Translated by rara
There was one thing that people probably had forgotten about, but didn’t mean to, and that was the soul color test. Usually to some other forces, when they recruited new disciples, they would use the testing stone to examine the disciple's soul color to determine the potential. But Dao Xin Academy was an exception.
The academy's first requirement was to become a level 4 mage before twenty-five, and to be able to accomplish this achievement at this age the soul capability would be undoubtedly huge. Besides, there were some people who could also achieve this requirement despite the inferior potential. That was why Dao Xin Academy never examined student's soul color.
What makes a great mage, in addition to the raw potential, was the ability to control the soul power and have a keen intuition. This point had no connection to potential since raw potential was just a foundation, It was not something that can bring you food ( t/n: important).
Since there were too many contestants, Elder Guan Yong didn’t have the time to personally test each individual.
But then, a very impressive image occurred. The ground suddenly rumbled as numerous platforms rose above ground, each platform was one meter apart from the others, and there were about forty to fifty platforms. With Elder Guan Yong standing in front of them, he looked among the crowd and said, "Today's assessment will have two parts, I believe everyone must have heard about it. The first part of this assessment is herb distillation, and as everyone already knows, this is the basic fundamentals of refining magic pills. It has a very heavy influence toward pill quality. Not only that, this can also point out your soul’s control power ability. Those of us from the Mage Association shall provide everyone with a low grade level 4 magic herb, and set 4 times distillation as a benchmark. If it is less than this value, you will automatically be disqualified and not allowed to participate in the next part. Those who distill the most, they shall be this part of the assessments winner."
“I hope everyone will try their best and don’t force yourself to hide your talent. Everyone can have the chance to become a Dao Xin's student. I believe everyone knows the school system: The higher the potential you have, the more opportunity you get, and vice versa. Don’t waste your big change over a small thing, the gains do not make up for the losses.”
Elder Guan Yong’s line of sight fell on those with the highest potential, even You XiaoMo was in there, and then he continued, “If there are no complaints then I shall start this first test. Everyone, please step up.”
Reacting to Elder Guan Yong's announcement, people started moving toward the platforms, except You XiaoMo who was observing the crowd. He could tell all the geniuses of the big four families had no intention to participate just yet. But then when his eyes fell on BaiLi XiaoYu, the man himself suddenly turned around and looked at You XiaoMo with a very bright smile, You XiaoMo could see this one was a very energetic bishounen.
SInce he had been seen, You XiaoMo felt he shouldn’t ignore him, so he returned back with a smile, and then he saw BaiLi XiaoYu's eyes sparkle as he raised his hand and waved back at You XiaoMo.
You XiaoMo (-_-‘ ), quickly averted his eyes, what a hyper lad.
But then when he thought back about Elder Guan Yong words, he felt a little surprised. The words Elder had said were not that much different to what Ling Xiao had told him before. Originally he was hesitant at first, but now he had no choice but to face this matter. Being humble is a good thing, but like both of them had said, too humble would cause him losing valuable opportunities and contribute no help to his path. That past year at Tian Xin Sect was the best example.
Did he really want to replicate that life again?
You XiaoMo immediately denied the idea. He wanted to have more opportunity, and that means he should try to win over the daoshi heart. SInce he had reached a conclusion, he clenched his fist and finally became determined.
Standing behind him was Ling Xiao who hadn’t took his eyes off You XiaoMo since. Seeing You XiaoMo's fist clenched with sparkling eyes like he had reached some sort of determination, Ling Xiao couldn’t help but smile. Seemed like someone was about to blow people’s mind ah, which is a good thing. His man should be someone standing above people, so that everyone could only look up to him with envy and admiration.
You XiaoMo earnestly stared at those 40 contestants. Know yourself, know your enemy, You XiaoMo felt he must first understand other’s situations so that he could make adjustments according to the situation.
Ever since the day he came out of the Paradise Realm, with another two months at Earth Peak, most of the time You XiaoMo had spent finding out Ling Xiao's situation, but he also had some time to refine some level 4 pills.
But because he never announced his true level, he never went to the Magic herbs hall to receive his level 4 portion once. That was why You XiaoMo never had a chance to try and distill a low grade level 4 magic herb. Usually he would use his high grade magic herbs to practice, and he could distill them 4 times as maximum.
As people know, high grade magic herbs have less impurity than the low grade ones. Distilling to a fourth time was the maximum he could do, not because his soul power was not enough, but more like this was the limit of the herb. Even if he tried once more he wouldn’t be able to take anymore impurities out.
