Chapter 87. Trial of the Prodigies, Third Round...

Excluding the more than 1,000 professionals who died in the second trial, and the 400 professionals who withdrew from the second trial, it has been confirmed that more than 1,400 professionals will participate in the third trial.

After more than two hundred years away from the third trial, the Dragon Kingdom was able to watch the battle again through the live broadcast area, instead of relying on previous data and videos to make inferences (PS: If eliminated, the live broadcast screen will disappear directly and you will not be able to continue watching).

Of course, Gu Qingqi, Li Youran, and other professionals who left the trial midway were all severely lectured by their elders, who didn't understand why they gave up the opportunity they had obtained, until they each said that it was Lin Xiaoxiao's suggestion.

Everyone immediately stopped their grumbling and anger at her incompetence, and began to offer excuses: 'She must have her reasons for making these arrangements.'

Lin Xiaoxiao, who was far away in the secret realm, was unaware of all this.

She and Xiao Weizhi, along with the remaining 1,400 or so professionals, were teleported to a battlefield ruin where the landscape was scorched black, the sky was gray, smoke filled the air, and there were even many broken walls and wrecked weapons.

Professionals from various countries were transported in batches to different parts of this secret realm.

Once all the professionals had settled in, the light screen appeared as scheduled, displaying the rules for the third trial:

{1. This trial lasts for sixty days. The trial arena is called: Extreme Battlefield. It cannot be completed ahead of schedule.}

{2. Upon entering this secret realm, all professional players' spaces will be forcibly sealed off; food, clothing, shelter, and transportation will all require obtaining them by opening treasure chests and slaying monsters.}

{3. Points can be earned through: opening treasure chests, hunting monsters, and engaging in PvP battles among professionals.}

{4. Currently, there are 38,621 professionals remaining on the field. They can earn points by forming teams of up to four players. The top ten players on the leaderboard will receive generous rewards…}

{5. All professionals have three hours to prepare, choosing the items and supplies they need to bring (countdown: 71:59:58)}

Compared to the numerous rules and taboos of the previous two trials, the third, this extreme battlefield, has only five rules.

After seeing the rules, Lin Xiaoxiao and Xiao Weizhi immediately teamed up with each other.

Then, taking advantage of everyone's inattention, he quietly moved to the hillside to the side, using the boulder as cover to observe the professionals scattered not far away.

Compared to others, they can only see the surface of the equipment.

Lin Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, could see through the essence to the inner workings and clearly see the small ball of divine light emanating from the body of the divine favored person who was playing the role of an ordinary professional moving around in the arena.

These orbs of light were distributed throughout the bodies of the divine beings: some were in the heart, some in the kidneys, some in the neck... some were very bright, some were very faint.

Those were the seeds of divinity implanted after they became favored by the gods.

The function of these divine seeds is to elevate and control.

The upgrade is achieved by cultivating divine seeds, gradually acquiring more pseudo-divine power, obtaining ultra-high-end combat strength, and thus achieving the goal of increasing level and upgrading divine favor level.

From servant to attendant to official, those with exceptional talent may even become representatives of the gods.

Control, on the other hand, is to facilitate the divine agents in managing these followers. Once they develop disloyal intentions, the divine seeds can be shattered remotely, directly destroying the uncontrollable followers.

If those favored by the gods do not have divine representatives on earth, they fall under the jurisdiction of the law enforcement department in the capital of the gods, but the law enforcement department does not have the authority to execute them.

Therefore, a good divine representative is like a second birth for these relatives.

Lin Xiaoxiao raised an eyebrow with interest as she looked at the number of chosen ones, which was 7:1.

I didn't expect so many chosen ones to come this time. It seems that the 6 million points of high faith in the first prize is indeed very attractive.

This trial in the secret realm looks like it's going to be a fierce battle.

Xiao Weizhi kept a vigilant eye on his surroundings, his muscles tense, his right hand gripping his staff tightly, wary of the pursuers who could appear out of nowhere.

Lin Xiaoxiao asked in a low voice, "Weizhi, what do we need to get? We won't be able to use the space for another two hours."

Xiao Weizhi thought for a moment and asked in a low voice, "Your crutch is broken, should I bring you a prosthetic leg and a folding chair?"

Lin Xiaoxiao thought about it carefully, then nodded: "Okay, would you like to take a few more sets of clothes?"

The two were seriously considering and discussing what they needed to bring during the next two months they would be spending in this extreme battlefield.

A soft chuckle, seemingly unable to hold back, came from not far away. Lin Xiaoxiao and Xiao Weizhi turned their heads together and found that the person who came was Mu Qingfeng.

