"Plant Life Light Wave? Laser Skills?"

The teachers were confused, but they soon realized they wouldn’t need to ask Ruan Zhishen what the skill was.

Cyan Treasure opened its mouth, spitting out a pure white Holy Light that enveloped both Gu Ming and Lu You.

A brilliant light flashed. The medicinal mud on their faces and skin rapidly dissolved. The red, swollen burns vanished as if they had never been there, leaving their skin with a dewy, rosy glow that made them look even more handsome and beautiful. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"This is!"

"The Catalytic Method?"

"No, this is a Holy Light Element Skill, a Laser from the Life System!"

For a mere Little Cyan Snake to have a Light Attribute ability.

The teachers were stunned. Those who hadn’t done their research began asking around, trying to find out the Little Cyan Snake’s origins.

Even the admissions officers, who had initially paid no mind to a Pet Beast like the Little Cyan Snake, were now murmuring in confusion.

Their attention shifted from Gu Ming to the inconspicuous Little Cyan Snake as they began to meticulously observe its every move.

Once the healing was complete, Gu Ming again led his team in search of a path up the mountain.

Unfortunately, the Array traps here were insidiously designed. The impassable routes were high-temperature zones, but the passable ones were blocked by scorching steam. This two-tiered trap prevented anyone from moving forward.

With no other option, Gu Ming returned to the safe zone. He folded his arms and observed the students in the lead group from a distance.

They were currently trapped at an altitude of three hundred meters, unable to advance a single step.

Since the system remained silent, Gu Ming decided to stop. He had his two Pet Beasts adjust their Breathing Techniques, practicing and refining them on the spot.

"Ah Kun, use your Mana to simulate the flow of water, as if you were breathing underwater."

"Mouse Treasure, the underground Array here is complex. Don’t burrow too deep. Focus your Perception on the surrounding vibrations."

There were no rivers on the mountain. Ah Kun closed its eyes, its body enveloped in a blue glow. It conjured a small stream of water out of thin air, which formed a flowing membrane around it.

It floated inside, simulating the sensation of breathing underwater.

Mouse Treasure pressed its tiny paws to the ground, its body melting into the earth. With its ears pricked high, it dared only to move through the shallow topsoil.

Its little pink nose poked out from the ground every so often to sniff the air.

Just then, Gu Ming glanced at the system’s story notifications, which had finally updated:

"You set foot in the Ice and Snow Mountain Forbidden Area, where you faced an ordeal of relentless blizzards and nearly froze to death."

"By some incredible stroke of luck, you had just climbed out of the frigid zone when you fell into a sweltering steam layer, with temperatures soaring above seventy degrees."

"Your Pet Beasts were fine, but you and your severely socially anxious classmate were about to die from the heat."

The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

In reality, they had reached the three-hundred-meter mark with only minor difficulty. They’d gotten burned at worst, but now they were completely healed.

The system, however, described their ascent as a tortuous ordeal, portraying them as being on the verge of elimination.

’It seems the system really didn’t expect a fifty-year-old Old Deng to pass the competition.’

’But that’s fine by me.’

’The lower the system’s expectations, the easier it is to exploit its bugs.’

’As long as I can get to a place the system deems impossible, I can use real-world events to forcibly twist the plotline.’

Just then, the notifications updated again:

"A Two-winged Fire Demon suddenly appears on the path ahead. In the span of a breath, your two Pet Beasts are almost set on fire."

Gu Ming looked up to see a red, two-winged Little Mantis Beast rushing toward them, its flaming wings CRACKLING.

"Watch out!" he shouted.

Ah Kun reacted instantly. It opened its great maw and shot out a powerful Water Gun, which struck the mantis beast like a silver sword and sent it flying.

Mouse Treasure rapidly dug through the earth, hauling large clumps of soil to form a sturdy wall and seal the fiery red mantis inside.

Gu Ming hadn’t even moved. It was a false alarm.

