“Waahh~~~” Cries of surprise rang out as the candidates were thrown off the birds when they sky dived with incredible speed. They retracted their huge wings and aligned their sharp beaks perpendicular to the ground. The rush of wind and the build of the birds created a phenomenon that made the bodies of the birds start revolving. The candidates could never have guessed that a situation like this could have happened and they were all taken by surprise as they lost their holds on the birds.

The gravity got hold of them and they were plummeting towards the ground. At this height, if they landed on the ground, even if they were cultivators with inhuman strength and resilience, they would be dead instantly and without doubt.

Azalon’s heart jumped into his throat as he was taken by surprise too, but the first thought that came to his mind was not his safety but that of that little girl who came with him.

Nina was just 8 years old and she could never have faced such situations at this stage. his head turned left and right but he couldn’t see that small figure anywhere.

He finally reacted and revolved his Spirit Energy. Since he had been concentrating on the Purple Energy these few days, he unknowingly circulated the Purple Energy without thinking about it. When the Purple Energy revolved in his meridians, Azalon’s body felt like feather in the air. His nervous system became hyper active and his muscle – mind co – ordination felt like an instinct to him! Even before he registered his thoughts, his body acted.

He flipped his body in mid – air and concentrated the Purple Spirit Energy in his legs.

[Ghostly Illusion Flash]!

The technique was not as effective as it would have been on solid ground, but with the influence of the Purple Spirit Energy and his heightened muscle movements, he managed to take a step forward and the Spirit Energy burst out his foot propelling him towards the bird.

His hand flew out clutching onto the feathers of the bird.His other hand tightly held on to the gray tiger cub that was still sleeping in his arms! Azalon didn’t have the time to think about what happened as his entire concentration was on not loosing the grip on the bird.

But not everyone were as lucky or alert as Azalon had been. Many lost their holdings on the bird and went into free fall.

It was chaos in the skies! Cries of anguish, prayers for mercy and some even sobbing for their parents! It was a cacophony of human cries, Roars of Spirits, bird cries but the whooshing of air in his ears blocked out every other sound. Azalon understood what the words of that voice he heard before all this happened.

Preliminary Test!

An examination of sort to test the spontaneous reactions of the Candidates!

Only if you possess certain levels of reaction speed could pass this test!

Reaction speed may not seem very important when compared with strength, but any one who possess this quality could swim through dangerous situations and come out alive! Even if you have massive strength, if you cant react to a situation, you may or may not come out unscathed!

And that factor decided as the qualification to pass this trial. There were almost one – third of the total candidates in Azalon’s party that were loose and falling from the skies. But before they could kiss the Earth and reach her lap to rest forever, a series of lights flashed from above as the Elders who were watching from high up in the air flew down and caught the candidates.

After a moment, the wings of the birds spread open and landed lightly catching the wind. Azalon dropped down with shaking legs and pounding heart. His entire body was covered in sweat that drenched his clothes. Fortunately he had reacted fast enough, otherwise… Thinking till there Azalon’s body shuddered once. He looked around and saw the candidates who had fallen from the birds all huddled down in fright. Some of the boys and girls were wailing and some were tearing up in gratitude and grateful that they were still alive.

Azalon could relate with them. No matter if they are Cultivators or not, in the face of death everyone has to shit their pants. If not, there is definitely something wrong with their brains.

No one, absolutely no one, even when their hearts are rocks or even if they danced on the blade between the life – and – death numerous times, they sub – consciously still fear death. Even a cold – blooded killer would flinch when a knife would be placed on their necks, even if the one holding the knife was his own mother! That is the nature of Life itself! Life in whatever form it may manifest strives to preserve itself. If it couldn’t preserve itself, it will do its utmost to pass its knowledge on to its descendant! That was how Life first came into existence!

These countless strands of information passed down for who knows how many generations finally created a single strand of DNA. These strands of DNA combined to form a cell, the cells an organism, organisms a more complicated organism and the cycle repeats!

And not to say these were still children in a sense. They came here in hopes of becoming a student of the Academies and bring honor and glory back home. But this incident completely shook them.

The Elders quickly gathered all the candidates that fell off from the birds to form a group and those who managed to stay on them another. The white birds formed another group at a distance.