Fourteen professionals stood behind Mu Qingfeng, possibly because of some unexpected incident in the second round, resulting in the loss of several of them.

The three Wang brothers, who were mixed in with the others, looked quite disheveled: one had lost his right hand; another's left eye appeared to be injured, so he covered it with an eye patch, making him one-eyed; Wang Xudong, apart from having a bruised and swollen face and being covered in wounds, still had all four limbs intact.

The way he would glance at Xiao Weizhi and Lin Xiaoxiao every now and then was so sinister, as if he were seeing his father's killer.

Mu Qingfeng smiled gently and bowed respectfully to Lin Xiaoxiao: "Is your team full? I'd like to volunteer. I'm a hidden class—the Bard Archer, currently at level 220 (sixth job advancement), specializing in attack."

Xiao Weizhi shielded Lin Xiaoxiao behind him and coldly interrupted Mu Qingfeng's self-introduction: "Fully staffed, no shortage of people, goodbye."

Mu Qingfeng's smile froze instantly. With her expressive eyes, she looked sadly at Lin Xiaoxiao, her chance to speak cut off by Xiao Weizhi. At the same time, she pursed her lips, as if hoping that Lin Xiaoxiao could make the decision.

Lin Xiaoxiao glanced at Mu Qingfeng's expression, then smiled politely and nodded: "We don't need any more team members."

Xiao Weizhi, who was standing in front of her, couldn't help but smile when he heard this.

When Mu Qingfeng saw Xiao Weizhi's slightly smug smile, his eyes darkened for a moment, and a flash of displeasure and rage crossed his eyes. Then, all his emotions were concealed, and his face returned to normal.

His face turned pale for some reason, as if he had been hit hard. He forced an awkward smile and said, "Oh, I see. Then I won't bother you any longer. If you're interested in forming a team later, please feel free to contact me."

The more harmless Mu Qingfeng appeared, the more Lin Xiaoxiao and Xiao Weizhi feared him.

Lin Xiaoxiao had her past life's disastrous experience as a reference, so she knew how many heinous things this person would do a few years later.

Xiao Weizhi's wariness of this person stemmed from their years of acquaintance and interaction.

Although for so many years, everyone has said that Mu Qingfeng is a handsome and elegant gentleman, Xiao Weizhi has never been able to find any fault with him.

But Xiao Weizhi still trusted his intuition: Mu Qingfeng was more dangerous than the Mu brothers, Mu Yunzhi and Mu Yunxiao.

Lin Xiaoxiao's smile was thin and distant, as if she didn't want to continue this pointless conversation.

Unable to get a response, Mu Qingfeng could only grit his teeth in resentment and lead his team away.

Seeing the large group of people walk away, Lin Xiaoxiao immediately suggested, "Weizhi, let's find a quieter place to discuss what we need to prepare."

Xiao Weizhi nodded: "Mm."

The two tacitly agreed to find a quiet place to hide and discuss what they needed to bring to get through the two-month trial period.

The final decision was to bring a bag of experience coins, two spare prosthetics, three days' worth of rations, and that iron-like [(Bronze-level) Clothes Cleaner].

As time passed, the three hours of preparation time quickly came to an end.

Suddenly, a vast expanse of energy chains, resembling a spiderweb, appeared in the sky, completely obscuring the sky and so faint as to be almost invisible.

These items, as if possessing their own consciousness, were precisely fastened to each person's wrist, emitting a few seconds of light.

After the light disappeared, Lin Xiaoxiao could clearly feel that a small area inside her body was sealed by some kind of strange energy, making it unusable and even affecting the flow of magic power within her body.

She raised an eyebrow and changed the rules and control methods again, all of them new tricks.

It seems that the group watched the first two live streams without missing a single one, fearing that she might pull out a bunch of weapons and props from her spatial storage to retaliate. Therefore, they deliberately restricted the use of the spatial storage during the third trial.

Xiao Weizhi had clearly also noticed the effect of this energy chain on the energy within his body.

His face was extremely grim. In just two seconds, he had already considered the many problems that might result from the obstruction of mana flow: slower casting speed, reduced skill power, slower mana regeneration...

But what happened next left them no time to stand still and think.

Swarms of shrunken (diamond and epic) monster bosses appeared, their targets clear and their approach menacing, intent on hunting down all the professionals within the secret realm.

These monsters are no more than three meters tall, and the smallest is only 50 centimeters tall.

Although it is not large in size, its skills, physique, and level have not been weakened at all. On the contrary, because of its small size, its attack targets have become more clearly defined.

Xiao Weizhi used a forbidden sprint spell, carrying Lin Xiaoxiao and a backpack on his back, and ran ahead with a cold face.

