Magic City Tianyi Academy

The June weather was already somewhat hot.

But it could not dampen the enthusiasm of examinees heading to Magic City Tianyi Academy.

As one of the few duel academies that did not require theoretical exam scores and only cared about whether one passed the Duel Exam, this newly established academy had become a safety school in the minds of many Soul Card Master candidates.

All examinees who believed they had dueling talent came to try their luck.

But soon, these examinees would learn that a low entry threshold did not mean a low passing threshold.

"Are you insane?! It's just a Duel Exam! Do you really need to have professional players above Tier 3 serve as examiners?!"

When Tianyi Academy released the list of Duel Exam examiners as per regulations, the internet instantly exploded. Many thought it was a rumor and refused to believe it, insisting on coming to Tianyi Academy to see for themselves.

But reality was sometimes this cruel.

"Raising monsters! This is damn raising monsters! This kind of academy doesn't treat examinees as human at all! There's no value in enrolling—I'm not taking the exam!"

"Right, right! I'm not taking it either!" another person commented indignantly.

"Same here! May I ask what your theoretical exam score was?"

"56!" that person replied proudly.

The Soul Card Duel theoretical exam had a full score of 100.

"Farewell!" the first person instantly deleted his comment. His theoretical exam score was 9.

In truth, many of those applying to Tianyi Academy were exactly this type of examinee—their theoretical exam scores were abysmal, but they still wanted to become Soul Card Masters, a lucrative profession. Other duel academies had entry thresholds, leaving only Tianyi Academy as an option.

When they learned the examiners were Tier 3 Soul Card Masters, some examinees who had traveled thousands of miles to try their luck at Tianyi Academy even had mental breakdowns. They had clung to a sliver of hope in applying, scraped by on a bit of luck to meet the requirements, but reality told them that as people who weren't even duel academy students yet, they would face a Tier 3 professional Soul Card Master in such an important Duel Exam.

When Shen Sui got off the bus, he saw many students sitting at the academy gate, mentally broken.

The atmosphere at the school gate almost made Shen Sui think he had miscalculated the time—how could there already be failing examinees before the exam even started?

"Excuse me, is this Tianyi Academy?" Shen Sui, pulling a suitcase, stopped a slightly chubby male student.

The people around cast surprised glances.

Only then did Shen Sui notice that among these people, he was the only one dragging a huge suitcase, looking completely out of place.

"Yes." The boy was dejected but still friendly. "You're here for the Duel Exam too, right? I'd advise you not to have high expectations. Tianyi Academy's examiners are all professional Soul Card Masters from the Tianyi Club, and they're at least Tier 3."

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

In the Soul Card Association's professional competitions, different levels of matches had tier requirements for Soul Card Masters. Those from Tier 1 to Tier 3 could only participate in C-Class Competitions, while the most eye-catching world-class Soul Card Duel events were all A-Class Competitions, requiring at least Tier 7 to even qualify.

Because the Soul Card Duel industry was so prosperous, it had attracted a flood of talent. The Soul Card Association had set very strict Tier-up Tournament rules: only by accumulating enough points in matches could one apply to the Association for a total of five Tier-up Tournament rounds. Winning three of those duels would grant the next tier.

The reason for such strictness was that victory in Soul Card Duels sometimes depended heavily on luck.

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

With bad luck, even a Tier 9 powerhouse might get stuck for three rounds without being able to play a single card.

"Tier 3 Soul Card Masters? Using them as examiners? That's extravagant." Shen Sui couldn't help frowning.

This kind of information should have been posted online early on; otherwise, someone would report the Duel Exam to the Soul Card Association for improper organization.

But Shen Sui had spent the last few days tangled up with Alice and had no time to look into the examiners' situation.

When Tianyi Academy didn't require theoretical exam scores, Shen Sui had guessed they might increase the difficulty of the Duel Exam to limit enrollment numbers, but he never expected the difficulty to start at Tier 3.

Even considering that most examinees were beginners and the examiners wouldn't use their full strength, just the title of Tier 3 was enough to skyrocket many people's psychological pressure.

"Hey, about that suitcase of yours..." the boy finally couldn't help asking.

"Oh, I plan to move into the dormitory right after the exam." Shen Sui said. To maintain his deck's size, he hadn't sold any Soul Cards in recent days, so he didn't have much money on him. He had timed his arrival at Tianyi Academy so that once he passed today's Duel Exam, he could move into the dormitory on the spot.

Snickers came from around him.

With Shen Sui's appearance, he didn't look like someone whose family elders fed him cards, yet he was this arrogant.

Soul Card Duels had existed in this world for a long time and were already a very mature system. And a mature system naturally gave rise to many inheritance families where "the son follows the father's trade." These families would often fix on one Soul Card World, and the older generation of Soul Card Masters would guide their Soul Card Followers to help the younger generation's Soul Card Followers—commonly known as card feeding.

Children born into such wealthy families could often obtain many powerful cards legally and quickly in a very short time, naturally passing the Duel Exam with ease.

Shen Sui smiled, ignoring the attitudes of these "failed examinees" who lacked the soul of a duelist.

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

This girl who loved stirring up trouble was using every opportunity to practice her Fireball Spell.

Since she became a mage, in just over a month on the Dawn Continent, Alice had already mastered using and controlling the Fireball Spell, even creating a Tier 2 spell on her own.

Though still only a Tier 2 mage, Alice's control over fire was already superb. When she advanced and obtained higher-tier Fire Magic in the future, she would likely master it very quickly.

Shen Sui was certainly pleased with Alice's hard work, but he didn't approve of her habit of burning everything along the way.

Yet she seemed to have this kind of constitution—whenever she wanted to keep a low profile, someone would always come looking for trouble.

For instance, just during the bus ride here, Alice had experienced twelve roadside robberies: three for money, nine for her virtue. The closer they got to Pa Yin Jia Lake, the more incidents they encountered, as if they had stumbled into the stronghold of criminals before even reaching the City of Sin.

Shen Sui was helpless—it really wasn't Alice's fault. She was always forced to fight back. Against those thugs, using arson and a Crushing Blow Targeting the Groin was perfectly reasonable.

What worried him was whether this girl, who had been hurt many times by the Church, might suddenly get overconfident and burn down a Church of the Lord of Thunder cathedral. Though he had no goodwill toward any gods or churches, causing trouble required sufficient strength first.

Caught up in this back-and-forth, he hadn't had time to check the exam information.

Of course, even if Shen Sui knew the examiner's information, he probably wouldn't be as dejected as the other examinees.

Scared of a third-rank Soul Card Master to the point of crying for mom and dad?

In the future, I'm going to become a ninth-rank Duel Master and top the world championship—how could I be afraid of a difficulty like this?

"Classmate, that's some confidence!" The slightly chubby boy didn't mock Shen Sui. Instead, he enthusiastically extended his hand and said, "My name is Yue Tao. I hope I can become your classmate."

Shen Sui shook hands with Yue Tao.

At that moment, the clamor in the distance interrupted their conversation.

As soon as the academy's gates opened, the group that had just said they wouldn't take the exam rushed into the testing grounds first. Adding in the people who trickled in afterward, a rough estimate put the crowd at several thousand. In the end, Shen Sui could only move along with the flow of people, with no room to move freely.

Thinking about it, this was only the first day of exams, with two more days to go. The number of students applying to Tianyi Academy probably numbered no less than eight to ten thousand, yet the academy planned to enroll only three hundred students this year. No wonder they set such a high bar.