Chapter 290: Special Recruitment Assessment

Li Yi made a rough count; there were twelve people who had come to participate in the special recruitment assessment for the Golden Academy today alone. This number was already considered quite high. One had to know that today was not any special day, just a very ordinary one, and those who came for the assessment hadn't made appointments in advance.

After all, anyone who could come here must have already undergone testing beforehand; only those whose cultivation values met the standard would come to participate in the assessment. If they hadn't met the standard, they wouldn't run over here to bring humiliation upon themselves.

While Li Yi was sizing up the others, the others were also sizing him up.

However, he was plain and unremarkable, not standing out among those participating in the special recruitment assessment this time. The most eye-catching were the purple-eyed man wearing sci-fi style armor and the man with a sun totem on his forehead, followed by the woman radiating brilliance all over and Jiang Mingtian, who had walked in with Li Yi just now.

The rest of the people weren't exactly unremarkable, but compared to these individuals, they appeared somewhat mediocre.

Because everyone was observing each other, the originally spacious and empty hall seemed particularly quiet, and the atmosphere even became somewhat solemn. Fortunately, however, no one harbored hostility; after all, everyone who came here did so to pass the assessment and enter the Golden Academy, so their goals did not conflict.

"Li Yi, that woman has been peeking at you." Suddenly, Lin Yue walked over and whispered into Li Yi's ear.

"I noticed it too," Li Yi said, raising his eyes to look.

He saw that the woman in plain clothes, radiating a halo of light, met his gaze. However, she didn't show any awkward expression, just smiled slightly, which counted as a greeting.

"Maybe she's been captivated by my handsome appearance. After all, there are some strange-looking fellows here, and I'm the only one who's relatively normal," Li Yi said.

Lin Yue laughed: "Do you think that's possible? I felt that the aura on that woman is somewhat familiar. Do you still remember that white bone mural at the training base? Look at the halo on her body; isn't it very similar to the halo radiating from the white bone mural?"

"It is a little," Li Yi said: "But I practice the White Bone Contemplation. To me, beauty is like withered bone. Don't worry, Lin Jie, I have no interest in her."

"If you keep spouting nonsense, I won't talk to you anymore." Lin Yue rolled her eyes: "I just have a conjecture. When you brought back the white bone mural from the abandoned city district, you only brought back a broken section. Is it possible that there are other murals? It's just that the other murals didn't appear in Tianchang City, but appeared in other places because of the Heaven-Tilting Incident and were obtained by others?"

"The woman's aura is so similar to the white bone mural that I suspect she obtained other murals and comprehended other cultivation techniques, which is why she has today's achievements. And since you have the White Bone Contemplation cultivation technique, to a certain extent, some kind of identical energy resonance will be produced between you, which is why she keeps looking at you."

Li Yi said with some surprise: "The others just looked at me a few times, and Lin Jie, you've analyzed this much?"

However, he didn't have any resonance with the other party.

"Find an opportunity to make contact, ask her, and verify my conjecture," Lin Yue said.

Li Yi shook his head and said: "Even if it's verified to be true, so what? Let's just forget it. Besides, who among those who can come to participate in the assessment doesn't have a bit of opportunity? Asking around will easily offend people instead."

Lin Yue smiled and said: "I'm afraid if you don't go ask her, others will come to ask you proactively. If my conjecture is proven right, then there must be a Mystic Object mural in her possession. Aren't you going to cross dimensions in the future? Perhaps you can cooperate a bit. After all, Mystic Objects and cross-dimensional travel are inseparable; without the energy supply of a Mystic Object, it's very difficult to open the cross-dimensional gate."

"So that's what Lin Jie is planning." Li Yi suddenly realized.

However, just as the two were chatting, nine o'clock had arrived.

Once the time arrived, it was very punctual.

Three powerful auras appeared in everyone's perception.

The person in charge of the special recruitment assessment had arrived.

Three experts of the Soul Realm?

Li Yi recognized this kind of aura immediately because he had had many encounters with Soul Realm experts and was relatively sensitive to this kind of aura.

All at once, in the silent hall, everyone's gaze turned in unison toward the direction from which the aura came.

Accompanied by a series of crisp footsteps echoing abruptly, a voice came unhurriedly: "In less than a morning, there are already over a dozen evolvers whose values meet the standard. It seems that with the perfection of the cultivation system and the spread of various cultivation techniques, the so-called 'geniuses' are indeed becoming more numerous. No wonder the special recruitment for the Golden Academy has gone from direct entry without testing before to needing an assessment now."

"Your batch is very unfortunate. Just yesterday, I received a notice saying that in addition to some normal tests, we also have to slightly assess the strength of the special recruits. We can't let people with strength that is too weak into the Golden Academy, lest they die in a muddled way once they start fighting, which would be worse than staying in the city to continue honing themselves." Another voice rang out; this voice was somewhat familiar.

It seemed to be the examiner that Professor Zhang had greeted yesterday; the name seemed to be Shen Chong.

"The two of you, stop talking nonsense and hurry up with the assessment, lest you waste everyone's time. You have to be efficient in doing things. If you drag things out like this, a whole day will be gone." The last person to speak was a woman, her tone icy cold.

