Chapter 13

Page (1/3)

Li Yang’s words clearly stunned them, especially the injured candidates, who were terrified and blurted out, “Are you crazy? That’s a top-tier advanced mutant plant! None of us have drawn star energy into our bodies, not even the most basic ‘star skills’... and you want to take it down? It could eat us all!”

Li Yang had little concept of their fear.

The mutant plants in the safe zone were like “cabbages” under her axe, and though the four-leaf clovers in Qing District were troublesome, she had taken them down as well.

This man-eating flower looked dangerous, but maybe she could still defeat it!

Without wasting time, Li Yang quickly said, “Don’t think you’re safe up in the tree. If we attract flying mutated creatures, we’ll be attacked from all sides and will have no choice but to press the rescue button.”

The candidate’s face turned pale as he said, “It won’t be that unlucky; there’s already one mutated creature, how could there be another…”

Li Yang was tired of their chatter. She suddenly drew the iron axe at her waist and stared at the group, saying, “Either you climb down yourselves, or I’ll kick you all down.”

The tree was huge, the trunk thick enough to be wrapped by four people, which was why so many could squeeze up there.

But Li Yang stood firmly in a precise spot; as long as she didn’t move, Chen Song and the others wouldn’t be able to climb higher, and from above, she could easily kick them down.

Their faces grew even grimmer. A relatively small young man said, “You can’t do that…”

Li Yang anticipated his words and snapped back, “It’s not against the rules; after all, I’m doing it to survive.”

Her words stunned them.

Indeed, the sole objective of this live combat test was to survive for three days.

Their presence threatened Li Yang’s survival, and she was making a decision based on the mission.

Though cold and ruthless, this was an examination, and at this moment, they were not classmates but opponents.

“Three seconds,” Li Yang said sharply, “Either come down with me to kill the mutant plant, or I’ll kick you down.”

Chen Song, who had been silent until now, took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, “I’ll go down with you to kill the plant.” He drew his long knife as he spoke.

The others panicked. They had been following Chen Song’s lead, and now that he agreed, they didn’t know what to do.

“Brother Chen…”

“She’s right. If we attract flying mutants, we’re all out,” Chen Song said. “I can’t be eliminated; I have to pass this live test.”

Li Yang coldly began the countdown: “3, 2…”

They swallowed hard and said, “Okay… okay, we’ll go down with you…”

Li Yang didn’t move, watching them closely. “Let’s go, down the tree.”

Chen Song completely dropped his arrogance and said to Li Yang, “That man-eating flower has two attack methods: one is to spray seeds. The seeds aren’t very deadly but are corrosive. If hit, you have to press the rescue button... The second is biting. It suddenly charges at high speed with incredibly sharp teeth. You absolutely cannot be bitten.”

Chen Song’s team was strong: three of them were from the provincial capital, all from families of star bearers with exceptional physical conditioning.

Their ability to escape from a top-tier advanced mutant plant already showed their strength.

Li Yang nodded and asked, “Who’s the fastest?”

Chen Song immediately replied, “Me.”

Li Yang said, “Good, you distract it from the front; we’ll attack from behind.”

Someone still didn’t trust Li Yang and said, “Brother Chen, what if you distract the mutant plant and it runs away…”

Li Yang bluntly answered, “No ‘what if.’ If I can’t beat it, I’ll definitely run.”

She didn’t hide her feelings and said frankly, “I didn’t provoke this mutant plant; I was dragged into this by you. Right now, helping you is a favor; not helping is my right. Don’t get things backwards.”

The man was silenced by her retort.

Page (2/3)

Chen Song’s intelligence seemed to rise a notch. “You want performance points?”

He had much more experience than Li Yang in these matters and quickly guessed that killing mutant plants gave extra performance points, usually linked to the live test ranking.

But knowing too much backfired on Chen Song. He mistakenly thought the entry briefing was a psychological test and aimed for these “performance points,” only to stumble badly.

Li Yang seized the moment, “Exactly. I want performance points; save the final strike for me.”

Chen Song relaxed and said, “Alright.”

The five finally reached a brief consensus. They had no other choice but to confront the mutant plant head-on.

Li Yang had no reason to deceive them. Delaying further would really attract flying mutants, and if another high-tier one appeared, they’d all be eliminated.

To separate, they first had to deal with the man-eating flower blocking the base of the tree.

Chen Song jumped down first, followed promptly by his three companions.

The moment the man-eating flower sensed human presence, it opened its huge mouth, revealing countless teeth.

