178: Chapter 177 A chaotic battle involving one hundred teams!!

Sun Po took a step forward, stepping onto a crimson, barren land, and what caught his eye was a patch of colorful brilliance in mid-air.

Sun Po was very familiar with this kind of colorful brilliance; it was a secret realm rift entrance, an unimaginably huge secret realm rift entrance that seemed to stretch on endlessly.

Sun Po was secretly shocked. Were external secret realms truly this terrifying?

According to what Sun Po knew, secret realms were graded by levels.

The classification of secret realm levels was evaluated by the Secret Realm Management Center, and an important standard in this classification was the diameter of the secret realm rift entrance.

Within the domain, the lowest F-grade secret realm rift entrance was generally less than three meters. For example, the first secret realm Sun Po entered, the Wujiang Secret Realm, belonged to the lowest F-grade secret realm.

Although its special surface-inner layer structure caused the actual scale and danger level of the Wujiang Secret Realm to be far greater than F-grade, it basically did not exceed the level of a B-grade.

The defining standard for the highest S-grade secret realm rift entrance was 100 meters and above. Generally, the higher the level and the greater the danger of a secret realm, the larger the diameter of its secret realm rift entrance.

The diameter of the rift entrance before him was already boundless. What level of secret realm should it belong to? What kind of danger level would be inside?

Could it be that the competition venue for the Gaokao national competition was actually in such a dangerous secret realm? Could the contestants present really handle this?

Sun Po noticed that many figures were standing in front of this secret realm rift entrance, some of which were particularly eye-catching.

The tallest one stood three meters tall, almost as tall as Wuzhiqi, which was quite startling among humans.

Behind this giant, phantoms of various fierce beasts flickered in and out of existence with terrifying auras, accompanied by waves of shrieks and screams that made one's scalp tingle.

However, the giant looked towards the three of Sun Po at the very first moment, his gaze cold, devoid of sorrow or joy. Upon seeing Li Tiance walk out after Sun Po, a trace of obvious astonishment flashed across the man's eyes.

Before Sun Po could clearly see the others around, a graceful figure flashed over accompanied by a strange medicinal fragrance.

This graceful figure was only in her adolescent years, wearing an apricot-yellow long dress, looking as gentle, sweet, and harmless as a next-door neighbor's daughter. However, a layer of cyan divine light suddenly rose around Sun Po—it was Wuzhiqi buffing Sun Po with Ren Water Divine Power.

Wuzhiqi's voice sounded in Sun Po's mind: "Master, this medicinal fragrance acts upon the soul, please be careful."

Warning signs suddenly arose in Sun Po's heart. From Lu Shan back then to the apricot-yellow-dressed woman now, why were there so many underhanded surprise attacks in this Gaokao?

Seeing this, the woman in the apricot-yellow long dress was stunned for a moment and said: "Could the successor carefully chosen by my aunt actually be a fellow who knows nothing about pharmacology at all?"

Sun Po did not answer, still watching the girl vigilantly. The girl seemed somewhat annoyed and walked away without looking back.

Li Tiance's voice rang out in Sun Po's heart: "Brother Sun, Jiang Cha from the Shennong Jiang Family naturally carries a medicinal fragrance on her body. Mortals sniffing it can prolong their lives, and even Card Makers can benefit greatly. She was willing to lift her restriction and gift you her medicinal fragrance as a gesture of goodwill, so there is no need to be nervous."

Sun Po was unaware of this, but since it was their first meeting and he didn't know the other party's background, caution could do no harm. Sun Po did not feel there was anything wrong with his actions.

Among the crowd, there was also a youth wearing a black and gold dragon robe with a straight posture and a prominent nose bridge, who was particularly eye-catching.

Between the youth's brows was an aura of looking down upon the world, with slightly thin lips and eyes turned slightly upward at the corners, making one feel at a glance that he was not an easy person to get along with.

There was also a plump boy in plain clothes, sleeping on a donkey cart, resting his head on a coiled dragon staff with one leg crossed over the other, looking quite leisurely. This youth, who looked as ordinary as a rough farmhand, appeared rather special amidst the extraordinary people everywhere.

In addition, there was a scholar with a huge scroll circling his side, a sloppy Taoist priest surrounded by a pack of wild dogs,

a swordsman eating long swords from his material bag like snacks, a youth sitting on the shoulder of a giant mechanism giant, and so on. All kinds of unusual people emerged endlessly, making Sun Po feel very novel.

Just as Sun Po was watching intently, suddenly, an incomparably huge mirror appeared in the sky above.