Behind him were dozens of monster bosses (diamond-level and epic-level), some flying in the sky, some running on the ground, and even a few floating in mid-air.

I drove around for more than ten kilometers before finally finding a suitable place to stop.

This location is on the edge of a rocky, barren mountain, with a shallow pit about 1 meter deep at the bottom.

As long as Xiao Weizhi is in front and Lin Xiaoxiao is blocking, no monster BOSS can attack from behind. Just focus on dealing with the monster horde in front.

Xiao Weizhi's staff lit up and moved rapidly while she chanted incantations in a low voice, creating layers of protective shields around her.

He then positioned himself perfectly in front of Lin Xiaoxiao, transforming into a human artillery platform and bombarding the monsters in front of him. Whenever a monster rushed up to attack, it would be blown away by a hurricane, allowing him to follow up with a few more skills from a distance.

If the shield gets worn down, just replace it; if a monster gets close, just blow it away... By kiting the monsters, they restrained the dozens of monster bosses in front of them.

Lin Xiaoxiao stood behind Xiao Weizhi, holding a slingshot and experience coins in her hand, aiming precisely at finishing off those monsters that had little health left.

Accompanied by bursts of violent explosions, a message of annihilation would arrive every ten minutes or so:

[Congratulations to Dragon Kingdom: Xiao Weizhi and Lin Xiaoxiao for defeating the (Diamond-level) Level 177 Monster BOSS - Twisted Fairy, earning: 20 points]

[Congratulations to Lin Xiaoxiao and Xiao Weizhi of the Dragon Kingdom for defeating the (Diamond-level) Level 164 Monster BOSS...]

Several hours passed in the blink of an eye, and the number of monsters in front of them did not decrease. On the contrary, the huge explosion attracted more and more monsters to block the way.

Using her perception technique, Lin Xiaoxiao detected eight or nine Chosen Ones hidden among the monster BOSS group, as well as a team of professional players watching intently from afar. A slight smile appeared on her lips as she whispered, "Weizhi, use the forbidden spell to wipe out all these monsters in one go."

While they were talking, she took advantage of Xiao Weizhi's tall figure to cover herself and spent several tens of minutes slowly drawing 20 million experience points from her body. She then used a sealing technique to compress them into an experience coin that carried a terrifying aura.

This coin has a dull golden color throughout, with no metallic sheen on its surface. It looks like an old coin that has been stored for many years and has not been used.

Congratulations on obtaining: Crazy Experience Coins (Epic)

[Crazy Experience Coin (Epic): This is an experience coin that has compressed 20 million experience points from the body of a divine agent. It contains a trace of extremely small divine power. Whether you use it for collection or to absorb it, you will reap surprising rewards.]

Xiao Weizhi nodded: "Okay!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised the staff with his right hand and waved it rhythmically, chanting as he cast a forbidden spell; with his left hand, he made hand seals to use skills to intercept the frenzied attacking monsters in front of him.

Eight minutes later, thousands of fiery red magic circles, each over a meter tall, appeared in mid-air. They were arranged in an orderly fashion, forming an exaggeratedly large circular pattern.

As the final stroke of the last magic circle was completed, a meteor fireball, over a meter in size, fell vertically from the center of each magic circle.

Xiao Weizhi used an upgraded version of the forbidden spell, "Burning Heaven and Shattering Earth."

[[Forbidden Spell] Heaven-Burning Earth-Splitting (Gold Rank): After casting, 1144 1.4-meter-wide magic circles will appear in mid-air within a two-kilometer radius. Approximately 5 meteors will fall from each magic circle, forming a 3m x 3m explosion zone three meters after landing. The damage increases progressively... Mana Cost: 1 million points...]

After casting the forbidden spell, Xiao Weizhi was slightly out of breath, his face turned ashen, and he had used up more than a million mana points. Combined with the previous consumption, he now had less than 400,000 mana points left.

Lin Xiaoxiao raised her slingshot, clutching the Crazy Experience Coin, and closed her eyes to find the perfect shooting point.

Before long, under the cover of the forbidden spell, an inconspicuous experience coin fell to the very center, and a few dozen seconds later, it formed a super-large-scale explosion with a sonic boom, sonic gas, and a giant bright light.

The explosion even destroyed a significant portion of the forbidden magic circle that Xiao Weizhi had cast in mid-air.

Many people instinctively tried to escape when they realized something was wrong, but it was too late; the area within a ten-kilometer radius was engulfed in the explosion.

