In a little over eight hours, the annual testing day for Five Academy had officially come to an end. Black uniformed students begin to lock up the gate and pack up the testing station tents when they have finished their preassigned duties.
"Alright." The woman that was in charge of the newly enrolled students spoke up. "This is about everyone. I haven't introduced myself yet have I?"
The woman gave a little wave to the freshmen students and said while smiling, "I'm Li Fei Qin, starting now I'll be considered as your senior sister so you may call me Senior Li."
While waiting for the testing to end, Mo Yin had quietly sat off in a corner. Her eyes had been closed and she appeared to be sleeping but when she heard Li Fei Qin speak, she immediately opened her eyes to listen.
"Since you guys are new, I'll have to do some explaining on how things work. First of all, I would like to welcome the five hundred and third generation of our Five Year Institute. Everyone here at the institute belongs to a year and the people that enrolled at the same time as each other are automatically put into the same year. All of you here belong to Year 503 because you are the five hundred and third generation of our institute. As your senior, I was part of Year 493 and have already completed the five-year training of the school as well of the training expedition that comes afterward."
Li Fei Qin then pointed towards herself, "As you can see, although I have technically graduated from the institute, I'm still wearing the student uniform. That's because I have chosen to stay behind at the institute rather than leave. I didn't leave and I also didn't become an official teacher of the institute so all in all, my status as a student still remains."
"Within each year group, there will be a ranking system. Your rank is a representation of your capabilities compared to your peers'. The higher you are up the rank, the more outstanding you are. Top rankers are given certain beneficial privileges while constant bottom rankers will be at risk of being expelled from the institute. Let me give a word of advice-- rise in the rank like your life depends on it or prepare for hell during your stay here."
Li Fei Qin can personally affirm the words that she had just said. When she first entered the institute, she had placed around the mid ranks. She had originally thought that placing in the middle wasn't considered bad but she was wrong, wrong, wrong. Other than the top five rankers, all hell broke loose upon the other students.
Li Fei Qin still shuddered involuntarily when thinking back upon her days as a new student. She had really thought that she was going to die multiple times. However, the tense environment had given her a sense of urgency to become stronger and it constantly pushed her to the brink of her limits.
By her fifth year at the institute, she had managed to rise from a mid ranker to being the number two of the entire Year 493. It was the proudest moment of her life and also one of the happiest. It is a blessed thing to be able to sleep peacefully at night.
Li Fei Qin couldn't help but laugh gleefully on the inside. Heh, it was finally her turn to watch from the sideline. These poor newcomers have no idea what was in store for them but she was going to watch and enjoy it with a laugh!
"Once you enter the institute, all of you will be given a week's period to settle in. This period of time is given so that the newly awakened ability users can adapt to their ability. Some of you here have already awakened your ability for quite some time already and don't need this period of adjustment so just take it easy and do whatever you want as long as it doesn't violate the institute's rules. After the week is over, we will begin the events that will ultimately decide your starting rank."
"For those of you that don't want to wait out this one week's period, the institute offers a special condition for those who are confident in your abilities. Our institute has a special training tower called Uroborus Tower and it has 1,999 floors. The first one thousand floors were created by the founders of our institute and the other 999 floors were made by other exceptional talents that were once students of our Five Year Institute. Each floor has a unique challenge that is set to the maximum difficulty level from the start."
Li Fei Qin held up three fingers and said, "If any of you can pass three floors of Uroborus Tower on the first day then you will automatically be placed first in rank. The institute will also grant you a request that is within the school's ability."
The crowded perked up at the words 'first in rank' and 'grant you a request'. They were ready to roll up their sleeves and charge into the tower but Li Fei Qin wasn't done talking yet.
"Ahem, I have to make a few things clear before letting you into the tower. Each floor of Uroborus Tower is extremely difficult not to mention dangerous. Even the seasoned teachers of our institute wouldn't recklessly challenge the tower. Be warned, the people that made the tower floors, they were all geniuses of their time. Treat this like a child's play and you will die miserably in there."
"With that being said, I have some disclaimers to point out."
"Five Year institute is not responsible for any deaths that occur inside the tower. You either choose to go inside out of your own accord or you don't. No one's forcing you."
"Five Year institute is also not responsible for any injuries that happen to you during your stay inside of the tower. Do not attempt to sue the institute or ask for compensation fee because one, it won't work and two we won't give you a penny anyway so you're wasting your time."
Li Fei Qin smiled brightly, "Okay? Got it? Then raise your hand if you want to enter the tower!"
The crowd went silent. Who would want to go after listening to you say all that? What if they actually die in the tower? What if they lost an arm or a leg? Most of them weren't that confident in their abilities anyway and wasn't willing to unnecessarily bet their life for a bit of benefit.
Mo Yin, on the other hand, had pretty much decided that she was going to take on the special condition from the moment it was mentioned. She wasn't here to slowly grind up her strength so she doesn't plan to do things step by step. If possible, please just let her ascend straight to heaven so she could then place Shen Xiaotong onto the heavenly throne and be done with the mission.
