Chapter 9: One of Us!

Three talents, each of them extremely powerful with a vast developmental prospect.

However, looking at my own situation, I had to rule out the third option first.

After all, I was not a member of the Undead Race, and there were no undead by my side.

Maybe in the future, I could find an undead assistant—

But I was being pursued and my priority was to stay alive.

As for the first and second talents.

They were both very useful.

The first one was essentially like being able to obtain death-related information at any time.

The second was almost like having an extra life.

So...

What did I desire most?

Shen Ye closed his eyes, and the thoughts in his mind became clearer and clearer.

If I encountered another assassin, or came across something curse-related, I could evade for 5 seconds.

And then what?

Wouldn't I still be in grave danger?

So what I needed now was information, to root out the one trying to kill me and settle the matter.

I needed to know why he wanted to kill me!

Who was he?

Where was he?

With this thought, Shen Ye reached out for the first clump of green light.

"You're actually choosing this one?"

A surprised voice sounded.

It was the Great Skeleton's voice.

"Eh? You're here too?" Shen Ye said in surprise.

"Of course, I'm here—those guys are after the opportunity for talent inheritance from me, which is why they didn't immediately finish me off."

"But they don't know I've already given this opportunity to you!"

"I've given this opportunity to a human!"

The Great Skeleton said with a hint of madness and satisfaction.

Shen Ye shrugged. "I chose the first one, and you seem very surprised? Is there something wrong with it?"

"It's not that, but it can't quickly form combat power," said the Great Skeleton.

"It's a talent for gathering intelligence," Shen Ye nodded.

"In my memory, the past Undead Monarchs all chose the third option, with a very few selecting the second, but no one chose the first," the Great Skeleton said.

Shen Ye opened his hand:

"Alright, then I'll accept this inherited talent."

The Frost Crystal, emitting a verdant glow, suddenly appeared in his hand.

"In combat, clearly the second and third type of talents are stronger, so why do you want this one?" asked the Great Skeleton, puzzled.

"We have a saying back home," Shen Ye said.

"What is it?" the Great Skeleton asked.

Shen Ye placed the Frost Crystal above his head, and instantly it emitted endless green light, which entered into his brow.

"To make a living, you have to wear a bit of green on your head!"

He said aloud.

In a flash.

All the green light was absorbed by him.

The Frost Crystal disappeared entirely.

All around, everything faded away like smoke and mirrors, and Shen Ye found himself still standing in the classroom.

Instinctively, he walked over to the window on the north side and looked towards the distant mountains.

In his memory, that was the direction of the mortuary.

—It was blurry, but it seemed he had developed some kind of sense towards that direction.

"Please tell me what exactly happened, it's very important to me," the Great Skeleton said again.

"Alright, I'll go through the events with you," Shen Ye said.

Shen Ye recounted the events that had occurred in the Elven Village through the window glass, leaving out the part where he saw the Evaluation Entry above the Elf Leader's head.

—Evaluation Entries like that were a special power included in my "Gate" ability; it's best not to tell anyone.

"Those three undead were caught?" asked the Great Skeleton with a trembling voice.

"Yeah, they were no match at all in front of the Elf Leader," Shen Ye said.

"Impossible! The leader of the Elf Village is a Nature Priestess; her strength is not enough to deal with three Nightmare Knights!" the Great Skeleton said.

Shen Ye was taken aback.

Something wasn't right...

"You must be mistaken, the Elf Leader is a male elf," Shen Ye said.

"A male? What does he look like?" the Great Skeleton asked.

"Golden hair, he looks like all Elves—though he was wearing a magnificent purple robe adorned with colorful gems and beads, and a mirror-like dagger hanging from his waist," Shen Ye described.

The Great Skeleton shuddered, losing his voice:

"I know him—he's the strongest Elf High Priest of the Elf Race!"

Shen Ye understood then.

No wonder that guy had such grand entries like "Spirit of the Myriad Forests, Heir to the Ancient Tree Throne, Natural Law Master capable of fighting thousands alone, Arcane Grandmaster, Guardian of the Nightmare Law Realm, one of the five heads of the world."

The Elves were allies of the Human Race.

In such a situation, revealing my human identity certainly gave me a chance to survive.

Had the Great Skeleton gone personally—

The moment it revealed its Undead identity, the Elf High Priest would have undoubtedly killed it.

If it did not reveal itself, it would be monitored by those three "conspirators," forced to attempt an assassination on the Elf Leader.

For the Skeleton, it truly was an insolvable predicament.

"The Elves must have been informed of the Undead's arrival, right?" Shen Ye asked.

"It seems so," the Great Skeleton said.

"So you escaped death," Shen Ye said.

"Humph, it's mainly because those three Nightmare Knights were captured by the Elves... They can't monitor me or threaten me anymore..."

"This is my only chance!"

The Great Skeleton suddenly turned and rushed to the other end of the hallway, opened the door, went in, and disappeared from Shen Ye's line of sight.

Shen Ye waited a few minutes, but when the Skeleton didn't return, he shrugged his shoulders and dismissed the "Gate."

The trade was completed.

There was no need to meddle in the other party's private business.

After all, I too faced an unknown assassination attempt.

—I wonder what Evaluation Entries I will receive for this trip?

With that thought, faint lights started to appear around him in the void.