“That was the Preliminary test for the candidates attending the Academy Selections. As some among you guessed, this test supposedly tests your reaction speed and adaptability to a dangerous situation. Don’t even think that this kind of test is unfair or something. When you are in the middle of a battle, your opponent will use all kinds of tricks to fool you and create an opening. If you can’t react fast enough, you will only be handing over your life to your opponent!” A middle aged man spoke sternly to all of them especially the last sentences that were directed to the group who failed in the test and were trying to raise an objection.

“Now, these candidates are no longer qualified to participate in the Academy Selections. As for your group, Elder Po, you have the points they attained?” Azalon found the thin and tall Elder Po who had come to Blue Wind City. He didn’t see this one or the other fat one after two days of flying when the other groups started joining theirs.

“The points will be ranging between 10 to 1, 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. We have decided 4 as the threshold for qualification and those who got less than 4 points would be disqualified.” Elder Po was different from when Azalon seen him in the Blue Wind City. Right now, he was the Invigilator of the examination and this was not the place to show his kind nature.”The points will be decided based on your reaction time, time you took to stabilize yourselves and similar other observations.”

“I will call out your names and your points. Remember them both as you will need them both if you manage to pass this examination.”

“One, Jun Li, [Black Panther] Spirit, 2 points, disqualified!”

“Two, Mano, [Gray Swallow] Spirit, 3 Points, disqualified!”

“Three, … … disqualified!”

“Four, … … disqualified!”

…

…

“Number Eighteen, Kazan Hin, [Green Venom Spider] Spirit, 5 Points, Qualified!” Finally someone who passed the Preliminary test!

Everyone turned towards a youngster who was around 13 years old walk forward. A sickly thick green Spider walked beside him and there was a group behind him who were cheering his name loudly.

Azalon could guess how he passed this test by looking at his Spirit. He should have used the web spun by the Spider as a foot hold or a rope and managed to reach the bird.

…

…

“Twenty Three, Hari Reran, [Snow Wolf] Spirit, 5 Points, Qualified!” Azalon heard a familiar name and looked at the 15 year old boy jump forward with his [Snow Wolf] Spirit close at his heels. He looked excited but the slight trembling of his knees and the face full of sweat told Azalon that he was barely holding on!And it looked like finally their turn as the next name was his cousin. “Twenty Five, Sophie Wheld, [Ice Lotus] Spirit, 4 Points, Qualified!”

“Azalon Wheld, [Golden Eyed Gray Tiger] Spirit, 4 Points, Qualified!” Azalon sighed in relief that he passed the test albeit with just – pass marks!

The names quickly rolled by and Azalon did a head count of the three groups. His batch had around 200 – 250 candidates and now they were all sorted into three groups based on their performances in the Preliminary Test.

The first group were the failed candidates that fell down from the birds. There were 48 people in that group. The second group with 97 people were the ones who managed to keep their grip on the birds while falling but couldn’t react fast enough for the Invigilators’ standards.

And the final group was Azalon’s group who passed the test! There were only a pathetic 62 people in this group from the original batch of 250 people! And this was only the Preliminary Test!

“Even the most difficult tests on Earth didn’t have this high set of standards for their examinations!” Azalon thought bitterly and sighed in his heart. He was nervous right now about how he would perform in the remaining examinations. And they were sure to be at least as difficult as this Preliminary Test had been!

“Now, you all managed to qualify in this Preliminary Test and you can take part in the Academy Selections. Follow this Elder and he will take you to the testing arena. As for you people, wait till the Academy Selections finish and you will be returned to your home cities. You can enter the testing arena and watch the Selection Examinations in the arena as a visitor.” Elder Po pointed to a middle – aged Elder standing beside him and spoke to Azalon’s group. He quickly left some instructions for those two groups and flew onto a white bird. He shouted a word loudly and all the white birds flapped their wings and rose into the sky and flew away to who knows where.

“Come this way!” That middle – aged man spoke and turned and quickly started walking. The 60 candidates hurried behind him afraid that they would be left behind.

