Mental Power Test

The remaining two-plus months passed one day at a time.

Chen Chuan's days were divided into fixed blocks: up before dawn for drill, cross-country running, crawling, combat, first aid, and wilderness survival; back to the dormitory at night, shower, and fall straight into bed.

All he could do was make himself a little tougher, a little faster, and a little better able to endure hunger.

The base remained quiet throughout those two-plus months. The barrier glowed as usual, the sentries changed shifts as usual, and no one mentioned the word "messenger."

The booklet Gu Changgeng had given him said only "at the right time," not which day that would be. Chen Chuan stopped asking; there was no point.

That night, Chen Chuan was awakened by a chill.

Not cold, but cool. As though someone had slipped a block of ice under his covers.

He opened his eyes.

The lights were off. But a shadow stood beside his bed.

A little over two meters tall, wrapped from head to foot in a black robe of indiscernible material.

Chen Chuan's breath caught.

The dormitory door was closed. So was the window. Dozens of people lived in the building, and there was a sentry post at the end of the corridor. The footsteps of the changing guard had passed his door twenty minutes ago.

No alarm. No footsteps. Nothing.

It simply stood there, as if it had been there all along and he had only just noticed it.

Chen Chuan immediately sat bolt upright, his back against the wall. Days of training made him instinctively reach for the gun under his pillow.

As his hand touched the gun, an inexplicable feeling suddenly came over him.

Chen Chuan felt as though his body had been immobilized, and his skin crawled.

The next second, a black notice booklet appeared before his eyes.

Pitch-black and as thin as a cicada's wing.

When Chen Chuan looked up again, it was gone.

The space before his bed was empty, with only the chill lingering. Chen Chuan looked down—the small patch of concrete floor where it had stood was white, as though it had just been frozen.

Other than that, the room was exactly as it had been. The light was still broken, the same night patrol lights still shone outside the window, and not a sound came from the corridor.

No one knew what had just visited the room.

Chen Chuan sat on his bed, clutching the black notice, his palms slick with sweat.

He didn't turn on the light.

Nor did he rush to read it.

He first counted to thirty, and only after his heartbeat had slowed did he gradually unfold the booklet. A series of twisted patterns covered it, visible even without a light, a film of faint light floating just above the paper.

The top line read:

[Wizard Seed · Chen Chuan]

The line beneath it read:

[Plane of origin · Blue Star]

Below that were the instructions:

[1. Find a quiet place.]

[2. Lay this notice flat in front of you.]

[3. Focus your attention on the runes on the notice.]

[When you have finished reading, you will naturally enter the examination venue.]

At the very bottom was another line, smaller than all the others:

[You have only one chance.]

Chen Chuan stared at those lines.

He gave a quiet chuckle, folded the booklet, tucked it under his pillow, and lay back down.

He barely slept that night.

At first light the next day, he went to Gu Changgeng's windowless room.

The door was unlocked. The old man was already up, eating a bowl of thin porridge with pickles and dried fish.

"So early?" Gu Changgeng looked up, and his chewing slowed when he saw Chen Chuan's face. "Did something happen?"

Without a word, Chen Chuan put the notice on the table.

Gu Changgeng's gaze fell on the surface of the booklet.

He set down his bowl and chopsticks and stopped chewing.

He didn't touch the paper immediately. He merely stared at it for a few breaths before slowly reaching out.

His fingertips stopped a short distance from the paper, then withdrew.

"Where did it come from?"

"Last night," Chen Chuan said. "In my room."

"What time? How many people saw it?" Gu Changgeng pressed, the questions coming quickly. "What about the sentry post? Did the barrier sound an alarm?"

"No one." Chen Chuan shook his head. "I was alone in the room. It came and then left. The alarm didn't go off, the barrier didn't sound, and nothing happened to the sentry outside my door."

Gu Changgeng fell silent.

He took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on before staring at the paper again.

"What did it look like?"

Chen Chuan thought for a moment and answered truthfully, "I can't remember."

"Mm," Gu Changgeng said, as if he had expected as much.

"A plane messenger." He spoke each word distinctly. "It delivers only one thing and leaves as soon as it's done. It doesn't announce itself, doesn't wait for anyone, and doesn't come in through the door."

"Then the barrier..."

"It can't stop it," Gu Changgeng said calmly. "If it wanted to, it could stand at your bedside, and your sentry would still think no one was there."

A thin layer of sweat broke out on Chen Chuan's back.

Only now did he belatedly realize why Gu Changgeng's booklet hadn't said when it would come. There was simply no guarding against it.

"Four hundred years." Gu Changgeng pushed the paper back, tapping his fingertips on the table. "Blue Star hasn't produced a single Wizard Seed, so no one has seen it."

He paused.

"You were right to come find me before noon today."

That morning, the white hall was cleared.

Gu Changgeng sent away everyone he could. Only three people remained in the hall: Gu Changgeng himself, Chen Shaohua leaning against the wall, and Xiao Ya, who, for once, wasn't wearing a white uniform, with her hands in her pockets and her face paler than usual.

