Translated by Kollumceti of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
In the end, there were only three people left.
One of them was You XiaoMo, the other two were rainbow level mages who had persisted on till the tenth hole. There were also strong competitors who were in the top three. There was originally another person, but he had chose to use the stone from the ninth hole to fill the tenth hole.
As a result, You XiaoMo’s figure was particularly prominent.
More and more people had been paying attention to this dark horse ever since more than half of the time allocated had passed. The crowd of onlookers began to whisper wow that they saw that he was the same as the other two.
Most people still recognized You XiaoMo. Though it was because of his relationship with Ling Xiao in the beginning since Ling Xiao was very well-known in the TongTian Continent. As a Sacred Realm expert, he was an existence that many wanted to curry favor with. Therefore, after knowing that You XiaoMo was his partner, there were even more people, especially women and a small number of men, who were envious of him.
However, to those from the XiaoYao Institution, he did not need to serve as a foil to Ling Xiao. Everyone knew that he was also an extremely dazzling existence even without Ling Xiao. It was just that more than half of his radiance was covered up when he was compared with Ling Xiao.
You XiaoMo did not know what other people thought of him. He found that time was running out, yet the tenth stone still had not been placed into the hole. There was no shortcut for this exam and it was impossible to use any tricks. He could only rely on his own willpower, so he felt that this examination was actually about willpower.
You XiaoMo took a deep breath. Instead of enveloping the stone directly with his soul power, he pushed the round stone forward with the power of his soul, rolling it first to the edge of the tenth hole before enveloping the stone with his soul force to lift it up. This method was more efficient in terms of the consumption of soul force, and it just so happened that the TongTian Palace did not stipulate that this could not be done.
The old man who presided over the exam had said that no matter what method was used, they would pass as long as they could throw the stones into the small holes within the time limit.
Even so, one still had to lift the stone. The TongTian Palace probably guessed the method used by You XiaoMo, so they set a requirement that the stone had to be thrown down into the hole from a distance of twenty centimeters.
What happened next would depend on their strength. That Grade Five mage obviously had the advantage. His stone had been raised to the height of fifteen centimeters and he just had to put in a little more effort before he could pass.
You XiaoMo sat cross-legged on the ground as he strained himself till his whole face was red. His skin was already very tender and white, and he had tensed himself so much that his blue veins appeared. Those watching him unconsciously held their breath, as if the one sitting there at this moment was themselves.
The height of the stone gradually rose. After an unknown period of time, the onlookers suddenly let out a cry of surprise.
Despite You XiaoMo being one grade lower than the Grade Five mage, he had almost caught up with that mage and there was a difference of less than two centimeters between the heights of their stones.
Probably because he had heard the discussion around him, the Grade Five mage suddenly put on a burst of strength and immediately attracted everyone’s attention. In the next moment, everyone heard a ‘thump’. Looking in the direction of the sound, they found that You XiaoMo’s stone had fallen into the tenth hole.
The people who did not pay attention to You XiaoMo for a while were baffled. They did not know what had happened. Could it be that You XiaoMo had accidentally dropped it?
One must know that just a moment ago, the height of You XiaoMo’s stone was several centimeters lower than the Grade Five mage’s. The distance seemed to have increased again especially when the mage had put on a burst of strength. At this point, the increase of every centimeter was awfully arduous and it was impossible to have lifted it in one go. Therefore, most subconsciously thought that You XiaoMo had failed.
You XiaoMo’s whole body was soaked with sweat and he did not even want to move a single finger. His soul seemed to be pressed down by a mountain and it as as if he was being pulled in two directions if he still had to move. He was almost falling apart.
Just at this moment, a pair of black boots appeared in front of him.
You XiaoMo raised his eyelids and found it was Ling Xiao. But before he could speak, the latter had bent down and carried him up in front of so many people.
He had originally thought that Ling Xiao would just act as his support. In the end, he had carried You XiaoMo, and it was even a princess carry. You XiaoMo did not mind if it was done in private, but to do this under the light of day and with so many people around, it was practically so humiliating that he could die. You XiaoMo buried his head in Ling Xiao’s chest – he had simply chosen to escape from reality.
The end of the trial had soon arrived and the other two had also finished.
Afterwards, it was time to grade the performance of everyone in the first exam. However, the results would not be announced until the end of the second exam, and only the names of the top three would be announced. The names of those who did not get a rank would not be announced.
After the end of the first exam, the participants had an hour to rest before they would proceed with the second exam. The details of the exam would be announced at that time.
You XiaoMo thought that the second exam might be different from what Tian Xin had said, because if they really wanted to test their willpower and patience, the first exam was enough to satisfy those two criteria. Therefore, he really wanted to know what the TongTian Palace had up their sleeve.
