Chapter 2705 The Radiance Hundred Sequence’s Final Trial!
Chapter 2705 The Radiance Hundred Sequence's Final Trial!
Yang Nuanxin and Qin Dong instinctively rubbed their eyes when they glimpsed the ferocious yet beautiful sea of flowers. For a moment, they thought that they were imagining what they were seeing.
But soon, their emotions turned to delight.
Yang Nuanxin was Lin Yuan's fan. Although Qin Dong was not considered Lin Yuan's fan, he had always silently supported Liu Jie.
He had also witnessed how Lin Yuan had stunningly used the sea of flowers to swallow the sea of dimensional lifeforms.
Qin Dong had watched the recording of the previous year's Radiance Hundred Sequence selection numerous times.
They were able to see this sea of flowers because they were not far from Lin Yuan. As long as they could make contact with it, it would mean that they were under Lin Yuan's protection.
This sea of flowers was lethal for the dead spirits, but it was an umbrella of protection for the participants. As deadly as the sea of flowers was, it would never harm the participants.
Although the support-type spirit qi professional had depleted her roots to help the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane, it had already run out of spirit qi.
Yang Nuanxin recalled the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane with damaged roots and said, "Big Brother Dong, Lord Lin Yuan's sea of flowers can clear death aura. The concentration of death aura is very low here. I'll store the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane away so it can recover."
Qin Dong said seriously, "Nuanxin, don't use the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane unless you absolutely need to. After we join Lord Lin Yuan's team, try your best to display the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane's abilities to the greatest extent.
"You aren't skilled at combat. Aside from the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane, your other feys lean toward functional-type. As a result, you can't compete with the others in direct combat. You can only stand out by using your feys' abilities!"
There was no need for Qin Dong to say these to Yang Nuanxin. They might seem like teammates, but they were actually competitors in this test.
He told Yang Nuanxin these because he wanted to thank her for her help and because he did not want to see her suffer retribution from Yang Wenpeng after the test.
Many of the members of the previous Radiance Hundred Sequence selection were able to attain opportunities that led to bright futures because of their performances during the test.
Because of the dead spirits crisis this year, there was even more attention on the Radiance Hundred Sequence than in previous years.
Yang Wenpeng would be seen as a negative example and be scorned.
Yang Nuanxin had to achieve some results and more attention in order to fend off the consequences of Yang Wenpeng's fury after the test.
The head of the Yang family's main branch would never let Yang Wenpeng express his anger, no matter how bad-tempered he was, as long as she had enough status and popularity. This was to protect the Yang family's reputation.
Yang Nuanxin nodded gravely.
Still seated on the Nimble Moose, Yang Nuanxin turned and looked at Qin Dong. She locked eyes with his resolute ones. "Thank you for your advice, Big Brother Dong. But I don't think I'll be able to hold back if I see anyone's eyes and noses leaking blood after being infected by death aura."
Qin Dong was not at all surprised by what Yang Nuanxin said.
Both of them were in the same team in high school and later entered the same university. With the inclusion of the two years they spent in university, they had been teammates for five years.
Qin Dong understood her character. She remained her same compassionate self throughout the five years.
Compassion was a virtue, but it might not be beneficial for her in this test.
If they managed to reach Lin Yuan's sea of flowers soon, it was likely that Yang Nuanxin would suggest that they turn back to inform Du Xing of this.
Qin Dong was terrified of this happening.
When it came to such matters, the stubbornly compassionate Yang Nuanxin would not be able to listen to reason.
However, Qin Dong was sure that if they truly turned back, they wouldn't just fail to rescue Du Xing, but Yang Nuanxin would also lose her chance of survival.
There was one thing that Qin Dong was sure of—this Radiance Hundred Sequence selection was very important to Du Xing. Du Xing had used the Radiance Hundred Sequence for the past few years as his goal and motivation for working hard.
Du Xing would never have made such a decision unless he was absolutely certain that he could not hold on.
