283: Chapter 283 Far Ahead

"Who won!"

Outside the trial world, some of the spectating guests with lower levels of knowledge couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

Just moments ago, they had seen the magic beam submerge Zhang Huaiyuan and thought the Saintess of the Holy Light Monastery was going to win.

But at the final moment, the Saintess, who was clearly in a safe position, suddenly vanished into thin air.

Subsequently, the entire world was completely destroyed.

"Who exactly was eliminated first?"

"Is this really a level that apprentices can reach? It's already far beyond that of ordinary formal Scholars."

"That kid from the Time Book House is extraordinary, to actually be able to fight to a draw with the Saintess of the Monastery..."

"Hey friend, you haven't been following the off-field info, have you? This kid has quite the background; he's the disciple of two Tower Masters from the Time Traveler Association."

"No wonder..."

A man dressed somewhat sloppily came to a sudden realization.

He thought to himself that there was no way a dark horse could exist in a clash between top-tier geniuses like this.

If either side's foundation was even slightly lacking, it would have been a one-sided situation.

"Zhang Huaiyuan won!"

On the other side, the three team leaders and some high-level instructors saw the result at a glance.

However, except for the Paladin of the Monastery, the others were currently too preoccupied to focus on the result.

"Rewind."

The High Priest of the Elf Race waved a hand, and the image in the void began to rewind rapidly.

Everyone stared intently at the playback, their faces flickering with expressions of uncertainty and shock.

"Right here!"

The High Priest of the Elf Race suddenly had a thought.

The rewinding image immediately stopped, and a grenade that was inconspicuous within the brilliant magic pillar was continuously enlarged.

It disintegrated silently, without a single spark.

But the Saintess of the Holy Light Monastery, who was far away in the safe zone, suddenly vanished entirely after it disintegrated.

"That's right... it's the power of Causality!"

"Causality!"

A chorus of unbelievable exclamations rang out simultaneously.

Even the Paladin praying devoutly on the side couldn't help but look over.

Knowledge related to Causality was something that only those at his level began to touch upon; translated to the technology side, one would have to be at least a Senior Scholar.

"Junior Martial Brother was actually able to create a weapon involving Causality under these conditions?"

Mild was momentarily stunned.

Research into the subject of Causality was something quite complex even for him.

If the previous restoration ability could be explained by some special ability he didn't know about, then this thing definitely required a corresponding knowledge system to be able to integrate it into a weapon.

"Simply incredible..."

The High Priest of the Elf Race also couldn't help but marvel in a low voice.

Although the other party's Causality weapon only acted upon a tiny planet, which was incomparable to their research on the entire All Heavens and Myriad Realms.

But, this was still just a little fellow who was less than ten thousand years old!

Thinking back to when he was that age, he was just an attention-seeker who liked to intentionally sing melancholy songs on the branches of the World Tree to attract the attention of Elven girls.

Click—!

While everyone was lost in their own thoughts, the central virtual projection pod slowly opened.

"Let's announce the results first."

"Furthermore, no one present is allowed to leak any information about the assessment."

Mild and the others exchanged glances, reaching a tacit agreement, and after a brief calculation.

The High Priest of the Elf Race pointed a finger, and the image in the void immediately dissipated, replaced by rows of point rankings:

Time Book House, Total Points: 602. Rank: 1.

Holy Light Monastery, Total Points: 376. Rank: 2.

Leviathan Laboratory, Total Points: 280. Rank: 3.

"This..."

Seeing the massive gap, even the High Priest of the Elf Race, who was mentally prepared, couldn't help but have his eyelids twitch.

It was truly a humiliating loss.

At this time, the thirty examinees also emerged from the virtual projection pods one after another.

As soon as they looked up, they saw the scoreboard in the sky.

"About right. An extra hundred and twenty points as a reward for the winner, a total of twenty kills for two hundred points. Plus the six months spent fighting the Monastery Saintess and the monster rewards from two special resource points, exactly 602 points."

Zhang Huaiyuan did a quick mental calculation and confirmed the result.

"This, I'm not seeing things, am I..."

Talix, Fang Qingran, and the others also saw the score leading by a long shot in the sky and couldn't help but blink hard.

Upon confirming the numbers hadn't changed, they couldn't help but show expressions of wild joy.

Especially Talix and the first student to be eliminated.

Although one of them had taken down ten million Zerg Swarm and the other had encountered the Monastery Saintess at the start.

The fact remained that they were the first two to be eliminated; if the entire team had really ended up in last place, they wouldn't have been able to live with themselves.

"Junior Brother, thank you..."

Thinking of this, Talix couldn't help but bow gratefully.

"It's all thanks to Junior Brother..."

Seeing this, the others also snapped out of their shock and joy, offering their thanks one after another.

"No need to be polite, everyone. If you hadn't used your deaths to buy time for me, I wouldn't have been able to use my abilities to reach the end. This victory belongs to our entire team."

Zhang Huaiyuan shook his head slightly and smiled.

Compared to the harmonious atmosphere at the Time Book House, things were a bit subtle at Leviathan Academy.

The ten students looked at the rankings in the sky with gloomy faces.

It meant that in the entire second round, they had gained nothing except for ganging up on and killing one student from the Time Book House and earning a dozen or so points from some special resource points.

A gap of 322 points was more than 100 points higher than the largest gap in history.

Unsurprisingly, after the ten of them returned, they would probably be forever nailed to the academy's pillar of shame.

As for being outstanding graduates, they shouldn't even think about it.

After all, although it was partly because the enemy was too strong, as a group that had set a record for the lowest score in history, they simply didn't have the face to take those honors.

More importantly, the ten of them had been killed almost simultaneously, so they couldn't even shift the blame if they wanted to.

For a moment, they felt even angrier, remaining silent and unable to stand the sight of each other.

On the other side, in the Holy Light Monastery camp.

The group of fanatical believers didn't lose heart at all because of the loss.

In their view, this was merely Her Highness the Saintess appreciating the other party's knowledge and intentionally letting him win.

Saintess Jiang Nian, however, glanced thoughtfully in a certain direction, a hint of surprise in her eyes.

She hadn't expected the other party to actually be able to take the victory one step ahead of "Divine Punishment."

To have used power involving Causality even in a low-level space like the trial world.

With her Power of Faith exhausted, even she couldn't have resisted it with just a projection.

"Zhang Huaiyuan... the Sea of Time seems to be a legacy left by Grandmaster. Well, I suppose Grandmaster won't take it personally. It just so happens that Grandpa Death was complaining to me not long ago that Holy Spirit City hasn't produced any decent talent in the recent epoch; maybe I can consider kidnapping him to my Holy Spirit City..."

And while all parties were either joyful or worried.

Among the crowd invited to watch the competition, the originally admiring eyes of a tall and thin humanoid man suddenly became empty.

He silently scanned the rankings in the sky and the examinees one by one, finally stopping on Zhang Huaiyuan, who was surrounded by the crowd.

...