Magic City Tianyi Academy

June was already growing hot.

But it did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the examinees heading to Magic City Tianyi Academy.

As one of the few Duel Academies that did not require theoretical exam scores and only cared whether applicants passed the Duel Exam, this recently established academy had become a fallback option in the minds of many Soul Card Master examinees.

Any examinee who believed they had a talent for dueling came to try their luck.

But these examinees soon learned that a low entry threshold did not mean a low passing threshold.

"Are they insane?! It's just a Duel Exam! Do they really need professional players above Tier Three to serve as examiners?!"

When Tianyi Academy published the list of Duel Exam examiners as required, the internet instantly exploded. Many people thought it was a rumor and stubbornly insisted on coming to Tianyi Academy to see for themselves.

But reality could be cruel sometimes.

"Breeding poison insects! This is fucking breeding poison insects! This kind of academy doesn't treat examinees like people at all! There's no value in enrolling here. I'm not taking the exam!"

"Yeah, yeah! I'm not taking it either!" another person commented indignantly.

"A fellow traveler! May I ask what score you got on the theory exam?"

"Fifty-six!" the man replied proudly.

The Soul Card Duel theory exam was scored out of one hundred.

"Farewell!" The person who had started the discussion instantly deleted their comment. He had scored nine points on the theory exam.

In truth, many of those applying to Tianyi Academy were like this. Their theory exam scores were terrible, but they still wanted to enter the lucrative profession of Soul Card Master. Other Duel Academies had entry requirements, and Tianyi Academy was the only one they qualified to apply for.

When they learned that the examiners were Tier Three Soul Card Masters, some examinees who had traveled from far away to try their luck at Tianyi Academy nearly suffered mental breakdowns. They had applied while clinging to a sliver of hope and met the application requirements through a bit of luck, but reality told them that, despite not even being students of a Duel Academy, they would have to face Tier Three professional Soul Card Masters in such an important Duel Exam.

When Shen Sui got off the bus, he saw many students sitting outside the academy gates in utter despair.

The atmosphere outside the gates nearly made Shen Sui think he had gotten the timing wrong. How were there already failed examinees before the exam had even begun?

"Excuse me, is this Tianyi Academy?" Shen Sui asked, pulling his suitcase as he stopped a slightly chubby boy.

The people around them all cast him surprised looks.

Only then did Shen Sui realize that, among all these people, he was the only one dragging a huge suitcase, making him look completely out of place.

"Yes." Though dejected, the boy remained very friendly. "You're here for the Duel Exam too, right? I'd advise you not to get your hopes up too high. Tianyi Academy's examiners are all professional Soul Card Masters from Tianyi Club, and they're all Tier Three or above."

Professional Soul Card Masters were divided into nine tiers, similar to the ranks used in various professions in his previous life.

In the professional tournaments organized by the Soul Card Association, different classes of competition had rank requirements for Soul Card Masters. Tier One through Tier Three Soul Card Masters could only compete in C-Class Competitions, while the most eye-catching global Soul Card Duel events were all A-Class Competitions. Without a Tier Seven rank, one was simply not qualified to participate.

Because the Soul Card Duel industry was so prosperous, enormous numbers of talented people had flooded into it. The Soul Card Association had therefore established extremely strict tier-up rules. Only after accumulating enough points in competitions could one apply to the Soul Card Association for a set of five Tier-up Tournament matches. Winning three of those duels would earn the next-tier rank.

The reason the rules were so harsh was that victory and defeat in Soul Card Duels were sometimes closely tied to luck.

With good luck, even a low-tier Soul Card Master could defeat one of a higher tier.

With bad luck, even a Tier Nine powerhouse could brick for three turns and fail to play a single card.

"Tier Three Soul Card Masters? They actually came to serve as examiners? That's really extravagant." Shen Sui could not help frowning.

This sort of information should have been published online long ago. Otherwise, people could report the Soul Card Association for the Duel Exam being improperly administered.

It was just that Shen Sui had spent the past few days dealing with Alice and had no time to look into the examiners.

