Scholarship

Liu Feng headed to class and sat down on his chair he had not been to class for almost 5 months now. His classmates were surprised to see him as they thought he dropped out.

Han Yau his class teacher came in and started taking attendance, “Liu Feng you are here? Where have you been for 5 months we all thought you dropped out or worse got yourself killed. Are you participating in the scholarship exam?”

“Yes, Mr. Han I will be in participating in the scholarship exam” Liu Feng replied.

“Okay just so you know this year’s scholarship exam will be very different as every student who registered in year 1 to year 4 will be participating. All those who are participating please follow me to the assembly hall.” Han Yau announced to the class.

Liu Feng followed all those who were participating, to the assembly hall. In his class alone almost 20 people are participating. “Why is this year’s scholarship exam different in almost as if the pillars who organize this seem to be in a rush for something,” Liu Feng thought to himself.

When he reached the assembly hall it was filled with a lot of people almost 400 people. After waiting for a while he saw the old man at the martial building show up on stage to the podium before he started speaking.

“Good morning students my name is Fu Chu as all of you all know I am the person in charge of the martial building but I also have another identity which is the principal of the school.”

Everyone in the hall was shocked.

“Alright alright settle down! Despite being the principal I wanted to be in charge of the martial building so that I could interact with the students and evaluate them. So I want you all to split into five groups since there are exactly 525 students who are participating. I will need each group to walk through the scanner so that we can determine your cultivation level and only the top 100 with the highest cultivation level can participate in the competition.”

The crowd went into chaos.

“Only 100 people can participate this seems odd” Liu Feng thought to himself.

“Settle down! Let me explain the 100 of you all will be participating with the other 300 students from the north, south and east high schools respectively thus we need to take the cream off the top for this competition. Once we have selected the 100 of you all. The 100 will then be going to the central district where further details on the competition will be given. Now start forming the groups and going into the scanner.” Fu Chu said.

“Shit this is going to be a problem if I hide my cultivation and show a low level it will be a problem and will not be part of the 100. I should stand at the back so I will be the last and I can determine which cultivation level I should show.” Liu Feng devised a plan in his head.

Soon the 5 groups were formed and Liu Feng was in the third group right at the back being the last one to be scanned. There was a giant screen in the center of the hall which showed the numbers 1-100 where the student's name and their cultivation level would be shown if their cultivation level was low they would be kicked off the list.

Liu Feng waited and took note of the cultivation levels of the top 10 the highest cultivation level was surprisingly Qi Condensation 6 this shocked him, but it was to be expected since the year 4 students were participating. Liu Feng decided to show a cultivation level of Qi condensation 4 which would make him third not too high and not too low.

As soon as Liu Feng walked through the scanner his name went right up to the third place knocking some students out of their place.

“This boy's cultivation level is so high what the hell?” Han Yau was shocked.

“This kid seems like he has good talent,” Fu Chu thought to himself smiling.

Lei Jun who was also in the assembly hall was shocked as when Liu Feng entered third he knocked his name out of the 100 places making him not able to participate, his hatred for Liu Feng grew further.

Liu Feng ignored whatever was happening and headed into the corner with the rest of the 99 students.

Once the scanning of all the student was done and the ranking was finalized Fu Chu went back up on the stage and announced “All the students who made it in the rankings I want to congratulate you but please remember this is not the main competition, all the 100 students please board the buses which will bring you to central district and remember to follow the teachers who will be following you all. Good luck.”

Liu Feng followed the students into the bus and saw that the teacher who would be escorting them would be Han Yau his class teacher. Han Yau walked towards Liu Feng and spoke “Liu Feng how did you increase your cultivation so much? Never mind I am not supposed to pry but remember external help will ruin your foundation. Slow down and stabilize your foundation don’t rush as it will be detrimental for your future.”

“Yes, Mr. Han I will keep that in mind” Liu Feng replied with sincerity.

The bus ride to the central district took about four hours. They had to pass through many checkpoints. This was the first time Liu Feng entered the central district looking at the buildings and roads which was way more developed the west district. “So this is the central district,” Liu Feng said with amazement.

Once the bus stopped the teachers escorted the student Infinite University which was a private University. The entire China stronghold only had two universities, one was the Infinite university which a private one ran by Dynasty Corporation and the other one was Central University which was run by the Central Pillar.

Walking through the gates of the University into the assembly hall they came across the students of east, west, and north high school already gathered there.

Looking around Liu Feng checked out the cultivation levels of the students and was surprised to see that some students were at Qi condensation 9.

“This is insane seems like only if I go all out would I be able to come out on top.” Liu Feng thought to himself.

After waiting about 10 mins a man in a suit with glasses and a slicked-back hair went up the stage on the podium. “Good afternoon students from the west, east, north, and south high school. The 400 of you all will be participating in the scholarship examination, let me explain to you all what you will be doing.

