Admissions Test
The next morning, they were summoned to take an entrance test. The purpose of the test was to classify the new students according to their grades so that they could receive appropriate instruction. The classes were divided into Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow, with the Hidden Class not accepting students from outside the academy.
Upon arriving at the large open space outside the academy, a large number of people had already gathered, mostly teenagers around sixteen or seventeen years old. The first part of the event involved testing, where each teenager was asked to summon their life soul and reveal the rudiments of their condensed abilities for a life soul level assessment.
The one who stole the show was the little brat from the Lin family. At only ten years old, he actually revealed a powerful life soul. That life soul was a large, white crab, which was a top-grade Heavenly Life Soul Divine Beast called the Rampaging Crab.
As the test teacher announced the results, Niu Dingtian learned that the little brat's name was Lin Hao, which was supposedly given to him by his uncle.
The middle-aged woman standing not far away looked proud, while the middle-aged man lowered his head, looking embarrassed and as if he were in a very dishonorable situation. Later, Niu Dingtian learned that the crab's life spirit belonged to the Lin family, while the middle-aged man, although also surnamed Lin, belonged to a different caste, and his life spirit was a large green Giant Snake.
Generally speaking, the life soul is inherited through male bloodlines, unless a woman's bloodline has something extremely special about it. However, the Lin family's bloodline doesn't seem to have anything special about it, or rather, even if there are middle-aged women, they don't inherit it.
Then some things become quite intriguing. Several teachers present who understood the situation revealed strange smiles as they looked at the middle-aged man, their eyes filled with pity. This made the middle-aged man's face turn pale, then pale green.
There were five or six hundred new students of all ages enrolled this time. Even though each test only took one or two minutes, and all three testing sites started at the same time, it still took a whole morning to finish testing everyone.
The second test then took place at the foot of Great Cloud Mountain, where there was an artificial breeding farm inhabited by many mystical beasts. The academy's teachers had already placed a thousand bells in the farm beforehand.
The academy requires all students taking the test to enter the arena, search for bells, and return to this flat area the next morning to hand in the bells. The more bells they hand in, the better their score.
Then some rules were announced, such as allowing theft but not the purchase of goods with money, and then the test was announced to have begun. Some eager teenagers had already rushed down the mountain.
Niu Dingtian wasn't in a hurry and slowly walked down the mountain. Only then did he notice that Lin Hao, the little brat who was exempted from the test because of his young age, thought the test was fun and wanted to participate. So the middle-aged woman asked if an adult could accompany him. After receiving a look from the test teacher as if he were mentally challenged, she threw a tantrum. Finally, someone intervened and Lin Hao was allowed to skip and hop down the mountain as well.
Niu Dingtian didn't pay much attention to the little brat at first, but as he slowly walked down the mountain, a rock suddenly flew over and hit him. The rock was moving very fast, and luckily, Niu Dingtian's perception had been greatly enhanced after his transformation, so he managed to dodge it.
Looking back, I saw the little kid pick up another rock, a naive smile on his face, and throw it at Niu Dingtian, as if he considered throwing rocks a very fun game.
Unfortunately, this little brat, due to his psychic constitution, had communicated with a celestial soul in advance. With the soul's blessing and his usual consumption of various rare and precious herbs, this little brat possessed extraordinary strength.
If it were someone who had just awakened their life spirit, they might not be able to dodge such an attack from a stone. If struck in a vital spot, a stone with that kind of force could even be fatal.
Niu Dingtian watched the little brat who kept throwing stones with indifferent eyes. He took a slight step, but then sensed an extremely dangerous aura, an aura that seemed like a warning, yet also like a threat.
Niu Dingtian frowned, turned around, and strode away. Lin Shan watched the departing young man with an indifferent expression, then looked at Lin Hao, who was still searching for new amusement, and sighed, "Enjoy your last bit of fun."
Lin Shan touched a strangely shaped jade pendant in his pocket, looked up at the sky, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes. "If I could, I wouldn't want to either, but there's no other way, so I have to sacrifice you."
He started his fortune after finding this jade pendant when he was young. As he studied the jade pendant, its function gradually became clear to him. The bigger the trouble he caused and the more attention he received, the more energy the jade pendant contained, and it would also occasionally absorb large amounts of energy from unknown sources.
The first time, this jade pendant transformed his life soul from an ordinary red-clawed crab into a top-grade heavenly life soul divine beast Rampaging Crab.
After that, no matter what difficulties he encountered, he could use the energy in the jade pendant to help himself. He used more and more energy, and even some of the energy had no known source. However, at that time, he could not give up the jade pendant, nor did he want to.
To this day, the jade pendant no longer generates energy out of thin air; instead, it continuously absorbs energy. Although it receives considerable attention through its reputation, the energy generated by that attention is negligible and cannot fill the energy gap.
Whenever the energy deficit becomes too large, he will encounter a calamity. He can only keep causing trouble to gain attention, but causing trouble will only aggravate the calamity. He is completely drinking poison to quench his thirst. However, if he wants to discard the jade pendant now, he can feel that all the gaps will explode in an instant.
As time went by, the jade pendant absorbed more and more energy. Lin Shan gradually realized that all the energy he had squandered back then had to be replenished. However, he himself couldn't remember exactly how much he had squandered. If this continued, he would most likely die in a calamity because he couldn't repay the debt.
So long ago, he invested his energy again and got a stroke of good luck. He found a research notebook from an ancestor, which contained a Tribulation Substitution Method. This method involves finding a blood relative with the same life soul as oneself, then using various means to stimulate this relative and make their body spiritually connected. Finally, when the relative develops to a certain stage, one can transfer one's own fate to them.
In order to produce a substitute for the calamity, Lin Shan seduced his sister to ensure the purity of the bloodline and maximize the possibility of a Heavenly Grade Life Soul. Although the son born was not Rampaging Crab, he was still a different kind of Heavenly Grade Crab, and the energy required for modification was greatly reduced.
Subsequently, Lin Shan adopted the character "Hao" from his own name, Haotian Venerable, as his son's name. This marked the beginning of the transfer of calamities, from the initial name to the subsequent fate and tribulations, all of which would be transferred to Lin Hao.
Perhaps it was because of feelings of guilt that Lin Shan turned a blind eye to Lin Hao's excessive behavior, and even helped him, which could be considered a form of compensation. As for the others who were hurt as a result, what did it have to do with him?
"Just a few more months, just a few more months," Lin Shan sighed.