Chapter 400: Second round (2)

When that voice called out, everyone turned in the direction that it was coming from.

They saw a man who was standing on top of a large piece of rubble that was trapped in the mud of the swamp, looking over them.

This was a man who was wearing a purple suit with a purple tophat and black cane. This man had combed back hair, a monocle, and a moustache that was curled into spirals at the end. If one looked right into the spirals of his moustache, they would find themselves falling deeper and deeper in until they lost themselves.

But that wasn't the most conspicuous thing about this person, that would have been the cup of tea that was floating around him at all times. Judging by the vapour that was coming from it, it was clear that it was fresh tea.

Just where had he gotten this in the middle of a swamp?

Of course that didn't matter right now since it was clear that this person was their examiner.

That man looked over at the people that had suddenly appeared before saying, "Welcome everyone to the second round, my name is Shi Yan and I will be your examiner. Before we start, we will take a break for a few minutes while we prepare something to give everyone a chance to catch their breaths first."

Then after that, without even caring about what the examinees thought, Shi Yan jumped off the piece of rubble and disappeared into a building that was set up nearby.

There were a few people who tried to go into the building after he had disappeared, but they found that they weren't able to open the door at all.

Since this was the situation, everyone just decided to take what he said at face value and several of them went to find places to collapse. All of them were people who had taken the first round.

Based on how tired they looked and how they were drenched in sweat, it was clear that the first round had been hard on them.

There were also several people who approached the people that had appeared for the second round. After all, these people were the seeded contestants, which meant that not a single one of them was weak. If they were able to get close to these seeded examinees, it would mean that they would be able to make it through this second round much easier.

Of course, that was on the premise that they could work together in this second round.

There were a few people that also approached Lin Fan, but Lin Fan didn't mind since he also wanted to get some information from them, such as why they were all covered in mud and completely exhausted.

After asking a few of them, Lin Fan learned that the first round that they had gone through was a run through these swamps to reach this point. In just a single day, they had crossed over three thousand kilometers of land to reach this location.

If it was just normal three thousand kilometers, it would be easy for them since they were all Fragmented Soul Realm Experts, but this place was far from normal.

This was a place with gravity that was several times greater than normal which was caused by the unique plants located in this area. So even though they were Fragmented Soul Realm Experts, it was hard for them to move here, not to mention flying. Instead of flying the entire way, they had been forced to run on their own two feet, something they hadn't done in a long time.

After learning what had happened, Lin Fan understood why they were all so tired. If he released his spiritual senses, he could feel certain plants around him that were releasing gravity laws which increased the gravity in this area.

Since his body was at a much higher level than his cultivation, he was able to easily stand here, but it definitely would have been hard for a normal Fragmented Soul Realm Expert.

After answering Lin Fan's questions, a few of these people tried to group up with him, but Lin Fan rejected them all.

They looked at Lin Fan with gazes that were filled with a bit of hatred, but none of them wasted any more time with him. They had already spent quite a bit of time answering his questions, so there wasn't much time left before the second round started. Instead of wasting time being angry at him, it was better to go around and see if there was someone else they could tag along with.

As for Lin Fan, there was no reason for him to bring them along because any one of his pets were stronger than them. If he were to bring them along, they would clearly be burdens for him.

Another half an hour passed before Shi Yan finally came out of the building.

When he did, everyone immediately came up to the building that he was standing in front of and waited for him to speak.

Shi Yan just stood there for five minutes without saying a thing, taking sips from the teacup that was floating around him from time to time, as if he was just having afternoon tea at his own leisure instead of running one of the rounds in the Hunters Exam.

Then after he finished his cup of tea, he turned to the people standing in front of him. As if he had suddenly remembered something, Shi Yan suddenly said, "Oh." Then he turned back to the building behind him and opened up the door again.

After opening the door, Shi Yan said, "This is your second round. There's a newly excavated ruin under this place and anyone that can bring back one piece of treasure that is B Grade or above will pass this round."

Once he finished saying this, Shi Yan took out a board that listed the grades of treasures.

This was a ranking system that was only used by Ruins Hunters or excavators of ruins, so it was definitely a system that most people here were unfamiliar with. Everyone immediately crowded around the board to see just what qualified for a B Grade Treasure.

According to the board, anything that was a Fragmented Soul Realm Artifact was considered a B Rank Treasure. For comparison, anything that was a Child Soul Realm Artifact or equivalent was considered an A Rank Treasure. As for S Rank Treasures, those were only for the best of the best…

A Fragmented Soul Realm Artifact, that seemed easy for them since they were all in the Fragmented Soul Realm, but this was a newly excavated ruins, so who knows how many treasures there were inside.

Most of them only had a single Fragmented Soul Realm Artifact, which was the nascent artifact that they had used since they started cultivating, reaching the Fragmented Soul Realm with them. So these artifacts were equal to their own life since these artifacts were bonded to them. If they ever lost these artifacts, their cultivation level would definitely suffer.

This showed just how rare Fragmented Soul Realm Artifacts were. To get one, it would mean a dead Fragmented Soul Realm Expert.

That meant that there would surely be a limited amount of these artifacts and there would only be a certain amount of people that would pass. This meant that everyone here was an enemy…

They all began moving into groups as they knew that they would have to compete with each other. There were also those that stood by themselves and all of them were people from the seeded candidates. These were people who were confident in their own strength.

Naturally Lin Fan was included among those people.

Shi Yan had paused deliberately since he knew that everyone would be splitting up after hearing what he said. Once he gave them enough time to split up, he said once again, "There will be many dangerous traps inside of these ruins, but since you're all willing to take this Hunters Exam, I'm sure that none of you are going to complain about losing your lives. However, if you do want to forfeit, we as the Hunters Organization do have some responsibility to help you leave safely."

After saying this, he turned to a box that was covered in a cloth that everyone had been curious about. He pulled off the cloth to reveal that it was filled with blue marbles.

He picked up one of the marbles and said, "These are special life saving charms that the Hunters Organization have prepared for you all. As long as you crush them, the spatial laws contained within will bring you out of the ruins. They will also be automatically broken the moment the exam is over and will bring you out of the ruins."

Then after another pause, he didn't forget to add, "Of course, you could always leave early by retracing your steps and reaching the exit if you've already found what you need to pass the exam. There's no requirement that says that you have to stay in the ruins for the entirety of the exam. However, if you do find anything other than what you need to turn in to pass the exam, you're free to keep it."

Everyone's eyes lit up after that. This wasn't just an exam, this was also a chance for them to explore these newly excavated ruins that the Hunters Organization had just found. There would surely be treasures hidden in these ruins…

Once he was done explaining the rules, Shi Yan said, "You have twelve hours for this exam, the entrance is inside this building."

After a moment of silence, everyone realized that the exam had started and they all rushed into the building.