Chapter 31: Guide Assessment in Progress 3
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the sunlight slanted through the blinds, casting a narrow shadow on the mahogany desk.
Ye Heng sat in a spacious chair, his fingertips tapping on the computer keyboard. In front of him stood three subordinates with their heads bowed, waiting for orders. They were taking turns reporting on the material dispatch situation on the battlefield of the Red Shadow expedition.
He was wearing a silver bone conduction earphone on his right ear, which was almost invisible unless you looked closely.
The background sound of the examination site came from the headphones, the whispers of the candidates, the instructions of the examiner, and the unique sound of wind chimes in Xingluoting.
This year's guide assessment is particularly different. The practical part has suddenly added an assessment item about going to a desolate planet, and for the first time, it has also been broadcast live on the entire network.
Ye Heng had read the assessment regulations on the computer three times before. His fingertips paused for a moment on the word "live broadcast", and a rare faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. This is also good.
He remembered the scene on the cliff yesterday.
The setting sun dyed the sky the color of molten gold, and the evening breeze swept across the cliffs, carrying the fragrance of grass and trees.
Lin Yao sat on a flat rock, with the leaves of the trees stretched out, catching a few pieces of sunset glow blown down by the wind.
Ye Heng sat beside him, looking at the boy's profile, which was gilded by the setting sun, and suddenly said, "There will be an assessment tomorrow. I'll be there to cheer you on."
The stone that Lin Yao was playing with rolled to the ground with a "bang". He turned around suddenly, and the setting sun happened to fall into his eyes, spreading a piece of fine golden light.
Then he held his stomach and laughed, his shoulders shaking like leaves in the wind, and he said intermittently: "It's better if the Marshal doesn't come!"
Ye Heng leaned towards him and said, "Why not?"
In his opinion, supporting the people you care about is a normal thing.
Lin Yao's laughter continued. He looked at Ye Heng, his eyelashes still stained with the fragments of sunset light:
"Marshal, go to the scene and cheer me on?"
"Do you know how terrifying your interstellar popularity is? By the time you're there, the Star Falling Courtyard will be packed with fans, and the examiners will probably have to make room for you first."
"This is so down-to-earth, I really can't imagine that scene."
"Please don't make things difficult for those examiners." Lin Yao reached out and touched the new sprouts of Shasha, rejecting Ye Heng's idea.
This reason was indeed impeccable. Ye Heng looked at the seriousness in his eyes and swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue. In the end, he just bent down to pick up the stone that Lin Yao had just dropped and put it into his palm: "Okay, I'll listen to you."
Before one o'clock in the afternoon, Ye Heng was handling official business and listening to reports from his subordinates; the live broadcast started on time, which did not matter, as he could do two things at once.
Just as Ye Heng expected, the examiner first read out the regulations, and then randomly assigned the pattern areas.
"The third batch of mental stabilizers has been delivered to the White Tower in the northern border, and the receipt record has been uploaded." The subordinate reported this and waited for Ye Heng's verification.
Ye Heng hummed, his fingertips pausing on the keyboard for half a second. His eyes seemed to be on the scheduling form, but in fact the sound in the headphones was being automatically amplified.
In the small window in the corner of the screen, the examiner had just finished reading "Chu Yao, Area 17" when a clear electronic voice rang out: "Lin Yao, Area 43."
"Bang!"
The pen that Ye Heng placed on the edge of the table suddenly slipped, bounced twice on the smooth table surface, and rolled to the feet of his subordinate.
The three subordinates were startled at the same time. When they looked up, they saw that their marshal's eyes had suddenly turned cold. Those eyes, which had always been as calm as a deep pool, were now surging with terrifying waves. He stared at the light brain intently, as if he was looking at a dangerous Zerg.
"Marshal?" The nearest subordinate was about to bend down to pick up the pen when he was interrupted by Ye Heng's cold voice: "Everyone get out."
"Yes." The three of them didn't dare to ask more questions and quickly left the room. The moment they closed the door, they heard the sound of a laptop being slammed heavily on the table from inside.
