Ordinary observers in fast time travel

"What accident?" Liu Zhan stared into his eyes.

"Uh, it's just that I swallowed too many crystals." Shi Jia made up a story on the spot, and then nodded vigorously after he finished speaking.

"Really?" Everyone looked at him with suspicion.

"Of course, I just encountered a huge group of turbid beasts. To survive, I had no choice but to frantically absorb crystals," Shi Jia said earnestly. "If you don't believe me, look at my storage pouch; there's not a single crystal left."

He opened the bag of mustard seeds and gestured to the crowd.

"Besides, have you forgotten? I was already close to advancing to the next level," Shi Jia said.

"Alright, it's a good thing that junior brother has broken through!" Lu Tianxue warned Liu Zhan and Huang Qi.

The latter muttered, "I was just curious, wasn't I?"

Shi Jia smiled, ignoring him, "Captain, where are we going now?"

"Hunting, there's a group of turbid beasts to the southwest," Lu Tianxue said.

By this time, the proctors had finished their investigation and found nothing unusual, not even any residual energy; it was eerily clean.

"Shi Jia, right? Can you tell me what happened here just now? Where is the node that caused the collapse of the secret realm?" The two proctors' eyes were like X-rays, scanning Shi Jia up and down.

Shi Jia's heart skipped a beat. Had they detected the point of collapse in the secret realm? He hesitated, unsure whether he should tell the truth.

"What are you thinking about?" The proctor stared at Shi Jia with sharp eyes.

Upon hearing this, Shi Jia said, "Huh? I'm trying hard to remember, but apart from encountering a group of turbid beasts, I don't think anything else happened, right?"

Upon hearing this, one of the proctors sharply questioned, "You're lying! We saw on the surveillance footage that you entered here alone; there were no beasts chasing you!"

Shi Jia was startled and thought to herself, "Oh no!" But she realized the next second that since they had all seen what happened to her, why were they asking her questions?
"I'm not lying, look if you don't believe me!" As he spoke, he took off another mustard seed bag, pulled down the bottom and tilted it downwards, and more than a dozen turbid beasts piled up into a small mountain next to Shi Jia.

"It was these turbid beasts. If I hadn't broken through to the Azure Rank in time, I wouldn't have been able to hunt them." Shi Jia looked at the two proctors. "Now, do you believe me?"

"Most of these turbid beasts are at the Azure Rank, and some are even about to advance to the Blue Rank. How did you hunt them?" The proctor looked at Shi Jia suspiciously.

Oh no! "That's how you hunt. When people are in dire straits, they always unleash abilities beyond what we can understand," Shi Jia said bluntly. Sigh, he's just not good at lying. Uh, I can't say any more, the more I say, the more wrong I'll get.

"Really? Then tell me, what ability did you unleash?"

Shi Jia rolled his eyes. "I don't remember. I didn't know you had to explain how you hunted a turbid beast!" He frowned. "Did I kill the wrong one?"

Hmm, not bad, and he has a good sense of quick wit.

Shi Jia silently gave himself a thumbs up in his heart.

The proctor was clearly very dissatisfied and was about to say something when a voice came through the earpiece. He nodded and said, "Okay." He took out a communicator and handed it to Shi Jia. "This is your communicator. Remember to carry it with you at all times. It will record all your actions in the secret realm."

"Okay, thank you." Shi Jia nodded. "By the way, did you deal with the people from the Amethyst Academy who attacked us earlier? They broke my communicator, otherwise you wouldn't have had to interrogate me just now."

The proctor's face stiffened upon hearing this. "It's already been dealt with. You can continue the competition."

"Has it been dealt with? How was it dealt with?" Shi Jia asked.

The proctor frowned. "This is the organizer's arrangement. Just focus on participating in the competition and don't worry about anything else!"

Then, the two turned to leave, not giving Shi Jia a chance to ask any questions.

Shi Jia hummed twice and looked at his teammates, "Captain, let's go."

Lu Tianxue patted his shoulder and whispered, "There are surveillance cameras everywhere in the secret realm, be careful."

Shi Jia froze. Had Lu Tianxue guessed it?

Lu Tianxue had indeed guessed, or rather, suspected it from the beginning, since the spot so clean and free of any foul air was suspicious. She suspected that Shi Jia had purified the place. Moreover, many parts of the conversation between the junior and the proctors earlier didn't hold up to scrutiny.

However, since the proctors didn't pursue the matter further, the team members were even less likely to do so.

With Shi Jia, the Spirit Cleanser, the Azure Blue Team gained confidence and hunted down the turbid beasts with great force, completely unafraid of the invasion of turbid energy.

In less than two days, his ranking rose from over 100th to 19th.

"It's all the fault of those people at Amethyst, otherwise we would definitely be in first place now," Huang Qi and Chen Yinong complained.

"There are still 17 days left in the competition! There's plenty of time. The real turning point will come in the last five days," Lu Tianxue said.

“The captain is right. Judging from past records, some teams specialize in gaining points by robbing other participating teams.” Dai Yuxuan rarely spoke. “Those who are ranked after 100 now may very well catch up later.”

"Hmph, if these fools dare to rob our team, then let them experience what it's like to be robbed," Huang Qi said in a deliberately sinister tone.

"That's right, you want to rob us? No way!"

Cheng Zi glanced at them speechlessly, then turned back to look at the silent Shi Jia. "Junior, what's wrong with you these past two days?"

"Huh? Orange, what did you say?" Shi Jia was startled awake and asked in confusion.

Others also looked over.

Shi Jia felt nervous under their gaze and asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Hey junior, are you...?"

Everyone looked at Liu Zhan, waiting for him to continue, "Feeling lovesick?"

Shi Jia was taken aback. "Spring fever? What?" Forgive him, in the past nearly eleven years of his life, he had never encountered anything called love.

"Hahaha!" Everyone burst into laughter. "Junior, really? You don't even know what puberty is?"

After listening to the explanation, Shi Jia said, "Oh, that's what it means. No, I'm thinking about how to complete the second question."

"Huh? Why would you think of that? Didn't we agree that we'd do it if it came up, and not do it if it didn't?" Chengzi asked curiously.

"I was just thinking of having some fun. You guys are supposed to hunt down the corrupted beasts, and I only need to purify them. I have plenty of time." Shi Jia casually made up a story. Hmm, his lying skills are getting smoother and smoother. "Anyway, I'm just killing time."

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this, but no one suggested that Shi Jia join the hunt. The competition had rules: Spirit Masters were not allowed to fight, nor could they be injured. Injuries to Spirit Masters would result in point deductions.

"Then you don't need to put pressure on yourself, just think about it casually," Chengzi advised.

“Okay.” Shi Jia nodded and continued to ponder.

The group exchanged glances, somewhat helplessly, and gestured for Chengzi to continue.

"So, junior, could you tell me what your thoughts are right now?"

"There are some."

"What is it?"

"I'm thinking, since the small secret realm is isolated from the Black Zone through arrays and various secret techniques, and we can't obtain the secret techniques, could we start by targeting the arrays?"

"I saw a lot of formations about energy conversion, sealing, and isolation in Madam Lanxin's collection of books. I was wondering if these formations could be combined."

The group exchanged glances, seemingly deep in thought. However, they didn't understand formations.

"Think about it, what caused the collapse of the small secret realm? It was the expansion of the center of the turbid energy in the dark zone, right? So, can we understand that the point of collapse in the small secret realm was external? If we isolate the turbid energy from expanding into the small secret realm, could we stop the collapse from continuing?" (End of this chapter)