Chapter 122: Chapter 122: Entrance Assessment
"Alright!" Ye Xuan and the others each took out their recommendation letters and handed them to the man. The man examined them carefully, then looked up at the group with slight surprise. "Xingxuan Academy... that would be an academy in Blue Moon City, a remote little city in the kingdom, right?!"
Chen Xing asked nervously, "Sir, is there a problem?"
The man shook his head. "No problem. I just didn’t expect an academy from such a remote town to produce four students at once. After you’re registered, take your numbered tokens and head to the assessment room for your evaluation."
With his experience, the man could tell the four recommendation letters weren’t forgeries.
Besides, it wouldn’t matter if they were fake. What mattered most was whether they could pass the upcoming assessment.
After taking their numbered tokens, Ye Xuan’s group went to the assessment room.
The assessment room was vast. There was only one chief examiner inside, while the ones actually conducting the assessments were all quite young—they were students themselves.
Evidently, the academy had arranged this on purpose, allowing some students to participate in the assessment process.
And among them were the two young men who had insulted Ye Xuan’s group earlier.
"Haha, what a coincidence. To think we’d run into them here." The two young men’s eyes lit up, a malicious glint shining in their gazes.
’It’s them?’ Chen Xing and the others saw them too, and their expressions immediately changed.
The two quickly approached an imposing young man. "Senior Yuan Shan, how about you let us handle the assessment for these lowlifes?"
"Lowlifes?" The youth, Yuan Shan, was taken aback for a moment. He turned to look at Ye Xuan’s group, and his eyes immediately lit up upon seeing Leng Yingying and Feng Rouyi. A faint, lecherous smile played on his lips as he went to the chief examiner and whispered a few words.
The chief examiner clearly held Yuan Shan in high regard. He nodded and looked at Ye Xuan’s group. "You four, go with Yuan Shan for your assessment."
"What awful luck. Of all people, they’re the ones assessing us. They’re not going to cause trouble for us, are they?" Chen Xing mumbled.
But it was an order from the chief examiner, so they couldn’t object. The group followed Yuan Shan to the assessment station.
"I’ll assess these two. You two, go assess them," Yuan Shan said indifferently to the two young men, pointing at Ye Xuan and Chen Xing. He himself, meanwhile, walked up to Leng Yingying and Feng Rouyi, flashing what he thought was a dashing smile. "Ladies, my name is Yuan Shan, a student of the senior class at Profound Spirit Academy. Welcome to the Profound Spirit Academy family. In the future, if you have any trouble at the academy, just mention my name. I trust it will carry some weight."
"Senior Yuan Shan, please begin the assessment," Leng Yingying said, her face an icy mask.
Feng Rouyi, meanwhile, didn’t even spare him a glance. Her eyes were on Ye Xuan and his friends, much to Yuan Shan’s irritation.
"You two, over here! Put your hands on the instrument. Stop dawdling. Lowlifes are all the same," the two young men barked at Ye Xuan and Chen Xing, their attitudes abysmal and faint sneers playing on their lips.
Ye Xuan frowned. He ignored them and simply placed his hand on the instrument.
BEEP!
A beam of light scanned over Ye Xuan and Chen Xing.
The results immediately appeared on the display: "Fourteen years old!" and "Fifteen years old!"
’They both actually meet the standard? And one is only fourteen.’
The two young men looked at Ye Xuan in surprise.
The instrument tested for bone age. In other words, it displayed the age of the subject’s skeletal structure, which was impossible to fake.
By the common calendar, it was just after the Spring Profound Festival, when everyone is considered one year older. This meant Ye Xuan was technically fifteen. However, since his actual birthday hadn’t passed yet, his bone age was still fourteen, which was what the instrument displayed.
A fourteen-year-old First Layer Samurai was considered astonishingly talented, even in the Royal City.
After all, the admission standard for Profound Spirit Academy was merely to reach the rank of First Layer Samurai by the age of sixteen.
"Who would have thought? The talent of you two lowlifes isn’t half bad, huh?"
The two exchanged a look and sneered. They then moved to a stone pillar and barked, "You two, press your palms against this pillar and channel your Profound Qi into it."
First, the age test; next, the cultivation test.
Chen Xing and Ye Xuan each walked up to a pillar and channeled their Profound Qi inside.
HUMMM! HUMMM!
Two beams of light suddenly flared to life on the ancient stone pillars. The light shot upward before stopping at the very first notch.
Spirit Martial Realm, First Layer.
Second test: passed.
A look of contempt crossed their faces. "A lowlife is a lowlife. And here I thought you were something special. Just the First Layer of the Spirit Martial Realm."
Seeing Ye Xuan and Chen Xing’s cultivation level, their words dripped with mockery.
Little did they know that Ye Xuan hadn’t used his full strength at all—not even a tenth of it.
’For me, entering Profound Spirit Academy isn’t really about learning anything,’ Ye Xuan thought. ’In a remote place like the Liuyun Kingdom, there’s no one who can teach me anyway. I only came for the resources. So there’s no need to stand out too much.’
