193: Chapter 193 The Stargazers

Their attention was immediately drawn over.

As they looked, a special race completely different from them emerged from the light gate.

They were not carbon-based lifeforms like themselves; it was even unclear if they could be called biological organisms at all.

Their bodies were composed entirely of energy, looking like countless nebulae clustered together—it was quite a cool sight.

Upon seeing them, Gray immediately looked up at the clearance rankings before him.

The name of a Star-Gazing Clan member appeared alongside theirs, prominently listed in the rankings for the sixth stage.

"Star-Gazing Clan..." he muttered to himself, continuing to stare.

There were very few of them; it was unclear if it was because so many had been eliminated earlier or if their original numbers were simply small.

After about twenty energy entities stepped through the light gate, the passage closed.

Their gaze quickly caught the attention of the newcomers.

The members of the Star-Gazing Clan, after confirming their surroundings, also looked over toward them.

As the two sides locked eyes, Gray's gaze fell upon the tallest "person" leading the other group.

That individual was also staring back at him at that moment.

"Someone has caught up..." King Horn, standing nearby, couldn't help but speak, his heart growing anxious.

"It's fine, Your Majesty, there's no need to worry," Gray said immediately, glancing at the Star-Gazing Clan across from them. "There are only about twenty of them. Even if they've caught up, they won't affect us."

"Mhm..." Hearing this, Horn felt slightly more at ease.

There were tens of thousands on their side, and the think tank currently analyzing and deriving those ten basic rule formulas numbered over a hundred. Quantity could lead to a qualitative change.

The other side had only about twenty people; perhaps half of them wouldn't even be useful in this Assessment. There was indeed no need to be afraid.

...

"Look at them," Seta said, pointing toward Horn's group with a hint of a contemptuous smile in their tone. "There must be tens of thousands. Why are there so many?"

After these words were spoken, the other Star-Gazing Clan members all laughed along.

Was their strength so weak that they had to rely on numbers to win?

They were different; their knowledge heritage could be transmitted directly. Every single member of the Star-Gazing Clan was a well-rounded genius.

Thus, seeing the massive crowd on Horn's side, they couldn't help but look down on them.

"Enough," Noel, acting as the leader, spoke up to interrupt the group. "Don't mind the others. Focus on yourselves."

Hearing Noel's words, everyone restrained their laughter and looked ahead.

Soon, the rules for this Assessment appeared.

[Sixth Assessment: Graphic Deduction]

[Rule Content: The Assessment will generate a dynamic graphic lasting nearly five seconds. This dynamic graphic is constructed from ten basic rules. Participants must observe fragments of the dynamic graphic's changes to deduce and predict the model's state of change thirty seconds later.]

[Assessment Passing Criteria: Achieving a graphic prediction accuracy of over 90%, or completely parsing the ten basic rules, will be considered a pass.]

The rules finished displaying.

They glanced at each other again, their eyes filled with confidence and smiles.

Deduction? This required extraordinary computing power.

And computing power?

That was exactly their clan's specialty.

...

After catching a glimpse of the Star-Gazing Clan's movements, Gray stopped his own deductions and couldn't help but look over.

Beside him, Horn pursed his lips upon seeing this.

He had originally wanted to call out to Gray to take a look, but he hadn't spoken for fear of disturbing his thoughts.

But now, Gray seemed to have been drawn in by those people on the opposite side as well.

"What's going on?" Horn asked.

Gray bit his lip slightly, staring at the Star-Gazing Clan members not far away. Their energy-based forms began to shift and stretch, then linked together.

Then, as if their circuit link was successful, their consciousnesses began to connect and share. They stared at the changing graphics before them and began their deduction.

Watching their transformation, Gray's brow furrowed as he explained:

"Their race is somewhat special. They should be able to combine and then interconnect their consciousness links to obtain greater Spirit computing power to assist in the deduction..."

Hearing this, Horn also became nervous.

"What should we do?"

The most important reason he could become king was a sentence passed down to him by the previous old king, his father: Leave professional matters to professional people.

Therefore, he wasn't afraid of appearing ignorant; in fields he didn't understand, he should let those meant for the task handle it.

Gray's eyes flickered, also feeling a hint of pressure.

After a moment's thought, he said, "Your Majesty, have the other idle clansmen also try their hand at the deduction and cracking..."

Their advantage lay in their numbers. Perhaps there was someone exceptionally gifted who could see the rules behind it at a glance, or some lucky person who might just guess the graphic correctly.

Horn nodded and immediately gave the orders.

Previously, Gray and the think tank were responsible for the deductions, while the others who weren't useful remained idle.

But now, with the new pressure from the arrivals on the right, even if it was just by chance, they had to mobilize everyone to participate.

...

About half an hour after Noel and the other Star-Gazing Clan members entered the sixth Assessment.

They also realized that something was slightly off.

This Assessment wasn't as simple as they had imagined; it wasn't that easy to deduce those ten underlying rules.

By the time they reached the second basic rule formula, they began to feel the difficulty.

They finally understood why Gray and the other members of the Beast-Eared Clan had been stuck at this stage for so long.

Feeling the pressure, Noel couldn't help but look across to check their progress.

Whether it was a telepathic connection or mere coincidence, at the same moment he looked over, the fox-eared alien who had locked eyes with him earlier also looked his way.

As their eyes met, they both immediately hid the anxiety in their gazes.

With an air of composure, they looked as if they were merely inspecting the other party.

Seeing the other's appearance, Gray naturally gave a light snort, a hint of disdain appearing on his face.

How could he let the other side look down on him?

The other side had caught up and reached the same stage, but no matter what, their progress was still ahead for now.

...

Meanwhile.

Inside the fourth stage.

Cui Jingming's group had already decreased from nearly three hundred to almost half that number.

This was because the previous stage, the third Assessment, was individual-based, and more than half of them had been eliminated.

After it ended, Cui Jingming gave Gu Changming a somewhat surprised look, seemingly astonished that Gu Changming had actually remained.

Now, they were in the final phase of the fourth stage.

Four doors appeared before them.

Only one of them was correct and would lead to the next stage.

Furthermore, they couldn't split the team to open the four doors separately.

If they chose incorrectly, everyone would be eliminated.

Gu Changming glanced at the display on his panel, then looked at Cui Jingming in front of him...