But in the system’s view, the scene transformed into this:

"You fought with all your might and defeated the seemingly invincible Two-winged Fire Demon, securing a temporary safe haven."

Gu Ming had been feeling quite relaxed, but the word "safe" immediately put him on high alert. He stood up and scanned his surroundings.

’Alarm bells rang in my head. When the system says something is ’safe,’ it usually means danger is coming.’

"Let’s go back and try climbing from a different direction," he said decisively.

Though a flicker of doubt crossed Lu You’s eyes—’We already found a safe area, shouldn’t we stay here?’—she simply hummed in agreement, asked no questions, and called for Mouse Treasure to follow.

The two retreated over a hundred meters back into the cold zone. And just as expected, the system’s display now showed them in grave danger, under attack by a horde of demon beasts and gradually losing all hope of victory.

Gu Ming remained calm. He stared at the ground and ordered in a low voice, "Mouse Treasure, use the Earth Shifting Technique to sense for any beast packs in the area and pinpoint their location."

Trapped within the Array, their vision was severely limited. It was a classic case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. Their only option was to study the Array itself to find a way out.

’I know the Fire Demon Beast Group the system mentioned shouldn’t exist here.’

’We never saw any Pet Beasts like that at the base of the mountain, so how could they suddenly appear up here?’

’Unless... a Concealment Array is hiding them.’

Upon receiving the command, Mouse Treasure immediately focused, its little paws drumming rapidly against the ground.

As its improved Breathing Technique combined with the Kunpeng Devouring Secret Technique, its Perception range steadily expanded—from two hundred meters to three hundred, then to five hundred, and finally out to a thousand meters and beyond.

Suddenly, its ears twitched. Its eyes flew wide open, and it shot out of the ground, squeaking excitedly:

It had found them! A large group of wild mantis beasts, located in the high-temperature zone about a hundred meters away!

Gu Ming didn’t hesitate. "We’re heading up the mountain in that direction!"

’What looks like the most dangerous path might just be our only way out.’

’They weren’t seen at the base of the mountain, but they can be sensed within it. That’s the one anomaly in this Array.’

The sweltering steam layer was fraught with danger, but according to the principles of Array design, even a "death trap" must leave a sliver of a chance for survival. Otherwise, the connection to the Daoist Skill that powers it would be broken.

Cyan Treasure whipped its tail like a Flood Dragon bursting from the sea. The tip glowed with a cyan light, instantly sweeping away a horde of the fiery mantises.

Though Ah Kun was on dry land, it used its Mana to conjure a massive wave. It came crashing down with the force of a tidal wave, carving a soaked path of survival through the sea of flames.

The area-of-effect attack demonstrated by the Grouper Fish completely stunned the teachers watching from the rear. They cried out in disbelief.

A few sharp-eyed observers recognized it as the Wave-Swallowing Technique Battle Technique. They tore at their hair, their entire understanding of the world thrown into chaos.

Gu Ming was oblivious to the teachers’ frantic cries. He led his teammate across the steam layer, ignoring the system’s "extreme risk" warnings and simply bulldozing a path forward.

Finally, Gu Ming emerged from the fiery zone onto a bare, rocky patch of the mountain. The ground behind him was littered with the corpses of mantises.

Panting, he checked the system and saw the updated text:

"Emerging from a desperate plight, your courageous spirit allowed you to persevere to the very end. By a stroke of luck, you have found the path to the third level of the Ice and Snow Mountain Forbidden Area!"

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked back down the mountain, only to see the other students still stuck over a hundred meters below, milling about.

They had now left the lead group far behind, standing on higher ground and looking down upon the rest.

Down below, a few gifted students had already figured out the solution.

Half an hour ago, they had taken an alternate route up the mountain and were now hurrying in Gu Ming’s direction.

They were none other than Mo Ying of Jinghai High School and the rather mysterious students from Forest Valley High School.