The scene was chilling enough to make Li Yang, raised in the twenty-first century, shudder.

This thing was ten times, no, twenty times more ferocious than the ugly shrub…

And uglier too!

The ugly shrub’s big mouth had only one ring of sharp teeth, but this man-eating flower’s mouth was layered with dense rows and rows of teeth. A single bite would snap bones like twigs.

Chen Song now displayed the strength expected of someone with 88 physical points. His slim build made him fast, and when he jumped down, he dodged the seed spray, then swung his blade to draw the flower’s attention.

The others hurried down as well. They had never intended to fight a top-tier advanced mutant plant head-on. Though armed, none had the courage to engage.

Li Yang had been battle-hardened over the past two days. Though the ugly shrubs were weak, they attacked suddenly. She had accumulated a lot of experience.

Her dual 90-point physical stats were no joke. Her speed matched Chen Song’s, and with the star energy perception boosted by her spirit points, each axe blow was precise and deadly.

The star energy’s weakness was the mutant plants’ vulnerability!

Thud, thud, thud—three axe strikes.

Except for Chen Song up front, the others were shaken by Li Yang’s ferocity.

So fierce!

At this moment, they finally remembered Li Yang’s physical stats...

She was a prodigy with 90 physical points!

Forget luck—90 physical points was absolute raw power. Even without system training, she was terrifyingly lethal!

The man-eating flower was stunned by the blows. Ignoring Chen Song up front, it turned to bite Li Yang.

Li Yang didn’t flinch. She threw her iron axe aside and leapt to evade the seed spray.

However, a nearby student wasn’t fast enough and was hit by the seed.

He looked pale and said, “I…”

Chen Song shouted, “Help us kill it first, then retreat. I’ll compensate you afterward!”

The student swallowed hard, “O-okay.”

He was definitely out. Once poisoned, three hours was the limit.

But if he pressed the rescue button now, they’d lose a fighter. So Chen Song decided to keep him and promised compensation later.

Page (3/3)

At that moment, with a snap, Li Yang’s axe perfectly wedged in the flower’s huge mouth.

The man-eating flower’s main attack was biting. Now the iron axe was stuck with one end pressing its upper jaw and the other pressing its lower jaw, preventing it from opening or closing its massive, tooth-filled mouth.

Everyone froze.

Li Yang pulled out another axe and said, “What are you waiting for? Chop it!”

Everyone snapped to attention and charged with their weapons.

In the control room,

The examiners couldn’t ignore Group 8. They had expected Li Yang to clear all the lower-tier mutant plants and quietly rest, but instead, she was fighting a top-tier advanced mutant plant head-on.

They hadn’t followed the backstory, only seeing her wildly hacking at the man-eating flower with an iron axe.

No “star skills,” no “cultivation methods,” no “star weapons”...

Just her iron axe and her physique, chopping a top-tier advanced mutant plant into a frenzy.

Admittedly, in the chief examiner’s eyes, first- and second-tier mutant creatures were easy to crush, but for these candidates...

Well, for the others, the only option was running, but for Li Yang, it seemed not too difficult.

The chief examiner watched carefully and said, “Check her spirit points afterward. This girl has high talent.”

Once the chief examiner mentioned it, the other teachers noticed more details.

Li Yang wasn’t hacking randomly; every axe strike landed on the mutant plant’s weak points. With her 90 physical points, she unleashed nearly 270 points of damage.

First-tier star bearers typically had 100-500 physical points, averaging about 300 damage output.

But Li Yang’s damage was tripled because she hit the weak spots.

Such precise targeting could only mean her spirit points were very high.

Ninety physical points was already impressive—if she had 90 spirit points as well...

She would undoubtedly be number one in Donghua Province.

Perhaps even nationwide this year, few would surpass her.

Chen Song and his team were even more shaken. Li Yang seemed to carry some fortune with her. How else could she wedge an iron axe so precisely into the man-eating flower’s mouth?

The once difficult top-tier advanced mutant plant suddenly lost much of its combat power.

Though the seed spray remained troublesome, it had a certain pattern and could be carefully avoided.

Chen Song stood beside Li Yang, now fully aware he had been a fool to underestimate her.

Ninety physical points—only two points higher than his own...

Why was her damage tripled or more?

Seeing the man-eating flower staggering, Li Yang shouted, “Fall back!”

They were already intimidated by her presence and obediently retreated.

Li Yang gripped her axes with both hands, black eyes gleaming with excitement, and hammered the flower’s massive head repeatedly, smashing its brain into bits.

[Life span +10 years]