By nine in the morning on the second day!

Due to joining the fray too early or being forced into battle, nearly a hundred people had already been eliminated. But far from decreasing over time, this number was actually growing at an even more terrifying rate!

Because.

The examinees who had been conserving their strength or gathering Materials on the first day chose this moment to enter the field.

The moment they did, the intensity of the fight for the Jade Talismans instantly shot up several levels. In less than an hour, seventy to eighty examinees were eliminated. The Jade Talismans were changing hands almost every second...

At nine in the evening.

Just as the provincial competition reached its halfway point, the students Li Xiaoshuang had classified as the ’Dangerous Group’ also began to join the battle in small numbers.

By three in the morning, the majority of the ’Dangerous Group’ students had entered the fray.

At seven in the morning, the last student from the ’Dangerous Group’ appeared on the battlefield.

After a winter break spent in seclusion, these students had already broken through to the Late-stage Seventh Layer of their Realm. Their strength was a full tier above the other students. Almost as soon as they joined the fight, four Jade Talismans changed hands.

On the first day, only about a hundred people were eliminated.

But on the second day, that number quadrupled or even quintupled.

In an instant.

Only about two hundred people remained in the examination area.

"It’s a sure thing now!"

In the waiting area, a few teachers from He City high schools finally broke into smiles after two days of stern expressions, seeing their own students seize a Jade Talisman. For these students, capturing a Jade Talisman meant that advancing was no longer a problem!

The teachers from the other high schools still had their fists clenched, their eyes glued to the large screens in the waiting area as they watched the battlefield.

The time wasn’t up yet. There was still a chance!

Even if it was a slim one!

Li Xiaoshuang, who had been soaking his feet for two days straight, was now leaning back in his chair. He stared at a screen in the corner that no one else was paying attention to, thinking to himself:

’It’s about time he made his move, isn’t it?’

The screen showed:

A leeward spot on a semi-hidden mountainside, a place rarely visited.

However, Chen Che was currently fast asleep, his head pillowed on a smooth stone. He snored softly, as if the fierce battles in the examination area had nothing to do with him. The ground beneath him still radiated a faint warmth—the residual heat from his earlier Alchemy session.

Cultivators are immune to heat and cold, but he still didn’t fancy sleeping on the frigid ground.

After gathering his Materials, Chen Che had remained here, focused on Alchemy. After refining two batches of Pills, he still hadn’t joined the battle, choosing instead to rest.

Suddenly—

As if sensing something, the sleeping Chen Che’s eyes snapped open and he sat up abruptly.

BOOM!

In his field of vision, ten pillars of light shot up into the sky.

"The last day!"

His eyes swept across the pillars of light as his mind raced, analyzing the situation:

’The two Jade Talismans that fell into the Demon Beast Territory haven’t moved; no one’s claimed them. The pillars for four other Jade Talismans are moving rapidly. They’ve most likely been taken by students from the Dangerous Group... They’re too far away. It would probably take an hour or two just to get there.’

He immediately gave up on those six Jade Talismans, his gaze sweeping over the remaining four...

Most of those four were stationary.

However, three were a bit far, while one was right at the foot of the mountain.

"Well, isn’t this a coincidence?"

A smile touched Chen Che’s lips. He gave a comfortable stretch, and his eyes instantly hardened with resolve.

He had held back for two days.

Now, he could finally make his move!

...

The foot of the mountain. A lake.

At that moment, a Jade Talisman was hovering in mid-air.

It was impossible to know which examinee had brought it here, but there was no doubt they had already been eliminated. Not far from the Jade Talisman, thirty to forty students were locked in a fierce battle. They checked each other’s movements, trying to seize the Jade Talisman for themselves while preventing anyone else from getting it!

With only one day left, their time was running out.

But at this moment, some were still observing calmly from the shadows.

Jiang Jingyuan was one such observer. He stood with his arms crossed, frowning as he watched the battlefield:

’The time isn’t right. I have to wait a little longer! But with those two here...’

As his thoughts raced, his wary gaze swept over two other examinees.

Inspector Fu!

Lin Yao!

Both of them were top students from He City, on the same level as him.

He had fought them before, and each time it ended in a draw.

During the city-level competition.

Weng Dazheng had warned him to avoid conflicts with students of the same caliber as much as possible, to prevent exhausting his stamina too early. The reason they hadn’t attacked each other yet was because their respective teachers had met and discussed strategy.

Of course, they all knew this truce was only valid as long as the Jade Talisman wasn’t in one of their hands.

’If that one Jade Talisman hadn’t landed in the Fifteen Li River... those two probably wouldn’t even be here. The moment I get the Talisman, I’ll have to face them head-on!’

Jiang Jingyuan thought to himself.

With two Jade Talismans falling into the Demon Beast Territory, the number of available spots to advance had suddenly dropped by two.

This not only intensified the competition but also disrupted many people’s plans.

"Haha! The Jade Talisman is mine...!"

Just as he was thinking this, the situation on the field suddenly changed.

An examinee feigned an attack but then suddenly retreated instead of advancing. He spun around, snatched the Jade Talisman, and immediately began to run across the lake’s surface.

"Not good!"

Seeing this, the faces of Jiang Jingyuan and the others changed simultaneously.

Without the slightest hesitation, the crowd that had been battling moments before gave chase.

But that examinee seemed to have been prepared.

Almost at the exact moment he seized the Jade Talisman, he formed a Seal Technique. A Tier One Middle Grade ’Divine Movement Talisman’ enveloped him, instantly boosting his speed by more than seventy percent.

"Hahaha, I’m advancing!"

Outside, in the waiting area, a teacher cried out in ecstatic surprise.

However, the smile had barely formed before it froze completely on his face.

"RUMBLE!"

To the utter disbelief of everyone in the waiting area and on the field.

A figure had appeared on the other side of the lake at some unknown point. The moment he appeared, he took a single step, and his entire body shot forward like a Fury Arrow released from its bow. In an instant, he streaked across the vast lake, carving a white wake a hundred zhang long in his path!

The massive wave stretched from the shore all the way to the fleeing examinee, looking like a Flood Dragon riding the wind and cleaving through the waves.

In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of the examinee.

"BANG!"

A loud crash echoed as massive waves surged several meters into the air. Before everyone’s shocked eyes, the examinee who had been escaping with the Talisman instantly vanished in a flash of white light. The Jade Talisman in his hand was thrown high into the air, falling back down with the spray.

Amidst the great wave, a hand as fair as jade slowly caught it.

When the waves subsided, the scene was revealed.

Chen Che stood there, holding the Jade Talisman, not a single drop of lake water on him.