Next to the mirror was a young man wearing a bamboo hat, a cloak, and carrying a long sword on his back. Beneath him was a rather dilapidated-looking carriage.

Dragon horses neighed, and wooden men pointed the way. The newcomer was none other than the Coachman, Ranger Xuanyuan.

The gazes of everyone present were instantly attracted, and Li Tiance muttered: "The legendary great tianji mirror!?"

Hearing this, Sun Po was somewhat curious and asked: "Brother Tiance, do you know what this thing is?"

Li Tiance seemed deeply shocked, and only after a long while did he say: "This item is named the great tianji mirror, cast by Master Nanhua back then in imitation of the ancient lost treasure, the Kunlun Mirror. It has the ability to reflect the heavens. Of course, it cannot compare to the powerful functions of the Kunlun Mirror in gaining Insight into Heavenly Secrets, knowing past and present, observing all things, and traversing space and time, but it has its own unique features."

This item is a rare successful treasure that combines human technology and spiritual power. Therefore, it can reflect the images inside a designated secret realm, and at the same time, transmit these images through electromagnetic and light signals, thus achieving the function of allowing TV screens to see the scenes inside the secret realm in real time."

Sun Po felt that the functions of this gadget sounded a bit familiar, and suddenly remembered that during the S Province provincial competition in the Duel Secret Realm, the Li Family seemed to have something similar.

He asked: "I wonder how the functions of this item differ from the Li Family's huge eyeball-shaped card?"

Li Tiance said: "They cannot be compared. The Truth-Seeking Eye can only see scenes within a fixed secret realm, and it needs to be placed in that secret realm year-round to establish a connection with it, so that the Truth-Seeking Eye is familiar enough with it to reflect it. Moreover, it cannot be transmitted through old-era technology."

"This great tianji mirror, however, can observe many secret realms inside and outside the domain with an extremely wide range. Furthermore, its observation is based on divination. With the calculations of Professor Zhou Gongdan from the Central Laboratory, the Card Association can observe the vast majority of secret realms as exploration deepens."

"And the images within can be transmitted through electromagnetic signals and light, allowing the Card Association, which masters a large amount of old-era technology, to easily broadcast the pictures from the secret realm nationwide and even worldwide."

"Moreover, a mirror soul has been born within this great tianji mirror. That mirror soul can instantly classify, organize, and analyze the received images, autonomously transmitting them through light and electromagnetic signals. Its intelligence is even stronger than that of humans."

Hearing this, Sun Po couldn't help but recall Professor Bai from National Defense University, whom he had met once before at the Gaoping City Card Center. That Professor Bai had once researched a project called Cardification of Artificial Artifacts, which was also related to the combination of human 'old technology' and spirituality.

But the result was extremely tragic; back then, those soldiers who participated in the experiment seemed to have undergone terrifying mutations, turning into monsters wandering in the secret realm.

He wondered how this great tianji mirror managed to succeed. And since this great tianji mirror could succeed, why did Cardification of Artificial Artifacts, which shared a similar wondrous ingenuity, suffer such a huge experimental accident?

While Sun Po was pondering these things, their images had already been projected everywhere across the country and even the globe. On the central big screens of every city, they were neatly listed, divided into exactly one hundred equal parts.

These one hundred small screens reflected individual images, and Sun Po's figure was impressively among them.

Apart from Sun Po and the figures he saw in front of this huge secret realm rift, some screens also reflected figures who were obviously not Yanhuang people.

Some of them looked like formidable characters just by appearance, such as the fully armored knight riding a black dragon between his legs and holding a huge tapered dragon lance in his hand.

——

This was impressively a Black Dragon Knight, although judging by the size of the giant dragon between his legs, it was still just an underage giant dragon.

But as a top-tier monster race that could communicate and cooperate, creatures like giant dragons possessed at least purple-tier combat power even when underage.

Being able to conquer a creature like a giant dragon as a mount, this knight's strength was evident.

Besides this Black Dragon Knight, there was also a tall man wearing a pharaoh's robe and a golden mask, who was equally eye-catching.

Suspended behind the back of this man was a solar disk, emitting a brilliant golden light, making him look even more supernatural.

The man leaned on a golden staff with a bizarre shape, which looked quite heavy. Suspended at its tip was a massive earthy-yellow crystal, surrounded by wisps of yellow sand.

This pharaoh-like man stood nearly two meters tall, already looking extremely tall.

But among these small screens, there was also a black man who looked even taller than him.

This black man had a tall and thin figure, wearing a feather crown and a beast-skin skirt, holding a stone javelin. Standing there, the whole person looked like a straight, pitch-black javelin—silent, primitive, and fierce.

