High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

In the sky, hundreds of drones hovered silently, transmitting every frame of the footage back to the examination centers in sixteen cities in real time.

After everyone was in place, the practical assessment for the Nanjiang Province Martial Arts College Entrance Examination officially began.

The rules are simple.

The Changqing City test center is divided into three areas: the outer perimeter, the middle area, and the core area.

The beasts in the outer area are chained up, limiting their range of movement. They will only attack when candidates get close, making it the safest area.

The chains in the middle area are longer, and the range of the beasts is larger. They often travel in groups of three to five, requiring you to deal with multiple beasts at the same time.

The core area is unchained, allowing strange beasts to roam freely, making it as dangerous as the wilderness.

The time limit is eight hours, scores are updated in real time, and the provincial rankings are broadcast live simultaneously.

This is the most important day of the year in Nam Giang Province.

The eyes of all twelve base cities in the province are focused on this ruin.

At the Anning City Examination Center, over 20,000 names were densely arranged on a huge circular screen.

"Fifteen minutes into the exam, Zhou Jin already scored 68 points."

"Zhao Lingxi has 61 points, Zhou Wenyuan has 55 points... These top three are very close."

"Chen Mo has caught up too, 53 points."

The examination center was packed with people.

There were officials from education bureaus of various cities, admissions representatives from major universities, martial arts coaches, and countless parents.

Their eyes swept across the screen, sometimes in amazement, sometimes silent.

At this moment, Song Chen's name is still outside the top fifty.

The outskirts of Changqing City, District 7.

Song Chen stood in a collapsed building, with three mutated wild dogs tied up in front of him.

Heavy iron chains were locked around their necks, with the other end driven deep into the ground.

The stray dogs bared their teeth and lunged at the dogs, their chains taut and rattling loudly.

He glanced at it, then turned and left.

First-tier, low-grade, three parts.

waste time.

His current goal is to enter the core area as soon as possible.

The real battlefield is there, and so is the real score.

He quickened his pace, passing one chained area after another, occasionally stopping to make a quick cut, the score slowly ticking away.

Three points, six points, nine points... He moved so fast that before the surrounding examinees could react, he had already disappeared from sight.

"Why is that person...keep walking further in?"

A test-taker who was fighting a level one wild boar looked up and watched Song Chen's figure disappear into the depths of the ruins, his face full of doubt.

His teammate, panting heavily, slashed at the wild boar with his knife: "Who cares? Let them kill us."

Anning City Examination Affairs Center.

"Song Chen has started killing." Someone noticed the change in the corner of the screen.

"One point, three points, five points... The speed is okay, but not outstanding."

"He was walking in; he didn't linger on the outside."

A middle-aged man in a martial arts association uniform frowned slightly: "Inwards? The central area?"

"Entering the central area only twenty minutes into the exam? That's too reckless. The monsters in the central area appear in groups; one person can't handle them all."

The person next to him nodded: "Young people tend to overestimate themselves."

Their tone was calm, carrying the caution of someone who had been through it all.

Having sat in this position for so long, they have witnessed far too many geniuses fail in real-world combat.

Having high health doesn't guarantee a good fight, and having good martial arts skills doesn't guarantee survival.

The variables on the battlefield cannot be reflected in data.

On the screen, Song Chen's name was still slowly climbing.

Ninety-third, eighty-seventh, seventy-ninth – not fast, but very steady.

In the viewing area of ​​Anning City No. 3 Martial Arts High School, Li Guohua clenched his fists, his palms sweating profusely.

A teacher nearby whispered, "Ms. Li, isn't your student being a bit too hasty?"

"The middle area is no joke, what if..."

Li Guohua shook his head and remained silent.

He recalled Song Chen's performance during the training, and his battle at the Shenlong Martial Arts Academy...

When Song Chen stepped into the central area, exactly half an hour had passed.

The scenery here is completely different from the surrounding area.

The chained beasts were no longer solitary, but in groups of three or five.

You can see first-tier high-grade mutated wolves, first-tier peak mutated leopards, and even second-tier low-grade exotic beasts.

The longer the chains, the larger the range of the beast's movement and the stronger its aggression.

Three mutated wolves pounced at the same time.