[Congratulations to Lin Xiaoxiao and Xiao Weizhi of Dragon Kingdom for defeating the (Epic) Level 277 Monster BOSS... Reward: 30 points]

[Agent of the Goddess of Fortune: Lin Xiaoxiao, execute [Wild God - Krafi]'s follower, and obtain: 1 Divine Shard]

[Congratulations to Lin Xiaoxiao and Xiao Weizhi of the Dragon Kingdom for killing the professional from the Nibor Kingdom... You have earned 10 points]

[Lucky Goddess's Agent: Lin Xiaoxiao, defeated the [God of Death]'s follower, obtained: 2 Complete Divine Seeds]]

...

A dozen minutes later, the explosions stopped, and except for the spot where Lin Xiaoxiao and Xiao Weizhi were standing, it was enveloped by a spherical protective shield about three meters high that emitted a holy golden light.

Elsewhere, the ground visibly sank more than ten meters, forming a giant crater. Even the barren mountains behind them were displaced and leveled by the explosion.

The protective shield gradually became transparent, and then dissipated as energy.

Lin Xiaoxiao sighed helplessly. She had used up more than 20 million experience points with one skill and even borrowed a bit of the Goddess of Fortune's power to build a protective shield.

After the trial, you will need to pay 300,000 points of medium faith power before a fixed deadline as the price for borrowing divine power.

She felt that after these three trials, no matter how many monsters she killed, she wouldn't gain any experience points. She estimated that her level might drop from 232 to 230 after she left the trials.

A gentle breeze swept by, dispersing the thick smoke in the arena and revealing a cluster of luminous orbs on the ground, as well as a light screen suspended in mid-air, the first line of which read:

【(Dragon Kingdom) Lin Xiaoxiao, Xiao Weizhi: No.1 [Team Points: 232450]】

Suddenly, the air distorted for a moment, and a dagger flashing with a dangerous light emerged from the alternate dimension, swiftly and accurately attacking Lin Xiaoxiao's slender neck.

Lin Xiaoxiao reacted quickly. Her right hand was enveloped in a pale golden light with a holy glow. She raised her hand to block the dagger, and with a tooth-grinding clang, she was forcefully pressed back into the alternate dimension.

Along with them, a 100,000 experience coin was also sent in, and then a sealing spell was used to seal both the person and the experience coin inside.

After the silent explosion:

[Lucky Goddess's Agent: Lin Xiaoxiao, defeated the [Shadow God's] servant and obtained: 1 Complete Divine Seed]

She sighed helplessly; now it wasn't 300,000 medium faith power, it was 380,000.

Originally intending to continue their attack, the God of Favor, upon witnessing Lin Xiaoxiao's terrifying offensive, immediately abandoned their assassination attempt and chose to temporarily retreat, waiting for a suitable opportunity to strike.

Xiao Weizhi reached out and gently brushed the dust off Lin Xiaoxiao's back, asking in a low voice, "Why are you sighing?"

Lin Xiaoxiao's gaze fell on the dense cluster of light spheres below, pondering whether these light spheres could make up for her losses.

Somewhat absentmindedly, he replied, "This trial only gave me items, not experience. I feel like my level might drop after I leave this trial."

Xiao Weizhi smiled gently: "It's alright, we can level up after we get out."

Lin Xiaoxiao led him in the direction of those light orbs: "Hmm, after we get out, let's go to the Crazy Colosseum again?"

Xiao Weizhi nodded in agreement: "Okay."

The members of the Dragon Tooth Squad, who were outside the live broadcast screen, turned pale when they saw and heard Xiao Weizhi and Lin Xiaoxiao's conversation: Let's skip the Crazy Arena and maybe we can explore a higher-level secret realm instead.

The two held hands and chatted as they collected all the light orbs in the area.

These orbs of light are only the size of an egg, and there are approximately 3,700 of them.

Of these, monster bosses contributed 99.5%, while the remaining 0.5% came from those favored by the gods and professionals who waited nearby to watch the show and try to get a bargain.

Lin Xiaoxiao crushed a cyan ball of light, and a pair of (gold-grade) combat boots fell out.

Crush a pink orb of light, and a (diamond-level) treasure chest will fall out. Inside, there is a piece of extremely rare metal the size of a head.

Then crush another white orb of light, and a (silver-grade) chair fell out.

She almost laughed in anger. Her temples throbbed, and she was extremely agitated. She thought to herself: Who the hell came up with this 'genius' idea?

Previously, items would simply fall out, making it easy to identify them at a glance. Now, there's an additional step of crushing them.

The person who proposed and implemented this idea, and was laughing smugly in the capital of the gods, suddenly sneezed. Little did he know that in the future, he would be beaten up because of this 'genius idea' that came to him in a flash.

Xiao Weizhi pulled the chair back and helped Lin Xiaoxiao sit down, his voice low and gentle: "No rush, take your time."

In any case, no monsters or professionals dare to come here for the time being.