As for the cultivation chamber at the core of the ship’s cabin, at this moment all the students, including Brian Brooks, had unknowingly fallen asleep, as if some strange force was guiding them into a dream.

Only in the main pavilion at the bow of the ship, there were seven or eight teachers at this moment—some drinking tea, some smiling, chatting with each other in a relaxed manner, looking completely different from how they had scared the students earlier.

The leader was an old man, his face full of wrinkles, holding a tobacco pipe and taking puffs from it. If Brian Brooks were here, he would instantly recognize that this old man was none other than the shameless Dr. Carter from before.

“Dean, everything is ready. Can we begin this year’s regional trial for our Misty Dao Academy?” As a middle-aged teacher spoke, the old physician with the pipe smiled slightly.

“Begin!”

Chapter 2: Brian Brooks, what did you do!

Midnight. The moon was bright, the stars sparse.

It was still the Chiyun Rainforest, but at night it felt cooler, and occasionally you could see rivers formed by gathered rainwater, shining under the moonlight. Yet the occasional shrill cries of birds and beasts made it hard not to feel uneasy.

At this moment, in a corner of the rainforest, by a river, under the moonlight, two girls could be seen—though disheveled, they were pure, tall and cute, each with her own charm. The tall girl was nervously on guard, while the cute one had taken off her undergarment, revealing fair skin as she frowned and cleaned a scrape under her arm, her eyes filled with confusion as she whispered softly.

“Megan Foster, it’s been three days. I wonder when the rescue team will come. The food in our camp is almost gone.”

The tall girl called Megan Foster fell silent at these words. For them, these three days had changed their lives completely. Three days ago, they were still students of Misty Dao Academy; three days later, they were stranded here, with danger lurking everywhere.

The Chiyun Rainforest looked beautiful, but in reality the ground was damp and rotten, sometimes exposing animal bones, and there were many centipedes over a foot long and colorful little snakes slithering about, making one’s scalp tingle. Besides that, since the Lingyuan Era, all kinds of fierce beasts had evolved rapidly like humans, becoming incredibly strong and savage, turning the wilderness into a forbidden zone for people.

At this moment, as the two girls suffered, not far from them under a big tree, a chubby boy was standing there, full of indignation, peeing with his head raised.

This chubby boy was Brian Brooks. He didn’t notice the two girls cleaning their wounds, nor did he look at the little flower on the ground beneath his feet, once standing tall, now swaying messily under the stream of water…

“Damn it, I, Brian Brooks, pride myself on reading people and seeing through all hearts in the world… yet I never expected to be outsmarted by Misty Dao Academy!”

“This Misty Dao Academy is too cunning, acting so real. To make us believe it, they even let everyone see the airship explode!” Brian Brooks fumed inwardly. These three days had been terrifying for him as well.

Three days ago, he and his classmates had unknowingly fallen asleep in the cultivation chamber, only to be awakened by a loud boom. With no time to think, a shockwave had thrown him straight out of the airship. Fortunately, the cultivation suit had cushioning and lightning protection, so he barely landed in the rainforest, but he saw with his own eyes the airship shatter and explode in a magnetic storm.

Over the next three days, Brian Brooks and the others were scattered throughout the jungle. The lack of food, the ferocity of the beasts, and the confusion and fear for the future made all the students reveal more or less of their true natures in this upheaval. Some banded together, some went alone, some were decisive, some were timid.

Although the law of the jungle was too sudden for these new Misty Dao Academy students, in this upheaval, it was as if their instincts were awakened. Whether greed or cruelty, selflessness or kindness, everything was magnified out of nowhere.

“Shameless!” Brian Brooks muttered to himself. Three days ago, he had really thought all of this was real, and was so scared that even when he ran into his nemesis Megan Foster, he forced himself to stay at her camp.

Now, after three days of not eating enough, he discovered through the body measurement function of his communication ring that he had miraculously lost six or seven pounds, which left him shocked and suspicious.

Brian Brooks’s experience was unique. He had once tried to lose weight by barely eating or drinking and exercising like crazy for months, but somehow, not only did he not lose weight, he actually gained three pounds!

Now, in just three days, he had lost six or seven pounds. For him, that was simply impossible!

Especially when he recalled reading in some high officials’ autobiographies that, when reminiscing about their Dao Academy days, they had vaguely mentioned that the academy would have so-called freshman assessments from time to time.

If Brian Brooks hadn’t studied so thoroughly, he wouldn’t have noticed this detail. Now, putting it all together, he didn’t know how Misty Dao Academy made everything so realistic, but it was likely that they had overlooked one thing: they used normal human metabolism as the standard for the simulation, and he was clearly not a normal person…

He was fifty percent sure that everything before his eyes was an illusion.

And the evidence that made him completely certain of his judgment was the half piece of black mask in his arms—the one that had once been returned to him by Dr. Carter!