Chapter 47: The Great Mountain

One by one, detection patches were pressed onto the students' arms.

Immediately following this, a judge lightly pointed at a student's arm, and a stream of specialized mana was slowly infused into it.

Simultaneously, on the display panel of the detection patch, numbers began to jump continuously with the injection of mana, rising from 0.5 to 1.3, then 2.4... continuing to climb until it finally stopped at 5.

This represented that the judge had infused a total of 5 units of specialized mana into the student's arm.

Throughout this injection process, the judge was extremely cautious, fearing that a single mistake might accidentally kill the student.

Even if they were merely students from an ordinary high school, if he injured or killed them, he would have to pay compensation, the price of which varied depending on the "grade" of the student.

If it turned out to be a "mastered" student under a contract, the compensation would be even more exorbitant.

After all, there had been news stories where the aftershocks of a Foundation Establishment expert's battle accidentally killed a passerby, only for it to be discovered that the victim was one of a dozen high school seniors who had been invested in with massive sums of money. In the end, after calculating training fees, meal allowances, tuition, tutoring fees, sterilization fees... the compensation ended up bankrupting the expert.

During these few seconds of mana infusion, the student's body suddenly tensed, and their breathing grew heavy; clearly, their body was already being affected by the specialized mana.

Even if no one actively mobilized this specialized mana to attack, its mere presence within the body would cause a certain amount of damage.

Fortunately, the student had taken painkillers; although they felt uncomfortable, it hadn't reached an unbearable level.

As the infused mana reached 5, a timer began on the detection patch's panel, recording the time the student would need to neutralize this specialized mana. The shorter this time, the higher the score would obviously be.

Since every student received a different amount of specialized mana, they could not be ranked by who finished first, but rather by their individual recorded durations.

Once the judge finished the infusion, he took a capsule handed to him by an assistant.

He swallowed the capsule and said with a smile toward the camera in front of him, "For mana replenishment, choose Ziyun. After taking one of these Ziyun Spirit Gathering Capsules, mana is replenished rapidly. I could infuse 50 more students without any problem."

And so, as the competition began, several judges injected specialized mana into the students one after another.

An increasing number of contestants closed their eyes to practice their cultivation, focusing entirely on neutralizing the specialized mana invading their bodies. The entire venue grew increasingly quiet, eventually leaving nothing but the sound of rhythmic breathing.

From the moment that mass of specialized mana was infused by the judge, Zhang Yu felt as if a ball of fire were burning in his right arm, and as the infusion continued, it grew more intense and hotter.

A sharp, stinging pain continuously traveled from his arm to his brain, making Zhang Yu understand why so many contestants had to take painkillers.

For instance, at this moment, he was in so much pain that he wanted to punch the old geezer in front of him who was still infusing him with specialized mana.

"Damn it, no wonder I saw people selling insurance earlier. This competition event is way too prone to injury."

Quickly activating the *Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra*, Zhang Yu finally felt the unbearable pain gradually subside.

Immediately after, he mobilized the mana within his dantian, surging it toward his right arm.

"The intrusion is a heating-type specialized mana."

"Then I need to use a low-temperature type of mana to counter it."

Recalling the mana transformation route taught by Teacher Yan, Zhang Yu circulated the mana in his dantian, transforming it into a stream of low-temperature mana that surged toward his right arm.

Wherever this low-temperature mana passed, a sensation of coolness spread through his body, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him.

When Zhang Yu's low-temperature mana collided with the invading heating mana, he could feel the scorching heat in his arm begin to cool down.

However, his low-temperature mana was also rapidly consumed in the process; it was like using a bucket of water to extinguish a fire—the flames subsided, but the water was gone.

Zhang Yu could only do his best to transform more mana to fight the fire.

Fortunately, he had the full-body mana circulation of the *Circadian Qi Gathering Method* to constantly restore his mana, the *Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra* to stabilize his spirit, and powerful mana control to continuously transform low-temperature mana.

...

Not long ago.

Before the judges had even reached Songyang High School.

Inside the competition zone for Bailong High School.

Han Xingye glanced at Song Hailong, who was neutralizing the specialized mana in his body, then looked at the large screen in front of him, thinking to himself, "It should be soon, right?"

Inside Song Hailong's body, his mana was currently like a surging river, flowing incessantly toward the mass of scorching mana in his right arm.

The *Kangling Needle* continuously restored his mana, and combined with his own staggering mana capacity, he was able to operate his internal mana without restraint, even wrapping the entire mass of scorching mana to extinguish it in one go.

During the process of neutralizing the mana, various pains were suppressed by medication to the point of being almost non-existent, allowing Song Hailong to feel almost no abnormality, needing only to focus on what he had to do.

"With my mana capacity and my control over mana, who can be faster than me in this round?"

Just then, a cry for help rang out in the arena.

A student let out a muffled groan and collapsed to the ground, and people immediately rushed over to feed him neutralizing medicine.

"It's fine, he just exhausted his mana. He's been given neutralizing medicine."

A moment later, another student screamed in agony and collapsed, spitting out large amounts of blood.

This was due to poor handling during the neutralization process, causing the specialized mana to scatter throughout the body and trigger internal injuries.

