Land of Magic

5

Upon hearing the herald’s words, people started moving toward the gates. The elf girl soon disappeared into the crowd. Hadjar decided to hold off on asking Einen about the elves for now. They had far more important issues to deal with first.

After shaking off the dirt (which only ended up staining their clothes further, making the friends’ appearance even more unpleasant), Hadjar and Einen joined the crowd. ‘The Holy Sky’ School allowed spectators to attend the exam as well. In fact, it even encouraged it: each spectator was someone who might go on to spread the word of how the best of the best of the younger generation had come to their School to participate in their trials. After all, you could never have enough prestige.

“Watch where you’re going!” Hadjar was shoved in the shoulder.

“Master, you’ve been dirtied by the masses.”

A white silk handkerchief was handed to the young man who had pushed Hadjar. He wiped his hands carelessly, and, after throwing the handkerchief away, he moved on. Two old men and a young, pretty girl trotted after him. The young man, dressed in white robes, had a coat of arms on his back depicting two swords crossed within a strange hieroglyph. 

“That’s the Predatory Blades clan crest,” Einen whispered in his friend’s ear. “They’re one of the seven family clans.”

“I know,” Hadjar said.

He looked at the people around him through the World River. Once again, he was made aware of the fact that this world was much larger than it had once seemed to him from the walls of the Palace of Lidus. While ordinary people had meridians as wide as the thinnest thread, the young man from the ancient family had meridians as wide as the branch of a shrub.

The young man had a sword that shone with energy so bright that there was no doubt about it: it was an Imperial level artifact. Its owner radiated an aura no lower than a Heaven Soldier at the middle stage. What was even more shocking was the fact that his servants, including the young girl, were at the Spirit Knight level.

“Do you see it?” Hadjar whispered.

Einen nodded.

“At fifteen, she is already a Spirit Knight,” the islander replied.

The girl definitely wasn’t sixteen yet. After they’d advanced to the level of true cultivators, their perception had sharpened so much that it was simple for them to determine someone’s age at first glance. Barring, of course, the various Techniques and artifacts that might’ve concealed it.

“Her meridians,” Hadjar squinted, “they’re thicker than the others’ meridians, but thinner than that bastard’s.”

The young man, who hadn’t gone very far, stopped in surprise and turned sharply toward the friends.

“How dare you look at me, worm?”

He shouted and held out his right hand. Swirls formed around it, shaped like blades. On top of everything, the boy was also a Wielder!

Hadjar prepared to block his attack, but the crowd took a step toward a platform that rose behind the gates. The crowd carried the member of the Predatory Blades clan up with them, leaving Hadjar and Einen behind, waiting for their turn.

Despite the fact that the platform was huge and could accommodate more than three hundred people at a time, there were still about twenty times as many left behind in the square. During the exams, up to two hundred thousand people could come to ‘The Holy Sky’ School. About two-thirds of them would come to take part in the exams themselves.

“I don’t think it was a good idea to mock him,” Einen said, shaking his head.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Hadjar said indignantly. “I don’t care enough about the clans’ children to mock them…”

Hadjar was no fool. That young girl walking behind her master could’ve defeated Sankesh with ease. Even if the young man had been alone, what could he realistically do against a young man raised as part of an ancient family of swordsmen? He’d probably eaten alchemical pills for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, took elixir baths, and trained with the best Masters and Teachers since childhood. Not to mention the Imperial level sword he carried.

While waiting for the platform to return, Hadjar decided to look around through the World River. Plunging mentally into the endless stream of power, he looked at the people around him. Their silhouettes mingled and merged into a single haze of energy. Some looked like small sparks, others like a torch burning in the dark, but there were also people that shone with power, like a fallen star flying through the night sky. There were so many geniuses and even monsters in this crowd that Hadjar began to think that, even if they were to use Rahaim’s letter, they wouldn’t pass the examination for ordinary disciples, let alone the inner circle ones.

The platform soon came back down. The crowd carried Hadjar and Einen onto the iron platform. Ten seconds later, hieroglyphs lit up at the edges and the elevator went up. The higher they climbed, the more clear it became that many people were crowding around on the square. What was most frightening was that there were tens of thousands of Heaven Soldiers among them! Hadjar staggered, but grabbed hold of Einen’s shoulder just in time. Instead of arresting his stumble, he almost knocked his friend, who was also shaken, to the ground.

“Did you ever imagine you’d live long enough to see something like that?” The islander leaned heavily on his staff.

By the standards of the islands and the barbarian kingdoms, true cultivators were akin to legends. Many didn’t even believe it was possible to advance to this level of power. And here, on the day of the exams, an insane number of them had gathered, and they were all under the age of sixteen.

The Darnassus Empire occupied a vast territory. It was hard to imagine how many billions of people inhabited it, considering it could produce thousands of young Heaven Soldiers.

When they reached a height of 130 feet, the iron platform froze. The crowd began to move again, and like a living ocean, it carried the two friends out into a clearing. Standing ankle-deep in the green, cropped grass, they found themselves in an even larger crowd than was still waiting at the foot of the gates.

The school grounds were the furthest thing from what Hadjar had imagined. There were no walls, no tall buildings, nor any pavilions. In the center of the entire complex stood a seven-story tower, wide enough to fit two houses at its base. On the opposite side from the tower stood the walls of an oval arena. Behind it were dozens of small, white stone buildings with windows. Hadjar couldn’t guess their purpose.