Chapter 27: Chapter 27 - Zhou Bai's Iron Will

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

After five minutes of running, Lu Chongyang said in a low voice, “Five minutes have passed. We’re starting eliminations.”

When the applicants heard this, they all became uptight. Five seconds passed quickly, and a girl’s wristband turned red.

“Eliminated!” Lu Chongyang used his primordial spirit power to pluck her off the track.

Everyone suddenly became anxious, and to avoid being eliminated the slowest runners began speeding up.

As he ran faster, Zhou Bai felt awful, as if he were enveloped in a layer of concrete. “This is horrible… I can’t do it anymore,” he thought.

Zhou Bai had never done such difficult exercise before, and he was one of the first few who were considering the idea of giving up, but next to him, Jing Xiu continued running steadily, with not a hint of weakness in her eyes as she thought, “There are two ways to be eliminated. One is if you use up your strength and can’t run anymore; then you get eliminated.”

“The other is that the slowest person will get eliminated every five seconds.”

“I can’t be the slowest, so I have to speed up, but doing so blindly will deplete my strength. And if I run too slowly, I might fail and get eliminated.”

Jing Xiu began strategizing. “I can’t be slow, nor too fast. I’ll run at a constant, medium speed. If I find I’m too slow, I’ll speed up accordingly. I need to preserve my strength and balance my speed…”

Jing Xiu turned her head to see what Zhou Bai was planning to do, but her eyes were met by his sloppy, out-of-shape movements that indicated he was about to give up.

She took on a strange expression and then frowned, sensing his increasing slowness. She could only say helplessly, “I’m going first. Good luck to you.”

When you’re running long distances, running at constant speed is the most efficient way. Repeatedly speeding up and slowing down only expends your energy faster, making it harder to endure through this test.

Zhou Bai kept slowing down, his steps staggering, but there was no way Jing Xiu could slow down with him.

Looking at Jing Xiu getting farther away, Zhou Bai ran slower and slower. He felt like every muscle and nerve in his body weighed a ton. He could only watch as the other applicants overtook him one after another.

Suddenly, he felt a cold gaze pass over him.

“Too slow. Eliminated.”

Zhou Bai’s heart skipped a beat as he quickly glanced at the band on his wrist. It had not turned red, and he let out a sigh of relief. He then looked to his side and saw that it was a slightly chubby boy who had been eliminated, not him.

After this moment of tension, Zhou Bai sped up again, thinking to himself, “No, I can’t be eliminated.”

As he thought about the destroyed underground base, Alice’s death, Professor Zhuang, and the auxiliary system in his body, his gaze gradually became sharp and focused. “I’m not being arrogant here… But someone who has the auxiliary system I do might be the person with the greatest chance of saving humankind in this world. I can’t be eliminated here.”

But after running for a while longer, Zhou Bai slowed down again as his body felt like it was about to disintegrate. “This isn’t working… I can’t go on!”

While Zhou Bai struggled on the edge of elimination, the applicants with the strongest willpower and fittest physiques were calm and collected at the front of the race.

And as they continuously ran, they gradually began feeling threads of Spark rush into their bodies and then eject from their bodies with the exercise.

Accompanied by the breathing of Spark, their primordial spirit power felt like it was increasing. This feeling got stronger and stronger, and it was more obvious the faster they ran. These applicants all began speeding up, their eyes beaming with excitement.

Zhou Bai looked at the applicants who had picked up speed on the track. His face expressed speechlessness. “You lunatics… You’ll die from running.”

“Hm? Something’s wrong,” Zhou Bai’s expression got serious, “Why do I feel like my primordial spirit power is increasing?” But when he glanced at his auxiliary system, he found that his primordial spirit power hadn’t increased at all.

“It didn’t increase? Never mind… Whatever… It’s difficult enough for me to even pass this meowing test. I’ll just increase it when I lie down at the end. Increasing primordial spirit power by running doesn’t suit me.”

But more and more applicants continuously sped up, all looking pleasantly surprised and exclaiming their feelings out loud.

“I feel like my primordial spirit power is still rising!”

