased.
Tong Yiming’s lips curled. Only seven groups moved out, lower than his estimation. Moreover, they were Mingshao, Sky Orchid, and Haizhou, groups that were in the top ten of the previous competition. (Sigh, seems like the other schools in the ‘D’ Grade have no improvements.)
Tong Yiming turned his head. His gaze landed on Zhang Yanzong’s group. Because of Tantai Yutang’s earlier words, he remembered them.
“The Central Province Academy this year doesn’t seem promising either!”
Tong Yiming felt some regret. As expected, once a famous school had declined, it would be exceptionally hard for it to climb back to the peak.
“Quickly raise our hands to decide!”
Zhang Yanzong urged. “Those in agreement of bringing along our teachers, raise your hand!”
Swish! Swish!
Two hands went up, they were from Li Ziqi and Lu Zhiruo.
Li Fen raised her hand half-way, but when she saw the result, she quickly put her hand back down.
“Okay, 8:2. We won’t be bringing our teachers. Let’s move out!”
Zhang Yanzong urged. He then led the way as he sped forward.
He was preparing to be the champion in this league tournament and rise to fame. Hence, he impatiently chased after those groups who left earlier.
“Too arrogant.” Li Ziqi shook her head. But since things had come to this, she immediately discarded her unhappiness and focused on the competition. She started to think about how they should achieve a good result without teachers leading them.
“Times up, you guys have lost the qualifications to bring your teachers.” Tong Yiming roared, “All the groups are to set off now!” “Run, quickly run!” “We can do it!” “We can definitely win!”
Many students had blank looks on their faces as they rushed out of the exit. There were also some students shouting slogans to encourage their teammates. Tong Yiming stood on the rostrum and did a count. Not a single group chose to bring along their teachers. Or more accurately speaking, not a single group managed to make a decision in five minutes.
“What a bad performance!”
Yi Tongming frowned. Actually, whether they chose to bring along teachers or not, it wouldn’t have much influence on the competition. Hence, any decision was better than wasting time quarreling here. If there was a quarrel, it meant that the leader had no authority and wasn’t capable enough to unify all the opinions of their people within a few minutes.
Although the competition had not ‘officially’ started, the Saint Gate’s test had already begun.
Getting the students to enter the A1 zone in a limited amount of time and issuing all sorts of strict rules, giving a countdown of five minutes, as well as stripping the qualifications of a student to warn the rest…all of these were done to make sure that everyone would feel panic and nervous, causing the students to be under huge pressure.
Henceforth, cultivators would face all sorts of deadly situations. Whether they would be able to retain their calmness under huge pressure and make the correct decision would affect the probability of their survival.
“I wonder how things are in there?”
Fan Yao stretched his neck to take a look, but the door was tightly shut. They weren’t able to see anything in the A1 zone.
All of a sudden, a man clad in black appeared before them.
“The teachers of the new student group from Central Province Academy, I’m observer #63, please take note of the instructions I’m about to give!
“I’ve been observing the actions of the new student group and will record the information garnered into a case file!
“You are not allowed to befriend me!
“Not allowed to try and find out my name!
“Not allowed to leave my vision!
“Not allowed to interact with students in any format without my permission. Once discovered, all of you will be stripped of the participating qualifications. “If you cannot keep up with me, you will be considered to have dropped out. Be responsible for the consequences yourself. “Now, all of you are to wait here for eight hours before setting off.”
After the observer spoke, he passed a map to Fan Yao and left the area.
“What if we can’t find our students?” Song Ren frowned. He didn’t like the attitude of this observer. It was arrogant and cold.
“It would naturally count as a failure.”
After Gu Xiuxun swept her gaze around. She then sat down and closed her eyes to meditate.
This was the first time Sun Mo experienced such a competition, and he felt very fresh. This was much more difficult compared to doing test papers in the classroom.
“This is also a test from the Saint Gate to us teachers. There’s no need to feel nervous, just maintain our usual heart state!”
Fan Yao reminded the others.
The eight hours of waiting was to increase the nervousness the teachers felt, as well as to test if the teachers could find their students on time.
In the White Dew Building, all the teachers sat down and meditated, conserving their strength.
The new student group of the Central Province Academy left the White Dew Building and started speeding up. There were red words on the map saying that vehicles were not allowed. This meant that they could only depend on their legs to run.
“Tantai Yutang, can you still cope?”
Zhang Yanzong occasionally glanced back as he led the group. This sickly invalid with the surname ‘Tantai’ was the person he was most worried about.
“Cough, cough!”
Tantai Yutang covered his mouth with a handkerchief. “Don’t worry. I temporarily won’t die!”
Zhang Yanzong almost coughed up blood from anger. If it wasn’t for the fact he didn’t want to lower the group’s morale, he really wanted to shout, ‘am I asking you when you will die? I’m asking if you can cope with the strain of running, alright?’. (I’m just worried you would be a burden.)
Just after running for two streets, Tantai Yutang’s coughing increased in intensity.
Honestly speaking, it was very annoying to hear his coughs.
“Oi, group leader, can you show me the map?”
Tantai Yutang chortled.
“Why? You don’t believe in my map reading skill?”
Zhang Yanzong questioned. He wanted to use Tantai Yutang to build his prestige.
Things couldn’t be allowed to continue so haphazardly; thus, he had to unify the will of the group. Only a single voice was allowed, so things would not be chaotic if they ran into danger. Zhang Yanzong was very confident. He didn’t want a situation where everyone would give their own views. He wanted to be the sole voice of authority.
“We have twenty people and we can pool our wisdom for mutual benefits. We should be able to find the best path!”
Li Ziqi suggested. She felt the opinions of each team member was very important. “Twenty people?”
Zhang Yanzong’s lips twitched as he stared at Lu Zhiruo and Li Fen.
Under huge pressure, these two girls were disappointing. One only thought of relying on her teacher, while the other was invisible. He didn’t feel that the opinions of trash like them were useful.
“Why are you looking at me?” Lu Zhiruo had an endearingly silly look on her face.
“He looks down on you!”
Tantai Yutang chortled.
“Are you resenting that the group isn’t chaotic enough?”
Li Ziqi frowned. The sickly invalid was as expected of a time bomb. Maybe, this fellow had never thought of properly performing in the competition at all. He just wanted to find a source of excitement.
“Oh!”
The papaya girl lowered her head, and her expression dimmed. She also knew that she was trash.
“The distance would surely be the shortest if we run straight. If there’s no other path, I’m planning to cross over the mountain ridges. You guys best be mentally prepared!”
Zhang Yanzong explained.
Naturally, if the path was too difficult to travel, Zhang Yanzong would still choose the main avenue marked out on the map. However, there was no need to tell this to his fellow teammates.
(Hmph, with the intelligence of you guys, all of you can’t possibly be on the same level as me!”
Honestly speaking, Zhang Yanzong looked down on his teammates a lot. Ultimately, it would still have to depend on his own performance.
Seeing Zhang Yanzong not taking the map, Li Ziqi originally wanted to take it, but she stumbled and fell head first onto the ground.
Bang!
The little sunny egg’s face was fine, but she grazed her palm badly.
IIII
Zhang Yanzong turned his head. (You could even fall down at such a place?) When he heard the sounds of Li Ziqi’s heavy panting, he suddenly discovered that the strength of this girl might be lower than the sickly invalid!