A pitch-black rift suddenly tore open above Gu Ming’s head.

The rift roiled with dense spatial fluctuations. The recently healed Glowing Deer looked up at the rift and cried out in terror.

Gu Ming and the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird looked up at the same time. The nearby spatial rift was slowly opening, and a pitch-black "limb" stepped out into the air.

It was an arthropod creature encased in a black exoskeleton. Its entire body was ink-black, and its eyes glowed with a crimson light.

When the monster had fully squeezed out of the spatial rift, Gu Ming and the others instantly sensed a powerful danger signal. A storm raged in their Sea of Consciousness, and goosebumps broke out on their skin. The Pet Beasts also felt an intense malice.

"Run!" Gu Ming shouted.

He immediately led the way, sprinting forward.

Just as the pitch-black creature fully emerged from the rift...

A system prompt appeared:

「The hijacked Space-Time Passage has reopened. You gaze upon the light from the Main World, never having felt your original world to be so warm.」

「Faced with the temptation of returning home, your choice is...」

Gu Ming glanced at the system.

’Something feels more and more off about this,’ he thought.

Gu Ming looked again at the monster that had come out of the rift, refusing to believe that this so-called Space-Time Passage was the way home.

He was already in the examination area; he hadn’t gone astray.

The only things that were wrong were the system and that strange monster that had suddenly appeared.

Besides, the Space-Time Passage behind the monster was pitch-black—so dark it was unsettling. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like an extremely dangerous path, one that likely led to some unknown, terrifying place.

Overhead, the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird had been following the three of them as they retreated. It had also noticed the sudden development behind them and had been watching for some time.

Only after Gu Ming had run for half a mile...

...did the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird finally speak with the voice of an examiner, issuing a warning: "A Demon Fiend has invaded. All candidates on-site, please move away from the reed field area!"

A Demon Fiend invasion!

’So that’s what a Demon Fiend is!’

In that instant, it was as if Gu Ming had been enlightened. He suddenly recalled the system’s initial plot description.

From the very beginning, the system had said that Gu Ming and the others had mistakenly entered the "Mysterious Sea," that the examination hall’s Space-Time Passage had been hijacked, and that it had determined Gu Ming was in the "Outer World."

He had thought the so-called "hijacking" was just a different way of saying they had been moved to a new location. It turned out a monster had literally hijacked the passage.

Back in the control room...

The proctoring teachers who had been closely watching Gu Ming were in an uproar.

They had spent some time busy confirming the monster’s origin.

It was Teacher Ruan from Tian Nan City who first vaguely sensed something was wrong, believing that the black scorpion showed signs of Demonization.

But in this examination hall, any number of strange and bizarre Spirit Beasts could have been placed inside.

Because of this, they took some time to confirm whether any of the examiners had slipped in something of their own.

The investigation revealed that no one had.

No one had put a Four-star Level Chaos Demon Scorpion into the examination hall.

Soon, an emergency notice from the examiners was transmitted through the Thousand-eyed Wind Birds to the candidates in every area.

"All candidates, please be advised: a crisis involving an otherworldly Demon Fiend invasion has occurred in the burning reed field area. Please stay away from that direction!

"Proctoring teachers will be dispatched to eliminate the Demon Fiend. The exam may be subject to change. Please cease your current activities, remain vigilant of your surroundings, and await further official announcements."

As the teachers sent out the message, they had already dispatched several Five-star Beastmasters and one Six-star Beastmaster to the reed field.

Gu Ming heard the announcement and looked back toward the reed field.

In this era, Beastmasters were not invincible.

The world also contained Demon Fiends and other dark paths. They were the root cause of Beastmasters deviating from their path into madness, the masterminds behind the Demonization of Pet Beasts, and the natural enemies of all Beastmasters.

If an ordinary Beastmaster encountered a Demon Fiend and their mind wasn’t strong enough, they would most likely be dragged into an abyss of insanity.

This was definitely not a situation that fledgling students like Gu Ming could handle.

Gu Ming checked the system for updates as he continued to move forward.

The plot was still stuck on "Proceed to the Space-Time Passage to return to the original world," awaiting his choice.

’I’ve already made my choice by running away. Has the system frozen?’