In the picture, there was also a red-bearded Northern powerhouse covered in tattoos, holding dual axes. His large face was flushed red with anger, and the tattoos on his body surface were slightly flashing with electric light.

He was jumping up and down, shouting incessantly, as if he would rush out to hack people in the next second, looking like a powder keg ready to explode at any time.

In stark contrast to this irritable person was a youth riding a broom, suspended in mid-air, wearing a pointed hat and a gray robe.

The youth wore gold-rimmed glasses, had a fair complexion, and looked quite delicate and scholarly.

A gentle breeze blew across the flaxen bangs in front of his forehead, faintly revealing a shallow lightning-shaped scar.

Besides this, there was also an acquaintance: Don Quixote in full silver plate armor, with azure-blue eyes, his golden hair shining in the sunlight with a luster superior to the silver armor.

He was Don Quixote, who narrowly lost to Liu Jianren in the S Province provincial competition, still maintaining the appearance of that blonde, blue-eyed, sunny big boy.

But in his hands was an extra lance, and between his legs was an extra unremarkable, withered yellow skinny horse. He stood behind the Black Dragon Knight along with a blonde girl resembling a nun wearing a cross. It looked like the three of them were a team, and the Black Dragon Knight was the captain.

In addition, there were some Card Makers who were obviously from the Sakura Island Company Divine Kingdom. Their skin color was very close to that of the people from the Yanhuang Ancient Country, but their clothing and hairstyles were vastly different.

Some of them wore red-and-white wide-sleeved robes and high crowns, waving folding fans in their hands with the large characters "Yin" and "Yang" written on both sides of the fans.

Others combed their hair in an undercut style, sported a mustache, wore armor and helmets, carried wakizashi at their waist, and held katana in their hands.

There were even several Card Makers whose faces were covered and dressed in night-walker clothes, looking as if they had just finished some dark night-thievery mission.

Moreover, looking at the backgrounds of these non-Yanhuang Card Makers, it seemed they were not in the same place as Sun Po and the others. Some were by the vast sea, and others were in gloomy dense forests, but what they had in common was that there was an incomparably huge secret realm rift entrance in the background.

Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan pulled out his gourd, took a gulp of wine, and said to the crowd below: "This competition will last for seven days.

Divided by provinces into teams of three, a total of one hundred teams are participating, totaling three hundred people.

Our Yanhuang Ancient Country has thirty-four teams competing, the Bald Eagle Federation has thirty-five teams, the Northern Ice Bear Kingdom has twenty-one teams, the Sakura Island Company Divine Kingdom has seven teams, and the Lion Tribe Alliance has three teams.

The competition format is a secret realm exploration point-based mode, and the mirror soul of the great tianji mirror will calculate the points obtained by everyone based on the team's total score,

and the performance of each team member.

Killing each purple-tier monster grants 1 to 10 points, killing each orange-tier monster grants 50 to 500 points, and killing each gold-tier monster grants 1,000 to 10,000 points. You can attack other teams, but you cannot attack teammates.

After eliminating other teams, the points and spoils of the eliminated teams will all belong to your own team."

Sun Po's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this, and he immediately realized clearly that this was indeed a melee mode for one hundred teams, but this secret realm was likely the greater danger.

Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan only introduced the point values represented by monsters from purple to gold tiers. What did this indicate?

This indicated that the lowest tier of monsters in this secret realm was of purple quality!!

Purple was an existence that the vast majority of high-school-stage Card Makers could not defeat, yet in this secret realm, purple was merely the lowest-level monster!!

Why must a secret realm this terrifying be explored by a bunch of high school students like themselves?

Cannon fodder? But these were all outstanding elites from various families, absolute geniuses; how could there be any talk of cannon fodder?

However, Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan's next words quickly dispelled Sun Po's doubts.

"The secret realm rift entrance in front of you is one of the entrances to the new secret realm to be explored this time.

This secret realm is the largest secret realm ever discovered in human history; its massive area and abundant resources far exceed imagination, and it has numerous entrances.

However, the sections to which these few entrances lead only allow Card Makers below intermediate rank to enter. If Card Makers above intermediate rank enter, they will be teleported to other parts of the secret realm, so this section has never been explored. Coinciding with this Gaokao national competition, the five countries agreed to dispatch their own elite Card Makers below intermediate rank to enter and explore, accumulate points, and hold a five-nation joint examination. This competition concerns the five countries and the division of interests of various families in this new secret realm, so please give it your all——"

Speaking thus, Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan tilted his head back to take another gulp, burped heavily, and then smiled and said: "Stay alive!!"