Encountering a Seeded Candidate

Originally, there weren't any paths in the primordial forest area. However, as more and more candidates passed through the forest, paths gradually formed.

Su Hao walked ahead. Dense leaves and branches drooped and blocked his way. He didn't bother brushing them aside. Instead, he allowed the leaves and branches to brush across his face. Just as they were about to come into contact with him, a gentle force pushed them away.

It was the protective light shield from the wristband!

By right, apart from sprites, there should have been quite a lot of insects, birds, and animals in a dense forest like this. Among which, there were probably poisonous bugs and snakes too. They didn't pose any less of a threat than wild sprites to examination candidates. Prickly brambles and sharp, broken branches could also cut through the candidates' clothes and injure them too.

Only people with a lot of experience living in the wild could survive in such an environment.

Su Hao and the others were just a bunch of young students in their third year of high school. What they were learning was sprite cultivation and battling, not survival tactics in the wild.

Thus, the protective light shield of the wristband gave the candidates a huge sense of security. As long as they didn't head into danger deliberately, the energy consumption caused to the wristband by a few branches in their way or a few scratches from the bushes was negligible.

After Su Hao got used to it, he didn't push the bushes apart with his hands anymore. Doing this would save him some time too. As for complex areas that were difficult to pass through, he either went around them or got Silkworm Baby or Little Fire Crow to create an opening.

It didn't take long for him to reach the supply tower.

A tall white tower stood in front of Su Hao. Green vines covered the rock wall exterior. Mottled marks, possibly left behind by wild sprites, were vaguely visible on it. There were also traces of reparation and restoration on it, which filled the tower with an aged feeling.

Right opposite him was a metal door. It was already wide open at this point.

According to the rules, every tower contained a different number of supply kits, which varied in quality. However, each candidate was only allowed to take one from each tower. They couldn't take more as well because surveillance cameras had been set up in the towers. Supply kits could also be found in various spots within the forest.

"Although the timing of my arrival must be later than most people, if I were the examiner, surely I would provide a larger number of supply kits than exam candidates in the first supply tower, right?"

Su Hao wondered as he headed toward the tower.

Then, he bumped head-on into three people moving hastily.

It was a team of three. They were holding supply kits the size of briefcases in their hands, meaning they had only emerged from the tower just a moment ago.

Four pairs of eyes stared at each other. The atmosphere abruptly froze.

"It's… him!"

The expressions of the three-man team changed slightly.

None of them were fools. Based on the sequential order that they had entered the forest in, the one in the last place definitely presented the greatest threat.

"The strongest student in An City First High owns two sprites, a Silkworm Baby and a Little Fire Crow!"

Data on Su Hao surfaced in their minds.

Although he was a far cry from the aces in their school, they were just normal students of Yunhua First High after all. It wasn't as if they were big bosses!

But to their backs was the white tower, while Su Hao blocked their way ahead.

The three of them exchanged a look. Then, they decided to take action! At the very least, they still had an advantage in terms of numbers!

Under their Sprite Trainers' command, a Grassland Wolf, a Thread Spider, and a Dotted Mushroom, which looked like the personification of a mushroom, started to…

"Gurgle!!"

Silkworm Baby struck first. It leaped high into the air and sprayed a misty green light from its mouth—Granule Machine Gun!

Countless specks of green light coalesced into a light beam, which swept across the three sprites with a whoosh.

Dust and earth flew everywhere around the three sprites. Their pained cries and whimpers could be heard amidst the swirling dust.

A brief moment later, Grassland Wolf collapsed. Thread Spider was sprawled on the ground, while Dotted Mushroom had fainted.

Sprites were creatures birthed by nature. They didn't bleed when they were injured. There wasn't anything like the ground being dyed red by blood, or the sprites coughing up their innards, or any other scenes like that. But it was also obvious that the three sprites were covered in injuries.

And this was even the result of Silkworm Baby holding back… or rather, conserving its spiritual force.

The three Sprite Trainer Interns from Yunhua First High were in disbelief. While staring at Grassland Wolf, which was struggling to get up after it had collapsed, the Sprite Trainer Intern standing in the middle clenched his fists.

"Get up! C'mon Grassland Wolf, get up!"

A cursor-like ray of light appeared above his fists.

[Sprite Commandeering: Persist]: It allows a sprite to have a final burst of battle power at the critical moment when it is approaching its limit.

"Howl!"

With great difficulty, Grassland Wolf braced itself against the ground and tried to get up.

Swoosh!

A peanut-sized granule came flying over.

