I Have Countless Clones - Chapter 53

53 Very Rare

When his vision returned to normal, Lin Shen realized he was in a strange place.

Looking around, he saw the place he was at was very spacious. It was estimated to be more than 10,000 square meters, larger than a football field. It looked like a hall.

Under his feet was a floor made of limestone slabs. High walls surrounded him, and a huge door was embedded in each wall.

There were clouds and mist behind the door, making it impossible to see anything inside.

!!
However, what was even more eye-catching was the lingering clouds above his head, looking like a layer of pure white gauze.

“Is this the fog formation…”

Lin Shen muttered to himself. Suddenly, he felt something hard in his palm. He looked down and realized a jade talisman had appeared in his hand.

There was a number 0 in the middle.

Lin Shen instantly understood. This should be the jade talisman mentioned in the rules that also had the effect of recording scores and protecting people.

After carefully putting away the jade talisman, Lin Shen chose a random direction to walk in.

The examination this time was on surviving in the formation, not challenging it. In other words, it was the same no matter which door he chose.

The only difference was that if he was lucky, he might encounter the one with the altar.

However, Lin Shen had only taken a few steps when he suddenly heard whistling sounds coming from above.

When he raised his head, the clouds and mist in the sky surged violently and condensed at an astonishing speed, forming ferocious beasts with horns on their foreheads and looking like tigers with wings.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten ferocious beasts appeared in the sky. All of them roared like thunder and swooped towards Lin Shen with a murderous aura.

“Fog beasts!”

Lin Shen’s gaze focused, and he struck out with his palm at lightning speed, hitting the head of a charging fog beast. The latter didn’t even make a sound before instantly exploding into fog that filled the sky.

This attack exceeded Lin Shen’s expectations. Only after killing a few more fog beasts did he come to a realization.

These fog beasts looked extremely ferocious, but they were actually only at the first level of Qi Transformation.

He didn’t even need to use any martial arts techniques and could kill them with a casual strike.

The weakest candidates who were qualified to participate in the examination were at the fifth level of Qi Transformation. It was simply too easy to deal with these fog beasts.

But soon, Lin Shen realized that something was wrong.

Every time he killed a fog beast, the fog would return to the sky and condense into a new fog beast. It would pounce down again without stopping.

Every second, there were no fewer than ten fog beasts surrounding him.

After walking less than 100 meters, Lin Shen had already killed more than 20 fog beasts, and there were more than 20 points on the jade talisman.

“It’s going to exhaust the candidates’ physical strength!”

Lin Shen clicked his tongue.

Generally speaking, a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Transformation could deal with seven to eight opponents of the first level at the same time.

A few outstanding people could even fight ten of them alone.

However, even if the cultivator won in the end, they would be drained of their energy.

Moreover, he was facing more than ten opponents who could quickly revive after death. Ordinary cultivators at the fifth level of Qi Transformation would probably be exhausted before long.

As expected, when Lin Shen broke through the encirclement and arrived at the door at the end of the left side of the hall, he suddenly felt the strength of the surrounding fog beasts become stronger, almost reaching the second level of Qi Transformation.

It had only been less than five minutes since they entered the fog formation.

“Were dozens of people eliminated at once?”

Lin Shen sighed and waved his palm to kill the fog beast in front of him before stepping into the door.

His vision blurred, and when he came back to his senses, Lin Shen realized he was in a hall again.

It was surrounded by the same high walls and paved with bluestone.

Another four doors were filled with mist.

Roar!

Amidst furious thunderous roars, more than ten fog beasts quickly condensed and charged towards Lin Shen.

Lin Shen’s expression remained unchanged as he calmly welcomed the attack.

In a place where others couldn’t see, his talent had already been switched to Perseverance.

The exam this time wasn’t only a competition of who could kill the most fog beasts, but also a competition of who could last longer in the fog formation.

If he persisted for a long time, not only would he obtain more points, but the probability of finding the altar would also be higher.

If he used too much energy in order to kill more fog beasts in the early stages, when the fog beasts became stronger later, he might be quickly eliminated.

Therefore, Lin Shen didn’t exterminate the fog beasts with all his might. Instead, he tried his best to maintain a balanced state of energy consumption and recovery.

With the Perseverance talent, he was confident he had a huge advantage over the other candidates in terms of physical strength.

…

Three minutes after the exam began.

Lights and shadows flashed in the square one after another, and oval shields appeared out of thin air.

The shields then dissipated, revealing the dejected and depressed examinees.

These were all people who had lost in the battle with the fog beasts and were eliminated from the fog formation.

The person with the highest score among them only had 20 to 30 points. He had definitely been excluded from the admission list of the academy.

“The exam is too hard!”

“That’s right. Those fog beasts will revive after being killed. How can we fight them?”

“I’ve only scored over 20 points. I can’t even enter the top 400, let alone the top 200. I’ll definitely be at the bottom of the ranking!”

“There’s no hope now…”

Lamentations rose and fell, and many examinees fell to the ground dejectedly, their faces pale.

Ke Ya and Cai Zhonggu acted as if they didn’t see it.

They had seen similar scenes countless times, and their hearts were already as hard as steel.

The cultivation path was long and dangerous.

It was filled with thorns, so it was better for those who didn’t have the talent to give up early. It would do them good.

On the water screen, light and shadow surged. The examinees were fighting the fog beasts with all their might.

Some were trapped by the fog beasts and couldn’t break out. They could only hold on bitterly.

Some of them broke through the encirclement of the fog beasts and entered the doors to search for the altar.

At the same time,

a ranking board appeared at the corner of the water screen. On it were the names and scores of the examinees.

First place, Zhao Xueying, 128 points.

Second place, Yan Xing, 126 points.

Third place, Chong Yanhe, 125 points.

Fourth place, Xue Feng, 123 points.

Fifth place, Wei Cheng, 95 points.

…

As time passed, the names and points on the rankings kept changing drastically.

The closer one got to the end of the rankings, the more frequent the changes.

Although the rankings of Zhao Xueying and the other three were also constantly changing, they still firmly occupied the top four positions. Moreover, there was an obvious gap between them and the examinees behind.

At this moment, Cai Zhonggu suddenly exclaimed and pointed at a name on the rankings.

“Who is this person?”

Ke Ya looked in the direction he was pointing at. It was an examinee named Lin Shen. He had 85 points and was ranked 23rd.

“Lin Shen? That’s a rather unfamiliar name.” Ke Ya frowned in confusion.

He more or less had some impression of the disciples of influential families participating in this year’s examination. However, this candidate called Lin Shen was very unfamiliar.

Ke Ya immediately summoned the disciple beside him and asked the latter to check the name.

Soon, the disciple replied,

“Lin Shen isn’t a disciple of an influential family.”

Cai Zhonggu and Ke Ya were stunned.

The two of them looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other’s eyes.

An ordinary student could actually squeeze into the top 30?

That was very rare!