Spreading his hands wide, Sun Wuji declared confidently, "We're saying what everyone's thinking. Isn't it obvious? Your father is the exam proctor. Right, everyone?"
Mei Hongli's eyes darted frantically around, scanning the dense crowd for a single face of support. The cultivators avoided his gaze, turning away with feigned interest in the architecture as whispers rippled through the air like wind through dry grass.
"Who is this guy?"
"I don't know, but if he's called Mei Hongli, he must be from the Mei Clan."
"Yeah, I've heard about him. He's Mei Hongli, the Second Elder's son. He's already failed this exam twice, which was a huge embarrassment for his father."
"Failed twice? That's brutal. The shame must be stifling."
"Well, if his father's the proctor, then what Sun Wuji said must be true."
"With his dad overseeing the exam, he doesn't need to take it seriously. He'll pass no matter how useless he is. It's a mockery of the school."
"And he thinks he'll take the top spot, too. Talk about delusional."
"Yeah, he'll probably cheat to get it. A silver spoon for a golden rank."
The gossip spread like wildfire, fueling a low, judgmental hum across the city hall. Flustered and enraged, Mei Hongli shouted, "I will not cheat! I'll beat every single one of you fair and square! You hear me?!" He turned to Feng Luotian, pointing a trembling, accusing finger. "And you, Feng Luotian, don't forget about our bet."
"Of course," Luotian replied smoothly, crossing his arms and causing his firm, corded muscles to stand out against his sleeves.
Mei Hongli narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing Luotian's build. He noted the startling difference from the thin, frail figure he remembered; the boy's shoulders were broader, his stance rooted like an ancient oak. Yet, despite the physical transformation, there was still no detectable Theríon emanating from his frame. To Mei Hongli, he remained a cripple, a hollow vessel of flesh.
Mei Hongli sneered, trying to recover his fading bravado. "Heh, all that muscle for nothing. Without Theríon, the best you can do is haul rice bags for some back-alley restaurant. What a waste of a legacy."
Satisfied with his parting shot, Mei Hongli turned and left with his entourage, his heavy footsteps echoing on the stone. Luotian, unbothered by the jab, watched him go with an unconcerned chuckle.
Ying Lizhua, standing nearby, observed the scene with cold disinterest. Competitive as he was, he couldn't be bothered with someone as shallow as Mei Hongli. He only clashed with people he respected as equals, like Wuji or Yue'er.
Confident in the pulsing heat of his own cultivation, Lizhua believed the top rank in the exam was his to claim by divine right. After all, his cultivation level was the highest among the participants.
With a sharp glance at Luotian, he gave a dismissive "Hmph" before retreating to a quiet, shadowed corner to wait for the application period to end.
"I'm glad you're here, Luotian, but what's going on between you and Mei Hongli?" Mei Yue'er asked, her voice brimming with the thrill of seeing him but tinged with a persistent curiosity about the tension.
"Just a minor conflict," Luotian replied indifferently.
Sensing he didn't want to elaborate, Yue'er let it drop, the soft scent of her floral perfume drifting as she tilted her head. Instead, her curiosity turned to his physical appearance. "What did you do this past month to change so much? You look... different."
"Nothing but training," he answered simply.
"What kind of training? Don't tell me you've just been building muscle, as Mei Hongli claimed. I still don't sense any Theríon from you," Wuji remarked, focusing his senses to detect even the slightest spiritual fluctuation. He found nothing but a calm, empty void where a power source should be.
"You'll find out soon enough," Luotian replied cryptically, a playful glint in his eyes.
"Always with the mystery," Wuji muttered, crossing his own arms. "Still, if you're here, you must have something up your sleeve. You never show up just to lose."
Luotian chuckled and asked Yue'er for an extra application form, claiming his original was destroyed when a freak bolt of lightning struck his home.
Yue'er handed him a spare form, finding his reason very plausible.
After filling it out, Feng Luotian joined his friends and asked about their training over the past month, skillfully avoiding questions about his own regimen.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, a Peacock School officer announced the application period had ended, directing the mass of hopefuls toward the exam site.
The two thousand applicants stirred as the announcement spread through the hall. In the next few hours, they would find out whether they could begin their lives as disciples or return home to try again.
The sea of candidates followed the officer toward the northeastern corner of Divine Bird City, where the urban stone gave way to a woodland expanse bordering the untamed Warland Thicket. To secure the grounds, Peacock School had scoured the area of monsters and erected a formidable perimeter wall, isolating the terrain from external threats.
Despite these precautions, the site retained a rugged, ancient character. Toppled ruins and weathered debris lay choked beneath the roots of towering trees, creating a labyrinthine arena. This wild setting served a dual purpose: it tested not just the raw power of the applicants, but their ability to navigate rough, unpredictable terrain under crushing pressure.
At the threshold of the site stood a two-storied wooden stage, its timber creaking slightly under the weight of several waiting figures.
Among them stood Mei Hongyi, the exam proctor and Peacock School's Second Elder. The man's chubby, affluent appearance was a mirror image of his son's, yet the resemblance ended at the skin.
Unlike the hollow bluster of Mei Hongli, the elder exuded the heavy, commanding aura of a Wing Realm Master. His presence felt like a physical weight upon the clearing, a silent reminder of his absolute authority over Divine Bird City.
Once the participants settled into a tense silence, Mei Hongyi stepped forward, his voice carrying effortlessly across the woods. "Good morning, everyone! I am Mei Hongyi, Second Elder of Peacock School, and I will be your exam proctor today."
With a sharp signal from the proctor, his assistants fed energy into a waiting array etched into the stage floor. Above the wood, dozens of shimmering image projections flickered into life, displaying various sectors of the exam site.
