Chapter 142: The Cursed Examination

A boy was curled up and hiding in a massive withered tree, using the shadows to conceal himself. Far away in the darkness, a bizarre entity was slithering about. It seemed to lack a definite form and was constantly distorting and shifting.

"Benjamin, is there any way out of this?" "Yeah, Charkus, if this keeps on, we're going to die sooner or later."

It turned out that Benjamin was not the only one in the shadows; there were two other people with him.

Benjamin Charkus kept his eyes fixed on the distant monster, muttering under his breath.

"It seems unable to find us?"

"Indeed, it seems the monsters' sense of smell isn't as acute as we imagined?"

"Yet those people we were with earlier were dragged out no matter how well they hid."

Benjamin glanced back in the direction they had fled from. The gloomy, dilapidated castle was no longer visible, and he gave a slight shake of his head.

"Remember what Professor Mulan said? We need to rely on our own courage. In the Netherworld, physical fitness at the physical-awakening tier is far less useful than the power of willpower."

"You mean they can track our fear, but their other senses might not be that strong?"

"I understand what both of you mean. Our fear is like a special scent to them, but if we can overcome our fear—much like a veteran hunter masking his scent while tracking—we can evade them."

Benjamin cast a glance at his classmate.

"This is a special examination. Professor Mulan, acting as the examiner, will certainly know what is happening to us here. Hiding is pointless; not only will we fail to get a high score, but even leaving the exam venue will become a problem."

The two students essentially agreed with Benjamin's assertion.

"Isn't this a bit too unfair and cruel for the freshmen?"

"It's not much better for us, really, but still quite a bit better than the freshmen."

Benjamin smiled faintly.

"You still have the energy to worry about others? Not just Professor Mulan, but other professors have mentioned more than once that the supernatural world is not one of common sense and fairness. Situations far more cruel than this exam hall can happen in reality."

"Having said all that, how are we supposed to get out? Don't tell me we have to die once; I don't want to experience that feeling!"

"Me neither." "Same here."

These students, having calmed down slightly, could easily do the math and realize that death here was most likely not real death. If it were real, the price would simply be too steep. For hundreds of imperial elites with supernatural potential to suffer an eighty or ninety percent mortality rate in a single class was a cost the Black Castle could not bear.

However, these students also understood that dying here was no picnic. Even if there were no other consequences, it would undoubtedly deal a heavy blow to their academic credits.

After all, the so-called regular assessments in the past were mostly checks on physical condition and spiritual power to gauge their tiers; while called exams, they were more like physical checkups.

This time, however, it was a real examination!

"Imagination, imagination. The professor said that besides maintaining courage, we must also use our imagination..."

"How should we do it?"

Benjamin looked into the distance, gazing at the endless forest of tangled, withered trees.

"The professor wouldn't push us into an absolute dead end, not even the freshmen. That means the method must be something even a freshman can use."

"Freshmen? Most of their physical stats haven't even entered the physical-awakening state yet. Is that even possible?"

Benjamin fell silent, keeping his eyes fixed on the bizarre monster in the distance.

"We've been running all this time. Have we ever tried launching an attack on the monster?"

"An attack?" "You mean..."

Benjamin began searching through his pockets and eventually pulled out a lighter.

"Fire is the easiest form of power to obtain, and it has some effect on most anomalous entities. The thing we have the most of here is withered trees. It's worth a try!"

"You can't be serious..."

"You don't have to come with me. I'm going to try it."

With that, Benjamin leaped toward another withered tree. The two students hesitated for a moment before gritting their teeth and following.

Mulan was still standing atop the castle. Even though all the students had reached a distance where the castle was no longer visible, to Mulan's eyes, it was as if he could still gaze directly at them.

Suddenly, a conspicuous flare of fire rose in the distant woodland. The flames were leaping and moving rapidly, and they quickly began to spread.

"Oh? Finally, some students are starting to fight back?"

Yet, soon enough, Mulan frowned again, as cries of agony were already echoing from that direction, though the flames did not stop.

Benjamin and another student leaped between the withered trees, holding torches and continuously trying to ignite the dry branches. Their physical-awakening-tier physical fitness supported their high-speed movement, but the dark shadow behind them was even faster. Fresh blood constantly overflowed from its maw, and the screaming and wailing of the student sounded as though it were coming from deep within the monster's belly.

"Charkus! This isn't working! It has no effect!"

"It is working, it's avoiding the flames!"

"But we're going to die first—"

The two kept leaping, and over a dozen large trees had already been ignited. Although the monster was dodging the fire, it was still far faster than they were.

"Ah—"

The other student had one of his arms bitten clean off. Blood sprayed out as he fled in extreme terror. Despite missing an arm, he burst forth with a speed far greater than before, yet the monster closed in even faster, clinging to him like a shadow and continuously devouring his flesh.

"No, no, stay away!"

