Chapter Fifty-Three: The Entrance Exam

In the blink of an eye, the day of the Azure Cloud Academy entrance examination had arrived!

Before dawn had fully broken, the people of Silan Academy, including Xu Wen and all the inner disciples, had already finished washing up. With vigor and determination, they marched out of the inn, heading straight for Azure Cloud Academy.

On the first day of the entrance exam, the wide street outside the Academy’s towering walls was already bustling, crowded with boys and girls who had come to take the test. Regardless of how wealthy or humble their attire, everyone lined up in orderly, serpentine queues, patiently waiting in excitement and anticipation. As the candidates ahead finished their tests, the lines moved forward bit by bit.

Hundreds of Azure Cloud Academy students and teachers had formed a hundred review teams, arranged in a straight line on the broad avenue.

Each review team consisted of two examiners—one a warrior, one a mage—both appearing young, no older than seventeen or eighteen, seated solemnly behind their tables. Yet the rank badges on their chests were unmistakably genuine: all of them possessed four-star intermediate strength.

A seventeen or eighteen-year-old four-star cultivator was extremely rare among the Houghtonklin family! Xu Wen was secretly astonished: truly, this was the highest-ranked magic martial academy gathering the elite students of the Azure Cloud Empire! These two hundred-plus students were all potential candidates who could advance to five-star rank at a young age.

No wonder all the youth flocked here!

As Xu Wen mused, he watched the candidates step up one by one to attack the “test stone” prepared in advance. The two examiners judged their fate according to the marks left on the stone.

If a candidate passed, one of the examiners handed them a form, granting entry into Azure Cloud Academy.

Those lacking aptitude were eliminated on the spot.

Xu Wen noticed that behind each pair of young examiners stood a middle-aged man whose strength was inscrutable. Whenever a candidate attacked the test stone, he observed swiftly—likely a supervising teacher from the Academy.

Soon enough, the Silan Academy candidates at the front of the queue were called up.

The Academy’s selection criteria seemed to go beyond just measuring spiritual power. A noticeably older candidate, who possessed three-star spiritual power, released a three-star “Sand Lance,” but the examiners remained unmoved and shook their heads:

“Spiritual power barely passes, but your attack lacks focus. Not enough lethality…”

“Next.”

The older candidate’s face turned ashen, and he stood off to the side, utterly dejected—eliminated.

Elimination was the main theme for most candidates, yet regardless of how disappointed those ahead were, the enthusiasm of those behind was undiminished. After all, not everyone could enter Azure Cloud Academy.

“Age?”

“Six… sixteen…”

Perhaps affected by the previous candidate’s failure, the next Silan Academy student was visibly nervous. Xu Wen recalled him; he had purchased a three-star grade weapon from the Divine Arms Pavilion.

“Profession?”

The warrior examiner on the left raised his head, brows slightly furrowed, and glanced at him.

“Swordsman, water attribute.”

The candidate swallowed hard, speaking a bit more fluently.

The warrior pointed to a nearby, freshly polished test stone and a standard longsword:

“Take it. Attack with all your strength.”

“Yes, sir!”

A blue aura surged from the sword, enveloping it entirely and radiating an intimidating presence. The water swordsman stood silent for several seconds until his aura peaked, then a streak of blue light slashed across the test stone.

Thunderous in appearance, the actual force was weak; the three-star beginner’s combat power left only a shallow mark on the stone.

“Next.”

Xu Wen caught a flicker of disdain in the warrior examiner’s eyes; this candidate was even less impressive than the previous mage.

“Damn, really? Both three-stars got eliminated?”

Xie Zhan turned to face Xu Wen, disbelief written all over his face. He had just witnessed an inner disciple from the neighboring group suffer elimination, and now he was growing nervous.

To be honest, seeing this scene stunned Xu Wen as well… He had always known Azure Cloud Academy wasn’t easy to get into, but such a high elimination rate was clearly at odds with the rumors they’d heard within the clan.

Moreover!

So far, all candidates seemed to be over fifteen; few under fifteen had appeared.

This made Xie Zhan and the girls even more anxious, uncertain about the selection standards for those under fifteen.

Finally…

Of the Silan Academy candidates in this group, only the strongest male student, whom Xie Zhan recognized, received a form and rushed into Azure Cloud Academy, laughing triumphantly. The rest were eliminated.

Now it was the girls’ turn.

The three girls who had initially wanted to test early now deeply regretted it, wishing they could give their “priority” opportunity back to Xie Zhan—the two fourteen-year-old Silan Academy juniors before them had just been eliminated.

“Age?”

“Fourteen,” Xiang Nan answered timidly, her voice thin, as if the previous failures had frightened her.

“Fire mage.”

“Attack the stone behind you with all your strength.”

The mage examiner raised his face, glanced at Xiang Nan and her companions Jin Yu and Shi Ya, clearly seeing they were together.

“Jin Yu, should I use Flame Lance… or Fire Arrow?” Xiang Nan turned, anxiously looking at her sisters, suddenly losing her nerve.

“Silly, just use whatever magic you like.”

Xu Wen squeezed beside the three girls, speaking calmly in their ears: “We survived the Icefire Wolves in the Blackwater Mountains; what’s there to be afraid of? It’s just an exam… If we fail here, we can simply queue up elsewhere. They don’t know us anyway.”

“We can re-queue?”

The three girls were momentarily stunned, then glanced at the two young examiners, who were staring at Xu Wen with peculiarly bemused expressions.

The examiners exchanged looks and smiled wryly, but did not contradict him, implicitly agreeing with Xu Wen’s suggestion.

The girls’ eyes brightened, and their nerves immediately relaxed!

Even the Silan Academy candidates who had stayed to observe the Houghtonklin family’s inner disciples now had their eyes shining, as if they had been pulled from hell back to paradise in an instant.

Once relaxed, Xiang Nan’s tomboyish spirit returned. She boldly summoned a “Grand Fireball,” the massive blaze startling both examiners and all candidates—never before had someone dared to use an area spell in the entrance exam.

Luckily, the fireball’s trajectory only struck the test stone and not anyone else, or there would have been serious trouble.

“You brat, you did that deliberately.”

“…"

Jin Yu and Shi Ya looked at the smug Xiang Nan with helpless smiles, while she huffed: “They made me worry for so long, hmph!”

Hearing this, everyone around—including Xu Wen—was dumbfounded.

It was really for that reason…

But in the next moment, the form handed over by the examiner left Xiang Nan, who had been ready to shift to another testing site, utterly petrified, along with all the candidates nearby.

She had passed…

“Ah! I passed, I passed! Yay!” Xiang Nan, beaming with happiness, hugged the form and shouted in excitement, making all the other candidates envious.

“Jin Yu, Shi Ya, you’ll definitely pass too!”

Xiang Nan clenched her fist in an encouraging gesture.

“Mm.”

Jin Yu nodded with confidence; her strength surpassed Xiang Nan’s, reaching the peak of two-star sixth rank.

Indeed!

A simple Flame Lance, unleashed with a burst of power, earned her a form as well. Next was Shi Ya.

Three girls under fifteen passed in succession, immediately attracting countless candidates’ attention and murmured speculation, some even quietly questioning whether the two examiners were running a talent show.

At that moment, the middle-aged man who had been silently observing behind the examiners suddenly pointed to Xie Zhan, who was near the front, and the waiting Xu Wen:

“You two, step forward…”