Start with the hidden role of the Great Emperor of Fengdu, and immediately unleash 100,000 Yin Soldi

Chapter Six

The practical assessment area at Jiangcheng No.1 Middle School is three times larger than the job transfer plaza.

A giant holographic screen floats in mid-air, synchronously projecting the terrain of the simulated instance [Misty Swamp].

Grayish-green mud, rotting dead wood, and bubbles constantly churning in the depths of the swamp.

The stands were packed with people.

Half of the students and faculty were present, while the other half consisted of talent scouts from various guilds and representatives from several wealthy families.

The news spread quickly, and the bombshell that "F-rank Soul Guides are suspected of data fraud" circulated in the Jiangcheng Awakened community all day long. There were even more people coming to watch the spectacle today than on Awakening Day itself.

Everyone wanted to see how an F-rank Awakened could clear the Abyss difficulty beginner dungeon.

Fang Chongde and Pei Hu sat side by side on the main judges' panel.

Fang Chongde flipped through the list in his hand, while Pei Hu had a new cup of tea in front of him, this time in an iron cup.

When Chu Jiang entered the assessment area, the surrounding noise subsided for a moment, then became even louder.

"Here it comes, the main character has arrived."

Do you think he might just forfeit today?

"Isn't it better to abstain than to go in and be humiliated on the spot?"

The crowd looked at Chu Jiang and discussed among themselves, with most believing that the stone tablet must have been misrepresented.

Chu Jiang came here today only to make a fool of himself.

Chu Jiang found a corner seat and sat down, glancing at the dungeon terrain on the screen without any extra expression.

On the assessment platform, a middle-aged examiner picked up a megaphone and cleared his throat.

"Quiet! Today's practical assessment has simple rules: each person enters the simulated dungeon, Misty Swamp, and has a five-minute time limit. The more monsters you kill, the higher your score."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the direction of several talent scouts from major guilds below the stage.

"This assessment is not only to verify the results, but also an important reference for major forces to select core talents. Those who can fight should not be hidden."

"The first one is Zhou Zihao."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Zihao stood up from the crowd.

He had specially changed into a dark red suit of armor today, with fire dragon patterns carved on his shoulder armor, which shone brightly in the sunlight. Several of his followers immediately stood up and applauded.

"Brother Hao will go first! He'll show everyone!"

Zhou Zihao raised his hand to suppress his anger, his face displaying just the right amount of reserve, but his eyes deliberately glanced in Chu Jiang's direction.

The meaning behind that look was clear; pay close attention.

He strode into the teleportation array, and with a flash of light, he disappeared.

The screen displays images instantly.

Inside the Misty Swamp, the grayish-green murky water reached ankle-deep, and the air was filled with a putrid mist.

The moment Zhou Zihao landed, a crimson flame phantom exploded behind him—the possession of the Fire Dragon Knight.

A phantom of a coiling fire dragon wrapped around his body, and the tip of his spear ignited with three feet of flame.

Muddy water was churning ahead.

Three swamp lizards emerged from the mud, each four meters long and covered in thick black mud armor, forming a triangular encirclement.

Elite level, Lv.8.

"Well done!"

With a roar, Zhou Zihao pointed the tip of his gun at the ground, the mud and water beneath his feet evaporated by the high temperature, and he charged forward on the cracked ground.

A head-on collision.

The flaming spear plunged into the throat of the first lizard, burning through its mud armor, and the scorching tip emerged from the back of its head. The lizard struggled twice before its entire head was charred.

The second lizard lashed out with its tail, but Zhou Zihao dodged to the side, swung his gun barrel horizontally, smashing the lizard's lower jaw, and then thrust it through its abdomen.

A third lizard pounced on his back, its fangs biting into his shoulder armor.

Zhou Zihao groaned as two deep bite marks appeared on his shoulder armor, but he retaliated with a shot, the tip of the gun piercing the lizard's eye socket, flames exploding inside its skull.

Three charred corpses lay in the muddy water, emitting white smoke.

Zhou Zihao was covered in mud and lizard blood, with a tear in his shoulder armor. He was panting heavily, but he stood ramrod straight.

A burst of cheers erupted from the assessment area.

"Impressive! An A-rank Fire Dragon Knight takes on three elite monsters head-on!"

"That damage output is insane! Every shot pierces armor!"

Zhou Zihao's henchmen were the loudest, deliberately turning their heads to shout in Chu Jiang's direction.

"See that? That's real skill! Unlike some stat-padding F-rank trash, who'll probably be unable to even scrape off a layer of the lizard's skin once he gets inside!"

Many people around laughed along with him.

Several guild scouts jotted down a few notes, but their expressions weren't exactly wowed.

An A-rank Fire Dragon Knight defeating three elite monsters was a normal performance, nothing particularly outstanding.

In the following time, Zhou Zihao killed two elite lizards and seven ordinary lizards in the swamp.

They struggled a lot in the later stages.

The fifth elite lizard nearly dragged him into a deep mud pit, and he only managed to escape thanks to the burst of fire armor.

