After running for five minutes, Lv Chongyang said indifferently, "Five minutes have passed, we will start the elimination stage."
Hearing this, everyone present tensed up. Five seconds soon passed, and a girl's wristband turned red.
"Eliminated." Lv Chongyang directly used his Primordial Spirit force to sweep the eliminated girl off the track.
Everyone instantly grew more nervous. In order not to be the slowest runner, those who had been running at minimum speed started to speed up.
As everyone sped up, Zhou Bai felt his whole body become as heavy as if it were covered in cement. "I can't go on, I can't hold on any longer..."
Zhou Bai had never experienced such strenuous exercise before and was one of the first people who couldn't keep going.
Next to him, Jing Xiu maintained a steady pace, showing no signs of weakness in her eyes, and analyzed in her mind, 'There are two ways to be eliminated. One is when you run out of stamina and can't run anymore; you will be eliminated.
The other is that every five seconds, the slowest person will be eliminated.
You can't be the slowest, so you have to accelerate, but blindly speeding up will consume stamina, and if you're too slow, you might be unexpectedly eliminated.'
Jing Xiu thought about her strategy for this test: "I can't be too slow, but I also can't be too fast. I need to run at a moderate speed. If I find myself too slow, I should adjust and speed up appropriately to maintain a balance between stamina and speed..."
While thinking, she glanced at Zhou Bai beside her to see his plan, but she only saw Zhou Bai's deformed actions, struggling to keep going.
She frowned slightly, feeling Zhou Bai becoming slower and slower, and could only say helplessly, "I'll go ahead. Good luck."
In long-distance running, maintaining a steady pace is the most effortless. Repeated acceleration and deceleration only consume stamina faster, making it more difficult to last in this test.
Zhou Bai kept slowing down, his steps becoming staggering. Jing Xiu couldn't slow down to accompany him.
Watching Jing Xiu gradually move away, Zhou Bai ran slower and slower, feeling as if every muscle and nerve were as heavy as a thousand pounds. He could only watch as one candidate after another overtook him.
Suddenly, he felt a cold gaze sweeping over him.
"Too slow, eliminated."
Zhou Bai was startled and quickly checked his wristband, finding it hadn't turned red. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. Turning his head, he saw a slightly chubby boy being eliminated.
After this scare, Zhou Bai sped up again, constantly thinking in his mind: 'No, I can't be eliminated.'
Thinking about the destroyed underground base, the dead Alice, Dr. Zhuang, and the auxiliary system on his body, his gaze gradually sharpened, "It's not that I'm too arrogant... but with my auxiliary system, I might be the most hopeful person to save humanity in this world, I can't be eliminated here."
But after running for a while, Zhou Bai slowed down again, feeling like his body was about to fall apart: 'No, I really can't hold on any longer!'
Compared to Zhou Bai, who struggled on the edge of elimination, the strongest-willed, leading runners with the best physical fitness seemed much more at ease.
Moreover, as they continued to run, they gradually felt threads of spiritual force entering their bodies, which were then expelled through exercise.
With the inhaling and exhaling of the spiritual force, their Primordial Spirit force seemed to grow.
This feeling grew stronger and stronger, and the faster they ran, the more intense it felt, pushing the candidates to speed up, their eyes shining with excitement.
Watching the candidates running faster and faster on the track, Zhou Bai showed a speechless expression, "These lunatics, you'll exhaust yourselves sooner or later."
"Hmm? No, something's wrong." Zhou Bai's expression tightened, "Why do I feel my Primordial Spirit force increasing?" But he looked at the auxiliary system and found that his Primordial Spirit force hadn't increased at all.
"No increase? Forget it, whatever. It's hard enough for me to pass the test, I'd rather lie down to increase points in the future, running is not suitable for me."
More and more candidates started to speed up, their eyes showing signs of surprise.
"I feel my Primordial Spirit value is still rising!"
"60...70... my Primordial Spirit value is increasing so fast! Is it because of my talent?"
