Chapter 38: Merged Exam Papers, Provincial Court Candidates (1/2)

The thick fog swirled slowly around the bronze pedestal, making the scene even more eerie.

Lin Mingxi lowered her voice and asked, “What on earth is this guy doing?”

The Warden stood before the Codex, and no matter how you looked at it, something was off.

Su Fu had already activated her [Heavenly Eye of Discernment], and one by one, rules began to appear before her eyes.

Her expression was slightly complex as she replied, “It’s ascending.”

“Ascending?”

Both Lin Mingxi and Jiang Qingyu were shocked.

The Warden could ascend?

“Ascend?! Such an existence can still ascend?”

“What is it going to ascend into?”

Su Fu shared what she saw with the two of them and summarized, “The Warden can ascend to become an Enforcer through a specific ritual.”

“And this Codex of Rules is the key to its ascension.”

“Each time it recites a rule, a rule rune will be imprinted, up to a maximum of nine.”

“Once all nine runes are imprinted, it will ascend to become an Enforcer.”

“And the Enforcer is a far more powerful existence than the Warden, capable of leading Warden squads, with its own abilities significantly enhanced.”

At that moment, Warden No. 1 suddenly spoke, its deep voice echoing through the empty space:

“First Rule: Order is Truth, Truth is Duty.”

As it recited, a golden rune flew out from the Codex and imprinted itself on its forehead.

“Second Rule: The Enforcer upholds the law, unwavering for eternity.”

Another golden rune flew out, imprinting itself on its chest.

“Third Rule: Punish disorder, uphold the rules…”

This time, the rune flew toward its left arm.

In the blink of an eye, Warden No. 1 had already completed the imprinting of three rules.

Lin Mingxi panicked at the sight, “This is bad, we have to stop it now!”

“If it succeeds in ascending, its combat power will skyrocket, and we’ll all be done for today!”

“Not just the three of us, even if we called in the top three elites, it wouldn’t be enough to take it down!”

But before they could act, Warden No. I’s voice suddenly turned hoarse, as if something was choking its throat.

Its movements stiffened for a moment, and its armor let out a piercing screech.

Only then did everyone notice that the three golden runes were moving across its body, as if under immense pressure.

Finally, it paused, slowly lowered its head, and began to breathe heavily.

“It… stopped?” Lin Mingxi blinked in disbelief.

Su Fu observed intently, “It seems the imprinting of the rules isn’t that easy.”

This gave them a moment to catch their breath.

But then again, if ascending to Enforcer was so simple, wouldn’t anyone be able to do it?

“Something’s not right,” Jiang Qingyu suddenly spoke up.

“There’s something fishy here.”

“Even with Klaus and the other two working together, they could only deal with a Warden that had lost its Order Domain.”

“If No. 1 really succeeds in ascending to Enforcer, it would be an overwhelming existence, sweeping through everything, and the entire exam site would fall.”

“Oh my god!” Lin Mingxi gasped in fear.

“Then isn’t this a dead end?”

If we can’t beat it, wouldn’t that mean total annihilation?

Everyone failing the exam?

“But, what if we think about it from another angle?” Su Fu explained.

“The appearance of an Enforcer suggests that the exam has gone beyond its intended scope.”

“If this really is the goal of the exam, the Shen Yan AI would have allocated more divine power to us.”

Jiang Qingyu quietly continued, “But it didn’t, which means…”

She paused, “Number 1 isn’t the target of our exam paper. Its promotion might be destined to fail.”

“Ah?!” Lin Mingxi was utterly confused by their back-and-forth, but he managed to grasp that the Enforcer was too powerful and shouldn’t have appeared in this exam paper.

Otherwise, the Shen Yan AI wouldn’t have allocated such a small amount of divine power.

It was like deducing the exam’s intent from the questions.

Then he had a question: “If that’s the case, why did we come all the way here? Just to watch it dig its own grave?”

As he asked this, he noticed Su Fu smiling.

She said meaningfully, “What if I wanted to increase the difficulty of the exam paper?”

“If I’m not mistaken, we and the first-year students from the Provincial Academy are probably taking different versions of the exam-let’s say, we’re taking the easier version, A, while they’re taking the harder version, B.”

“And the anomaly they’re facing is…”

Jiang Qingyu understood.

Their eyes met, and they spoke in unison: “The Enforcer!”

The anomaly in version B should be a stronger Enforcer!

Lin Mingxi was stunned for a few seconds.

With his broad knowledge, he quickly grasped Su Fu’s meaning and said in disbelief, “Wait! You’re not thinking of… merging versions A and B?!”

In theory, versions A and B could indeed be merged.

They were in the same exam hall, so why not?

But the problem was finding the fusion channel to connect the two exam spaces.

However, finding such a channel was no easy task.

Just then, Lin Mingxi saw the Number 1 Warden ahead.

Wait… the Warden… the Enforcer…

Wasn’t this the link between versions A and B?

It was practically a clear hint from the Shen Yan AI!

Number 1 was in the process of becoming an Enforcer.

If it succeeded, it would become the anomaly in version B!

Wouldn’t that open the fusion channel?

And allow the exam papers to merge!

So that was the reason they came here!

“Holy crap, you guys are insane!” Lin Mingxi was freaking out.

If he weren’t afraid of alerting Number 1, he would have screamed by now.

Even now, he was trembling all over and had to tightly cover his mouth to control himself.

“Do you know what merging the exam papers means? All the candidates would meet! They’d kill each other!”

“Do you know how strong those guys from the Provincial Academy are? Even someone as strong as Klaus would be at the bottom of their ranks!”

“This is practically suicide!”

“No, wait-we wouldn’t even need to wait for the Provincial Academy to act. Once Number 1 succeeds in its promotion, we’d be right under its nose. We’d be the first to die!”

