Chapter 3808

Luxi felt this Marvel was impossible to stay in.

On one side Chris was enthusiastically asking if he was willing to fight another Heaven and Hell war; on the other Mephisto was shamelessly pestering him asking what was going on between him and Shiler. Why did these people never understand restraint?!

Shiler also felt this magic school was impossible to stay in.

In the Magic Forest battle, every Batman who went in got injured. Now the school infirmary was packed. He, as the school doctor, was busy running in circles — bandaging this one, disinfecting that one, and having to listen to them bickering with each other.

Although the initial fight didn't endanger Batman, Luxi and Mephisto still reined it in. But Batman wasn't blind; seeing the grand spectacle when Mephisto appeared, he naturally turned tail and ran.

The key lay here. Mephisto used illusion magic to create a floor of magma, magic that could even deceive Luxi. Batman naturally couldn't see the truth either. They had already discovered their running speed wasn't faster than the magma's spread, so they certainly wouldn't foolishly keep running on the ground; they all flew into the air.

However, most Batmen flew poorly. They had gathered together for remedial lessons precisely to practice flying skills, but halfway through the Lego Batman kidnapping happened, so they didn't get to finish practicing. And the terrain in the Magic Forest was far more complex than on the lawn.

So the group wasn't actually injured by Mephisto and company; rather, after taking flight they crashed into tree branches, or into each other, falling in groups and getting hurt from the falls.

Of course, this was just their side of the story. As a professional doctor, Shiler could naturally tell this had to be someone deliberately ramming around in midair, causing a mass crash.

Although it looked very much like Bruce's doing, this time it really wasn't him. Because the moment Mephisto appeared, he was the first to run, not moving with the main group, so he couldn't exert his power as the source of chaos.

Shiler guessed this because the most severely injured this time was again Night Owl. It had to be Prime Universe Batman or Arkham Batman pulling a dirty trick in the air; otherwise Night Owl wouldn't have fallen and broken ribs.

Night Owl's injury was truly troublesome. Broken ribs weren't the big issue; the key was they had pierced into his lung. Fortunately magical treatment was timely; any later and a critical condition notice would have been issued.

The others were injured far less severely. Prime Universe Batman sprained his ankle, but it was fine after the swelling went down; Arkham Batman only had abrasions, except for a wound on the back of his neck scraped by a branch that bled a little, nothing else. Most Batmen just bumped their waists or twisted ankles; applying some medicinal liquid fixed them.

After Shiler finished treating them all, everyone left one after another. Night Owl stared longingly from his hospital bed, but his injuries were too severe — he simply couldn't leave.

Looking at Night Owl lying on the bed utterly listless, Shiler also sighed. He truly didn't know where Night Owl got the courage to challenge Prime Universe Batman to a duel; it was simply zero resistance, completely played in the palm of his hand the whole way.

Prime Universe Batman's midair dirty trick was precisely to make Night Owl lie in a hospital bed recovering. Although the afternoon advancement exam was cancelled, it would have to be taken eventually. Even if postponed until everyone recovered, Night Owl lying in a hospital bed had zero chance to review — how could he possibly pass against other students bouncing with energy?

Although this was a qualifying exam with no ranking or admission involved, Night Owl wasn't confident in every subject. For instance, Magic History and Cosmic Structure, which he'd never heard before, he was originally counting on his good memory to cram a few days before the exam; now he had no time to review at all, so the probability of passing was very small.

If all other Batmen passed while Night Owl didn't, Night Owl's progress would be dragged back again.

It could be said that ever since entering the school, Prime Universe Batman had been constantly contending and seizing every opportunity to drag Night Owl down, scheming exhaustively, just to make Night Owl fall behind at every turn.

Currently the effect was very good. Night Owl was truly already near the edge of collapse. These days his eyes kept darting to Shiler; whenever Shiler came over, he asked when he would get better.

Roughly three days later, Strange had the Magic Forest side repaired well enough, then remembered to look for trouble with the Batmen. But this was obviously too late. Everyone had aligned their testimony, insisting they went to rescue Lego Batman; Strange had no way to counter it.

This even moved Lego Batman enough; these days he'd been following Prime Universe Batman around, clearly having already joined the Justice Batman side. This was perhaps also one of Prime Universe Batman's objectives.

But don't underestimate Lego Batman. Although he's just a plastic brick figurine, he carries the 'comedy character' attribute, making him basically invincible, and he's especially good at destroying serious and evil atmospheres — a natural enemy of villains like Night Owl.

Since he couldn't trouble the Batmen, Strange came to find Shiler again, wanting to ask why he summoned Mephisto over.

