The Exam Begins

At the old building's exam site, the candidates waited until noon. The whole morning passed, but the exam still had not begun.

Some clever candidates thought the Academy might be doing this deliberately to test their patience and perseverance, and that it was probably part of their assessment. Most of the others agreed.

After all, the second round was graded by examiners, and how they awarded those grades was subjective. Perhaps they would judge each person's conduct outside the exam room as well as inside it. Of course, anyone who could beat the senior student assigned to face them would pass outright, with no need for further grading. Most candidates had no such ambitions. They just wanted to perform as well as they could.

The female teacher stood there the entire time, her posture unchanged for hours. The candidates below hardly dared move either. They could stretch a little when they went for water or used the restroom, but they did not dare go too often. Some held it in the whole time.

Then the teacher turned her head. Seeing someone outside beckon to her, she went out. A while later, she returned and said, "Candidates may take a half-hour break. Don't go too far from the exam site. It will be sealed at twelve forty-five. Anyone late will be disqualified."

The candidates finally breathed a sigh of relief and eagerly got up to move around. Sitting still for so long had been uncomfortable.

A stocky, round-faced boy got up and took a large bag of beef jerky from the bundle he had brought. Each strip was individually wrapped. He offered them to the candidates around him. "Here, have one. My family made this beef jerky. It'll keep you full."

He handed them out one by one. Chen Chuan was only a few seats away, so he received one too. He thanked the boy but did not eat it right away, slipping it into his pocket instead. He had eaten three tubes of Nutrient Paste before coming, and sitting all morning had used little energy. He was not hungry yet.

The boy enthusiastically went on handing jerky to the other candidates. Many were hungry after the long wait and accepted it with thanks.

Some refused, eating the food they had brought instead. Others gave him a hostile look and told him to go away.

The boy did not take offense. Still grinning, he pulled a stack of flyers from his bag and handed them to those who had accepted the jerky. If they liked it, he said, they could eat at his family's Han Family Restaurant. Wuyi Academy students would get half off, and anyone who passed the second round would eat for free.

After eating a little, the candidates could no longer keep quiet and began chatting. Fang Zhiming struck up a conversation with Chen Chuan, who sat beside him. "Chen, how many years have you trained?"

"Not long," Chen Chuan said.

"Me neither. There was an old man in our town who taught boxing. I got curious watching him and practiced along for a while. He said I had talent, so my parents mortgaged one of our houses to scrape together enough money to hire me a teacher. I trained every morning and evening for two years..."

He took a bite of jerky and continued through a mouthful. "Honestly, I'm not confident. I could hardly believe it when the school said I'd passed the first round. But my teacher said you're not really a Wuyi Academy student until you pass the second round. Passing the entrance exam alone doesn't count. Since I made it through the first round, I figured I'd give this a try."

Perhaps he was trying to ease his nerves, because once he started, he could not stop talking. Chen Chuan sat and listened without showing any impatience.

In Exam Room Three, Wei Dong heard the break announcement and sprang up. Instead of sitting or standing properly, he squatted on his chair and kept twisting around to look in every direction.

The candidate beside him was eating and already felt irritable. Finally unable to stand it, he said, "What are you looking at? Can't you get down? Doesn't that tire you out?"

"I know someone who's supposed to be here, but I haven't seen him," Wei Dong said. "Did he forget the exam was today?"

"There's more than one exam room," the candidate snapped. "Maybe the person you're looking for is in another one."

"There's more than one?" Wei Dong said, suddenly understanding.

The candidate felt as though a weight had lifted. But after a while, Wei Dong was still squatting there. Annoyed, he said, "Are you a monkey? Can't you sit down?"

"Are you insulting me? You just insulted me, didn't you?"

The candidate had a temper too. He shot to his feet. "So what if I did? Want to fight? I'll take you on!"

"Sure. Right now?"

Wei Dong jumped down, eager to begin.

Seeing how excited he was, the candidate froze. "Are you crazy?" he asked in a low voice. "Don't you want to take the exam? Aren't you afraid they'll disqualify you?"

Wei Dong only stared at him, as if nothing else mattered.

Realizing Wei Dong truly wanted to fight, the candidate felt his scalp prickle. He turned away and sat back down without another word. Forget it. He could not afford to provoke this guy.

Wei Dong seemed disappointed that he would not fight. He scratched his head, then left the room.

The candidate cursed him inwardly and hoped he would get lost on the way back.

