Chapter 00263: Where in the World Do You Think You’re Going (Thanks to the reward from the legendary orange cat)
# Where in the World Do You Think You’re Going? (Thanks to the reward from the legendary orange cat)
Chapter 263
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 263 Where in the World Do You Think You’re Going? (Thanks to the reward from the legendary orange cat)
Sometimes, when the difficulty gets higher, it only fuels one’s desire to take on the challenge.
Especially for the proud Embers of Ruin.
Anyone who faces a challenge with fear or hesitation is destined to walk only a short distance down this path.
But now, Gustav’s strict and iron-fisted approach has actually become a rare and valuable trial.
Even if he had previously ignored all the criticisms and pressures from all sides, producing a 0 pass rate was the final outcome nonetheless.
Out of over eleven hundred people, how many were secretly hoping to get lucky? How many saw themselves as the chosen ones of fate, fearless and rushing headlong into the fray?
“You’ve already become a great mountain to climb, my friend,” Jiang Tongguang sighed. “Now the new wave is rising, and they’re all bravely trying to surpass you.”
However, with so many apprentices gathered together—each with their own legacy and status, coming from all corners—there were plenty who bore deep grudges, sworn enemies ready to tear each other apart…
Then his eyes suddenly lit up.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea!”
Jiang Tongguang clapped his hands and raised a finger. “What do you say we shuffle their positions and group them all together?”
Gustav looked his way without expression.
All he saw was this guy’s excitement and expectation, completely unhidden—bored, wanting to see bloodshed!
Forget it.
He really shouldn’t expect anything more from this guy.
He withdrew his gaze indifferently.
“Whether it’s a gathering of heroes or just a meeting of vegetables, we’ll only know once the fire is over.”
After pondering for a moment, he suddenly said, “There are still too many people—one thousand is too many. For the first phase, let’s filter out eight hundred.”
At that moment, the tall tower beneath them trembled faintly.
Spiritual energy flowed swiftly, outlining the fragmented silhouette, rising and twisting together to sketch a grand structure piercing the heavens.
From the very top of the tower, a clear, resonant bell rang out.
Countless souls, like glittering lights, gathered and descended into it,
Only to vanish forever...
And so the exam began from that instant.
The exam venue was nothing like what was expected.
The first test—a written one—was arranged inside the building.
It was like attending an open class at Tianmen University, with the examination hall being a huge stepped lecture room.
No, perhaps this was originally a place within the association used for large conferences, where masters gave lectures to participants.
Everyone entered the room according to their assigned number and sat at their designated seats.
The exam papers were already laid out on each desk.
However, they were placed face down, not even worrying about students sneaking a peek ahead of time.
After all, both the exam content and the entire classroom were sealed by some kind of power.
Unless a master personally came, it was impossible to flip the papers over—and even if they managed, the pages underneath were blank.
Silence reigned, and no one dared whisper.
Everyone sat upright, ready for battle.
Until the proctor checked his pocket watch in silence, and the second hand aligned—then a crisp bell sounded throughout the building.
“The exam begins.”
The middle-aged proctor announced this, then closed the door, sat down next to the podium, folded his arms across his chest, and coldly looked away.
He didn’t even bother to mention any prohibition on cheating.
Only when Ji Jue flipped the exam paper did he realize… it was simply unnecessary.
An A4-sized sheet, with large font and sparse lines, barely covering one-tenth of the page.
Name, age, gender, candidate number...
And then?
That was it?
Ji Jue pinched his pen, staring blankly for a long while before looking up at the proctor.
The proctor ignored the restless murmurs completely, seeming to say: Do what you want, or get lost.
He thought for a moment, and finally began filling out the form item by item.
Yet as he did so, a distant bell seemed to toll by his ear—so faint and faraway—that it made him yawn and rub the corner of his eye.
He was sleepy.
Something wasn’t right…
Ji Jue immediately became alert, widening his eyes as he scanned the surroundings, only to see one candidate after another slumped on their desks, some even slipping down under the tables.
Footsteps thudded nonstop.
Then, everything went black in front of his eyes.
Bang!!!
A loud explosion exploded beside him.
Snapping out of his brief daze, Ji Jue sprang upright—seeing a box tossed right next to him, spilling parts in a chaotic mess.
“Stop standing there dazed. Things on the island haven’t been right lately. The corrosion is spreading fast, and they’re all anxious to use these, so fix it,” an indistinct figure ordered, then turned away.
After a long moment, Ji Jue dazedly looked around.
An old furnace, a pile of broken instruments, and two nearly dust-covered machine tools under tarps—the workshop was drafty and falling apart, barely even qualifying as a workshop.
Even the basic spiritual energy insulation was near failure inside this underground room.
His memories still clung to the scene inside the exam hall and the moments before he lost consciousness.
Where in the world had they brought him?
Was this even still Tianxu?
After a long pause and careful thought, he confirmed that he hadn’t traveled to another world yet; even now, he could sense layers of shackles imposed on his soul.
He raised his hand, waving toward the furnace.
Nothing happened.
No aggressive flashes, no mechanical divine invocation, no blessings—aside from slightly better spiritual energy reserves than an average person, he had almost nothing.
He lowered his head and rummaged through the box.
Chaos—there was almost everything here.
Most were gray tiles used to enhance workshop tightness, two heavy protective suits, a few mismatched tools, two rusty pickaxes, and shovels.
