105: Chapter 105 Midterm Exam: Bomb it here, harder!

Tianhe Academy, South Gate Square.

The once invincible "Heaven's Punishment Fleet" had now turned into a pile of scrap metal. Students from the **[Mecha Engineering Department]** were climbing up and down like industrious ants, dismantling the psionic engines on the warships. "Dismantle it gently! That Spirit-Gathering Core is the 'Physics Lab Equipment' Director Lei specifically asked for!" "You, the Senior Brother from the Wanfa Immortal Sect over there, stop playing dead and come over to help pass a wrench! If you perform well, I'll add a Void Pig Trotter to your lunch box tonight!"

The once high-and-mighty elite Disciples of the Central State now had to join the demolition crew with tears in their eyes, all for the sake of a pig trotter.

At this moment, the school-wide broadcast rang out again. Li Mo's lazy voice spread to every corner.

"Cough, cough. Attention all teachers and students." "There are thirty minutes left until the Ancient God (crossed out)... until the world's geographical environment deteriorates." "Please, all department heads immediately lead your students to the designated 'test sites'." "The midterm exam officially begins."

...

Deep in the Southern Barrens, Soul-Severing Valley.

This was a famous den of peril in the Southern Barrens, shrouded in poisonous miasma all year round. But in Li Mo's [Eye of Truth], this was actually a case of **'folliculitis'** (a point of stagnant Spiritual Qi) on the Ancient God. Because it hadn't been cleared for a long time, the Spiritual Qi here had festered and turned into poisonous miasma. If this 'abscess' wasn't lanced, the Ancient God would feel itchy. Once it felt itchy, it would scratch, and once it scratched... a magnitude eight earthquake would hit the Southern Barrens plate.

"We're here! This is the place!" Butcher Xiao (Head of the Civil Engineering Department) stood at the valley entrance with a thousand students holding entrenching shovels and explosive packs. He was wearing sunglasses and holding a precise construction blueprint (drawn by Li Mo).

"According to the Dean's instructions, we are to perform a 'minimally invasive surgery' here." Butcher Xiao pointed to a black dormant volcano in the center of the valley. "That is the 'lesion'. Our mission is to blow it open and release the gas!"

"Director Xiao, will... will this work?" A newly enrolled student swallowed hard. "This is a dormant volcano. What if the explosion causes an eruption..."

"What are you afraid of!" Lei Wanjun (Head of the Physics Department) walked over, holding the Venerable Thunder (a half-step Soul Transformation powerhouse from the Wanfa Immortal Sect) who was being used as fertilizer. At this moment, Venerable Thunder was tied up securely, a [Silence Ball] stuffed in his mouth, his face full of despair.

"We have a high-energy detonator." Lei Wanjun pushed up his glasses and pointed at Venerable Thunder. "The half-step Soul Transformation spiritual power inside this Senior is the best 'pacemaker'. Just throw him in. By utilizing the resonance between his Protective Aura and the subterranean fire, we can produce a precise directional blast."

Venerable Thunder: "!!!" (Translation: Are you monsters?!)

"Prepare!" Butcher Xiao shouted. "Physics Department, calculate the trajectory!" "Civil Engineering Department, reinforce the surrounding structures!" "Someone, load Senior Thunder into the launch tube!"

Boom! With a loud bang, Venerable Thunder was accurately launched into the crater of the dormant volcano like a human cannonball.

Three seconds later, a muffled explosion echoed from deep underground.

The earth shook violently. Immediately after, a pillar of pitch-black, foul-smelling smoke shot into the sky. "Ah! It stinks!" "It's poison gas!" The students covered their noses and mouths one after another.

"Don't panic! This is detoxification!" Li Mo's voice rang out through the transmission stone on Butcher Xiao's body. "Everyone, open your mouths! Inhale! This is good stuff!"

Before his voice finished fading, the black smoke actually underwent a marvelous chemical reaction the moment it contacted the air (Li Mo had modified the rules of matter conversion). The originally foul-smelling poison gas instantly turned into... pure, liquefied Spiritual Rain.

