Chapter 26: An Unremarkable Preliminary Exam

Today's South Wind Academy had an atmosphere even more heated than usual, all because the preliminary exam was about to begin.

The so-called preliminary exam was a screening held within the academy, ultimately filtering down to the top twenty, and these twenty would represent South Wind Academy in the Grand Academy Exam.

The Grand Academy Exam encompassed all the academies in the entire Tian Shu Prefecture, and the ultimate prize to compete for was the admission quota from the Holy Mystic Star Academy.

In other words, only by passing the preliminary selection and entering the academy's top twenty would one be qualified to compete for the Holy Mystic Star Academy's admission quota.

Of course, many students also understood that the Holy Mystic Star Academy was far too out of reach for them, but if they could achieve as good a ranking as possible in the preliminary selection, they could then choose some other high-ranking academies within the Great Xia Kingdom.

Although in terms of scale, strength, and reputation, these high-ranking academies were far inferior to the Holy Mystic Star Academy, they were still a path forward after all.

So for them, the preliminary exam was the final chance to prove themselves.

At the central plaza of South Wind Academy.

Today the place was a sea of people, with dozens of arenas erected to serve as the venues for the preliminary selection.

When Li Luo and Zhao Kuo arrived here together, they were both startled by the roaring crowd noise.

"Whoa, this is way too lively," Zhao Kuo said with a laugh.

"Although it's called a preliminary exam, for the vast majority of students, this is their last chance to show themselves at South Wind Academy," Li Luo said.

Zhao Kuo nodded, scratched his head, and said with some melancholy: "I wonder if I can make the top twenty this time."

Because of Li Luo's sudden breakout, Zhao Kuo was now considered the second strongest in the Second Courtyard; placed within the entire South Wind Academy, his odds of making the top twenty were not small, though of course it would still require some luck. After all, if he kept running into tough opponents by bad luck and ended up with an ugly record, then it would be iffy.

"Depends on your luck, but fortune and misfortune are intertwined—I'm guessing you won't last more than a few rounds," Li Luo said casually, glancing around.

Zhao Kuo's face turned green, and he cursed: "You bastard, I curse you to run into Lv Qing'er in your very first match."

"Curse bounces back."

"Bounce again!"

While the two were engaged in their boring and childish banter, a sharp, piercing voice suddenly rang out from the high platform in the plaza. Numerous gazes in the venue shot over, and they saw the old headmaster Wei Sha appear with the instructors from each courtyard.

"Dear students, the academy's preliminary exam officially begins today. I hope you can give it your all and display your strongest state, because this ranking will affect your future."

"The preliminary exam will last three days, and each day's match schedule will be posted on the stone walls at the four sides of the plaza for your reference."

"I won't waste any more words. I hereby announce that the preliminary exam begins."

As the old headmaster's voice fell, the roaring in the venue grew even more intense.

Li Luo and Zhao Kuo, meanwhile, now came to a stone wall at the edge of the field. A projection crystal hung from the top of the wall, and a flood of subtitles scrolled down like flowing water.

The two looked for a while before finding the opponents they would face in today's matches.

Zhao Kuo breathed a sigh of relief at once. Clearly, neither of his two opponents today exceeded his expectations; it seemed this round was in the bag.

Li Luo's expression was also fairly calm. Both of his opponents today were from the First Courtyard, and their strength was not even as good as the Bei Kun he had fought before.

But that was normal—South Wind Academy's several courtyards combined had nearly a thousand people; how could it be that easy to run into a tough nut?

On the contrary, he and Zhao Kuo were probably the tough nuts in the eyes of many.

"It's almost my turn, I'm going to get ready. You do your best too," Zhao Kuo said after checking the time, gave Li Luo a shout, and plunged impatiently into the crowd, vanishing from sight.

Li Luo shook his head, then turned and headed to another battle stage as well; his first match was also about to begin.

At the designated battle stage, Li Luo waited for about half an hour. After the referee on stage called out his name, he leapt up onto it.

Li Luo's appearance drew quite a bit of attention. After all, ever since he had once taken on three and defeated Bei Kun and the other two, his reputation within South Wind Academy now showed signs of reviving once more.

However, some students had not witnessed that battle with their own eyes that day, so regarding Li Luo's breakout, they still harbored a half-believing, half-doubting attitude. Now that they saw Li Luo take the stage, they naturally wanted to observe him carefully.

