Chapter 7: Ruins Town, Wu Ke Gaokao

The Gaokao is a grand event in the Great Xia Nation.

To ensure students get adequate rest, one month before the Gaokao, every province and city begins enforcing nighttime noise control.

Even some upscale residential communities hire specialized sonic-type psychics.

At exactly nine p. m., they activate their psychic abilities to block all external sounds outside the compound.

On the day of the Gaokao itself, protections for examinees reach an extreme level.

Not only are roads under traffic control, but armed soldiers and psychic squads patrol key intersections to prevent emergencies.

Precisely because of this, the forty-plus buses carrying Wu Ke Gaokao candidates drove unimpeded through the city and soon entered the military zone on the outskirts.

Then the buses pulled over to an open field, and students disembarked one after another.

Around the field, every three meters stood a soldier, rifle in hand, posture rigid and upright.

The severity on their faces left no doubt: anyone daring to charge the formation would face a hail of bullets!

At the very front of the field was a temporary podium.

Behind the podium was a region enclosed by barbed wire.

Inside the enclosure lay the ruins of a small town, a vast area stretching beyond sight.

Between the ruins, dark shadows of ferocious beasts flickered, and the roars and snarls of those beasts could be heard.

"Whoa, that's our exam site."

"Damn, I just saw a unicorn rhino!"

"Unicorn rhino? No way—this year's exam can't be this brutal!"

"......"

The ruined town inside the military zone was originally named Weiyuan Town, a small village under Jiangcheng.

Decades ago, it was overrun by a beast tide and reduced to ruins.

Although the military later reclaimed it, since it was already in ruins, rebuilding held little value, so it was turned into a training ground for troops.

But every June 7th, it is used as a Wu Ke Gaokao exam site.

Of course,

the types of ferocious beasts placed inside are not chosen casually as during regular troop training, but are determined by Jiangnan Province's Wu Ke Gaokao examiners.

All Wu Ke Gaokao sites under Jiangnan Province use identical beast combinations to ensure absolute fairness in the Wu Ke Gaokao.

The species and strength of the ferocious beasts determine the difficulty of the Wu Ke Gaokao.

Generally, powerful beasts do not appear near the perimeter of the ruined town.

Only common beasts like Shadow Cats and Iron-Haired Pigs are found there.

However, in past Gaokao exams, rare and formidable beasts such as Unicorn Rhinos and Arm-Knife Tigers have also appeared near the perimeter.

But this also means the Wu Ke Gaokao that year is harder, and the risk of death is greater.

Thus, when many students saw the Unicorn Rhino inside the ruined town through the barbed wire, their faces turned pale and they panicked.

"So what if it's a Unicorn Rhino? If you can't even handle a beast like this, even if you barely get into a psychic university, you'll never amount to anything!"

A loud voice suddenly rose above the students' murmurs.

It was a young man dressed in pale green battle gear, resembling an ancient swordsman, holding a long sword in his hand.

His demeanor echoed that of a knight-errant—open and sharp, his eyes like an eagle's, radiating intense pressure.

Several students turned angrily to argue.

But upon seeing him, they fell silent, embarrassed and dared not speak.

This scene puzzled Xu Jingming, who turned curiously to a tall boy beside him, carrying a sword and shield.

"Who is that guy? So full of himself?"

The tall boy's name was Liu Jie; his awakened ability was the Enhancement-type C-rank ability, Gigantification.

When activated, his body swells over twice its size, and his strength increases accordingly.

In Class 5, besides his best friend Zhang Hao, Xu Jingming was closest to him.

"Who else? It's Zhou Mingyang from No. 1 High School, the Light Wind Sword."

Liu Jie nodded toward him.

"So it's him."

Xu Jingming instantly understood.

No. 1 High School in Jiangcheng is the high school with the deepest educational heritage in the entire city.

It offers genuine psychic instruction and occasionally arranges live combat drills with ferocious beasts.

Its graduates are all more ferocious than the last—nearly all of Jiangcheng's top ten Wu Ke Gaokao candidates come from No. 1 High School.

And this Zhou Mingyang is one of the school's most outstanding students!

He possesses a B-rank Elemental Wind ability: "Light Wind."

