Seeing this, it wasn't just Feng Xingyun; the vast majority of the surrounding players were also shocked.
There was no path of survival.
They hadn't even left the school!
Yet Xuan Jingyuan had truly vanished right before their eyes.
Everyone knew that he had cleared the dungeon!
Just then, a somewhat familiar voice came from behind them.
“In the Lingyang First High School dungeon, a permanent specter item is hidden inside the principal's office.”
“This specter item is called the 【Lingyang First High School Pass】. It allows players to leave directly and clear the dungeon without going through the path of survival, provided they have completed the other main quests.”
Feng Xingyun turned to look in that direction.
It was Zuo Lin'an.
Zuo Lin'an casually tossed aside the suitcase in his hand and strolled over.
He walked up to Feng Xingyun.
“The two promised gifts—are they ready?”
Feng Xingyun smiled with relief.
“They're gone.”
Zuo Lin'an frowned. “Gone?”
“I know you are collecting cards,” Feng Xingyun explained. “Originally, I planned to snatch the card from Gu Hedao's hands and give it to you along with the one I had.”
“But when the countdown ended just now, the cards already disappeared.”
Zuo Lin'an raised an eyebrow.
So the two gifts he had mentioned were the 【School Gate Pass】.
This thing was useless to him, but for Feng Xingyun, it was the key to clearing the dungeon.
“Why did you want to hand the passes to me? Why didn't you leave?”
“If you had chosen to leave just now, you could have returned to your own world and continued to hunt down Xuan Jingyuan.”
Feng Xingyun shook his head.
“It's useless.”
“My life has already reached its end. Even if I leave the dungeon, I won't survive for more than a few days. On the contrary, staying here is my only hope of survival.”
Zuo Lin'an roughly understood what he meant.
Although Feng Xingyun had cultivated a so-called divine technique to regain his youth and even return to his peak strength, he must have paid a massive price for it.
“Is this the price you had to pay?”
“Indeed,” Feng Xingyun said. “No matter who it is, after cultivating this technique, they can return to the age of around twenty and even maintain their peak state.”
“But the price is that they only have one year of life remaining.”
“And when I first came into contact with this technique, I was already at death's door, completely exhausted.”
He looked down at his hands.
Back then, in the deepest depths of that cold, dark cave, his hands were no different from withered tree bark.
He was already on the verge of death back then. He simply didn't want to be killed by the members of the royal family, so he sought out a deep forest in the mountains, intending to die quietly.
But he was unwilling to die so easily, so he thought of carving the technique he cultivated and all his insights and comprehension in the deepest part of the cave, waiting for a destined person to find them.
Yet it was this very decision that allowed him to obtain a divine technique.
Zuo Lin'an couldn't help but ponder.
He hadn't paid close attention to the dates when he saw the posts about Feng Xingyun on the forum earlier. He hadn't expected that the identity of Ming Ruofeng had actually appeared a year ago.
Just then, the principal's figure slowly walked out of the administrative building.
Upon seeing him, all the players stiffened, cautiously gathering together and taking a few steps back.
The principal didn't care about their reaction either. He stood there casually and spoke with a face full of smiles.
“Everyone, from now on, you are official students of our Lingyang First High School. I hope you will study hard in the future and bring honor to the school...”
While he was speaking, no one dared to interrupt; his voice was the only sound in the area.
Finally, the principal called all the players to the school sports field, supposedly to hold an official admission ceremony there.
Even Zuo Lin'an and the others had to go over together.
Xu Youyou pulled him along and quickly walked to the principal's side.
“Principal, across the ten dungeon lines, how many players cleared the dungeon in total?”
Now that the dungeon had ended and those players had become puppets of the Lingyang First High School dungeon, there was naturally no longer any need for them, the guest-starring student NPCs, to maintain their disguises.
The principal looked at him and turned his eyes away in slight disgust. “This dungeon line has one. Among the other nine, the fewest cleared was five, and the most was a full capacity of twenty-one!”
After all, the maximum was twenty-one complete cards.
“Adding the other nine dungeon lines together, it comes out to exactly ninety-nine. Plus the one from ours, that makes one hundred people.”
Zuo Lin'an said, “One hundred? That result is already quite good, isn't it?”
The principal was in an exceptionally good mood, and the smile on his face was very genuine.
“Yes, it basically wiped out the top tier of players from the Great Xuan Dynasty in one fell swoop.”
Xu Youyou asked, “Then, how many players failed to clear the dungeon but survived?”
By now, they had already walked past the gymnasium and saw the sports field ahead.
The principal pointed forward. “See for yourself.”
They looked over and saw a dense crowd of people standing on the sports field ahead.
“Players?”
The principal said, “All the players who were left behind alive are here. Adding the group behind us, there are a total of one thousand six hundred and twenty-one people.”
“Don't leave yet, any of you.”
Xu Youyou asked, “Ah? What is it?”
Then, his expression suddenly changed drastically.
“Principal, you're not planning to settle scores with me after the fact, are you?”
The principal was speechless as he recalled the things Xu Youyou had said to him during the dungeon run.
“You all came to guest star, so there are no Contribution points for you. However, because the harvest was quite bountiful, I plan to give each of you a puppet.”
Hearing this, Zuo Lin'an was somewhat surprised.
The puppets the principal spoke of referred to the players who had luckily survived but were left behind in the dungeon.
And dungeon puppets could indeed be transferred to one another.
After all, he had previously seen dungeon bosses listing the puppet NPCs from their own dungeons for sale in the mall.
“Is it because there are too many people?”
The principal also felt a bit helpless.
“Yes.”
“In the past, it was absolutely impossible to leave so many behind!”
“This time, handling over one thousand six hundred puppets is really too much to bear. Since there are a thousand of you guest-starring bosses, I might as well allocate one slot to each of you.”
“Furthermore, these puppets are all veteran players who survived three Scarlet Dreams, and most of them are martial arts experts, including many in the Xiantian Rank.”
“In addition, there are also scholars who specialize in literature, civil officials skilled in plotting and scheming, and even military generals, great heroes, and outlaws who specialize in martial arts.”
“The quality is extraordinarily high compared to before!”
Zuo Lin'an nodded secretly.
“The principal has a point.”
And scholars and civil officials were indeed two different breeds.
The principal suddenly took out a gold hairpin from his clothes.
“Here.”
Zuo Lin'an took it back.
“Thank you, Principal.”
The principal waved his hand.
“Alright, all the puppets are on the sports field, and many are already choosing. Go ahead and pick one now. Once you've chosen, just let me know.”
Zuo Lin'an nodded.
The principal quickly walked off to another area.
“Student Zuo.”
Zuo Lin'an turned around. “It's you?”
Standing behind him was Feng Xingyun, who had been following them all this time. While the others had been directed to the sports field, he had remained behind.
Feng Xingyun said, “I want to go with you.”
Rate on N.U.