Soon, the three people in charge of the assessment appeared before everyone.

"Since we need to be efficient, let's get straight to the point. This time, all evolvers participating in the assessment whose cultivation values exceed one thousand percent, stand over here." The examiner who spoke was named Yu Hai, in his early thirties, looking like a lazy uncle.

"Rest assured, although there are only the three of us in charge of the assessment this time, the entire assessment period will be live-streamed and recorded, with people from all sides monitoring behind the scenes. It is absolutely fair and just, and there will not be any bias. No matter what your family or background is, as long as you pass the assessment, you can smoothly enter the Golden Academy. If you don't pass the assessment, then I'm sorry, you can only go back."

Shen Chong said calmly. He scanned the room, and finally, his gaze lingered slightly on Li Yi.

Before he came, he had already checked Li Yi's information and knew that this was the person Professor Zhang had specifically named for him to look after.

Soon.

The twelve evolvers walked over in unison, each with a look of anticipation in their eyes.

But the next moment, a smile appeared on Yu Hai's lips: "Cultivators with cultivation values above one thousand one hundred percent, take another step forward."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of several evolvers changed instantly.

What?

Wasn't the standard for special recruitment that the cultivation value just needed to reach one thousand percent? How did it suddenly increase to one thousand one hundred percent?

"Suddenly increased the value standard?" Li Yi's expression also changed; he likewise hadn't expected such a situation to occur.

But his cultivation value was one thousand two hundred percent, so there was no problem.

He immediately took a step forward.

It wasn't just his cultivation value that exceeded one thousand one hundred percent; the purple-eyed man, the man with the sun totem on his forehead, the woman, and Jiang Mingtian had all exceeded this value.

"Five people? Not bad."

Yu Hai nodded: "If your cultivation values are true, then in this stage of cultivation value testing, you have almost passed. But words alone are useless. To ensure authenticity, a round of testing is still required. There is a cultivation pod over there that can be used for value testing."

After finishing, he pointed to the side.

"By the way, let me tell you one more thing: the testing method of the Golden Academy is slightly different from the testing method you usually use, but you will understand very soon. Start the test, starting from the people at the back."

Subsequently, he immediately started calling people, and he didn't even bother to ask for the names of those who came to test.

Soon, a man walked into the cultivation pod with some trepidation and unease, and started the value test.

He had thought the testing time would be very long, but as a result, after a moment, the cultivation pod opened.

"What? It's over already?" The man participating in the test was somewhat bewildered.

Shen Chong said: "It's over. You are unqualified. Your cultivation value is only eight hundred and fifty percent, which doesn't meet the standard of one thousand."

"How can that be? Before I came, I clearly tested it several times, and it had already reached the standard of one thousand percent." Upon hearing this, the man immediately showed an expression of disbelief.

Shen Chong glanced at him and also said to everyone: "The testing standard of the Golden Academy is a bit different. When you enter meditation, we will release over one thousand units of cosmic energy in one breath, and it must be fully absorbed within the specified time. Whenever the time is up, if there is too much remaining cosmic energy detected by the cultivation pod, you will be judged as unqualified. In fact, those of you whose cultivation values tested by normal methods barely reach one thousand percent have no need to participate in the assessment; the first stage will almost certainly weed you all out."

"Only those whose cultivation values have reached above one thousand one hundred percent have a possibility of passing. Don't even dream of getting into the Golden Academy by just scraping by."

"So that's how it is..."

The man's expression wavered, and his face instantly turned ugly.

He had indeed barely met the standard by scraping by. He hadn't expected that after one test, his true cultivation value was only eight hundred and fifty percent, which was too far from one thousand.

Thinking of this, he left without looking back, carrying immense disappointment and frustration.

"Second one, continue." Yu Hai pointed to another person.

Sure enough.

Just as Shen Chong said, those who came to participate in the assessment by scraping by almost couldn't pass the test. When the second evolver's cultivation value was tested, it was only nine hundred and something percent, failing to meet the standard.

The third, the fourth, were all the same.

Their cultivation values could be considered genius-level outside, but here, they didn't even have enough to reach the threshold of the Golden Academy, unless they took a different path, joined the Investigation Bureau and made great contributions, striving for the special quota reward to enter the Golden Academy.

Don't look at the small difference in values; those who could come here must have had all their potential exploded, reaching their limit, and it was almost impossible to improve further.

"It's too cruel. Over a dozen came to participate in the assessment, and just this stage of value testing has weeded out nearly half."

Lin Yue was watching from not far away. Seeing one so-called genius after another being weeded out, she couldn't help but mutter in her heart, and at the same time, she worried for Li Yi, not knowing if Li Yi's one thousand two hundred percent cultivation value could withstand such an inspection.

If it couldn't withstand it, then it would be terrible.

But Li Yi wasn't very worried at the moment, because even if he didn't pass this test, he could just come again next time. Because he still had potential to be excavated, as long as his martial arts realm broke through to the Meridian Cultivation, his cultivation value could still be improved a bit.