Chapter Ninety-Nine: Graduation Assessment

Far from the main island where Azure Cloud Immortal City stood, there was a lushly forested island in the sea, a hundred li or more across. No cultivators lived there; it was property of the Immortal Institute.

A huge sea-going ship drifted near the island.

More than a dozen teachers from Azure Cloud Immortal Institute stood on the foredeck. Beneath the deck stood over a hundred city lord candidates, along with more than a thousand auxiliary candidates. Every face was flushed with excitement and anticipation.

“The year-long course has ended. Today, we begin the graduation examination of Azure Cloud Immortal Institute. To prevent cheating, the content changes each time. The subject and rules of this examination have been personally set by our institute head, the lord of Azure Cloud Immortal City, and entrusted to this old man to announce publicly and open here today.”

With a grave expression, Kuang Zhen swept his gaze over the hundred-odd city lord candidates and said in a deep voice.

He took from a nearby teacher a spirit wood box sealed by magical power and marked with the great seal of the Azure Cloud City Lord. Before everyone, he broke the seal, drew out a bolt of brilliant golden brocade from within, and unfurled it.

“This year’s examination of Azure Cloud Immortal Institute: Wild Island Melee.”

“Each city lord candidate may bring four auxiliary candidates onto the island. Five students form a team and battle one another on the island. The final ten surviving city lord candidates will be the victors and pass the graduation examination.”

“All students going ashore will carry one examination token issued by the institute, as well as food supplies for three days. You may bring your own magical tools, but no other provisions are allowed. Violators are eliminated immediately.”

“The examination token serves three purposes. First, it suppresses each student’s cultivation to the first level of Qi Refining. Second, by infusing it with magical power, you may summon a teacher; doing so also means the token holder forfeits this examination. Third, the token is spoils of war. If a city lord candidate defeats other city lord candidates and gathers fifty tokens, that student may directly obtain one of the ten official city lord appointments and leave the island early.”

“City lord candidates may form alliances or attack one another. The defeated leave; the victors remain. There is no time limit. When only ten core candidates remain on the island, the examination ends.”

“In addition, during the graduation examination, injury in order to seize tokens is permitted, but killing is forbidden. Anyone who violates this rule will have their examination qualification revoked and will be held accountable.”

“This year’s graduation examination of Azure Cloud Immortal Institute will be supervised jointly by Kuang Zhen, a Golden Core cultivator, and ten Foundation Establishment cultivators from the institute.”

Kuang Zhen finished reading the contents on the brocade and put it away, returning it to the spirit wood box.

When the students heard this, they could not help drawing in sharp breaths.

Wild Island Melee!

Such a graduation examination was rarely seen, and their cultivation had also been suppressed by the tokens to the first level of Qi Refining. All the preparations they had made before were now useless.

Such a chaotic battle would be brutally cruel. Enemies could be encountered anywhere on the island; even if one’s spells and combat techniques were formidable, they would still be no match for a greater number of opponents.

This sort of melee was a contest of wit, courage, and strength all at once. Only by possessing exceptionally refined skill and bringing every ability to bear could one hope to survive.

Kuang Zhen stood with his hands behind his back, his imposing gaze once again sweeping across the students.

“Have you all understood the rules? Ten Foundation Establishment cultivators will ride swords through the sky and watch every move you make. Whoever breaks the rules, I will show no mercy!”

“Understood!”

The students immediately shouted in unison.

“Good. The Azure Cloud Immortal Institute examination officially begins! Each team of five may take a small boat ashore to the wild island. No fighting is permitted at sea; combat begins only after landing. You have three hours to reach the island. If you have not landed by then, the teachers will sink your boat.”

Kuang Zhen waved a hand.

Along the edge of the giant sea ship, a hundred small boats had long since been lowered.

These more than one hundred boats were set into the water. On each lay five examination tokens, together with enough food for five people for three days.

The hundred-odd city lord candidates, together with the four auxiliary students accompanying each of them, boarded the boats one after another and began rowing toward the nearby wild island.

The ten Foundation Establishment cultivators on the sea ship also cast out flying swords, riding them through the air to supervise the examination from various points across the island. Qi Refining cultivators could not ride swords; only Foundation Establishment cultivators could do so.

As for where the students landed, the teachers did not care.

The island stretched a hundred li across. If a hundred teams of cultivators dispersed as they came ashore, they would not meet immediately.

...

Ye Mo called over four people from among the auxiliary students: Mo Ling, Wang Hu, Yang You, and Lin Zhi. He did not bring Tu Nu Five Guards or Chang Fei. Tu Nu Five Guards were very strong in combat, but this examination was not merely about slaughtering one another; one needed comprehensive ability to survive on the island and eliminate the other students. Chang Fei was better at handling boats, which would be of no use on land.

The five of them boarded one of the small boats from the giant ship.

Ye Mo hung the examination token from his waist and immediately felt a restriction upon it, as though his magical power circulation had grown sluggish and his own strength had been suppressed.

“This token really is marvelous. It can actually lower one’s cultivation to the first level of Qi Refining!” he muttered to himself.

He had no time to dwell on it. What mattered now was how to pass this examination.

“Brother Ye, where should we land?” Wang Hu asked excitedly, rowing hard.

“We definitely can’t land where there are many people. The more people there are, the more chaotic it becomes. Before we know it, we may be defeated and have our tokens stolen,” said Mo Ling.

“Yes. Let’s first row around the island and see which terrain is easier to defend! More than a hundred cultivator teams will be fighting on this island, and the early stage will surely be extremely chaotic. We need to find a place that is easy to defend and hard to attack, and weather the initial turmoil,” Ye Mo said after thinking for a moment.

