Deng Bingding gazed upon the remaining twenty students, encouraging them, “The cultivation techniques you’ve just learned, I have bestowed their usage rights upon each of you.”

“This is a reward from the Celestial Court to motivate the candidates of the First Layer, a prize for advancing in the examination.”

“I hope you will remain humble and diligent, continue to strive valiantly on your path to immortality, and ascend to greater heights in the future, serving the Celestial Court and your respective sects…”

After encouraging the students, Deng Bingding proceeded to discuss the next round of examinations.

“The second round of examinations will be held on October 15th, still at this location.”

“Unlike the comprehensive examination just concluded, the second round is a specialized examination. Each of you must choose one of four paths to participate in: Dao Heart, Mana, Physical Prowess, or Martial Arts.”

“We kept you here to facilitate your registration…”

Under the guidance of the Celestial Official, the students took out their spirit communicators and logged into the registration site.

According to Deng Bingding, after the reformation of the Foundation Establishment Examination, the registration for the four paths had also undergone some changes.

Each student could register for two paths, facilitating adjustments if a path had too few or too many participants. The adjustments would be based on the students’ total scores from the first round.

In essence, the goal was to better discover talent within the First Layer and achieve a more balanced distribution of candidates across the four paths, while also preventing an excessive number of powerful contenders from being eliminated in a single path.

Zhang Yu furrowed his brow upon hearing this, “Register for two paths?”

“But A’Zhen and I only discussed one path.”

“Won’t the adjustments end up putting A’Zhen and me in the same path?”

Zhang Yu wanted to discuss this with Bai Zhenzhen, but the Celestial Official had just forbidden communication between candidates.

Clearly, they were expected to complete the registration independently after being informed of the rule change.

“I can only rely on my tacit understanding with A’Zhen.”

According to their original agreement, Zhang Yu would register for Physical Prowess, and Bai Zhenzhen for Martial Arts.

Now that there was a second registration option, Zhang Yu had to choose between Dao Heart and Mana.

“Dao Heart or Mana?”

Recalling his performance in the first Mana examination, Zhang Yu sighed inwardly, “Unknowingly, because I neglected to continue honing my control over Mana, A’Zhen has surpassed me in this aspect, hasn’t she?”

With this in mind, Zhang Yu selected Dao Heart as his second choice.

Moments later, as the candidates completed their registration, all the data appeared before the Celestial Officials.

Deng Bingding nodded, “As expected, Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao have avoided each other. It seems they have some understanding.”

Huang Zichou said, “It would be a great pity to eliminate either of them if those two were to meet in the same path.”

Deng Bingding scanned the registration choices of the third, fourth, and fifth-place students and said, “Let’s begin the adjustments.”

In Deng Bingding’s view, the first thing to determine was the paths of Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing, the top two contenders.

Simply because their strength was qualitatively different from the other eighteen students present.

Deng Bingding thought to himself, “Wherever Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing are placed, those two paths will be theirs to conquer.”

After some discussion, the Celestial Officials placed Ye Lingxiao in the Physical Prowess path he had registered for, and Yun Jing in the Martial Arts path he had registered for.

Next, they continued to group the candidates according to their scores, from highest to lowest, making sure to separate the top ten candidates from Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing as much as possible.

With the Celestial Officials’ swift network-based calculations, the allocation of candidates for each path in the second round was quickly completed.

Huang Zichou glanced at Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen’s positions and thought to himself, “These two are a bit unlucky.”

Zhang Yu had been assigned to the Physical Prowess path, while Bai Zhenzhen had been assigned to the Martial Arts path.

In the eyes of the Celestial Officials, the Physical Prowess and Martial Arts paths were practically death groups due to the presence of Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing. All candidates besides those two were destined to be eliminated.

Huang Zichou thought, “But even if Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen are eliminated this year, they can take the examination again next year.”

“Although these two paupers have astonishing potential and seem to have some mysterious backing, they are still lacking a year of cultivation. They can go back, cultivate, and come again next year.”

He knew that the main purpose of this reformation of the Foundation Establishment Examination was to unearth more talents and transport them upwards.

Therefore, allocating the candidates with lower scores to the groups with Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing, while allocating the remaining candidates with higher scores to the other two groups, was the most reasonable choice.

Candidates like Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, who could participate in the Foundation Establishment Examination once more next year, were considered expendable by the examiners.

With the Celestial Officials’ discussion concluded, a screen immediately appeared before each of the twenty students, displaying the groupings for the next round of examinations.

Seeing the results, some breathed a sigh of relief, some looked tense, and some looked helpless. The reactions varied.

The first thing Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen checked, of course, was whether they had ended up in the same path.

When they found that they were each in the Physical Prowess and Martial Arts paths, respectively, they both breathed a small sigh of relief.

But when they discovered their respective opponents, their expressions immediately turned serious.