But You XiaoMo had yet to try those low grade ones, so he couldn’t predict how many times he could distill them.
As time pass, the first turn's contestants seemed to had finished their test. Their face were slightly pale, which obviously indicated their soul power was severely reduced, but almost all the faces show a satisfactory expression, only a few showed a dull face as if they had failed.
Four times was not too few or too much, but to a level 4 mages, if you couldn't even distill a low grade magic herb four times then your talent is only for show, no need to pity these people. Because some people, their actual level had not reached level 4 yet, they merely relied on some secret methods to force leveling. Since their foundation was unstable, through this distillation test their true level was shown.
When the time nearly ended, almost all the people had finished their part. Elder Guan Yong looked at them and said, “The time has ended, everyone please line up here for examining.”
Placed on the podium on the right hand side of Elder Guan Yong was a beautifully designed measurement device. This device not only could measure the purity of the distilled herb, but also could accurately measure the number of distillations, a very suitable item for this test. This device was precisely made by an unknown blacksmith, although it was widely used nowadays, no one knew the name of that black smith.
People started stepping up after being told, five people at a time. So it didn’t take too much time to finish examining all.
Most people can distilled 4 times, only a few could distil 5 or 6 times, which was a very good result. But there also someone tried "to fish in troubled water” ( t/n: to take advantage of the situation for personal gain), they obviously only done 3 times and thought that they could fool the daoshi, but the device still accurately pointed out the true result.
Those who failed left the assessment hall with a depressed expression, since staying here only made them lose more face. There were also some who chose to stay back to observe, because the geniuses of the big four family still hadn’t taken the test yet.
"The second turn will start now, the rest of you who haven't taken the test please come up." Elder Guan Yong said. There were only less than ninety contestants, and half of them had already took the first turn, so this would be last turn for the rest of the contestant. When he said this, elder Guan Yong also intentionally looked at the genius of the big four family. He had a high expectations of them. Three years ago their older siblings had magnificently shined through all the other people. He couldn't wait to see how this year’s potential students would do, since those people were the future pillars of the city.
You XiaoMo took a deep breath. Finally his turn had come. He randomly picked a platform nearby, but then suddenly a blue shadow appeared next to him. This shadow directly picked the platform on his left side. When You XiaoMo turned around to see, he couldn’t help but be stunned, It was BaiLi XiaoYu again, this guy ignored all the other spots and directly ran here to this remote corner.
Seeing You XiaoMo look at him, BaiLi Xiao Yu grinned back, revealing a row of bright white teeth.
You XiaoMo averted his eyes to avoid turning blind by those sparkling teeth. It was obvious that BaiLi XiaoYu came for him since BaiLi XiaoYu didn’t look like the type to prefer to take the test in the corner. Moreover, that guy kept smiling at him so brightly, You XiaoMo couldn’t figure out what this guy wanted.
BaiLi XIaoYu's action had attracted a lot of attention their way. But the person who came next was even more shocking.
That person was Tong YueXu, his 'tender like water' temperament had always given him lots of supporters, more than anyone else. Whispers started breaking out when people saw him walking toward You XiaoMo's direction. But Tong Yue Xu seemed to ignore them, he stood in front of the surprised You XiaoMo and gave a nod, then gently smiled, “My name is Tong YueXu, I'm sorry for XiaoYu troubling you.”
For someone to deliberately chose this corner spot, clearly indicated the person didn't want to stand out.
You XiaoMo embarrassedly said, “I’m You XiaoMo, to know you … I’m very………..happy.” Actually you also gave me huge issue.
BaiLi XiaoYu didn’t want to be left behind, he ignored Tong YueXu words and rapidly pointed at himself as his eyes shined, “My name is BaiLi XiaoYu.”
You XiaoMo couldn’t think of any words to say to this guy, “Yeah, I know you.”
Standing diagonally opposite to them was Chai Jun, who was looking at them talking and laughing with a grim face. Tong YueXu and BaiLi XiaoYu initiated talking to You XiaoMo, this shocked him a big time. But then when Chai Jun looked at Teng ZiXin standing not far from here, he felt fortunate that Tend ZiXin gave no intention to dally with You XiaoMo, or else in the future when he wanted to take revenge on You XiaoMo, he would also need to aware of Teng ZiXin.
After everyone had settled down, elder Guan Yong finally raised his hand and announced, “Everyone on their podium, the exam starts now!”