"These images," Mei Hongyi explained, his eyes scanning the crowd with a merchant's calculation, "are live projections. Anything that happens within these walls will be witnessed here."
Then, the elder tapped into his own reservoir of Theríon. Thousands of illusionary figures, perfect replicas of his own rotund frame, materialized in a burst of light across the site. The crowd gasped as the projections shifted, showing his clones scattered throughout the ruins and brush like ghosts in the machine.
"Do you see them?" Mei Hongyi asked, gesturing toward the flickering projections that displayed countless clones scattered across the dense forest of the exam site. His voice remained calm, yet it carried an underlying rasp of challenge that pricked at the listeners' nerves. "These are my Illusion Clones. Each one is a unique construct, crafted with varying physiques and attributes. Some are faster, some are stronger, and a select few possess a harrowing combination of both."
He paused, letting the silence of the woodland edge amplify the gravity of his words. "Their average cultivation level will be around your level, which should make them manageable targets for the capable among you. But make no mistake—they share my combat instincts. They are as formidable as I am in spirit. Underestimating them will be your first and final mistake."
The crowd murmured nervously, the sound like dry leaves skittering over stone. Many stole uneasy glances at the shimmering projections, their faces pale. For mid-stage Fang Realm cultivators, these clones represented a grueling, feasible test of mettle. For everyone else, they were an almost insurmountable obstacle, a wall of illusionary muscle and Wing Realm technique.
Mei Hongyi maintained his imposing demeanor, his shadow stretching long across the wooden stage as he detailed the mechanics of the trial.
"The rules are straightforward: defeat as many Illusion Clones as you can. Each clone you dissipate will earn you ten points. Gather one hundred points, and you will pass the exam."
He paused for effect, his gaze sweeping across the two thousand participants like a hawk scouting for movement. "Upon entering the exam site, you will be randomly teleported to different coordinates. However, you may choose to form parties by linking your Theríon. If you do so, your party will be transported to the same location. Be aware, though, that the points earned from defeating Illusion Clones will be divided equally among all party members."
A ripple of interest surged through the crowd as they weighed the safety of numbers against the dilution of their scores. Mei Hongyi raised his voice, cutting through the sudden chatter. "If any of you are defeated—meaning you are seriously injured or brought to the brink of death—you will be teleported back to this stage immediately. The Alchemy Center team is on standby to treat your wounds; rest assured that no one will lose their life in this exam."
Despite the reassurance, the air grew cold with unease. The blunt mention of seriously injured and death weighed heavily on the young applicants. Whispers broke out, brittle and sharp:
"Seriously injured? Is the school really willing to push us that far?"
"I didn't realize the 'safety' of the perimeter meant we'd be fighting monsters of his own making."
Mei Hongyi, undeterred by the mounting dread, pressed on. "The exam will last exactly one hour. After that, all remaining participants will be pulled back here, and the trial will conclude. Your total points will be displayed on this scoreboard." He raised a hand, and a massive, glowing projection ignited above the stage, listing two thousand names beside rows of empty zeros.
"The purpose of this exam is to evaluate your combat abilities and your judgment skills," Mei Hongyi explained, his tone sharpening into something steel-edged and stern. "Some of these Illusion Clones possess the strength of the late-stage Fang Realm. Additionally, there is one clone of Talon Realm hidden among them."
Gasps broke out among the applicants, followed by a burst of panicked discussion.
"A Talon Realm clone? That's absurd!"
"Running into that one would be the worst luck imaginable!"
"And even late-stage Fang Realm clones? Those are bad enough to take us out in one strike!"
"They're not kidding when they say the Peacock School's entrance exam is the hardest in the region."
Noticing the participants' wavering determination, Mei Hongyi cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him. "Ah, I almost forgot," he said, his voice taking on a more enticing tone. "There's one more thing. The participant who takes the top ranking, the one who earns the most points by the end of the exam, will receive this as a reward."
He extended his hand. A crimson, apple-sized gem appeared, hovering just above his palm. Its aura pulsed with a rhythmic, overwhelming energy that seemed to vibrate the very air, and the blood-red radiance it emitted was hypnotic, casting long, crimson shadows across the stage.
The crowd's collective breath caught as the heavy, metallic scent of high-grade monster essence reached their nostrils.
"A Talon-level monster core?! And it's from a late-stage Talon monster!" one participant exclaimed, his voice cracking in disbelief.
Mei Hongyi smirked, his eyes glinting with a merchant's satisfaction. "That's correct. This will belong to the first-place participant. But there's more. If any of you manage to defeat the Talon clone I mentioned earlier, you won't just earn ten points—you'll gain five thousand points instantly!"
"F-Five thousand?!" Excited shouts broke out as the crowd grasped the size of the reward.
A cultivator in the crowd, his mind racing, quickly calculated aloud, "If we form a fifty-person party and defeat this clone, we'd all pass the exam instantly!"
"That's correct," Mei Hongyi confirmed, his smirk widening as he watched the desperation turn into a frantic, collective ambition.
The revelation sent waves of frantic chatter through the participants. Many who were previously drowning in uncertainty now began scrambling to organize groups, eager to combine their meager strengths to overcome the Talon clone. Though they knew it was an almost insurmountable wall, the promise of five thousand points and guaranteed passage was a siren song too tempting to ignore.
While the average cultivators scrambled like ants to form parties, the top geniuses remained still, their eyes narrowing as they devised their own strategies. For them, five thousand points weren't just about passing—it meant securing the coveted first place and the priceless Talon-level monster core. The intensity in their eyes reflected a cold, singular ambition as they contemplated how to hunt the Talon clone, whether by daring solo feats or with a small circle of carefully chosen allies.