Hearing the bell, I place my exam papers to the side.
"Time sure flies when your trying to uncover conspiracies" chuckling to myself, I await the order to stand.
Soon several examiners can be seen going down the rows while collecting the papers. It doesn't take long before they are collected, ordered and stored safely.
The exams are extremely strict in handling the papers.
Soon, our entire group is ordered over to the middle of the training field. Standing next to Callum we begin whispering as we ask one another what do you think of the test.
Not only we, everyone is murmuring quietly.
"Quiet down" The bald, bearded man says.
Seeing everyone become silent, he claps his hands together. 200 people appear from the training field stands as they wait in silence.
"You've completed the first part of the scholar exam, but now we are onto the second part"
"The second part is a practical exam, whats the use of theory if you cant put it into practice?" here he looks at everyone.
"For this exam your going to choose someone from these cultivators and your going to direct them in understanding the Dao"
"They've all been checked so no cheating can be applied here, you will have three hours to try to improve their martial arts"
"Alright, enough talk"
"Begin!" Lazily stretching, the middle aged bald man walks off to the side before laying down on a wooden bench, a paper covering his eyes as he dozes off.
Hearing the command, everyone rushes to choose their partner, they ask questions and try to find the ones with the best comprehension.
Very soon all of the guest cultivators have been chosen, only leaving a few weak and pale cultivators standing, they are the ones who seemed to have their potential run dry.
Those who have yet to pair up can only curse, but who said this would be fair?
Not minding it, I walk up and see one man who seems to be around twenty five, he's 2 meters tall, while he carries a 2-handed great sword on his back, the only problem is, his foundation seems damaged.
"Hello, Would you mind if I were to be your partner for today?" greeting him, I ask his opinion.
He seems to be in a bad mood, as he just shrugs.
"Sure, but you shouldn't have chosen me, my condition is the worst here" Although hes in a bad mood, its perhaps due to his injury that hes stopped caring for opinions.
"No problem" shrugging, I ask what he cultivated in, as per the conditions for his entry as a guest, he has to show his cultivation technique to his partner.
Begrudgingly he hands over a cultivation manual, Earth type cultivation manual? Iron spike is its name.
Its a Low-Ranked Mortal skill but looking at its contents that shouldnt be so, it condenses saint force into spikes that covers him, giving him an armoured protection.
"This is an incomplete manual?" I ask, but more as an affimative answer.
"Yes, I found it in some old ruins, I knew the dangers but" sighing, he shakes his head in regret.
Cultivating incomplete manuals almost always end up damaging your foundation one way or another.
"Allow me to check your condition" I ask, He nods while putting out one arm.
Grabbing his right wrist, I sent saint force into it, covering his body. That's just a cover for my mental energy scanning him.
He's managed to cultivate to the 8th stage of Martial apprentice realm. Guessing from his attire and expression, he should be a mercenary.
Letting go of his wrist, I create a 3-D model of him infront of me. First and foremost I look straight at his Mind palace doorway, and its also locked, but what's surprising is its different than Callums, being Dark blue in colour.
Keeping a mental note, I ignore it for now.
I also check his talent, 15 Martial valves? still better than my own.
I begin simulating the cause of his damaged foundation while asking him to display the skill.
Watching, I see his entire body slowly get covered in matelic iron spikes, his face gets pale as he immediatelly stops.
"I feel my meridians are going to burst" He tries to detail what he feels.
After an hour I finally find out the cause of one of the manuals side effects, The manual he cultivated in has a corresponding sequence of acupoints thats needed.
The Dao side of things, theres no problem, he himself isnt bad and has managed to cultivate the Iron spikes to the basic stage.
The problem occured when he blindly followed the acupoints on the manual without realising that the last acupoint has been filled in at a later date by someone else.
This particular acupoint has the function of "Gatherer" meaning is gathers all saint force into it without releasing any of it.
This caused the saint force to gather into the last acupint, inflating it and its surrounding meridians, using the technique longer than a few seconds would literally make him implode.
You need to activate a "release" acupoint along side gatherer, this would allow the saint force to leave that particular acupoint.
Knowing the problem I can now work on a solution.
Its not difficult as I now know what I need to do due to my earlier research, I just need to find the correct acupoint to release the stored energy.
This will complete the cycle of the techniques acupoints.
Another hour passes by and I finally found the acupoint needed.
I insert saintforce into his body again, allowing him to feel the cycles of acupoints, feeling confident he copies my actions.
A few minutes later his pale expression brightens up, as he begins to get excited. Activating the technique he no longer feels pain, it feel comfortable.
"It worked, you actually fixed it" A joyful look emerges of his usual frowning face.
"May I know your name" embarressed, he looks at me with expectation.
"Lucas, Lucas Flynn" I laugh as I watch his expression.
"Sir Flynn, No, Master Flynn, please allow me to express my gratitude" here, he bows with an arm crossing his chest.
"Cough"
"No, need to be polite, the exam wasnt fixing the technique remember"
"Its allowing you to advance" I look at him, smiling.
"Ah, yeah right, but not to worry Master Flynn"
"I'm on the 6th step of the Iron spikes" patting his chest he looks proud.
"Oh, thats good!" gleeful, I might have picked a treasure.
The iron spikes is seperated into 12 levels.
1-3 levels are initial, 4-6 are basic, 7-9 are advanced and 10-12 is peak.
"The test is just to make someone advance in their technique, someone could be far away from advancing and some could be right on the edge"
"My lucks pretty good, an hour remaining, I can do this!" reassuring myself, I immmediately begin analyzing the Iron spikes technique and deducing its Dao.
It could now be considered a mid tier mortal technique, having spent half an hour I manage to grasp up to the 9th level.
Looking at the man before me, I realise I dont know his name.
"Whats your name again" with an apologetic look, I ask.
"Its Kruger Lin" he's gone back to his frowning expression I see, I can still see joy within his eyes, I guess thats just his personality.
"Alright, listen up, I'll begin explaining the seventh step" with that I begin narrating my own comprehension and analysis of the Iron spike.
To give him a more solid foundation, I start explaining from the first stage all the way through to the seventh.
Seeing Kruger still no where nearing advancement, I begin to panic a little.
"I wont make it" I realise this.
Subconsiously, a stream of mental energy gathers towards my voice as I speak. It fuses itself into the sound as it travels into Krugers ears.
At first Kruger was listening patiently with a puzzled look, but the moment the sound with mental energy enters his ears, he immediately becomes dazed as his expression turns from confusion into enlightenment.
Frowning, I feel a bit dizzy.
I quickly notice my mental energy draining at a fast rate, I watch as streams of it can be seen leaving my mind palace and get stunned.
"Whats this?" Looking at Kruger whos waking back up from his dazed condition, I fall into ponder.
"Uhh ah?" Looking around Kruger gets confused before rasing his brows.
Standing up straight, he gathers his saint force and explodes forth with brilliance, his technique breaks through from the 6th level, stepping into the 7th level.
He's managed to reach the advanced comprehension stage of Iron spikes technique.
"I can make people fall into an enlightened condition?" Seeing Kruger break through, this even gives me a shock.
"This, its pretty much a divine ability!" I don't have time to react as I hear the bell.
"Ding-Ding!" The bell rings signalling the end of the scholar exam.