"Conquer your fear! Don't be afraid, you have to—"

"Ah—"

The screams drowned out Benjamin's shouts and made his hair stand on end. That classmate was held within the monster's mouth like sugarcane being sucked on, chewed and digested as flesh and blood were drained away. The crunch of fracturing bones was clearly audible, and the monster's body grew progressively bloated, as if something was gestating inside its belly.

He was all alone now! Fear inevitably welled up in Benjamin's heart. At that very instant, the monster suddenly turned its gaze toward him. Its bloated body twisted and arrived right in front of him in an instant. A powerful wave of negativity filled the entire area, exacerbating every vulnerability within a person's heart.

Benjamin plunged into terror once more. Even as his speed increased, the monster pressed closer and closer.

*Conquer the fear, I must conquer the fear. No, no, it's getting closer!*

Benjamin's face was ashen, as if his soul had abandoned its decayed vessel. He knew fear had seized his heart once again, and he was likely going to die.

I have to stop it, I have to stop it! I don't want to die, I cannot die!

The sense of terror in his chest grew more and more intense, until Benjamin bit down on his lips hard enough to draw blood. That blood, originally grey-black, now carried a trace of red.

"Even if I die, I won't be eaten like this!"

Benjamin slammed his foot hard against a tree trunk ahead of him, using the force to spin around and face the monster's twisted form head-on. He could even see the suffering faces of his two classmates bobbing within its belly.

This was a protracted second.

Benjamin's eyes widened, his pupils constricting, holding his torch out in front of him. His heart felt as though it had stopped beating, squeezed tight in a giant fist and contracted within his chest. Endless emotions churned within him—it was impossible to tell whether fear, adrenaline, or unwillingness predominated.

"Fire—"

A hysterical roar burst from Benjamin's throat.

Boom—

The torch in his hand instantly extended to both sides, and the flames of more than a dozen ignited trees instantly connected into a single massive, circular wall of fire.

...

Mulan looked from afar at the magnificent ring of fire in the forest, watched for a moment, and nodded slightly. Without checking the outcome, he shifted his gaze in another direction; interesting developments seemed to be unfolding over there as well.

On Hathaway's side, only three people were left as well: Hathaway herself, Senior Sister Marlin, and a Senior Sister Jenny whom Hathaway was somewhat unfamiliar with.

Right now, the three of them were hiding inside the hollow of a massive withered tree, panting heavily. They had clearly just survived a harrowing escape.

"What are we going to do?" "Are we never getting out?"

Jenny said with a hint of helplessness, and Marlin looked equally disheartened.

"It's been so long. How many of the others are still alive? They must all be dead, right?"

"Are we next?"

Hathaway looked at her two senior sisters. She noticed that both of them seemed to have very little vitality left in their faces; the ashen complexion natural to the Netherworld had grown even darker on them, making them look almost like corpses.

"Professor Mulan won't just watch us die..."

"Don't be a fool—stop daydreaming—the professor is a grand noble, the Queen's guardian knight, a transcendent! Do you even know what a transcendent is? They transcend mortals, and we are just mortals! He doesn't care about the lives of little girls like us! How many people have already died? And you still say he won't leave us to die? Don't be an idiot—"

Jenny suddenly burst out, shouting at Hathaway.

Hathaway froze, feeling somewhat at a loss. Marlin was also startled, and then she recalled the moment Louise had died, filling her heart with guilt and anxiety.

"Jenny, it's okay, we're here with you..."

Marlin didn't dare say anything too provocative; after all, the importance of calming someone's emotions was self-evident here.

Jenny hugged her knees and curled up in the corner, seeming completely unresponsive to Marlin's words, though it mercifully didn't attract any monsters.

Hathaway looked through the tree hollow toward the distance, in the direction of the castle. She still firmly believed that Mulan would not abandon his students. At the very least, Hathaway fantasized that Mulan would not abandon her. When Mulan had charged back into the estate to save her, his heroic posture as a true knight had been forever etched into her heart.

"When I was very young, my younger brother and I were sold to a great noble..."

Jenny suddenly began to mutter to herself, perhaps realizing she was about to die and wanting to pour her heart out to someone before the end.

"He loved raising pets—dogs, cats, mice, birds. And his favorite pet was a very long, very large red-crested worm... At first, even though my brother and I were afraid of him, we didn't know what to do, until after a while, he started giving us regular physical exams..."

Jenny hugged her arms and began to shiver slightly.

"Sometimes taking blood, sometimes cutting off hair, sometimes even cutting off a bit of flesh... We were live food used to feed that worm... He even made us lie right beside the glass container where the worm was kept..."

"That writhing monster, it is craving..."

Hathaway suddenly felt a creeping sense of horror. Relying on sheer intuition, she looked out of the tree hollow and faintly caught sight of a long, illusory shadow moving beneath the swamp. The shadow slithered forward, beginning to manifest a dark green mixed with blood-red hue in the Netherworld...

"Senior Sister Jenny, stop! Stop talking!"