Ye Heng was the only one left in the room. He suddenly pulled off his headphones. The vibrations from bone conduction still lingered in his earlobes, but they couldn't cover up the warning roaring in his head.
Area 43 of the Guide Monument is a dead end that even their sentinels have heard of!
On the computer screen, Lin Yao's figure was walking towards the dark purple lines. The afternoon sun fell on the boy's thin back, but it could not disperse the cold aura surrounding the star crystal.
The exclamations in the barrage pierced my eyes like needles:
"How could it be the Juelu pattern? Wasn't it deleted from the matching library?"
"How could such a mistake happen in the Guide Academy? This is murder!"
"He's finished..."
"Lin Yao." Ye Heng whispered the name, his voice trembling without him even noticing.
Looking at the various comments in the live broadcast room, and seeing that Lin Yao was not persuaded by his friends and examiners, but instead insisted on taking the test.
Ye Heng stood up suddenly, pushing his seat back half a meter and snatching the communicator away. "Ye Mang! Prepare the car! Go to Xingluo Court immediately!"
"Marshal, your family elders' meeting at 2 pm..."
"Reject it!" Ye Heng's voice was filled with unquestionable toughness. "Also, check the activation records of Area 43 for me. Find out who put it into the assessment pool. I want the results within five minutes!"
After hanging up the communicator, he turned back to look at the screen.
Lin Yao had already walked to the preparation area and was preparing for the assessment. Ye Heng's heart seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand. He grabbed the cloak on the back of the chair, threw it on his shoulders, and strode out of the office.
He had to go no matter what.
Ye Heng wanted to stop it, but if he couldn't, then he would stay there with Lin Yao.
Even just standing there was better than watching helplessly on the other side of the computer, watching the person he cared about on the screen walk step by step towards the abyss.
Along the way, Ye Heng's attention was on the light brain, and that overwhelming sense of anxiety infected Ye Mang who brought him here.
Ye Heng's right-hand man was also deeply aware that the guide who had not yet registered with his marshal had already occupied a position in the marshal's heart.
-
Lin Yao, standing in the preparation area, gazed at the dark purple star crystal patterns, his pupils shrinking slightly with his breathing.
He needs to understand roughly what is contained in the star crystal patterns before he can take action.
Based on the original owner's knowledge and related cases, Lin Yao analyzed that there should be two major problems that need to be addressed with this star crystal pattern:
The first is a dark purple solidified toxin layer. The specific corrosive substance will only be known when he takes action.
The core difficulty in solving it lies in the toxin's active erosion and insulating properties on mental power. The former contact will cause energy disintegration, just like metal being continuously corroded by strong acid; the latter will cause conventional mental power control to fail and be unable to directly act on the pattern itself.
If these two problems are not solved, Lin Yao will have no choice but to accept defeat.
Someone had used instruments to analyze it before, and found that there should be a passage in this layer of poison, the only way to survive. If the mental power can pass through this passage smoothly, it can reach the chaos zone unscathed.
But this escape route is hidden in a maze. If you take a wrong step, you will be mercilessly corroded by the toxins! Moreover, even the location of this escape route needs to be carefully identified before entering.
But luckily, Lin Yao had Shasha! As a glutton in the plant world, Shasha was not afraid of the poison at all. Instead, he was very excited, as if he had encountered a delicious meal, and he kept jumping happily in Lin Yao's spiritual sea!
As for the solution to the first problem, Lin Yao felt that he could entrust it entirely to Shasha. He already knew very well that it wanted to eat this thing!
The next question is the chaos belt and the silver light trap. The disordered energy of the chaos belt makes it difficult to predict its attack mode, and being hit once will tear the mental structure apart.
According to the case, conventional defense measures seem to be ineffective against it.
The silver light trap is a bait for deep-level toxins, but Lin Yao has Shasha, so he is not very worried.
