This is Swallowed Star, not Resident Evil.

Chapter 40: The Advantage of Enlightenment, Top 8 Among Peers

After reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, the spiritual energy within the body transforms into magical power, possessing characteristics that align with the laws of heaven and earth, thus enabling one to decipher the Dao Evolution Diagram.

However, after Ye Yang established his foundation, he was busy preparing for the college entrance examination, and after the college entrance examination, he was going to open the dungeon world, so he did not have time to study the Dao Evolution Diagram.

But it's never too late to start.

"The simplest Daoist diagram is called 'Tian Yuan Yan Yi', number 001."

"But in a sense, this is both the simplest and the most complex."

As he continuously poured magical power into the Dao Evolution Diagram artifact, Ye Yang began to decipher and learn simultaneously.

A whole day passed quickly, and he deciphered the Dao Evolution Diagram numbered 011 stored in the magical artifact.

"Phew~ This is really strenuous. Even with the Dao Evolution Diagram simplified to its extreme, it still takes about an hour to decipher it."

Cultivators at different cultivation levels naturally have vastly different analytical and comprehension abilities.

For example, the "First-Order Dao Evolution Diagram," which is often played during the Foundation Establishment stage, takes 3 to 5 hours to solve on normal difficulty.

The time required to decipher the "Second-Order Dao Evolution Diagram" is about the same for those at the Golden Core stage.

However, if someone in the Foundation Establishment stage tries to solve the second-order problem, they either won't be able to solve it at all, or it will take ten days to half a month before they have any hope.

This demonstrates the difference in ability between different levels of mastery.

After that, Ye Yang studied the Dao Yan Diagram in his dormitory almost every day, and five days passed quickly.

"I've been working through the Daoist diagrams stored in the magical artifact up to the 035th one, and it's been going fairly smoothly."

"My level of enlightenment is 'Dao Intent'. I can feel that 'Dao Intent' is of great help in understanding the Dao Evolution Diagram, which is an advantage I have over other new students. However, I am now finding it a little difficult."

"It's a pity that the contact time was too short; the competition started after only 5 days."

Ye Yang heard that only those who could decipher more than 40 of the first-order Dao Evolution Diagrams had a high chance of ranking among the top 50 in the Foundation Establishment stage in the school's preliminary competition.

Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul – only the top 8 in each level receive academic credits.

For these college students to advance to the Golden Core stage within 10 years is considered extremely impressive; Nascent Soul stage contestants are even rarer. Therefore, Nascent Soul stage contestants are basically just going through the motions in the school's preliminary rounds.

Among the participants at the Golden Core level, those with the most accumulated talent have the most, making the competition the most intense.

Among the Foundation Establishment level contestants, almost all of them were freshmen below the fourth grade.

……

On the day of the preliminary round, Ye Yang and his three roommates came to the event together, where more than 70,000 contestants had already gathered.

Nearly a quarter of the students participated, demonstrating the popularity of the Daoyan Competition in universities.

In the venue, after verifying their registration identities, the four people sat down at a table and chairs that had been set up, with each person about one meter apart.

Although they used the Dao Derivation Diagram artifacts they brought themselves, these Dao Derivation Diagram artifacts all conformed to a unified standard and could be monitored online in real time.

"The preliminary selection round has 1 participants, and each round is limited to 5 hours. The time is a bit tight."

Ye Yang looked at the tables and chairs arranged in neat 100x100 squares in the spacious area, recalling the rules of the preliminary rounds:

"After the Dao Derivation Diagram is connected to the network, it will be taken over by the league officials, who will then download the test questions for this round of preliminary selection. There are a total of 10 diagrams: 5 of the orthodox Dao Derivation and 5 of the inverse Dao Derivation."

「虽然都是图录中不曾收录的新图，但其难度却是分别对应第10、25、45、70、100副图，每个难度各有正、逆道衍图一副。」

"The higher the difficulty level, the longer it will take, but for the same level of completion, the higher the difficulty level, the higher the score!"

"Even a master who can solve the 100th puzzle in 5 hours can only complete one puzzle of the highest difficulty, two puzzles of medium difficulty, or three puzzles of low difficulty."

"Unless you're a higher-level Golden Core player, no one can solve all 10 maps within 5 hours!"