“We can hold out at first. But we only have three days’ worth of food. If we can’t seize provisions from the other students, we’ll eventually be eliminated! Brother Ye, what do you plan to do?” Lin Zhi asked thoughtfully.

“The situation on the island is too chaotic, and there are too many variables. It’s still too early to say. We can only adapt as circumstances demand,” Ye Mo said, shaking his head.

For the moment, he had not yet thought of a suitable strategy.

On the Azure Cloud Immortal Institute’s potential ranking for city lord candidates, he was currently in the twenties. Of course, if he pushed with all his strength, he could still climb into the top ten.

But that would be far too eye-catching, far too likely to arouse envy.

Only ten students in the entire institute could obtain the status of official city lord.

The struggle for those ten places was vicious beyond measure. It was one thing not to enter the top ten, but once a name made it onto the list, it meant there was a great chance of claiming one of the slots. Such a student would inevitably become a thorn in the eyes of the others, and they would surely become the target of open blows and hidden schemes until they were removed. It would be impossible to guard against.

Ye Mo had preserved his strength and climbed to the high twenties on the potential ranking, then stopped and went no further. He could not reveal too early that he possessed the power to contend for the top ten.

Most importantly, within these hundred-odd city lord candidates, alliances had already formed around the top ten students, large and small.

Many weak city lord candidates with little hope had, in fact, already aligned themselves openly or secretly with the top ten on the potential ranking.

In particular, the top three—Luo Jiejun, Bai Xijun, and Ren Haiping—were all scions of great cultivator clans, and each had more than a dozen city lord candidates attached to them.

Ye Mo had not attached himself to any of the top ten, nor would anyone attach themselves to him.

If he forced his way into the top ten and exposed himself to everyone’s scrutiny, it would surely be extremely disadvantageous.

An hour later.

The small boat carrying Ye Mo and the others had rowed seventy or eighty li and rounded to the back of the wild island, where they found a precipitous cliff.

Ye Mo looked up. The cliff rose more than a hundred zhang high; one could barely climb it only by using vines to scale the rock face.

“This is the place. We rowed all the way here and didn’t see any other team land and climb up ahead of us. Let’s search this cliff area and find a place that is easy to defend and hard to attack to set up camp!”

After a careful look, Ye Mo made his decision at once.

“Plains are very easy places for fighting to break out. If we get taken down before we’ve even set up camp, that would be a terrible loss,” everyone said in agreement.

Although everyone’s cultivation had been suppressed to the first level of Qi Refining because of the examination tokens, each cultivator’s spells, combat techniques, and fighting skill were still different. The followers of those powerful city lord candidates would certainly outmatch Ye Mo and the others, who had ordinary backgrounds, in these respects.

If they landed and went straight into battle, disadvantage was inevitable.

The small boat drew near the cliff.

Ye Mo and the others leaped from the boat into the seawater beside the cliff, then began climbing upward along the rock face.

Ye Mo patted the spirit beast pouch at his waist, and a streak of scarlet light flew out, letting out a harsh, mournful cry: “Wa—wa—!”

“Fire Crow, keep watch within a hundred zhang around us! If you discover enemies or demonic beasts, come back and tell me immediately!” Ye Mo instructed in a deep voice.

Although it was unlikely that other cultivators would be encountered here, they still had to guard against the demonic beasts that might appear on the island.

The little Fire Crow called twice at once, circled in flight, and darted away, soaring up over the cliff.

The Immortal Institute students had major in beast-taming, and spirit beasts were allowed to be used during the examination.

This little Fire Crow was the very one Ye Mo had obtained in the ancient painting. It possessed considerable intelligence, could scout ahead, and could also spit first-tier fireballs. It was no weaker than a Qi Refining cultivator at the early stage.

Fire Crows were relatively low-level spirit beasts in the cultivation world, and few beast-taming cultivators raised them.

Ye Mo often let the little Fire Crow out from the ancient painting to keep it as a spirit beast. He did not dare release Ali or Zhizhi. High-level demonic races such as Ali of the Nine-Tailed Fox clan and Zhizhi of the earth-type Crane clan had long since vanished from the East Sea archipelago; if one of them appeared, it would be enough to shake the entire East Sea.

Mo Ling and the others had long since seen Ye Mo’s Fire Crow.

In the days before the examination, Ye Mo often released it so they could grow familiar with it.

The little Fire Crow flew ahead to scout.

Very quickly, Ye Mo and the others climbed onto the cliff.

“Scout the terrain within several li around the cliff. Return shortly!” Ye Mo gestured to the others.

The five of them quickly spread out and headed in different directions along the cliff.

Ye Mo chose a direction as well. The area he searched was mostly jagged rock, with sparse vegetation and very little plant life. It was not suitable for setting up camp. After searching for a while, he returned to the original spot.

Not long after, the five regrouped and reported what each had discovered.

Ye Mo quickly drew a rough sketch of the cliff’s terrain on the ground.

“This cliff is easy to defend and hard to attack. There is only one narrow fissure leading inland from the island. The only thing lacking is food and water. Aside from us, no other students have landed here from this cliff. For the short term, we probably won’t run into anyone else.”

“Our task is to occupy this cliff, set up camp at a strategic point, and build a defensive palisade of spirit wood by cutting down a few spirit trees. We won’t take part in the early chaos. We need to gather all the usable spiritual materials on the island. The longer we can hold out, the greater our chance of surviving to the end!”

Ye Mo looked at the other four.