Gu Ming could only pin his hopes on the teachers resolving the crisis.

The three of them ran out of the reed field’s territory. Looking back at the horizon, the black scorpion was now just a tiny black dot.

The teachers, flying in from the distance, arrived on the scene and engaged in fierce battle with the otherworldly Demon Fiend.

Seeing this, Gu Ming stopped and watched the battle from afar.

They were far enough from the center of the battle that even if the Pet Beasts fought with earth-shattering force, the attacks wouldn’t reach them.

After all, the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird above their heads was the official’s eyes; the combatants would certainly have to be mindful of their battle range.

And indeed, no matter how earth-shaking the battle on-site was, the attack range was always limited to within a mile, never extending any further out.

The intruder was only a Four-star Level Space Element Demon Fiend. With Six-star and Five-star Level proctors on the scene, there were more than enough to suppress and eliminate it.

「One minute later.」

The battle was over, even faster than expected.

Top-tier battles often didn’t last very long.

Their bursts were fast, and the energy output of a single attack was high.

Usually, once a defense was broken, a direct hit to the Core Inner Elixir was enough to leave an opponent incapable of fighting.

Another five minutes passed. Only after the on-site examiners had checked everything repeatedly to confirm it was safe did they have the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird announce to all students that the exam would proceed as scheduled and order had been restored to the examination hall. Only then did Gu Ming breathe a sigh of relief.

However, the system still hadn’t updated the plot, which was very unusual.

Based on his understanding of the system, a "bug" should have been triggered by now to advance the plot.

’Do I have to go back to the scene and create a conflict between reality and the system’s perception to force a plot update?’

After weighing his options for a moment, Gu Ming made a decision.

He would first take his companions to rack up some points nearby. He’d deal with this later.

Someone was bound to be curious about that area. Gu Ming wandered around the perimeter of the reed field, running into some students from his own school and a few reasonably friendly lone-wolf students. He went up to them and asked for news about the reed field.

「Half a day later.」

He returned once more to the reed field area.

The place was different from before. The Fire Seed Source had been cleared away by Ah Kun, and the reeds were no longer burning.

At a glance, the reeds swayed in the breeze, which carried the faint smell of something scorched—the aftermath of the battle between the Five and Six-star Pet Beasts.

The local injured Spirit Beasts had also been taken away by the teachers. Without the Yin Marrow Fire, there were no more targets for scoring points, so the other candidates, having no points to farm, had long since left.

Gu Ming insisted on returning to the battle site, mainly because his keen sense for "bugs" drove him to take the risk.

On his way back, the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird issued a warning.

"There is a Space-Time Passage here that was opened by a Demon Fiend. Although the Demon Fiend has been eliminated, danger still remains. It is not recommended to approach."

"’Just not recommended,’ which means I can still go, right?" Gu Ming asked.

The Thousand-eyed Wind Bird didn’t answer, which was a tacit agreement.

The provincial examination hall was itself an Other Dimension Space subordinate to the Main World. Its terrain was vast, and the candidates were free to choose their own paths.

The examiners were only responsible for ensuring basic safety measures didn’t fail.

Gu Ming persisted in returning to the original location and soon saw that there were still teachers stationed at the scene. He let out a small sigh of relief.

’No wonder the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird didn’t stop us. There are teachers here.’

Arriving back at the scene, Gu Ming saw a complete mess.

The muddy ground was pockmarked with craters, and a massive, scorched pit was over thirty meters deep.

He measured the giant pit with his eyes; an area nearly a hundred meters wide had been gouged out.

He could smell a burnt odor in the air, the remnants of fireball explosions and bombardments from various Attribute Powers, a testament to the ferocity of the battle.

A teacher at the scene looked over. Seeing it was Gu Ming and his companions, a smile appeared on his face.

"Why are you all back? Don’t linger here for long. Have a look and then be on your way."

This was none other than Teacher Ruan Zhishen from Tian Nan City. While observing the candidates from the control room, he had discovered Gu Ming’s exceptional Talent for Arrays.

Upon seeing Gu Ming, he wanted to build a good relationship with him. He planned to chat with him after the exam to see if he was interested in studying in Tian Nan City.