Mid-term Exam, Part 17

This mountain peak, when it flew out of the Orange King’s throat, was merely a ball of fur.

The ball of fur cut a sharp arc through the air, assailing the crowd in the snow-covered world.

As this arc gradually elongated, the ball of fur had clearly transformed into a basin-sized overturned bowl.

The bowl rotated gracefully in the air, growing larger and larger, until it finally materialized into a lush, verdant mountain peak, like a floating island.

It blotted out the sky and sun, quietly obscuring the only light in the cafeteria, its oppressive shadow forcibly covering the immobilized third-year students.

The Orange King spat out a mountain.

A cat actually spat out a mountain!

Although this mountain currently looked only the size of a bedsheet, once it was fully released, it could definitely crush half of the cafeteria.

Su Qing’s body felt numb on one side.

She wanted to say, ‘Orange King, I know you go easy on me, but I didn’t realize you went this easy on me.’

With the Orange King’s capabilities, if it truly intended to make everyone fail, couldn’t it just condescendingly open its cat mouth and devour the entire cafeteria, along with everyone inside, to solve the problem?

Why bother jumping around, doing backflips, and high kicks? How difficult for a semi-truck.

And what other reason could the Orange King have for doing all this? Of course, it was because:

The cat loved her!

The half-mountain peak spun, growing larger and larger.

It was about to stretch into a mountain range thousands of li long.

The Golden Core third-year students below finally couldn’t sit still.

In half a breath, Ling Yunxiao’s aura surged wildly, vaguely exhibiting the aura of an early Nascent Soul cultivator.

She must have used some secret technique to boost her cultivation.

Having lived for an extra hundred and twenty years, her foundation was indeed extraordinary.

Xie Fengwu had no time to ponder why Ling Yunxiao had held back her cultivation until the very end.

In fact, other than pretending to be weak to take out everyone else present, there was no other possibility.

She slammed a palm into the void, and the ethereal image of a three-legged cauldron suddenly rose.

This cauldron was extremely rustic, without a trace of reflection, as if molded from clay.

Yet, its size was immense; though not physically present, its mere phantom image was a hundred feet tall.

The first-year students didn’t understand what this was, only that this ancient and unadorned object must be something good.

“Mountain-Opening Cauldron!” But the second-year students recognized it at a glance, their voices somewhat twisted, as if they were gritting their teeth. “Such a good thing, such a good thing—”

‘Why did it have to belong to someone else!’

The Mountain-Opening Cauldron originated from an ancient inheritance called the Myriad Ages Furnace.

The Myriad Ages Furnace, as its name suggested, meant that all things in the world could be used as alchemical ingredients, could be cast into the alchemical furnace, and could achieve immortal pills.

This inheritance was divided into nine tiers.

The highest, ninth tier, was said to be capable of refining this world into an elixir.

Consuming this elixir would allow one to shatter the void, remold an immortal body, ascend to the immortal realm, and become an otherworldly powerhouse presiding over a region.

But no one had ever refined the ninth tier. Currently, within the Sword School, the highest tier of the Myriad Ages Furnace inheritance was the sixth tier, and the Mountain-Opening Cauldron was the fourth tier.

The fact that Xie Fengwu could obtain the Mountain-Opening Cauldron in just three years meant she must have sold her life to the Sword School, working day and night, completing missions, exploited until her flesh and blood were drained, and her ribs pressed against her skin, just to accumulate enough contribution points.

Mountain-Opening, as its name implied, the Mountain-Opening Cauldron could refine mountains and rivers, lakes and forests.

Therefore, at this moment, with the mountain peak pressing down, the Mountain-Opening Cauldron actually held its ground for a while, stubbornly preventing it from smashing onto the ground as it wished.

However, Xie Fengwu, at the Golden Core stage, was barely holding on.

Blood seeped like threads from her seven orifices, forming blood-red ice beads before it could drip onto the icy ground, then “plinked” onto the floor.

Xie Fengwu roared, clutching tightly, “Ling Yunxiao, the rest is up to you!”

It seemed she wasn’t the only one holding back a trump card. Ling Yunxiao’s lips curved, and a spiritual light flashed in her eyes.

Her feet sank, and the ground “hummed” and caved in, cracking into several long lines.

Then, her figure suddenly shot out, flying up, and directly collided with the mountain peak.