Lin Mingxi grew more and more panicked, finally understanding why the prophecy had warned him that Number 1 Warden was extremely dangerous.

Damn it, no matter what, it seemed like death was inevitable!

“Boss,” he pleaded, trembling, “let’s just run. This is way too dangerous!”

But Su Fu said, “Have you considered that version B clearly has a much richer supply of divine power?”

“If we survive the merger, once the exam ends, we’ll definitely receive a massive infusion of divine power!”

That was a massive examination hall with 209 candidates!

Compared to their measly 22-person hall, how much divine power would the Shen Yan AI have to allocate?!

Instead of struggling over this tiny bit of divine power for the exam paper, why not go all out?!

This was what she meant by taking a gamble!

Lin Mingxi was already numb.

The rewards were indeed generous, but one had to be alive to claim them.

He could almost see his great- grandmother waving at him.

His mind raced: “But didn’t you say that No. 1’s promotion would definitely fail? How could they merge Papers A and B then?”

They hadn’t even succeeded in the first step.

Su Fu, however, smiled: “That’s why we need to take a gamble.”

“You just said that if No. 1 becomes the Law Enforcer, we’d be the first to die, didn’t you?”

She shifted her tone: “What if… the Law Enforcer isn’t No. 1?”

Lin Mingxi was dumbfounded: “What do you mean…?”

Before he could finish, Su Fu had already moved.

He saw her figure gradually blurring into the gray mist.

Thick strands of gray aura began to emanate from her body-

[Twelve Transformations], activated!

Su Fu’s entire being turned into a dense fog, silently drifting toward the altar.

“Be Carefull…”

Jiang Qingyu’s voice trailed behind as Su Fu reached the vicinity of the altar.

She immediately activated her skill, [Heavenly Eye Shatters Illusions]!

Detailed rule clauses appeared before her eyes:

[Promotion Array]: The Warden can ascend to become the Law Enforcer through this array.

[Rule Pillars]: Eighty-one rule pillars stand guard. Unauthorized intruders will suffer the backlash of the rules.

[Rule Chains]: Nine bronze chains, bearing the might of the Heavenly Prison, punish those who defy the rules.

[Rule Codex]: Nine rule imprints must be condensed. Success in imprinting leads to the Law Enforcer’s descent.

Su Fu understood.

Although the rules were written in a complex manner, the pillars and chains were ultimately there to protect the altar and the promotion ceremony.

If anyone tried to disrupt it, the pillars and chains would attack, while the Codex was the core requirement for the Warden’s promotion.

The gray mist swirled at the edge of the altar, unnoticed by Warden No. 1.

It was still crouched on the bronze pedestal, resting.

The promotion ceremony was truly exhausting; the pressure from the three runes alone made it feel like it could barely stand.

Meanwhile, an unusually dense strand of gray mist was slowly approaching the rule pillars.

Soon, the mist gently attached itself to one of the pillars, and patterns began to appear on its surface.

Another transformation!

Lin Mingxi, who had witnessed the entire process, tightly covered his mouth, afraid he might scream.

In his mind, he was frantically shouting:

“Boss! You’re absolutely insane!”

He was even more nervous than Su Fu herself.

If they were discovered, it would truly be over!

“Jiang Jiang, is the boss… planning to transform into the Warden and then ascend to become the Law Enforcer?!”

Oh my god, help!

How could this possibly succeed?

Isn’t this just suicide?!

Jiang Qingyu’s expression was equally grave.

She hadn’t expected Su Fu to be so bold.

Wasn’t she afraid of failure?

Such courage, such audacity…

She had never seen anything like it in anyone else.

No, rather than courage, she suddenly felt that it was Su Fu’s absolute confidence in her own abilities.

Daring to play such tricks right under the nose of the 1st Warden-one misstep and she could be obliterated, instantly losing her qualification for the exam!

Yet she dared to do it.

Jiang Qingyu once again recalled Teacher Zhou Nanyuan’s evaluation of Su Fu and finally let out a long sigh.

Why did she have to be born in the same era as her?

It was truly despair-inducing.

The 1st Warden hadn’t noticed anything unusual yet; its attention was entirely focused on the Codex from earlier.

“Damn it! Why are these rules so hard to recite?”

It was just a few sentences, but it felt as if something was preventing it from speaking.

It was really giving it its all!

At that moment, the patterns on the pillar suddenly came to life, moving like a swimming fish and sliding toward the nearest bronze chain.

Almost the instant it touched the nearest chain, the pattern directly merged into the chain, becoming a newly grown segment.

Coincidentally, the 1st Warden happened to turn around at that moment.

It felt a flicker before its eyes, but upon closer inspection, it found nothing.

What’s going on?!

Lin Mingxi’s heart nearly stopped when he saw this.

He instinctively held his breath, not daring to make a sound.

Oh no, oh no, will the boss be discovered?

The 1st Warden stood up cautiously, scanning its surroundings.

Its gaze swept over the area from behind the bronze mask, but it found nothing.

Only the thick mist continued to flow slowly.

Suspicious, it turned around and circled the altar.

Just as it turned its back to the Codex-

A segment of the “chain” suddenly flashed into existence, appearing directly above the Codex.

In the next moment, the original Codex vanished into thin air, replaced by an almost identical new Codex!

Everything happened so quickly that the 1st Warden didn’t even notice the subtle change in the Codex.

But it felt uneasy.

There was no time to waste; it had to complete the promotion ceremony as soon as possible!

It immediately returned to the Codex, trembling as it raised it, and continued reciting the fourth rule:

“The Fourth Rule: The enforcer, in the name of justice, shall eliminate all disorder…………….”

But as soon as it finished reciting this line, its expression changed drastically.

Something was wrong!