"I spent over two hours solving the 34th (reverse) diagram in the first-order diagram catalog, but it took me two and a half hours to solve the 35th (forward) diagram... So based on this level, I estimate that solving two forward and reverse path derivation diagrams of difficulty 25 first, and then trying to solve the forward path derivation diagram of difficulty 45, is a safer approach!"

Having already made up his mind, Ye Yang started deriving the Zhengdao Yantu, which had a difficulty level of 25, as soon as the preliminary rounds began.

after an hour……

"Uh... are you done pushing?"

Ye Yang completed the Zhengdao Yantu with a difficulty level of 25, and then checked the time, finding that only 58 minutes had passed.

According to his original prediction, it should have taken him about an hour and a half, while the reverse path is usually more difficult than the normal path, and it might have taken him two hours.

With an hour and a half left, Ye Yang planned to use it to tackle the level 45 difficulty map, hoping to get a good start and earn some points.

As a result, he now finds that his ability to interpret diagrams is significantly stronger than before.

He became increasingly adept at using "Dao Intent" in the process of interpreting diagrams. Just as he used Dao Intent to unify the laws of heaven and earth, he could also use "Dao Intent" as an excellent tool to deduce the forward and reverse derivation of Dao Evolution Diagrams, which are similar to the evolution of the laws of heaven and earth.

"Perhaps the effect of the Dao Derivation Diagram in training comprehension has been slightly effective over these 5 days, or perhaps the difficulty of this diagram just happens to be relatively low."

Ye Yang shook his head and began to solve the Reverse Dao Evolution Diagram, which has a difficulty level of 25.

As a result, half an hour later...

"What happened?"

He suddenly stopped and checked the time.

"Ni Daoyan has completed about half of his work, and it's taken exactly half an hour?"

"Can it still be completed within an hour?"

With three and a half hours remaining, Ye Yang thought for less than 10 seconds before decisively giving up on solving the reverse path diagram with a difficulty of 25 and switching to the normal path diagram with a difficulty of 45.

More than three hours later...

"Although it was a bit difficult, I actually solved it!"

Ye Yang looked at the Dao Evolution Diagram in front of him, which had been perfectly deduced to its end, and couldn't help but feel a little strange.

In his opinion, the difficulty levels of the Dao Evolution Diagrams at difficulty levels 25, 35, and 45 are not significantly different.

With 21 minutes remaining, Ye Yang turned back to continue refining the reverse path diagram, which had a difficulty level of 25.

Five hours had passed, and Ye Yang had completed over 80% of the reverse path diagram, which had a difficulty level of 25.

"That's it!"

After the preliminary selection ends, you will be able to see your score in 5 hours.

"How did you do? How did you do the reverse path derivation at difficulty level 25?" Lin Yuansu hurriedly asked Cheng Dachuan.

Checking the answers and calculating the score after the exam is a classic procedure.

"Sigh, not ideal. Ye Yang, how about you?" Cheng Dachuan sighed and looked at Ye Yang.

Over the past five days, they all knew that Ye Yang was quite skilled and had already completed the 35th drawing.

"I didn't do well on the exam. I did finish the Orthodox Dao Evolution with a difficulty level of 25, but I only completed 80% of the Reverse Dao Evolution at most," Ye Yang said, shaking his head.

"That's true. You should be able to complete difficulty level 25, and you should even have some time left over. However, advancing should be possible, but it will be difficult to break into the top eight of the Foundation Establishment level in the school's preliminary rounds," Lin Yuansu nodded and said.

Five hours later, the four people checked their preliminary results on the league website.

10副图5档难度，分别对应满分100、200、400、800、1600分。

If you complete all of them, you can get a score of 6200!

But that's not something a Foundation Establishment cultivator can do.

"What score did you get?" Cheng Dachuan asked Lin Yuansu.

"382 points, what about you?"

"337 points."

Lin Yuansu burst into laughter, while Cheng Dachuan's face turned ashen.

Zhou Gu scored 312 points.

Finally, the three looked at Ye Yang curiously: "Ye, you genius, how much do you cost?"

Ye Yang smiled shyly: "766 points."

The smiles on the three people's faces vanished instantly.

"Damn it! You guys, pin him down! This show-off! We've all been fooled by him!"

Lin Yuansu put on an angry and exasperated expression, and then the four of them piled up on top of each other.

"Ye, you've got your top eight in the bag! You're treating!"

"Yes! I have to treat you!"

"I'll rip you off badly!"

……