The journey to the school was a quiet one, Lin Chen naturally had nothing to say to Zhu Jiao who was deemed his rival. But after seeing Zhu Jiao shoving his face with the food the chefs prepared for them he eventually got agitated.
"Hey! We're supposed to share the food! Why are you shoving it in your mouth on your own!"
Lin Chen who couldn't hold it in anymore shouted at Zhu Jiao in anger.
"We have so much food! Why would you be worried about me finishing it all?"
Zhu Jiao replied with a mouth full of food not caring how he looked at all.
"We need to save some of the food for when we get into the academy. We won't be able to have such food after going there!"
Lin Chen replied angrily as his eyes shot lasers.
"HAHAHAHA, So your main concern is that you'll be homesick and miss home cooked food? HAHAHAHAHA! Have you not left home before?"
Zhu Jiao mockingly answered, while Lin Chen's face turned red ready to rebut him. Unfortunately, the conversation was cut short and they had finally arrived at the school.
Arriving at an open area where huge lines of people were queuing up to take the test waiting to enter the dragon gate. According to legends, carps that cross the dragon gate would become dragons and in this case, anyone who entered the Black Tiger school would become a cultivator signifying the transformation into the dragon.
Queueing up, Zhu Jiao scratched his head and turned to Lin Chen.
"So… Cultivation huh, what's the first stage again?"
"You had a week to learn about it! Other than testing your aptitude they're going to ask you questions about the different stages and what it signifies! What the heck have you been doing for the entire week!"
Lin Chen spoke agitatedly with a hush voice. He was dumbfounded that there would be someone so dense.
In Zhu Jiao's mind, memories of the past week flashed across his mind, images of him eating katsu, eating fried dough sticks, lying around, wandering around. He opened his mouth and answered confidently.
"I was busy with work."
Lin Chen shook his head before relenting telling him the different cultivation stages and what it signifies.
"Okay, fine… take note, the first stage is the body refinement. You will build a body strong enough to contain qi. Then comes qi gathering, where you gather the qi in the surroundings and focus it into your dantian."
"Alright, the dantian is here right?" Zhu Jiao pointed at his belly, which caused Lin Chen to do a facepalm.
"It's lower…" Lin Chen answered him, his patience wearing thin. He was wondering if he should continue answering his questions. It was without a doubt he'd just fail the written tests.
Unbeknownst to them behind them stood a hidden examiner listening in to the conversations. He shook his head after listening to the conversation, what a disgrace. It was obvious that this youngster was a wastrel who used his family influence to try to join the school.
Beside them anyone who heard the conversation had thought the exact same way.
After trying a few times to explain, Lin Chen gave up entirely and just ignored Zhu Jiao. Left to his own devices, Zhu Jiao started to look around and let his mind wander.
After being allocated a number they entered the dragon's gate, in front of them was a huge training square where everyone gathered excitedly waiting and wondering what will be happening next.
A middle aged man stepped up onto the stage and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. The man was shabby looking, he was unshaven and his robes had stains here and there. His eyes looked like he had lost all care in the world.
"Hello, I am Wu Xing Qu, I'm your overall in charge for today. Okay! We're switching it up a bit, we're going for the aptitude test first before the theory test. Usually we will let everyone take the test and test your theoretical knowledge, but honestly, why are you here if you can't cultivate right?"
Murmurs filled the grounds, as everyone started whispering to each other.
"What!? If we have no aptitude we'll fail immediately?"
"The other times we'd at least get a chance to be a servant disciple if we have knowledge are they taking away our chances this time?"
"I can't believe this, how would I go home to my family if I can't even clear the first stage!?"
Wu Xing Qu waited for the murmuring to die down before he started speaking again. For those wondering, because he is a cultivator he could use his qi to reinforce his voice to make it louder.
"This is how everything will work, so right now, what we will do is for everyone to test their body strengths, if they can clear the threshold, try to search for a wisp of qi in the air and if you can drive just 1 wisp of qi into your dantian you've passed.
Those who passed will be able to be an outer disciple immediately, those who want to try to become an inner disciple can try to take the theoretical test."
Lin Chen immediately turned to look at Zhu Jiao who was just standing there stretching.
"You… You lucked out! If you can clear the aptitude test you can immediately become an outer disciple."
"Oh! Then it's really lucky for me! Plot armor ftw. Alright let's go! We can't waste any time. Haha!" Zhu Jiao got excited as he pulled Lin Chen along.
"But, I don't know how you'll pull it off. You haven't trained your body at all in your life right? How are you so confident!?"
Lin Chen asked, he was legitimately concerned for his cousin. Not knowing if his cousin would be able to pull it off.
Zhu Jiao slapped his thigh and exclaimed loudly, "RIGHT! I forgot! Lin Dong… I mean I haven't trained at all previously."
He thought to himself. "I need to try to restrict my strength so I can be weak enough to clear through, but pass well enough to give a face slapping to everyone who laughs at me later. This is troublesome…."