Chapter 47: Great Mountain

One by one, testing patches were pressed onto the students' arms.

Next, the judge lightly pointed at the spot on the student's arm, and a special mana was slowly infused into it.

At the same time, on the monitoring patch's panel, numbers kept jumping as the mana was infused, rising from 0.5 to 1.3, then 2.4... until it reached 5 and stopped.

This meant that the judge had infused a total of 5 units of special mana into the student's arm.

During this infusion process, the judge was also very careful, afraid of making a mistake and accidentally killing the subject.

Even for ordinary high school students, injuring or killing them would require compensation, and the price varied according to different categories.

If it turned out to be a contracted student with an owner, the compensation would be even more expensive.

After all, there had been news of Foundation Establishment experts accidentally killing bystanders with residual fighting energy, only to find out they were over a dozen third-year high school geniuses who had been heavily invested in, and in the end, calculated from training fees, food expenses, tuition, tutoring fees, sterilization fees... the compensation bankrupted them.

During those few seconds of mana infusion, the student's body suddenly tensed, breathing became heavier, clearly indicating that the special mana had already affected their body.

Even if no one actively drove this special mana to attack, merely staying inside the body would cause some damage by itself.

But fortunately, the student had taken painkillers. Although it was somewhat uncomfortable, it hadn't reached an unbearable level.

And when the infused mana reached 5, the monitoring patch's panel also started timing, recording the time the student needed to neutralize this special mana. The shorter the time, the higher the score would obviously be.

Because each student was infused with special mana at different times, naturally the ranking couldn't be by order of who started first, but by each person's recorded time.

After the judge stopped the mana infusion, he took a capsule handed to him by an assistant nearby.

He opened his mouth and swallowed the capsule, then smiled at the camera in front of him and said, "To replenish mana, choose Purple Cloud. With this one Purple Cloud Spirit-Gathering Capsule swallowed, mana is quickly restored. I could infuse 50 more students without any problem."

And so, as the competition began, several judges infused special mana one after another into the students' hands.

More and more contestants began closing their eyes and circulating their energy, wholeheartedly neutralizing the special mana that had invaded their bodies. The whole scene grew quieter and quieter, gradually leaving only the sounds of breathing and respiration.

Ever since that mass of special mana was infused by the judge, Zhang Yu felt as if a fire was burning on his right arm, and as the mana continued to be infused, it grew stronger and hotter.

Intense stabbing pain continuously transmitted from his arm to his brain, and it made Zhang Yu understand why so many contestants took painkillers.

For example, at this moment he was in so much pain that he wanted to punch and blow up the old judge in front of him who was still infusing him with special mana.

"Damn it, no wonder I just saw someone selling insurance. This competition event is too easy to get injured in."

Hurriedly activating the Wild Bull Soul-Calming Heart Mantra, Zhang Yu felt the unbearable pain gradually weaken.

Then he mobilized the mana in his dantian, surging toward his right arm.

"The invading one is a heating-type special mana."

"Then I need to use low-temperature mana to counter it."

Zhang Yu recalled the mana conversion route taught by Teacher Yan, cycled the mana in his dantian, transformed it into a stream of low-temperature mana, and surged it toward his right arm.

Wherever this low-temperature mana passed, a cooling sensation spread through his body, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured down.

And when Zhang Yu's low-temperature mana collided with the invading heating mana, he could feel the burning heat in his arm begin to cool down.

But his low-temperature mana was rapidly consumed in the process, like using a bucket of water to put out a fire—the fire subsided, but the water was gone.

Zhang Yu could only try his best to convert more mana to extinguish the fire.

Fortunately, he had the Cyclical Qi Gathering Method's full-body mana cycle to continuously restore his mana, the Wild Bull Soul-Calming Heart Mantra to stabilize his spirit, and his strong mana control to continuously convert low-temperature mana.

Not long ago.

Just before the judge had arrived at Songyang High School here.

Inside the competition area of White Dragon High School.

Han Xingye glanced at Song Hailong, who was neutralizing the special mana in his body, then looked at the big screen ahead, thinking to himself, "It should be about time, right?"

Inside Song Hailong's body, his mana was now like a long river, surging endlessly toward the mass of burning mana in his right arm.

The Kang Ling Needle continuously restored his mana, and coupled with his own astonishing mana reserves, allowed him to recklessly circulate the mana in his body, even enveloping the entire mass of burning mana, intending to extinguish it in one go.

During the mana neutralization process, all kinds of pain were suppressed by the drugs to almost nothing, so Song Hailong felt almost no discomfort, only needing to consider what he had to do.

"With my mana amount and my control over mana, who could be faster than me in this round?"

Just then, a cry for help rang out from the competition venue.

A student groaned and collapsed to the ground, and people immediately rushed over to feed him a Dissolving Pill.

"It's fine, he just exhausted his mana. The Dissolving Pill has been administered."

Soon after, another student screamed and fell, spitting up a mouthful of blood.

That was a mishandling during mana dissolution—the special mana scattered throughout the body, causing internal injuries.

Han Xingye glanced in the direction of the fallen student.

Not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning...

He knew that from now on, more and more students from ordinary high schools would likely be unable to hold on—whether due to insufficient mana reserves, poor mana control, or low-quality pills—and be eliminated one by one.

