Starting with Hyuga, traversing countless heavens

Ning Que couldn't dodge in time and took the hit head-on. He touched his body and found he was alright.

Looking up, HP decreased by 10, remaining HP 90. What the hell? This isn't how you play against a boss at the start.

A realm of illusion, seemingly real yet not real, seemingly false yet not false, all is under Hinata Hoshino's control.

In this spacious area, a maze game is underway. Only students from the Academy participate, each armed with a bow and crossbow, navigating the maze.

Apart from Ning Que, the others only encountered minor troubles. In this regard, Hyuga Hoshino did not deliberately target Ning Que; what they encountered was simply a matter of luck.

Situ Yilan encountered the Slit-Mouthed Woman, who often appeared on the streets at night, with an apple in her mouth, wearing a trench coat, and her face consisting of only a gaping, blood-red mouth, without eyes or a nose.

There are two versions of the legend of the Slit-Mouthed Woman. One version says that after being deceived and hurt by her boyfriend, she became extremely angry and desperate, and began cutting her mouth with a knife. The second version says that she had botched plastic surgery, leaving her with a grotesque appearance.

Regardless of the reason, the Slit-Mouthed Woman harbors hatred towards women. Therefore, when the Slit-Mouthed Woman encountered Situ Yilan, she immediately charged at her. Situ Yilan raised her Three Hundred Stone Bow and fired forty shots in quick succession, instantly depleting the Slit-Mouthed Woman's HP.

"Aaaaaah! Die! Die!"

Hinata Hoshino shook his head. My helpless wife, terrified, picked up the Gatling gun and emptied the magazine. This inexplicable sense of déjà vu...

The Slit-Mouthed Woman is gone, and she dropped her items. Situ Yilan stopped firing and opened her eyes to find that the Slit-Mouthed Woman was gone, and her items had fallen to the ground. Item information appeared in front of Situ Yilan.

Item: Slit-Mouthed Woman's Arrow

Ability: 0.01% chance to trigger a one-hit kill. If the one-hit kill chance is not triggered, deduct 10 HP from the opponent.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!"

"Avada! Eat melons! Eat watermelons! Eat cantaloupes..."

Not long ago, after weighing the pros and cons, Ning Que raised his single-shot crossbow and aimed it at one of the prone demons, emptying the crossbow bolt.

Even if Ning Que emptied the arrows of a hundred crossbows, it would be like scraping a cup of water.

Voldemort #1, HP 90

Ning Que, HP80

Ning Que turned and ran. He had no weapon. He had just punched Voldemort Number One with his bare hands and the opponent was unharmed. Ning Que realized that if he wanted to kill the BOSS, he could only rely on a weapon.

Situ Yilan, HP 100

Ning Que's eyes lit up when he saw Situ Yilan. She had just been carrying a 300-stone bow. Then he realized that Situ Yilan probably only had 100 arrows. For Voldemort No. 1, that would only reduce his HP by 30 points at most, which wouldn't be enough to kill him.

"What are you standing there for? Run!"

Situ Yilan stood there dumbfounded, so Ning Que simply gave up on her and ran away.

As Situ Yilan watched Voldemort Number One approach, she raised her bow, nocked the Slit-Mouthed Arrow, and shot Voldemort Number One.

The instant kill effect was triggered, successfully defeating Voldemort. The item dropped was Voldemort's Arrow.

Item: Voldemort's Arrow

Ability: One-hit kill, Avada Kedavra!

Looking at the props in her hand, Situ Yilan felt that her luck today was unexpectedly good.

Ning Que was still a little worried, but after returning and not finding Situ Yilan, he felt relieved.

As they prepared to continue their exploration, Hinata Hoshino's voice rang out, "Everyone, two people have already triggered battle mode. Battle mode is now fully activated, and the number of monsters in the dungeon is about to increase. Please be careful."

The candidates were startled; they hadn't even gained anything yet, and they were already facing a fierce battle—it was certainly not good news.

Ning Que noticed Xie Chengyun strolling around. Xie Chengyun was a member of the Xie family of Southern Jin and had already reached the Perception Realm. However, below the Cave Profound Realm, he was only slightly stronger than ordinary people.