Song Chen sidestepped the first attack and slashed the second one in the waist with a backhand strike.

The blade sliced ​​in, and blood gushed out.

When the third wolf pounced in front of him, he raised his left hand, and a bolt of purple lightning shot out from his palm, striking the wolf's head squarely.

The wolf froze, fell from mid-air, and Song Chen delivered the final blow.

[A Tier 1 mutated wolf has been killed, gaining 9 kill points.]

[A Tier 1 mutated wolf has been killed, gaining 8 kill points.]

[A Tier 1 mutated wolf has been killed, gaining 9 kill points.]

……

Three wolves, five seconds.

He continued walking.

A second-tier low-grade mutated leopard pounced from the side, moving as fast as a shadow.

Without even looking, Song Chen swept his blade across the leopard's throat with pinpoint accuracy.

[Slayed a Tier 2 mutated leopard, gaining 60 kill points.]

The leopard was already dead when it landed, and its body slid forward two meters due to inertia, leaving a trail of blood.

He quickened his pace.

Inside the examination center, someone noticed that Song Chen's score was starting to jump around rapidly: "He's really making waves in the middle section."

It's not an explosive surge, but a stable and continuous growth.

Like a precision machine, every cut produces a fixed yield, with no waste and no pause.

The middle-aged man in the martial arts association uniform looked back at the screen.

He stared for about ten seconds, then his brows slowly furrowed. "His knife...look at his swordsmanship."

People nearby crowded over to watch the replay.

In the scene, Song Chen faced an attack from four mutated wolves, but instead of retreating or dodging, he simply walked forward.

A flash of light, and a wolf fell.

In another flash, another one fell.

His steps didn't stop, nor did his knife; it was as natural as walking.

Someone gasped, "This swordsmanship...is this at the grandmaster level?"

Another immediately retorted, "Impossible, he's only eighteen."

"Look at his movements, there's no unnecessary force, no wasted angles."

"Every strike is aimed at the shortest distance, the fastest speed, and the most lethal spot. This isn't something you can learn through hard work; it's something you forge through killing."

There was silence for a few seconds.

The middle-aged man from the martial arts association slowly spoke: "Only forty minutes into the exam, he fought his way from the outer perimeter to the central area."

"And did you notice that Song Chen never stopped? It wasn't like he was farming points; it was like he was in a hurry. He just picked up those points as he went along."

Just a casual action? Killing dozens of strange beasts was just a casual action?

The atmosphere in the examination center subtly changed.

Those bigwigs who were initially looking at the screen with caution began to seriously examine the still-moving dot of light on the screen.

On the other side, Song Chen was already standing at the junction of the central area and the core area.

There was a low wall in front of us, and the core area was on the other side of the wall.

No chains, no barbed wire, just the real wilderness.

On this side of the wall, there are the last batch of strange beasts chained up.

Five low-grade second-tier mutated wolves and one mid-grade second-tier alpha wolf.

He walked over, and five wolves pounced on him at the same time.

Song Chen drew his sword, and with a flash of light, the heads of two wolves flew off.

The remaining three pounced in front of him. He dodged one by stepping aside and then slashed the spine of the second one with a backhand stroke.

Lightning shot out from the left hand, and the third one, charred black, fell to the ground.

The alpha wolf, a mid-tier second-order wolf, remained motionless. It crouched at the very back, coldly watching Song Chen, letting out a low growl.

It is waiting for an opportunity.

Song Chen stared at it for a second.

Then the alpha wolf moved. It was incredibly fast, its claws tearing through the air as it went straight for his throat.

Song Chen didn't dodge. He went to meet it, and just as the claws were about to touch his throat, he ducked, slid, and slashed the blade upwards.

This is a killing move he mastered after killing thousands of strange beasts in the Cangmang Mountain. It has no fancy moves, only one word: fast.

A flash of light appeared.

The alpha wolf was ripped open from its throat to its abdomen, and blood and internal organs gushed out.

It didn't even have time to scream before it crashed to the ground and died.

Song Chen sheathed his sword and stepped over the low wall.

He didn't look back.

The chains behind him swayed gently in the wind, the iron rings clattering together with a soft sound.

Those sounds were quickly drowned out by the roars of beasts deep within the core area.