What he was worried about was whether the silver light trap was related to the chaos zone. Otherwise, if it were all toxins, why would these toxins be mixed in the chaos zone instead of staying with the previous toxin layer?
Lin Yao felt that his speculation was very reasonable, and the two complemented each other.
Perhaps the attacks from the Chaos Belt are difficult to defend against because the attack energy carries toxins that corrode the defensive barrier, allowing the energy to naturally hit the mental power hiding behind the barrier.
After the analysis, Lin Yao pressed the start button, and the protective shield covering the dark purple star crystal pattern was gradually opened.
The transparent energy barrier faded away inch by inch like melting ice, revealing the dark purple star crystal patterns underneath.
As the protective shield opened, a cold breath blew in the face, with a faint fishy sweetness, which was the unique smell of mental toxins.
Shasha sprang out from Lin Yao's wrist, and the ice-blue vines stretched and circled in the air, with the edges of the leaves flashing with cold light, ready to strike.
Its vines gently touched the back of Lin Yao's hand, sending a firm signal, as if saying: "Ready."
Lin Yao raised his hand, and his fingertips gently fell on a leaf of Shasha. He looked calmly at the Juelu pattern in front of him, waiting for the protective shield to be fully opened.
At this point, the entire network's live broadcast barrage had already exploded:
"Oh my god, is he really going to start? This is the pattern of a dead end!"
"Is he crazy? With his limited mental strength, I'm afraid he can't even survive the poison layer."
"I used to think he was impressive for getting first place in the written exam, but now it seems he's just a clueless young man playing with his own life."
"Look at that spirit beside him. It's just a mutated vine, right? Can it deal with the toxins of the Juelu Pattern? I'm afraid it's just a food delivery."
"The toxins of the Juelu Mark can corrode high-level spiritual bodies. A person with these thin arms and legs would turn into water if they were touched."
"Can he find the entrance to the escape route? I saw him observing it for a long time!"
"He's the best at theory, so he should be able to find it, right?"
"I think it's quite difficult. Isn't the entrance to the escape route difficult to find?"
"I bet in five minutes he'll give up."
"+1, I bet he'll be carried away in three minutes."
“....”
The barrage was filled with doubts and pessimism. Occasionally there were a few neutral voices, but they were quickly drowned out by the torrent of negative comments.
On the other side, the aircraft that Ye Heng was riding was heading towards the assessment site at the fastest speed.
The scenery outside the car window quickly receded, blurring into a patch of colorful light and shadow.
Ye Heng leaned back in his chair, his brow furrowed, his fingertips unconsciously tapping his knees. His computer screen was playing a live stream of the assessment, and the sight of Lin Yao's silent figure in the video made his heart tighten.
"How long will it take?" Ye Heng's voice was filled with a subtle hint of urgency.
"Marshal, we will reach the gate of Xingluoting in five minutes." Ye Mang's voice came from the driver's seat.
Ye Heng nodded and his gaze returned to the screen.
Looking at the dark purple dead end pattern, his heart felt as if it was being tightly grasped by an invisible hand, and he felt uneasy.
"Lin Yao, please don't get hurt." Ye Heng muttered to himself, tapping his fingertips faster and faster.
He even began to regret not insisting on going to the scene yesterday. If he had been there, perhaps he could have found a way to stop him, or protect him as soon as he was in danger.
The hovercraft slowly slowed down, and the gate of Xingluoting appeared in front of them.
Ye Heng took a deep breath, straightened his clothes, pushed open the car door, and walked quickly towards the assessment site.
The protective shield was finally fully opened, revealing the full picture of the Juelu Pattern in front of Lin Yao.
The dark purple lines glowed with a strange luster in the sunlight, and the silver light in the gaps between the lines was looming, as if extending a fatal invitation to him.
Lin Yao took a deep breath, nodded to Shasha, and said softly, "Let's start."
The murderous vines suddenly shot forward, heading straight for Jueluwen.
The ice-blue vines and the dark purple poison collided with each other in an instant, making a sizzling sound and emitting bursts of white smoke.
