Chapter 366: 339 Partners

"What is going on here?"

Qu Huan, bringing his last two lackeys, rode three horses and led two more, arriving at a mountain pass with his whole entourage.

This mountain pass was not far from where they had just entered this examination area; it could be considered the first checkpoint after the paths diverged. A group of people were gathered together, and Qu Huan recognized quite a few of his classmates.

"There are five soldiers guarding this pass. The rule is that five people must challenge the pass together, and it's a group battle of five against five," a classmate from the Training Camp named Luo Nian explained to him.

"Oh, five against five, huh."

Qu Huan understood immediately; the people backed up here were waiting to find others to form a team.

After all, not everyone had a natural group of five like the New Sharp Battalion. Even if most people had partners, they couldn't scrape together five, so they could only form temporary teams.

This exam was of great importance and was a one-shot deal; failing it would affect one's entire life. It wasn't something one could just try by pulling a few random people together. One had to find desirable, reliable partners before challenging the pass.

However, desirable partners were not easy to find at this moment. For one, everyone still favored their own classmates, as they knew their backgrounds, which already accounted for more than half. Secondly, everyone wanted to find someone stronger than themselves. But those strong ones were looking for even stronger ones; everyone wanted to hitch a ride and rely on someone powerful, preferring to aim high rather than low, so naturally, they looked down on each other.

Qu Huan looked at the lackeys behind him, feeling very troubled. If he had brought as many lackeys as before and gathered five people, he wouldn't have these worries.

Although the lackeys were a bit of a drag, they had the advantage of being well-coordinated and obedient to commands. But now that the team only had three people, adding two more with unknown backgrounds would be worse than just breaking everything up and finding strong people to go with.

At this moment, he thought of those well-coordinated five-person squads in the New Sharp Battalion and said indignantly, "The New Sharp Battalion still says they don't favor their own people? Isn't this kind of exam a blatant free pass for their squads?"

Luo Nian said, "Isn't that so? And they specifically require five people. The two teams that have already passed are both from the New Sharp Battalion. There are a few others who are probably short on team members, so they are still waiting for teammates here."

Qu Huan said, "Don't they have enough people in the New Sharp Battalion to make five? Why don't they just group up themselves?"

Luo Nian said with a bit of schadenfreude, "They would like to, but their team divisions seem quite specific—there are attackers, defenders, commanders, and support. Five support members can't fight together, right? Besides, there are strong and weak squads. Some who come from strong squads don't want to settle and insist on finding a team worthy of them. I even saw their own people having conflicts; it shows the New Sharp Battalion isn't an iron-clad unit either."

Qu Huan chuckled twice, but immediately remembered this wasn't the time for schadenfreude, and said, "You saw their squads pass? Did you see the battle clearly? How was the difficulty?"

Luo Nian said, "It was alright, the intensity was medium-high. Of the two teams before, one—the first team—was very powerful; everyone rushed through, though one person was injured at the end. The latter squad wasn't as good; only three rushed through, and one of them even left their horse behind. The other two were eliminated on the spot."

This exam had a mechanism: if you were killed on the spot, that was that, but if you were injured or lost your ability, you were allowed to press your Bracelet. The Bracelet would start to smoke, and you would be considered eliminated, waiting on the spot for an examiner to come and take you out.

The Fierce Beasts along the way were one thing, but those "NPCs" played by soldiers—Phantoms with the ability to think—would basically pause when delivering the final blow, giving you time to press the Bracelet, and they wouldn't pursue you after the smoke appeared.

This mechanism was quite reasonable and protected the students to a certain extent; after all, equipping everyone with an instant-teleportation Art Tool was too unrealistic.

Spatial transfer was a very high-level Sword Art; the "Ask" Sword Art that Tang Zhao often used couldn't even target locations. Now he had learned a new movement Sword Art and could attempt to set up an Artifact Array to transfer students on a large scale. But for one, time was tight, and for another, the material consumption was too great, and the exam couldn't afford it. So he had only tried it once yesterday.

This five-person checkpoint was just one of the countless checkpoints students experienced during the exam. The elimination rate for a single checkpoint wasn't too high, but it caused attrition from time to time.

One attrition strips a layer of skin, and after stripping away, there wouldn't be much left in the end.

Qu Huan felt frustrated. He also wanted to find strong people, so he asked, "Do you know if Ouyang has arrived?"

Luo Nian said, "I saw Senior Ouyang leave a long time ago, with a very pretty girl by his side. He didn't take this path; you won't be able to wait for him." As he spoke, he looked at Qu Huan, clearly wanting to join Qu Huan's team.

Qu Huan's heart skipped a beat, thinking: There are many classmates here; if I accept someone, I won't be able to accept others, and I'm bound to offend a few. This classmate Luo Nian isn't the best choice either, but he was the first to speak up.

Could it be that we in the Jing'an Division are going to have internal conflicts too?

Actually, at this moment, if he didn't want to publicly block anyone, he needed a lackey to block them and play the bad guy. Unfortunately, Zhu Li, who had the best chemistry with him, was weeded out for failing the written exam. At this moment, no one was proactively blocking for him without his signal, which made him quite uncomfortable.

Just then, a horse approached slowly from behind. Qu Huan turned his head and said with great joy, "Why did you only just arrive!"

Qin Yongcheng, who arrived in a leisurely manner, raised an eyebrow and said, "What are you doing? Do you miss your daddy that much?"

Qu Huan cursed, "Get lost. It's your daddy who is kind-hearted, planning to take my son through the pass."