With a thwack, it suppressed Grassland Wolf's final wave of perseverance right away. It was game over for Grassland Wolf.

A breeze blew past them, blowing the dust around them away.

A smile appeared on Su Hao's lips. In the eyes of the three-man team, his smile was as though that of the devil.

"Are you going to surrender? Or are you going to surrender?"

One of the candidates picked up Thread Spider and immediately started to run to the side. But he had only taken a couple of steps when a claw of fire threw him backward. Although the light shield protected him, he suffered a pretty bad fall nonetheless.

The Thread Spider in his arms was curled up into a ball, so it didn't suffer another bout of injuries.

When he got back up on his feet, he noticed that the light shield's energy level had already decreased by 10%. No longer taking any more chances, he said, "I surrender!"

Then, he pressed the button on his wristband. His other two teammates pressed the buttons on their wristbands as well.

A vibrating notification came from Su Hao's wristband at once. He looked at it—"+1 point".

"In other words, the three of you have only defeated two sprites?"

Su Hao lost interest right away. After taking a supply kit from the tower, as well as the hardtack crackers and two bottles of water from the team's supply kits along the way, he brought Silkworm Baby and Little Fire Crow with him and entered the bushes, leaving behind the three miserable candidates.

…

The deeper one went into the primordial forest area, the denser the foliage was. It gave off a sinister feeling.

Silkworm Baby led the way in front, while Su Hao stayed in the middle. Little Fire Crow hovered over him and kept a lookout.

All of a sudden, the vines entwined around the tree trunks along the path where he was walking seemed to come to life. A few vines shot toward him, as though ropes.

"Fire Ball!"

Even though Su Hao heard their movements, he didn't turn to look. He had faith that his sprites would be able to determine the direction in which danger was coming from.

Instantly, a huge ball of fire shot out and set the vines whizzing toward him on fire. The ball of fire then landed on the tree trunk and exploded with a boom, exposing the few Vine Snakes entwined around the tree trunk as camouflage.

They scattered from the tree trunk and weaved through the shrubs before they disappeared. Only the rustling of leaves could be heard coming from the bushes in the vicinity.

"Wing Attack!" he ordered.

The black feathers on Little Fire Crow extended continuously and formed a pair of gigantic wings in the blink of an eye. The wings swept through the surroundings, uprooting the bushes. Right away, the Vine Snakes slithering towards them were thrown out by the black wings, the sharp feathers of the wings leaving innumerable cuts on them.

As though they had realized that Little Fire Crow wasn't easy to deal with, the Vine Snakes came and went quickly. They even knew to split up as they escaped.

But how could Su Hao… or rather, Silkworm Baby, bear to watch its points escape?

Mini Energy Balls shot out of its mouth one by one. Amidst loud explosive blasts, all the Vine Snakes fainted, ashes and dust covering them all over.

Silkworm Baby didn't kill them. Although the sprites looked as if they were heavily injured, in truth, with the self-recovery abilities of sprites, they would be able to regain mobility in half a day… As long as they didn't encounter any other enemies.

What would happen after he left was something he couldn't predict. But for the time being, whether it was himself, Silkworm Baby, or Little Fire Crow, none of them could bring themselves to kill them just yet.

Neither was there any need to do so in the joint examination.

For the sake of the primordial forest area's continued development, the judges' team had also suggested that just defeating them would do.

However, Su Hao felt that he would need to overcome this hurdle in the future.

He turned and looked at the large tree that had taken a fireball attack head-on. A large area of the trunk was black and charred. However, the flames didn't spread and had already extinguished.

Su Hao let out a breath of relief.

Giving the order to use Fire Ball had been a pure reflex, though it was also because Little Fire Crow was right above him.

"But since the schools had set this place as the examination site, this forest… shouldn't catch fire that easily, right?"

This forest was fascinating, indeed. Apart from the trees that were big and tall, Su Hao also noticed irregular crystallized solids on the trunks of a few trees.

In the beginning, he had thought that it was his imagination, but as he went deeper into the forest, the more trees with crystallized solids there were. He couldn't help but wonder about it.

He opened a pack of hardtack crackers along the way. He took a bite—it was utterly tasteless. Then, he fed it to Silkworm Baby and Little Fire Crow. The two of them also despised it but ate it seriously nonetheless.

At this point, Silkworm Baby glanced at the bushes, which were as tall as a human, a short distance away. Little Fire Crow also turned wary.

The bushes parted. A slightly familiar-looking figure walked out.

"It's you."