Staring at the dark cloud of countless crows swirling overhead, Gu Lin and Yin Guang’s expressions turned grim.

As some of the most outstanding Second-level Wizard Apprentices, they could clearly sense that the crows above were no ordinary birds.

The terrifying cloud of birds gave them an extremely oppressive and ominous feeling, as if they were facing some dreadful ancient beast.

The two exchanged a look, their hearts sinking.

Neither of them had expected Pei Ze to have such a powerful trump card up his sleeve.

He hadn’t even gone all out in his fight against Pei Shaoqi!

The thought brought a wave of bitterness to their hearts.

’It’s no wonder Pei Shaoqi lost!’

As the dark cloud began to slowly descend, a powerful sense of alarm surged through Gu Lin, and a chill ran down her spine.

She had always trusted her intuition. Seeing this, she decisively gave up the struggle and shouted, "I surrender! Just like you said, you can have all my points!"

Yin Guang’s expression wavered for a long moment before he finally sighed as if accepting his fate, lowering his head in silence.

’At this point, further resistance is futile. It would only lead to pointless injuries. Better to just hand over the points and conserve my strength to keep hunting barbarians.’

Only after they had both transferred all their points did Pei Ze snap his fingers.

In an instant, the dense swarm of Fog Crows transformed into a torrent, crowding into the thick black mist.

Once the last Fog Crow had flown in, the black mist swirled and reformed into Wuyu’s original shape.

Gu Lin watched this scene with a hint of envy.

A Crow Magic Pet with two spell-like abilities... even she would find it difficult to form a contract with such a high-quality magic pet.

After all, a magic pet like this was a rare find that one couldn’t simply go looking for.

"How did you manage to form a contract with this magic pet?" Gu Lin came closer, curiously sizing up Wuyu.

"Luck," Pei Ze answered succinctly, giving the young woman a strange look.

’She just had all her points stolen, and now she’s striking up a conversation with the culprit as if nothing happened. Should I call her personality easy-going, or just optimistic?’

’The normal reaction would be to scowl, turn, and walk away, like Yin Guang did.’

Seeming to guess Pei Ze’s thoughts, Gu Lin smiled. "No need to be so wary. First place in the trial is definitely yours anyway. Since I can’t get first, the points are useless to me. So what if I gave them to you?"

Pei Ze was momentarily taken aback, but he quickly understood.

The rewards for second to tenth place in the trial were all contribution points and Magic Items.

Gu Lin was rumored to be from the Gu Family, one of the five great Wizard Clans of Chenxi City. Given her background, it was normal for her to not care about a few contribution points and Magic Items.

In fact, the reason Gu Lin, Pei Shaoqi, and Yin Guang were all fighting so hard for first place was surely for the single entry spot into the Realm of Truth.

As for the other rewards, they were just icing on the cake—it didn’t matter to them whether they got them or not.

Just then, the roar of a beast from the distance interrupted their conversation.

As if a switch had been flipped, more roars echoed one after another, painting a picture of a dense, frenzied horde of beasts.

Gu Lin looked in the direction of the sounds—the very direction Pei Shaoqi and the others had gone!

As if realizing something, she gave Pei Ze a strange look.

"So that’s why you let Pei Shaoqi leave so easily. You had another trick up your sleeve!"

Pei Ze said calmly, "You shouldn’t make baseless accusations. Do you have any proof that it’s related to me?"

Gu Lin pouted. "I’m not on the Law Enforcement Team. Why would I need proof?"

"Forget it. I can’t stand that guy Pei Shaoqi anyway. I don’t care if he lives or dies."

Gu Lin waved her hand and turned to leave without any hesitation.

"Bye-bye! See you at the academy."

Watching Gu Lin’s spirited departure, Pei Ze chuckled and shook his head.

’That girl is so spontaneous, not like a Wizard at all.’

He glanced again at the clouds of dust rising in the distance, a cold smile touching his lips. Then, without looking back, he walked off in the opposite direction.

...

「On the deck of the Floating Battleship.」

Three Wizards stared at the image in the Water Mirror, silent.

After a long while, Ai Yuan was the one to break the silence.

"What do you two think?"

Yu Sen chuckled. "His strength is decent, and he’s decisive enough. We’ve finally got a good one among this year’s new students."

Gu Yi also smiled and nodded. "Very outstanding. He’s probably the most exceptional Wizard Apprentice in the last fifty years."

He paused, then mused, "It’s a shame he’s practicing the Universal Meditation Technique. If he were to advance to a Wizard using an Advanced Meditation Technique, he might be able to break the suppression the younger generation of the Bloodline Clans have maintained these past few years."

Yu Sen scoffed. "What’s so difficult about that? Just give him an Advanced Meditation Technique."

"Without a suitable reason, the Bloodline Clans will definitely interfere."

"Then find a Wizard to take him as a student. It’s only natural for a teacher to instruct their student. Those guys won’t have any excuse to object then."

"That’s a good idea." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

At this, both of them fell silent.

Neither Gu Yi nor Yu Sen’s path of practice was suitable for Pei Ze. They would have to find someone else to be his teacher.

After a moment of thought, Gu Yi spoke slowly.

"I do have someone in mind."

Ai Yuan said flatly, "Speak."

"Pei Ze is currently responsible for tending the flowerbeds in Mo Weng’s medicinal garden. It’s also said that he’s learning potion-making. If we have Mo Weng take him as a student, I doubt he would refuse."

A flicker of light in Ai Yuan’s eyes, and he slowly nodded.

"I’ll leave this matter to you."

...

Pei Ze’s last three days of the trial were very peaceful.

After receiving the points from Pei Shaoqi, Gu Lin, and the others, his score soared to over thirty thousand.

It was almost as much as the combined scores of the second through ninth-place participants.

With so many points in hand, his position in first place was secure, so there was no need to continue painstakingly hunting barbarians.

After seeing the change in the rankings, the apprentices who had been aggressively searching for Pei Ze immediately gave up.

’Are you kidding? The three great geniuses of their year had all been utterly defeated. Attacking Pei Ze now would just be delivering points right to his doorstep.’

’It’s better to just honestly hunt barbarians.’

And so, Pei Ze became completely idle.

Besides daily Meditation and practicing the Cyan Mist Breathing Technique, he would go out to collect various rare materials and occasionally tease the Ten Thousand Flowers Fairy. Life was quite pleasant.

In contrast, the other Wizard Apprentices didn’t have it so easy.

As the trial drew to a close, the fighting on the island grew more intense.

Sensing their impending doom, the barbarians became even more ferocious, attacking the Wizard Apprentices as if their lives depended on it. This caused many of the First-level Wizard Apprentices to suffer immensely.

In the end, most of the First-level Wizard Apprentices ended up hiding from the barbarians, not daring to show their faces for fear of being swarmed.

The remaining Second-level Wizard Apprentices also began to group together, struggling to fend off the barbarians’ assaults.

Time flew by, and finally, it was the last day of the trial.

With less than an hour before the trial’s end, thousands of apprentices had already gathered on the beach at the island’s edge.

Aside from those whose rankings were hovering around the fiftieth or the final one-thousandth place—who were still scrambling for points to either earn a reward or avoid elimination—almost everyone else had gathered here.

When Pei Ze appeared on the beach, all eyes instantly snapped to him.

At that moment, he was without a doubt the center of attention.