Mid-term Exam, Part 12

Lihuo was furious, thrashing and biting wildly at the air.

Angry as it was, it didn’t hold back in its work.

Its purple beast eyes flashed, emitting a faint, ethereal glow, instantly dragging Fang Buwei into an illusion filled with unextinguishable flames.

His steps paused, and his figure indeed froze.

But Golden Core cultivators had too many killing moves and trump cards.

Su Qing wasn’t sure how long he could be held, so she loosened her grip, letting the large fox jump to the ground.

Lihuo shook out its fur, which Su Qing had ruffled, and bared its fangs fiercely.

Su Qing, holding her sword, delivered a heavy strike to Fang Buwei’s waist.

As she attacked, the other first-year students also moved.

As classmates of the same year, they all believed in the principle of “strike while the iron’s hot, take their life while they’re weak.” In an instant, several swords simultaneously assailed Fang Buwei.

“Swish,” “swish,” “swish.”

Several distinct whistling sounds pierced the air.

Sword lights flickered like shadows, sword edges were sharp, and sword tips pointed directly at Fang Buwei’s throat, shoulders, waist, chest, and various other spots. Every sword carried lethal intent.

In an instant, the blades pierced him simultaneously.

The sound of flesh tearing, accompanied by the “thwack” of sword edges entering the body, as Fang Buwei’s physical body was swept by sword qi, disintegrated, exploding into hundreds of fragments.

“Dealt with?”

“Dealt with!”

Even though his physical body had exploded into several fragments, Fang Buwei was still not eliminated. And those so-called fragments, upon closer inspection, were not flesh and bones at all; there wasn’t even a single drop of overflowing blood. They were clearly parts and joints of varying sizes.

“No, a puppet!” Tang Yueling, having seen more, furrowed her delicate brows and realized, “This isn’t his true body; this person cultivates puppet techniques. No wonder he dared to charge in alone. Indeed, there are no fools in this world.”

After these shattered parts were scattered, a certain crystal core at the center surprisingly condensed a blue light.

This blue light grew increasingly intense, drawing the other parts to slowly reassemble, forming a humanoid figure.

Chen Minjing, holding her sword, formed characters in the air. After the last stroke fell, a glittering “Break” character appeared across the sky. “Whoever can hold him, I will shatter his core!”

As she spoke, verdant grass threads suddenly climbed onto the puppet, winding up along its many joints, clamping down tightly, preventing it from smoothly reassembling.

The puppet body refined by Fang Buwei possessed the strength of a Golden Core cultivator. Logically, it should not have been deciphered by a rookie artifact refiner.

But Jiang Xiaocao had researched so many puppets.

All the contribution points he earned from the beast tide mission were exchanged for puppets.

Although he hadn’t yet successfully reassembled them to their original state, he truly knew how to disassemble them.

“Go—!” Seeing this, Xie Changge scattered a handful of entirely black Soul-Suppressing Needles, aiming them at the puppet’s various joints.

In the brief moment that she and Jiang Xiaocao held it back, Chen Minjing swung her sword.

The “Break” character, held aloft on her sword tip, flew out, passing through several intricate mechanical parts, and with a “bang,” struck the blue crystal core, forcibly shattering it.

Seeing an opportunity, the other first-year students followed suit. “I’ll go!” “Take this!”

Su Qing’s eyes lit up. Earlier, when she realized Fang Buwei was a puppet, a flash of inspiration had struck her mind.

‘Since it was a puppet controlled by divine sense, and Fang Buwei’s divine sense could control it, why couldn’t hers?’

Su Qing’s footsteps moved, and she flew over. She now further realized the marvel of “shrinking the ground to an inch,” but unfortunately, that was a technique only high-ranking students could learn, and she didn’t know it. But Old Lady Liu’s illusory footwork was still sufficient. Su Qing’s speed was very fast, but the attacks of others were not slow either; once the bow was drawn, there was no turning back. Quite a few still landed on her, but fortunately, she had high health and was very tenacious.

Amidst everyone’s astonished gazes, Su Qing crashed headfirst into the puppet, which was tightly bound by grass threads.

She knew this looked stupid, confirming the stereotype of their Body School, but her development of divine sense was very limited.

Currently, it was restricted to launching a headbutt whenever she wanted to activate it.

‘When the exam was over, she would definitely turn over a new leaf and study hard.’

Her divine sense poured out, seeping along the puppet’s crystal core.

Her vision blurred, or perhaps her Sea of Consciousness suddenly lit up, and thousands of pale blue spirit veins, like the flourishing roots of trees, unfolded before her.

Su Qing’s divine sense unceremoniously squeezed in, instantly occupying the puppet’s large and small spirit veins.

She detected Fang Buwei’s divine sense, a very small but bright cluster, which she spotted immediately.

Fang Buwei sensed something was wrong and retreated very quickly, even attempting to self-detonate to sever the connection.

Su Qing’s divine sense was far more powerful than his. Seeing Fang Buwei about to escape, her divine sense immediately covered him, overwhelming and completely devouring him.

Although she didn’t know where his true body was, with his divine sense severely damaged to this extent by her, he was no longer a threat.

‘As for this puppet body, she would take it over.’

Fang Buwei’s perpetually calm face remained blank for a moment.

A dull sound squeezed from his throat, as if a machine had stalled and then restarted.

When he slowly opened his eyes again, or rather, when Su Qing awoke in another body, she first saw her own face.

