Chapter 4308 — The Trial Begins

That was all the booklet contained. Strictly speaking, it was simply an exposition of the three selection rules; to call it a sure-pass guide to the assessment was flattery, but it did at least have substance, enough that no one felt cheated.

For people like Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, who understood nothing at all, the contents were in fact very useful—worth every bit of the hundred spirit jades, and then some.

"Not bad. With this booklet spreading a bit of common knowledge, at least we can watch the excitement and know what we're looking at now—we won't be completely in the dark." Wei Zhao gave Huang Xiaotao a chuckle, then turned his gaze to the front of the raised platform, where the selection was proceeding in orderly fashion, one contestant after another.

Academy staff guarded the passage. Each time a candidate cleared the preceding test, they called out a number, and those next in line for selection queued up in succession.

You only had to release a thread of aura and a Golden Core cultivation was plain at a glance. In other words, the first condition required no test at all—when your number was called, you simply went up and got in line.

But by the second stage, more than eighty percent of the candidates were eliminated on the spot. After all, the condition of possessing two spirit-root attributes was itself a luxury for the vast majority. Talent was what it was—what could you do? You had only yourself to blame for failing to catch the heavens' favor.

Wei Zhao looked over just as a man with a head full of little braids, thoroughly individual in style, was being tested for his spirit-root attributes.

The process was not complicated. You placed your hand on a prepared testing stele, circulated the mnemonics of your heart method, and channeled a little true qi into it. The result came out on the spot.

Braid-hair stepped up before the stele and stood still, rubbing his hands together in a mixture of hesitation and nerves, and only then—prompted by the academy staff—laid his palm on the stone and slowly fed true qi into it.

Moments later, a crimson firelight flared upon the stele, and within it there seemed vaguely to be a trace of some other color, though so dim that at this distance it was hard to make out.

"Dual fire-wood spirit-root attributes—passed! Proceed to the third test!" the academy staff member announced at once in a ringing voice.

At his words, the eyes of everyone around fixed on Braid-hair with unconcealed envy. On average, only one or two in ten had any chance of entering the third stage—which meant he was now one step closer to Morning Star Academy. The rest could envy him all they liked and still not manage it.

"What? I'm a fire-wood dual spirit-root?" Braid-hair's first reaction was not joy but a stunned blankness. He muttered in disbelief, "I could have sworn I was a fire single-spirit-root..."

He had not held much hope in the first place: someone had tested him before, and back then only a single fire spirit-root had shown up, with no wood spirit-root at all. Yet now the old hen had turned into a duck—all at once he was a fire-wood dual spirit-root, and the man himself was left gaping. This was a joy he could never have dreamed of!

On reflection, the difference must lie in the testing methods. Back then they had used only the crudest attribute-detecting artifact, whereas this was the most professional of testing steles. The two were not even on the same level of precision.

"The stele test cannot be wrong. Next." The academy staff member offered no explanation and simply turned to the next candidate.

Braid-hair stood there dazed on his own for a good while. Then all at once he leapt up in excitement, pointed, beside himself with delight, at a corner of the crowd outside, and shouted, "Haho! So I really am a genius after all—this is going to be big! Once I join Morning Star Academy, let's see who dares look down on me! Lu Yaoyang, you and I have a score to settle—I'll be over in a moment to stomp you flat! Bwahaha!"

It felt like striking it rich overnight. Making no effort to hide his smugness and swagger, Braid-hair ran off toward the third selection area, laughing uproariously.

Meanwhile, in the direction he had pointed, a black-clad man of middle-aged appearance was trembling with rage—and beneath the fury there seemed a touch of flustered panic. This must be the Lu Yaoyang Braid-hair had named.

The eyes around him couldn't help but take on a measure of pity. On paper, this Lu Yaoyang was probably the stronger; but if Braid-hair really was chosen by Morning Star Academy, the gulf in status between them would be like heaven and earth. Any clash after that, and Lu Yaoyang would have no standing to resist at all. To be suddenly trampled underfoot by a rival—the man was rather pitiable.

As they spoke, Braid-hair had already dashed eagerly to the third selection area and begun unleashing his martial techniques with all his might, straining every ounce of strength, holding nothing back as he hammered furiously at the assessment formation.

Boom! Braid-hair's technique looked imposing enough, but when it struck the assessment formation, there was only that one thunderous report, and after that—nothing.

"So... did I pass or not?" Braid-hair stared blankly at the examiner beside him, and couldn't help turning his head toward the platform. He had asked around beforehand: if someone performed outstandingly, the academy's high-ups on the platform would call for them by name. Which meant that if he could catch the eye of any one of them, he would enter the Morning Star Academy of his dreams.

"Too weak. Barely matches your current cultivation—nothing remarkable anywhere. Eliminated!" The examiner's icy voice came from beside him. As for the people on the platform whom Braid-hair had been hoping for—from first to last, they had not even lifted their eyelids.

In an instant Braid-hair felt as though plunged into an icehouse. His smug, triumphant look curdled into a bitter gourd's. And in the crowd, the very Lu Yaoyang he had called out and taunted now let out a long breath of foul air, rose to his feet, and with a cold sneer began cracking his knuckles. The meaning was plain enough.

The onlookers, seeing this, burst into a roar of laughter. Braid-hair had celebrated too soon—now he had brought the trouble on himself. Served him right!

At the academy examiner's cold urging, Braid-hair now looked for all the world like one bereaved, and stumbled out in a daze. Before he could collect himself, Lu Yaoyang came striding straight up and seized him by the neck.

Mindful of order on the grounds, Lu Yaoyang did not strike outright; instead he simply dragged Braid-hair off to a corner. Braid-hair put up not the slightest resistance—and as for what drama would follow, anyone could guess it with their eyes shut. (To be continued...)