Sometimes, an increase in difficulty can trigger a person's desire to challenge.

Especially with the Pride of Embers, anyone who hesitates or fears challenges is destined not to go far on this path. Now, the strictness and iron hand of Gustav are seen as a rare trial.

Even if he previously ignored various criticisms and pressures, giving a result of 0 passes.

Out of more than eleven hundred people, how many are taking chances, and how many consider themselves children of Heavenly Destiny, facing difficulties head-on?

"You've already been seen as a towering mountain, my friend."

Jiang Tongguang sighed, "Now the newcomers are rushing forward, bravely advancing towards you."

However, with so many apprentices gathered together, each with their own heritage and identity, coming from different places, deep-seated hatreds and sworn enemies are not few...

His eyes suddenly lit up.

"Hey, I have an idea!"

Jiang Tongguang clapped his hands and raised a finger, "Why don't we adjust the positions and put them together?"

Gustav looked over with a blank expression.

He only saw the guy's excited and hopeful look, unapologetically—boring, I want to see rivers of blood!

Never mind, there's no point in expecting more from this guy.

He withdrew his gaze, indifferently responding.

"Whether it's a gathering of heroes or a meeting of radishes, it won't be known until they truly pass through fire."

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly said, "A thousand people, still too many, first round, let's eliminate eight hundred."

At that moment, the tower beneath their feet suddenly trembled slightly.

Spiritual energy surged, appearing from the incomplete contours, rising, intertwining, sketching out a grand outline that soared toward the sky.

From the topmost tip of the tower, the sound of a high-pitched bell rang out.

Countless souls, like flashes of light, gathered together.

Fell into it.

Never to be seen again...

The examination starts now.

.

.

The exam scene was completely different from what was expected.

The first written test was arranged in a building, like attending an open class at Tianmen University, even the examination room was a large lecture hall with tiered seating.

No, this was probably originally a place where the association held master classes for participants during some large internal meetings.

Everyone walked into their exam rooms according to their numbers, sitting in their designated seats.

Exam papers were already placed on the desks.

But, they were flipped over and covered, not even worried about candidates peeking early. After all, the exam content was blocked along with the entire classroom.

Unless a master personally arrived, there was no way to flip them over, and even if flipped, it would just be a blank sheet.

In a silent atmosphere, no one dared to whisper.

Everyone sat at their seats, prepared and ready. Until the invigilator, holding a pocket watch, silently waiting, the second hand aligned, and the crisp ringing sound echoed through the building.

"The exam begins."

After announcing, the middle-aged invigilator closed the door, sitting beside the podium, arms crossed, indifferently looking elsewhere.

He didn't even bother to mention the rule against cheating.

When Ji Jue turned over the exam paper, he understood... it wasn't necessary at all.

An A4 sheet exam paper, with large spaced characters, barely covering one-tenth of the area.

Name, age, gender, candidate number...

Then?

And that's all?

Ji Jue held the pen, looking blankly for a long time, then looked up at the invigilator. The invigilator didn't even care about the low murmurs, looking like he didn't care whether you do it or not.

He thought for a moment, and ultimately started filling out the items one by one.

However, while filling them out, he seemed to hear a distant bell ringing, so remote. It made him yawn, rubbing the corner of his eye.

Feeling sleepy.

Something's wrong...

Ji Jue instantly became alert, widened his eyes, looked around, but could only see one candidate after another already lying on their desks, some even sliding under the tables.

Thumping sounds were endless.

Then, his vision went black...

Boom!!!

A loud noise came from beside him.

Like being abruptly awakened from a brief dream, Ji Jue suddenly stood up, saw a box thrown beside him, and the pile of messy parts inside the box, scattered everywhere.

"Don't just stand there dumbfounded, the island's situation hasn't been right lately, erosion speed is terribly fast, it's urgent, fix it."

A vague figure gave instructions, then turned and left.

For a long time, Ji Jue looked around in daze.

An old Melting Furnace, a pile of broken instruments, and two machines covered with dust cloths, seemingly left untouched for a long time.

A workshop that's leaky on all sides, no, it barely counts as a workshop anymore.

A workspace almost losing its basic spiritual isolation.

Deep underground.

His memory was still stuck in the scene at the exam room, and his vision just before passing out.

Where did they bring me?

Is this still Tianmen?

Dazed for a long time, after some thought and careful analysis... hmm, he shouldn't have crossed into Otherworld, for now, he can feel the layers of restraints imposed on his soul.

He raised his hand and waved it towards the Melting Furnace.

No reaction.

No Non-attack, no Mechanical Descent, no blessing, except for some spiritual reserve slightly stronger than a normal person, he was almost empty-handed.

Lowering his head, he rummaged through the stuff in the box.

A mess of everything, most were gray tiles used to enhance the workshop's sealing, two heavy protective suits, some mismatched tools, two rusty picks, and shovels.