When Tianyi Academy had announced that it did not require theory exam scores, Shen Sui had guessed that it would probably increase the difficulty of the Duel Exam to limit the number of admitted students. But he had never imagined the difficulty would jump straight to Tier Three.

Even taking into account that most examinees were beginners and the examiners could not possibly use their full strength, the title of Tier Three alone was enough to make many people's psychological pressure skyrocket.

"Um, classmate, this suitcase of yours..." the boy finally could not help asking.

"Oh, I'm planning to move directly into the dorms after the exam," Shen Sui said. To maintain the number of cards in his deck, he had not chosen to sell any Life Cards over the past few days, so he did not have much money on him. That was why he had arrived at Tianyi Academy right on time. Once he passed today's Duel Exam, he could move into the dorms immediately.

Snickers immediately rose from the surrounding crowd.

Dressed as Shen Sui was, he did not look like someone whose elders at home had fed him cards, yet he was actually this arrogant.

Soul Card Duels had existed in this world for a long time and had long since formed a highly developed system. Naturally, such a mature system gave rise to many inherited families where children followed in their parents' footsteps. Such families would often commit to a single Soul Card World, then the older generation of Soul Card Masters would guide their Soul Card Followers to help the Soul Card Followers of younger novice family members—a practice commonly known as feeding cards.

Children from such wealthy families could often acquire many powerful cards through legal and reasonable means in a very short time, so naturally they could easily pass the Duel Exam.

Shen Sui merely smiled, paying no attention to the attitudes of these "failed examinees" who lacked the soul of a duelist.

He was still worried about Alice's trouble-attracting constitution.

This trouble-loving girl was taking every opportunity to train her Fireball Spell.

It had only been a little over a month in the Dawn Continent since she became a mage, yet Alice could already skillfully cast and control the Fireball Spell. She had even created a second-tier spell of her own.

Though she was still only a second-tier mage, Alice's control over fire had already become masterful. Once her strength increased and she gained higher-tier Fire Magic in the future, she would probably master it very quickly as well.

Naturally, Shen Sui was pleased by Alice's hard work, but he did not approve of her method of burning her way through every place she passed.

Yet she seemed to have that kind of constitution. Whenever she wanted to behave herself, someone would always come looking for trouble with her.

For example, during the bus ride just now, Alice had experienced twelve attempted highway robberies: three for money and nine for her body. The closer she got to Pa Yin Jia Lake, the more accidents she encountered. It was as though she had not even reached the City of Sin yet but had already entered the villains' stronghold.

Shen Sui was also helpless. This really did not seem to be Alice's fault. She had been forced to fight back every time, and against those villains, using Arson and Crushing Blow Targeting the Groin was entirely reasonable.

What worried him was whether Alice, a girl who had been repeatedly harmed by the Church, might suddenly become overconfident and run off to burn down a Church of the Lord of Thunder cathedral. Though he did not have much goodwill toward any gods or churches, if he wanted to cause trouble, he needed sufficient strength first.

Caught up in all this back-and-forth, he had not had the time to pay attention to information about the exam.

Of course, even if Shen Sui had known about the examiners, he probably would not have become as dejected as the other examinees.

Was he supposed to cry for his parents at the sight of a Tier Three Soul Card Master?

I'm going to become a Tier Nine Duel Master and stand atop the world championships someday. How could I fear a difficulty like this?

"What confidence, classmate!" The slightly chubby boy did not mock Shen Sui. Instead, he warmly extended a hand. "My name is Yue Tao. I hope we can become classmates."

Shen Sui shook Yue Tao's hand.

At that moment, a commotion in the distance interrupted their conversation.

The moment the academy gates opened, the group that had just declared they would not take the exam rushed into the examination venue first. Together with the people arriving afterward, there were roughly several thousand of them. By the end, Shen Sui could only move with the crowd and had no room to act freely.

Considering that this was only the first day of exams and there were still two more days to come, there were probably at least eight thousand, if not ten thousand, students applying to Tianyi Academy. Yet Tianyi Academy only planned to admit three hundred students this year. No wonder it had set such a high threshold.