When Muyou and Yiqi reached the Panther Academy, they were shocked at the sight of it. Panther Academy was like a castle by itself, even bigger and grander than Glory Marsh City. Inside the academy, at the main courtyard, was a huge statue of a panther, with a majestic pose. When Elder Lu brought them to the main courtyard, there were thousands of youngsters gathered there.
"Elder Lu, I see you have recruited these two kids. Where did you recruit them from?" an old man approached them. Judging from his robes which were the same as Elder Lu, he seemed to be another Elder of Panther Academy.
"Oh Elder Hao, I was just visiting Glory Marsh City and I chanced upon them. They are very promising." Hearing Elder Lu praised them, Muyou and Yiqi could not help but to smile.
"I see I see, it's rare for you to see you praising anyone." Elder Hao nodded his head as he inspected Muyou and Yiqi. "Although Elder Lu had approved of you two, there is a compulsory test for all entrants into Panther Academy. You two can go queue up over there for the test."
"Roger Elder Hao. Thanks Elder Lu for the past 1 month." Muyou and Yiqi bowed before proceeding to the queue.
"Which sect or clan did they have as their backing?" Elder Hao asked.
"None." Elder Lu let out a smile. "But you will see."
Elder Hao sighed and shook his head. Elder Lu seldom participated in the recruitment, most of the times he would come back alone. However, at times he would bring weird entrants back. The previous time Elder Lu brought back a boy who was an anti-social and never got along with anybody in the Academy. One time, when a group of other students stole his sword to harass him, he went berserk and crippled every one of them. From then on, nobody dared to approach him. Elder Hao still remembered how much of trouble that incident was and how much administrative work he had to handle at that time. Now, he was praying that Muyou and Yiqi would not stir up a storm like that previous guy.
As Muyou and Yiqi joined the queue, they realised that all of the entrants queueing up were indeed different from the youths at Glory Marsh City. Just by one look, they emitted the aura that was much stronger than Chen Yun or Donghai.
After an hour of waiting, Muyou and Yiqi finally reached the entrance of a room. This room was the so-called inspection room, where an instructor would personally test if the entrant had passed the entrance criteria.
"Next!"
A shout echoed from the room and Muyou entered the room. Inside the room, the inspector was a middle-aged man who had the looks of a seasoned warrior.
"That pole is for measuring your inner strength and that rock is for measuring your Qi. To pass, you have to be at least at the Iron Body and Blue I level. Now go punch that pole first." That man instructed as he pointed towards the pole.
"Alright." Muyou walked up to the pole and dished out a normal punch. After he punched the pole, there was no reaction causing Muyou to be puzzled. Muyou was inspecting the pole as he tried to figure out how did this pole work in measuring the inner strength.
"You idiot! Use your inner strength. If you don't use your inner strength, how is it going to measure your inner strength!" The man scolded Muyou.
"But... That pole... I'm afraid to break it..." Muyou said softly.
"Just hit it! It will not break, stop wasting my time." That man was exasperated at this point.
"Alright." Muyou gathered his inner strength as he punched the pole. However, he still did not use all of his inner strength as that pole really seemed to be ordinary. Muyou had broken large rocks and split trees with his inner strength, how could his inner strength not break this pole. Thus, he only used half of his inner strength.
After punching the pole, a horizontal strip of light glowed on the surface of the pole. It was not very long, only about a 10cm long.
"Initial levels of Iron Body, pass. Now go place your palm on that rock and inject your Qi into that rock." the man said with a disinterested tone. He could tell that Muyou did not use all of his inner strength, but he did not care. As long as Muyou passed the criteria, he could care less. After all, spending the whole day in this small room repeating this test procedures would make even a saint grumpy.
"Here I go." Muyou placed his palm on that rock and injected his Qi into it.
Suddenly, 3 bright blue lights appeared on the rock.
The man's eyes lit up when he saw the 3 lights. "Blue III level... Mastery of all 3 dantians... Wonderful." Out of all of the entrants he had tested today, only 3 other people were at the Blue III level. For a youth below 20 to reach Blue I level would be termed as impressive, Blue II level would be regarded as a genius while Blue III level would be monstrous.
"Ok you pass, you go exit from this other door." the man directed Muyou to the door on the other side that he entered. "Go to the Accommodation Tower in the East Wing and choose a bunk. Report back at the main courtyard at 6pm for the inauguration ceremony."
Muyou bowed and thanked the tester as he exited and waited there for Yiqi.
Yiqi entered the room next and the same instructions were given to him.