That was the best proof that he did not try to avoid the poison and find a way to survive, but instead went straight up and came into contact with the poison layer, causing his spiritual body to be corroded!
The live broadcast barrage was boiling again:
"It's started! Look!"
"That vine is smoking! It really won't work! Ordinary vines are just ordinary vines, they're useless!"
"He didn't even try to find a way out, he just rushed straight ahead!"
"It's over, it's over. There's no hope now. If his spirit is corrupted, he'll be in trouble too."
Ye Heng had just walked to the entrance of the assessment site when he saw this scene. His heart instantly rose to his throat and his pace couldn't help but quicken a bit.
The pain from the poison erosion was like an electric current piercing through the nerves. Lin Yao's face turned pale in an instant, and cold sweat slid down his jaw line, leaving tiny wet marks on the ground.
The ice-blue vines looked like they were splashed with ink, and the black and purple color spread from the tips at a speed visible to the naked eye. The originally stretched leaves were now tightly curled up, and even the veins were trembling in pain.
The mockery in the live commentary almost overflowed the screen:
"See! What did I say? I can't bear it anymore!"
"The vines are all black. Is the spirit body going to collapse?"
At this moment, the aerial root vines exposed by Shasha suddenly trembled slightly.
Those vines that originally grew out of the strangler fig suddenly exploded from the inside of the aerial roots, and nineteen aerial vines as thin as hair pierced into the star crystal.
They were so thin that no one noticed these almost transparent tentacles in the steaming white smoke.
Ten aerial vines suddenly lit up and a scarlet light flowed through them, with killing energy surging within them.
They pounced on the rotten meat like hungry ants, piercing into the dark purple layer of poison without hesitation and gnawing at the toxin at a rapid speed.
The dark purple poison was forcibly pulled into the vine, and was torn and disassembled by the killing energy inside, minced and reorganized into dark purple purifying energy, which was fed back to the main vine along the veins.
The remaining nine aerial roots lit up a soft bright green for a moment.
That was the healing energy strengthened by Lin Yao's healing threads, repairing the recent damage. The eroded black and purple color was fading at a speed visible to the naked eye, revealing the ice-blue background again.
In less than half a minute, the originally ear-piercing "sizzling" sound suddenly stopped, and the steaming white smoke seemed to be pinched off by an invisible hand and disappeared in an instant.
The revealed vines have completely returned to their icy blue color, even more lustrous than before, and their leaves have a faint deep purple edge when stretched out, which is the energy condensed after swallowing the toxin.
The corners of Lin Yao's tightly pursed lips finally relaxed a little. He could clearly feel the pleasure of Shasha devouring the poison, and the mental power that had been frozen by the poison began to flow again.
Shasha was eating frantically. Taking advantage of this gap, Lin Yao sensed the poison and found that it was the Soul-Eroding Liquid, the third most common neurotoxin in the "Compendium of Mental Toxins".
The Corrosion Fluid comes from the glandular secretions of the Zerg Queen. It can directly dissolve the nerve network of living organisms. It ranks third due to its powerful destructive power.
But why didn't the previously injured guides detect that it was the corrosion of the Corrosion Liquid? It shouldn't be possible!
As Lin Yao pondered this, the comments on Starnet paused for a moment, then erupted in even greater shock:
"??? Where's the smoke? Where's the sound?"
"Am I blind? Why is the black and purple color gone?"
"That broken vine... is actually fine?"
Netizens didn’t notice it, but Ye Heng, who had been staring at Lin Yao, seemed to have discovered something.
Shasha was later healed because of the bright green light. The light had a strong healing ability, and both Mo Yun and he gave it a thumbs up after using it.
But, what was that scarlet color? Ye Heng didn't think he was mistaken. Although it was only a flash, it couldn't escape his five senses!
The moment the scarlet color appeared, he actually sensed a dangerous aura!
Ye Heng's gaze fell on the slender figure. Lin Yao still has a secret!!!
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