Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Peeking at the Questions

Did the Time Stop World and the real world look completely different?

Was it because...

Fang Chen suddenly realized a certain possibility. He snapped his head up, looking across the riverbed toward the highway higher up. Although the angle was tricky and his line of sight was partially blocked, he could still see it clearly. Those military off-road vehicles were parked on the road in the Time Stop Domain, completely intact! Even the heavy machine guns and rapid-fire cannons mounted on them were perfectly fine.

In that case, the wreckage and flying debris he had just seen in the real world...

The real world!

Was it fake?

No, more accurately—it was an Illusion Art!

A massive Illusion Art had enveloped this area, twisting everyone’s sensory perception. Fang Chen instantly understood the identities of the casters. Who else could it be? It was either the escorting officers and High Martial Realm experts themselves, or illusion masters who had been lying in ambush here all along!

*This* was the true first stage of the wilderness assessment! The destination was still a forest, just not the Dream Shadow Forest. Did some accident happen at the original testing ground, forcing a temporary change in location and format? Or did the martial exam officials simply want to use this method to test all the candidates’ ability to react to sudden emergencies?

Fang Chen had no time to delve into the specific reasons behind it. He planned to confirm it himself.

Fang Chen stepped into the water again. The river, which had been as placid as a mirror in the Time Stop Domain, immediately regained its flowing nature the moment he touched it, rippling outward in circles. As he quickly waded through the water, he continued to ponder the bizarre phenomenon of the "misty membrane" peeling away earlier.

What exactly was that?

If an illusion was completely non-existent, it should simply vanish and reveal the truth. If it could be maintained, it should remain as it was. This process of gradual revelation had never occurred in the Time Stop Domain before.

"Could there be other substances unaffected by the Time Stop besides me?" he wondered. "Or is there something that exists in the real world but not in my Time Stop Domain?"

Fang Chen’s mind raced, his feet never stopping. Suddenly, he paused, everything becoming clear!

"Right!

"It’s living people!

"The output of human energy! An Illusion Art is actively activated and continuously maintained by people. But once they enter the Time Stop Domain, the casters themselves are frozen. The Magic Power or Spiritual Power they project is like a faucet being turned off instantly!

"Without continuous energy support, that meticulously constructed illusion structure naturally cannot be maintained. Like a sandcastle losing its foundation, it rapidly collapses, revealing the hidden truth!"

Figuring this out put Fang Chen in an excellent mood.

"This means that from now on, whether I’m facing any level of Illusion Art, or a man-made Illusion Array or Blinding Technique, I can completely see through the truth in the Time Stop Domain before returning to the real world to deal with it calmly! This is simply a divine skill for breaking illusions!"

His pace couldn’t help but quicken. He swiftly scaled the steep riverbank and returned to the highway from before.

Sure enough, everything was as he had expected. The highway was perfectly intact. Those military off-road vehicles sat quietly, not even missing a fleck of paint. Aside from the bus window he had kicked out—which was a genuine piece of damage—there were no other signs of battle.

He walked around the scene, seeing all the military officers and escorts, including those four High Martial Realm Martial Artists, standing on the road like statues. Their gazes were uniformly fixed on the dense forest below. Even Instructor Yang Chen, who had "heroically sacrificed" himself, was standing perfectly fine among the crowd.

Everything truly was an illusion!

"The medium for the Illusion Art was very likely that eerie singing!" he thought.

Fang Chen immediately began searching for the casters. He quickly locked onto his targets—a team, to be exact. There were four of them in total, three women and one man, each occupying one of the four cardinal directions. They sat cross-legged, their hands forming Sealing gestures, surrounded by faint energy fluctuations. Beneath them, precise and complex Spirit Patterns were carved into the ground, forming a stable energy guidance and amplification array.

Their location surprised even Fang Chen. They were right on the small hill to the left of the road! In the illusion world, this had been an impassable, steep cliff, but in reality, it was only five meters high.

Fang Chen leaped up. Once at the top, he found that these four Illusionists weren’t the only ones on the terrace. There was also a group of people, currently frozen in place with binoculars in hand, observing the candidates’ every move below. A temporary command post had even been set up nearby, complete with tents, tables, chairs, and communication equipment.

Fang Chen walked into the command post. He didn’t recognize most of the people, but there was a familiar face: Company Commander Jia, who had been in charge of registration earlier, was among them.

Behind Company Commander Jia was a long table surrounded by several soldiers holding pens, seemingly recording something. Fang Chen leaned in for a closer look. It was a real-time candidate performance evaluation form and a detailed scoring rubric for the comprehensive assessment.

Understanding dawned on him. He grabbed the stack of documents and quickly flipped through them, soon finding his own name.

[Fang Chen]

- Made a swift and correct response following the sudden incident, decisively escaping danger through the side window (+1 point).

- Calmly observed the terrain, took the initiative to find the correct path, and led some classmates to evacuate (+2 points).

- Encountered a wolf pack upon landing, instantly killed them, and eliminated the threat, demonstrating excellent combat capabilities (+1 point).

"Heh, as expected, the exam officially began the moment the attack started," Fang Chen thought. "But since we all pulled our hoods down, how did they tell us apart?"

He then looked at the adjacent comprehensive assessment scoring rubric and the explanation of bonus/deduction points. Numerous categories were listed:

[Situational Reaction], [Decision Making], [Leadership & Collaboration], [Combat Ability], [Environmental Adaptation], [Psychological Resilience]...

Below each category were detailed scoring criteria. In addition, there was a column for [Special Performance Bonus Points], which included [Seeing Through Illusions], [Rescuing Companions], [Discovering Hidden Clues], and so on, each followed by a high bonus point value.

Where there were bonus points, there were also deductions. Fang Chen discovered that actions like [Killing Companions], [Misleading Teammates], [Failing in Combat], [Ignoring Warnings], [Inability to Fight], and [Insufficient Combat Power] would all result in corresponding point deductions.

Each staff member wore a headset, seemingly receiving information. From the documents on the table, Fang Chen also learned that there were quite a few guards disguised as students hidden in the dense forest. By donning a Combat Suit and pulling down the hood to form a mask, no one could recognize that these guards weren’t students. They were used to closely observe the candidates’ behavior and provide necessary protection. If anyone went too far in their fights, they would step in to save them.

Finally, Fang Chen noticed a few [Hidden Assessment Tasks] and their corresponding massive reward points printed in a slightly smaller font at the very bottom of the document!

A sharp gleam flashed in his eyes.

"Then I won’t hold back," he thought. "This is the perfect chance to see how you plan to test us this year, and what free points are up for grabs..."

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