Final Round
Ji Bei's voice reverberated through the arena as he spoke, "The final round of the Martial School examinations will now begin! All contestants, line up!"
Despite his newfound strength, Yan Guang's ears still hurt after all the yelling the examiners had done.
Even without the use of technology such as sound amplifiers, their voices were comparable to the volume of a loudspeaker.
Yan Guang strategically chose to delay joining the line as much as possible, ending up at the very back of the queue.
The farther back he was, the more contestants that would take the exam before he did.
By viewing the failures and successes of these participants, Yan Guang would then be able to better formulate a plan for his own attempt.
Unlike the previous rounds, this one seemed to be relatively calm. No healing or rejuvenation potions were handed out, which suggested to Yan Guang that fighting played no part in this round.
A table with elaborate carvings was placed in front of the queue upon which lay an even more intricately designed bowl.
The transparent bowl was filled to the brim with a luminescent green liquid. Seeing it through his Qi sense, Yan Guang was able to deduce that whatever the liquid was, it was very spiritually rich.
Much like the lotuses and other exotic materials that collection missions at the guild had him collect, this liquid was likely some sort of spiritual mixture that aided cultivation.
Yan Guang carefully observed as the aspirant dipped his hands into the liquid.
For the next minute, the liquid's glow slowly diminished until the examinee took his hands out of the liquid. His time was up.
Yan Guang began to understand exactly what this round was testing.
It was cultivation talent!
Everyone had a rate at which they absorbed Qi. The higher their rate was, the faster they could cultivate and break through realms. This was naturally a huge proponent of what decided someone's potential, which is why these schools had designed a test for it.
From what Yan Guang could see, the dimmer the liquid was at the end of a participant's one minute, the better their talent.
After the first contestant was done, the examiners dumped the liquid into a tank placed next to the table before refilling the bowl with a fresh portion of the liquid.
The next participant was then called forward.
She then proceeded to dip her hands into the liquid and absorb it.
Unexpectedly, after one minute, the liquid had lost nearly all of its vibrance.
From the examiners' reactions, it could be seen that this level of cultivation talent was rare.
Yan Guang took note of this contestant, a girl who had placed in the top 10 of the previous rounds. Her name was Yi Mei, and she supposedly came from a small aristocratic family.
As time passed, more and more contestants had their turn and the queue shortened.
Yan Guang stopped paying attention to every mundane test-taker, and only took note of the top 5.
Han Jing had an impressive performance, matching up to Yi Mei in terms of cultivation talent.
Chen Hao was once again the most remarkable, managing to make the spiritual liquid dim down to a point where it was indistinguishable from regular green-tinted water.
As for the other members of the top 3, they all had equally distinguished results. None matched up to Chen Hao, however.
A few minutes before it was time for Yan Guang to take the test, Ji Bei suddenly made his move, walking over to an examiner.
With a tap on the shoulder and a barely audible whisper, Ji Bei handed over a new bowl, one filled with what seemed to be the same liquid.
Discreetly, the examiner walked over and handed the bowl to the staff in charge of replenishing the spiritual liquid.
Eventually, it came Yan Guang's turn to take the test.
He was quite excited. This final challenge was all that stood between him and finally stepping foot onto the true path of martial arts!
No more would he be a straggler, forced to live off of quests. He would finally have a place in society, a background, a community.
In retrospect, Yan Guang was quite lucky to have been transported into a medieval wilderness.
If he had been sent to a modern world, who knows what would've happened?
Would a stranger no one knew with no family, citizenship, or identification truly be able to do anything?
Only in a backward world such as this one could he blend in so easily.
Caught up with the excitement, Yan Guang failed to notice the subtle difference between bowls.
Dipping his fingers into the bowl, Yan Guang was able to feel the immensity of Qi that was present in the liquid.
It dwarfed his own by an order of magnitude at the very least!
Yan Guang immediately felt that something was off.
Although everybody else's spiritual liquid did have a high concentration of Qi, it was nowhere near this much!
For the first time in possibly his entire life, Yan Guang felt he was being plotted against.
Such was a signature of the cultivation world, he thought to himself. Yet, despite this flimsy attempt at pacifying himself, Yan Guang was still angry.
What had he done to deserve this sabotage?
He knew that his rate of absorbing this Qi would appear slow to the outside world, ruining his test results and perhaps even his chance of entry into a school.