“Congratulations.” Qiao WuXing walked over while beaming and following behind him were Jiu Ye and the rest.
You XiaoMo knew what he meant and smiled, “Thank you!”
Although most of the people did not see what he had done at that time, it did not mean that Qiao WuXing and the rest did not witness it. At that time, You XiaoMo was about three centimeters away from reaching the height of twenty centimeters. He made a bold gamble and used the strength he had reserved to suddenly lift the stone by three centimeters before he threw it down.
At that time, the sound was caused by the wrong positioning of the stone. Fortunately, his gamble pulled through and the stone had finally dropped in even after a dangerous shot. That had really been a perilous move.
One hour was was neither a short nor long time. You XiaoMo did not dare to drink spiritual water, thus he could only take magic pills. In the terms of the twenty-first century, he was drug abusing.
At this time, Tian Xin moved closer and whispered, “Xiao Mo, what kind of magic pill are you eating? It looks delicious.”
“A Energy Restoration Pill, do you want one?” You XiaoMo gave her one in passing. Level eight magic pills were no problem for the current him at all.
Tian Xin held the magic pill with a somewhat lifeless expression. You XiaoMo had always been eating this type of magic pill, it was just too extravagant. Thinking of this, she asked again, “Do you have the Soul Restoration Pill then?”
What the Soul Restoration pill repaired was the soul, but the Life Force Herb that was a main herb for refining it was also difficult to find, so this kind of magic pill was quite rare. Since she saw You XiaoMo take out a Energy Restoration Pill, she casually asked a question about the Soul Restoration Pill.
Needless to say, You XiaoMo really had a bottle of Soul Restoration Pills.
There were quite a lot of Life Force Herb stored in his dimension, which he had refined when he was bored in the past. Besides those that had been eaten by Ling Xiao, he had kept the rest in his dimension since he did not use them.
Nowadays, the profit from selling dozens of Soul Restoring Pill was not even more than the profit from the sale of one rainbow pill. Thus, the Soul Restoring Pill was of low value to him.
You XiaoMo gave Tian Xin five pills, “It’s all for you.”
“My good brother!” Tian Xin excitedly raised her hand to slap You XiaoMo’s shoulder. The latter was startled, wouldn’t he vomit blood if she really hit him? It was still Ling Xiao who was more awesome when he was in imminent peril. He directly fished You XiaoMo up into his lap. Tian Xin’s hand immediately met empty air, but she did not care and ran away with the pill in hand.
After You XiaoMo’s heart had calmed, he realized his current situation. What thigh ah, it was just too embarrassing!
One hour passed in a flash.
That white-robed old man reappeared again. This time, the venue of the exam was not in the public eye, but inside a stone chamber. Each participant was to enter one stone chamber and the second exam would start immediately after they entered.
The old man let them choose the stone chamber by themselves and then he let them enter at the same time after everyone was standing outside the chamber they had chosen. He did not even explain the details of the exam before letting them enter.
You XiaoMo was full of doubts. He looked back at Ling Xiao and gave him a look of reassurance before entering. The pitch-black door was like a black hole and he could not see anything inside even when he was standing at the door. However, when he walked in, the scene that met his eyes was not a stone chamber like he had imagined, but a…
Grassland as far as the eye could see. Under his feet was grass that had vigorous and tenacious vitality. The breeze blew gently on his cheeks and a refreshing feeling traveled from the soles of his feet to his heart. This feeling was definitely real, and did not seem like an illusion at all.
You XiaoMo did not dare to be careless. Even if the sensation was real, he also believed that there was definitely something that could simulate the feeling and make it difficult to distinguish true from false, so he still felt that this was an illusion.
You XiaoMo quickly crossed the grassland and arrived at a desert world that was full of quicksand. The sun in the sky was scorching and the sand under his feet was so hot that it was emitting heat waves. He did not dare be careless and used his soul power to envelope his whole body. Sure enough, it was much cooler.
After that, he walked forward. The desert was much bigger than the grassland. He had thought he would cross it in no time like the grassland, but he soon he met a group of camels crossing the desert. Each camel was led by a person and there were one or two people sitting on it who were mostly women and children. Not only was You XiaoMo looking at them, they were also looking at You XiaoMo.
“Hey, look, there’s a yellow man here.” A dark-skinned man immediately called his comrade over as soon as he saw You XiaoMo, his tone carrying some of his surprise.
A lifeless look had long been on You XiaoMo’s face. He just did not mishear it just now right? This person was speaking in a language that he did not understand, but it seemed a little similar to Egyptian based off the language type. That was a language from Earth.
Could it be that he had crossed realms again?