Ning Que stealthily approached Xie Chengyun, delivered a swift backhand strike, knocked Xie Chengyun unconscious, and began looting the corpse.

Ning Que looked at the four hundred stone bow and two hundred arrows in his hand, and felt confident. Hyuga Hoshino shook his head, still naive; this game wasn't that simple.

Chapter 307: The Challenge Continues, The Drunkard and the Butcher

However, now that Ning Que has started attacking the examinees, it's time to implement a patch.

With a wave of his hand, Hinata Hoshino displayed the points leaderboard above the maze.

"As everyone knows, some people have already earned points, and the points leaderboard has been published. At the same time, a new rule has been introduced: candidates can attack each other, and once they defeat an opponent, they can obtain that opponent's points."

First place: Situ Yilan (110)

Second place: Ning Que 100

The rest is omitted. The spectators were somewhat in an uproar. The more they looked at the rules, the more dangerous they seemed. There was a possibility that these candidates would be killed or injured, which made Cao Zhifeng a little anxious.

Huang He rushed over and said, "Greetings, Your Highness and Princess."

"Instructor Huang He is too polite."

Huang He was an instructor at the academy, a master of the Knowing Destiny realm. His bowing to Prince Li Peiyan and Princess Li Yu was merely a gesture of respect to the Tang Kingdom; they dared not presume upon him.

Li Peiyan could only return the courtesy and tell Huang He to dispense with the formalities. Then Li Peiyan looked at Huang He, hoping for an explanation.

"Instructor Huang He, I wonder why the assessment rules have suddenly changed?"

“Your Highness, this is the message from a Taoist priest, a friend of the Master. In this maze, even death is just a dream, and they will appear outside the maze unharmed.”

"I see, then I'm relieved. But Master's friend is a Taoist priest; I wonder if Instructor Huang He knows his background."

"As a friend of the Master, your cultivation must be exceptional. As for your background, please forgive my poor eyesight, I do not know."

Crown Prince Chongming of Yan was sweating profusely. His men were trapped in the maze, and his scheme had undoubtedly failed. At this rate, it would be a long time before he could leave Tang and revitalize Yan.

Ning Que looked up at the leaderboard and confirmed that Situ Yilan had killed Voldemort No. 1. He was a little regretful. He should have stayed longer, knocked Situ Yilan unconscious, and looted the corpse. That way, he could have gotten more equipment.

Soon, Hinata Hoshino discovered that the monsters had been cleared out, and all preparations were lost.

"I hereby declare the shooting exam over."

First place: Ning Que 310

Second place: Situ Yilan 300

Third place: Jin Wucai 270

Fourth place: Xie Chengyun, 240

Fifth place: Zhong Dajun, 180cm

The rest is omitted. Based on this scoring, the top three will be awarded Grade A, and the remaining scores will be evaluated by the academy.

For Hinata Hoshino, it was quite an entertaining farce. For the onlookers, it was incredibly thrilling.

"The pinnacle of humanity" was the evaluation of the Master by the Heavenly Emperor after his descent. The subsequent ranking should be: the Drunkard and the Butcher tied for second place, and the Abbot third.

In reality, Confucius is first, Buddha is second, drunkard and butcher are third, and the abbot is fourth.

The ranking should be like this, but Haotian was completely unaware of the Buddha's presence on the chessboard, so Haotian can be said to be ignorant.

"Eighty, eighty..."

The butcher brandished his cleaver, slashing down with each blow. The butcher's cleaver was very heavy; there were only a handful of people in the entire Haotian World who could wield it.

However, after the knife fell, it only cut the pork without damaging the cutting board, demonstrating that the butcher's control over the force had reached an extremely high level.

"Butcher, what's all this noise about so early in the morning?"

"Drunkard, I don't know why, but I feel very panicked right now, as if a great disaster is about to befall me. The only thing I can do is brandish my knife to bolster my courage."

"Disaster is imminent? Oh no, could it be that the Master is unethical and wants to kill us?"

"It's not the teacher, it's me."

Hyuga Hoshino suddenly appeared, and the Butcher felt an unprecedented pressure on him.