Li Luo's opponent was a lean and wiry youth at the Six-Seal Realm. The youth's expression was somewhat bitter—his Six-Seal strength was about middling within South Wind Academy, which wasn't bad at all, but who would have thought he'd have the bad luck of running into Li Luo in his very first match.

And that Li Luo had awakened his resonance and showed signs of skyrocketing.

"Begin."

Seeing both sides on stage, the referee directly announced the start of the match.

The lean youth unhesitatingly unleashed all of his resonance power and immediately entered a defensive stance, clearly intending to respond to all changes by remaining unchanged.

But Li Luo did not hesitate in the slightest. Blue resonance power surged up, flowing across the surface of his body like water ripples.

His figure shot out like lightning, and a fierce resonance technique erupted directly.

The battle ended faster than anyone had imagined.

In just a few short minutes, the lean youth under Li Luo's storm-like assault completely collapsed, and finally decisively chose to concede.

Gasp!

Around the battle stage, many gasps of shock rang out. Gazes filled with awe shot toward Li Luo, especially those students also at the Six-Seal Realm—each and every one of them wore a solemn expression. How could they not see that the strength Li Luo had briefly erupted with just now seemed even greater than when he had fought Bei Kun before?

Li Luo paid no attention to those gazes. After the referee announced his victory, he jumped down, squeezed into the crowd, and vanished.

Li Luo's second match didn't require much waiting either, and it was even easier than the first, because his opponent didn't even have the interest to fight and directly chose to concede.

Thus Li Luo's matches on the first day ended in a clean sweep.

After finishing his matches, Li Luo tidied up briefly and was about to leave. He still had to hurry over to Yan Yan Lingqing at Stream Yang House to continue learning the Resonance Refining Technique. Recently, after a period of practice, he felt he was not far from successfully refining a first-grade Spirit Water Marvelous Light.

But just as he squeezed out of the crowd, Li Luo saw a graceful figure ahead fixing her gaze on him—it was Lv Qing'er.

Today she wore a form-fitting white training outfit, her long legs slender and straight, her waist slim enough to hold, her long hair tied in a ponytail. Combined with her beautiful, moving features, she was extremely eye-catching.

But upon seeing her, Li Luo could only smile helplessly to himself and offered a greeting: "Finished your matches today? Shouldn't have been much difficulty, right?"

That was pure nonsense—Lv Qing'er was the number one person in South Wind Academy; whoever ran into her could only consider themselves unlucky.

Lv Qing'er swept her beautiful eyes over Li Luo and said: "Your strength has improved again. I just want to ask, how far do you plan to go in this preliminary exam?"

Li Luo laughed indifferently: "As long as I make the top twenty and get a spot to participate in the Grand Exam, that's enough."

He truly had no interest in contending for a higher ranking, because there was no need. Anyway, no matter how high his ranking in this preliminary exam, it had no real practical effect. On the contrary, if his ranking was too high, he might end up being targeted by other academies.

Hearing this, Lv Qing'er furrowed her delicate brows and said: "From your strength, I feel you should be able to compete for the top ten."

Li Luo smiled: "That much faith in me?"

Lv Qing'er said: "Li Luo, I feel you don't need to hide too much. Showing yourself at the right time is the only way to make those who doubt you shut up completely."

Li Luo was somewhat helpless. Lv Qing'er appeared graceful and reserved, but in truth had an extremely strong-willed personality. Perhaps that was also why she always kept an eye on him—because back then, Li Luo was the only one who could keep her in check, so she had a special recognition of him.

Only, given Li Luo's temperament, he didn't want to expose all of his strength in full view of everyone when it wasn't necessary.

Perhaps it was a habit of self-protection developed over the years due to his own special circumstances.

"I understand. I'll do my best."

However, since Lü Qing'er didn't have any ill intentions, Li Luo could only offer a perfunctory reply or two before finding an excuse to slip away.

Lü Qing'er watched his retreating back, feeling rather helpless, and finally turned and left.

But as the two of them dispersed, neither noticed that not far away, on a battle platform, Song Song Yunfeng—who had just ended his fight with overwhelming force—was watching this scene.

His gaze fixed on the direction Li Luo had left, his eyes somewhat shadowed.

"I warned you clearly enough..."

"Did you really have to come provoke me?"