Splatter— Spiritual Rain poured down. Every student touched by the rain felt their pores open up. The Impurities accumulated in their bodies were rapidly expelled, and their cultivation Bottlenecks were punctured like paper.

"Holy crap! I've achieved a Breakthrough!" "My chronic old leg pain is gone!" "Is this the 'Gift of the World'? I love it!"

At the crater, the soot-covered (but not dead, thanks to his thick skin) Venerable Thunder was blown out and landed on the ground. He stared blankly at the Spiritual Rain in the sky, feeling the spiritual power within his own body being purified as well. "This... this is seizing the creation of heaven and earth!" He suddenly felt that being a 'detonator'... didn't seem so unacceptable?

...

Second floor of the Scripture Pavilion.

Li Mo looked at the System panel. [Ancient God Meridian Clearing Progress: 1/108.] [Ancient God Comfort Level: +5%.] [Current Status: No longer tossing and turning, just kicked its legs.]

"Kicked its legs?" Li Mo's brow twitched.

Just then, an urgent report came from another small team responsible for blasting at the "East Sea Coast". "Dean! This is bad!" The one sending the message was the Prime Minister of the Great Zhou (currently the Head of the External Relations Department), his voice trembling. "When we were blasting at the designated coordinates in the East Sea (the Yongquan Acupoint on the sole of the foot)... we blasted something out!"

"Did you strike oil?" Li Mo asked.

"No... it's not oil!" The Prime Minister's voice carried extreme terror. "After we blasted through the rock layer, what appeared below wasn't magma, but a layer... a layer of blue-gray metallic skin! And... and there seems to be something moving under that skin!"

Li Mo's eyes narrowed. Metallic skin? He immediately activated the [Eye of Truth] and switched the perspective to the East Sea.

In the image, beneath the blasted seabed bedrock, a massive blue-gray surface of unknown material was indeed exposed. It had a metallic luster, yet it also had fine textures like biological tissue. And beneath those textures, it seemed as if countless giant parasites were wriggling.

[Warning: Detected 'Ancient God Subcutaneous Parasite Colony'.] [Species: World-Devouring Insects (Ancient Sealed Objects).] [Status: They have awakened due to the stimulation from the 'acupuncture' just now.]

"Damn it," Li Mo cursed under his breath. "Does this Ancient God not take baths? How did it grow so many fleas?"

At this moment, on the surface of the East Sea, giant waves towered. That patch of blue-gray skin suddenly split open. Countless winged, pitch-black strange insects with drill-like mouthparts gushed out like a fountain. Every single one had the aura of the Golden Core Stage! There were... tens of thousands of them!

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!" The Prime Minister led the students in a frantic escape. "This is an insect tide! This is even more terrifying than a Ghost Tide!"

Li Mo took a deep breath and quickly entered commands on the control console. "Don't panic." "Since they are 'parasites', we have to use professional methods."

He turned to look at the "Plants vs. Zombies" poster hanging on the wall. "Plants aren't enough. This time... I have to use some chemical weapons."

Li Mo picked up a pen and quickly posted a new emergency mission in the [Academic Affairs Office]: [Sudden Exam Question: Great Pest Control Operation.] [Mission Location: East Sea Coast.] [Required Items: All remaining inventory of insecticides in the school (mainly leftover 84 Disinfectant + Abyss Chili Water from before).] [Support Unit: Summon 'Abyss Cleaners' (release those Tentacle Monsters still locked in cages).]

"Fight poison with poison." Li Mo pushed his glasses, a hint of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes. "Since they are insects on a corpse, let the Abyss creatures that specialize in eating carrion deal with them." "It's also a good time to find some work for those Tentacle Monsters, so they don't cry about being hungry in their cages every day."

As Li Mo's command was issued, the doors of Tianhe Academy's "Biology Lab" opened. Several thousand famished Abyss Tentacle Monsters (captives caught previously) smelled the scent of "insects" coming from the distance, and their eyes instantly turned red.

"Roar—!! (Food's ready!!)" They roared and charged out of the school gates, sprinting toward the East Sea. A cross-species devouring battle between "pests" and "Scavengers" was about to begin.