“Number 23?” Zhang Yu looked at Ye Lingxiao and thought to himself, “Am I going to compete with this guy?”

Recalling Ye Lingxiao’s performance in today’s three examinations, Zhang Yu thought, “Damn it… this guy must be cheating, right? His cheat is even bigger than mine, isn’t it?”

“Rich and cheating, Number 23, you deserve to die.”

At this moment, Zhang Yu desperately hoped that Ye Lingxiao would be crushed by a vehicle the moment he stepped outside.

But he knew it was impossible. Even if a car could crush him, the protective forces around him would surely be extraordinary.

“Yu Book, ah, Yu Book, in the end, it’s still you who are not up to par.”

“If you were even slightly more reliable, would I still need to worry about this?”

“In the end, I still have to rely on myself to upgrade you.”

Initially, Zhang Yu thought that the Yu Book was his cheat.
Later, after repeatedly improving his strength through his own efforts, Zhang Yu felt that the Feather Tome was merely unlocking his own potential.

Now, thinking that he still had to find ways to hunt down evil gods and upgrade the Feather Tome, he felt like *he* was the Feather Tome’s cheat code.

Meanwhile, Bai Zhenzhen was looking in the direction of Yun Jing: “This guy is Number 11? Seriously, they put me with him? What a racket!”

“Could his family suddenly go bankrupt?”

Bai Zhenzhen烦恼地抓了抓头发, and she thought, “The martial arts exam, in the end, it’ll come down to actual combat, right? To defeat this guy…”

She began to recall Yun Jing’s performance in the three tests today, meticulously memorizing every detail.

Yu Xinghan looked at the physical arts group he had been assigned to, and although he frowned slightly, he wasn’t too discouraged.

After all, according to his own expectations, he didn’t think he could snag a Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate in this year’s examination. Reaching this stage was already pretty good.

“Alright,” Deng Bingding said, “Everyone has seen the list, so that’s all for today.”

“Everyone, go back and prepare well for the next round of exams.”

After speaking, Deng Bingding pointed towards the passage they had come from, indicating that they could leave.

Just as Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were walking towards the passage, they noticed that Ye Lingxiao was walking beside them at some unknown time.

Upon noticing Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen beside him, Ye Lingxiao exchanged glances and nodded with the two, as if to greet them.

Not far away, Dai Xingzhi watched this scene, thinking to himself: “Ye Lingxiao actually took the initiative to greet them? As expected, he views them as being on the same level.”

Thinking about how he had secretly looked down on Zhang Yu’s outsider status when they first entered, Dai Xingzhi couldn’t help but smile wryly. “Ah, money is truly good. Even if you’re not from Immortal Metropolis, you’re still powerful.”

After exchanging glances with Zhang Yu, Ye Lingxiao said, “Was today’s exam not worth your full strength?”

Hearing this, Zhang Yu’s spirit jolted, and he thought to himself: “What does he mean? Is this Immortal Metropolis’s style of bullying? Mocking my poor performance today?”

Ye Lingxiao continued, “But in the next round of competition, you won’t be able to get by without using your full strength.”

“I look forward to competing with you then.”

“Then… see you at the summit.”

The summit Ye Lingxiao mentioned referred to the second level of Kunxu.

After all, from his perspective, with the level of skill that Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had demonstrated, even if they didn’t pass the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate exam, there was absolutely no problem for them to pass the second level in the future.

Watching Ye Lingxiao disappear into the black hole beneath his feet, Zhang Yu’s mind flashed with the fighting spirit expressed in the other’s eyes.

The next moment, he and Bai Zhenzhen also fell into the hole and were teleported back to the restroom at the train station.

“That guy…” Zhang Yu thought to himself, “Was he not being sarcastic?”

Zhang Yu slightly clenched his fists: “Don’t worry, in the next exam, I will definitely surprise you.”

Returning to the train station, looking at the gray sky, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen dared not linger in Immortal Metropolis and quickly bought train tickets before leaving this high-consumption city.

As the train started, Zhang Yu had just begun to relax when the ritual started again.

“Ah.” With a sigh, Zhang Yu could only go to the corridor next to him to cultivate in the Spring and Autumn Endless Zen.

Seeing Zhang Yu like this, Bai Zhenzhen cursed inwardly: “Still at it?”

Having experienced three exams in a row, Bai Zhenzhen only felt extremely tired and could not muster the enthusiasm to continue cultivating.

But thinking about the opponents she and Zhang Yu would face in the next round of exams, Bai Zhenzhen could understand Zhang Yu’s mood.

“Yu-zi must be very anxious right now.”

“Ah, but being anxious won’t help.”

“At least rest on the train after just finishing the exam…”

Just as Bai Zhenzhen was thinking this, her phone vibrated.

“Hello?”

Only to hear a gentle but polite female voice from the other end of the phone: “May I ask if this is Ms. Bai Zhenzhen?”