"Teacher Yan," Ge said, hurrying to his side. "That Song Jun Wen seems talented. Should we just recruit him directly and skip the other rounds for him?"
"Don't joke," Yan snapped. "This is Divine Path University. How can it be so easy for students to enroll here? Every year, we reject countless participants who do well in the written exam and the first round. Let him go through the other rounds first."
"It might be better that way," Shi agreed. "I would like to see his performance in the other rounds. Besides, having great strength isn't everything. Even though he's powerful, if he doesn't have a good battle sense, he'll still end up dying in an actual battle."
"True. I'm just surprised someone like him applied for the regular curriculum. With that cultivation realm, couldn't he apply for the elite class?" Ge was puzzled. Shi shrugged.
"Maybe he knows his own limits better than we do? I'm sure he has his reasons."
"Just increase the difficulty and ensure he fails," Yan said dismissively, his hands in his pockets. Both assistants stared at him, astonished.
The next stage was a track around a field. There was a cage, with a cultivator wheeling it out, and inside the container was a feral Crimson Cheetah. Yan Jin went to the front.
"The second round is a test of speed. We'll provide you a large and wide area for you to run around, and it should be easy for you to evade anything we throw at you." He gestured to the vast field and tracks. "Within the time limit, you are to avoid the Crimson Cheetah. Anyone who gets knocked out by it will fail."
He turned to the assistants and waved them away. "You two begin the countdown, and supervise the students. Anyone falls into danger, pull them out immediately, but they are considered to have failed."
"Yes, Teacher Yan."
While the assistants went about their preparations, Yan Jin approached the cultivator at the cage, who was getting ready to unlock the door. He whispered something, and a vial exchanged hands. Then Yan Jin beckoned me over.
"Student Song Jun Wen."
"Yes, sir?" I went over, and he placed a hand on my shoulder. I frowned when I detected a weird scent, but didn't move away. Instead, I patiently waited for Yan Jin to lean in.
"I advise you to forfeit this round, or you'll be in danger."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Would you like to give up?"
"No. I'll do my best to pass."
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Yan Jin grinned before glancing at several distant spectators. Was that Shao Ye and his underlings?
For some reason, even though the Crimson Cheetah was locked in its cage, I could feel its predatory gaze upon me. That sense of unease was heightened after Yan Jin called me over. Did he put something on my shoulder? I brushed at my sleeve, but felt nothing. Still, I could detect some weird fragrance.
I wondered if I shook take off my jacket, but I doubted it. Whatever it was, it didn't just permeate the fabric of my jacket but soaked right past it, into my shirt and onto my skin. And I was sure that even if I took my jacket off, Yan Jin would find some other way to get that thing on me. What was it? Was it from the vial he took from the cage dude earlier?
"All right, let's begin! All of you, begin running!"
Yan Jin clapped his hands, and everyone sprang into life. The cultivator by the cage snapped open the lock, and the Crimson Cheetah burst out like a bullet. Turning into a crimson blur, it headed straight for me.
"I knew it."
I didn't panic. I wasn't sure why Yan Jin was deliberately targeting me, but if he wanted to play, then I would entertain him a little. I hadn't been idle over the last eighteen months. Though I hadn't progressed in terms of cultivation realm, I had undergone physical training to improve my strength, reflexes and speed.
A mere Crimson Cheetah wasn't going to catch me.
I sprinted to the side, making use of my archer's agility to bounce from the track and weave through the field. Normally, that would shake a regular spirit beast off, but a Crimson Cheetah wasn't just any normal spirit beast. I recalled that it was only Yellow Rank, but its speed could match those of Mystic ranked spirit beasts. Well, that was a misnomer. I wasn't sure how they categorized ranks, but it wasn't as simple as all Mystic ranked spirit beasts being necessarily stronger or faster than Yellow ranked ones. There were other factors at play, but I supposed the main one was the sheer quantity of qi and the destructive potential.
In other words, how much damage they could deal to humans.
"What the?!"
"I can't follow their movements!"
"What's going on?!"
The other examinees gaped as I zoomed past them, the Crimson Cheetah hot on my heels. I was a black blur and my pursuer was a streak of red, almost invisible as we weaved and zigzagged across the field. I leaped away, just in time for the Crimson Cheetah's claws to rake a gouge across the soil, sending grass and dirt spraying into the air.
Skidding to a stop, I glanced over my shoulder, only to jump away when the Crimson Cheetah pounced once more. while I ran, I noticed how close I was to one of the other students, who had the luxury of taking his smartphone out and streaming a live video of the entrance exam.
"Dude…"
But I didn't have time to berate him. The Crimson Cheetah lunged at me, completely ignoring the filming student, and bounded off the ground to alter its trajectory to home in only on me.
I knew it. I was deliberately being targeted. Yan Jin must have done something with that stupid vial, maybe chemical pheromones to direct all of the Crimson Cheetah's attention toward me. It wouldn't stop chasing until it caught and mauled me to death.
Well, we had a time limit of fifteen minutes. If it was just fifteen minutes, I should be fine. Swerving to the side, I kicked off the ground and practically flew to the side, causing the Crimson Cheetah to crash ungracefully. It snarled as it forced its head up, spitting out dirt and grassroots.