Although he cursed with a smile, Qu Huan was quite happy. Although Qin Yongcheng couldn't compare to Ouyang Zhou, he was easier to coordinate with than that dead-faced guy.

Qin Yongcheng dismounted, inquired clearly about the rules for passing, and also planned to team up with Qu Huan. Qu Huan was overjoyed; having two main forces in a group was already good, and adding a support would be even better.

There wouldn't be anyone else coming; if Wen Caifei wanted to come, she would have to bring her sisterhood, and she couldn't possibly abandon her partners. He could only form a team blindly now, or else it would have to be Luo Nian...

At this time, Qin Yongcheng said, "Old Qu, is it alright if I bring someone along?"

Qu Huan was startled and said, "Sure, we're just short one person."

He thought that since he was bringing two lackeys, he couldn't be the only one, nor could he let Qin Yongcheng bring someone.

Qin Yongcheng called out, and a youth chased up from behind, looking gentle and somewhat shy.

Qin Yongcheng said, "This is Feng Ling from the Jing'an Division, a partner I knew before the exam. His skills are very agile, and he is the most well-informed."

Qu Huan frowned upon hearing "Jing'an Division," but his expression softened slightly when he heard they knew each other from before, and he said, "Since you are friends, let's go together. By the way, have you obtained weapons?"

Qin Yongcheng said, "This, right—" After saying that, he took out a long spear from behind the horse. It was also a One Yuan Heavy Art Tool.

Qu Huan laughed and said, "That's right, this is exactly it."

Ever since they found their horses and started running the subsequent checkpoints, many checkpoints required mounted combat. Naturally, it was very inconvenient to use an Art Tool sword on horseback, so the New Sharp Battalion was quite thoughtful and hid many long-weapon Art Tools in various places. Every examinee who understood the trick would find one that suited them to use.

Qin Yongcheng and Feng Ling took spears, Qu Huan took a lance, and the two lackeys also took clubs. The five-person team was successfully formed and rushed toward the checkpoint ahead together.

"Poof—"

A lasso pulled taut in mid-air, and the steed tilted forward. However, the passenger on the horse was busy but not flustered, lifting the reins in mid-air and using the long spear to brace against the ground for leverage, supporting the horse to leap up and land steadily.

"Yu Guniang has great horsemanship!"

Ouyang Zhou, who was a position behind, spoke up in praise, and in his heart, he was truly impressed. He reckoned he couldn't have done that just now; if it came to horsemanship, this companion of his was truly better than him.

Yu Guniang snorted and reined in her horse, saying, "Who? How dare you set a trap! Get out here, you scoundrel!"

Then five or six bandits emerged from the side and shouted, "Listen here, you dog-man-and-woman! This mountain was opened by me, and these trees were planted by me! If you want to pass through here, leave your road money!"

Yu Guniang rolled her eyes at Ouyang Zhou's back and said, "Where did these idiots come from? What kind of village talk did they learn to come here and spout nonsense?"

Ouyang Zhou didn't feel that "dog-man-and-woman" was an insult; he just felt that these few lines of mountain doggerel were unoriginal, and said, "Is this checkpoint bandits? Truly boring."

He wanted to kill his way through directly, but remembered that during the exam, whenever he encountered people arranged by the exam, he should always ask a few more questions; perhaps there were clues in the conversation. He still asked patiently, "Where are you from?"

The person playing the bandit remembered their task and, sure enough, didn't kill their way through directly, but followed the procedure and said, "Where are you from? Are you passersby, or the relatives of the hostages? If you are relatives, bring money. If you don't bring money, we will tear up the ticket before tomorrow. Hehe, the mountain stronghold is short on food now. A plump, fair-skinned young man—he'll surely taste good when boiled."

Ouyang Zhou understood; this was a hostage rescue mission. He asked a couple more questions, and when he couldn't get anything else out of them, he said, "Kill!"

The man and woman each rode their horses forward, fighting with spears. Although there were only two of them, their martial arts were extremely strong. Their spear techniques were exquisite, unlike temporary weapons, and both used a good amount of Qi, which was naturally hard to resist when attached to the spear tips. Before long, they had killed the "bandits," who threw away their helmets and armor and fled up the mountain.

Ouyang Zhou shook his head. Just as he thought, once you figure out the background, the upper limit of this exam is just like this; it posed no threat to him and Yu Guniang. This journey was destined to be smooth sailing. He said, "Yu Guniang, let's go. This checkpoint is passed, and the finish line is right before our eyes."

Yu Guniang, however, pondered and said, "There is a hostage on the mountain. Let's go save him."

Ouyang Zhou shook his head and said, "Wouldn't that waste time?"

Yu Guniang said, "We still have time. Others are stuck below for half a day. Besides, that person is tied up in the stronghold; isn't it pitiful if no one saves him?"

Ouyang Zhou shook his head secretly, thinking that the hostages were all fake and were all in league with the bandits, so what was there to pity? It was just that Yu Guniang was a "quest-chaser," wanting to get involved in any event she encountered. For instance, at the previous village, even though it was clearly inconvenient to go up and he was not lacking supplies, she insisted on going up to take a look, wanting to see the layout of the native villages on the Qianxian before she would be satisfied.

On the other hand, however, Yu Guniang was very strong, not inferior to him, and if not for her supporting him along the way, they could not have traveled so quickly. Especially since Ouyang Zhou was not good at teaming up with others, it was truly not easy to find a partner who was such a perfect match for him.

Thinking of this, and then seeing Yu Guniang's jade-white cheeks, Ouyang Zhou's heart stirred slightly, and he said, "Alright, let's go up the mountain to save him."