The lights gradually coalesced into rows of small text:

"For opening the Gate this time, you have received the following Evaluation Entry:"

"One of Us."

"Green Entry (Excellent)."

"Evaluation: As an ordinary human, the highest level of entry you can obtain is White, but you have overcome an environment where you couldn't beat anyone by leveraging others' forces, solving your crisis, escaping unscathed, which is the fundamental reason you have been granted this exceptional entry."

"Equipping this Evaluation Entry, you gain the following buffs:"

"When you say to a target, 'Hey, we're on the same side!', they will treat you as one of their own."

"This effect lasts for ten seconds, after which the target will forget everything that just happened."

"It can only be used once per day."

"The target's Total Attributes cannot exceed twice yours, or they might resist the Entry."

"You can keep this Evaluation Entry for a future upgrade, or devour it to gain Basic Attribute Points."

Shen Ye suddenly felt distressed.

He had risked his life on this journey to devour Entries and gain Basic Attribute Points to enhance his strength.

But this Entry seemed worth keeping!

He had to at least test its power.

Suddenly.

Several lines of glowing text appeared in the void:

"Your spiritual power has increased by 0.1."

"Current spiritual power is 0.8."

"Please continue wearing this bracelet."

"Nature's Blessing Bracelet:"

"Accessory, Green (Excellent) quality, rare."

"Continuously wearing this bracelet can slowly increase your spiritual power."

Bracelet?

Shen Ye reached into his pocket and immediately pulled out a bracelet woven from colorful wild grass.

This was given to him by Elf Lanni for watching a magic show!

Spiritual power was extremely hard to increase.

Just by having this bracelet on him, his spiritual power could grow?

What a treasure!

Shen Ye immediately put on the bracelet, tightened it, and then hid it in his sleeve.

It seemed that from this trip, he had garnered three items in total.

A Scout Short Sword named "Night Shadow."

A green Evaluation Entry.

A green Nature's Blessing Bracelet.

It could be considered a bountiful harvest.

As for Attribute Points, he would have to wait for tomorrow's Evaluation Entry.

Shen Ye pushed open the classroom door, walked out, hurried down the stairs, and quickly returned to the playground.

By now, most of the students had completed their simulation tests.

"Chen Haoyu."

The teacher in charge of the testing called out.

Chen Haoyu hurriedly came forward, standing in the center of the field.

"A total of thirty-six rounds of attack; dodging them all scores full points. Let's begin!" the teacher announced.

The field was about two hundred square meters in size.

It was covered with densely packed holes, each spraying water tinted with paint.

The less paint you got on you in three minutes, the higher your score.

This round of simulated exam was no different from the official middle school exams, testing both movement technique and footwork.

"Begin!"

The teacher declared loudly.

A spray of dark green water burst from the hole under Chen Haoyu's feet.

He quickly dodged to the left, but then three consecutive holes on the left sprayed out red water.

"Oh come on!"

Chen Haoyu cried out, frantically changing his footwork.

Then a gust of wind blew—

The mist drifted toward him, so he had to dash tens of meters away, just barely avoiding this round of area attack.

After steadying himself, he looked down to see red paint on his body.

"Keep it up, stay calm!"

Shen Ye shouted from a distance.

"Thanks for the cheers, Brother Ye, but this is nothing, I can handle it!" Chen Haoyu responded with a grin, showing his teeth.

A stream of water surged up, hitting him right in the face and turning it yellow.

Laughter from the other students could be heard all around.

Shen Ye also touched his forehead.

A few minutes later.

Chen Haoyu walked off the field dejectedly; the area immediately began to auto-clean.

"Go wash up, Chen Haoyu—you should be glad this isn't the official exam," the teacher said on the side, raising a scoring card.

71 points.

That was a bit low.

Shen Ye encouraged him, "You're too easily distracted. Focus during the exam, and you could get at least 80 points."

"Got it, I'll go wash up," Chen Haoyu said despondently.

"Next, Shen Ye," the teacher called out.

"Here!" Shen Ye responded.

He stepped onto the simulated exam field and took his position.

All the students turned to look at him.

Chen Haoyu stopped too.

"Shen Ye, how's your recovery coming along?" the teacher asked.

"Much better, thank you for asking, teacher," Shen Ye replied.

"Shall we begin?"

"Yes."

"3, 2, 1, — Begin!"

A green stream of water shot up from a hole beneath his feet.

Shen Ye stepped back three meters.

A series of multi-colored streams rose in quick succession.

But Shen Ye had already moved to the other end of the field.

The streams, like a child chasing an adult, no matter how hard they tried, could not keep up with his pace.

Yet he stood with hands clasped behind his back, casually moving his Physique, gliding across the field as if on ice, handling all the water streams with ease and grace.

Through myriad waters he passed, untouched by a single drop.

The surrounding teachers and students were even somewhat enchanted by the sight.

—And Shen Ye hadn't even added his Attribute Points yet; relying solely on his natural Agility, along with the Elven Step Technique he had understood, he had achieved this level.

"Time's up!"

The teacher called out, shaking his head with a sigh, "If only you hadn't missed one round, it would have been much better."

He showed the highest score of the morning on his scorecard:

100 points.

"Thank you, teacher. I haven't given up on getting into high school," Shen Ye said with a smile.