Chapter 176: Second Round Groups, Ye's Battle Intent

Deng Bingding looked at the remaining twenty students in front of him and encouraged them, "I have already granted all of you the usage rights for the technique you just learned."

"This is the exam advancement reward the Heavenly Court has prepared for you, to motivate the candidates on the First Layer."

"I hope that from now on, you will not be arrogant or impatient, continue to advance boldly, strive hard on the path of immortality, climb even higher in the future, and serve the Heavenly Court and your sects..."

After encouraging the students present, Deng Bingding then spoke about the next round of exams.

"The next round of exams will be on October 15th, still held here."

"But unlike this comprehensive exam, the second round is a specialized test. Each of you must choose one of the four tracks to participate in: Dao Heart, Mana, Physical, or Martial Arts."

"The reason we kept you here is to arrange your registration..."

So, guided by the Deities, the students present all took out their phones and logged into the registration website.

According to Deng Bingding, after the reform of this Foundation Establishment Exam, there have been slight changes in the registration for the four tracks.

Each student can register for two tracks, which facilitates adjustments based on the students' total scores from the first round when there are too few or too many people in certain tracks.

In short, it is to better unearth talents from the First Layer, achieve a more balanced distribution of participants across the four tracks, and also avoid having too many strong contestants crowded into one track and being eliminated.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu frowned slightly and thought, "Register for two?"

"But Ah Zhen and I only discussed one track?"

"Could it be that after all this adjusting, Ah Zhen and I will end up in the same track?"

Zhang Yu also wanted to discuss it with Bai Zhenzhen, but the Deity had just forbidden communication among the examinees.

This clearly required them to complete the registration independently after being informed of the rule change.

"Then it all comes down to the tacit understanding between Ah Zhen and me."

According to the original agreement with Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu would sign up for Physical, and Bai Zhenzhen would sign up for Martial Arts.

Now with the additional second registration option, Zhang Yu had to choose between Dao Heart and Mana.

"Dao Heart or Mana?"

Thinking about his performance in the first Mana test, Zhang Yu sighed inwardly, "Without me noticing, because I neglected to continue training my mana control, Ah Zhen has already surpassed me in this aspect, hasn't she?"

With that thought, Zhang Yu chose Dao Heart as his second option.

Shortly after, as all the contestants present had finished registering, all the data appeared before the Deities.

Deng Bingding nodded, "Indeed, Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao have separated from each other? It seems they also have a tacit understanding."

Huang Zichou said, "If those two were to meet in the same track, it would be a pity no matter which one was eliminated."

Deng Bingding's gaze then swept over the registration choices of the third, fourth, and fifth highest-scoring students, and he said, "Let's begin the adjustments."

In Deng Bingding's view, the first thing to determine was naturally the tracks of the first and second place, Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing.

This was because these two had a qualitative gap in strength compared to the remaining eighteen students present.

Deng Bingding thought to himself, "Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing—whichever two tracks they are placed in, they will be the winners of those tracks."

So, after some discussion among the Deities, they placed Ye Lingxiao in the Physical track he had signed up for, and Yun Jing in the Martial Arts track he had signed up for.

Next, they continued grouping by score from high to low, particularly trying to separate the top ten students from Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing.

With the Deities' high-speed thinking in the network, the candidates for each track in the second round were quickly adjusted.

Huang Zichou glanced at the positions of Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen and thought to himself, "These two are a bit unlucky."

It turned out that Zhang Yu was assigned to the Physical track, and Bai Zhenzhen was assigned to the Martial Arts track.

In the Deities' view, because of the presence of Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing, the Physical and Martial Arts tracks were practically groups of death—all contestants except Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing were destined to be eliminated.

Huang Zichou thought, "But even if Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen are eliminated this year, they can take the exam again next year."

"Although these two poor fellows have astonishing potential and seem to have some mysterious existence backing them, they've still lost one year of training time. Let them go back, settle down for a year, and come again."

He knew that the main purpose of this reform of the Foundation Establishment Exam was to unearth more talents and send them upward.

Therefore, the most reasonable choice was to assign as many low-scoring contestants as possible to Ye Lingxiao's and Yun Jing's groups, and as many high-scoring contestants as possible to the other two groups.

As for contestants like Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, who could still take the Foundation Establishment Exam next year, the examiners didn't consider it a loss if they were eliminated in this round.

As the orthodox deities concluded their discussion, a light screen immediately appeared in front of each of the 20 students, showing the groupings for the next round of exams.

Looking at the grouping results, some breathed a sigh of relief, some looked tense, and some appeared resigned—reactions varied widely.

What Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen first checked, of course, was whether the two of them would end up in the same group.

When they found that they were in the sports track and martial arts track respectively, both of them breathed a slight sigh of relief.

