An Exam Where Fewer Than One in Ten Remain—Please Vote!

Realizing the other party had misunderstood, Lin Xuan immediately looked at Li Xin.

Li Xin patted Lin Xuan on the shoulder, signaling that he needn't mind it, then turned to Minister Tong with an odd expression. "Xuanxuan is a junior in my family. He's only three this year and came to take the Spark Program assessment."

"..."

Minister Tong froze on the spot upon hearing that.

He had truly embarrassed himself this time. He had mistaken a three-year-old child for a mysterious powerhouse—and in front of Gao Yang, no less.

He was certain that Gao Yang would mock him over this for years to come... Well, there was no need to wait for the future.

Gao Yang had already slapped his thigh and burst out laughing, even imitating his tone. "This esteemed gentleman looks rather unfamiliar..."

"Gao, you idiot, that's enough. Don't force me to spill all your dirty laundry!" Minister Tong said darkly.

"What dirty laundry?" Li Xin asked curiously.

"Nothing, nothing. I'll stop laughing, all right?" Gao Yang panicked a little as well and immediately shot Minister Tong several meaningful looks.

Only then did Minister Tong refrain from continuing. He then asked in surprise, "But putting that aside, are you serious... You really intend to let this little guy take the Spark Program assessment?"

"Of course we're serious," Li Xin confirmed.

"All right, then. Good luck to you."

Minister Tong shrugged, declining to comment further.

The reason he had mistaken Lin Xuan for some mysterious powerhouse who, like himself, had regained his youth was because it had never even occurred to him that Lin Xuan was here for the Spark Program assessment. His age was right there, after all.

There had previously been a five-year-old Wang Family Prodigy who passed the assessment, but that had ultimately been an isolated case and proved nothing.

Besides, Lin Xuan was two years younger than that Wang Family Prodigy and looked incredibly weak. It was hard for Minister Tong to connect him with the assessment at all.

He would rather believe that Lin Xuan, like himself, had regained his youth than believe that this child was truly an examinee recommended by the Crimson Flame Tianhai Branch.

However, everyone soon put this little incident behind them, and Lin Xuan also learned Li Xin's identity from her.

This Minister Tong was named Tong Jincheng. He was the deputy director of the Crimson Flame Colorful Cloud Province Branch and held the same rank and status as Gao Yang.

Moreover, he had joined Crimson Flame during the same era as Gao Yang and Li Xin. They had all been outstanding figures of their generation.

Just from the way Gao Yang and Li Xin interacted, it was clear that all of them were quite familiar with one another.

Unlike the Xia Kingdom of Lin Xuan's previous life, Great Xia had thirty-six provinces, aside from special regions such as Skysea Island.

However, because its total population was larger, each province actually had a higher population than the average in his previous life.

Colorful Cloud Province lay in the southwest of Great Xia and was also a frontier region. Compared to central provinces like North Heaven, it was certainly somewhat less developed.

Yet with the emergence of the Old Soil, frontier regions like Colorful Cloud Province possessed more "bridges."

This allowed those previously underdeveloped and relatively remote regions to transform overnight into major extraordinary provinces!

"That Ma Kun from before seemed to have impersonated an agent from the Colorful Cloud City Public Security Bureau?"

After learning Minister Tong's background, Lin Xuan recalled the dangerous individual who had impersonated a Colorful Cloud City Public Security Bureau agent not long ago.

Colorful Cloud City was also the provincial capital of Colorful Cloud Province, one of the few provinces whose provincial capital shared the same name.

Tong Jincheng had also led a team here for the Spark Program assessment. As a major extraordinary province, Colorful Cloud Province naturally had no shortage of extraordinary geniuses.

The Crimson Flame Colorful Cloud Province Branch alone had brought ten people, using up all of its allocated slots.

And that was only through the Crimson Flame route.

After all, the Spark Program was not organized by Crimson Flame. The Crimson Flame headquarters was merely one of the joint organizers.

That was why each regional branch had been given a number of recommendation slots. Every provincial-level branch had received ten recommendation slots, while Skysea Island had received five due to its special circumstances.

On the way here, Lin Xuan had heard Li Xin, Gao Yang, and Xing Taisen discussing this.

Skysea Island alone had roughly twenty or thirty people taking the Spark Program assessment.

As Skysea Island's underground island lord, Xing Taisen had plenty of ways to secure a recommendation slot for Xing Yan even without going through Gao Yang.

Of course, given the friendship they displayed, it would have been rather inappropriate for Xing Taisen to bypass Gao Yang and seek someone else out.

"Skysea Island alone has twenty or thirty people taking the assessment. Averaged across thirty-six provinces, each province probably has fifty or sixty participants, not even counting those special regions."

Having figured out Tong Jincheng's situation, Lin Xuan began analyzing the Spark Program's elimination rate. "By that calculation, there should be no fewer than a thousand people taking the assessment this time, yet only one hundred will remain in the end. In other words... fewer than one in ten."

Realizing that the elimination rate was as high as ninety percent, Lin Xuan understood why everyone had been so surprised upon learning that he was an examinee.

Even if the assessment was not simply about comparing strength and involved many other considerations, three years old was clearly still far too young.

Still, surprised as he was, Tong Jincheng did not say much more.

In his eyes, Lin Xuan was clearly someone who would be eliminated in the first round. Perhaps his family had simply sent him here to experience life.

Even if he was eliminated, it was no big deal. Participation was what mattered.

On the third day after Lin Xuan and the others arrived at the Imperial Capital, the third round of the Spark Program assessment officially began.

The Spark Program assessment consisted of four rounds in total. Each round would retain only twenty-five people, while each round had roughly between two hundred and fifty and three hundred examinees.

The Crimson Flame Tianhai Branch had been assigned to the third round. Before this, two rounds of assessments had already taken place.

The repeatedly mentioned Lingnan Wang Family Prodigy had successfully passed the assessment in the second round, and the news had shocked quite a few people.

Although a candidate nearly seven years old had passed in the first round, it was an entirely different matter compared to the five-year-old Wang Family Prodigy.

Thus, when the three-year-old Lin Xuan appeared among the candidates, many people immediately noticed him.

"Hey, hey, hey, is this for real? Doesn't that kid look even younger than the Wang Family Prodigy?"

"Not just look younger—he is younger. I just asked around. He was recommended by the Crimson Flame Tianhai Branch, and he's three this year."

"Three?!"

"The director of the Crimson Flame Tianhai Branch is Gao Yang, right? That guy may be a little foolish, but he doesn't seem like the type to seek attention. How could he..."

"Who knows? Maybe he saw the Wang Family Prodigy pass the assessment and assumed anyone could do it... Just treat it as a spectacle."

Senior members of various factions who noticed Lin Xuan began discussing him, but none of them took it too seriously.