Chapter 37 - 33: A Clown’s Entrance Is Always Bizarre

Chapter 37: Chapter 33: A Clown’s Entrance Is Always Bizarre

The final day of the second phase of the mock exam.

"Strange. The watch clearly shows there are over twenty candidates left, but why haven’t I run into anyone else besides a few classmates from the Earth Dao Class on the first day? Where did they all go?

"And... out of the top ten on the leaderboard, how come four of them are constantly gathered together!

"Aren’t they worried about being ambushed by each other and getting eliminated early?"

Chen Hua looked at the red dots displayed on his watch’s map, his face filled with confusion. Each red dot on the map represented a student in the top ten of the leaderboard. Yet, bizarrely, four out of those ten were gathered together and had stayed in the same spot for a long time. This completely baffled him.

Logically speaking, nine out of ten candidates who could make it into the top ten were those arrogant elites from the Heavenly Dao Class. In that case, let alone four of them grouping up, if even two of them crossed paths, it would be a miracle if they didn’t beat the living daylights out of each other.

But besides not understanding the current candidate situation, there was another issue that not only perplexed Chen Hua but also stung his pride deeply.

"Seriously, what kind of skills does Lu Chen have? On what grounds did he make it into the top ten!

"Cheating. This guy definitely cheated."

One’s own failure was certainly terrible, but a romantic rival’s success was far more agonizing.

Chen Hua believed that although he was only considered average among the twenty-one students of the Heavenly Dao Class, no matter what, he should still be much stronger than Lu Chen from the Human Dao Class! If even he couldn’t break into the top ten, what gave Lu Chen the right to be there!

"I don’t believe Lu Chen actually got into the top ten with his own power. That punk definitely relied on Mu Tongxue’s help to luckily survive until now.

"But it’s already the last day of the mock exam. Everyone will definitely stop holding back. I doubt Mu Tongxue can still protect you.

"Lu Chen, you’d better pray I don’t catch you, or you’ll suffer big time."

The thought of violently beating Lu Chen in front of Mu Xiaoye and mercilessly rubbing it in his face made Chen Hua unable to hold back a sinister, maniacal cackle, sounding just like the Joker from Gotham City.

***

"ACHOO!"

"Lu, what’s wrong? Did you catch a cold?"

"I’m fine. Someone must be talking about me behind my back. Going by the time, today should be the last day of the mock exam, right?"

Mu Xiaoye nodded, then looked down at the watch on her right wrist.

"There are only about twenty hours left until the exam deadline set by the teachers. Lu... how long do you plan to let them help you?

"How about we..."

Mu Xiaoye looked at the seven classmates chopping down trees for Lu Chen a short distance away. Where they couldn’t see, she discreetly made a throat-slitting motion. With her fierce little glare and the small canine tooth peeking from the corner of her mouth, she looked adorably vicious. Her expression perfectly resembled those movie villains who ruthlessly discarded their pawns once they outlived their usefulness.

However, Lu Chen ultimately rejected Mu Xiaoye’s inhumane suggestion.

"There’s no need. Let everyone just rely on their own skills in the end.

"It’s just an exam, after all. There’s no reason to do something that will make everyone hate us."

"All right, but be careful when the time comes. They all look pretty disgruntled to me," Mu Xiaoye replied.

It would be a miracle if they weren’t disgruntled.

Lu Chen had a very clear self-awareness of what he had done over the past two days. Except for Bian Shouyi and the first two Earth Dao Class students who had arrived, the rest of the lumberjacks had been subdued and brought here by the grade’s number one, Mu Xiaoye, and number six, Bian Shouyi. Therefore, in the eyes of those four later classmates, Lu Chen was just a despicable guy who rode on others’ coattails and leeched off a woman.

Real skills?

They absolutely refused to acknowledge that mooching off a woman was a kind of skill! But their refusal didn’t matter. They were completely no match for Bian Shouyi and Mu Xiaoye, so they could only swallow their anger and act as Lu Chen’s lumberjacks.