With his fey that had scouting abilities, Qin Dong was well aware of how fast the dead spirits moved.
The dead spirits would have swallowed Du Xing and the rest in less than two minutes after he and Yang Nuanxin left them.
However, Qin Dong could not explain all this to Yang Nuanxin. Even if he did, she would unlikely agree with his decision.
Regardless of whether it was because they were teammates or the possible existence of any other special emotions between them, Qin Dong did not want to fall out with Yang Nuanxin over such matters.
Qin Dong urged the Nimble Moose to run faster toward the sea of flowers.
When they got nearer to the sea of flowers, they saw the gill-shaped petals of the large red flowers opening and closing continuously, as well as the rows of sharp teeth covering the vines that glinted as the vines moved in the air.
Qin Dong was both shocked and afraid.
Just as Qin Dong was trying to come up with a way to enter the dense sea of flowers, the sea of flowers automatically opened up a path.
The path was winding and led deep into the sea of flowers, but Qin Dong and Yang Nuanxin felt relaxed.
Once they entered the sea of flowers, they would no longer have to worry about the dead spirits and would have successfully reached the second stage of the selection.
The two of them would have the chance to see Lin Yuan up close in Star Web.
Liu Jie was not idle and had been using the army of insects to check on the participants in his vicinity. Likewise, he used the army of insects to save the promising participants.
Long Tao, Xia Qing, and the rest did the same. However, they were only able to save far fewer participants than Liu Jie and Lin Yuan.
Almost all of the members of the younger generation who were capable of making it to the main areas had arrived. Those who were unable to make it had probably already been swallowed by the dead spirits.
Tremors could be clearly felt in the areas covered by Lin Yuan's sea of flowers and Liu Jie's army of insects. The concentration of death aura was also climbing in these areas.
Lin Yuan did a headcount of the people in his camp. A total of 47 participants had made it to him.
After communicating his report through the Thoughts Letter Paper, he realized that his group was fairly large.
For example, only 21 participants had successfully made it to Shi Xu.
Lin Yuan sighed to himself. Liu Wencheng had made the test much too difficult this time!
It had already been very difficult for the participants to find their spots last time.
This time, the size of the test ground had multiplied. It was likely that numerous outstanding talents had died during their journey.
But the harsher the environment, the better the talented individuals that emerged from it.
It could not be denied that Lin Yuan and Liu Jie were also to be thanked for enabling over 300 people to arrive at the main areas.
This was not because the sea of flowers and army of insects had protected them.
As invigilators of the test, Lin Yuan and Liu Jie had to ensure the fairness of the test.
Aside from those Lin Yuan and Liu Jie had decided to save, the rest of the participants competed fairly.
The sea of flowers and army of insects lowered the difficulty of the test by absorbing death aura from the environment to a level that the spirit qi professionals could endure.
If they had not done this, the explosion of waves of dead spirits would have caused the concentration of death aura to rise two to three times its current level.
No matter how strong the physiques of the spirit qi professionals were, their bodies would start to decay once the concentration of death aura in the air around them reached 18% and above.
Liu Wencheng had not expected so few participants to make it to the main areas.
Technically, the duels could begin now that the more than 300 participants had reached the main areas.
However, a test like that was prejudiced.
Liu Wencheng sent Lin Yuan and the rest a message through the Thoughts Letter Paper to tell them to divide the 300 participants into 13 groups.
There was no limit to the number of people in each group. These groups would then be sent out to hunt the dead spirits. Those who survived would equally divide up the number of dead spirits they killed as points.
After a moment of pondering, Lin Yuan realized Liu Wencheng's intention for this design.
Once the 13 groups were formed, 13 leaders would immediately emerge. These 13 leaders would be the participants with the strongest leadership qualities.
The teams of different strengths would begin hunting dead spirits. Logically, the teams with more members had an advantage.
