A group of almost two thousand people followed the school officer to the exam site located in the northeastern part of Divine Bird City.
The exam site was a woodland area that connected with Warland Thicket in the east.
Peacock School had taken measures to prepare the exam site by clearing away all monsters and setting up a perimetric wall around the area.
Despite this, the exam site was still extensive, and traversing it from one side to the other would take several hours for an average person.
The site also had many ancient ruins and debris scattered across the trees, providing an opportunity to test cultivators' quick-wittedness in using terrain to their advantage.
In front of the entrance to the exam site stood a two-storied wooden stage, where several figures were waiting for the applicants.
One figure standing in front of the others was Mei Hongyi, this year's exam proctor, Peacock School's Second Elder, and the father of Mei Hongli.
Mei Hongyi was a chubby, extremely rich-looking middle-aged man whose appearance was not so different from his son's. However, unlike his son, he strongly exuded an overwhelming aura of a Wing Realm Master, which allowed him to look down upon most people within Divine Bird City.
Once all participants had gathered in front of the stage, Mei Hongyi began his speech. "Good morning, everyone! My name is Mei Hongyi. I am Second Elder of Peacock School and will be your exam proctor today."
Mei Hongyi signaled to his men behind him to activate the array on the stage. After that, dozens of image projections were displayed for everyone to see.
Mei Hongyi started explaining, "These images are currently projected from inside the exam site. Anything that happens in there will be shown here."
He then activated his Theríon, and thousands of figures that looked similar to him randomly appeared within the exam site. Scenes from inside the exam site were shown across the image projections above the stage.
"Do you see them?" Mei Hongyi asked.
"They are my Illusion Clones. As you can see, some of them are big, some are small, some are robust, and some are thin. Due to the difference in their physiques, their attributes in battle will be different. Some are faster, some are stronger, some are both."
Mei Hongyi explained the rules of the exam.
"The rule of the exam is very simple. Defeat as many of them as you can. You will get ten points for defeating one. Get a hundred points, and you will pass the exam."
"When you enter the exam site, you will be randomly teleported to different locations. You may link your Theríon to form a party so that you can be teleported together to the same place. When partying, the points you get from defeating the Illusion Clones will be divided among the members of your party."
"If any of you get defeated, in other words, being seriously injured or in a near-death situation, you will be teleported back here. Our team from Alchemy Center will take care of your wounds. Rest assured that no one will die from participating."
Hearing the words "seriously injured" and "death," the exam participants were taken aback, and some started discussing among themselves. Is the exam that harsh?
Mei Hongyi continued, "After one hour, all those who remain inside will be teleported back here, and the exam will be over. The total points you get from the exam will be shown here."
He raised his hand, and a scoreboard projection appeared above the image projections, displaying everyone's name and their scored points.
Mei Hongyi elaborated further: "This exam will be mainly testing your combat prowess. But more than that, it is to test your judging ability. I must warn you one thing. There are some of them with the strengths of late-stage Fang Realm. And there is also a Talon clone."
"Pick the wrong one, and you will be sent back right here in an instant. Those with less than one hundred points after being teleported back here will fail this entrance exam."
With the word "fail," the crowd became even more dejected. They started to discuss among each other.
"A Talon Realm clone?"
"Meeting this one among thousands of clones must be a hell of bad luck. We must avoid this one at all costs."
"Not only that, a late-stage Fang Realm would be enough to wipe us out!! Who knows how many there are?"
"It's exactly as we've heard. Peacock School's entrance exam is really difficult."
"I really have no hope in this exam after all."
Noticing that the participants started to waver, Mei Hongyi interjected: "Oh, I forgot. The one who can take the top ranking, the one who can obtain the most points after the exam is over, will be able to acquire this as a reward."
Mei Hongyi took out an item and showed it to the crowd.
An apple-sized round gem with crimson color was hovering above his hand. Via its aura and radiance, one could determine what it was right away.
"A Talon-level monster core?! And a late-stage one at that!! Senior, are you seriously going to give this to the first rank?"
"That's right!! And by the way, if you can defeat this Talon clone I was talking about, you will not get ten points but five thousand points instead!!" Mei Hongyi added some oil to the fire.
"F-Five thousand?!" The number of points that could be acquired by defeating a Talon clone shocked the crowd.
"That means if we party into a fifty-man group and defeat this clone, we will all pass this exam?"
"That's right!!" Mei Hongyi confirmed.
"Wow!! Let's do this together, and we all can pass Peacock School's entrance exam!!"
Some cultivators, who knew that they were not on the same level as those top geniuses and would surely not be able to take the top rank, only cared about whether they would pass the exam or not.
After knowing that there was one clone with five thousand points, they immediately thought of a plan and began looking for others to party with.
As for those top geniuses, five thousand points would definitely be able to ascertain their prize. They, too, started to form their own strategies to deal with this Talon clone.
Mei Hongyi added: "And as you all may already know, the top three ranks will have the privilege of becoming the direct disciple of Peacock School's elders."
"Oh? Never mind that. We can't take the top three anyway." One cultivator amongst the crowd flatly brushed this incentive away, rendering Mei Hongyi speechless.
Ignoring the top rewards, the crowd had their own thinking to easily pass the exam. They all boiled up with excitement.
On the other side, Mei Hongli jeered at the rest of the crowd: "Heh, look at these fools!! They think numbers can make up for that gap. It will be genocide if they challenge a Talon clone."
"Now go!! Let me see who will take the top and be able to get this reward!!" Mei Hongyi announced.
With this, he signaled the start of the exam.
Everyone rushed into the exam area.
Ying Lizhua glanced at Feng Luotian's group before entering the area by himself.
Mei Hongli walked up to Mei Yue'er and invited her: "Shall we go together, Yue'er? You will definitely get into the top three if you form a party with me."
"Never mind me, Hongli. I will go with Luotian and Wuji!!" Mei Yue'er directly refused.
Getting rejected in the face, Mei Hongli gritted his teeth and gave a hateful glance at Feng Luotian: "Just you wait!!"
Mei Hongli, along with his men, charged into the exam area.
"You two, go ahead without me." Feng Luotian flatly said.
"What?!" Mei Yue'er and Sun Wuji turned toward him at the same time with their confused expressions.