The main components were the core components of two devices, one was the production part of the Water Maker, and the other was the core of some large field Secret Ritual.

This should be the exam content.

All practical?

He scratched his head, puzzled, why isn't there a hint? How could it all be guessing?

Though perplexed, his hands didn't stop moving. After categorizing and organizing the items by difficulty, he began to check the crude workshop.

Hmm, besides having a furnace, it had nothing.

Spiritual reserve was better than nothing, but pathetically so.

More importantly...

After Ji Jue had started the Melting Furnace for a while, he suddenly heard a crisp sound, and then, a large amount of spiritual energy dispersed from Ji Jue's daze.

The flame vanished into thin air.

What's this?

This broken furnace… actually extinguished?!

More importantly, during this process, Ji Jue checked the material reserves in the workshop's storage, could only say, even a mouse would come to shed tears.

Besides some basic metal consumables and pitifully few materials, there was nothing else.

Empty.

Instead, there was a pile of second-hand instruments and junk.

Like a garbage recycling station.

After wandering north and south these four months, Ji Jue had never seen such a shabby situation, even that broken workshop of Duden's, at least it was whole.

If this workshop couldn't be managed, just find a factory job, why suffer this?

Ji Jue walked to the basement door, pushed it open, only seeing empty stairs and the voices from above, but he couldn't get out, as if blocked by invisible walls.

Hmm, classic game design, air walls.

Lousy planning, not even a pop-up to revisit this area later.

"Hello? Hello! Is anyone there?"

Ji Jue found a walkie-talkie after searching for a long time, shouting for a while until hearing an echo, "What's the matter?"

"Materials in the storage are not enough," Ji Jue said, "Can we get more?"

"Why not just take me instead," the other voice was rough and indifferent, "Not your first day, figure it out! These things are urgently needed, fix them, understood?"

Why don't you say your mother's grave urgently needs maintenance, or it'll overgrow?

Ji Jue was nearly amused by rage.

Even if I were a nuclear-powered donkey, not needing grain and grinding, I couldn't conjure materials out of thin air. Should I dismantle the heap of junk to fix these things?

Wait...

His gaze paused on the pile of scrap, slowly raising his eyebrows, "Alright then, I'll handle it myself."

No response.

The walkie-talkie fell silent.

In the underground workshop, only the sound of surging rain outside and occasional distant thunder could be heard.

Outside the narrow windows, a blurred rain screen.

Not even an air conditioner in the workshop, hands shaking from cold.

For now, need to fix the furnace, or else we'll freeze to death.

Ji Jue sighed, rolled up his sleeves, grabbed tools, and crawled into the Melting Furnace—fortunately used to rough days, or would be clueless on what to do.

After a rough check, could only say, this workshop's deplorable condition wasn't without reason. The Melting Furnace had pieces from god knows how many dismantled parts.

Internal spiritual circuits conflicted, unbalanced quads, and the temperature control sequence was completely broken, nearly ready to be recycled.

Actually fitting this place well.

As for the issue, not severe, except the wind hole was blocked by dust. Ji Jue gritted his teeth, wielded the hammer and fiercely hammered, after eating a mouthful of dust, he crawled out coughing.

Injected spiritual energy again.

This time, in the chilly underground workshop, a warm Flame Light finally ignited.

Ji Jue sat on the ground, wiped the sweat off his face.

No time to relax.

He suddenly turned his head, looking towards the window—just now, something seemed to flash by, quickly, like some reptile.

What the hell?

Is this exam scene atmosphere right?

Ji Jue scratched his head, frowning, feeling something amiss.

But while pondering, his work didn't stop, first throwing in those already riddled gray tiles, breaking them apart, heating and dissolving, and recasting, while the nearly intact ones were mended with other alloys, patched up to work.

Though called gray tiles, their essence was metal, this dark gray alloy was usually used for constructing external isolation layers of workshops, affordable, even used a lot in Professor Ye's workshop.

After doing such assistant work often, it wasn't hard.

Used to rough and simple conditions, Ji Jue's work quickly proceeded.

But just as he was working intensely, many participating apprentices had been completely bewildered.

Faced with unfamiliar surroundings and numerous tasks, had no clue where to start.

Not even able to start the furnace.

"It's only been four minutes, already over ninety candidates have been eliminated."

Atop the tower, Jiang Tongguang sighed, "Isn't your standard too harsh?"

"Just basic tool maintenance and waste utilization, if they can't do this, what kind of craftsmen are they?"

Gustav sneered, "Being eliminated here is a good thing for them."

The real torment hasn't begun yet.

At that moment, Ji Jue turned warily.

In the earth-shaking rumble, the entire broken workshop suddenly trembled, and then...

Outside the door, a sudden scream echoed!

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