However, the points they earned were equally divided based on the number of dead spirits their team killed. Hence, the teams with more members would be disadvantaged instead.
Nonetheless, there was still an advantage because it was easier for the larger teams to kill dead spirits. Moreover, the team members who died could not claim points.
This test not only tested for leadership skills, combat power, and execution abilities but also human character.
Lin Yuan felt that using pressure and the temptation of honor to publicly expose the dark side of these youths' natures was very cruel.
Liu Wencheng was doing this because he wanted to let the intelligent people in the Radiance Federation know that this was a better method of discerning a person's quality than dueling.
In the world of spirit qi professionals, resources could create geniuses.
With Lin Yuan's supply of resources, Liu Wencheng was willing to boost the members of the younger generation of high moral standing.
Yang Nuanxin and Qin Dong had not expected to see Du Xing and other members of their team here. But aside from their shock, they were also overjoyed.
"Big Brother Xing, how did you manage to escape the wave of dead spirits?"
Qin Dong walked over to Du Xing and patted his shoulder before looking him over to ensure he had no obvious injuries.
However, Du Xing's body had yet to recover from being infected by death aura. Hence, he looked very frail.
Yang Nuanxin had already summoned the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane, and it was summoning rain to fall over these 30-odd people to protect them.
The other lucky participants looked at Yang Nuanxin in surprise. They had not expected her to possess such a magical fey! With this fey, she was definitely able to stand out in this test.
Qin Dong sighed deeply. Everything that he had said to Yang Nuanxin had been for naught.
There would only be ten final candidates in the Radiance Hundred Sequence selection. There were already more than 40 participants in Lin Yuan's camp. It was likely that the other assessors had a similar number of participants around them.
They still had to continue competing.
If he were Yang Nuanxin, he would have done his best to enable the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane to recover its energy instead of using it to summon the rain with mild healing properties to heal the people infected by death aura.
Mu Yan, who had been part of the final ten ranks of the Radiance Hundred Sequence, re-entered the selection.
She had not expected to be so fated with Lin Yuan. She just happened to charge forward to the area where he was located!
Lin Yuan was still manipulating the sea of flowers, opening multiple paths within it.
At that moment, the crowd heard Lin Yuan say, "All of you can walk down these paths. You will be gathered with the other participants a few hours later. At that point, the final phase of the selection will begin, and the last hundred will engage in a round-robin duel."
Out of the entire group, the one who was the most familiar with Lin Yuan was Mu Yan. She raised her hand and asked, "Lord Lin Yuan, can you give us some information about the final phase of the selection? We are so fated to have found you and will need to compete with the other participants to decide who the final 100 candidates are. It won't be a bad idea for us to band together to look out for each other."
Lin Yuan had already witnessed Mu Yan's leadership qualities during the last Radiance Hundred Sequence selection.
Both Mu Yan and Du Xing were capable of leading teams.
According to the rules, he could give information on the test after Liu Wencheng decided on the contents of the test.
After describing the final phase of the test, Lin Yuan thought, I wonder who out of these 40 people will end up gathering together?
The few hours they spent walking down the paths would be enough for the potential leaders to compete with each other.
Du Xing's advantage was that four to five of his original team, as well as Qin Dong and Yang Nuanxin, would side with him.
Mu Yan's advantage was that she had experience as a member of the previous Radiance Hundred Sequence and was far more reputable than Du Xing. It would thus be easier for her to attract the other participants.
When the Star Web audience learned of the rules of the final stage of the selection, they immediately knew that it would be an exciting battle.
However, this was not what the Star Web audience was focused on. Instead, they were fully focused on watching the sea of flowers and sea of insects clashing with the wave of dead spirits.
When the sea of insects clashed with the wave of dead spirits, it seemed as though both sides were evenly matched.
The bones of the dead spirits were dragged by the Hypha Tapeworms into the carpet of fungi and separated before being turned into energy that would recover the other insects' injuries and become their source of fuel.