The assessment process announced by the chief examiner had been predetermined long ago, but not all details were disclosed to the candidates.
The requirement for the practical assessment was to survive for three days.
Killing mutant plants would earn points, and candidates ranked in the top twenty would have the right to choose their school.
Those in the top ten would have the right to choose their department, and the top three would even have the privilege of selecting their mentors.
Military academies are places that cultivate top-tier Star Executors.
Students with high talent and ability naturally receive more resources.
With only half a day left in the practical assessment, to increase competitiveness and stimulate more students’ potential, all twenty originally isolated groups were merged, giving capable candidates more opportunities.
Take Group 3, where Zhong Qian was, for example.
Candidates in Group 3 were both lucky and unlucky.
Zhong Qian had slain a large number of mutant creatures, making it easier for them to survive the three days.
However… they also found it extremely difficult to snatch points from him.
Aside from Zhong Qian, nearly all candidates in Group 3 had zero points.
Of course, Group 3 also had the lowest elimination rate.
After removing the isolation walls between areas, this situation would be alleviated.
If they wanted to compete for rankings, they could now go to other areas to earn points.
Li Yang immediately perked up upon hearing this announcement.
What!
The isolation walls were removed!
Countless small shrubs, tiny withered flowers, and decayed weeds flashed through her mind.
She had thought the harvesting was over, but now more “little lives” were waving at her again.
As for the ranking, Li Yang only wanted to enter the top twenty.
She had no interest in being first place.
What was the benefit of being first?
It would only make her a target of jealousy.
She was just an ordinary citizen and had no desire to provoke the young heirs of Star Executor families.
To her, even Fang Chuyun and Yu Hongyuan were already wealthy and influential, but in the provincial capital, students with their level of resources were everywhere.
The social hierarchy in this world was far more brutal than in her previous life.
Li Yang’s ideal scenario was to barely squeeze into the top twenty and quietly secure her right to choose her school.
But now… Forget it.
Since things had come to this, there was no point in overthinking.
Besides, even if she had another chance, she would still harvest the non-graded mutant plants.
She would never abandon the “little lives” already in her grasp.
If she lost her life, what else would matter?
Even if the emperor himself arrived, she would still fight.
Li Yang glanced at the leaderboard again and decided to go all in.
She wasn’t afraid of earning more points now.
There were still four hours left, and she would continue sweeping through the non-graded mutant plants!
She pulled out her hand-drawn map and carefully examined it.
Over the past two days, she had explored all of Group 8 and knew exactly where the isolation walls were.
There was one in each direction: east, west, south, and north.
She wasn’t sure which group each one led to.
However, every group should have plenty of non-graded plants, so it didn’t matter where she went!
After calculating her route, she dashed towards the isolation wall on the left.
Inside the central control room.
The main screen continued displaying the status of each group.
The sound of the rescue alert was reactivated, and a noisy chatter filled the room once more.
“Dammit! Killing non-graded mutant plants gives points too?”
“Li Yang is such a scoundrel! How did she even think of killing non-graded mutant plants?”
“Most non-graded mutants are in safe zones.
She’s earning points way too easily!”
Upon hearing these murmurs, the chief examiner sneered coldly and said, “Naïve.”
The other examiners didn’t necessarily have the chief examiner’s sharp insight and were feeling somewhat doubtful.
Did he set the score too high?
If each non-graded mutant was worth two points…
It seemed like a lot of candidates were about to rack up points…
Would this assessment in Donghua Province become a joke?
Clearly, after learning how Li Yang had accumulated 200 points, many candidates were eager to hunt non-graded mutant plants.
A Grade-1 mutant creature had considerable aggression, and killing one alone posed a significant risk.
Moreover, even if they managed to take down a low-tier mutant, it was only worth five points.
To break into the top twenty, they would have to kill at least four or five.
One wrong move, and they could be eliminated.
But non-graded mutant plants posed no such risks.
Firstly, they were all located in safe zones.
Secondly, since they were non-graded… they had to be weak.
A single strike meant two points why not take advantage of it?
With this in mind, the candidates sharpened their weapons and charged toward the non-graded mutants.
On the main screen, candidates in every area were now searching for non-graded mutant creatures in the safe zones.
However… within half an hour, they were drenched in sweat.
Some candidates wandered around the safe zones for half an hour, their eyes wide open, yet they couldn’t find a single non-graded mutant creature.
One muttered in frustration, “Where is it? Where the hell is it?”
Another candidate, driven to desperation, started hacking randomly at the bushes only to disturb a non-graded shrub.
This was the very same “Ugly Shrub” that Li Yang had named.
It suddenly leaped up, its leaves turning into blades that shot toward the candidate with a “swish, swish, swish!”
Luckily, with a physique score of 84, he reacted quickly and ducked, narrowly avoiding injury to his eyes.
But the Ugly Shrub wasn’t done.
It lunged forward and bit down on his calf.
The candidate screamed in pain, swinging his longsword wildly only to accidentally wake up a sleeping non-graded frog.
The frog sprang into the air and sprayed him with poisonous mist.
This time, he couldn’t dodge.
His vision blurred, and his face turned green!
On the large screen in the central control room, such scenes were everywhere.
Candidates were either cursing in frustration as they failed to find any non-graded mutant creatures or swinging their weapons recklessly, provoking mutants and ending up overwhelmed.
Of course, some candidates with outstanding combat abilities successfully cleared out non-graded mutant plants, only to sigh and say, “These things aren’t that easy to kill.”
Li Yang’s ability to personally cut down 100 of them had given everyone a huge misconception.
In reality, non-graded mutant creatures were far harder to kill than they had imagined.
Even those who could kill them found the two-point reward inefficient.