But then, when they saw the opponents in their respective tracks, their expressions immediately turned serious.

"Number 23?" Zhang Yu looked at Ye Lingxiao and thought to himself, "I have to compete with this guy?"

Recalling Ye Lingxiao's performance in today's three exams, Zhang Yu thought, "Damn... this guy definitely used cheats, right? And his cheat is even bigger than mine?"

"Rich and cheating, number 23 really deserves to die." At this moment, Zhang Yu genuinely wished Ye Lingxiao would get hit by a car and die.

But he knew it was impossible—not to mention whether a car could even kill him, but the protective forces around him were definitely extraordinary.

"Yu Shu, Yu Shu, in the end, you're just not good enough."

"If you were just a bit more capable, would I still be worrying here?"

"In the end, I have to rely on myself to upgrade you."

Initially, Zhang Yu thought that Yu Shu was his own cheater tool.

Later, after repeatedly relying on his own efforts to improve his strength, Zhang Yu felt that Yu Shu was only his potential.

Now, thinking that he still had to find a way to hunt evil gods to upgrade Yu Shu, he felt like he himself was Yu Shu's cheater tool.

On the other side, Bai Zhenzhen was looking in Yun Jing's direction: "This guy is Number 11, right? Damn, they put me in the same group as him? It's rigged!"

"Can his family suddenly go bankrupt?"

Bai Zhenzhen tugged at her hair in frustration, thinking, "In the martial arts exam, there will eventually be actual combat, right? To defeat this guy..."

Not a single word was off—every line exactly as seen!

She began to continuously recall Yun Jing's performance in today's three exams and carefully memorized it, not willing to miss a single detail.

Yu Xinghan looked at the sports group he had been assigned to. Although he frowned slightly, he wasn't too discouraged.

After all, based on his own mental preparation, he didn't think he could snatch the foundation-building qualification certificate this time around—just getting this far was already good.

"Alright." Deng Bingding spoke, "Everyone has seen the list. That's all for today."

"Go back and prepare well for the next round of exams."

With that, Deng Bingding pointed toward the passage they had come from, indicating they could leave.

Just as Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were walking toward the passage, they found Ye Lingxiao had somehow come up beside them.

Upon noticing Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen beside him, Ye Lingxiao exchanged glances with the two and nodded to each other, as if greeting them.

Not far away, Dai Xingzhi watched this scene and thought, "Ye Lingxiao actually took the initiative to greet them? Indeed, they are seen by Ye Lingxiao as being on the same level."

Thinking back to when he had entered together with Zhang Yu, secretly looking down on the other's status as an outsider, Dai Xingzhi couldn't help but sigh bitterly, "Sigh, it's great to be rich. Even if you're not in Xian Du, you're still awesome."

After exchanging a glance with Zhang Yu, Ye Lingxiao spoke, "Today's exam—you didn't use your full strength, did you?"

Zhang Yu was taken aback and thought to himself, "What does he mean? Is this some kind of bullying language from Xian Du? Mocking my poor results today?"

Ye Lingxiao then continued, "But in the next round of competition, you won't be able to get by without using your full strength."

"I'll look forward to the contest with you then."

"So... see you at the summit."

The summit Ye Lingxiao referred to was the second layer of Kunxu.

After all, from his perspective, with the level Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had shown, even if they didn’t get the foundation-building qualification certificate, there was absolutely no problem for them to pass the second layer in the future.

Watching Ye Lingxiao fall into the black hole at his feet and disappear without a trace, Zhang Yu's mind recalled the fighting spirit in the other's eyes.

The next moment, he and Bai Zhenzhen also fell into the hole and were teleported back to the restroom in the station.

"That guy..." Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Wasn't he being sarcastic?"

Zhang Yu clenched his fist slightly: "Don't worry, in the next exam, I will definitely give you a surprise."

……

Back at the station, staring at the gray, hazy night sky, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen dared not linger in Xian Du. They quickly bought tickets and soon left this high-consumption city.

As the train started moving, Zhang Yu had just begun to feel a bit relaxed when the ritual sounded again.

"Sigh." With a sigh, Zhang Yu could only go to the hallway to cultivate the Spring and Autumn Endless Zen.

Seeing Zhang Yu like this, Bai Zhenzhen silently cursed: "Still hustling?"

After going through three exams in a row, Bai Zhenzhen now felt utterly exhausted and had no energy to continue training.

But thinking about the opponents she and Zhang Yu would face in the next round, Bai Zhenzhen could understand his feelings.

"Yu Zi must be really anxious right now."

"Sigh, there's no point in rushing."

"At least we just finished the exam—we could rest a bit on the train..."

Just as Bai Zhenzhen was thinking this, her phone vibrated.

"Hello?"

A gentle but polite female voice came through the phone: "Is this Miss Bai Zhenzhen?"