With a thunderous crash, the mountain peak, which had yet to fully form, shattered as if struck by a meteorite.

Starting from the point of Ling Yunxiao’s impact, cracks spread across the mountain like a spiderweb.

The sound of crumbling stones “crunch-crunch-crunched” chaotically.

The mountain peak trembled violently, as if reaching a breaking point.

In the next moment, the mountain body could no longer support itself and disintegrated.

Half of the broken stones scattered in all directions, while the other half crashed into the Mountain-Opening Cauldron like a torrent, sending dust soaring into the sky.

Xie Fengwu sighed inwardly, ‘What a pity.’

It was, after all, a half-formed mountain peak without a foundation.

Otherwise, if its earth脉 were complete, it truly would have been a rare and excellent alchemical ingredient, enough to support her cultivation through the fourth tier of the Myriad Ages Furnace.

The crisis of the falling mountain peak was thus resolved.

Body Cultivators were truly terrifying.

Except for a few unlucky individuals who were smashed out of the safe zone by the scattering stones, most people survived.

The third-year students still looked startled and regretful, somewhat wishing they hadn’t focused solely on that arrogant first-year female cultivator in black, forgetting to deal with the new Body School student.

Who could have imagined that she would actually seize the ultimate BOSS, the Orange King, and make full use of it? Young minds are truly devious, it was truly hateful.

A disaster lightly settled, and though everyone’s expressions were grim, they were nowhere near as grim as Wang Quan’s outside.

Actually, he naturally had a smiling face, so how could it be called grim? It was just that the smile on his lips was distorted, making him appear particularly eerie.

He smiled, gritting his teeth, “The Endless Mountain I borrowed from Penglai.”

What an excellent word, “borrowed”…

Qin Suzhi’s brow twitched, realizing something. No wonder the Sect Leader had specially taken the Orange King to Penglai last time. He had actually gone to steal a mountain peak.

No wonder the Orange King hated Wang Quan.

Its body was already at its limit, yet Wang Quan continued to use it this way, even making it forcibly swallow the Endless Mountain.

Qin Suzhi frowned and said, “Sect Leader, we have plenty of mountains in Jianzhong. Why borrow the Endless Mountain?”

The Endless Mountain, as its name suggests, was a spiritual mountain capable of self-replication.

Penglai was situated deep in the ocean, constantly eroded by sea winds and waves.

If not for the Endless Mountain, perhaps Penglai would no longer exist in the world.

Wang Quan naturally knew that Qin Suzhi was feeling pity for the Orange King.

He looked up and said gently, “The Penglai Sect Leader owes me a hundred million spirit stones but reneged on the debt, showing no immortal temperament whatsoever.Seeing that there was no way to argue, he had no choice but to give me a piece of the Endless Mountain first. I originally didn’t want to accept it, but out of understanding for the difficulty of managing a large sect, I reluctantly kept it here for a few days.”

It was just that the Orange King’s nature was stubborn, only devouring and never expelling.

That was why it had always been stored in its belly and never taken out.

Otherwise, Wang Quan would have long since used the soil from the Endless Mountain to repair the Sword School’s damaged ancient battlefield.

Wang Quan was calculating where to demand the hundred million spirit stones, when he saw the Orange King, hoarse and heartbroken, continue to retch violently on the side.

Su Qing patted its scruff, feeling a little distressed. Seeing its pitiful appearance, she wondered if she was right or wrong to feed it catnip.

She wondered if it was her imagination, but after spitting out that mountain peak, the Orange King’s body visibly shrunk by about a centimeter, and its belly was no longer as round.

Spitting it out seemed to really benefit it.

Soon, a second ball of fur rolled out of its stomach, rocketing from its throat.

The fur ball scattered, revealing its true contents.

This time, it wasn’t a saliva-covered mountain peak, but attacks—specifically, eighteen terrifying sword intents.

This sword intent came from Elder Qingfeng.

Elder Qingfeng was a late-stage Spirit Transformation sword cultivator.

In his pursuit of the ultimate in sword dao, he had constantly battled numerous powerhouses.

None of the Sword School’s various elders were spared, and even the divine beast Orange King was ensnared.

But cats didn’t have claws, and discussing swordsmanship with a cat was truly bullying it.

All the cat could do was open its mouth wide and devour them completely, swallowing Elder Qingfeng’s nine sword intents one by one.