"Bam!" Yiqi gathered all of his inner strength and dished out a heavy punch on the pole. After the tester instructed him to use his inner strength, Yiqi obeyed his instructions. However, Yiqi concealed his inner strength from the 8 hidden meridians. He did not want to face the torrent of questions he had received from Elder Lu again.
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A long horizontal strip of light appeared on the pole, it was much longer than Muyou's strip of light. This strip of light was about 40cm long.
"Peak levels of Iron Body... Monstrous..." Peak levels of Iron Body meant that Yiqi had already unblocked about 47 meridian points. Just a few more and Yiqi would breakthrough to Marble Body.
"Ok now go place your palm on the rock and inject your Qi into that rock."
Yiqi placed his hand on the rock and injected his Qi into it. Two bright blue lights appeared with a third slightly dim blue light.
"It seems you had not achieved the complete mastery of your third Dantian. Just a little more, you will be Blue III level. Blue II level for you, that's a pass."
After receiving further instructions from the tester, Yiqi exited the room and found Muyou. Both of them proceeded to the Accommodation Tower as they discussed about that testing pole and rock. Both of them were very amazed at how there were materials that could measure one person's strength.
When they reached the Accommodation Tower, they realised that their intake batch was allocated to the bottom levels of the tower. The upper levels of the tower were occupied by the senior batches. Even though they only had the first 4 levels, the Accommodation Tower was very big and had about 100 rooms on the first 4 levels.
Muyou and Yiqi eagerly rushed up to the fourth level and started browsing for a good room. The fourth level rooms had the best view among the levels allocated to their batch. Some rooms were taken already, but there were quite a number of rooms that were still vacant. It was only noon, which meant that majority of the new students had not yet arrived. Each room had 3 beds, which meant that the students had to share the rooms with 2 other people.
After browsing the whole floor, Muyou decided on a room which he claimed had the best ventilation and view. There was no air-conditioner or automatic fans during their time, thus the ventilation of the room was very important. If a room had poor design and ventilation, it would be very stuffy and become unbearable during hot days. Yiqi did not really care, he just followed Muyou's decisions.
When Muyou and Yiqi returned to that room, another student had just entered into that room and was unpacking his stuff. However that did not matter as there were still 2 vacant beds which was just nice for them.
When that student noticed Muyou and Yiqi, he immediately introduced himself. "Hi! I'm Yue Han, 13 years old this year! Nice to meet you two, guess we will be roommates!" He was dressed in scholarly robes and had quite a lean build, he did not look to be very strong. Compared to Donghai, he carried a much more scholar-ly vibe.
"Hi, I'm Muyou 14 years old and this is my younger brother Yiqi! Nice to meet you." Muyou and Yiqi greeted him.
"I have to say you two have great judgement, I can assure you two that this room is the one that has the best fengshui.Picking this room is the best choice you have made today." Yue Han said. Feng Shui? Muyou and Yiqi did not know anything about fengshui.
After chatting for an hour, they went on with their individual business. Yue Han lied on his bed reading some books, Yiqi sat on his bed cultivating his Qi while Muyou was leaning on the window looking outside his room admiring the view. After Yiqi heard from the tester that he had not mastered his 3rd dantian, he felt even more determined to break through to Blue III level.
As the sun was starting to set, it was already the late afternoon. Muyou and Yue Han were already napping, only Yiqi was still awake cultivating his Qi.
Suddenly there was a huge ruckus on the 4th floor, people were shouting and there were banging on the doors. This woke Muyou and Yue Han from their naps and alerted Yiqi. Muyou went to open the door and there was another student standing outside the door.
"I'm She Gou. May I know which clan and which sect do the three of you belong to?" That student asked warily.
"Why? Is it any of your business?" Muyou replied grumpily. He was just awoken abruptly from his nap and he was certainly not in a good mood.
"There is an un-written rule in Panther Academy that states that only the students from the Clans of Nobility or the Great Sects can occupy the highest level allocated to each batch. So, if you are not from a clan of nobility or the great sect, I will have to ask you to evacuate to the other floors." She Gou's tone was still very polite.
"Ridiculous." Muyou sneered as he slammed the door in She Gou's face.
When he returned to his bed, Yue Han had a worried look.
"Should we just go to the third floor? It would not be good if we become the target of the other students." Yue Han proposed. He was from a military clan and had was not in any sect. He was painfully aware of the standings of the Noble Clans and his status compared to them.
"Nah, rooms are a first-come-first-serve basis. And what is that ridiculous un-written rule, we only need to follow the official rules. If there is no official rule about this, then it does not concern us" Muyuo replied nonchalantly as he tried to get back to sleep.
Yiqi sighed as he was aware that this would not end like this. Yue Han still had a worried look as he kept glancing at the door.