Cultivation Online

When the first participant reached the second obstacle, he walked to its edge and looked down to see if he could spot anything in the water.

After several moments, the man sighed in relief when he saw nothing and, after taking a deep breath, jumped into it and began swimming.

The pool was even longer than the first obstacle. In fact, it was ten times as long.

As the participants continued to swim, they grew increasingly anxious, fearing that something might attack them from below.

Sure enough, once they reached the middle, they encountered a trap, but it was not what they had expected. Rather than arrows or attacks from beneath the water, whirlpools appeared on the surface, disrupting their rhythm and making it difficult to swim.

These whirlpools were weak at first, but they grew stronger and more violent the farther the participants progressed. Eventually, they became powerful enough to drag anyone who was not careful into the depths.

If the participants who were dragged into the water did not resurface after a minute, they would be teleported to safety by the mechanism available in their bracelets. However, this also meant their disqualification from the recruitment.

”Are you not going to say anything to me?”

A voice suddenly rang out behind Yuan as he watched the examination.

He turned around to see Mei Xiaoyun standing behind him, her eyebrows raised.

”What do you mean?” Yuan inquired.

”I was expecting you to make fun of me or something,” she replied.

”Do I look like the kind of person to do such a thing?”

”Honestly? Yes, you do.”

”...”

”Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I won’t be making fun of you.”

After a brief pause, he added, ”As long as you don’t fail the recruitment, that is.”

Mei Xiaoyun sneered, ”I’ve seen and done it before. Several times, in fact.”

”Oh?” Yuan raised an eyebrow in surprise.

”My mother would occasionally bring me along and make me participate. Of course, those were some of the only times she visited—and the only reason she did,” she sighed. ”And once I told her that I won’t be joining the military, she immediately stopped visiting.”

”Is that so...”

Some time later, the participants reached the third and final part of the obstacle course. By then, nearly all of the original 100 had been eliminated, leaving only a little over 10 remaining.

The final obstacle was a towering wall designed to resemble a mountain cliff. As for its height, it was a staggering twenty miles, twice as long as the previous obstacle.

”Haa...haaa...”

The participants who made it to the final obstacle did not immediately start climbing; they took some time to rest, just as they had done at the second obstacle. After all, they had all the time in the world.

However, since there was a formation constantly draining their energy, they wouldn’t feel refreshed no matter how long they rested.

Once they were mentally prepared, they started climbing the mountain.

At the same time, the next 100 participants were called into the obstacle course.

”Number 12,239...111,781...99...1,378...”

”My number got called,” Mei Xiaoyun said.

”Good luck,” Yuan said to her.

Meanwhile, when the first group of participants climbed the first mile, their entire bodies suddenly trembled, as though they had sensed something.

A few seconds later, they heard faint sounds coming from behind them. Sure enough, they were being targeted by arrows once again.

And it was more than just a single arrow, forcing them to move their bodies entirely by leaping to another spot on the wall.

Of course, with their energy constantly near exhaustion, that was far easier said than done. Every movement felt as though they had just run a marathon, forcing them to conserve every bit of motion they could.

One of the participants chose to endure the arrows and allowed them to strike his body. However, the moment one hit a vital area, he was automatically teleported out of the course and disqualified.

”What?!”

”I thought there were no rules!”

The spectators cried out loud when they saw the participant getting eliminated, and they turned to look at Sergeant Zao, who was also watching nearby.

”There are no rules, but it should be common sense not to get hit in the vitals. After all, how are you supposed to continue as a corpse?”

What Sergeant Zao said made sense, and a few participants realized that as long as they didn’t get hit in the vitals, they wouldn’t be disqualified.

Although only a hundred participants could enter the obstacle course at a time, each group only took roughly an hour to reach the third obstacle, with some groups being eliminated entirely long before then.

A few days later, Yuan finally heard his number being called.

”42,011! It’s number 42,011!”

The moment the higher-ups in the private spectating room heard it, they all subconsciously straightened in their seats and focused their attention on him.

Shortly after Yuan entered the obstacle course, two individuals appeared beside Sergeant Zao in the room.

”Hm? What are the two of you doing here?” Sergeant Zao raised his eyebrows upon seeing these two individuals, clearly surprised by their appearance.

”We’re here to watch,” said Shi Fa.

”Since when have you been interested in recruitment? Or did you hear about a certain somebody? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that his record has spread by now.”

”Yeah, we heard somebody had gotten a sub-3-hour during the first exam, shattering every single record before it, including that monster’s record,” said Wu Wang, pretending like he didn’t know about Yuan before it.

”Do you think she’ll also make an appearance to see him?”

”Doubtful, since she was recently deployed for a mission.”

”I bet the higher-ups are all scrambling to recruit him into their division,” Shi Fa chuckled.

”He’ll probably be scooped up by General Gu, anyway.”

”Let’s see how he performs in this one, where his stamina is severely limited.”

The moment the trial started, Yuan’s figure shot forward like an arrow, as if the exhaustion did not affect him in the slightest.

”?!?!”

Not only the others in his group, but everyone watching widened their eyes in shock.