The butcher's knife was thrown out in an instant, aimed at Hyuga Hoshino's brow, but stopped abruptly just before it reached his brow, hovering in mid-air.

Hinata Hoshino picked up the butcher's knife, weighed it in his hand, and said, "This weight is not bad. No wonder you can wield it every day and reach a level close to immortality."

"System, copy."

[Congratulations, host! You have attained the Boundless Realm and the Half-Step Immortal Realm. Do you wish to merge them?]

"Fusion."

Hinata Hoshino was greatly disappointed. He wanted to reach these realms simply to comprehend the Dao within them, thereby understanding the laws of the Haotian World and further comprehending the operating mechanism of the Divine Kingdom.

Unexpectedly, the butcher's advancement in realm was entirely due to brute force. He trained his body by wielding his knife every day, unconsciously absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. His physique grew stronger, and the more spiritual energy he absorbed, the more he broke through realms, eventually reaching the Heavenly Demon realm.

For a long time afterward, he continued to rely on brute force, wielding his sword repeatedly, and his cultivation level slowly increased. So even now, he is still close to the immortal realm and has been unable to break through.

Hyuga Hoshino looked at the Butcher, "You're disappointing. Don't you know that enlightenment makes it easier to break through realms?"

"So what? I just want to live. I'm not wielding my sword to increase my cultivation level, but to pass the time and forget the terror in my heart. I just didn't expect it to come to pass."

While the drunkard was talking, he used his Infinite Distance ability to appear behind Hyuga Hoshino and unleash a palm strike.

Hyuga Hoshino swung his right leg back and kicked the drunkard in the chest. The drunkard barely maintained his fighting strength by absorbing the earth's energy with his boundless divine power. His heart was like a dam bursting with water, surging and turbulent with shock.

"You didn't use any power at all, just the most ordinary physical strength, how could you be so powerful?"

"Ha, a casual kick, and you actually thought I used my full strength?"

However, the Drunkard is still somewhat better than the Butcher. His application of the Boundless Realm is stronger than that of the Head Monk who preaches, yet it is different from the Buddha's Boundless Realm.

The drunkard and the butcher appeared silently in front of and behind Hyuga Hoshino, surrounding him and clearly intending to attack him from both sides. Hyuga Hoshino shook his head; naive.

The butcher's face was sharp, and his eyes flashed with a dangerous light. He knew that if he couldn't defeat Hyuga Hoshino, he would face a free death.

The drunkard looked somewhat dejected. The brief exchange just now, or rather, the one-sided crushing blow from Hyuga Hoshino, made him realize the insurmountable gap between the two.

As soon as the drunkard made a move, he activated the "No Distance" technique, appearing and disappearing from all directions, constantly trying to attack Hyuga Hoshino's weak points, but Hyuga Hoshino easily neutralized it.

For Hyuga Hoshino, the Sake Master's movements were very slow, strictly speaking, too slow. His reaction speed was even slower than that of Namikaze Minato. It can only be said that talent is something that cannot be made up for later.

The butcher kept circling around Hyuga Hoshino, his figure elusive, as if he thought that this would make it impossible for Hyuga Hoshino to predict his next move.

Hinata Hoshino calmly resisted the two men's attacks. His eyes were filled with boredom, as if he felt only boredom in this life-or-death battle between the butcher and the drunkard.

The drunkard and the butcher were not going to give up easily; if they stopped attacking, death would likely be their only fate.

The drunkard's movements became increasingly labored, and each attack was easily blocked by Hyuga Hoshino. However, Hyuga Hoshino watched with great interest, thinking that this technique was quite good.

Although the butcher was not slow, it was clear that he was not as decisive as he had been at the beginning. He began to hesitate and began to consider the possibility of admitting defeat.

The air around the drunkard and the butcher was thick with tension. Every attack and defense felt like a life-or-death game, making the surrounding air vibrate.

The figures of the drunkard and the butcher kept crisscrossing, as if they were weaving a huge net of attacks, hoping that Hinata Hoshino and the others would be exhausted by their attacks, or at the very least, that a slight opening would appear so that they could escape.