As all of you all know who read the history books that underneath the central district there are the labyrinths' that used to be the subway in the past. But after the asura attack and Qi invading our world beast started to take over causing China to shrink down to a stronghold. This labyrinth expanded the size of the old China using the old subway networks in china this labyrinth is connected to the wildlands and somewhere even further away.

It is filled with wild beasts some of which even we do not know exist, your mission is to enter the labyrinths and kill the beast and collect their head and for each beast, at a corresponding cultivation level you will be given points.”

The students went into an uproar, “You expect us to enter the labyrinths you must be insane we might die inside.” A student shouted.

“You are free to exit and not participate in the scholarship exam,” The man in the suit said.

“That is strange the Asura escaped into the labyrinths and now they are expecting the students to enter it. Are they using us as bait to lure the Asura out?” Liu Feng thought to himself.

“But it does not matter since I intended to search for the Asura anyways, this way it makes it easier for me.”

“Okay attention! I will be now explaining the point system. For Any beast at the Qi gathering realm killed would be 1 point, Qi condensation beast killed would be 5 points and Qi refinement realm beast killed would be 10 points. Do you understand?” the man said with a firm voice.

A student raised his hand. “Yes, you with the hand raised what question do you have?” The man asked him

“What if there are magical beasts at the foundation establishment-level?” The student asked with a shaky voice.

“Ohh interesting question the points for foundation establishment magical beasts would be 50 points but if you students see such a magical beast I suggest for you to run if not you will be killed and I am not joking.” The man said with a smile on his face.

The students started panicking since that means that the man agreed that there were foundation establishment beasts in the labyrinth, maybe even beasts with a higher cultivation than that.

“Foundation establishment magical beasts hmmm I wonder how strong they are?” Liu Feng thought to himself

Wild beasts were in the Qi gathering realm, Qi condensation realm, and the Qi refinement realm. While magical beasts were in the foundation establishment stages and above.

“Now since I explained the rules of the competition I will now explain the rewards for this year’s scholarship exam! The 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place would be given a guaranteed place in Infinite University. While the 4th to the 10th place will be given a guaranteed entry to Central University. And the tuition for the 1st to the 10th place will be fully paid with the scholarship.” The man said with a smile wider than before.

The students were dead silent. “And that is not all, say you are in the first year and you get 2nd place with the guaranteed entry you will be able to skip the remaining years of high school and enter University immediately. This applies to the second and third years as well. But for the fourth years since it is your last year of high school, it will not make a difference for you.”

The students who were still silent were still in shock once the information of the rewards set into their head, the whole hall went into an uproar with students clapping and cheering.

“This reward seems better than expected it would allow me to skip the remains 3 years of high school,” Liu Feng thought to himself.

Once the uproar settled down the man continued with his speech, “For the remaining students who are not the top 10 you will have to go back to high school and try again next year for the scholarship exam. The scholarship exam will go back to normal next year and this year's exam is once in a lifetime so use this chance to change your fate.

You, students, will use the next one hour to prepare supplies before gathering at the entrance of the labyrinth, the reason why you need supplies is that the duration of the exam is 1 month. Any student who comes out before the 1-month duration will be considered to have failed, you will also have to have your own interspatial ring so that you can collect the beast heads for points.

Those who do not have the rings will just have to suck it up and carry the heads along in a sack or something.” The man said with a smirk and a hint of arrogance.

The students were blown back by the duration of the exam the students who did not have rings were even more in despair.

“Oh and one more piece of information killing of any kind will be allowed so I suggest you stay aware of not just the beast but also your fellow students since they can steal the beast heads from you for more points. You one hour starts now!!! Be at the entrance of the labyrinth at 4pm sharp”

All the students rushed out of the hall to go and buy supplies at the market place.

Liu Feng along with everybody went out of the market place to buy supplies.

After an hour Liu Feng was at the entrance to the labyrinth, the entrance was a large steel door that covered the old subway entrance. The door and two checkpoints with guards stationed everywhere.

Liu Feng used up all his 36 blue drams to purchase pain-numbing pills as well as Qi recovery pills along with other healing pills such as blood clotting pills and fasting pills. He was now was back to being poor with only 6 white drams left. Guards started inspecting the interspatial ring of the students for any beast heads so that they cannot cheat, which took around 10mins.

Soon the steel doors opened, “The exam will begin now!!!” The man in the suit shouted.

Liu Feng started walking towards the steel door, as he passed Mr. Han.

“Take care Liu Feng and don’t risk your life for anything and come back safe.” Han Yau told Liu Feng.

Liu Feng nodded as he finally entered the labyrinth, he had seen pictures of the old subway line. But this was entirely different it was covered in plants and the tiles were cracked with roots coming out from them. The whole labyrinth was actually a forest in a tunnel.

“This is going to be a blast, time to search for the Asura.”

Liu Feng said with a devilish grin, feeling his blood boil with excitement.