The half-hour break passed quickly. At twelve forty-five, all four exam rooms were sealed again, and the candidates resumed their silent, agonizing wait.

Around one in the afternoon, Committee Member Jiang and his party emerged from a private room in the Academy cafeteria and headed toward the old building.

The teachers overseeing the exam finally saw him arrive, and the tension in the air eased. Teacher Ning, who had stayed beside him, asked cautiously, "Committee Member Jiang, can you sign now?"

Committee Member Jiang gave a grunt of assent.

An assistant immediately handed him the candidate list. After looking it over, he signed at the bottom. "Begin. Keep things moving. This isn't easy on the candidates, so we should be efficient."

Teacher Ning took the list and breathed a sigh of relief. He hurried aside and gave several assistant teachers instructions. They immediately rushed off.

The assistant stepped up to Committee Member Jiang. "Which exam room would you like to observe?"

"Let's see them all." Committee Member Jiang seemed to remember something. "Oh, I heard Rooms Three and Four are a little more difficult?"

"Yes. Quite a few of the candidates there are stronger, so we assigned some stronger senior students to those rooms."

"Let's start with Room One."

In Exam Room Four, the door was pushed open. An assistant teacher hurried in with a list and handed it to the female teacher. She took it, looked up, and said, "I'll start calling numbers now."

Soft cheers and sighs of relief spread through the room. One sharp sweep of her gaze silenced them. Nobody wanted to be thrown out now.

"Candidates whose numbers are called, go to your assigned exam stations. Number 115, Number 218, and Number 93, go to Station One. Number 3, No. 9, and Number 492, go to Station Two. Number 207, Number 100..."

As she called out the numbers, the candidates realized the second round was not proceeding in numerical order. Chen Chuan immediately understood: even those scheduled for later could not relax. They had to stay alert the entire time. The Academy had probably arranged it that way deliberately.

From the numbers being called, it was clear that Exam Room Four had five stations, numbered one through five. That matched the information they had received about the five senior students, though there was no telling which one they would face.

A door near the back of the room, on the side facing farther into the building, opened for the first time. The first group of candidates whose numbers had been called went through it and followed a broad, rectangular corridor toward their respective stations.

Only seven or eight minutes later, another group of numbers was called. The exam seemed to be moving quickly.

As it continued, however, injured candidates began to appear. The Academy did not conceal them. Through the open door and windows, everyone could see candidates being carried out, unconscious or with broken bones.

The candidates had already seen injuries during the entrance exam, and the second round was bound to be stricter. Nearly all of them had prepared themselves for this.

An hour later, the senior students conducting the assessments rotated out. The candidates were allowed to rest during the changeover. Information about the senior students was posted on a notice board, and once the candidates saw it, they began discussing it.

"Passing today won't be easy. There's a senior student at Station Three named Tai Dongwei. My brother told me he's really strong and especially good with his fists and feet. I don't want to face him."

Many candidates nodded. The information sheet offered few details, but Tai Dongwei's listed height of 1.95 meters and weight of 98 kilograms were intimidating enough.

Most of them were still teenagers whose bodies had not fully developed. Even with training, they were nowhere near their peak in strength or physique, let alone experience. Against someone like that, they might not last a single exchange. Without a chance to show what they could do, what would the examiners have to grade?

"Zhou Xinrou at Station One is 1.85 meters tall and weighs 82 kilograms. She's a third-year student who specializes in joint locks. They say the candidates with broken joints faced her."

"And there's Zhong Wu at Station Five. He's even more ridiculous—2.02 meters tall and 221 kilograms. A third-year who specializes in throws and grappling. Isn't that way beyond what we're supposed to handle?!"

The candidates went pale, sweat beading on their foreheads. They hurriedly reread the information sheets, hoping to spot something they could use.

Chen Chuan thought it over. Since the senior students conducting the assessments rotated out to rest, only a small portion of the candidates would face these particular students.

But the numbers were not being called in order. Perhaps each matchup had been arranged in advance.

He looked at Fang Zhiming, who was studying the information sheet nervously. "Fang, did you accept funding from the Mutual Aid Society?"

"Hm? Oh, that..." Fang Zhiming scratched his head. "My dad told me not to trust sponsors who offer to lend you money without being asked, so I didn't accept..."

Chen Chuan murmured in acknowledgment. If his suspicion was right, the candidates who would have to face these senior students were likely the ones who had refused the Mutual Aid Society—including him.