Don't mess with that necromancer; his summoned creatures level up on their own!

Lu Zhixing did not notice her.

He walked to his alchemy table and casually flipped through the tools on it.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The teleportation array slowly lit up in the center of the plaza.

Song Xiaohe stood up with the other candidates.

She could feel the energy climbing up her leg bones from the soles of her feet.

She instinctively gripped the edge of the Floating Light Shield.

Standing next to her was a candidate, tall and thin, with his chin slightly raised.

Then his gaze fell on the shield in her hand.

The shield did not have a golden glow; instead, it emitted a dark, gloomy black light.

It looks like an unpolished piece of raw material, or like an old, stockpiled item found at a flea market.

The candidate turned his head and spoke in a low voice to his companion next to him.

"Floating Light Shield? Isn't that a light-elemental bronze equipment?"

"The illustrations I saw in the book clearly showed a shield that emitted a golden light, with three or four golden lines on its surface."

"Why is that thing in her hand glowing black? She probably bought a fake, and she's holding it like it's a treasure..."

The person next to him also glanced at it, pursed his lips, and looked at it with a subtle sense of sympathy, as if he were "another sucker who got ripped off."

Song Xiaohe heard it.

She applied slight pressure to the edge of the shield with her fingertips, but she didn't turn her head or argue; she simply lowered her head and looked at the shield in her hand.

The book does say that the Floating Light Shield emits a golden light, and she has also seen pictures in the materials, in which the shield surface is covered with a warm, light golden luster.

But the shield in her hand... that layer of dark black light stretched across the center of the shield, swallowing up all the flowing gold that should have been there.

If my brother says the quality is fine, then it's fine.

But a doubt still crept into her mind—had her brother been deceived?

The people in the shop saw that he was a newbie and tried to fool him with defective products...?

The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. Finally, on a whim, she took out her phone and dialed Lu Zhixing's number.

Lu Zhixing's voice came through the receiver, with a noisy background.

It was white noise mixed together from the hundreds of people walking back and forth, moving tools, and talking in hushed tones over at the alchemy platform.

His voice was flat and indifferent, as always.

"What's wrong?"

"Brother...that shield..."

Song Xiaohe kept her voice very low.

"Which store did you buy it from?"

"What's wrong?"

"It...it doesn't have any golden light..."

Song Xiaohe lowered her voice even further.

"The book says the Floating Light Shield should emit golden light... but it emits black light... Brother, did you buy a defective product?"

"Tell me the shop owner's name, I'll go find him and argue with him after I finish the exam!"

She emphasized the last few words more than the beginning, and in her mind she had already cursed that dishonest shop owner eight hundred times.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

Then Lu Zhixing's voice rang out.

"Oh, I typed that myself."

Song Xiaohe was stunned.

Did you type this yourself?

My brother knows forging?

Before she could think about the series of questions, Lu Zhixing's voice rang out again.

"Don't worry, the quality is fine. You'll know once you try it."

He paused, seemingly considering whether to say something more, but ultimately only added two words.

"Go."

Song Xiaohe hung up the phone and looked down at the shield in her hand.

So what if it's black light? It was made by my brother himself, so it's the best in the world.

She hammered the idea into her heart like a nail.

They met the gazes of the two examinees.

Her back was ramrod straight, her chin was slightly raised, and even her shoulders were spread out.

Her goal was simple: to make it into the top ten out of a hundred people.

If I get into the top ten, my score will improve, and I'll have a chance to get into the same university as my brother.

The light from the teleportation array suddenly shone at its brightest.

A gust of wind rose from beneath their feet, and along with the figures standing in the formation, everyone vanished from their spot.

When Song Xiaohe opened her eyes, the sensation under her feet had changed.

She looked down and saw that the front of her shoe was already submerged in a layer of fine sand.

She raised her eyes and looked around.

An endless wasteland stretches out between heaven and earth.

A gust of wind carrying fine sand blew from the front, and she squinted and raised the back of her hand to shield herself from the wind.

The golden light of the teleportation array slowly dissipated behind her.

Other candidates also appeared in the vicinity one after another, some landing on the top of the sand dunes.

They looked at each other, then turned to look at the mountain peak.

Yuanling Peak. The final destination.

There are examiners at the top of the mountain, and those who reach the top pass the test. However, the additional challenges after reaching the top are where the real difference in scores comes from.

You can face three level 30 examiners. They will give you three moves at the start, and the one who wins all three battles will receive an extra 3,000 points.

In this level of assessment, 3,000 points is almost equivalent to jumping directly from tenth place to the top three.

But the prerequisite is—you have to cross this wasteland.

Song Xiaohe took a deep breath. She had never participated in an assessment against humans before; all her previous combat experience came from fighting monsters.

They have fixed attack patterns and predictable behavioral logic.

But each of these one hundred people has their own tactics, their own trump cards, and their own calculations.

It would be a lie to say I wasn't nervous facing such elites.

