CHAPTER 9: Haa, Maybe I'll have more success as a housekeeper after all.
.
Time passed, and the long line of people began to shorten even further.
Individuals continued to ascend the stage, and various scores continued to be announced.
With each person that took the stage, it felt like a dagger to Ethan's heart.
69
121
79
Each score comfortably surpassed the minimum threshold to pass the first test.
Ethan could tell that not everyone here had reached the first stage of body refinement, yet almost all of them had scored over 50 points.
At this point, he was certain that he would be the worst performer in this test.
Time passed, and after about an hour, it finally came to Ethan's turn.
"Haa, well, how bad could it possibly go," he muttered to himself as he took a deep breath and walked towards the wooden stage.
He ascended the stairs and finally stood before the dreaded measuring machine.
Without much thought, he assumed a somewhat hunched attack position and prepared to throw the strongest punch he could muster.
Swish
Extending his arm forward quickly, he aimed the punch at the pad.
TING
The machine's wheel started to spin.
From the speed of the wheel, it was evident that Ethan's score wouldn't be too high, but he still hoped it wouldn't be too low.
"Come on, let it be at least close to 50."
Unlike others, this time the wheel didn't spin for long. It began to slow down, and within a few breaths, it stopped completely.
21
"..."
Everyone who had gone before Ethan fell silent upon seeing this result.
No one expected someone to score so low today.
Even Cháng húzi, who could tell at a glance that Ethan was not yet a cultivator, was somewhat surprised by the result.
It would make sense if a 13 or 14-year-old without cultivation scored 21 points. But for someone nearing 20, scoring so low was surprising.
It was known that a normal person could easily score over 30 points, and a trained person could even surpass 50 points.
Once they became full-fledged cultivators, this score would surpass 100 points, so everyone was surprised to see such a low score.
Ethan, who didn't know this, could tell from the atmosphere that his score was worse than expected. Indeed, at that moment, a voice from the crowd rang out:
"21 points? Holy cow, even my little brother scored more than him," said a boy from the crowd.
"Goodness, one must have a certain talent to score so little," said another person.
"And here I thought he'd be stronger," muttered yet another.
And so a debate ensued in the crowd, each person presenting someone they believed could outperform Ethan in strength.
They went from cats to mice, and even ants.
Ethan had a grim expression at this moment as he kept his head down.
"Just wait until I get stronger, then I'll come for each of you," he thought inwardly, memorizing their faces.
The examiner, seeing the situation getting out of control, decided to interrupt them and continue the examination.
He didn't know how someone could score so low, but he hoped Ethan would make up for it in the next test.
"Ahem, ahem, alright, now that everyone has their score, let's move on to the next test," he said, wasting no time in leading everyone to another area, this time in front of the doors of a hall.
Stopping in front of the hall's doors, he said:
"As with the first test, which was meant to assess your current strength, in this test we will examine the meridians of your body.
As you know, our body has several meridians through which we gather energy from the surrounding environment and circulate it within our body."
The quality of these meridians, as well as how many of them you can effectively use, enhances a cultivator's chances of progressing quickly to the next stages.
Entering this hall, there will be someone evaluating your meridians by injecting Qi into them.
Depending on how well your meridians manage the Qi injected, you may proceed to the next test or not."
He said and wasted no time, as before, he brought everyone into the room one by one.
Ethan, who still didn't know much about cultivation, wondered how this would go for him.
If the first test depended entirely on his strength, passing this test would depend on his meridians.
From what he understood, a person was born with certain types of meridians, so he had little control over how well or poorly this test would go.
Time passed, and every three or four minutes, the door opened to let the next examinee in and closed.
Those who entered hadn't yet come out, so he couldn't tell if anyone had passed or not.
"I suppose everyone will pass this time too," he thought, but just then the door opened and a boy who had entered just three minutes ago came out.
From his gloomy expression, it seemed things hadn't gone well.
Ethan recognized that boy.
How could he not recognize him? After all, like him, the boy in the previous test had not reached the minimum requirement to pass.
Even though he hadn't passed, he had still done much better than Ethan, scoring a respectable 47.
Seeing that the boy was the only one to come out, Ethan deduced he had been eliminated from the test.
"So those who passed, or those who didn't pass but still have another chance, are being kept inside?" he wondered, thinking his guess was likely true.
Ethan wasn't sure how to feel about it.
He knew that just because the boy in a similar situation to his had been eliminated didn't mean the same fate awaited him.
But thinking about the fact that he wasn't originally from this world left him quite uneasy.
In his understanding, if Qi was indeed in the surrounding environment, then the people of this world had come into contact with it since birth, adapting their bodies accordingly.
For him, not being native to this world, his body shouldn't have been suitable for cultivation. Or at least that's what he thought, considering he had only heard about cultivation in novels.
"Haa, maybe I'm really destined to become a housekeeper."
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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:
Well, as usual, don't hesitate to leave comments/criticisms on the novel.
And while you're at it, also jot down some ideas about how the plot might develop in the future. a little healthy inspiration never hurts.