The time it took to kill two non-graded creatures was enough to take down one low-tier Grade-1 mutant, which was worth five points.
The only real advantage was that it was relatively safer.
But the problem was time was running out!
If they were unlucky, they might not find a single non-graded creature in half an hour.
With less than four hours remaining, those hoping to climb the leaderboard using non-graded mutants could forget about making it into the top twenty.
An hour passed, and all the candidates who had doubted Li Yang now held her in absolute respect.
How on earth did she manage to find 100 non-graded mutant plants?
Just this feat alone was enough to stump 90% of the candidates!
Inside the control room, the examiners, watching all of this unfold, now had complete admiration for the chief examiner.
No wonder she was in charge her scoring system was absolutely justified!
Li Yang knew nothing of these developments.
After arriving in a new area, she used her 90-point mental perception to quickly locate non-graded mutant plants hidden within the safe zones.
With a swift chop crack!
She skillfully harvested another one, earning herself an extra month of lifespan.
The only downside was that the safe zones were quite far apart, and each contained only a limited number of non-graded mutant plants.
Most of her time was wasted on traveling.
Along the way, she encountered clusters of candidates.
These candidates weren’t unaware of the Entry Guidelines they had gathered on purpose to lure out mutant creatures quickly and earn points.
From them, Li Yang learned which group this area belonged to.
“Group 7, huh…”
She quickly deduced, “Then the other side must be Group 6…”
Li Yang set herself a small goal:
“I’ll try to clear out all of Group 6.”
With an average of two hours per group, she decided to skip the more remote safe zones.
She would take the optimal route and clear out as many non-graded plants as possible!
Coincidentally, her muttered words were captured by the surveillance screens in the control room.
The examiners: “…”
Wow, she’s really going all out!
But no one doubted her score anymore.
This girl’s mental perception must be extraordinarily high otherwise, there was no way she could scan for non-graded mutant plants as if she had radar.
A physique score of 90, and if her mental perception was also above 80…
Then she was truly a once-in-a-decade prodigy!
On the screen, another striking figure was Zhong Qian from Group 3.
He belonged to the Zhong family, a powerful household that dominated Donghua Province and had produced many influential figures over the years.
Zhong Qian was the most outstanding member of his generation and even had some reputation in the capital.
At that moment, he was staring at the leaderboard.
His already stern face had completely lost any expression.
He was in second place.
He was exactly 80 points behind first place.
He stared at the ranking for a full three minutes, then silently shut off the screen projection and sprinted toward the isolation wall on his right.
Group 3 had already been cleared of all Grade-1 mutant creatures.
There was no way he would waste time killing non-graded mutant plants.
He was going after the only available Grade-2 mutant creature.
If he could take it down, he would earn a full 100 points.
First place would be his!
Meanwhile, Lin Zhao Qin from Group 5 was also checking the leaderboard.
At first, she was furious when she saw herself ranked third.
She cursed under her breath.
But when she saw Zhong Qian in second place, she suddenly burst into laughter and cursed again:
“That bastard! You finally got what’s coming to you!”
Then her eyes landed on the top-ranked contestant.
Lin Zhao Qin: “Holy shit!”
Who the hell was that?
Li Yang?
She was a whole 100 points ahead of her?!
Initially, when she saw Zhong Qian’s score, she had been determined to fight her way up the rankings.
But now… she gave up.
There was no point struggling someone had already crushed Zhong Qian into the dust.
Most of the candidates in the top ten knew each other’s group assignments.
But no one knew which group Li Yang belonged to, nor had they even seen what she looked like.
Fang Chu Yun and Yu Hong Yuan were just as dumbfounded.
They had expected Li Yang to be in first place, but they never imagined she would score a staggering 220 points!
Yu Hong Yuan crawled out of his “doghole,” covered in dust, and stared at the leaderboard in disbelief:
“Damn! If you trust the boss, you’ll live forever!”
Just a while ago, he had been reluctant to acknowledge Li Yang as the leader.
Now, he wished he could tie a headband around his forehead that said “Li Yang’s loyal follower.”
Since the leaderboard was no longer hidden, many candidates who had no hope of reaching the top twenty stopped competing and started spectating instead.
“She’s moving! Li Yang’s score is moving again!”
“+2, +2, +2… She really loves those non-graded mutant plants!”
“Even if Zhong Qian kills the Grade-2 mutant, he might not be able to take first place…”
“He’ll probably clear out some high-tier Grade-1 creatures on the way.
As long as he kills the Grade-2, he still has a sliver of hope!”
“A sliver, huh…”
The watching candidates couldn’t help but feel a bit amused.
A famous figure among Donghua Province’s younger generation was being utterly crushed it was hard not to enjoy the spectacle.
Meanwhile, Zhong Qian was steadily gathering a crowd of candidates around him.
His intentions were clear:
“Follow me. I will lure out the Grade-2 mutant creature. You won’t need to lift a finger.”
Being a well-known figure in Donghua Province, his words were enough to convince most candidates to join him.
Some wanted to help him lure the mutant out, while others just wanted to watch the battle unfold after all, with the examiners monitoring everything, they had nothing to lose by watching the show!
Zhong Qian set off from Group 3, gathering a large group of candidates before arriving in Group 6’s territory.
At the same time, Li Yang had just finished clearing out the non-graded plants in Group 7 and moved to Group 6.
Lin Zhao Qin, too, had wandered into Group 6 from Group 5.
With the top three candidates all converging in the same area, a hidden mechanism of the practical assessment was triggered.
Once three high-ranking candidates gathered in one place, the dangerous aura would awaken the lurking Grade-2 mutant creature.
As a result, a Grade-2 Mutant Dahlia was unleashed into Group 6.