“Sixty! 70! My primordial spirit power is rising so quickly! Is it because of my gift?”

“This sensation! I feel like my primordial spirit power is about to break through 99!”

The applicants who felt their Primordial Spirit Value rise faster ran faster, too. The temptation of actually feeling their power madly increase was too great.

And as their speed rose continuously, they even felt like their primordial spirits were about to leave their body, and endless secrets and knowledge were about to open up to them.

“Enter the Tao! I feel like I’m about to enter the Tao!”

“The secrets of the Heavenly Tao are revealing themselves to me!”

“If I can enter the Tao, even if I fail this test, I can come back again next year! It’s a good deal!”

The applicants looked ecstatic.

“Liu Bai, eliminated.”

“Song Zhong, eliminated.”

“Charles, eliminated.”

As these applicants had run faster and faster, they quickly had used up their strength only to be tragically eliminated.

Witnessing them get eliminated one after another, Zhou Bai smiled with glee.

At first, he had thought that they would be running for three or four hours before they could get down to 300 people, but as more and more people sped up, more and more of them exhausted their strength. Almost everyone except Zhou Bai had sped up more or less to increase their primordial spirit power.

In little more than 10 minutes, only 300 applicants remained on the track.

Without caring whether it was healthy or not, Zhou Bai immediately collapsed to the ground gasping for air.

Jing Xiu looked around her, noticing that most of the eliminated applicants had used up all their strength. An expression of contemplation flashed across her face.

Lu Chongyang looked at everyone and said, “I just told you, the three main codes of Tao practice: You must not face the Heavenly Tao directly, you must not let your primordial spirit separate from your body, and you must not be greedy for advancement. Did you all forget?”

“The Heavenly Way is indeed a talisman for testing willpower, but running on it won’t actually increase your primordial spirit power. That’s only an illusion. Including the separation of the primordial spirit toward the end, they’re all just illusions.

“But faced with the madly increasing temptation of power and knowledge, none of you were able to resist. Instead, you pursued power and unknowingly became immersed in desire. You even forgot the goal of the test itself.

“This is just an illusion formation. On the journey of practicing Tao, the temptations you’ll face are 10 times that of the Heavenly Way.

“Although most of you did not pass today’s test, I hope that in your future journey of Tao practice, you will remember the three main codes of Tao practice and take every step with caution. Even if the Heavenly Way really could increase your primordial spirit power, you must not be greedy for advancement.”

The eliminated applicants all looked ashamed for being so intoxicated by the power and pleasure of increasing Primordial Spirit Value.

Lu Chongyang shook his head and then, in the next moment, his expression became one of approval. “But there is one applicant here who never sped up for the purpose of increasing his Primordial Spirit Value at all, and he put his whole heart into the test. Let us applaud his iron will. Zhou Bai, you are probably the highest scorer in the second round. Congratulations.”

Lu Chongyang then led the others in applause as they all followed his gaze to look at Zhou Bai, still lying on the ground, with deep respect.

Jing Xiu walked over to Zhou Bai, gazing at him with admiration. “Brother Zhou, at first I thought you couldn’t keep running because your will wasn’t strong enough. I was too dull; you must have understood the true purpose of this test at the start of the race.”

“The will to run is secondary. What the teachers of Donghua Tao Academy truly value is the willpower to resist the temptation of power and knowledge. That’s what’s most important on the path of practicing Tao. You’re amazing!”

Zhou Bai sighed, saying, “It’s nothing, it’s nothing.” He looked at her and waved his hand. “There are many obstacles on the path of practicing Tao. I’m just a few steps ahead… It’s nothing.”

“Brother Zhou is being too humble. My dad always said the cream of the crop is found at Donghua Tao Academy and that there are many people who are more talented than me. He was right… Brother Zhou is so much better than I am.”

Zhou Bai sighed again. “These are useless… Jing Xiu, can you help me walk to the next examination site?”

“Huh?”

Zhou Bai propped himself on Jing Xiu, cursing in his mind, “F*ck, my legs are weak from running.”

Christina suddenly piped in, “It’s your fault you’re always lying on the couch. You’re about to turn into a potato.”