At this point in the mock exam, the situation was basically clear. Out of the twenty-one high school seniors in Luocheng First High School’s Heavenly Dao Class, apart from the poor fool who was eliminated in the first phase, the rest had survived to the second phase—a total of twenty people. After two days of fierce battles, eight of those twenty were eliminated for various reasons, leaving twelve.

If even the Heavenly Dao Class had seen so many eliminations, it was needless to say how the students in the regular classes fared. Thus, on the third day of the mock exam, only a sparse twenty-two candidates remained. And of these twenty-two, including Lu Chen himself, a full eight people were gathered together.

Following his principle of maintaining a low profile while steadily improving, whether it was his current eighth-place points or the massive amount of Cyan Profound Wood resting in his Storage Pouch, this mock exam had been extremely rewarding for him.

Although his final exam rank probably wouldn’t stay as high as eighth, it certainly wouldn’t be too low either. It would be enough for him to earn a substantial amount of Academic Credit.

Because of this, Lu Chen felt that his run in this mock exam was just about done. He had fully demonstrated his potential without reaching a level that was overly conspicuous. It was absolutely perfect.

At this thought, Lu Chen stood up from the tree stump and looked up at the sun, which had already risen to the center of the sky.

"It’s about time to head out..."

Just as Lu Chen was about to open his watch and choose to exit the Five Springs Mountain Secret Realm, someone who left him quite speechless appeared yet again.

"Lu Chen, you’re exactly as I thought! You’ve only lasted this long by relying entirely on Mu Tongxue’s help.

"Looking at how the other classmates have given it their all and fought hard up to this point, don’t you feel ashamed?"

Staring at Chen Hua, who had popped out of nowhere, Lu Chen momentarily didn’t know what to say. Because Lu Chen was sitting at the very edge of the camp, and Mu Xiaoye had already left a step ahead to do who-knows-what, Lu Chen was currently quite a distance away from the others, unexpectedly left alone.

How could Chen Hua miss such a heaven-sent opportunity? Moreover, Chen Hua hadn’t appeared by accident. He had actually been waiting in the distance for quite some time. He only seized the chance to reveal himself after seeing Mu Xiaoye leave.

This... was the patience of a simp!

Meanwhile, looking at Chen Hua, who thought he had victory in the bag, Lu Chen secretly sighed. He wondered why some people always liked to play the clown.

Facing the smug Chen Hua, Lu Chen suddenly spoke. "I feel like everything you’re saying is right. So... goodbye.

"See you around."

With that, Lu Chen pressed the button to exit the Secret Realm without the slightest hesitation. A Teleportation Array immediately lit up beneath his feet. A moment later, he vanished right in front of Chen Hua, leaving Chen Hua alone, utterly dumbfounded in the wind.

Watching Lu Chen leave, Chen Hua’s mind buzzed. He felt a sense of powerlessness, like he had just thrown a hard punch into a ball of cotton.

He thought, "Wait, this script... why is it different from what I imagined!

"I was the one who verbally battered my romantic rival! My rival even retreated in the face of difficulties and left on his own accord!

"Stacking these two joys together, I should be experiencing a dreamlike ecstasy!

"So why does it feel like I’m the one who lost!"

"LU CHEN!!!!"

In the quiet forest, Chen Hua couldn’t help but roar at the sky.

A clown’s entrance is always bizarre and varied, yet a clown’s exit is always in the same posture. A clown’s failure is never a surprise, and a clown’s success... simply never exists!

***

Outside the Secret Realm, Lu Chen murmured as he walked out of the corridor, "The mock exam is over. There shouldn’t be much going on at school for the next three months.

"I can finally focus all my energy on True Cultivation.

"Improving my Cultivation, studying Alchemy, cultivating Divine Techniques, and preparing for the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment... There are just way too many things I need to do."

***

PS: As always, begging for your follow-up reading, monthly tickets, and bookmarks!

The previous Chapter was just blocked and then unblocked... If it’s not showing up for you, just wait a bit and it’ll be fine.