Chapter 24: Shocking the Three Supervisors Again
Tang Mu ignored the scenes of the illusion around him and relied on his experience to quickly achieve a state of thoughtlessness and inner tranquility.
He then visualized the Star God Celestial Diagram, which eventually exploded into glowing lights that gathered and floated up to form the cognitive image of the Galactic Chakra three feet above his head.
Everything proceeded smoothly from there on.
A tremor seemed to pass through the surrounding area when Tang Mu perceived his Galactic Chakra. Then, just as abruptly, everything around him, including Chen Rong, the ambulance's interior, the cars, and the people on the street, all faded into nothing. They quickly disappeared into thin air, leaving a thick fog in his surroundings.
I'm back!
Tang Mu exclaimed inwardly while thinking about the experience in the illusion world.
Had he not recalled his present life, he might have continued living in that comfortable part of his previous life. He would have eagerly run to his beautiful girlfriend in the evening and continued immersing himself in the illusion until he failed the Psionic Society's assessment.
This indeed is a test of willpower.
One needs to have robust mental sharpness and strength to realize that he/she is in an illusion before breaking out. Moreover, those with weak willpower attributes might choose to continue immersing themselves in the happy life of the illusion instead of returning to reality.
Tang Mu shook his head and said a silent goodbye to all those comrades he knew from his previous life. Then, he gallantly walked out of the foggy formation space and stood before the supervisors.
"I have broken out of the illusion..." Tang Mu had intended to declare his accomplishment. But he stopped midsentence when he noticed the supervisors looking at him with strange expressions. Their eyes were all wide open, and their mouths had already formed O-shapes. It was as if they were looking at a never-before-seen alien specimen.
"What's wrong?" Tang Mu asked subconsciously.
The burly supervisor, Ming Shen, breathed out heavily. He gave Tang Mu a once over and said, "Little guy! You have shocked me again. You managed to break out of the illusion in only two minutes! How did you manage that?"
"The key was that I quickly realized I was in an illusion," Tang Mu answered honestly. "Everything else was simple after that. I relied on some knowledge I had once seen in a textbook and meditated. The entire illusion broke apart as soon as I entered deep meditation. And before I knew it, I was back here, surrounded by the fog of the formation space."
Quan Hansheng, the scholarly-looking supervisor, exchanged glances with the other two and mumbled, "Is realizing that you're in an illusion supposed to be this simple? Maybe there's something wrong with the runic formation."
Without waiting for the others to respond, Quan Hansheng stepped toward the formation. He quickly examined all the pillars and their runic patterns before sighing again. "There's nothing wrong with the illusion formation," he declared while walking back. "Tang Mu has really broken out of the illusion in two minutes."
Xia Yating let out a silent gasp. She looked at Tang Mu and said, "Tang Mu! This is quite impressive. Usually, only official rank-one psionics can break away from a rank-one illusion formation in less than three minutes. But you have achieved a similar feat when you're still a pseudo-rank-one. This implies that your talent in willpower is beyond extraordinary. Congratulations!"
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"Thanks, teacher," Tang Mu replied with a polite bow. However, on the inside, he was enraged with himself.
He had wanted to hide part of his abilities since he didn't want to attract the wrong kind of attention. But due to the seemingly simple willpower test, he had outdone himself and obtained results that his teacher called beyond extraordinary.
"Little guy," Ming Shen, the burly guy, suddenly said with a frown. "Why don't you seem happy? Could you be worried that we'll expose your abilities to underworld organizations that might threaten your security?"
"Not at all, not at all," Tang Mu hurriedly said with a wave of his arm. "I'm just shocked by the result."
All three supervisors glanced at him and chuckled.
"Tang Mu!" Quan Hansheng, the scholarly-looking guy, said with a light smile. "Let me clarify something first. The supervisors for the Psionic Society's assessment go through very stringent background checks. We also went through the same checks and have the federation's future at heart. There is no way, in hell, we could disclose your information to underworld organizations."
"Oh!" Tang Mu said and nodded. But on the inside, he still had some doubts.
If the supervisors didn't leak the results, how could the underworld organizations know about them and even kidnap some genius students from the past years?
Was it the universities or the Psionic Society higher-ups? But that also didn't make sense, as they were mortal enemies of the underworld organizations.
"Are you wondering where the leaks from the past years came from?" Quan Hansheng asked. "I can't say that I'm hundred percent sure. But the leaks shouldn't originate from the supervisors of the assessment."
"Then, where do the leaks originate from?" Tang Mu asked by reflex.
Quan Hansheng smiled and said, "The students. We believe some among you are agents of underworld organizations like the Crimson Brotherhood. They will identify the talented students and set up the stage for their organizations to kidnap the geniuses."
"Students?" Tang Mu gasped. "How is that possible? All the kidnapped students from the past years were from the highly prestigious government-aided high schools, like our 4th high school. Why would students from such schools join an underworld organization like the Crimson Brotherhood?"
"Maybe, for resources and monetary wealth," Quan Hansheng said with an audible sigh. "There are many reasons why people commit crimes."
"Anyways, this doesn't concern you at the moment. But be assured that since you underwent the test alone without the presence of any other students, you don't have to fear that your willpower results will leak. That's unless you disclose your results to someone else."
"Oh, okay," Tang Mu said and finally let out a sigh of relief.
Quan Hansheng nodded and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I'll now announce your results," he said and looked at his tablet. "In the first attitude test, you passed directly and obtained an A+."
"In the second test for body strength, you unleashed 880 kg of force with your punch and 1350 kg of power with your kick. These results put you at a level slightly above an ordinary pseudo-rank-one. Considering this, we have awarded you an A+ in the body strength test."
"Moving on. You managed to run a distance of 100 meters in 4.762 seconds. This implies that your sprinting speed is at 21 m/s, which is also slightly above the level of ordinary pseudo-rank-ones. We've also awarded you an A+ for this test."
"Lastly, you managed to escape a grade-one illusion formation in two minutes. It is a result comparable to official rank-one psionics, and we have also awarded you the highest A+ grade for this test."
"Counting up everything, your average score for the Psionic Society's assessment is an A+. Congratulations, Tang Mu! You have obtained the highest grade possible for a pseudo-rank-one in this assessment."
"Thank you, Supervisor Quan Hansheng," Tang Mu said with a slight bow. "Thank you all for taking care of me during the test."
The three supervisors nodded.
Xia Yating, Tang Mu's former teacher, smiled. "By the way, our principal had promised that all those from the 4th high school who could become pseudo-rank-ones before the assessment could receive a gift from him. You can pass by his office to receive the gift when leaving."
"There's a gift from the principal." Tang Mu couldn't contain his excitement after hearing Teacher Xia Yating's reminder.
Rumor had it that the principal was a powerful psionic who also doubled in the field of runic engineering. That implied that he was one of the skilled people who had long mastered the art of combining psionic runes and science and technology to manufacture powerful weapons. A gift from such a person was sure to be valuable.
"Okay, you can leave now," Quan Hansheng, the scholarly-looking supervisor, said. "We'll send the official result slips and certificates to your email by the end of next week. You can use them to apply to the universities of your choice around the Greater Earth Federation."
Tang Mu nodded and thanked the three supervisors again. He then left the second level of the gym feeling like a king who had just won a thousand-year war.