I will eventually become a god through sheer hard work.

The students in Xue Jing's class are silently advancing through a dark steel jungle.

Compared to their large, dispersed positions during the day, the students are now gathered together, with very close spacing between them.

No one spoke. The silence of the night created an invisible pressure. The darkness, beyond the reach of sight, always made people wonder if some danger was lurking, causing them to fall silent.

The supplies provided to the test takers by the authorities included flashlights, but no one used them at the time.

This is not the real wilderness. The light from the flashlights would not only illuminate the way ahead, but the brightness in the darkness would also attract the attention of students from other classes.

A black cat, quite large for its kind, was nimbly weaving back and forth among the steel bushes.

The cat's paws stomp silently, its black fur providing camouflage that makes it almost invisible at night, like a ghost.

Only his pair of imposing, dark blue vertical pupils offered a glimpse into his appearance.

Black shadows burned silently deep within his pupils. The darkness of the night could not obstruct Xue Maomao's vision. In his eyes, the world had simply turned into black and white, yet every detail was clearly visible.

His dark blue eyes scanned each student, observing their reactions—whether they were calm, fearful, or cautious—he took in their every expression.

Finally, his gaze settled on a student named Xu Zixuan.

Perhaps because he thought no one could see his face at this moment, he had a rather relaxed expression, with a carefree and nonchalant look.

There was none of the pressure that other students would feel to varying degrees in the dark.

"Do you know?"

Xu Zixuan suddenly spoke up.

Because they had been in a tense state of silent progress, his sudden remark startled the students around him, who all turned to look at him—even though it was too dark to see clearly, they just looked in the direction from which the voice came.

"What are you doing, Lao Xu? You're trying to scare me."

He Han complained in a low voice.

Xu Zixuan scoffed and said, "I've heard that out of every twenty men, at least one is gay."

Although it was quite inappropriate to suddenly act like you wanted to chat at this time, some students still spoke up out of curiosity:

"So, does that mean there's at least one gay person in our class?"

Xue Jing's class consisted of 31 people, including 10 women and 21 men. The number of armed helicopters and Walmart shopping bags was zero.

He Han said casually, "I think it must be Bai Jing. He's cute and has a super sexy butt."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Baijing, who was on guard of the surroundings, looked in He Han's direction with a look of horror, subconsciously tucking his buttocks in a little, and his upright posture became much more hunched.

The students around He Han, especially the boys, all kept their distance from her.

“He Han, although I’ve known for a long time that you’re a pervert, this…”

Fu Jiali hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back.

Ye Jingqiu said quietly, "You are not allowed to come within ten meters of Teacher Xue from now on, otherwise..."

He Han's eyes widened: "No, this is a topic that invites witty remarks! I was just joking!"

"Isn't everyone misunderstanding me a bit too much...?"

Chen Xingyan: "There's absolutely nothing about you that could be misunderstood. You just seem like a simple pervert, and everything you say is just a way of revealing the extent of your perversion..."

Amid the chaos caused by He Han's speech, almost no one noticed that Xu Zixuan, who had started the conversation, had remained silent after speaking.

Above the crowd, Xue Maomao, perched on a metal tree branch, quietly watched Xu Zixuan disappear silently from the group.

He took out his bracelet from the invisible gap, caught it with his cat paw, and glanced at the map on it.

All the points of light representing the students are still gathered together; none of them have strayed far away.

The wristbands distributed to the candidates by the authorities all had GPS tracking features, allowing members of the same team and their respective examiners to see each other's locations on the map on their wristbands.

The person moved, but the GPS tracker didn't, so the bracelet definitely isn't on that person.

Xue Maomao's sharp eyes swept over all the students, and her near-superhuman vision quickly spotted the problem.

On the left side of the supply bag carried by one of the male students, a black bracelet was hooked onto it.

'The idea is to attach the bracelet to someone else so that no one will notice when they start moving...'

Xue Maomao shook her head, and with a flash, disappeared into the tree branch.

……

Hidden somewhere in the steel jungle.

In the pitch-black environment, several figures were gathering together.

"Li Suisui, you're still alive? That great demon king didn't kill you?"

The group was quite surprised to see that unusually short figure appear among the crowd.

They witnessed Li Suisui being punched in half by that demon-like man... Although they didn't think that a Grandmaster with the power to break through limits would die from such an injury, they expected Xue Jing to finish her off, never imagining that Li Suisui would still be alive.