"You two. It’s ’lowlife’ this and ’lowlife’ that. Haven’t you had enough? You keep calling us lowlifes, but have you ever considered how vile your own mouths are?"
The cold words from Ye Xuan’s mouth made both their faces darken instantly.
’This lowlife actually dared to talk back to us? The nerve!’
"You damn brat, who are you calling vile-mouthed? Don’t tell me you think passing two tests automatically makes you a student of Profound Spirit Academy?"
One of them growled, his face dark as he stared coldly at Ye Xuan, a mocking smile on his lips.
"I said your mouths are vile. Did you not hear me clearly? Fine, I’ll say it again..." Ye Xuan raised a finger and said loudly, "I said that the two of you have vile mouths! And not only are your mouths vile, your ears don’t seem to work either. I really don’t understand how you two got into Profound Spirit Academy. Does the academy accept any piece of trash that comes along?"
Ye Xuan’s voice instantly echoed through the entire assessment center, drawing the eyes of everyone present.
’Being called a lowlife once or twice was one thing; I couldn’t be bothered to respond. But they just kept pushing it, ’lowlife’ this and ’lowlife’ that. If I kept ignoring them, they’d start walking all over us.’
"You..."
The two of them never imagined Ye Xuan would dare to speak to them that way, and so loudly at that. Their faces instantly turned beet red, and they stared viciously at him.
"You country bumpkin who hasn’t even joined the academy yet! Say that again if you’ve got the guts."
One of them roared.
"You two are hopeless. Vile mouths, bad hearing, and idiots to boot. Did you hear me clearly that time?" Ye Xuan shook his head and muttered, "I’ve never met anyone who’d ask to be insulted again. Are their brains filled with shit or something?"
Though he was supposedly muttering, Ye Xuan’s voice was clear enough for everyone present to hear.
Pfft!
Nearby, Feng Rouyi and the others couldn’t help but snicker.
"You country bumpkin, you haven’t even been admitted to the academy, yet you dare to be so disrespectful! Today, I’m going to make you pay."
The two’s faces were flushed red, and they wished a hole would open up in the ground and swallow them. Their eyes were so full of hatred, it was clear they wanted to kill Ye Xuan.
"That’s enough. Today is registration day for Profound Spirit Academy, and this is the assessment center. If you want to cause a scene, take it outside."
A flicker of impatience crossed the chief examiner’s eyes as he spoke coldly.
"Sir, this person may have met the academy’s standards, but he’s only fourteen and has already reached the First Layer of the Spirit Martial Realm. I suspect he took forbidden Pills to artificially inflate his strength. If that’s true, admitting a student like him would be a disgrace to Profound Spirit Academy. Therefore, I request that he undergo an additional strength assessment."
One of the accusers stared at Ye Xuan, a vicious light in his eyes.
The "additional strength assessment" was a procedure used when a prospective student’s abilities were in doubt. It existed because many young people, approaching the age deadline, would consume forbidden Pills to force a breakthrough to the Spirit Martial Realm Samurai.
Such individuals often have unstable foundations. They possess the title of the realm, but not the actual strength that comes with it.
Not only that, but by consuming forbidden Pills, they often destroy their own foundations, making future breakthroughs nearly impossible.
Profound Spirit Academy strictly forbade the admission of such students. If discovered, they would be summarily expelled.
"Fourteen?" the chief examiner asked, glancing at Ye Xuan’s file before looking up at him with suspicion.
Indeed, for a place like Blue Moon City, producing someone who could break through to the Spirit Martial Realm before sixteen was already extremely rare, to say nothing of the astonishing age of fourteen.
Furthermore, Blue Moon City, which had produced so few prodigies in the past, had suddenly sent four qualified candidates at once. The chief examiner couldn’t help but feel a flicker of doubt.
Wanting to test their true strength himself, he nodded slightly. "I approve."
"Haha! Did you hear that, lowlife? Now get over here and face your doom!" Hearing the chief examiner’s approval, the young man let out a sinister laugh. He strode onto the training grounds in the middle of the assessment center and pointed at Ye Xuan from a distance. "You dared to insult me. Today, I’ll show you that a lowlife is a lowlife, and that there are some things you just don’t get to say."
"This kid’s really unlucky. Why did he have to go and offend Cao He?"
"He’s only got himself to blame for being so arrogant. Cao He is a senior student. He should have just taken a few insults and kept his mouth shut. But he dared to talk back. Just as you’d expect from a country bumpkin who doesn’t know his place."
"He’ll be fine if he didn’t take forbidden Pills, but if he did, he’s screwed this time. What a lowlife."
"Regardless of whether he’s screwed or if he can pass the final assessment, he’s not getting out of this beating."
A large group of senior students stopped what they were doing and gathered around from a distance, mocking smiles on their faces.
In their eyes, it was perfectly natural for a senior student like Cao He to curse out a newcomer who hadn’t even officially joined the academy. The moment Ye Xuan talked back, regardless of who was right, it left a sour taste in the mouths of all the senior students.