When Li Fei Qin asked who wanted to enter Uroboros Tower, Mo Yin raised her hands without hesitation.
Li Fei Qin looked surprised, "Oh? We actually have a challenger?"
The crowd parted to reveal a small little girl who lugged a suitcase behind her.
Li Fei Qin raised an eyebrow at Mo Yin.
"Little girl, are you sure you want to challenge that tower? From the looks of it, you're pretty young and should be one of those people that had just awakened their ability today right? You should take the one week period to understand your ability better. You're young and the road ahead of you is still long, don't ruin your future in a moment of impulse ah."
Mo Yin smiled politely at Li Fei Qin and said, "Thank you for your concern Senior Li but I have already made my decision."
Her tone was firm, expressing her stance clearly.
Li Fei Qin shrugged her shoulders, "Suit yourself."
She looked around and called out to someone.
"Liam!"
From the distance, a man that had been leaning against the gate wall turned his head. It was the red-haired young man that had acted as the announcer at the start of the testing.
Hearing Li Fei Qin's call for him, he jogged over and looked at her quizzingly.
"You need me?"
Li Fei Qin motioned towards Mo Yin. "This girl wants to challenge the tower. I'll have to trouble you to take her there, I need to take the rest of the new students back to the dorms."
Liam looked at Mo Yin up and down.
"You sure? Her?"
Met with Liam's doubting gaze, Li Fei Qin once again shrugged her shoulders.
"They got their choice, can't stop them." Li Fei Qin also had a feeling that this girl wasn't as simple as she seems. She knew the dangers of the tower but still insisted on going so she must have a few tricks up her sleeve.
Li Fei Qin knew from experience to never underestimate someone just because they were young.
"Alright then." Liam glanced at Mo Yin. "Come along."
Mo Yin parted ways with Li Fei Qin's group and followed after the red-haired young man. They headed to the west of the grass field while Li Fei Qin and her group headed north. As Mo Yin walked by the group of new students, she received a lot of curious stares. Some even silently lit a candle for her in their heart.
"Hurry up. So slow." Liam saw that she was slightly lagging behind and revealed a displeased expression.
"..." Sorry that my legs are half as short as yours. They can only cover half the distance.
It can't be helped so Mo Yin increased her walking speed to a near sprint.
After about half an hour or so of walking, they reached a spot that was marked by a big piece of rock. An array was drawn not far away from where the rock was. Mo Yin took a glance and saw that the array drawn onto the ground was a teleportation array. It should lead to where the Uroborus Tower is.
Liam soon confirmed her thoughts.
"We're here. The entrance of the Uroborus Tower can be reached through this teleportation array."
Liam fished something out of his uniform pocket and tossed it to Mo Yin. Mo Yin caught it in midair and looked to see what it was.
In her hand was a small piece of jade that has been cut and polished into a rectangular shape. The words 'Tower Pass' pass was carved onto the jade in a vertical line.
"This is a special pass that had been issued especially for any challengers who wanted to challenge the tower today. After you enter the tower, should you either pass all three floors or exceed the preset time limit, you will be transported out of the tower immediately. The time limit for this jade pass is six hours."
Explaining up to here, Liam lowered his head to look at Mo Yin seriously.
"There is no way to teleport out before the six hours is up if you can not clear all three floors. Are you absolutely certain that you want to do this?"
Mo Yin had already decided so there was nothing to think about, "I'm sure."
Liam nodded, "Step onto the array with the pass then. It will teleport you directly to the tower."
Mo Yin stepped onto the array. As soon as her entire body was on the array, it began to flash a white light. Mo Yin felt the slight pressure of space being distorted and the next second she was no longer standing in the grass field. Her new surrounding was a narrow tunnel with no entrance. There was nowhere to walk back towards and on both sides of her were enclosed walls, the only direction that she could choose to move in was frontward.
The tunnel in front of her was dimly lit by an unknown source. Mo Yin couldn't see the end of the tunnel, it seems to stretch on forever into the darkness.
Every floor has its own unique design and challenges. What did this floor do?
Mo Yin didn't know yet and didn't want to move rashly so she waited for a while. However, even after waiting for a long time nothing happened.
Is this a floor designed to test someone's patience or something?
But that shouldn't be it since there was a time limit on the challenge.
Mo Yin couldn't very well stay in this narrow tunnel until six hours were up. Since nothing was happening, she will take the initiative to make something happen.
Mo Yin tentatively took a step forward. She was suddenly quite glad that her current body was a small child. The tunnel was so low and narrow that if she was any taller, she'll have to crawl on her knees instead of walking.
Mo Yin was curious. Does this floor change to adjust to everyone's body size?
Shing.
Mo Yin had barely walked two steps forward when a ringing metallic noise sounded near her ear. Reflexively, Mo Yin fell backward a couple of inches to avoid the incoming object.
Schunk.
A metal needle stabbed deep into the side of the wall. Had she not dodge in time, that needle would have ended up in her head.