What, this great demon king actually has principles, he doesn't kill children?

...But this isn't just any kid; he's the strongest kid on the surface of this planet.

Such a threat, no matter how small, should be eliminated completely, right?

Li Suisui said calmly, "What, are you disappointed?"

Everyone instinctively shook their heads: "No, how could that be?"

Someone exclaimed joyfully, "That's great! If you die, we'll be completely helpless against that great demon king. That way..."

Li Suisui shook her head and interrupted, "You're wrong."

“It’s not that ‘if I die, I can’t do anything to Xue Jing,’ but rather that ‘even if I live, I still can’t do anything to Xue Jing.’”

"Huh?" Zhou Yinglin asked in confusion.

"And what can we all do?"

Li Suisui looked at him with surprise.

"When did you develop the illusion that you have the right to interfere in my fight with Xue Jing?"

Zhou Yinglin's eye twitched. Suppressing his anger at being humiliated, he asked in a somewhat stiff tone, "So what do we do now?"

Li Suisui said calmly, "The primary objective of this operation has completely failed."

"There was a serious error in the pre-battle assessment of Xue Jing's combat capabilities; it was completely impossible to capture or kill him alive."

"Now, all actions are secondary; we cannot allow Xue Jing to achieve sufficient results in this martial arts exam to forge his 'golden body'."

Li Suisui paused, and in the dark environment, no one noticed the hesitation on his face.

"Make all the candidates he led leave the venue."

"...But instruct your subordinates not to kill them."

Someone asked in bewilderment, "Huh? Why? If we hold back, a lot of unexpected things will happen."

Li Suisui said calmly, "I'll say it again: before you do anything for the Secret Martial Arts Society, think about yourself first."

"Think about whether you can bear the consequences of offending Xue Jing to the death."

"Uh..." Everyone recalled that punch that could almost be described as earth-shattering, and their hearts trembled.

Zhou Yinglin suddenly asked with some suspicion, "You were so badly injured after fighting with Xue Jing... how come you're all better now?"

Li Suisui's expression remained unchanged as she calmly said:

"That's the vitality of someone who breaks through limits twice. You don't understand until you break through limits."

Zhou Yinglin frowned.

I've never eaten pork, but I've at least seen a pig run!

He was about to speak when Li Suisui seemed to sense his thoughts and continued in a cold tone:

"Don't try to show off your shallow knowledge in front of someone you can't even begin to understand; that will only expose your incompetence."

"The last person you treated like this was Xue Jing. No one knows the consequences better than you."

"You're just a mediocre mortal, a mere backdrop to the times. Keep your mouth shut. You don't actually think you're a genius, do you?"

When Zhou Yinglin heard this, he thought he would be furious.

But preceding the anger was a chilling emotion that spread throughout his body.

On the U19 finals stage, the celestial robe woven into his body, just hours before, witnessed the astonishing battle between the child and that person, and that earth-shattering punch...

A sense of powerlessness and despair, leaving no room for rebuttal, rose in his heart.

Compared to true geniuses like Xue Jing and Li Suisui, he was merely an ordinary mortal, a mere backdrop to the times…

The cold, unforgiving truth was laid bare before him without reservation.

His lips trembled slightly, but Zhou Yinglin remained silent.

Just then, the sound of footsteps treading on metal came from the side.

"who!?"

Immediately, someone picked up a flashlight and shone it over.

"it's me."

Bathed in the light, Xu Zixuan leisurely raised his hands and smiled.

Li Suisui frowned: "Xue Jing has grouped all his examinees into one team, and the whole team should be moving together now... How did you get here?"

Xu Zixuan waved his hand: "Don't worry, no one noticed I left."

"Xue Jing isn't with you?" Li Suisui had a bad feeling.

Xu Zixuan said, "Yes, but don't worry, he didn't notice me. Cao Sini was with me the whole day, so I couldn't find an opportunity. This is the only time I could..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Suisui sighed: "Foolish thing... I don't know if you're doing it on purpose or if you're really that stupid."

"Do you people really think that the things you secretly do in class will go unnoticed by the teacher standing on the podium?"

"—Why do you always like to show off your insignificant and laughable tricks in front of the strong?"

Li Suisui's gaze shifted upwards.