When he came out, he was covered in mud and his armor was in several pieces, but the smugness on his face was almost overflowing from the screen.

"Five elites, seven ordinarys, total score of thirty-two!" The teacher on the stage announced the results.

Zhou Zihao walked back to the stands, and his followers surrounded him.

"Hao-ge is awesome! Five elites!"

"He can already take on elite monsters after only three days of job advancement; no wonder he's an A-rank!"

Zhou Zihao took the towel and wiped his face, his gaze intentionally or unintentionally sweeping towards Chu Jiang's direction.

Chu Jiang didn't look at him, her head down, fiddling with something.

"The next moment, Ye Lingshan!"

Ye Lingshan stood up.

She wore a pure white S-rank robe with silver embroidery, and held a staff of light inlaid with dazzling crystals. She looked like a piece of translucent, cold jade.

She didn't look at anyone.

He stepped straight into the teleportation array.

The screen display changed again.

The terrain was swampy, shrouded in gray mist.

Ye Lingshan's figure appeared above the mud pit.

Her feet didn't touch the muddy water; the levitation spell held her steadily in mid-air, with the hem of her white robe still three feet above the murky water.

Not a drop of mud sticks to it.

The commotion deep in the swamp was much greater than before.

The mud and water churned violently, and more than a dozen swamp lizards surged out from all directions, five times the number from Zhou Zihao's battle.

Ye Lingshan raised her staff.

There were no unnecessary movements, no shouting, and not even any change in expression.

A blinding white light shone from the tip of the staff. The light condensed and split, transforming into dozens of interwoven light blades that covered the entire swamp surface.

The moment the swarm of lizards rushed beneath the light net, the light blades fell.

The cutting sounds were so dense, like a torrential downpour hitting sheet metal.

Mud armor, flesh and bones—nothing is different before the light blade.

The lizard's body was cut into neat pieces and fell back into the muddy water.

Throughout the entire process, Ye Lingshan remained suspended in the air, adjusting the angle of her staff only twice.

Less than two minutes.

More than a dozen swamp lizards were all wiped out.

When the kill count on the screen stopped flashing, the entire assessment area fell silent for three seconds.

Then came the sound of gasps of cold air, coming from all directions at the same time.

"This scene is just too violent..."

"The AOE range of an S-rank Light Mage is outrageous."

"Zhou Zihao fought three elite monsters with his life on the line, while Ye Lingshan floated in the sky and cleared out more than a dozen monsters with one move, without getting a speck of mud on her body."

"There's no way around it, the gap between A-rank and S-rank professions is just that big, and this is only after the job change. The gap will widen even further as you progress."

Several guild scouts were writing furiously, their eyes gleaming.

Pei Hu paused for a moment, holding the iron cup, and nodded slightly.

Fang Chongde's expression was somewhat complicated.

Zhou Zihao stood there, his face turning pale and then flushed.

His mud-covered appearance and torn shoulder blade became the most accurate comparison in the face of Ye Lingshan's performance.

The difference between S-order and A-order is not "a little stronger", but a dimensional crushing defeat.

Five minutes are up.

The kill count on the screen froze—eight elite lizards, twenty-five ordinary lizards, for a total score of ninety-one.

That's almost three times that of Zhou Zihao.

All eyes in the room once again turned to the corner.

Chu Jiang was still sitting in the same spot, his posture unchanged.

"F-rank Soul Guide, have you seen the performance of the S-rank?"

"He should know what a difference in status is now."

"How pitiful! The stone tablet showed a mistake, yet they still had to be dragged over and tortured in public."

"I bet he'll forfeit."

Pitying, mocking, and gossiping gazes all converged on him.

Chu Jiang didn't accept any of them.

His hand reached into his bag, and his fingertips touched a skill book that exuded a dark, eerie aura.

"The Bone-Eating Wind".

First-time Abyss clear reward: Silver-tier skill.

Chu Jiang's movements were very natural, as if he were flipping through a textbook looking for something.

No one noticed that the moment his fingertips touched the skill book, a dark light, completely imperceptible to outsiders, surged from the pages and burrowed into his brow from his fingertips.

The skill book silently turned to ashes in my hand and disappeared into my backpack.

A cold, robotic notification sounded in my mind.

A purple-gold panel unfolded in the field of vision, settling on the information bar of the new skill.

[Skill learned successfully!]

[Skill: Bone-Corroding Wind (Silver Tier)]

[Effect: Consumes Soul Points to summon the Netherworld Winds, dealing continuous Soul Erosion damage to the target that ignores physical defense and reduces their Soul Resistance by 30%. If the target dies from this skill, their complete soul is guaranteed to be preserved.]

Ignore physical defenses.

Weaken soul resistance.

Death preserves the soul completely.

Chu Jiang closed the panel.

It suits him perfectly and can work seamlessly with the Yin soldiers.

"Next up, Chu Jiang!"

Chu Jiang withdrew his hand, calmly looked at the teleportation array in front of him, and slowly stood up.

It's his turn.