Time flew like a white colt slipping through a crack; in the blink of an eye, Benjamin had been at Noren Academy for nine years.
For the apprentices of Noren Academy, nine years had been a journey from youthful inexperience to maturity.
For Benjamin, it had been cultivation: turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, and making the unknown his own.
Within this "stable" world, he had been like a submerged dragon in the abyss, concealing his edge. He poured all his energy into consolidating his Foundation Establishment cultivation, tempering his Rune Artifact, refining the Five-Skandha Rainbow Mirror, and deeply exploring the arts of Magic Potions and pill refinement.
When the summons for Noren Workshop's general assessment reached the various Academies, the edge Benjamin had kept sheathed for nine years finally found its moment to leave the scabbard.
The Noren Academy Benjamin attended was, more precisely, called Noren Academy No. 13.
As one of the stronger mid-tier institutions among the hundred-plus Noren Academies, it had dispatched elite apprentices—including Benjamin—who had ranked within the top ten percent in the previous trial for this general assessment.
Early that morning, Central Plaza was packed with apprentices.
Other than the apprentice aptitude test held every five years, this was the first time the plaza had ever been so lively.
Not only had the apprentices about to take Noren Workshop's general assessment gathered here; those who had failed to qualify could not resist coming to see them off as well.
Many new apprentices who had only recently joined Noren Academy stared at the crowd in the center of the plaza with shining eyes, and no small number of them had ambition blazing in their gazes.
By now, it was basically certain that Noren Workshop's assessment would likely become a regular occurrence in the future.
Likewise, in