The exam continued and Emily was able to pull herself out from her constant worrying by engrossing herself in drawing the array. She took her time building the array, but it was clear to any expert that she had the highest chance of coming out on top.
With this being evident, a man among the few spectators received a signal from another competitor and made his move. He took out a thin needle from his sleeve and held it between his fingers. Besides being hard to see with the naked eye, the needle was an artifact made to be especially hard to sense with spiritual sense.
The man flicked this needle at Emily with excellent precision. It slipped past the awareness of almost everyone in the room and was only a few feet away from Emily's neck when it was stopped in mid-air. The man narrowed his eyes at this phenomenon and reached for another needle, but this time, he felt a strong force around his wrist.
Shui kept his eyes on Emily so he was able to respond to the needle despite its discreet nature. He didn't want to alert anyone so he couldn't spread out spiritual sense to find the culprit, but luckily, the assailant exposed a brief air of irritation, so Shui could spot him. With martial intent squeezing his wrist, Shui sent a threat through intent communication.
"Are you sure this is where you want to end your life?"
The man wondered which senior was stopping him and why they sounded so young, but he didn't dare defy them since he didn't want to cause a ruckus at a time like this. He returned the needle to his sleeve and stopped all resistance. A few moments later, the crushing force around his wrist faded, but a dull pain remained. He couldn't risk another attempt, so he informed his master of his failure through subtle signals.
His movements were so natural that it would be impossible for Shui to tell that he was signaling someone if he wasn't still watching him. On the other hand, the young man in his mid-twenties, who he answered to, did a terrible job of hiding his reaction. He wasn't stupid enough to completely ignore the risk of being caught, so he didn't order the man to make another attempt, but he still had an ugly expression.
He thought that this was a failure that could be hidden, but what he didn't know was that besides Shui, other competitors who were aware of his temperament had been watching him in the midst of their work.
Once they saw his disgruntled expression, they knew he had failed to take care of the dangerously talented threat. Some among them felt the urge to handle the task themselves, but it was because they were afraid of the risk that they had relied on a borrowed knife in the first place. In the end, with Emily remaining ignorant of their machinations, the test ended.
For those of the same tier, the array had to be tested to see if it could work properly, but for grandmasters like the three examiners overseeing the test, one good look was enough. Even so, a demonstration was necessary to suppress any feeling of dissatisfaction regarding the results.
"Do you think her array will work?" Alicia asked.
Emily had completed her array, but with only a couple of seconds remaining, much to the joy of her rivals. Since none of them found the courage to make a move against her, they could only wish that her finished array failed to live up to expectations.
However, Emily brushed off this malice with an unflustered expression.
"She'll do fine."
After sweeping across the arrays, competitors and the examiners with his eyes, Shui could already see what the outcome of this test would be.
"We shall now begin the final evaluation," one examiner announced.
The three examiners then split up and tested the arrays of the nine array masters. Although some arrays were more flashy than others, all of them properly activated, which meant that everyone passed the test to become an official tier 3 array master, but none of them were satisfied with just that knowledge.
After testing all the arrays, the examiners came together and spent a short period in discussion before turning to face the examinees and the spectators.
The examiner in the middle cleared his throat and said, "After looking over the results of all three portions of the exam, we have determined who performed the best among the ones present. As you all know, being declared the best performer is an honour not to be taken lightly. In the case where none of the candidates can satisfy us, they might not even be a best performer. As such, the one to whom this honour..."
The examiner continued his boring speech, but Shui didn't bother to listen any further, because he knew the winner wouldn't be Emily.
"So that's who won?"
As she heard the name of the person who was declared the best performer and watched as he accepted the honour with a bright smile on his face, there was a sharp edge to Alicia's voice. Even though she hadn't seen the results of the previous rounds, her eyes didn't miss the signs of an illicit deal.
'I'm not surprised, but for this to happen on today of all days. Perhaps I should-'
Sensing her rising disgruntlement, Shui warned Alicia in a soft tone.
"Don't let it bother you. Even if you don't need to fear any retaliation, Emily's not the same."
Alicia knew what he was worried about, so she only snorted and settled down.
Emily was also suspicious, but she didn't make a big fuss over it even as she sensed the scorn in the gazes directed at her. Although she felt frustrated by this result, she had already been exposed to similar situations, especially after her master's downfall. Without backing, there was far too little she could do against injustice. Emily tightly clenched her fist, trembling in anger, but she hadn't given up hope. There was still a way for her to make it on the Alterna Array Master Minor Ranking.
After they announced the best performer, everyone who had passed was given a circular seal with a bronze '3', and then they left. Everyone besides the winner had dark expressions, but if any of them had failed, then a more dramatic scene could have occurred. Emily also dragged her feet out of the room, but she stopped when she sensed two people approaching her. She turned to them with a guarded expression at first, but then showed confusion when she saw who they were.
Once the exam was over, Shui and Alicia approached Emily.
"Shui? Why are you here?"
"I had some business nearby, so I thought I would pay the association a visit. I didn't expect I would be able to see your exam."
In her mind, Alicia couldn't help giving Shui a strange look, but she kept a smiling face in front of Emily. On the other hand, though no one else could see her, Alia had flown right in front of his face and shook her head.
"It's bad enough that you're stalking the poor girl, but now you're lying about it too. I know you don't want her to hate you, but don't you think you're being a little too creepy?"
Shui ignored the spirit, but he knew she had a point. He didn't feel any guilt in coming to see her, but to Emily, he was just a stranger that she met yesterday. Anyone would be suspicious if a person like that managed to find out where they would be and suddenly showed up.
'Well, not that it's that worth mentioning considering the present I have for her.'
There was no perfect excuse for why he was eager to gift her a tesora-rank artifact, but he had to see how it would go.