The most important things were the core components from two devices containing blessings.
One appeared to be the water-producing section of a machine, the other the core of some large-scale force field secret technique.
That… must be the examination content.
All practical?
He scratched his head, deeply puzzled.
How come there wasn’t the slightest clue?
Surely they weren’t expecting him to guess everything?
Despite these doubts, his hands didn’t stop.
After sorting the items by difficulty, he began to inspect the humble workshop.
Besides the furnace, there was nothing here.
His spiritual energy reserve was better than none, but still pitifully weak.
More importantly…
After attempting to start the furnace for half a day, he suddenly heard a crisp snap, and a great surge of spiritual energy dissipated from his sluggish state.
The flames vanished without a trace.
What the hell?
This damn furnace… actually went out?!
What’s worse, during this time Ji Jue checked the workshop’s material storage and could only say it was so bad that even rats would cry.
Aside from some basic metal consumables and a few pitiful scraps, there was nothing left.
Completely empty.
Instead, heaps of secondhand instruments and junk were piled everywhere.
It was basically a garbage dump.
During his travels over these past four months, Ji Jue hadn’t seen such a miserable place before.
Even Dudeng’s shabby workshop was at least somewhat intact.
“No way. I might as well give up on this workshop and go find a factory job,” Ji Jue mumbled.
“Why suffer so much?”
He pushed open the door to the basement, only to find empty stairs and the sound of something above.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t get out—like invisible walls barred his way.
Classic game design—the dreaded air wall.
Terrible planning; not even a message saying “explore this area later” popped up.
“Hey? Hey! Anyone there?”
Ji Jue searched for a while before finding a walkie-talkie.
After calling repeatedly, a voice finally responded, “What’s up?”
“The materials in the supply room aren’t nearly enough,” Ji Jue said. “Can you send more?”
“The hell with you—might as well just send me instead,” came a cold and rough voice on the other end. “It’s not your first day; figure it out yourself! These things need urgent repair. Got it?”
Why not say “Your dear mother’s grave is in urgent need of upkeep, or it’ll overgrow with weeds”?
Ji Jue nearly laughed from anger.
Even if he was a nuclear-powered donkey, able to plow without food, he couldn’t magically produce materials out of thin air! Surely they didn’t want him to dismantle all that junk to fix these things?
Wait…
His eyes stopped on the towering pile of scrap.
Slowly, his brows lifted. “In that case, I’ll do it myself.”
Silence.
Nothing but silence over the walkie-talkie.
In the basement workshop, all that could be heard was the roaring rain outside, mixed with occasional distant thunder.
Beyond the long narrow window, the rain poured in a blurry curtain.
There wasn’t even a single air conditioner in the workshop; it was cold enough to make his hands shake.
For now, the priority was to fix this furnace and get it working, or he’d freeze to death.
Ji Jue sighed, rolled up his sleeves, grabbed his tools, and dove into the furnace.
Luckily, he was no stranger to hard times; otherwise, he wouldn’t know where to start.
After a rough inspection, he had to admit—it wasn’t surprising the workshop was in such a disastrous state.
The furnace was assembled from countless mismatched parts thrown together.
The internal spiritual energy circuits fought against each other with four sections out of balance, and even the temperature control sequence was completely broken.
It was as if it was only a step away from being sent to the scrapyard.
Perfectly matching the workshop’s condition.
As for the problem, it wasn’t too big—only the air vent was clogged with dust.
Gritting his teeth, Ji Jue hammered it hard with an iron hammer, coughing and covered in dust as he emerged.
He injected spiritual energy again.
This time, in the cold underground workshop, a small warm flame finally flickered to life.
Ji Jue sat on the ground, wiping sweat from his face.
No time to relax.
Suddenly, he looked back toward the window.
Just now, something seemed to flash past—fast as some kind of reptile.
What the hell?
Isn’t the atmosphere in this exam hall a bit too harsh?
Scratching his head with a frown, Ji Jue felt something was off.
But despite these thoughts, he kept working.
He first tossed the cracked gray tiles into the furnace, heating and melting them to recast.
The ones still relatively intact were patched with other alloys—just enough to serve their purpose.
Although they were called gray tiles, they were actually metal constructs.
This kind of dark gray alloy was usually used to build the workshop’s outer insulation layer—an affordable and effective material that Professor Ye also used quite a bit.
Doing the grunt work was no longer hard after getting used to these rough and simple conditions.
After settling in, Ji Jue started working quickly.
But just as he was in full swing, countless examinees found themselves in a daze.
Faced with everything unfamiliar and so much to do, they simply didn’t know where to begin.
Some couldn’t even start the furnace.
“Only four minutes in, and over ninety candidates have already been eliminated,” Jiang Tongguang sighed from atop the tower.
“Did you pick too harsh a standard as the benchmark?”
“It’s just basic equipment maintenance and recycling of waste materials. If you can’t even do that, what kind of craftsman are you?” Gustav snorted coldly as he gazed over the shimmering scenes.
“Getting eliminated here might actually be a blessing in disguise for them.”
The real torture hadn’t even begun.
At that moment, Ji Jue became alert again.
Amid the roaring tremors shaking the entire broken workshop, suddenly—
Outside the door came a piercing, chilling scream!
(End of chapter)