Ch. 398 - Recruitment Begins

Shao Mingyu pushed through the crowd and looked at the young man curled up on the ground, trembling.

He frowned and glanced around, speaking calmly.

“Don’t you know that fighting here will get you disqualified from admission?”

Hearing Shao Mingyu’s words, the surrounding youths quickly shook their heads.

“Senior, we weren’t fighting at all. We just said a few words to him and he got scared like that.”

Shao Mingyu frowned slightly, patted the shoulder of the black-robed youth, and asked, “You okay?”

“I’m fine, really,” the black-robed youth quickly nodded.

After seeing his appearance, Shao Mingyu understood why everyone had been mocking him.

The Three-Eyed Demon Race was naturally slow, had poor aptitude, and was often shunned by other races.

“I don’t want to see this happen again. Otherwise, all of you will be disqualified from entering,” Shao Mingyu said as he scanned the crowd.

“Whether someone can enter the Sacred Academy is up to the examiners, not for you to decide.”

Everyone quickly nodded, silent and afraid.

After Shao Mingyu left, the crowd distanced themselves from the black-robed youth.

He was completely isolated.

He got up and stood alone in a corner.

Xu Zimo shook his head at the scene, then shifted his gaze elsewhere.

The tree-lined road in front of Vermilion Bird Academy was crowded with boys and girls hoping to enroll.

On both sides of the road, the fiery-red Flame Sun Trees had just begun to sprout.

Leaves like maple leaves were densely packed on the branches.

A light breeze swept through the crowd.

At the end of the road stood a majestic academy.

A mist covered the campus, and its grand buildings loomed faintly in the distance.

The gate was deep red, and at the center of the two doors was a vividly painted vermilion bird.

It spread its wings in flight, flames bursting forth, as if soaring into the sky itself, engulfing the entire gate in fire.

From afar, tall towers within the academy shot straight into the clouds, glowing red like fire.

Floating mystic islands, thousands of meters long, hovered in midair like great heavenly beasts.

Red-robed senior students flew through the sky with swords, others cultivated atop high mountains, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon.

With another breeze, the mist returned, and everything vanished from sight again.

In front of the red gates, six long lines had formed.

At the front of each line stood the teachers of Vermilion Bird Academy.

From afar, Xu Zimo observed the testing methods:

One was to give students a brand-new meridian technique.

After the time of one incense stick, the teachers would evaluate how much the student had understood.

The other method was to hand students a vermilion bird-shaped jade pendant.

Whoever held it the longest showed the highest potential.

Xu Zimo guessed the jade probably contained an illusion.

Such illusions typically target a person’s emotions and desires, meant to strike at the weakest parts of the heart.

Each teacher could test ten students at once. It was fast, but the crowd was endless.

Locals said that during recruitment, this bustle usually lasted three to seven days.

Anyone who passed the first test would enter the academy gates for the second round of testing. What happens inside, however, is not visible to outsiders.

…

Recruitment was proceeding smoothly.

Xu Zimo was watching with growing boredom when he heard a small cheer rise from the crowd.

“Someone passed the test at the highest level!”

“Who was it? That’s insane!”

“I think it was the Seventh Prince of Slaughter Empire.”

“No surprise. The Seventh Prince has always been gifted. Though raised in the deep palace, there have long been rumors of his talents. In our Slaughter Empire, his name rivals even that of the Crown Prince.”

Hearing the chatter around him, Xu Zimo looked toward the source.

In the third line, a young man in dark yellow silk stood proudly at the front.

He looked down arrogantly at everyone around him. Though he didn’t speak, his expression showed his smugness.

Each year, only a few true prodigies passed the test at the highest level.

Those who did usually made a name for themselves at the academy.

Passing at the highest level meant completely mastering the given meridian technique within the time of one incense stick and breaking the illusion within the vermilion jade.

Only achieving both counted.

The Seventh Prince held his evaluation paper from the teacher and strode into the academy proudly.

The surrounding youths watched with envy.

…

As the sun set, the sky was dyed red with clouds.

The Flame Sun Trees on both sides of the avenue reflected on the road like a painting.

The crimson sunset and fiery clouds merged with the trees, casting a red hue across the academy and the floating island shaped like a divine vermilion bird.

The whole world seemed painted in flame.

Testing ended by evening. Those who got a number token would return the next day for the next round.

Xu Zimo returned to the inn.

He planned to watch again tomorrow, then leave Vermilion Bird City.

His next stop was Slaughter City, where he’d take the teleportation array to the Heavenly Tiger Empire.

Though it was early spring, winter’s chill still lingered.

The weather changed suddenly.

By night, the sky grew dark and heavy.

Thick clouds gathered but held back the rain.

The air grew warm and dense.

By morning, the sky looked even more ominous, a calm before a storm.

The long lines formed again outside Vermilion Bird Academy.

Xu Zimo recalled that this academy housed the Blazing-Vermilion God-Sparrow Physique, one of the Hundred Battle Physiques.

But with the Hell-Suppressing Demon Physique and the Nine-Revolutions God-Tower Physique already in his possession, he no longer needed any others.

…

By noon, it was finally the Three-Eyed Demon youth’s turn.

This caught Xu Zimo’s attention and also drew many others to look.

People generally saw the Three-Eyed Race as dull and strange.

Those who couldn’t awaken their third eye were seen as the lowest of the low.

Yue Qingli took the technique handed to him by the teacher and studied it carefully.

It was called Aeonic Blade Slash, a mid-tier Earth-grade technique.

Not particularly hard, but the real challenge was the time limit: just one incense stick.

Compared to other cultivators, who could memorize a technique after one glance, Yue Qingli clearly struggled more. He had to stop often and reread the content.

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