"I have a Mask but it's a feather one I once used for Academy's annual festival. Do you want it?" She asked in a vibrant tone as the black-haired beauty offered him.
"Can you let me see it first?" He said in a hesitant tone as the boy was worried it would be something girlish.
She brought out a cyan feather mask from her Spatial ring and handed it to Meng Long.
It was a cyan mask that didn't cover the whole face but only the eyes and forehead.
He took the beautiful feather mask from her hands and wore it on his handsome face.
The cyan feather mask covered his eyes and forehead while his lower face was exposed. There were three lengthy azure blue feathers pointing upwards from his left ear's side. It made him appear quite stylish.
The black-haired beauty was gazing at his masked face and said in a loving voice, "It makes you look mysterious and..."
Xue Rou paused mid-way and hesitated to say the complete sentence to him.
"And?" He asked while removing the mask and keeping it to the side.
'And It flutters my heart...'
She completed it in her mind as Xue Rou was coyish for daringly saying it to him.
"Nothing..." The black-haired beauty changed her answer and avoided telling him the answer.
She continued, "You should go get freshened up. I'll make breakfast for us then we can eat together."
Xue Rou went to cook for Meng Long and herself as they had come from the long journey.
She took a shower when the cooking was done. They ate together their morning meal while the black-haired beauty explained to him more about the upcoming test.
When it was about time, they left the white cottage house.
Meng had already put on his mask, covering his eyes and forehead.
Xue Rou led him to the two-story building of the inner court's teaching department.
They went to the first floor where a big hall was present. There were several spirit appraisal crystal balls on the rack along with some black small boxes.
A desk was at the end of the hall with a spherical ball to the side that looked bigger than the Spirit Apprai Crystal one.
An old man was sitting behind the desk, working on a register as If doing some important work. He was brawny with gray hair and gave an aura of a fierce warrior.
When he saw Xue Rou and Meng Long entering the hall he raised his eyebrows and asked.
"Is he the person you were talking about? Does he want to take the test" Elder asked with intriguing eyes.
He thought inwardly, "Why does he need a mask with that lower spirit energy rank."
"Yes, Elder Lin" Xue Rou responded in a respectful manner.
"Young Boy, you're quite lucky, the ice queen of the inner court personally brought you here. I don't see her vibrant face often. I don't know the reason but let's get to the main topic as the trials would be starting soon.
I wouldn't allow someone to join the trial and take the test on the same day but I'm making an exception for her. Hope you don't disappoint me and have a bad talent like your spirit energy rank." Elder Lin said while observing the young boy's expression in front of him.
Meng kept his calm demeanor and didn't react when the old man told him about his spirit energy. He knew it was hard for him to conceal his spirit energy rank from such high-level rankers as of right now.
"Hoping not to get disappointed by the person who was once at the peak of this world. That fool doesn't know how high is the heaven." A soft melodious voice sounded in Meng Long's mind.
"Yuena...why are you playing hide and seek?" Meng Long asked her in a complaining voice in his thoughts.
"Do you miss this Yuena?" She said in a sorrowful voice.
"Are you taking revenge for the past? Why wouldn't I miss my old friend?" He responded in a nonchalant voice in his thoughts.
"It's heart-aching how you only call me an old friend..." Her downcast voice was heard in his mind which was filled with a little mischievousness.
'Ah...these women...First Cang Xue now her...'
Meng Long gave up on soothing her bitterness now as he had to take the inner court's entrance test first.
Elder Lin brought out another artifact and put it in front of the large Spirit Appraisal Crystal Ball.
As he placed it there, a white light shone between them and a transparent glowing thread in blue could be seen between them.
It was a cubical board with a screen-like structure on top which was bright white.
"This is the Spirit Grading artifact we use at the academy. Even in case, your spirit is at blue Tier I'll let you enter the inner court as long as it comes in the top 500 among the spirits of all students who studied here in the past hundreds of years." He said in a proud voice.
Elder Lin wasn't expecting much from Meng Long after inspecting his spirit energy rank but he didn't want to sadden the Black-haired beauty as she was the direct disciple of the Supreme elder.
He also hadn't seen the girl's face this lively before so the elder brought out a spirit grading artifact used by the academy to rank their students' spirits.
"Put your hands above this Spirit Appraisal Crystal Ball as it will test your spirit ranks, this spirit grading artifact would tell me the ranking of your spirit at the academy," Elder responded.
Meng long put his hands above the spherical ball and close his eyes to focus on his Sleepy Nova spirit to inject spirit energy.
A golden light flickered that was hidden from others as it happened right below his palm touching the crystal ball's surface.
The inside of the spherical ball started swirling with white light, that kept spinning and made Elder Lin frown at this strange phenomenon.
The swirling white light changed its color and became crimson as blood.
'Wasn't it Violet? How has his spirit become Red in this Spirit appraisal crystal ball? '
Xue Rou's face darkened seeing this outcome, losing all its color. Previously, she was happy for her little Meng Long to have Violet grade spirit but this outcome brought sadness to her.
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Edited By: TheWhiteSnow