Han Xingye glanced in the direction of the fallen student.

*Not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning...*

He knew that more and more students from ordinary high schools would likely be unable to hold on—either due to insufficient mana capacity, insufficient mana control, or poor quality of medication... one by one being eliminated.

He was indifferent to this.

"Do they think that by taking the same medicine, they can close the gap?"

"Everyone is taking medicine; the gap between ordinary high schools and the three elite schools will only become wider..."

Just as he was thinking this, the large screen ahead suddenly flashed, and a name appeared.

*Bailong High School, Song Hailong, 1:29*

Seeing this, Han Xingye smiled slightly. "Oh? Faster than when he was at school. It seems the atmosphere here makes him more excited."

Then, names began to appear on the screen one after another, quickly filling ten rows.

The screen only displayed the top ten names.

The rows of names on the screen shifted back and forth, with the rankings from second to tenth place constantly changing, yet Song Hailong's name remained steadfast at the very top, as if he were suppressing all the students in the venue by his own strength alone.

But soon, more and more names began to stabilize, and the rows from second to tenth gradually stopped changing.

The crowd watched the ten unchanging names in shock, and soon a student discovered an obvious fact: "These ten people... are all students from Bailong High School!"

Although Bailong High School was not in the first batch of contestants to receive the mana infusion, as Song Hailong reached the top first, they had also neutralized the specialized mana in their bodies one after another, and according to their respective completion times... they had directly monopolized the top ten spots.

Looking at the ten motionless names on the screen, Teacher Yan felt as if a mountain were blocking the path of Songyang High School.

"Sigh, the three elite schools... as expected, this kind of competition is ultimately their territory."

Just then, the students from second to ninth place suddenly dropped one rank each, as a newcomer surged into second place.

*Hongta High School, Xiong Bufan, 1:35*

The students from Hongta High School had also begun to finish neutralizing the specialized mana in their bodies.

Shortly after Xiong Bufan climbed to second place, two more students from Hongta High School squeezed into the top ten.

Han Xingye turned his head toward the direction of Hongta High School and immediately found the most conspicuous thing within the vision of his *Heavenly Eye Talisman*.

*Protected Area | Medicine Barrel | High-Speed Mana*

The "Protected Area" rating was easy to understand; Han Xingye guessed this monster must have come from a demon descendant protected area.

"High-speed mana"... Han Xingye wasn't quite sure about that, but he understood the medicine barrel very well.

"Just how much medicine did they stuff into this monster?"

"Damn it, are they secretly using monsters for drug experiments?"

There must be prohibited drugs in that monster's body; they really deserve to be reported.

What? Our school is doing it too? And using it on humans?

Then, never mind.

Although Xiong Bufan's performance made Hongta High School stand out, he hadn't managed to take first place, and the leaderboard was still dominated by Bailong High School.

But a moment later, the students in the top nine all dropped one rank again.

As the name of Le Mulan from Ziyun High School dropped into first place, it was as if a thunderclap had echoed through the air.

*Ziyun High School, Le Mulan, 00:25*

"25 seconds!"

More and more students cried out in astonishment.

They could hardly imagine that while they were still working themselves to death to deal with the foreign mana in their bodies, someone could neutralize it in only 25 seconds.

Is this even a human?

Everyone could imagine that Le Mulan would surely receive a perfect score of 100 in this second round, but she was limited by that 100; otherwise, the gap between her and the others would have been even larger.

This was the third time today that Han Xingye had been shocked.

He frowned as he looked at the words "Ice-like Skin and Jade-like Bones" above Le Mulan's head, thinking that her ability to neutralize the foreign mana so quickly must be related to a special constitution.

Not far away, Song Hailong showed no sign of anger; instead, he looked toward Ziyun High School and laughed loudly, "Interesting, interesting. It seems my biggest rival for the next three years of high school will be this Le Mulan."

It was not until a full minute later that the other students from Ziyun High School finished neutralizing the foreign mana in their bodies, with Lian Tianji and one other person eventually joining the top ten.

In the end, Le Mulan, Song Hailong, and Xiong Bufan occupied the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd spots, respectively.

The top ten on the list were completely divided among four students from Bailong High School, three from Ziyun High School, and three from Hongta High School.

Looking at the rankings that no longer changed at all, the many high school students at the scene felt a sense of heaviness.

For most of them, this was the first time they experienced the gap between themselves and the three elite schools.

The ten names and scores on the screen were like a massive mountain pressing down on them, demonstrating the chasm-like gap between the three elite schools and themselves.

Just then, the rankings on the large screen changed once again.

The students from fourth to tenth place all dropped one rank.

In a situation where the three elite schools almost completely dominated the entire arena, someone had actually cut through the ranks and surged into fourth place.

*Songyang High School, Zhang Yu, 1:38*

When it was detected that Zhang Yu had neutralized the specialized mana in his body, the timer emitted a soft *beep*.

Yet, that light *beep* felt like a massive stone being dropped into the hearts of the Songyang High School students nearby.

The students from the three elite schools also subconsciously glanced toward Songyang High School, not expecting to find a student of a similar level there.

Seeing the ranking on the list, Teacher Yan quickly took out his phone to snap a photo.

These were all important teaching results.