Chapter 401: Second round (3)

While everyone was rushing into the building, Lin Fan was casually standing on the side watching.

As he looked around, he saw that there were quite a few other people also standing around waiting for everyone to rush in before going into the building.

It was clear that these people were thinking the same thing, there was no reason for them to rush since there were no benefits to going in first.

While it seemed like in this situation the early bird got the worm, it was very much the opposite of that since going in there first meant having to deal with the traps that guarded the artifacts. At the same time, they needed to worry about how to get out of the ruins alive with the artifact.

If they went in first and got the artifact right away, it didn't mean that they would pass the test since there was no guarantee that they would be able to survive. For them to pass the test, they would have to find a way to escape with the artifact or find a place to hide until the test was over.

These ruins were a place without any supervision, which meant that anything was allowed in this round. This was one of the hidden rules of the exam.

This basically meant that this round was a completely free battle royale where everyone could do whatever they wanted to pass since there was no one that would be watching them…

Going in first was definitely not a good choice…

In the end, whether one passed this exam or not would depend on how they managed their consumption of energy and how much they trusted other people, which they shouldn't be doing at all.

There would be many different strategies that would be used in this exam.

There would certainly be people who would camp out the entrance, waiting for people with artifacts to come to ambush them right before they could leave. That way they wouldn't have to go that far to get these artifacts and would be able to safely leave right away after claiming them.

Of course, the flaw with that would be that if no one chose to come to the entrance early and chose to hide to wait out the time, it meant that they wouldn't ever get a chance to attack anyone and that would mean they would fail.

There would also be people who would try to hide in the ruins after getting the artifact, waiting down the clock before being teleported out by the beads that the Hunters Organization provided.

The flaw with this was that there was no guarantee there would be a hiding spot in these ruins since they had never explored them before. At the same time, there was no guarantee that the hiding spot would be safe, because these ruins were filled with all kinds of different dangers.

Then there was the hidden rule of the exam, which was the most bloody way of getting an artifact.

The key was in the words artifacts that came from the ruins.

That meant that people couldn't take artifacts that they brought in with them and turn those in to pass the exam since those artifacts were already registered with the information network of the Galactic Humanity Alliance. This was just one of the rules of the Galactic Humanity Alliance, it was that all artifacts found had to be registered so they could keep track of what kind of power each force had.

This was mainly for the twelve great factions to keep eyes on the smaller forces, while also being able to keep each other in check.

As one the twelve great factions, the Hunters Organization would be able to easily dive into those records, finding which artifacts had been registered before.

However, it was the existence of this system that created a loophole in this exam.

There was one kind of artifact that wasn't registered, which was the nascent artifact that most cultivators had.

Those artifacts couldn't be used by anyone else and were part of the secret trump cards that every single expert had, so they were not tracked since experts had the secret understanding that they would all have the right to keep their secret trump cards.

But the fact that these artifacts weren't registered meant that they were free game in terms of being turned in for this exam.

If someone were to kill another examinee and take their nascent artifact, they would be able to turn it in for the exam…

This truly was a dangerous and bloody exam, it was just too bad that the people who rushed in first weren't able to understand that. Most of them would be the people sacrificed in the end by the smarter people to get out the artifacts from the traps before being taken down by these people.

In other words, they would be the mantis that was unaware of the oriole behind them.

But to be honest, this exam truly was one with a strong push for the examinees to attack each other. It was almost as if they were purposefully trying to forcefully cut down the number of examinees, but this was also the rule of the upper realm. It was the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest.

The Hunters Organization only needed the best talents for their ranks and this was one of the best ways to weed through everyone.

But the content of the exam also depended on the examiner.

There would be examiners who would give easier tests without forcing people to kill each other and there were those that wanted a bloodfest.

It seemed like Shi Yan, under that gentlemanly appearance, was actually quite a bloodthirsty person…

Lin Fan and the others just casually watched as everyone pushed their way in and it didn't take long before the first person was forced out of the ruins. In the end, they had no choice but to pop the safety charm that the Hunters Organization had given them.

When that person came out, there was still a look of shock on his face as he just stared forward without turning. It was as if there had been something that had completely shocked him in the ruins.

There were a few people who were about to move over, but before they could, Shi Yan came over to escort that person away.

There were still some people that tried to approach that person even though Shi Yan escorted him away, but they were immediately scared off by a single glare from Shi Yan.

No matter what, Shi Yan was the examiner and they didn't want to be disqualified for nothing.

But the fact that someone was already out this early had proved that their guesses were correct, the traps inside these ruins definitely weren't normal. Perhaps the best way really was to hunt other examinees down…

There were some people who hesitated on whether to go in or not, but there were some that bit the bullet and went right in, among them were a few of the seeded candidates. Before this, not a single seeded candidate had gone in because they knew that it was a waste of energy to go in this early, but now that they saw someone being eliminated this fast, they began to feel afraid.

It seemed that they had underestimated the level of the traps in these ruins and if they waited too long, there might not be any prey left for them. It would be a better idea to go in now and try to get as much as they could before all the prey disappeared. After all, if they could get a few more of them, the exam rules didn't state that they had to turn in everything that they obtained from the ruins…

These people were quite greedy after all…

As for Lin Fan, he still chose to watch since he knew that there was no harm for him to do so. He was someone who was much stronger than everyone else and he was someone with a pet with powerful spiritual senses.

As long as he didn't wait for too long, it wouldn't be a problem for him to find one artifact.

But after waiting for a bit longer, there were more people that were sent out of the ruins. This time, it was a large group of five who were all seriously injured.

As Shi Yan came over to take them away, one of them suddenly rushed forward to grab Shi Yan by the collar as he shouted, "What kind of joke are you playing on us? How are we even supposed to beat a monster like that?"

Shi Yan didn't say a thing as he slapped the hands holding his collar aside.

But that person wouldn't give up as he turned and shouted at the people still waiting outside, "Don't go in there, it's hell in there! That monster in there, it's not a monster that we can beat! It's a True Soul…"

But before he could finish, Shi Yan had already hit him in the back of his head to knock him out.

It was too bad that Shi Yan had been too late and they had all heard the final words of that person.

True Soul Realm, that was the realm that was at the peak of this upper realm and this person was saying that there was a monster like that inside these ruins?

Just what was the Hunters Organization thinking if that was true?