Azalon was in the middle of the group and following the Elder silently. He was currently nervous and scared in his heart. In the three groups he hadn’t seen Nina. It’s like she had disappeared all of a sudden. He started having an ominous premonition in his heart!

“Congratulations.” A soft voice spoke behind Azalon startling him from his thoughts. He quickly turned around and laid his eyes on the charming face of Sophie.

“Ah, Congratulations to you too!” His voice was slightly tight projecting his nervousness.

“This boy looks like he doesn’t have confidence in himself about passing the Selections.” Sophie misunderstood the nervousness Azalon was feeling for Nina as his feeling for the Academy Selections. “Don’t worry. Everything will be alright. You don’t have to worry about it too much.” She tried to encourage him. All in all, they were from the same family, so even if they were fighting each other in the family, when they were outside they had to support each other!

“… …” Azalon blankly stared at Sophie’s words. Could she hear what he was thinking in his mind? But before he could understand why she spoke those words, they came to the foot of one of the mountains in the mountain chain that surrounded the Seven Profound Martial Grounds.The mountains were tall and majestic. Their peaks pierced through the cloud lines and were not visible to the people standing at its base at all! They were like an insignificant beings in the presence of this mountain that stood there for countless thousands of years and still standing proudly without bending its neck to the violent forces of Nature that attacked it day and night unceasingly!

The Elder stood still facing the mountain but his hands started glowing brightly as he circulated his Spirit Energy onto his hands. The candidates that were following him didn’t dare make a single sound and were all watching silently.

“High Energy Radiation detected, Master. Collecting the sensor data. Please don’t move around, Master. The sensors are integrated into your sensory organs inputs. Try to concentrate on the source of the Energy!” LILY issued some instructions for Azalon to follow and Azalon stopped moving and concentrated his senses on the Elder’s hands that were covered with thick Spirit Energy.

The Elder slowly lifted his hands but his fingers were making some movements so fast that they appeared to be a blur. A weird symbol after symbol flew out from the hands of the Elder and started floating before him. The Elder softly clapped his fingers and the tens of symbols arranged themselves into a huge formation! The candidates that were watching all this with awestruck expressions immediately felt their chests tighten under the pressure emanating from the symbol formation! The Elder bit his thumb and waved his hand. A drop of blood dripped onto the symbol formation floating before him and the entire formation started buzzing the moment the drop of blood touched the formation!

The Elder waved his hand once again and the entire symbol formation flew towards the mountain slope and slammed into it a particular location.

Azalon couldn’t understand what those symbols were just by seeing them, but he recognized the Energy Signature within the symbol formation as a whole. This symbol formation was of the same function as the symbol formation that was on the rock that was used as the door for the cavern where he met that Asma!

These symbols were somehow linked to form a unlocking pattern that would open or close something based on the specifications set within them! But Azalon could feel something different with the symbols formed by this Elder. When compared with the cluster of symbols on the rock of the cavern, these symbols appeared to be somewhat lackluster and crude!

Crack! Crack!

A small crack appeared at the place where the symbol formation met the slope of the mountain. The small crack started spreading and it spread and spread. The crack spread from the base of the mountain and ran through the entire slope of the mountain all the way up to the top before disappearing into the cover of the silver clouds.

A rumbling sound rang out from the mountain and the ground started shaking violently. The candidates were all struggling to stand under those massive tremors. The crack that ran through the entire mountain now started widening as the two halves of the mountain that were separated by the crack moved to either side revealing a small pathway that was behind it!

Azalon was dumbstruck when he saw the scene unfolding before his eyes. “Now, that’s some bad ass security gate!” That incredulous scene made not only him but the other candidates as well, especially those who were like Azalon that came from some remote corners of the Kingdom!

“Now, let’s go in and it will be time for the First Test of the Academy Selections this time!” That Elder slightly smiled as he saw the foolish expressions on the faces of these children and stared walking towards the revealed path. “Make Haste! If you don’t come before twenty breaths then the gate will close and it will be taken as you relinquishing your candidate spot!” The warning jolted all those to wake and rush to follow the Elder.

“… …” But what they saw at the end of the pathway once again made their minds to become muddleheaded and their jaws dropped to the ground and their eyeballs almost popped out of their eye sockets!

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