“Next!!”
The voice of the elder responsible for overseeing the participants’ testing thundered out in everyone’s ears.
The disciple who was next walked up the stage, but one could faintly see that he was shaking as if he was extremely nervous.
The elder’s cold eyes bored into this disciple as he approached a rather large circular disk that was floating upright in the center of the stage.
Upon reaching the large circular disk, the disciple lifted his shaking hand and placed it onto the disk's surface. After several seconds with the disk flashing, it suddenly released a stagnant soft glow before several characters appeared on its surface showing the disciple’s age and current cultivation.
-Age: 16 years, 2 months, 3 days, 7 hours, 11 minutes-
-Cultivation: Meridian Opening Realm, 27 meridians opened-
After the disk displayed that, it produced a jolt of energy that knocked away the youth’s hand and caused him to stumble backward.
Seeing this, the youth’s expression turned deathly pale before he turned to look at the elder and said in a tragic tone, “N-No! It must be a mistake! My sixteenth birthday wasn't supposed to be until the day after tomorrow!!”
The elder’s cold voice echoed out in response, “Even if that was the case, you would have been banned from competing when that day came. And if you're actually telling the truth, I suggest you have a word with your parents as well.”
After saying that, the elder casually swept his hands at the disciple as if he was swatting away a fly. The disciple seemed as if he was hit by an invisible force that caused him to do several summer salts in the air before landing outside of the stage with a loud thud.
The elder held back so the disciple only had the air knocked out of him along with a few bruises.
That was the last Outer Disciple to be tested and the remaining number was around hundred and fifty. Considering that there were several hundred disciples before the testing began, it could be seen how many of them were trying to enter the competition without meeting the requirements.
Most, if not all of them, were the older disciples that were tempted by the prizes. And even if it was a long shot that they would be able to pass the test, they were still hoping for some miracle to happen.
Like the opposite of that last disciple, where their age was a year younger than they had thought or the testing tool suddenly malfunctioned during their turn but as said before that was a long shot.
“Inner Disciples step forward!!”
Immediately after the elder's voice echoed out, the Outer Sect Disciples suddenly parted like the red sea to reveal several young men and women approaching the stage
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
These were the Inner Disciples that came to participate in this year’s Freshmen Disciple Competition.
As Inner Disciples, they were given the choice to join a division of their choosing and each division had different color robes for their members.
Some of them wore the Blade Division’s blood-red robes, while others were wearing the Sword Pavilion’s contrasting white robes.
Disciples in the Formation Division who wore yellow robes as well as one or two disciples who wore the Blacksmith Division’s black robes were there as well.
Though just by looking at the color of their robes, one could tell that most of them were from the Blade and Sword Pavilion.
This was because the Inner Disciples with their Sky-grade innate talent wouldn’t waste time going into a division that leaned more towards professions like Alchemy and Formations unless they had a strong interest in learning those professions. With their talents, they would prefer to focus on increasing their combat prowess so they could become powerful cultivators.
Most of the disciples within those divisions were actually the Outer Disciples or Worker Disciples that had qualified to enter the Inner Sect by becoming a Sea Expansion Realm cultivator before there sixteen. Those disciples chose to join those divisions due to the fact that if they joined the stronger Sword Pavilion or the Blade Pavilion, they would only become targets of exploitation, especially since their talents aren’t as high as those with Sky-grade Innate Talent.
As the Inner Disciples stepped through the parted crowd, mummers from them echoed into the nervous Yang Su’s ear.
“Look, it’s senior brother Dong Sin! I heard he was placed 18th in last year’s Freshmen Disciple Competition. After a year of cultivation and with the other seniors out of the equation for this year’s competition, he’s sure to be placed in the top ten this time!”
“Bah! Who cares about him when there’s senior sister Renxiang? Even with the older seniors in the competition last year, she was able to place eighth! She’s said to be one of the top contenders for placing in the top three this year!”
“Both senior brother Xiasheng and senior brother Guiren are other contenders for the top spot…”
“Hey? Have you guys heard of what happened several days ago?”
Among the different things Yang Su heard floating from the crowd, that particular sentence stuck out to him. Curious about it he slowed his steps a little to stay within earshot of the conversation.
“Are you talking about senior brother Sun Donghai’s rumored breakthrough?”
“It’s not just a rumor, people who were there claimed that he really did open his 28th meridian! He’s only entered the Academy this year and he has already reached the Third Phase of the Meridian Opening Realm. It usually takes disciples one and a half years to reach the Meridian Opening Realm, but he did it within just four months after entering the Academy! Such cultivation talent is nothing short of monstrous and could even be compared to the top talents of the Academy. He’s definitely deserving of being a member of the Sun Clan. With him showing such a promising future in his cultivation along with his older sister who is currently a talented Conclave disciple, the Sun Clan’s main branch might lead their clan to eventually reach the same level as the Ming Clan!”
After listening to the disciples’ conversation, the only thought that appeared in Yang Su's mind was...
‘Only 28 meridians? What? Is that number amazing?’
Yang Su’s nervous expression turn to confusion as he heard the disciples gushing over this Sun Donghai’s 28 meridians.
As Yang Su was contemplating if he had miss heard that number, a cold voice suddenly echoed from behind him.
“Get out of my way if you're going to slow down.”
Hearing that, Yang Su quickly turned around while saying, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
After stepping out of the way, a youth around the same age as him sped up a walked past him.
Judging by his cold demeanor, Yang Su could guess he wasn’t the friendly type. Well, looking around at the other disciples as he walked, they too had cold expressions on their faces so he guessed they were all the same.
Yang Su even realize there was tension between the members of the same Division. Which could likely be stemming from the fact that they were of different Factions within said Division.
Soon Yang Su and the rest made it below the stage, and the first Inner Disciple to leap onto the stage was a youth around his age, who was from the Blacksmith Division as seen from his black robes.
From the disciples in the crowd's conversations, Yang Su found out this youth was from the Fei Clan, the fifth strongest clan on the Maple Continent.
From his looks, the elder on the stage could tell he was a newly admitted disciple, and even though the Academy didn’t force the new disciples to take the tests, most of them always did just so they could show off their current cultivation bases and compete with the other disciples that were newly admitted.
This was common among disciples and was even somewhat human nature, as when one worked on something tirelessly, he or she would be prone to compare his accomplishments with others in the same boat as them.