He didn't care about this.

"Did they think that by taking the pills together they could narrow the gap?" "If everyone takes pills, the gap between ordinary high schools and the Big Three will only grow wider..."

Just as he was thinking this, the large screen at the front suddenly flashed and a name appeared.

White Dragon High School, Song Hailong, 1:29

Seeing this, Han Xingye smiled slightly: "Oh? Faster than at school. Looks like the atmosphere here made him even more excited."

Then, one name after another began to appear on the large screen, quickly filling up ten lines.

This large screen only displayed the top ten names.

After that, the lines on the screen kept shifting—the rankings from second to tenth constantly changed—but Song Hailong's name always remained firmly at the top, as if he alone suppressed all the other students present.

But soon, more and more names began to stabilize, and the lines from second to tenth gradually stopped changing.

The crowd stared in shock at the unchanging ten names on the screen. Soon, a student noticed an obvious fact: "These ten people... are all students of White Dragon High School!"

Although White Dragon High School wasn't among the first batch of participants to be infused with mana, once Song Hailong took the lead, they also dissolved the special mana within them one after another. Based on their different completion times... they directly dominated the leaderboard with ten people.

Teacher Yan stared at the ten motionless names on the large screen, feeling as if a mountain had been placed in front of Songyang High School.

"Sigh, the Big Three... after all, this kind of competition is ultimately their territory."

!

Just then, the rankings from second to ninth suddenly shifted down one spot simultaneously—someone had just burst into second place.

Red Tower High School, Xiong Bufan, 1:35

The students of Red Tower High School had also begun to dissolve the special mana within their bodies.

Shortly after Xiong Bufan took second place, two more students from Red Tower High School squeezed into the top ten.

Han Xingye turned his head toward Red Tower High School and immediately spotted the most conspicuous thing in his Heaven's Eye Talisman's field of vision.

Sanctuary | Medicine Barrel | High-Speed Mana

The assessment "Sanctuary" was easy to understand. Han Xingye guessed that this monster was from a monster sanctuary.

High-Speed Mana... Han Xingye wasn't entirely sure yet, but he understood the Medicine Barrel well.

"How many pills did they stuff into this monster?"

"Damn, are they secretly using monsters for drug experiments?"

That monster definitely had banned drugs in its body. He really should report them.

What? Our school is doing it too? And using it on humans?

Ah, forget it, forget it.

Although Xiong Bufan's performance also brought Red Tower High School into the spotlight, he didn't manage to take the top spot. For now, the leaderboard was still dominated by White Dragon High School.

But a moment later, the top nine students all dropped one rank simultaneously.

As the name of Ziyun High School's Le Mulan suddenly appeared at first place, it felt as if a boom sounded through the air.

Ziyun High School, Le Mulan, 00:25

"25 seconds!"

More and more students let out cries of astonishment.

They couldn’t imagine that, while they were still struggling to cope with that alien spiritual power inside them, someone had managed to dissolve it in just 25 seconds.

Was this even human?

Everyone could imagine that Yue Mulan would surely get a perfect score of 100 in this second stage, but it was this very 100 that capped her — otherwise the gap between her and the others would have been even larger.

This was the third time today that Han Xingye had been shocked.

Frowning, he looked at the words “Ice Skin and Jade Bones” above Yue Mulan’s head, thinking to himself that her ability to dissolve the alien spiritual power so quickly must be related to her special physique.

Not far away, Song Hailong showed no sign of anger; instead, he laughed heartily in the direction of Zi Yun High School. “Interesting, interesting. Looks like my biggest rival for the next three years of high school will be this Yue Mulan.”

More than a minute later, the other students from Zi Yun High School finally dissolved the alien spiritual power in their bodies. In the end, Lian Tianji and one other managed to enter the top ten.

In the final rankings, Yue Mulan, Song Hailong, and Xiong Bufan occupied first, second, and third places respectively.

The top ten on the board were completely carved up by four students from Bai Long High School, three from Zi Yun High School, and three from Hong Ta High School.

Looking at the ranking that no longer showed any change, the many high school students present felt a stifling heaviness.

For most of them, this was the first time they had truly experienced the gap between themselves and the three elite schools.

The ten names and scores on the screen weighed down on them like a mountain, displaying a chasm-like gap between the three elite schools and themselves.

Just then, the ranking on the big screen changed again.

From fourth to tenth place, everyone dropped down by one position simultaneously.

Right when the three elite schools seemed to dominate the entire arena, someone came out of nowhere and forcefully charged into fourth place.

Song Yang High School, Zhang Yu, 1:38

When it was detected that Zhang Yu had dissolved the special spiritual power in his body, the timer let out a soft beep.

Yet that soft beep was like a boulder thrown into the hearts of the few Song Yang High School students nearby.

The students of the three elite schools also subconsciously glanced toward Song Yang High School, never expecting to find a student there of a level close to their own.

Teacher Yan looked at the ranking on the list and quickly took out his phone to snap a picture.

This was all important teaching results.

Thank you 'Gui Hua Yu Jiu' for the ten-thousand-賞 Oscar trophy gift for the character Bai Zhenzhen.