Chapter 54 – The Inner Disciple Entrance Test (Part Two)
After Fang Xiaozhong, there were another three disciples that failed their test. Seeing this, the exam master was unimpressed.
“Next, Wang Xuemei!”
Wang Xuemei was about sixteen years old, her looks were quite homely but she looked determined. She responded to her name and walked out from the line before stopping ten steps in front of the ancient bell.
Studying the girl who just walked out, the exam master’s eyes brightened slightly. This girl’s Zhen Qi is still a little bit unstable, but it is obviously better than those five people from before, she seems to have trained it herself for a long time.
“Start!” The exam master’s voice sounded a little bit excited.
Wang Xuemei nodded, she put her right palm which was full of Zhen Qi in front of her chest, then threw it out like a lightning.
Buzz!
The ancient bell made a slight sound, but it was so quiet and happened so fast that a lot of people did not even hear it.
The exam master smiled: “Wang Xuemei, pass!”
“Phew!” Wang Xuemei let out a breath, she thought to herself that she was being a bit arrogant earlier when she thought that she could easily ring the bell without using any martial skills, she didn’t expect that the ancient bell would only slightly move, even she didn’t hear the bell ring clearly, not to mention the others watching.
Wang Xuemei seemed to have brought up the spirits of the remaining, four of the next seven people had also successfully managed to shake the ancient bell and passed the first test.
“Next, Ye Chen.”
Finally, the exam master had called Ye Chen’s name.
Leaving the crowd no time to even predict the results, Ye Chen casually walked a few steps forward, then stopped in front of the ancient bell while there was still quite a distance between them and threw out a punch.
Doooong!
The ancient bell started to vibrate heavily, the huge sound reverberating on and on unceasingly; it could even be heard from miles outside the examination court.
The two inner disciples who were guarding the door suddenly shivered. Who the heck was that? An outer disciple who just reached the Condensing Reality Realm could actually manage to shake that ancient bell like that?
Inside the lobby.
“Am I seeing this right? He was at least fifteen steps away.”
“No, at least sixteen steps away.”
“What kind of scary power? Maybe he had already reached the Condensing Reality Realm for a while now but just did not tell anyone?”
All the disciples kept discussing about Ye Chen, all their eyes were focused on him.
Ye Chen looked calm and relaxed. Hitting an ancient bell from a distance was nothing hard for him, it would be weird if he could not make it.
The exam master froze for a while before laughing: “Good, good! Pass… Pass!”
He said “pass” twice in a row, you could feel how surprised the exam master was.
As first test quickly finished, the second test began to commence, and those disciples who had failed the first test were asked to leave.
In the back of the examination lobby.
There was an open field about one hundred and fifty meters long. In the middle, there was a large sixty meter wide lake; and on each side of the lake, there were wooden posts that were ten meters high. It looked like a wooden bridge that had its middle removed, which looked extremely strange.
“The second test is testing your movement arts. Movement art is all about the purity of your Zhen Qi. For this test you would have to start on the bridge on the right side, then float to the other side of the bridge. If you are able to even grab the wooden post on the other side with your hands, you will pass.”
Looking up, Ye Chen estimated the distance with his eyes, he realized that the gap in the bridge was the same as the width of the lake, which was sixty-six meters, to be precise. A normal Mortal Realm warrior would feel dizzy just by looking at it, not to mention flying across to the other side.
Just like he expected, all the other disciples except Wang Xuemei started to look pale.
“Sixty meters?! That is way too far! My Cloud Steps could only allow me to float for about fifty meters, I would not be able to go further than that.”
“Good for you, that you trained in the Cloud Steps movement arts. I trained in the Tiger Jump Art, I can only cover thirty meters with each jump… What am I going to do about the remaining thirty meters?”
Hearing the chatters around her, Wang Xuemei seemed very confident, the corner of her mouth angled up demurely.
The exam master was just about to say “begin”, when a group of inner disciples walked out from the exam lobby while chatting and laughing.
“What are you guys doing here?” The exam master said slightly irritated.
“Master, you know, there are not many school missions at the end of the year. And we are quite bored of training, and when we heard that there was quite a number people testing today, we came to check it out.” An inner disciple of the group who seemed to be very close to the exam master, said with a smirk on his face.
“Alright, you guys could stay if you want to watch, but don’t you dare affect them while they are testing, otherwise I will kick you out.”
“Don’t worry, when did we ever created trouble for you?”
The exam master nodded, he cleared his throat and said: “First, Wang Xuemei!”
Hearing him, Wang Xuemei’s feet touched the ground, then her body bounced up to the right side bridge like a ball. She took a deep breath before she started with a short run-up to the post then jumped up high in the air like a bird taking off.
Ten meters!
Twenty meters!
Fifty meters!
Fifty-five meters!
When she was only ten meters away from the other side of the bridge, Wang Xuemei ran out of Zhen Qi and her body fell from the sky rapidly. She was about to fail her test.
“Harmonious Art!”
At that breath-taking moment, Wang Xuemei yelled out in a low voice as her body inconceivably rose up up in the air again and landed on the wooden bridge.
An inner disciple commented: “Her ability to master the Harmonious Art to this level is quite impressive. This art allows the users to rapidly restore their Zhen Qi when they run out of Zhen Qi.”
After Wang Xuemei, it was the second candidate’s turn.
He had trained in the Cloud Steps arts, and when he used it, it was like he was walking on a floating cloud, extremely effortless and smooth. However, he had not yet completely mastered his martial steps, so he failed to cross the distance and fell into the pond with a huge splash when he was only five meters away from victory.
The third candidate was even worse, he only floated about thirty meters before he fell horribly into the pond, which caused the laughter among the crowd.
The fourth candidate had some good luck. At the end of jump, he somehow managed to struggle in the air and moved forward an extra half meter which just enabled him to hold on to the edge of the bridge and hang in the air.
The fifth disciple taking the test swallowed, then he said to the exam master: “Master, could I step on the surface of the pond?”
“Step on the pond?” The exam master sounded confused, as he knew that the wooden bridge was ten meters high, and jumping by stepping on the water would not be easy since the surface of the water was not solid like the ground.
“Since there was no rule against it, if you could make the jump, then I will let you pass the test.” The exam master nodded to agree.
His face showed joy, this candidate jumped up to the right side of the bridge, then he dived down towards the pond.
Splash! Splash!
It was like an insect touching the water, he stepped on the water at an extremely fast speed, his body looked like it had zero weight.
“Hehe, this should be the Floating Body Dharma! No wonder he had this idea, but it will not be easy to jump ten meters from there though.” A lot of the inner disciples recognized the martial art he was using, they all showed curiosity on their face, they wanted to know how he would make it through this test.
Ha!
When there was only five meters to the other side of the bridge, the candidate stepped extremely hard on the surface of the water with his right foot, and brought a huge splash, then his body used this momentum and flew into the sky.
“It is the Water Burst Spell! No wonder!”
Ye Chen’s eyebrow twitched. He had heard before, that the Water Burst Spell could amass volumes of water in a short time, then make it explode using Zhen Qi to create a huge force. That was why that candidate could easily use the exploding force to push his body into the sky.
The exam master forced out a laugh, “Pass! Next, Ye Chen!”