"The booklet calls for a quiet place." Gu Changgeng looked around. "From now on, we're the only ones in this area."

Chen Chuan took his place in the center of the hall and laid the sheet of black paper flat on the floor.

He stepped back half a pace and closed his eyes.

Mental power flowed out of his mind like water and spread over the paper.

The paper lit up.

It wasn't burning. It brightened inch by inch from within. The black paper turned gray, then white, and finally became a sheet of light without warmth—

Then the light scattered.

A rift opened where the light had scattered.

A black rift stood vertically in the center of the hall, its edges rimmed with flecks of white light, as if someone had torn a slit in the night.

No wind or sound came from within it.

Chen Shaohua instinctively stepped half a pace forward, but Gu Changgeng raised a hand to stop him.

"It'll close on its own," the old man said. "Don't touch it."

Chen Chuan looked back.

Gu Changgeng nodded to him.

"Those two people in your family," he said suddenly, then paused. "I'll remember."

Chen Chuan nodded too.

He turned back and stepped inside.

Behind him, the rift closed without a sound. In the white hall, only a small scorched patch remained on the floor, along with three people standing motionless.

The ground beneath his feet was black.

Not dark, but black—the floor was paved with black stone that stretched beyond sight. He looked up but could see no ceiling, only a few distant points of light that might have been lamps or stars.

The air was cool and very clean, without the slightest smell of dust.

Chen Chuan stopped and looked around.

There were people everywhere.

No, they couldn't be called "people."

Some were like him, with two legs and two arms, dressed in clothes whose planes of origin were impossible to tell.

Some were covered in fine scales; others had an extra, closed eye on their foreheads.

Another had two rows of bony spines projecting from his back. As he stood there, the spines kept extending and retracting.

Several hundred of them.

They were scattered throughout the black-stone hall. No one dared make a sound. Hundreds of pairs of eyes studied one another warily.

Chen Chuan held his breath and edged half a step into the shadows.

Then a voice rang out.

"Rang out" wasn't quite right—the voice didn't enter through his ears. It spread directly through his mind, like words being carved into bone.

[First trial · Mental power test.]

[Those who reach the threshold remain.]

[Those who fail to reach it will be sacrifices.]

The hall fell deathly silent.

A dais stood in the center of the hall.

It wasn't high, with three stone steps leading up to it. A black stone pillar about as tall as a person stood atop it. Its surface was rough, and there was no telling how old it was.

A very shallow groove ran across the first stone step below the dais.

No one moved.

After a long while, a tall figure at the front shifted his feet.

He climbed the stone steps and pressed his hand against the pillar.

The pillar remained still for a moment. Then a line of white light emerged from its base.

The white light climbed, slowly, past halfway, past two-thirds—

And stopped below the groove.

The man froze.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something.

The black stone moved first.

The slab beneath his feet sank soundlessly like melting mud.

He flailed once, unable to make so much as a sound before the blackness swallowed him.

The white light on the pillar receded.

The groove below the dais flashed once.

Chen Chuan's temples throbbed.

He felt as though something in his mind had swelled slightly.

He suddenly understood why the booklet had said this was a menu full of names.

Those who ate people and those who were eaten were separated right in front of this pillar.

The line moved forward.

Two passed, and one died.

When the person in front of Chen Chuan reached the front, she was short, with a profile that looked like a girl's, pale gray skin, and pointed ears.

She looked back at Chen Chuan and quietly said something in a language he couldn't understand.

Chen Chuan couldn't understand her, so he could only spread his hands.

She smiled too, then turned and climbed onto the dais.

She pressed her hand against the pillar.

The white light climbed.

Very slowly.

It stopped halfway.

Chen Chuan saw her shoulders slowly slump.

She didn't look back.

The black stone closed without making a sound.

It was Chen Chuan's turn.

He climbed the stone steps.

Three of them.

The stone beneath his feet was cold.

He pressed his hand against the black pillar.

The moment he did, a thought flashed through his mind.

Hopefully, the talent the system gave me is strong enough.

Otherwise, I'm done for.

The stone pillar went still for a moment.

Then white light rose.

It didn't climb slowly from the bottom—it shot from the base of the pillar to the top with a boom, then burst out, bathing the entire black stone hall in a pallid glow.

The light swept across the hundreds of faces in the hall. Everyone looked up.

Chen Chuan heard people all around him gasp.

Far away, high above, a few shadows seemed to stir on the platform he hadn't been able to make out before.

He withdrew his hand.

His palm was slick with sweat.

The light on the stone pillar receded bit by bit.

The notch below the platform shone dazzlingly bright.

The voice etched into his mind rang out again.

[Those who reached the mark, stay.]

[Second trial · Realm of Illusion]

Chen Chuan raised his head.

The distant lights in the hall were going out one by one.

Immediately afterward, a powerful white light flashed before Chen Chuan's eyes.