"Do you think preventing Batmen from contacting contracts is realistic?" Shiler asked, sitting behind his desk. "How much longer can you stop them? What other means do you have to stop them?"

Strange fell silent instantly. He sighed: "I admit I underestimated them. Teaching such a bunch of super-geniuses is even harder than I imagined. Many professors already have nothing left to teach them."

"They'll soon reach practical training. When that time comes, they'll inevitably want to contact the magic gods of our universe. But we can't really let them become contractors of magic gods. Batmen are too capable; the Sanctum staff can't compete with them. When they pat their butts and leave, we'll be the ones facing massive complaints."

"So you plan to let Mephisto contract them?"

"We can use Mephisto to let them understand what most magic gods are like. That's enough; most Batmen have a clear head. Even if they really contract, the magic god can't take away their power. A simulated exam process is sufficient."

"It's not that simple, is it?"

Shiler smiled: "Of course. Certain mysterious existences on their side are far more ferocious than ours; they're almost impossible to communicate with, minds full of nothing but world destruction. For Batmen to deal with such existences and still want to obtain power from them requires many things. But we only need to make them understand one point."

"What?"

But Shiler shook his head: "You'll know when the time comes."

They discussed the advancement exam again. Since it was already delayed several days, it couldn't be dragged further; they finally decided on tomorrow noon for the exam.

Night Owl was dumbfounded hearing this news. Although his wounds had mostly healed, he truly hadn't reviewed at all — pure blind testing. He wouldn't really fail, would he?

So, disregarding his still not fully healed injuries, he limped to the library and began staying up late to review. Thanks to super memory, theoretical knowledge was mostly memorized. But the next morning, getting up early to practice flying, he lost control once and *plop* fell down again.

This was it — disaster. The nearly healed ribs broke again. He entered the school infirmary once more; despite forcing himself up before the exam started, the severe pain from his ribs meant he couldn't perform well in the flight exam at all, scoring a fail on the spot.

This exam was a qualifying exam — pass all subjects and you can advance; but fail even one and you can't. And very unfortunately, this time only Night Owl failed to advance successfully.

That's right, even Lego Batman, who looked like his grades weren't great, advanced. Because the memorization-heavy subjects weren't actually too hard, while the flight class that was difficult for most Batmen was a piece of cake for him, so he also advanced successfully.

Now all Batmen were directly promoted from Year 1 to Year 4. This school's system was only five years to begin with, and Year 5 was basically for internships, equivalent to jumping straight to the highest grade.

Year 4 had few students and many teachers; basically every two or three people got a Grand Mage, equivalent to elite small-class teaching. The Batmen all absorbed knowledge hungrily, and inevitably came into contact with contract-related content, making Night Owl grind his teeth.

You have to know, he took huge risks negotiating with a tiger for its skin to pry some contract knowledge from Saphir's mouth. Result: other Batmen just openly learned it like that? Then what was the meaning of his collusion with Saphir?

Night Owl truly couldn't take it anymore. He ran into that dangerous Dark Forest day and night, contending with the terrifying dark mage Zhou Xuan, and just because of one small mistake his progress was caught up to — not to mention there was even a faint trend of being left behind.

Watching Prime Universe Batman and company gathering in groups daily, more and more Batmen being won over to that side, even several of Night Owl's die-hard supporters showing signs of wavering — he knew he couldn't go on like this.

Another night, he came near Saphir's cottage in the Magic Forest. Seeing the light on inside, he knew Saphir was there, and eagerly walked up and knocked.

"You actually dare come here?" Shiler narrowed his eyes. "Your so-called gift to me was bringing an angel's contractor, nearly destroying my base?!"

"It was a misunderstanding, you have to believe me." Night Owl gritted his teeth. "I really didn't know why an angel would appear. Perhaps it's the Sorcerer Supreme's scheme. Don't you want to know what this is really about?"

"You think I can still count on you?" Shiler turned back into the cottage with utter disdain. "I heard you didn't even pass the advancement exam."

This was practically twisting the knife in Night Owl's heart. He was so angry he coughed twice; his already not fully healed ribs hurt even more.

"But they are indeed a trouble." Shiler snorted coldly. "Especially that winged kid. He's not in my plans; he might ruin my good thing."

"I can help you." Night Owl said. "But I fell for their trap and have fallen far behind them. I need stronger power."

Shiler fell silent for a while, seemingly hesitating. After a long moment he spoke in a low tone: "I can help you contact an extremely powerful magic god. Serve him, and you'll get everything you want."