Chapter 1162: Number of Remaining Survivors: 421
Chapter 1162: Number of Remaining Survivors: 421
That first night could be considered fairly peaceful. All participating schools had found allies, and fighting had broken out on the nearby mountain peaks in the contest for resources. After one day, four hundred and twenty one participants remained.
As Wang Ling had expected, all the schools had chosen to form battle alliances on the first day of the competition. Each alliance consisted of four to five schools, and all the nine peaks were occupied. As for the remaining schools that hadn't entered an alliance, even if they managed to get through the first day, they would be eliminated sooner or later during the competition if they didn't find another team or group to give them enough resources to survive.
It was only the first day, and it wasn't really smooth sailing. No. 60 High and the other schools could be eliminated at any time. After all, on the last day of the survival battle, they would be ranked by the number of casualties they had, so the school with the most survivors would be the winner.
Anything could happen before that. Even if they had chosen to form an alliance, they had been forced to do so in the current situation; there were no true allies at all.
At least, this was what Wang Ling thought before "Wang Ling's Fan Club" was established...
...
There were altogether five schools in No. 60 High's camp.
They had currently adopted a defensive position, but that wasn't enough, as people still needed to be sent out to gather both resources and information.
Hence, Lotus Sun suggested that each school pick two members to form a ten-person team every day that would go out to gather resources and scout for information.
No. 60 High had a natural advantage when it came to this matter. Thanks to Mysterious Sea's 3D water screen map, they had a panoramic view of the whole of Nine Dragon Mountain. Furthermore, they now had Nan Yixiu's perception ability, so a life detector function had been added to the map; any human movement within a radius of thirty li would be displayed on the map.
So that no one would get lost while they were out looking for resources, Lotus Sun even created temporary "map talismans."
Whenever necessary, these talismans could be used to project locations with water on the map for thirty seconds.
But it would take too long for Lotus Sun to draw all these handy devices on her own, so a temporary talisman team had been set up in No. 60 High's alliance camp that was dedicated to drawing these talismans.
And Wang Ling was a member of this team.
"Brother Wang, it's too dangerous outside. You just sit tight here and draw talismans." Standing in front of a makeshift table in the camp, Zhu Hanyun gazed reverently at Wang Ling.
Wang Ling: "..."
Compared with the various dangers of gathering resources and intelligence, drawing talismans was certainly ideal for Wang Ling; he could help the team out as well as lay low at base as a little nobody, which was great!
But Wang Ling never expected that the decision to keep him on the talisman team was something that everyone had directly decided on after discussion.
Apart from the "map talisman" which could display a map, there were in fact a lot of other types of talismans.
For example, "enhancement talismans" could be used to enhance weapons.
This was a spell which could temporarily change a weapon's essence. In other words, if you didn't have any weapons, you could use a branch or a bamboo stick; with the enhancement talisman, it would turn into steel for the time being.
This would give a person some combat capability.
And if the talisman was used on a spirit sword or magic treasure, it would become twice as lethal.
Furthermore, there were various other types of talismans for protection and scout work, such as "fireball talismans," "smoke talismans," "water dragon talismans," "invisibility talismans," and "aura-concealing talismans" and so on.
Drawing talismans certainly wasn't difficult for Wang Ling.
But the problem was...
No matter how hard he tried to curb his power...
The talismas he drew were significantly more powerful than what a normal Foundation Establishment student produced...
...
Sunday, November 16th.
It was the second day of the survival battle. The number "421" on the main mountain dome hadn't changed.
Wang Ling was guessing that in the next day or two, each school would focus on secretly scouting for information; there wouldn't be any large-scale battles, nor would the number of participants decrease as significantly as on the first day.
On the second day, No. 60 High drew lots, and Super Chen and Wang Zhen were chosen as their representatives to go out and gather resources and intelligence.
The person in charge of the team was Nan Yixiu.
"We'll divide into two teams, one to collect resources and the other to scout for information. The team collecting resources will be safer since it'll only be operating nearby. Make sure to use talismans to shield your location, and it'll be difficult to detect you. On the other hand, scouting for intelligence will be very dangerous. Who's willing to come with me?" Nan Yixiu asked as he looked at the ten people in front of them.
Since Nan Yixiu had decided to join the scout operation, the other student from South Sea Sky High would naturally follow him. It was a guy with glasses and a watermelon-shaped haircut, who looked very stuffy to Super Chen; he inwardly nicknamed the boy Four Eyes for the time being.
"We're in," Super Chen volunteered.
This was a rare opportunity to be part of a national competition, so laying low at base was utterly meaningless to Super Chen. Wang Zhen felt that this was very much in keeping with Super Chen's hot-blooded personality - in any case, it was Gu Shunzhi who had rigged the outcome when they drew lots.
With Wang Zhen following Super Chen, there basically wouldn't be any sort of danger.
Besides, Wang Zhen was actually very curious to see what Foundation Establishment cultivators on Earth could do in actual combat.
Hence, Wang Zhen directly agreed with Super Chen. "I have no objections."
Since scouting was a more dangerous task, Nan Yixiu thought it would be hard to make up the numbers. He never expected Super Chen and Wang Zhen to volunteer, and he was delighted.
A four-person scout team was just nice, since it would be hard to coordinate if there were too many people.
After happily deciding on the division of tasks, the two teams acted separately.
The closest peak to Fire Peak was Mist Peak, which Nan Yixiu had already been eyeing since early on.
"There's a very familiar aura on Mist Peak," Wang Zhen said probingly as he followed behind Nan Yixiu; he could more or less guess Nan Yixiu's true purpose.
"I learned yesterday that No.1 Demon-Subduing High's Gao Tianming has formed an alliance with four schools, and they've occupied the peak," said Nan Yixiu.
"Do you have a grudge?" Wang Zhen asked again.
"No, I just feel that this guy is a little harder to deal with; since he's very close to us, he might launch a surprise attack at any time. Also, given Gao Tianming's personality... my guess is that the other schools were forced to become his allies." Nan Yixiu furrowed his brow. He was worried about No.1 Demon-Subduing High's Virus Puppet Spell, which was an extremely powerful control spell - the critical point was that it was hard to defend against.
Nan Yixiu had fought Gao Tianming before.
He knew very well what Gao Tianming's personality was like.
The guy was insane!
To him, there was no such thing as real allies at all!
Because no ally could be more reliable than turning them into puppets that he could control!