After crossing the monkey bars, the next section seemed to just been an open path for about 100 whole meters — or so I thought.

Just plain running? Yeah, right.

I knew it wasn't just going to be this easy, so I hesitantly stepped forward with just one foot, Immediately, spikes dropped down on from above, stopping mere inches away from the ground.

Hm… I can make it across easily with my enhanced Blessing Magic, but this is still part of the physical portion of the obstacle course. No magic is allowed here, so… aha.

I got into a crawling position and slowly edging forward. As soon as I poked my head close, the spikes dropped down, stopping a few centimeters away from my body. I kept my head low, gulping nervously, and continue to crawl towards the light.

Every time I passed a block of spikes, a new one dropped down in front of me, not giving me any time to breathe.

Come on… almost there…

After some intense struggle, I managed to come out unharmed on the other side. I glanced to my left to check my opponent's progress, and saw that Xiang Tian was ahead by roughly 8%.

Good… everything's going to plan.

Directly in front of me was a large wall of some sort that didn't allow me to see what was ahead. Within the wall was a door, which I had to jump high to crawl into. It wasn't easy by any means, but definitely achievable without magic.

I also noticed that the elevation of the platform I was on was steadily getting higher over time, which meant people who can't reach the door at this height would eventually be able to, just at the cost of time.

I took a few steps back for a running start, then dashed towards the wall at full speed. Once I was at it, I used my momentum to scale my body upwards. My fingertips could've wrapped around the ledge easily, then pull the rest of my body up, but I refrained from doing so to purposely waste some more time and fell back down.

That was a fairly believable fail, so I could make myself appear even weaker. I took a few steps back again and leaped up, this time grabbing the ledge and successfully making it through the door. If I did the same thing a second time, it would become suspicious — especially given how close I was the first time.

Stage Two. A familiar AI spoke gently as a walked through the door into a black corridor, coming out on the other side.

This, was the intelligence part of the obstacle course. I glanced at the progress bar to my left and saw that Xiang Tian was still stuck on this part, then turned back to the puzzle laid out in front of me.

It was a square frame, fixed on a podium. Within the frame were 15 square tiles all of the same size, placed by side with four in each row. The fourth and final row only had three tiles in it, leaving the bottom-right slot empty.

The tiles were labeled from 1 to 15, but scrambled in a random order. This test was basically the famous 15 puzzle, which I've never actually done before but have heard about and know what the objective of the puzzle is.

Essentially, we had to arrange the numbered tiles in a way that 1 would be in the top left corner, then just count up from left to right first, then up to down. The end position should have 1 2 3 4 in the first row, 5 6 7 8 in the second, and so on.

It wasn't all that difficult, but can be time consuming for people who have never tried this before. However…

… I wonder. If I get disqualified from this exam… that means an automatic victory for the other side, right?

With this in mind, I hesitantly picked up the tile labeled '1' and replaced it with '14', which was originally in the top-left slot, thus switching their positions instantly without having to do the actual puzzle.

After waiting for a few seconds to get disqualified, however, I heard nothing, and frowned in confusion.

Well, I'll just keep going, I guess…

In 30 seconds, I finished the whole puzzle by simply picking up the pieces and fitting them into their right slots without bothering to do any actual sliding. As soon as I fit 15 into the final slot, the wall ahead of me opened up to reveal another black corridor, leading to the next stage of the exam.

… No way that just worked. You're kidding.

Was this why Ms. Cai said there was a smart way and a dumb way to do this…? The 'smart' way is just outright cheating?

I mean, to be fair, neither the teacher nor the student council mentioned you weren't allowed to do what I just did, but…

I glanced at the progress bar to my left and saw that Xiang Tian was still stuck, much to my dismay.

… Damn. If I stand around here wasting time, it'll seem suspicious. I have no choice but to keep going…

I quickly passed through the corridor and arrived on the other side. I couldn't afford to breeze through this again, and there wasn't any way I could get disqualified in this section as it was just a test of magic and no rules were existent.

Stage Three.

Before me, a large, translucent barrier lay. Well, to be particular, it was a series of barriers, but that made it all the better for me.

I rushed towards the barrier and sank my fist into it, pretending to have used Blessing Magic on myself to enhance my physical strength. Naturally, the barrier remained unbroken. I smirked deep down, until-

"My, my, I see many students using Blessing Magic to try and break through the barriers,

" Qian Hua's voice echoed across the chamber, and I grit my teeth in annoyance.

"All of you here have more than one element, so use those other ones if you want to break through these barriers. Summoning and Enchantment won't work either!

"

Well. This is… a bit of a problem.

This way, she was essentially telling me explicitly that if I continued to use Blessing Magic, she would become suspicious. Naturally, I wanted to avoid that, but I also had the deal with Ming Hao to worry about.

I turned to my left and saw that Xiang Tian had finally gotten past the puzzle part and was now on the same stage as me. That was good and all, but the thing was… even if I used the weakest offensive spell in my arsenal, it would still break through these first three barriers at the very least.

Besides, I couldn't exactly use a Level One spell either, since on the surface, I was an university student, an Advanced Mage. Using basic magic like that would hardly be convincing. I might as well write 'I'm holding back' on my face.

Gulping in nervousness, I cursed under my breath and just did the only thing I could and hoped for the best.

Level Three Poison Magic — Corrosive Aura.

Casting a dark black dome of poison around the barrier, I hoped it would take some time to melt it away, but it did it instantly.

Ugh…

My plan was originally to use Poison Magic so that rather than one-shotting the barrier, it would take some time, but apparently my spells were far too strong for that.

To make matters even worse, my poison bubble destroying the barrier instantly was all caught on tape for Qian Hua to see. The color of my magic wasn't too big of a problem since people could do that using certain Magic Artifacts as well, but I couldn't hide the strength of my attack.

I sighed. To think there would be a day when I wish to become weaker again…

Without letting my disappointment show on my face, I quickly moved onto the next barrier and did the same thing after the five-second cooldown timer. Since it worked last time, there was no logical reason for me to switch to a different spell, hence why I was stuck using this one.

Just like with the first, the second barrier broke instantly as well.

Goddammit…

I turned to the left wall again to check on Xiang Tian's progress. The good news was, with all my hesitation and my failed first attempt with Blessing Magic, he was slightly ahead of me right now, having already broken the next barrier. But when he reaches the later ones… he'll have a tough time for sure.

Narrowing my eyes, I used the same spell on the third barrier. As expected, it broke instantly once more.

This is going to be the first and only time I'll cheer my own opponent on, but…

You got this, Xiang Tian. Beat me in this battle.