Chapter 356: Lin Xiaolu's Test

Just like Bai Jingxuan, Lin Xiaolu, upon entering the examination hall, was first instructed to wait in place for a while before being assigned to the equipment corner to begin testing the numerical values of her own magic armor.

The same equipment, the same procedure, the same examiner—everything seemed no different from Bai Jingxuan's test. Lin Xiaolu stood there blankly, watching the equipment scan back and forth across the white scepter in her hand.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes... Just as Lin Xiaolu began to wonder why her inspection time was so long, the instrument before her finally stopped.

Its opened ring-shaped detection structure slowly folded back and retracted into the instrument; the raised analysis device gradually settled back to the horizontal plane; the indicator lights on the entire instrument surface flashed in a fixed rhythm, and then—

—"Beep—"

A red light lit up.

This strange commotion immediately drew the attention of the examiners nearby. Lin Xiaolu didn't know what the red light meant, but they knew all too well: it meant the instrument had reported an error.

From Lin Xiaolu's perspective, one of the examiners put away the light screen in her hand, walked quickly to the instrument, fiddled with the operation interface for a bit, muttered something in her mouth, and then turned to look at her:

"Did you touch the screen over there when you walked over just now?"

"Huh? What screen?" Lin Xiaolu looked bewildered.

"The one I was operating just now." The examiner pointed.

"No, I was very careful when I walked over." Lin Xiaolu shook her head.

"Then when you extracted your magic armor, did you release too much mana? Did the mana fluctuation affect the backup controller over there?" The examiner wore a strange expression.

"Definitely not. I've used magic armor before; how could I make such a basic mistake?" Lin Xiaolu spoke with righteous indignation.

"That's strange... Nothing was touched; how could the instrument report an error?"

The examiner didn't continue pressing the question and didn't seem to suspect Lin Xiaolu, because she actually knew very well that the instrument debugging on site had fully considered various special situations; it was difficult for a candidate who knew nothing to affect the instrument's detection results by conventional means. She had only asked Lin Xiaolu out of a sliver of hope.

After all, if Lin Xiaolu's operation hadn't gone wrong, then the problem could only lie with the instrument itself.

"Wait a bit longer."

So the examiner told Lin Xiaolu, walked to the other end of the instrument, placed one hand into a certain groove on the instrument, and released her own mana—she decided to conduct a deep internal inspection of the instrument to find the root cause of the error.

This process lasted another five minutes or so before the examiner finally pulled her hand away from the groove with a strange look on her face.

"Mentor, what does 'detection data exceeds the upper limit of the Bud-level report template' mean?"

She turned around and asked the examiner who was still on the other side of the examination hall at that moment.

"... What?" The examiner who had not spoken from beginning to end finally reacted.

"Data exceeds the upper limit of the Bud-level report template." The examiner beside Lin Xiaolu repeated it again.

"Oh, that one. It means exactly what it says: the checked result is higher than the highest value in the past database, so it can't generate a report, hence the error."

This examiner, called "Mentor" and obviously more senior, put away the light screen in her hand and walked toward Lin Xiaolu and the other: "What's wrong? Is the reason for the instrument error this?"

"At least that's the reason I saw..." the younger examiner replied.

"Fine, let me see." The old examiner gestured for the young examiner to step aside, then walked to the instrument's groove and placed her hand on it.

Shortly after, she too loosened her hand with a strange expression, just like the young examiner before her: "It really is; you didn't misread it."

And after saying this, the gazes of the two examiners coincidentally converged on Lin Xiaolu's face.

"... Is something wrong?" Even though Lin Xiaolu wasn't particularly nervous to begin with, she felt a bit flustered being stared at by these two.

"Nothing; we just might need your cooperation to test again."

The old examiner remained expressionless, merely squinting her eyes and smiling quite amiably, then looked at the young examiner nearby: "Switch to Flower-level standards."

"Really? Not switch to Bud-level?"

"Do as I say and switch it; why so much nonsense?" The old examiner poked the young examiner's waist, causing the young examiner to immediately suck in a breath of pain.

Two minutes later, the instrument rebooted; the two examiners stepped aside, once again yielding the stage to Lin Xiaolu.

And this time, the adjusted instrument displayed a completely different posture: its ring-shaped detection structure had expanded into a doorway, completely enveloping Lin Xiaolu; white detection light spun continuously, forming a vortex waiting for Lin Xiaolu.

"Your magic armor shouldn't be an ordinary single-piece magic armor; it has an expanded form, right?"

The old examiner said to Lin Xiaolu with a smile: "Remember to use it this time too; the results will be more precise."

"Ah, oh." Realizing that her magic armor seemed to have something unique in the eyes of the examiners and feeling encouraged, Lin Xiaolu also felt much more motivated. So, somewhat excitedly, she raised her hand and extracted her magic armor in front of the instrument once again.

"Wang Yao!"

The white scepter materialized in her palm with a flash of light, and the detection light within the instrument immediately fluctuated violently.

Obviously, after raising the standard, the instrument's reaction to Lin Xiaolu's magic armor became more active. But everyone knew this was not the end.

"Wang Yao, form expansion, Guard Form!"

At Lin Xiaolu's command, the form of the white scepter changed.

The shaft elongated, the head became sharp, and threads gushing from somewhere unknown wrapped around it, forming a protective layer on the shaft's surface. Finally, the scepter in Lin Xiaolu's hand transformed into a pale blue spear.

This transformation caused both examiners nearby to show expressions of astonishment. And if the old examiner's side showed only brief surprise, the young examiner was stunned as if her worldview had been destroyed.

"... Mentor, what is this?"

After quite a while, the young examiner asked as if waking from a dream.

"I don't know."

The old examiner's answer was very straightforward, but unlike the young examiner's confusion, her eyes flickered, and she looked at Lin Xiaolu with the expression of an explorer discovering a gold mine: "I only know that research projects for the next few years are secured."

"What project? Magic armor transformation?"

The young examiner looked at her mentor: "Does this thing have any precedents? How have I never heard of it?"

"It's precisely because there are no precedents that it's worth studying. A transformable magic armor—doesn't that sound interesting enough?"

The old examiner rubbed her chin: "Moreover, this child's magic armor has two forms. Setting aside the current weapon-like form for now, that scepter-like form... hmm, can't speak rashly."

"Scepter-like form? Did you see something, Mentor?"

"Let's look at the report first."

The old examiner waved her hand; at the same time, the instrument before them stopped running. This time, a green light lit up. So she told Lin Xiaolu to rest nearby while she, somewhat impatiently, opened the information of this detection on the light screen.

The first things that caught her eye were two most direct results:

【Ability Specification: Level 4】

【Development Potential: Gem Scepter】