‘Hmm, my forehead is a bit swollen, but not too noticeable.’

Su Qing said contentedly, “Now, he’s one of us.”

Fang Buwei raised a hand with an expressionless face, indicating agreement.

The third-year students never imagined Fang Buwei would be taken down so quickly.

But praising an enemy was not something they did, so they all accused, “Useless Fang Buwei!” “If you’re so weak, train more! Why are you dragging us down like this?!”

Only Ling Yunxiao’s lips curled upwards. “My junior sister.”

Cui Huai’s brows relaxed, and she said calmly, “My junior sister.”

Zhang Mingliang showed a friendly smile, scratching his head a little sheepishly. “My junior sister!”

“Get lost!” The third-year students were both angry and speechless, roaring, “Is this the time to show off your junior sisters?!”

Ling Yunxiao raised an eyebrow carelessly. “After all, she’s not your junior sister.”

“Who cares who she is? What about next? Are we still going to offer tribute to that orange cat? If we don’t, it’ll jump down and eat people, and everyone will be unlucky!”

Ling Yunxiao retorted, “Then, at that time, which side do you think will be more unlucky?”

The person choked. After a careful thought, it was certainly the first-year students, who were the most numerous and weakest, who would be more unlucky.

Offering tribute or not would do them no harm.

Pei Jingzhi blinked in shock. He resisted the urge to touch his forehead, and cautiously asked, “How did you do that?”

Su Qing said casually, “He’s not the only one who cultivates puppet techniques.”

Pei Jingzhi opened his mouth, wanting to say: ‘Puppet techniques? Do you Body School disciples even have the brains for that?’

Puppet techniques were very difficult to learn, no less challenging than array formations or talismans.

This art not only demanded powerful divine sense but also required the controller to be meticulous, possess a subtle and intricate mind, and be able to multitask.

But the most crucial point was the desire for control. Those who lacked a desire for control over all things could not cultivate puppet techniques well.

Su Qing genuinely didn’t know if she possessed such talent.

The large fox Lihuo sat to the side, turning its head away and saying nothing.

Restricted by the exam rules, it was now Su Qing’s spirit beast. Essentially, if Su Qing told it to chase a dog, it couldn’t go after a chicken.

Even when told to work, though it didn’t hesitate, it was still angry, constantly turning its head, trying hard not to look at Su Qing, and presenting its fluffy red tail to her.

Su Qing stroked its head, praising, “Good fox.”

It wasn’t just her moving; Fang Buwei’s puppet body was also drawn along to stroke the fox, both hands together caressing the beautiful fur on its body.

Lihuo became even more enraged, biting Fang Buwei’s arm. “Don’t you dare touch me!”

The Golden Core stage puppet was exceptionally hard. Compared to Su Qing, it had not an ounce of flexibility. Its mouth hurt, and in its bewildered gaze, its last baby tooth “clattered” to the ground.

The banter lasted only a brief moment.

Soon, everyone had to face a real problem: half a quarter of an hour had passed, and they had refused to offer tribute.

From upstairs came a series of loud bangs, as if something enormous was moving.

A powerful meow rang out, each louder than the last, echoing for three days, its lingering sound unending. “Vile humans don’t offer tribute to me? Do you want to taste my paw?!”

With a loud “thud,” the roof beam collapsed, and dust billowed up. Amidst the swirling dust, a robust beastly shadow appeared before everyone’s eyes.

It had a round head, an oval body like a winter melon, thick limbs, and a long tail.

To move more easily, it had slightly reduced its size, no longer as massive as when it occupied the second and third floors, but had become tiger-sized.

A tiger was originally very agile, but due to its excessive obesity, even after transforming into a tiger, it was still round and plump, its flesh practically bursting out.

“What a massive beast! So fat, so fat!”

The Orange King’s amber cat eyes flared with light. It loudly meowed, “I’ll make you all fail!”

In the viewing area.

Shi Zeyu was heartbroken to the point of breathless.

Clutching the fabric over her chest, she cried out tearfully, “Wuwuwu, my fox’s baby tooth fell out!”

She had carefully collected all of Lihuo’s shed baby teeth, yet this one had fallen when she wasn’t by her fox’s side.

She truly wasn’t a good enough master.

The others from different sects showed expressions of disbelief. Yang Xiuwen heavily patted her shoulder. “I understand.”

But seeing Fang Buwei suffer, he again couldn’t help but laugh heartily. “This guy always backstabs people with that deadpan face. One cannot walk by the river often without getting wet shoes. It’s truly satisfying to see him end up like this today. When he gets eliminated and comes here, I’ll definitely mock him relentlessly!”

The situation changed in an instant. When the Orange King made its appearance, both Beast Cultivators froze for a moment.

Having raised beasts for a hundred years, they naturally noticed something was wrong with the Orange King.

Shi Zeyu measured its size with her hand. “It’s overweight. I knew it was fat, but I didn’t know it was this fat.”

All this time, the Orange King had restrained its size, appearing in cat form.

While it looked fat and actually was fat, it wasn’t this obvious. But now, revealing its full form, it was so fat that it was no longer just a super fat cat.

Yang Xiuwen affirmed, “Severely overweight. It needs to manage its figure.”

“I remember it should be a spatial attribute spirit beast,” Shi Zeyu mused. “A spirit beast’s abilities and appearance are closely related. It being this fat must be because it used abilities far beyond its physical capacity. Although I don’t know how it did it, it certainly wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience.”