When activated, he can condense wind blades and reduce air resistance, greatly increasing his movement and attack speed.

"Light Wind" ranks among the top-tier abilities among all awakened powers in Jiangcheng.

Moreover, Zhou Mingyang is one of the extremely rare students in Jiangcheng who has surpassed the Awakened stage and advanced to the Psychic stage.

Before the Gaokao, he was already a top contender for Jiangcheng's Wu Ke Gaokao top scorer, earning the title "Light Wind Sword."

Naturally, ordinary candidates dare not provoke such a powerful psychic.

"Excellent! Sword training must have this fearless, forward-moving spirit!"

Among the ranks, the principal of No. 1 High School watched this scene and nodded in satisfaction.

Soon, all students from the forty-plus buses entered the field and lined up neatly by school and class.

Each class was accompanied by its homeroom teacher at the front.

At that moment, a middle-aged man in military uniform also walked up onto the rostrum in front of the open ground.

The man was tall and imposing, with a long scar on his right cheek.

He merely swept his gaze across, and the students on the open ground, who had been whispering among themselves, immediately shut their mouths.

If Zhou Mingyang's gaze only gave one a sense of pressure, then this officer's eyes were like those of a fierce beast, making one's heart palpitate!

"Definitely an ability-user above the second tier."

Xu Jingming, standing in the formation, said silently to himself.

"I am Wang Haiyang, the commander-in-chief of this Jiangcheng Wu Ke Gaokao. Before the exam begins, I will reiterate the points to note."

"This Wu Ke Gaokao will begin promptly at nine in the morning and end at nine in the evening, for a total duration of twelve hours."

"The exam location is the ruined town behind me. As in previous Gaokao sessions, the ruined town is divided into the outer, central, and core zones."

"The outer zone contains unranked fierce beasts; the central zone contains peak unranked fierce beasts and first-tier fierce beasts."

"The core zone contains entirely first-tier and above fierce beasts, while the innermost area is occupied by high first-tier fierce beasts and second-tier fierce beasts."

Commander-in-chief Wang Haiyang's voice echoed across the open ground. He did not use a microphone, yet his words reached every student's ears clearly.

"The outer, central, core, and innermost zones are just like a math exam paper—different zones correspond to different difficulty levels."

"The innermost area, occupied by high first-tier and second-tier fierce beasts, is equivalent to the final question on a math exam paper, reserved specifically for the top students to crack."

A smile appeared at the corner of Xu Jingming's mouth in the formation.

If this had been before, he would have only dared to kill fierce beasts in the outer zone at most.

But now, he was not only confident enough to enter the core zone, he could even probe the innermost area!

"Killing different types and ranks of fierce beasts earns you different scores."

"The higher the tier of the fierce beast, the stronger it is, and the higher the score you receive after killing it."

"However, everyone should also act within their limits and choose a zone suited to themselves in which to kill fierce beasts."

"Alright, we will now begin distributing supplies."

Wang Haiyang on the rostrum waved his right hand, and several squads of soldiers walked out from the side, while a large truck drove over from a distance.

The truck's cargo door opened, revealing black tactical backpacks inside.

Under the soldiers' distribution, every examinee received a tactical backpack.

There were three items in the backpack.

One was a smartwatch, used to tally the number and types of fierce beasts killed and accumulate scores.

There was also a map of the ruined town inside, to confirm the examinee's location.

Another item was compressed energy bars—three in total—which could quickly replenish physical stamina after consumption.

The last item was a safety orb, a silver-white metallic sphere.

Once activated, it could form a high-voltage electric grid around the body that ordinary fierce beasts could not break through.

Of course, once the safety orb is used, it also means the Gaokao ends early.

Xu Jingming put the smartwatch on his wrist, placed the three energy bars in the tactical backpack and slung it on his back, and hung the safety orb at his waist.

This way, when encountering danger, he could also activate the safety orb at the fastest speed to preserve his life.

The other students also mostly chose this same equipment arrangement.

However, even with the safety orb, it did not mean absolute safety.

After all, in the process of fighting fierce beasts, life and death are decided in an instant—there may not even be time to use the safety orb......