After travelling for three days, aran reached Grassfel, the capital city of the Carwel.
Since the Phoenix magical academy was in the western region of the Grassfel, Aran had to travel through the capital to reach the academy. Although every Wilford, who arrives in the capital city, visits the central palace of the Wilford family, Aran just ignored it and continued his journey toward the academy.
On the western region of the Grassfel, there was a beast mountain called the Mooncliff mountain and the Phoenix academy was on the peak of that mountain. After travelling for another day, Aran finally reached Mooncliff mountain.
As aran reached the mountain frontier, he got off of his horse and stored it in his ring. He had to register his name to participate in the entrance examination. So he moved towards the Academy station which was outside the mountain.
As he was walking to the academy station, he saw there were hundreds of candidates waiting for the same thing. When he saw through their cultivation he realized every one of them was stronger than him.
As Aran was walking, everyone looked at him with contempt. Looking at his cultivation, they started to wonder why is he even participating because Aran was the weakest among them. Every one of them had broken through to the profound stage and aran was the only one there who was still in the intermediate stage.
Although there wasn't a cultivation level restriction to participate in the exam, Since the Pheonix academy was the most prestigious magical academy in the country, everyone used to wait until they get to the profound stage so that they can have a chance of entering the Academy. Because, out of all the hundreds of candidates who participate, only sixty candidates get selected for the combat division every year.
Although everyone looked at him with contempt, it was easier for aran to just ignore them since he had been doing that for years.
As he went to the academy station, he had to stand in a line and wait for a while since many others were registering their names. After waiting for a while, Aran went inside the station and gave all of his details and completed the registration, and got the token with the number five hundred and sixty-eight written on it.
After collecting his token, Aran left from there and went to the waiting arena and sat down there waiting for the start of the examination.
***
While Aran was waiting for the examination to start, he coincidentally saw both of his cousins, since they were also waiting.
One of them was Jason Wilford, a profound stage, first-tier, wind-water cultivator. The other was Emilia Wilford, a profound stage third-tier, wind-fire cultivator. They were twins and they were the same age as Aran.
When Jason accidentally saw aran, while looking around, he was shocked to see him there and soon started to get annoyed by him. Because Jason didn't want others to know that a weakling like aran is their cousin.
Jason felt like aran is spoiling the family's name by participating in the exam. When he tried to move towards aran to tell him to get lost, Emilia stopped him.
" Why are you stopping me? Can't you see that bastard there? Let me put him in his place!" Jason said. He not only wanted Aran to leave but he also seemed angry enough to fight him.
" What he does is not our business. Just let him participate. He will get lost after that !" She said calmly staring at Jason.
Although Jason wanted to directly confront aran, he knew how scary his sister was and Jason wasn't brave enough to go against her words, so he had to let it slide.
***
As everyone was waiting in the arena, for the exam to start, they started to hear an announcement saying that the exam is going to begin in half an hour and told all of them to go to their designated spots.
As Aran heard that, he looked around for his spot and found a spot with the same number as his token. So got up and walked towards there. As he got there, he stood in his spot just like everyone else. When all nine hundred and sixty-seven candidates stood in their spots, they were creating a circle, by standing around the mountain.
Soon, In the Academy station, one of the professors of the academy came forward and began to explain the rules of the entrance exam before the exam starts. Since aran had read a lot about the Phoenix academy and its customs and he was completely prepared, he knew exactly what they were going to announce.
" Welcome everyone! My name is Stirel, and I'm a professor at this academy. Today I will be the one who is in charge of the exam announcements.
Before you could start the exams, you must know the exact rules, to avoid confusion. So I am going to announce all the rules you have to follow in the exam, make sure you listen carefully.
* Soon I will use the flare shooter device to the sky and the exam will start as soon as I fire this.
* This is a survival exam and when I fire this flare shooter everyone should run towards the Academy through the mountain.
* You have to reach the Academy within three hours.
* In these three hours, you will have to travel thirteen miles in the mountain, without using any kind of artifacts or devices or horses and reach the Academy.
* There are thousands of mana beasts In the mountain up to the fifth rank and you will have to directly confront them and collect as many soul stones as possible.
* After reaching the Academy, you immediately have to submit the soul stones you have collected in a stone-submitting booth.
* When the exam is finished, You will earn points for the soul stones you have collected.
* The soul stones you collect will have the same points as the beast's rank and if the beast is in the mid or high tier, then the point of the soul stone will be multiplied by two for the mid-tier and three for the high tier.
* After counting the points you have earned, the top sixty participants, who get the most points will be selected as the combat division students of the Pheonix academy.
* Since fighting against other candidates in the mountain is restricted, anyone who will fight others will be disqualified.
* There are more than a thousand monitoring devices secretly placed inside the mountain and your every move will be monitored by hundreds of spectators.
* So if we find out that you have cheated in the exam by using any kind of artifacts or special weapons, you will not only get banned from taking part in the exams for life but you will also have to pay a thousand spirit stones for the rules violation.
* Anyone who wants to withdraw in the middle of the exam, can always withdraw by tearing up your token and you will immediately get help, So don't risk your life for no reason.
After explaining the rules, Professor Stirel activated the flare shooter. As the flare flew to the sky, instantly every one of the participants started to move and run into the mountain.