All the royal children made their ascent at a speed that was neither slow nor fast. The crown prince Bai Weijie was leading the way, but their formation began to change once they reached the halfway point.
At the middle point of the mountain’s staircase, there was a stone tablet. Upon it was inscribed, “Travel half the mountain, thinking like a sword.” Han Sen didn’t know what it meant, but once they passed by the tablet, everyone started to speed up. Prince Four and Princess Two went past the crown prince Bai Weijie. Other royal children started to pull away, as well. The group began to spread out into ragged clumps of hikers, so it wasn’t as tidy as it had been before the halfway point.
The King’s Kingdom nobles that had been watching half-heartedly now looked wide awake. They paid attention to the two deified royal children, of course, but many of them were just as focused on Han Sen.
After all, Han Sen had sounded very cocky in the opening ceremony the day before. If he didn’t perform well now, it would become an embarrassing joke.
“Brother Sixteen, let us see who can reach the top of the mountain faster.” Bai Qing Xia moved his feet faster and ran up the mountain like a sharp sword.
Han Sen agreed to the competition, and he walked a bit faster, as well. Heavy resistance pushed against him.
Han Sen still didn’t understand, though. Earlier, they had all been hiking easily up the mountain. Why were they now forcing themselves to exhaust so much energy to go faster? They hadn’t reached the hardest section of the path, which meant they couldn’t be performing at their best.
Regardless of how ridiculous it might seem, since everyone else was speeding up, Han Sen couldn’t allow himself to be left behind. He had to take this chance. Otherwise, the boasting he had done during the opening ceremony would be for nothing.
Han Sen cast his water area power, trying to break the resistance coming against him and make it easier to move forward. But the further he went, the more resistance piled on. He had spent a lot of energy already, and he couldn’t really accelerate beyond his current speed.
If this continued, he wouldn’t be able to catch up with Prince Four and Princess Two up ahead. He might even be left behind by the other half-deified royal children.
Judging from the powers they used, those half-deified royal children were much stronger than second-tier Kings. Han Sen couldn’t keep up with them using raw strength alone.
Han Sen thought for a moment and then released his King area. He let the waterfall-like resistance land atop him. When that power washed over him, the Kingese in his body flashed gold and surged through Han Sen’s blood.
Under the buffs of the Kingese, Han Sen felt the resistance get lighter. Although it was still there, it was substantially decreased.
If that resistance had previously been like a large river, it was now like a small stream. It ran no higher than Han Sen’s ankles, and it was only a trifling problem.
Han Sen didn’t say anything, though. Calling on the power of the gold Kingese inside him, he rushed forward against the competition. All of a sudden, he was leaving Bai Qing Xia in the dust.
The princes and princesses ahead were working so hard, but they were suddenly distracted by a stampede of frantic footsteps coming up behind them. The sound was so startling that they looked over their shoulders for the source. There, they saw Han Sen glowing with gold light, rushing madly forward. He blew right past them. Comparing Han Sen to the rest of them was like comparing a sports car to a lawnmower.
The royal children in the back stared at that rapidly disappearing shadow in disbelief. They were frozen. They almost forgot that they themselves had to keep moving.
No one had seen anyone run up the Rot Bone path like that before. Even deified elites struggled against the resistance of that trail. No one should have been able to reach max speed and actually sprint up the mountain.
But Han Sen ran like he was uninhibited. His legs pounded like a wild horse breaking free from his reins.
“Here! Here! Prince Sixteen is going to explode.”
“Holy sh*t! He’s so strong.”
“Is that the protection of all those Kingese? It looks like they work against the powers of Rot Bone Mountain. The Rot Bone powers can’t restrict him.”
“At that speed, if he can keep going… Maybe he really can overtake the two deifieds ahead and claim first place…”
“Huh. He only got lucky. That isn’t his real power on display. Even if he manages to run all the way to the top, he will only be winning first place in this race. The exams have many more trials and tasks for them. He can’t rely solely on luck. Plus, who knows if he can even keep up this speed. The section of the trail above the clouds is the most important part.”
…
Everyone could see Han Sen running forward. He skipped by many royal children, and they looked excited.
When Han Sen caught up to Bai Ling Shuang, she looked shocked, as well.
She knew the Kingese would reflect the power of Rot Bone Mountain. Usually, people with the Kingese symbols Ao and Gu had an easier time. For some reason, less resistance held them back.
But even the symbols Ao and Gu shouldn’t have been able to obliterate the mountain’s restrictive power like Han Sen’s Kingese symbols were. The symbols were only supposed to cause a minor reduction in the resistance.
“It looks like more symbols than just Ao and Gu are useful in the hike up Rot Bone Mountain. Other Kingese symbols have also been activated, but I guess no one has had them before, so there was no way we could have known,” Bai Ling Shuang thought to herself. She now had a bit more confidence that she could take advantage of Han Sen’s power to reach Rot Bone Mountain’s peak.
This might have been a favorable turn of events for Bai Ling Shuang, but as she watched Han Sen’s sprinting shadow, she couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous. “Why was he the one who received the protection of thousands of Kingese? If I had gotten the protection of a thousand Kingese, perhaps I would have ended up as our new ruler.”
“He passed him… He passed him, too… He’s caught up with the crown prince…” The audience was excited.
Han Sen’s body was gleaming with a golden light. He sprinted so fast that he went right past the crown prince. He was quickly gaining on Prince Four and Princess Two.
Prince Four and Princess Two felt the pressure coming from behind them. They turned around to have a look, and there, they saw Han Sen coming towards them. He was carried forward by a graceful golden light. They frowned and accelerated as much as they could.
Han Sen wanted to close the distance between them, but running wasn’t as easy as it had been previously. Although he didn’t have as much resistance to compete with, the force pressing against him hadn’t vanished entirely. He still had to suffer some resistance, and so he couldn’t go at max speed.
The onlookers were frozen. Three royal children were running really fast towards the peak, and a big gap had appeared between them and the others.
“Deified elites are so strong.” Han Sen couldn’t catch up with Prince Four and Princess Two. The three of them entered the final part of the trail, vanishing behind the cloud cover. No one would be able to watch them anymore.
“Prince Four passed into the clouded trail first, so the deified elites still have a strength advantage. The protection of a thousand Kingese wasn’t enough.” Someone sighed.
“Who will be the winner?” King Bai, his queen, and the teacher stared at Rot Bone Mountain’s peak with fervent interest.
Before, there was no excitement in waiting for someone to reach the top. The deified children always won. But this time, Han Sen was there, and that made the event interesting again.
