"Three heads of the Seventh Stage Black Forest Anaconda. Wang Ping, you and I will go. Little Yu, provide remote support!"
"Alright!"
"A Ninth Stage Serrated Yellowjacket! Damn, flying beasts are really troublesome; even if we all go up together, we're no match."
"Don't think too much, just run!"
"Why did we encounter a wolf pack as soon as we came out? Is this teleportation point trying to mess with us!"
"Isn't it because you guys were talking so loudly? I told you to be quiet when exiting, but you never listen!"
"Brother Hao, let's call for help, or we're really going to be feeding this pack of hungry wolves today!"
Most of the area in the secret realm was yellow or orange.
So it wasn't just Su Yuan; most of the students in the secret realm encountered star beasts shortly after their descent and immediately engaged in combat.
Some, with worse luck, were attacked by star beasts as soon as they landed, without even having a moment to react...
At the secret realm camp, in the command center, more than twenty City Guard members in charge of trial assessments were monitoring the students' conditions through star power-driven drones.
"Two students are calling for help in Area A, numbers 34 and 35."
"Student number 744 in Area C is calling for help."
"Student number 253 in Area D is calling for help."
"They just landed, how come there are so many students calling for help already..." A relatively young city guard sighed.
After reporting more than twenty rescue signals in a row, the number of students calling for help finally began to decrease.
The teammate next to him laughed, saying, "Little Liu, you're new to our City Guard; you don't understand the situation with the joint trial.
Every year it's like this. There are more eliminations at the start because these students are still young; some have never even dealt with star beasts.
Even those who have trained in the Great Barbarian Mountain area a few times don't necessarily adapt instantly to the secret realm.
After all, except for lacking Silver Stage star beasts, the complexity of the environment, the variety and density of star beasts here are incomparable to the Great Barbarian Mountain area."
Little Liu nodded, "So that's how it is..."
Feeling somewhat relieved, the people in the command center started chatting while monitoring.
"Although many were eliminated upon landing, some students look pretty good."
"Yes, like student number 389, Jiang Jun. Her moves are clean and sharp, her saber skill is fast, ruthless, and precise, probably at least at the master level."
"Yours isn't as good as mine. Check out mine, number 002, Lv Xinghen from No. 1 High School.
His swordsmanship must be the green grade Star Pointing Sword Technique from the East City Fanxing Martial Arts Hall's master, Liu Chen. Looking at his proficiency, it should be at the master level, foreseen in the top three!"
"I live in the east city; I know Lv Xinghen. He is Liu Chen's nephew."
"No wonder he mastered this sword technique at such a young age."
"Speaking of which, these two special admission students from No. 1 and No. 4 High School are truly impressive. Fang Kun just killed a Ninth Stage berserk pig demon with one strike. Chen Jiujun has also electrocuted four Eighth Stage Wind Spirit Birds with lightning beams."
"Naturally, special admissions have a high chance of being in the top three. Green weapon cards are really enviable; I'm still using a white star device."
"..."
Amid the discussions, rookie Yang Jian, who also joined the Guangchuan City Guard this year, suddenly widened his eyes.
"This student seems impressive too. Being surrounded by three Eighth Stage Miasma Serpents and still managing to counterattack and kill them!"
"Eighth Stage Miasma Serpents? That's average. It'd be remarkable only if there were three Ninth Stage Miasma Serpents."
"But Brother Wang, this student seems to be just at the Eighth Stage."
"An Eighth Stage student?" The city guard called Brother Wang shook his head, "Nothing impressive about that. Considering there are nearly ten Ninth Stage students in this trial, being in the top ten for an Eighth Stage student is tough~"
Yang Jian thought for a moment. Brother Wang wasn't wrong, but this student number 388 did seem outstanding and deserved closer attention.
"Quiet, the captain is coming!"
Suddenly, a team member at the command center door whispered a reminder.
Hearing this, everyone immediately stopped chatting and pretended to be focused on their work.
Shortly, Xiao Yong walked in with a few others.
Glancing around the command center, Xiao Yong said expressionlessly, "You all seem to be enjoying your chat. I could hear you clearly from outside… Han Guangyuan!"
"Here!"
The city guard who had just spoken up immediately stood up.
Xiao Yong looked him over and snorted, "You still have time to tip others off. Seems like you're idle. If so, go to Area B and take over rescue work from Luo Fei."
Han Guangyuan's face turned bitter. Rescuing wasn't as comfortable as sitting in the 'office', but under Xiao Yong's gaze, he immediately responded, "Yes, captain!"
Saying that he obediently picked up his equipment and quickly ran out.
The others breathed a sigh of relief, secretly glad they hadn't been punished.
"What's the situation?"
As soon as Xiao Yong walked in, he asked.
"Report, captain. All students successfully entered the secret realm. Currently, 78 have been eliminated, and our people are escorting them back."
"Alright, no fatalities?"
"No. Among the eliminated, 42 had minor injuries, 3 had serious injuries. Emergency treatment has been administered, and Doctor Wang is already waiting with the medical team in the square."
"Good, keep monitoring." Xiao Yong nodded and began moving around in front of various screens.
Half a day later, Su Yuan finally entered the target red area.
"Steel Flame Finger!"
Su Yuan's figure flickered. He extended his steel-like right index finger, easily piercing through two Eighth Stage Forest Wolves that suddenly leaped from the forest.
Since the last battle with the Green Flame White Wolf, Su Yuan discovered that combining Hardened Iron Armor with Steel Flame Finger increased its power significantly more than using Steel Flame Finger alone.
So on this journey, except for the three initial Miasma Serpents, which were poisonous, Su Yuan tried using Hardened Iron Armor and Steel Flame Finger to solve battles.
The effect was surprisingly good. By partially hardening his fingers with Hardened Iron Armor, Steel Flame Finger at three percent power easily dealt with all Eighth Stage star beasts. At five percent power, it could kill most Ninth Stage star beasts.
This saved a lot of star power and still posed considerable power!
Of course, it was easy due to hitting the weak points.
For Su Yuan, with a C-level agility talent and Wind Walking, this wasn't an issue...
Su Yuan casually took out the locator, snapped the two Forest Wolves, and took out their star cores. He then opened the locator's map to check.
"I've almost covered the entire red area, but I still haven't found the Bronze-level star beast. Could it have left?
Logically, Bronze-level star beasts have strong territorial awareness and shouldn't wander off. Is my luck really that bad?"
Su Yuan had killed many star beasts along the way, including three Ninth Stage ones, but it wasn't enough. The Bronze-level star beast was key.
"I'll search thoroughly once more." Shaking his head, Su Yuan put away the map, deciding to conduct a carpet search...