"Is he even human!? Why is he so fast!?" One of the other students demanded.
"Wait, why is the Crimson Cheetah only chasing him? Did he do something to it?"
"Maybe? Seems like it has a grudge against him. But we shouldn't have come in contact with the Crimson Cheetah before, right?"
"Earlier, the main supervisor called him over. Did he do something to that student?"
"More evidence of corruption…"
"Don't worry, I have this all on film!" The student with the recording smartphone said smugly. "We'll expose the corruption in Divine Path University!"
That was good and all, but it didn't help me with my present predicament. I could only keep running. While I did, the assistants watched, impressed.
"Amazing," Ge remarked, adjusting her glasses to stare at my blurry figure, her eyes almost unable to keep up with my movements. "This is definitely the speed of a Mystic ranked cultivator!"
"So what?" Yan Jin scoffed, though he was increasingly looking unsure of himself. "Even though he is fast, it doesn't mean he has the stamina to maintain that pace for long. There's still fifteen minutes left. We'll see how long he can keep that up!"
I continued sprinting, ignoring the peanut gallery. I had to focus on running for now, to stay out of the clutches of the Crimson Cheetah. It wasn't as if I was given a lot of leeway, after all. The Crimson Cheetah was faster than many Mystic-ranked spirit beasts, despite being a Yellow Rank, so if I didn't want to get torn apart, I had to focus.
But if it was stamina, I was confident. To be honest, I wasn't very fast. Just fast enough to stay one step ahead of a Crimson Cheetah. But just like original cheetahs before the interdimensional rift happened, while Crimson Cheetahs were exceedingly swift, they did it in bursts. In other words, unlike the antelope, they couldn't maintain such a blistering pace for long.
That was why, ten minutes later, the Crimson Cheetah had run out of gas. Panting, it clawed desperately at the track as it stared at me, rivulets of perspiration pouring down its red fur. It wheezed and gasped, its jaw hanging open to reveal slavering fangs, but the gesture was without bite.
Quite frankly, it looked like a joke right now.
"That's it?" I asked, turning to study it. Cracking my knuckles, I smirked. "I've only just finished my warmup, dude. And you're tired already?"
Normally, I would have shot down the Crimson Cheetah, but that wasn't allowed. My treasure weapons had been confiscated, and this was a speed test, not a combat test. If we fought the Crimson Cheetah, we would be disqualified. Otherwise, I would have cut it apart with my spirit swords or something earlier.
That said, there was no rule that said I couldn't chase the Crimson Cheetah. I just wasn't allowed to beat it up, that's all.
Nonetheless, the Crimson Cheetah didn't know that. It didn't understand human words, nor was it aware of all the restrictions that we examinees were bound to. It only comprehended instinctively the threat I was currently posing, with the killing intent radiating from my body. It gulped in fear and took a step back, much to the astonishment of everyone else. While everyone only saw me as a crazily giggling maniac, the Crimson Cheetah's bestial senses painted me as a dark shadow, almost like a grim reaper. The personification of death itself.
With a frightened howl, it whirled around and sprinted away from me.
"Hey! Who said you can run?" Shaking my head, I jogged a little before bursting into a sprint. "I guess it's my turn to chase you now!"
The Crimson Cheetah all but squealed helplessly as it struggled to escape from me. Having it stalk me for ten minutes earlier, I felt no sympathy at all. Only vengeance. And that only increased its fear even more.
"You think you can run? Get back here!"
"AWOOO!!!!"
Silence filled the air as all the other examinees watched the unbelievable scene, stunned. Even Yan Jin was gaping at the reversal, his glasses hanging askew and his jaw almost touching the ground.
Five minutes later, the cultivator in charge of the cage intervened, desperately jumping between me and the Crimson Cheetah. He was literally in tears, even as he snapped a leash on the spirit beast's throat and dragged it back to the cage. For some reason, he was hugging the Crimson Cheetah, who was so scared that it lost all hostility and gave in to his embrace.
"Please spare my spirit beast, my friend," the tamer begged. "It took me a long time to rear this one, and you know how hard it is to domesticate spirit beasts. It's near impossible for me to raise another one in captivity again!"
"Fine, fine."
He was correct. The reason why my existence as a summoner was unique was because most other cultivators couldn't tame spirit beasts. Over the last year and a half, thanks to me, they had carried out experiments and made a few breakthroughs, so that was slowly changing. But even so, none of them could figure out how I was summoning spirit beasts from my dungeon to the real world. Even if they had successfully tamed the perpetually hostile spirit beasts, they still couldn't summon them to a battlefield instantaneously like I did.
I didn't think my summoning exploits would push a leap forward in spirit beast taming research, but yay, I guess?
"S…since there is no one who got knocked out by the Crimson Cheetah, then it's safe to say that everyone passed!" Yan Jin tried to deflect the suspicious looks from the examinees by turning around and raising a finger. Before anyone could question him, he stalked off to the next stage. "Let's proceed to the third round!"
"Fine," I muttered, glaring at his disappearing back, and his head full of cold sweat. "Let's see what other tricks you have up your sleeve to sabotage my entrance examination."