Gao Wu: Oh no! Young Master Zhen is a cultivator!

The Abyssal Blade Beast resembles an elongated mantis, with two translucent bone blades forelimbs and a dark purple carapace covering its back.

The guy emerged from behind a giant rock, and Lin Ran, as usual, urged himself forward to meet him.

Based on his speed, which is equivalent to that of the Transcendent Realm, he should be more than twice as fast as the Abyss Blade Beast.

But when he took a few steps with all his might, he immediately noticed something was wrong.

His speed has slowed down!

Or rather, the virtual scene is not synchronized with its real speed.

The Abyss Blade Beast's bone blade slashed at him from the side, and he dodged it.

bass!

The bone blade grazed his sleeve, leaving a tear in his training uniform.

He finally realized that his movements were much slower than usual.

This problem would be difficult to detect unless facing a speed-type opponent.

Lin Ran took two steps back, creating some distance.

The Abyss Blade Beast pounced again, and he swung his blade directly at it.

when!

The longsword clashed with the bone blade, and with a clang, the Abyss Blade Beast was knocked back several meters.

It was confirmed that the force was not affected; only the speed was reduced.

The physical strength of a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator is no different from that of a Transcendent Realm martial artist, while a third-tier mutated creature is only equivalent to an Inner Breath Realm cultivator.

An Inner Breath Realm being cannot possibly match the speed of a Transcendent Realm being.

Even though this abyssal beast excels in speed, it is impossible for it to cross two major realms.

By eliminating all impossible options, the remaining answer, even if unreasonable, must be the correct answer.

Someone tampered with his holographic capsule.

The other party did not damage the structure of the holographic capsule, nor did they change the power conversion ratio; they only deliberately changed the speed conversion ratio, which was not easily detected.

To be able to manipulate something like this, and so specifically, it's obvious that it's almost certainly the Sun family's doing.

The purpose was very clear: to prevent him from interfering with Sun Jinghuan's assessment.

Before the assessment began, everyone underwent talent testing and realm testing.

If someone's stats are increased beyond their actual level, the proctor will be able to tell immediately.

However, lowering someone's value makes a difference.

Unless he notices it himself, the proctors will have no idea.

Moreover, this change is very clever; the problem will not be exposed until Lin Ran encounters a scenario that requires burst speed.

The person who made the changes knew very well that if the alterations were too obvious, they would likely be discovered during the inspection of the holographic capsule.

In that case, Lin Ran could replace the holographic capsule on the spot, or have someone adjust it.

As for speed, a reference point is needed to see any clues.

Lin Ran isn't a speed-type awakener, so he probably won't pay attention to this aspect.

Now that the martial arts exam has begun, Lin Ran cannot withdraw halfway through. Even if he notices something amiss, he can only wait until the exam is over before taking any action.

The Sun family went to great lengths to ensure that Sun Jinghuan would pass the martial arts exam.

After all, rigging the martial arts exam is no small matter, and it's unclear what methods they used to make someone willing to take such a risk.

The Abyss Blade Beast pounced again, and Lin Ran stabbed it in the chest cavity with a backhand.

Click!

He stirred it forcefully, and the blade beast transformed into countless specks of light.

Points +1500.

Since speed is limited, we can only rely on weapons.

The most fundamental difference between humans and animals is that humans can use tools.

He bent down and picked up a fist-sized pebble from beside his feet, weighing it in his hand.

As we all know, strength and speed are directly proportional; as long as he throws the stone with enough force, the stone will move fast enough.

So he swung his arm, and the pebbles flew out of his hand, hitting a swift wolf that had just jumped out of the bushes right on the head.

Bang!

The Gale Wolf's head exploded into a cloud of blood mist, turning into specks of light and dissipating.

Points +300.

Throwing stones is indeed more efficient than taking action directly.

For the next hour or so, Lin Ran completely gave up on close combat.

He walked upstream along the stream, throwing stones at any mutants he encountered.

Throughout the entire assessment scenario, there were only mutated creatures of levels one to three, and there was no problem that a single stone could not solve.

If one isn't enough, then have another.

Under normal circumstances, even first- and second-order mutated creatures cannot withstand Lin Ran's deadly divine stone.