Were outsiders who were not part of an aristocratic family simply not allowed to do well?
In spite of racking his brain, Yan Guang could think of no reason why someone would despise him this badly.
Fine then, if you want to give me such a valuable resource... I'll use every drop of it I can!, Yan Guang resolved himself and thought.
Immediately, vortexes began to form in both of his hands, guiding the vast reserves of Qi motes into his body.
As Yan Guang began absorbing the spiritual liquid, Ji Bei watched on, completely aware that what he had just done would violate all pacts between the martial schools.
Still, he had no regrets!
In some ways, it was a perfect crime. All he had done was swap the one-year-old Hundred Petal Tonic with a ten-year-old Hundred Petal Tonic.
Much like wine, spiritual concoctions grew in strength over the years. Hundred Petal Tonic that was kept in a barrel and properly sealed at an appropriate temperature could last for over 100 years, only absorbing more spiritual energy and growing stronger.
Moreover, the shine of the liquid didn't grow proportionally to the energy inside. Even a 100-year-old tonic would only glow slightly brighter than a one-year-old one.
The only way Ji Bei could possibly get caught was if the assistants he ordered ratted him out.
Due to his high status in the White Tiger School and the fact that the assistants were from that very school, they wouldn't dare to slight him.
Now, all that was left was for his master plan to play out.
The way he saw it, he was performing a meritorious act for his school!
Yan Guang, ignorant of the powers at play, continued to try his best to absorb the spiritual liquid.
Energy flowed into his body like a river, enhancing his cultivation with a far greater speed than he had ever reached in his many meditations.
Two vortexess are too weak to absorb this energy... I need more!, Yan Guang affirmed.
20 seconds in, Yan Guang managed to create a third vortex by expending more of his mental energy.
His focus was fully shifted to merely absorbing as much of the Qi as possible. Not only was it necessary for the test, but it also advanced his cultivation unimaginably fast.
All of his thoughts were slowly trimmed, leaving only one desire in his mind, to cultivate.
His mind, previously clouded by anger, became clear in mere moments.
Half a minute in, the fourth vortex formed, doubling Yan Guang's initial absorption speed.
Only 5 seconds later, a fifth vortex began to take shape.
Yan Guang regretted not practicing forming multiple vortexes beforehand. He had always thought that a singular gigantic vortex would be more beneficial for his cultivation than multiple small ones.
Now, he could confidently state that he was wrong. Ultimately, one vortex brought all the energy to one point in his body. The problem with this was that this one single point had to withstand all of this energy.
Once this energy had already gathered at that point, the vortex would also struggle to funnel more energy to that point. It was like trying to stuff more clothes into a bag than would fit.
By splitting up the suction over multiple areas, Yan Guang could evenly distribute the Qi over a larger surface, making it easier to absorb more.
45 seconds in, the sixth vortex had formed.
The spiritual liquid seemed only slightly dimmer. By estimation through his Qi sense, Yan Guang believed he had absorbed about 10% of the efficacy.
Even just 10% of the potency of the liquid had fully refilled his empty internal force reserves, bringing him back to full strength.
50 seconds in, the seventh vortex coalesced, pushing Yan Guang to absorb even more Qi.
He was truly beginning to feel the pressure now. There were only 10 seconds left, and he had only absorbed maybe 12 or so percent of the liquid.
Out of all of the contestants, Yan Guang's scores ranked at the very bottom, far behind the second worst. Of course, this was only when looked at from the perspective of outsiders.
As the minute ended, Yan Guang could feel the faint shadows of an eighth vortex about to form.
Unfortunately, the test was over. He was ordered to stop immediately and had no choice but to do so.
The 14 other test-takers, who were all already done and spectating his performance, had odd looks on their faces.
They didn't expect a contestant from the top five to perform so poorly. This wasn't the level of talent they would expect from someone who had managed to stand out among hundreds of others and fight their way to the end of the exams.
Yan Guang walked away, joining the rest of the contestants with his fist clenched.
It took him quite a while to calm down, but eventually, Yan Guang managed to return to a state of normalcy. His anger slowly turned to curiosity, wondering why someone would intentionally provide him with a more valuable spiritual elixir.
Was it an attempt to ruin him, or was it meant to help him? He was utterly confused.
Yan Guang wished for nothing more than to know why this had happened.
"The 128th Martial School Examinations have now concluded. We request all contestants to wait for a moment for the selections to begin.", a booming voice said.