CH 432

432: The Woods

“Unless they find the medicine that treats this specific plague, they will become severely tired from blood loss. Eventually they will die and naturally be booted from the challenge.”

The vice principal touched his white beard as he smiled.

“No way! Untrue! That’s too much. There should at least be a sign in front of the village, otherwise how would anyone know people had been infected with the plague?!”

Many students discussed in low tones after hearing the explanation from the vice principal.

“That’s right! It’s way too hard!”

“Vice President, do you hear that? Some students think there should be a sign in front of the village, otherwise it would be too difficult. After all, none of the students know the affairs of the village. Is it right to put an epidemic like this in there? Isn’t this being too unfair to our contestants?”

Tamansha sat on stage with a graceful smile on her lips.

Unruffled by the question, the vice principal laughed as he spoke. “There is no injustice. Each village is seeded with information by the lord of the area. The contestants’ skill of observation and intuition for danger will be tested the moment they enter the village. If they can not find the clues left behind by the lord, then being eliminated can only show their lacking observational skills.

We made it very clear at the start of the competition that this would be a test of survival. Those who win are those who will survive to the end, but luck alone will not get them there. They must also have strong comprehension and synthetical abilities.”

“I see, thank you for the explanation Vice President. Let us continue to watch the games. Oh! A team is already leaving the plague village? Don’t they want to explore inside and see if they can find a badge?”

Tamansha was talking about Feng Wu and her party. They had exited the village and were entering the eastern woods.

The eastern woods were a strange place filled with oddly shaped plants and fruits never before seen.

“They’ve entered the woods! Vice President, are there any traps in the woods?” Tamansha asked with interest.

“Yes, the forest is a large maze and we have asked the lord to impose multiple diversions. So the students, who are now just ordinary people, will have a difficult time leaving the maze.

Their current stores will only last three days, after which, they will have to analyze which plants are edible and which are not. It will be a difficult task for them as we asked the lord to make 80% of the plants in the area poisonous. They are a mix of plants created based on the lord’s personal preference and extinct plants from ancient times. This will hinder those contestants looking for food tremendously.”

“Wow!”

“So devious!”

“Eighty percent poisonous plants. . . that means there is an eighty percent chance they will get poisoned to death in the woods.”

“The vice principal is too much! It’s already difficult enough that the plants are so rare. Even a pharmacist would have to reference a book, no way can they memorize an entire book on plants!

But now the contestants have to chose from ancient extinct plants which are poisonous and which are not. Some of them aren’t even real plants, just made up ones from the area lord. That’s crazy!”

The students in the audience had a heated discussion about how devious the vice principal was.

Tamansha looked at the calm vice principal, then to the poor students in the audience. She sighed, wondering if they were unaware just how petty their vice principal was.

Honestly, they needed to be more careful, otherwise the vice principal would sort them out.

Even the teachers standing on the sides cast the students pitying glances.

Little guys, you are still too young. Don’t you know not to speak ill of the vice principal in front of his face?

Feng Wu and her party were unaware what was waiting for them inside the woods. They walked inside the devious forest and quickly discovered a problem.

“These plants are so strange! I’ve never seen them before!”

“Anma, can you tell what plants these are?” Ober, the only fifth year in the group, asked.

“These. . . ” Anma walked closer to the front to take a look. Rows of colorful plants lay in front of her. The colors were vibrant and very beautiful but were all unfamiliar species she had never seen before. “These may to be extinct plants from ancient times. Be careful, don’t touch them, they’re highly poisonous.” Anma said sternly.

Poisonous?! The girls immediately stood up and backed away from the plants they were about to pluck for a closer look. Even the boys took a few steps back.

“Everyone, be careful. This place is really strange. I don’t know what most of these plants are, so don’t walk around carelessly.”

“Even you don’t know them?”

“Sister Anma, you’re a genius in the fourth-year pharmacy division! How can you not know these plants?!” Camille said with eyes wide in disbelief.

“Yeah Anma, do you really not know these?” Ober looked at the unfamiliar plants around him. He started worrying. If even Anma didn’t know what the plants were, what would happen to them when they ran out of food?

The serious problem hadn’t occurred to most of them yet; only Ober and Anma had thought of it.

Anma shook her head heavily. As the top fourth-year pharmacy student, she was confident she had completely memorized the herbal medicine encyclopedia.

There were a few plants she didn’t recognize. She suspected 80% of the plants were extinct and not recorded in any books. This would make their progress much more difficult. If they failed to find food after three days, odds were extremely high they would starve to death or consume the wrong plant and be poisoned to death.