On the sixteenth day of the eighth month, outside Hexi Military Camp, the Examination Inspector dispatched by the court stood before the camp and continued reading aloud. "Those who qualified will verify their identities, sign a Life-and-Death Pledge, and proceed to the second round of assessment. All candidates must remember that every Martial Examination sees candidates beaten to death on the spot, with even greater numbers crippled or injured.
"If you feel your strength is insufficient or you are in poor condition, you may withdraw midway. Once an opponent concedes during an assessment, further attacks are forbidden-"
Compared with the relaxed atmosphere of the first day, the second day clearly carried a greater sense of grimness and gravity. Most candidates present looked much more solemn, too.
Even so, not a single qualified candidate withdrew. They each stepped forward to verify their identities and sign a Life-and-Death Pledge.
Having chosen to take the examination, they had already prepared themselves mentally. Martial artists would not shrink back at a time like this.
Now that Lin Hao had achieved force gathering, he was quite sensitive to such changes in atmosphere. He could not help reflecting, "No wonder those students from the Mountains and Rivers Martial Academy took the initiative to make friends, and Wu Xingyun and the others organized a dinner for people from their hometown before the examination.
"Although your own strength still matters most, the energy spent in every exchange is crucial to the matches that follow, especially for candidates whose strength isn't enough to overwhelm everyone else-"
Unlike the County Examination and Prefectural Examination, this Martial Examination, which could earn someone official status, involved genuine combat. It was also the most heavily weighted part of the assessment!
When signing the Life-and-Death Pledge, each candidate drew a number. Multiple platforms would