Chapter 35: The Day of the Test
Qingyun Academy, one of the most prestigious academies in Lushan Province,
was known for producing extraordinary geniuses who had successfully entered the Imperial Academy,
a place many dreamed of attending but only a few were admitted each year.
Getting into the Imperial Academy was like securing a guaranteed ticket to greatness.
Everyone who managed to get in ended up holding high ranking positions in the empire, with many leaving their names in the annals of the empire’s history.
From secondary professions to the primary ones, all those who had studied there had reached a high level of mastery.
Many of the masters at the Masters’ Pavilion had been students of the Imperial Academy, with a good number showing the potential to become great masters in the future.
Even many of the Masters Pavilion elders were once students of the Imperial Academy.
Needless to say, the appeal of the Imperial Academy was anything but low in the eyes of many,
so anyone who didn’t have a high enough status to be admitted directly, chose prestigious academies like Qingyun Academy, hoping to have a chance to be admitted to the Imperial Academy later.
For the Imperial Academy, the provincial academies had become a filter to separate the talented who might eventually be admitted from the mediocre who would have to give up and find another path for their future.
This filtering process happened over three years at the academy, during which students were continuously tested so that anyone with visible or hidden talent could emerge and stand out from the crowd.
And today was one of those days when many students’ talents would be put to the test once again.
It was the day of the exam for the first semester’s end.
The school year was divided into two semesters, each lasting four months.
The first had just ended, and the one week break given to students had finally come to an end.
The academy’s atrium was full of murmurs as students from all three years gathered.
The chatter grew louder as more students joined, waiting for the instructors to arrive.
The exam was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., and everyone had to be there and register their attendance before then.
Anyone arriving late risked immediate disqualification and would have to wait until the end of the next semester to try again.
Needless to say, no one wanted that to happen, because it would set them back at least several months compared to others.
Some instructors had already arrived while others were still coming in.
On the raised platform opposite the wide entrance of the academy’s atrium, several instructors stood in a line, and in the center stood a single podium,
the Headmaster’s podium.
On the left side of the platform, a woman with long white hair stood composed, scanning the crowd of students already present.
She was none other than Liang Yuexin.
Her calm and composed demeanor inevitably attracted the attention of many.
Some students whispered admiringly at her beauty, and even some of her fellow teachers couldn’t help but glance her way once or twice.
She had always been the center of attention because of her appearance, but today it was a little different.
Unlike a few days ago, the aura around her seemed to have changed.
Now it was calmer and quieter, like a silent storm ready to unleash.
Her expressionless and calm gaze, as always, scanned the crowd as if searching for something or someone,
and soon her violet eyes fixed on a figure in the middle of the crowd.
Although her expression didn’t change, her eyes seemed to sparkle slightly with surprise as she couldn’t help but notice a significant change in that person.
’Looks like they finally broke through,’ she thought, surprised.
Unlike the other students of his year, who had all reached the first stage during their first year,
that person hadn’t made much progress.
She knew he had been struggling to cultivate, but she had always attributed it to his poor cultivation talent.
At first, she thought that at this rate, it would take him much longer to break through, and he would almost certainly be kicked out of the academy.
She wasn’t the only one who thought that, everyone who knew him did.
That was her thought until a week ago, when that incident happened,
but everything changed two days ago when he gave her the divine grade cultivation technique,
helping her reach the fourth stage of mortal cultivation.
Since then, everything changed.
What she thought she knew about him turned out to be completely wrong,
and the image of that annoying boy who had tormented her for quite some time faded slightly, replaced by a calmer, colder one.
The look he gave her when he handed her the last part of the technique and the words he said then still ran through her mind,
and the more she thought about it, the more she felt that person was a stranger to her.
Her gaze remained fixed on him while her mind was flooded with different thoughts.
Zhu Rong, standing at the back of the crowd, couldn’t help but sense something.
His attention shifted to the raised platform at the back of the room and soon his eyes fell on a figure who, seeing him meet her gaze, quickly looked away.
"Hm? Why is that woman staring at me so intently?
Don’t tell me she’s still mad at me for that," he thought, shaking his head, thinking that Liang Yuexin had a narrow mind.
Time passed, and soon all the students and instructors were in their places, with only the central podium on the raised platform still empty.
Soon footsteps echoed as the small chatter among the students quieted down.
Their eyes moved as they all fixed on a tall, composed figure walking onto the raised platform.
The Academy’s Headmaster had finally arrived.