"This feeling! I feel my Primordial Spirit value is going to break through 99!"
Feeling their Primordial Spirit values rising faster and faster, the candidates ran faster and faster, the temptation of feeling their power growing crazily was too strong.
Furthermore, as their running speed increased, they even felt their Primordial Spirits were about to leave their bodies, as countless mysteries and knowledge in front of them were opening up to them.
"Entering Dao! I feel like I am about to enter Dao!"
"The mysteries of Heavenly Dao are revealing themselves to me!"
"To enter Dao, even if I don't pass this test this time, I can come next time! It's worth it!"
The candidates' faces were full of surprise and delight.
"Liu Bai, eliminated."
"Song Zhong, eliminated."
"Charles, eliminated."
As these candidates ran faster and faster, they soon exhausted their stamina and were eliminated.
Zhou Bai watched these students being eliminated one by one, his face blooming with joy.
Originally, he thought it would take three or four hours to eliminate down to three hundred people, but with more and more people speeding up and exhausting their stamina, aside from Zhou Bai, almost everyone had sped up to increase their Primordial Spirit force.
In just over ten minutes, the number of participants in the test had been reduced to only three hundred.
Zhou Bai didn't care about health anymore and lay down on the ground instantly, gasping for breath.
Jing Xiu looked at the scene, seeing that most of the eliminated candidates were exhausted, a thoughtful expression flashed in her eyes.
Lv Chongyang looked at everyone and slowly said, "I just said, the three rules of Dao cultivation: do not face Heavenly Dao directly, do not let the Primordial Spirit emerge, do not pursue achievements recklessly, have you forgotten?"
"The Heavenly Path is indeed a test of willpower, but running on it will not truly increase your Primordial Spirit force, it's just an illusion. Even the Primordial Spirit emergence later on is an illusion."
"But faced with the temptation of power and knowledge increasing rapidly, you all couldn't resist, instead, you blindly pursued power. Indulgent in your desires without recognizing it, you even forgot the purpose of the test itself.
This is just an Illusion Array, on the true path of cultivation, the temptations you encounter will be ten times that of the Heavenly Path.
Although most of you did not pass this test today, I hope that on the path of cultivation in the future, you will remember the three rules of Dao cultivation, proceed step by step. Even if the Heavenly Path could truly increase Primordial Spirit force, you must not pursue achievements recklessly."
The eliminated candidates showed expressions of shame, feeling ashamed for indulging in power and not realizing it, controlled by the pleasure of increasing their Primordial Spirit values.
Lv Chongyang shook his head, but the next moment, a look of appreciation appeared in his eyes, "But there is a candidate here who did not accelerate at all to increase his Primordial Spirit value, focusing solely on the test. Let's applaud his iron will, Zhou Bai, you probably had the best score in the second round of testing this time. Keep it up."
After saying this, he led the applause.
Everyone looked in the direction Lv Chongyang was staring and started clapping, looking at Zhou Bai lying on the ground with admiration.
Jing Xiu walked to Zhou Bai's side, looking at him with admiration, "Brother Zhou, I originally thought you couldn't persist in running because your will was not firm, it seems I was too dull. You must have seen the true purpose of this test from the beginning, right?
The will to run was secondary, the will to resist the temptations of power and knowledge is the most important in the eyes of the Dao School teachers, it is the most important in the path of cultivation. You are amazing!"
"Ah, it's not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning." Zhou Bai looked at her excited look and waved his hand, "There are many worries on the path of cultivation, I'm just a few steps ahead, it's nothing."
"Brother Zhou, you're too modest. My dad said the Dao School is full of elites, with many more talented people than I am. He was right, Brother Zhou, you are far more talented than I am."
"Ah, it's all useless... Jing Xiu, can you help me to the next examination venue?"
"Ah?"
Zhou Bai leaned on Jing Xiu, walking while cursing in his heart, 'Damn, my legs are so weak from running.'
Christina: "Who told you to lie on the couch all day? I'm afraid you're going to turn into a potato."