But things that are swallowed always have a time to be spat out.

Like now, for instance.

Su Qing’s basic sword cultivation class was taught by Senior Sister Qin Zhen, who was one of Elder Qingfeng’s direct disciples. However, unfortunately, the third-year sword cultivation class was personally taught by Elder Qingfeng himself.

Now, to make them face their teacher’s sword intent, was simply too cruel—

Moreover, there was no one in the arena who could contend with Elder Qingfeng’s sword intent.

The faces of the third-year students all showed despair, a despair so profound it became calm, so calm that they even laughed. “Haha, after barely surviving Elder Qingfeng, you can’t do this to me, you can’t—”

Their words were cut short, vanishing into the lingering wind.

The nine sword intents were not fierce; on the contrary, they were calm and leisurely, like a stream flowing in the wind, transparent waves, gentle yet irresistible, sweeping through.

A late-stage Spirit Transformation sword intent was utterly pure, unfolding calmly like a compressed scroll, even carrying a lingering sense of tranquility, but this did not mean its power was weak.

Nine sword intents—swept across. Each place they passed, a layer of color was scraped from the world.

And after the ninth sword intent passed, only a faint, paper-like white remained in the world.

If the colors of the world all vanished, then naturally, humans would not remain.

From the side where the sword intent was released, stretching outwards, it actually created a vacuum zone.

Not to mention the cafeteria, even half of the Sword School directly evaporated on the spot.

And the Orange King was still vomiting, “Ugh—!”

Su Qing’s face was numb. If the Orange King kept vomiting, the Sword School would be gone.

But everything happened too fast, beyond anyone’s control. Continuous retching sounds rang out, and one fur ball after another was spat out by the Orange King, floating in the air.

Five, ten, twenty, fifty… one hundred.

At the same time, the Orange King’s body gradually shrank, slowly becoming one-half, one-third, and even one-tenth of its original size. However, the cost was—

This small examination ground of the main peak was bombed again and again by countless natural and man-made disasters, like fireworks scattering wildly in a box, causing the entire examination ground to violently shake.

Heaven and earth collapsed, the ground quaked, hurricanes swept through, torrential rains devoured rivers, a blood moon hung high, meteorites flew backward, spiritual veins flowed in reverse—

It had gone too far, completely out of control.

Previously, the remaining examinees could cling to the Orange King, treating it as Noah’s Ark in a flooded apocalypse, hugging its fat leg to survive.

But when the Orange King wildly vomited and released divine weapons and artifacts that illuminated the Sword School with explosions, everything ceased to work.

Qin Suzhi watched as all the programs behind the Illusory Chest malfunctioned and smoked, the indices rapidly jumping, frantically beyond recognition.

All input commands stretched and warped, tangled together like balls of yarn. No matter how she tried to clear them with her divine sense, they wouldn’t untangle.

The energy had exceeded the maximum load capacity; the Illusory Chest collapsed.

To be precise, the examination ground collapsed.

Su Qing’s ingenious move directly ended the third-year, ended the second-year, and ended the first-year.

It almost ended the Illusory Chest too.

Of course, if she had truly ended the Illusory Chest, Wang Quan would have been heartbroken to the point of being ended along with it.

She knew the Orange King was a capable cat, but she had still underestimated…

Before her consciousness was ejected, Su Qing last saw the Orange King, which had already reverted to its normal size.

The Orange King seemed a little weak.

Compared to its usual pomp and circumstance, it appeared feeble, with saliva still clinging to the corners of its mouth.

But from its agile physique and no longer heavy panting, one could tell it was much more comfortable now.

It was just that the entire cat seemed a little slow to react, standing stunned in place, its body rigid.

It wanted to open its mouth wide and swallow back the things it had spat out.

It wanted to eat everything. If it hadn’t been so useless then, always willful and lazy, not cultivating properly, Carefree Immortal wouldn’t have—wouldn’t have… It had to eat more, eat everything, eat all things, visible or invisible, only this way, only this way… otherwise!

If it hadn’t chosen to be a cat in the beginning, but had properly been a Taotie, would everything have been different?

It clearly loved the human world so much, loved Carefree Immortal—

Su Qing couldn’t help but casually pick off the glistening eye boogers from the corner of the Orange King’s eye, rubbed its head, and gently praised:

“Cat plays with human, good cat, good cat.”