The third-tier weapon is a bit tougher; it just takes a few more hits.

Lin Ran's points steadily increased, and in just one hour, he surpassed 8,000 points, ranking fourth on the real-time points leaderboard.

Chu Xining is ranked first with 12,300 points.

Ice-type awakeners at the Innate Realm completely crushed their opponents in the valley, so it's not surprising that they achieved this result.

The second person is named Su Jin, a student at Xinhai No. 7 Middle School, with 11,500 points.

The third place went to Sun Jinghuan.

His real-time score reached 8,800, which was several hundred points higher than Lin Ran's.

It seems that Sun Jinghuan is doing quite well with the help of his underlings.

However, his good days are over.

Lin Ran followed the stream around a bend, and ahead lay a wide expanse of pebbly beach.

At first glance, Sun Jinghuan was leading two members of the Sun family's collateral branches in a siege of a deep-sea stone rhinoceros.

The rhinoceros was the size of a heavy truck, its entire body covered in grayish-white rock armor, and the ground trembled with every step it took.

The Flame Blade cleaved through the rock armor, sending sparks flying. The two side factions harassed and restrained the Abyss Stone Rhinoceros with fist strikes and wind blades from the left and right. The Abyss Stone Rhinoceros's health had already been reduced by half.

"Hey, Young Master Sun, busy?"

Lin Ran bent down, picked up a fist-sized rock, weighed it in his hand, and swung his arm to smash it.

Bang!

The stone traced a straight line in mid-air, precisely piercing the left eye of the Abyss Stone Rhinoceros.

"howl!"

The stone rhinoceros let out a muffled roar like thunder, and its massive body crashed to the ground, turning into countless points of light.

Points +1600.

Sun Jinghuan's flaming blade missed its target, and he suddenly turned his head.

Seeing Lin Ran walk over from the edge of the pebble beach, with another stone in his hand, his expression instantly turned very ugly.

"Do you really want to go against me?" Sun Jinghuan's flaming blade was still burning, and he wished he could just stab Lin Ran directly.

"I have a question." Lin Ran tossed the stone between his hands. "The speed conversion ratio of my holographic pod seems a bit off. Is this related to you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sun Jinghuan's eyes flickered. "If there was a problem with your holographic pod, why didn't you say so before the exam?"

"Fine, okay! You're being stubborn, aren't you?" Lin Ran gripped the stone in his hand. "From now on, you won't be able to gain any points, I told you!"

"Don't be so arrogant. At worst, I'll deal with first-tier mutated creatures." Sun Jinghuan snorted coldly, then turned and left with his two henchmen.

Lin Ran sneered, "Then I'll wait and see!"

For the next few hours, Lin Ran put his words into practice.

He always stayed close behind Sun Jinghuan, and the stone in his hand would fly away the moment Sun Jinghuan made a move.

Of course, sometimes even if Sun Jinghuan doesn't make a move, his stones will still fly out.

Even though his running speed was limited, he was still able to keep up with Sun Jinghuan.

The person who made the move limited the speed conversion ratio according to the Innate Realm, but Lin Ran's physical strength had actually reached the Extraordinary Realm.

In this points-based competition, Sun Jinghuan's points are destined to be dominated by Lin Ran once again.

"Is this really necessary?" Sun Jinghuan felt utterly helpless.

Lin Ran's smile remained unchanged: "The joy of fighting with others is endless!"

Recalling the fear of being dominated during the last mock exam, Sun Jinghuan immediately changed his strategy and led his two followers into the depths of the dense forest.

With the forest as cover, Lin Ran was unable to kill his targets from a distance, despite their repeated attempts.

But he didn't expect that Lin Ran could suppress him directly from the tree.

He searched for prey on the ground, while Lin Ran threw stones from the tree, hitting his prey every time.

However, Lin Ran ultimately failed to completely block Sun Jinghuan's source of points.

Because there weren't enough stones.

There were plenty of stones by the stream, but once we got to the woods, the number of pebbles decreased significantly.

Lin Ran had to keep up with both tracking Sun Jinghuan and collecting stones, so his efficiency was a bit slow.