Chapter 11695 — The Only Certainty

And this was only the beginning.

At this rate, Jiang Cheng was the first to be eliminated—but he would certainly not be the last.

Less than an hour had passed. A single day, at a time like this, was an eternity.

By now, not only Squad B where Wei Zhao was, but the other three squads as well had begun to see candidates drop out one after another, and the medical team was visibly swamped.

In just two hours, the four squads had eliminated six candidates at a stroke.

And these were no common cabbages by the roadside—they were kings of their domains, handpicked by a panel of selectors, the best of the best. Drop any one of them anywhere else, and he would be a veritable trump card.

If there had been the slightest chance of keeping them, the Heavenly Dao Academy would never have eliminated them so lightly.

These were, after all, genuine talents.

But there was no help for it—a single veto was that cruel.

Even if every last one of them were eliminated, the Academy would never make any adjustment at this stage; to do so would only be to invite trouble for itself.

A tense atmosphere shrouded the entire Academic Affairs Headquarters.

Shi Wushuang's heart gave a faint lurch.

She noticed that, apart from the medical team, two other teams of crack hands in standard uniforms were standing ready.

"The Security Division!"

These were the elite of the Security Division; normally they were deployed only when a vicious incident threatened the Academy.

And now, the targets they were watching so closely were the same as the medical team's—the rookie candidates in the trial grounds.

While she was still staring blankly, one of the security teams suddenly moved.

In an instant, the whole team had entered the black cell where Squad A was held.

By then one candidate had not only suffered a mental collapse; a bizarre mask, demonic in shape, had surfaced on his face.

Shi Wushuang's eyelid twitched. "Demonized?"

Under the spiritual contamination of evil demons, a mental collapse would certainly ruin a man, but that was already the mildest outcome—at least it would not cause too great a disturbance.

But once it went a step further, and the subject became demonized after the collapse, then there was real trouble.

Once fully demonized, one would forever be classed among the evil demons, with no hope of ever recovering in this life!

It took less than ten seconds from start to finish.

The demonized candidate was struck down on the spot by the security team.

A dead silence fell over the scene.

This was the first death of the current candidate trials.

Before this, the worst had been elimination, which did no fundamental harm—especially for those eliminated in the second round, who could still walk away with no small profit.

After all, whether it was a materialized True Mandate or the achievement paradigm of a Heavenly Dao Academy graduate, these were things that simply could not be bought out in the wider world, enough to let them reign supreme in their own worlds.

This one, by contrast, had barely scraped through the second round, only to die here in the third.

One could only say that fate was fickle and utterly without reason.

The security team finished clearing up and withdrew swiftly, waiting for the next emergency.

Shi Wushuang could not help but break into a cold sweat on Wei Zhao's behalf.

Having come this far, she no longer had the slightest worry about Wei Zhao's strength and potential—only this present hurdle left her utterly without confidence.

And as fate would have it, the very thing she feared came to pass.

Unnoticed, a mask had begun to emerge on Wei Zhao's face as well.

At first the mask bore only two or three dark red stripes, but as time passed the stripes began to multiply.

This was the mark of accelerating demonization!

The security team moved at once, decisively.

Shi Wushuang turned pale with fright. "How can this be? Wei Zhao's willpower is strong—his mental resistance can't possibly be this weak!"

Di Xuanwang gloated. "What does willpower have to do with mental resistance? There are countless cases of strong willpower paired with weak mental resistance. Junior Sister Wushuang, have you not been paying attention in class?"

Shi Wushuang kept her face taut and ignored him, pleading with the assembled higher-ups. "Wei Zhao's condition is stable—there's no sign of mental collapse. Could we observe him a little longer?"

Di Xuanwang sneered. "Junior Sister Wushuang, there's a limit even to naivety. The demon mask has already appeared—that is the ironclad sign of demonization. Who cares whether his mind has collapsed or not?"

Shi Wushuang fought her corner. "Senior Brother Song also has a demon mask, and he hasn't lost control or become demonized. I believe Wei Zhao will be the same!"

"Believe my ass!"

Di Xuanwang snorted in contempt. "He's a rookie candidate—how does he deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Senior Brother Song? Are you trying to be funny?"

The higher-ups exchanged glances in silence.

Wei Zhao was no ordinary candidate; he was a top-tier candidate who had materialized ten layers of True Mandate. From the Academy's standpoint, to lose him over this would be a heartbreak that bled.

If there was even a sliver of a chance, they wanted to give Wei Zhao that chance.

But the problem was—this was demonization. It truly was no joking matter.

Monarch Song's case, though not absolutely unique, was still exceedingly rare; moreover, it had caused no small stir at the time, and in the end even the Academy Head himself had been alarmed before it barely passed.

However top-tier a candidate Wei Zhao might be, he could never receive such treatment.

With the security team's entry, the atmosphere inside Squad B's black cell turned tense in an instant.

The example of the man from Squad A was right before their eyes; once the security team made its move, they would have no thought of handling matters gently.

With the safety of the entire Academy at stake, they struck with full force—struck to kill!

Shi Wushuang was frantic, and at once urgently contacted her mentor, Chu Yunfan.

At a moment like this, her standing was far too low to have any say at all; her only hope lay in her mentor, the Vice Head, and whatever sliver of a chance he might offer.

But only a sliver.

Where demonization was concerned, this was an absolute matter of principle; even if Vice Head Chu Yunfan intervened in person, it might not avail.

By any measure, Wei Zhao's prospects at this moment were grim in the extreme.

Di Xuanwang began humming a tune in smug satisfaction.

"Plant a flower with care and it will not bloom; stick a willow in carelessly and it shades the land. Tsk tsk—truly, what you seek comes effortlessly."

All that scheming before, and Di Liankong had set traps time and again without ever managing to force Wei Zhao out of the running—in fact, he had only suffered the worse for it. Di Xuanwang had all but given up hope.

Then, out of nowhere, this unexpected delight: Wei Zhao had done himself in!

"This calamity was fated—you had it coming."

While Di Xuanwang smirked, the candidates in the black cell saw the security team as a mortal threat.

They could not make sense of the situation at all, and thought the security team had come for them; they scattered and fled at once.

A moment later, the crowd came to its senses.

"They're after Wei Zhao!"

Di Liankong was instantly overjoyed.

His own condition was poor at the moment, but however bad, it was still far better than being marked by the security team.

The security team numbered six in all.

Upon entering, they immediately spread into formation.

Two were to close in and restrain, two to provide firepower, and two to support and coordinate—a perfectly clear division of labor.