With the equipment crafted by my brother, there's no need to be overly timid.

She silently repeated the thought to herself, then looked up to confirm the direction of Yuanling Peak.

---

The huge display screen in the square has been lit up since early morning, with the image skillfully cut into dozens of small squares by technicians.

Each cell contains a real-time view of a certain area in the wasteland.

In some squares, students are running; in others, they are fighting.

The audience seats, from the first row to the last, were already full.

The majority of them were wearing school uniforms of various colors. Leaders and teachers from various universities sat in the front row, while the family members of the candidates who were eliminated early sat in the back row.

There were also some citizens who were just there to watch the excitement, clutching snacks and drinks in their hands.

The VIP viewing area on the second floor was much quieter than the regular stands below.

Several middle-aged men dressed in dark suits sat around a long, dark brown table.

Their eyes were fixed on the separate monitor screen that had been pulled out in front of them.

One of them spoke slowly.

"The Su family has already spoken to them. That Song Xiaohe... should be dealt with first. They don't want her to appear in the top ten."

"Actually, I've never understood why the third stage is supposed to be a process of mutual elimination. That's already allowed by the rules, so why the need for special explanation?"

His tone carried a hint of confusion, as if he were confirming whether he had misunderstood.

The man turned his head and glanced at him.

"It's necessary. She's an S-class four-winged angel, a light-type knight, and also an extremely rare defensive evolution path within the light element."

"Think about it, if we let her break into the top ten and enter the third stage, Lu Zhixing won't be fighting alone anymore, and Miss Su will face an additional obstacle in winning first place."

"Understood, the Third Middle School has already sent someone there."

"Seven people, all top-notch in the practical training class, would be more than capable of handling a little girl."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

A hundred people swarmed towards Yuanling Peak.

Most test takers chose to team up.

Students from the same school automatically gathered together, forming moving square formations.

There were also some students from scattered private schools and training camps who formed small teams of a few people each.

The formations maintained a respectful distance from each other, wary of one another while also providing cover for the other.

Those who fought alone or without discipline were among the first to be eliminated.

They either ran too slowly and were left behind by the main force, or they accidentally wandered into someone else's encirclement and were easily taken out.

Either those wild monsters hidden behind the sand dunes deep in the wasteland suddenly appear and knock you back to the teleportation point with a flick of their tails.

The white light of those eliminated rose continuously throughout the wasteland.

Song Xiaohe did not form a group with anyone.

She was running alone in the front row, with no one else in sight even dozens of steps away.

Her breathing was steady and even, and her stride was controlled at a comfortable pace.

It won't exhaust its energy prematurely by rushing too hard, nor will it allow others to catch up by being too conservative.

She maintained this pace and surpassed many others; at the beginning, she was probably in the thirties or forties.

In less than twenty minutes, she had already passed at least half of the people.

She is a knight, and a four-winged angel of the light element.

The advantages of this profession are fully demonstrated during long-distance raids.

Her speed and stamina are far beyond what ordinary people can imagine; her S-level physical attributes give her running efficiency that is even faster than that of an A-level assassin of the same level.

She surpassed one.

Two. Five. Ten. Fourteen.

The wind and sand swept past her side, and the figures in front of her became increasingly sparse.

She didn't know where she was, but her intuition told her.

They'll definitely be in the top 20, and they're likely to be in the top 10 as well.

As long as we maintain this speed and don't make any major mistakes, Yuanling Peak will be there, not far away, and the examiners at the summit will be waiting there.

She had even mentally calculated how fast she was moving.

After climbing to the top of the mountain, I should still have at least 60% of my energy left, enough to handle the three rounds of tests from the three examiners.

She glanced down at the Floating Light Shield in her hand; her brother had made it himself, so there wouldn't be any problems.

She went over the thought in her mind again.

A furious shout suddenly rang out from ahead.

"stop!"

Before he finished speaking, several sharp spear beams shot straight at him from the side, accompanied by a whistling sound as they cut through the air.

Song Xiaohe suddenly shifted her feet, forcefully pushed off the sand with her left foot, and leaned her body slightly backward to the right. Under her control, the Floating Light Shield floated to her chest.

Just before those spear beams reached her side, the shield adjusted to the angle to meet them.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

She took a few steps back before regaining her balance.

Looking up, she saw that seven students had formed a semi-circle, blocking her escape route.

Two men blocked her from the front, two men flanked her from the left and right, one man cut off her retreat from behind, and another man stood guard at the side and rear to provide support at any time.

This encirclement formation is clearly the result of repeated training in actual combat, not a hasty interception.

The burly man leading the group was very strong, and the upper part of his gun was engraved with the emblem of the Third Middle School.

He stared at Song Xiaohe's face for two seconds, then the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

"That's right, it's her! All of you, attack her together and eliminate her! Don't drag it out, finish this quickly!"

Seven men simultaneously raised their weapons and slowly approached her.