Chapter 548: The Fourth Day

Next, Wu Xian and the others dealt with several black figures on the ninth floor in front of Xue Chenghe.

After witnessing the Quan people's abilities, Xue Chenghe once again confirmed that cooperating with these ninth-floor individuals was the right choice.

Afterwards, everyone followed Xue Chenghe downstairs.

The layout downstairs was identical to the ninth floor, with nothing unusual.

Before acting, Xue Chenghe first checked whether any natives were in the corridor, then the Quan people swiftly entered rooms to eliminate the black figures and retrieve the corrupted Chong Incense.

Due to nighttime inspections, all rooms where natives had died were left unlocked, and the black figures never opened doors to attack, so the group’s collection of Chong Incense proceeded smoothly.

During this process, Wu Xian also obtained two corrupted Chong Incense sticks, causing his Blood Thorn Silk to be completely ruined and revert to warm Fire Cloud Cloth.

Afterwards, Wu Xian originally planned to go out searching for the “Cat-Faced Old Woman,” but after observing upstairs for a while, he realized that on rainy days, all animals had hidden away—searching for the Cat-Faced Old Woman under these conditions was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Thus Wu Xian could only return to his room, sit in meditation as he had the day before, endure the inspections, and secretly observe Jin Shasha…

That night, some events occurred.

But these events were mostly familiar to Wu Xian and the others, so they need not be recounted here.

…

The fourth day of training center classes.

The sun rose early, but the training center’s ground remained damp.

Today’s schedule, like the first and second days, consisted of etiquette, physical education, and language classes.

All surviving Quan people, newcomers, and natives gathered in the cafeteria; after three days of eliminations, the number of diners had dropped significantly from day one.

The surviving Quan people, newcomers, and natives all stared silently in one direction.

There, in a well-ventilated open area beside the cafeteria, stood a rack bearing several human corpses—one of them was Han Hao, who had been gutted and killed the day before!

All these bodies were coated in coarse salt, their moisture draining away in the wind.

The bad news: those who died in the cafeteria had been turned into cured meat.

The good news: making cured meat took time, so for the remaining days, no one needed to worry about eating deceased companions.

After seeing the corpses, Wu Xian lowered his head, expressionless, and poked the screaming “Vegetarian” to death with his chopsticks.

Since this morning, Wu Xian had not spoken a word, for he now had four sharp, pointed canine teeth in his mouth!

These four canines were cat teeth!

The curse’s transformation was worsening—tonight, he absolutely had to find a way to eliminate the Cat-Faced Old Woman, or tomorrow’s changes might spiral beyond control.

The Cat-Faced Old Woman was an urgent problem.

Another problem that must be resolved was yesterday’s noisy newcomers! In truth, Ma San’s words yesterday weren’t wrong: giving food to those noisy newcomers held little meaning—even if their hunger was temporarily eased, their chances of surviving in the Blessed Land remained minuscule.

Yesterday, Wu Xian gave them food partly to prevent the team from collapsing prematurely, and partly because the food meant little to him.

Today, however…

These newcomers had become a problem.

Wei Kang, Xu Yuening, Ji Yaning, and Liu Siyi had all come to the cafeteria, yet they merely stared longingly at the food behind the counter without ordering.

Some natives stood nearby, doing the same.

It was because they had no credits left!

Yesterday’s quiz had two types: True Gate and False Gate; False Gate exams didn’t kill, but each death during the exam deducted one credit, and once all credits were gone, the exam ended.

In other words, if a student died enough times in the quiz, they’d lose all credits and be unable to buy food in the cafeteria.

Yet the cafeteria rules explicitly required everyone to eat at least once daily! Yesterday’s rain meant the cafeteria was closed, so skipping a meal then didn’t violate the rule.

But today was clear—if they didn’t eat, they’d break the rule: minor punishment meant losing a bar, major punishment…

…could mean ending up like Han Hao, hung on a rack as dried cured meat!

These newcomers had already died so many times in the quiz—they couldn’t afford the cost of breaking the rule again.

Driven by hunger and survival instinct, they might seek other ways to gain credits.

Within the training center, the only way to earn extra credits was to approach the Student Union: either trade lifespan for credits, or report someone who had seen the divine statue.

What would these newcomers choose?

Wu Xian didn’t know.

But he wouldn’t risk it!

So he needed to resolve these newcomers before nightfall!

…

Physical education class.

Guo Xiaodong raised the difficulty.

Alongside the old running event, he added “Dodgeball” and “Hide-and-Seek.”

But all survivors had been blessed with “Exhaustion into Ghost,” and were already accustomed to the PE routine, so only a few natives were eliminated.

Several newcomers pushed to the brink, due to extreme mental tension, performed exceptionally well and survived.

This level of difficulty meant nothing to the Quan people.

Physical education class ended smoothly.

At the end of class, Guo Xiaodong asked: “Anyone willing to help me return the equipment to the sports storage?”

As on the previous two days, no one responded to Guo Xiaodong’s request.

Because helping him meant breaking the rules—and some had seen yesterday, in the campus, someone resembling Guo Xiaodong chasing students like a demon!

“Teacher, I’ll help you!”

To everyone’s disbelief, Wu Xian smiled and raised his hand.

Su Mi blinked: “Brother Xian, should I stay too…?”

“No, go ahead.”

Su Mi nodded and joined the others for their next class.

Guo Xiaodong stared at Wu Xian for a long while; only when most people had left did he speak seriously to Wu Xian.

“Fine, first gather all the equipment into the box.”

Today’s PE equipment wasn’t much.

“Hide-and-Seek” meant having a small ghost blindfold students, then having them chase a teaching assistant shackled in the courtyard.

Dodgeball was bloodier: teaching assistants stood around the courtyard, hurling balls at students—each ball was the severed head of a student who had died in PE class!

So Wu Xian’s task was to collect every head scattered across the courtyard. The job was disgusting, but to Wu Xian it was trivial—if only the heads wouldn’t speak while he picked them up…

Once all equipment was gathered…

Wu Xian struggled to carry the wooden box alongside Guo Xiaodong, heading to the sports storage to return the “PE equipment.”

(End of Chapter)