hed to an uncomfortably close distance..right now, her allure had exceeded human parameters, and the desirable heat she emanated was hot enough to melt even solid rock.

"..gulp.."

The male Nine-Tailed Fox Sect members that were assisting Elder Zhao and Lian Rou in invigilating couldn't help but gulped as they watched Hu Mei Er's alluring, seductive figure pour on her charm to the max. While they struggled to suppress the lust rising within them, Tang Qi Hong gritted her teeth and glared murderously at her rival.

As much as Tang Qi Hong wanted to swoop down and pull Hu Mei Er away, she was afraid of kicking up a scene and disrupting the examination. She wasn't selfish enough to put her own feelings ahead of the sect's important exam, knowing that throwing a fit here and creating drama would throw the focus of the candidates more than Hu Mei Er already did, and cause most of them to fail for sure. So she clenched her fists and reined in her anger.

It was also because Tang Qi Hong trusted me. Recognizing that, I vowed not to betray her trust and focus my attention entirely on my rifle. Seeing my efforts, Tang Qi Hong relaxed a little and smiled somewhat happily.

"We're both lucky, aren't we?" Lian Rou murmured mischievously. Tang Qi Hong blushed.

"I..I don't know what you're talking about!"

I'm sure you don't..

While Elder Zhao glanced in disapproval at the outer sect disciples in the cavern who were openly drooling and displaying their lust on their faces, probably thinking some nonsense about them having no mental fortitude and being doomed to spend the rest of their lives in the outer sect (I would honestly give them a lot more credit than that), I continued to shape more of the stuff. Reaching for an Arctic Wolf's monster core, which was one of the spirit materials provided, I began integrating the material into my snow rifle.

The Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, after all, didn't just provide ores, crystals and metals for forging. One of the necessary materials required for Spirit Engraved gears were the monster cores of magical beasts, which was why they were often in high demand. As long as demonic cores used to be the central part of a magical beast, it would contain the densest amount of the creature's qi, which was pretty much the traces of the magical beast's soul. By binding this "soul" to the spirit armament through Spirit Engravings, we would be able to grant the weapons the spiritual abilities of these deadly magical beasts. The Arctic Wolf, for example, was known for its Blizzard Breath. If I succeeded, the bullets of my ice rifle would be able to freeze the opponent.

At that time, I didn't know what Hu Mei Er was doing there. I had no idea she was here just to choose an assistant. I was too far away from the front to hear her conversation with Elder Zhao, and I wasn't paying much attention to her antics around Liang Shao Yang and the rest. Most of the stuff I had here was written on hindsight, after I gathered the accounts from Tang Qi Hong, Lian Rou and Tong Xue much later. Presently, I assumed that she was only here to intentionally create trouble and cause people to fail the exam.

Especially since she was pressing her shapely body closer, which was disrupting the next step of my Spirit Engraving, I couldn't help but feel annoyed. Furthermore, Tang Qi Hong's gaze had grown cold again, and I was getting annoyed at her being irritated over something that absolutely was not my fault. Growing weary, I sighed.

"Hmm, this is really an interesting armament. If you don't want to tell me what it is, then can you at least tell me where you learn this Spirit Engraving from?"

Hu Mei Er's smile was dazzling even as she pressed her curvaceous body closer toward me. I could almost see a vein bulging in Tang Qi Hong's temple, and Lian Rou had to physically restrain her to stop her from jumping down and attacking the bitch. I didn't realize it at that time, but Tang Qi Hong was growing infuriated, because from her point of view, it looked as if Hu Mei Er was literally getting impatient to lie down on top of me or something.

Thanks to that, the surrounding candidates couldn't help but turn to stare, their lustful eyes fixated on her seductive figure.

Knowing that I had to do something before Tang Qi Hong snapped, broke free of Lian Rou's grip and charged down here to fight with Hu Mei Er right in the middle of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect's outer sect disciple examination, I resorted to drastic measures.

I'm counting on you, buddy.

Ignoring Hu Mei Er's question, I instead infused the Arctic Wolf's monster core with more of my purified frosty yin qi. The volatile reaction caused sparks to fly from the slowly assembling rifle and they scattered toward Hu Mei Er.

Unaware of the sparks, Hu Mei Er continued to lean into me. Her irritation was visible on her face and I could see that she was clearly thinking to herself, do you really think you can ignore me? I'm curious to see how long you can hold out against my seduction techniques!

Suddenly, she felt a strange, cold sensation spreading rapidly around her body. Stumbling back from shock, she glanced down and her lovely expression turned into one of horror.

Her thin pink and white dress was freezing over, a thick layer of ice coating the fabric and hardening over her skin.

"Oh no, I'm frozen solid!" Hu Mei Er shrieked in panic.