Fortunately, considering the duration of the Professional Trial, they didn't need to look for food.
Gu Xiao floated in the air, looking down at the vast yellow Gobi Desert shrouded in wind and sand.
Dense black metallic spheres were scattered across the boundless ground.
These were also Mechanical Alien Race members, but of a lower rank, generally at Soldier Rank cultivation.
It wasn't just the Human Race that faced resource contention; any intelligent species, even the Mechanical Clan, would experience resource competition.
The Mechanical Alien Race members on these Gobi beaches were the lowest tier laborers of the Mechanical Clan.
It was difficult for them to gain entry into the Giant City, so they could only wander the endless Gobi beaches, searching for residual energy resources to prevent themselves from becoming scrap metal.
To minimize energy consumption, they mostly maintained this Spherical Energy-Saving Mode, releasing micro-robots to search for resources outside.
Gu Xiao estimated that after escaping the Mechanical Giant City, the Mechanical Alien Race members on these Gobi beaches would be the Examinees' second hurdle.
It was still early. Most Examinees were still inside the Giant City, meaning the second phase of the assessment hadn't begun. Gu Xiao planned to find a safe place to wait.
Outside, in the Sports Center Invigilating Room, a dozen Invigilating Teachers stood side-by-side, with rectangular light screens in front of them.
Displayed on them were the Examinees' performances in the Professional Trial, with each light screen corresponding to one Examinee.
For ordinary people, simultaneously invigilating thousands of people while monitoring their performance in the trial would be impossible.
But for the highly cultivated Invigilating Teachers, this was no problem at all; they could even invigilate while chatting.
"Which family's young lady is this, coming here for a life experience?"
One of the Invigilating Teachers reached out and tapped, dragging one of the thousands of screens out and enlarging it.
This was precisely the screen corresponding to Gu Xiao, showing her every action.
As soon as she entered the trial, she easily dealt with a Mechanical Alien Race member, then proceeded to fly through the air without hesitation, heading straight toward the city gates.
After triggering the Mechanical Frenzy, she used the Mechanical Alien Race members she had corralled around her as weapons to destroy the missiles flying toward her.
And just as she left the Giant City, she fired a shot over her shoulder, instantly killing a mid-stage Captain Rank Mechanical Alien Race member.
"Let's look at her file."
As Invigilating Teachers, they had the right to review the Examinees' files during the Professional Trial.
Of course, these files only contained the Examinees' basic information and some typical interpersonal relationships, without involving privacy.
After seeing Gu Xiao's performance in the Professional Trial, the other Invigilating Teachers became interested and began pulling up Gu Xiao's information file from their Smart Wristbands.
[Examinee Name: Gu Xiao]
[Parents' Occupation: Gu Family Fast Food Restaurant]
[School Attended: Yunqi City First Middle School]
[Profession: Heavenly General]
[Cultivation: Captain Rank (First meridian channel opened)]
[Interpersonal Relationships: ...Jing Dongfeng of the Jing Family in Tianyuan City...]
Jing Dongfeng was highly efficient. After returning to the Central District, his relationship with the Gu Family was disseminated in a very ordinary manner.
Thus, when checking the updated files, the Invigilating Teachers could see that Gu Xiao's father, Gu Zhixing, and the City Lord of Tianyuan City, Jing Dongfeng, were old friends.
Since Jing Dongfeng had traveled the world in his youth, having a few friends from ordinary families would not arouse suspicion.
"It's the Jing Family? No wonder."
Gu Xiao's file specifically noted that Jing Dongfeng had an extremely good relationship with Gu Zhixing and took great care of the Gu Family's children.
After Gu Xiao awakened her Profession, Jing Dongfeng would occasionally have his third son, Jing Yuan, deliver a batch of cultivation resources to Gu Xiao.
Having the Jing Family's support, coupled with Gu Xiao's inherent powerful talent, neatly explained why Gu Xiao, despite not being from a major family, had reached Captain Rank cultivation before the Professional Trial.
"She's a good prospect."
Regardless of whether Gu Xiao benefited from the Jing Family, her personal talent was undeniable.
Because even among the descendants of major families, only a very small number could raise their cultivation to Captain Rank before the Professional Trial.
In most cases, they were only at the late-stage Scholar Rank, or perhaps the peak of Scholar Rank.
Reaching Captain Rank cultivation and opening the first meridian channel was enough to be considered a rare genius, even within the upper echelons of society.
After a brief discussion, the Invigilating Teachers designated Gu Xiao as a key focus target.
During the Professional Trial, as time passed, more and more Examinees escaped from the Mechanical Giant City.
When the escape rate reached eighty percent, the second prompt for the trial appeared.
[The Professional Trial enters the second phase. The Mechanical Alien Race Central Giant City issues an order to the Mechanical Alien Race across the entire planet to hunt down the invading Human Race.]
[To force the hidden Human Race to appear, the Mechanical Alien Race begins deploying poison gas across the planet.]
[Concurrently, all Mechanical Giant Cities activate life radar scans to search for intruders still remaining inside the Giant Cities.]
As the prompt disappeared, gray mist began to emerge several hundred meters behind Gu Xiao.
In about ten seconds, the gray poisonous mist covered the sky, reducing visibility inside to less than ten meters.
At the same time, the poisonous mist began moving toward Gu Xiao's location at a speed of half a meter per second.
Within the hazy poisonous mist, Mechanical Alien Race members moved back and forth, searching for intruders on the Mechanical Planet.
Aside from corrosive poisons, the Mechanical Alien Race is immune to most poisons in the world, so the poisonous mist posed no obstacle to them.
Leaping out of her hiding spot, Gu Xiao sprinted away from the poisonous mist, blue spiritual energy surging on her legs, giving her a speed comparable to a normally driven car.
This time, Gu Xiao did not choose to fly, as the spiritual energy consumed by wind manipulation flight was still too great for her current self.
"Target spotted. Commence pursuit."
Behind her, many Mechanical Alien Race members began their pursuit after discovering Gu Xiao's tracks.
The scanning radar locked onto Gu Xiao's position. Two mechanical hands transformed into two machine guns after a series of changes, spitting fire as they approached Gu Xiao's direction.
Gu Xiao's body moved with the wind, easily dodging the Mechanical Alien Race's machine gun fire.
Simultaneously activating Storm Body, she stirred up gathered winds around her to form a massive suction force, drawing all the Mechanical Alien Race members along the path towards her.
When the hail of bullets became too dense, Gu Xiao controlled the hurricane to block these Mechanical Alien Race members behind her, using them to shield against the firepower.
The launch ports on the Mechanical Alien Race members pursuing in the rear opened, and small rockets spewed flames as they shot toward Gu Xiao.