After Yu Qingsu and Yu Ling were accepted into the Ziwei Academy, many other prospective students tested out their abilities and were accepted into various academies. Some had the luck of getting into the top schools while some… were not so lucky. Of course luck played a very little part in who had a higher score according to the drums, after all the drums measured talent not luck!
Some popular names walked up to the stage and one had even almost activated the ninth drum. The one who had accomplished this feat was a young man by the name of Wen Qinglan. He dawned dark green robes and had an aura that seemed to be full of life which followed him around wherever he went. He wasn't particularly strong or adept in martial arts. Instead, he was rather skinny but his face was like sculpted jade. However, to everyone's surprise, he had reached such a high evaluation! In the end, he also joined the Emperor star (Ziwei) Academy.
"Zhou Xinqiu from the Zhou Sect, please come up to the stage!" The fat announcer called out.
"Haha! Finally its my turn" Zhou Xinqiu stood up and smiled at the others in their group while walking up to the stage.
"Xinqiu" a voice called out in her head.
"yes grandmaster" Zhou Xinqiu thought as she heard the voice.
"This drum array is quite weak. It will not be able to contain your talent as a pure blood demon of this quality. I suggest you hold back as much as possible so that those old men don't get suspicious and start poking around." Qin Gong warned.
"Aren't you old too?"
"Aiya! That's besides the point!" Qin gong's jaw fell to the floor.
"I'm joking! I'm joking! Don't worry, I understand. I'll just use enough to get a reaction from it." Zhou Xinqiu conversed with him using her thoughts.
She then reached the final step of the stairs as she too felt a weird feeling that people were looking through all her secrets. Luckily, since she had been using the qi concealment technique, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. She sat cross legged onto the mat and looked up at the fat man.
"You may continue" The fat man smiled. All the other envoys focused in on the drums as they waited for the test to commence.
"Ahh, this really is quite nerve wracking haha" Zhou Xinqiu thought while she took in a deep breath and exhaled all of her nervous thoughts away. She reached out her hand above the central drum and closed her eyes.
"WHAT?!?!? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?" The audience was full of disbelief and the envoys also had all their eyebrows furrowed.
'Tss' with one singular spark from her index finger, all nine drums rang out louder than any had before her. Not only that, but they had all rang out simultaneously. Zhou Xinqiu shuddered and tried to stand up as the ground started shaking.
Her pupils turned to the size of pin needles and she began to sweat all over. She tried to remove her hand from the area above the drum but it seemed to be almost paralyzed in that location. One can only imagine what happened next as she began to panic and lose control of her body in that situation. A burst of fire energy exploded out of her hand onto the central drum as she finally freed her hand from the array. As she stepped out of the radius of the array, all drums had not only rang out again but also exploded completely. Even the circular area around the array was fettered with giant cracks.
"Oh well-" Qin Gong muttered in shock.
"It- it must be a malfunction.." Zhou Xinqiu choked on her own words while trying to explain herself. In fact, she also had no clue of her background and her talent. For all she knew, she was just a regular girl for the past decade and a half. It was only a few months ago when she truly found out her identity. Even so, she had no idea what it meant or what it would entail for her future.
"Hmm it must be a malfunction indeed" Zi Wenshan squinted his eyes in deep thought.
The silence in the entire area had lasted for almost over 3 minutes before the royal yan envoy finally spoke. "The Royal Yan Academy extends an invitation to Zhou Xinqiu" The royal Yan envoy put on a deceiving smile. In his head, he had thought that although there was a high chance that the array had been destroyed due to a malfunction, there must have been some catalyst to cause it to just self destruct. What if this girl was that catalyst. In fact, almost everyone, envoys and audience included had this same thought.
"The Ziwei Academy extends its most formal invitation to Zhou Xinqiu including immediate core disciple status" Zi Wenshan's voice filled the silence with deep tone.
"Ah… Well I.. I guess-" Zhou Xinqiu finally opened her mouth to speak.
"The royal Yan Academy invites Zhou Xinqiu with its most grandest invitation of becoming a personal disciple of one of the pavilion lords." The envoy of the royal yan academy glanced at Zi wenshan before making the terms even greater.
"You really want to play?" Zi Wenshan walked out from his area in dominating form while emphasizing every following word, "The Ziwei Academy invites Zhou Xinqiu to be evaluated and taught by headmaster Ziwei." He stopped before smiling at the envoy from the royal yan academy, "The Ziwei academy will also close their eyes on any other talents who achieve the 8th drum or higher if the Royal Yan Academy revokes their offer."
"I accept" The Royal Yan envoy sat back onto his throne.
"Well- aha- I guess I will have to accept the Ziwei Academy's offer" Zhou Xinqiu answered and even let out a small laugh with an extremely confused expression.
"Welcome to Ziwei!" Zi Wenshan extended his hand out to Zhou Xinqiu and laughed out loud.