The Sphere of Illusionary Spell

The twenty-fifth test stage became silent, with no one daring to make a noise. Li Biao and his crew watched with a jaw drop. Even Jian Chen who was half a step away from achieving the first level of the natural Qi could not help feeling shocked. Because he knew well that punching a stone covered by the Power Armor, even if it was not a fist power that really destroyed the test stone at 15,000 Jin, but the actual punch weight of Xueming shouldn’t be lower than 7,500 Jin—the level close to the peak of a cultivator with the fourth level of the basic Qi—while Xueming was only a cultivator with the second level of the basic Qi. If he really broke through to the fourth level, Jian Chen believed that even a normal test stone would probably be crushed into pieces by this young man. Realizing this, he gulped down his own saliva, knowing that Li Biao's fury would definitely be cast upon him.

But then, everything that was expected did not happen because suddenly, Elder Buzhen who was in charge of the test soared toward the stage. He looked at Xueming with a strange expression as he saw the traces of the exploded stone, as well as the broken stone floor that was likely caused by Xueming's foot posture. However, when secretly checking the level of cultivation, he discovered that the boy had only the second level of the basic Qi cultivation, causing him to not pay much attention to Xueming and to think that the test stone must have had a problem that caused the explosion like this.

Elder Buzhen made a clear announcement ... that he had to take over the twenty-fifth test stage because of an accident with the test stone. Seeing Xueming's previous punches that were slightly below the threshold and the fact that the contestant was on the stage at the time of the accident, Buzhen thus announced Xueming as the person who passed the first round by recording the 1,000 Jin fist weight in his record.

Although it was not his real punch weight, knowing that he had qualified for the next round made Xueming very satisfied, unlike Li Biao who was extremely angry and grumpy. However, because he was also involved in the explosion, Li Biao did not dare going forward to protest. Instead, he could only keep his head down and vent his anger on his minions.

After the first round of the test on all stages finished, there were more than 1,400 contestants who passed the test. After that, outside disciples who were the test staff sorted out those who passed the test to go into the inner zone of the Azure Dragon Academy for the second round in which the Academy did not allow general audiences to participate. Only the great families had the right to follow into the Academy's inner zone.

The outer disciples of the Azure Dragon Academy brought all the qualifiers to a large stone room whose entrance had a large engraved sign which said ... The Sphere of Illusionary Spell.

In the Sphere of Illusionary Spell room, there were 10 spell platforms in total, all of which were arranged in a horizontal line formation. Every platform had the spell characters written on it in the same fashion.

When all the contestants entered the room, Elder Buzhen explained the requirements for passing the second round of the test. In this round, the examinees must face a beast with the first level of the basic Qi for one Ke (15 minutes). If they could survive until the time was over or kill the beast with the first level of the basic Qi, they would be considered as pass.

In this round, the person who controlled the mechanism of the Sphere of Illusionary Spell room was a senior disciple of the Azure Dragon Academy. The senior disciple position could only be obtained when the current disciple was over 25 years old and at the fifth level of the basic Qi but couldn’t yet reach the first level of the natural Qi. When one became older than 25 but couldn’t break through to the first level of the natural Qi, he wouldn’t be promoted to be an elder and lose the current disciple status. However, if he chose not to leave the Academy and continue his cultivation here, the Azure Dragon Academy may allow that, but he had to pay the price by working for the Academy. By serving the Academy, such a disciple would automatically obtain the senior disciple status. He would be respected and honored by most current students as he would be called ... Senior Brother. The senior disciple status would remain until the age of 35. If he could not break into the first level of the natural Qi, he would have to leave the Academy.

"I’m Senior Disciple Hong Kun, in charge of the Sphere of Illusionary Spell of the Azure Dragon Academy, and today I’ll supervise all of you during this test.” Hong Kun's voice was filled with pride to have performed an important role this year. And of course, after doing this crucial work for the Academy, he would receive extra compensation separate from his regular job. The ten Qi stones were an additional reward that he would receive from the Academy after completing the mission today.

As for Hong Kun who was already 30 years old, he needed to hurry to increase his strength and break through to the Pulse Harmonization level before the age of 35. And of course, the ten Qi stones obtained were extremely valuable because normally, he would get two Qi stones per month from his regular work (the same amount as a level-one outer disciple). Plus, the senior disciple did not have various missions to do like the current disciple. Therefore, in order for them to get this many stones to use for cultivation, they could only do so from this special occasion.

"Well, my fellow juniors, help me arrange the contestants and send them to me in rounds, ten people per round. I will allow them to experience the terrors of a beast with the first level of the basic Qi.” Hong Kun flashed a smile as he said his words because he knew that each year no more than two-tenths of the contestants would pass the test in this round.

"Yes, Elder Brother" The outer disciples who brought in the contestants all responded with an active voice. Known as the outer disciples, they looked strong and formidable in the eyes of the people outside the Azure Dragon Academy, but no one knew that their status in the Academy was very low. When there were so many new faces with the second level of the basic Qi for them to boss around, the outer disciples were certainly happy.

“The ten men in the front, step forward.” One of the outer disciples ordered. The identified contestants immediately followed the instructions, standing on the Sphere of Illusionary Spell. Then, Hong Kun put the incense sticks in front of them and said that by the time was over, has who not been ejected from the Sphere would be considered as pass in the second round.

After the introduction was finished, the second round of the test began. The first 10 contestants were all unable to stay on the Sphere until the time was up. Everyone's face turned pale from being attacked by the beast, severely injured, and pushed out of the Sphere before the incense stick was completely burned.

But when the contestants fell out of the Sphere, they found that all the events that happened were just an illusion caused by the spell. Some people even regretted that they should have endured the injury in the illusionary world to fight for a little longer so that they might have passed the test this year.

However, in reality, fighting in the illusionary world was not different from fighting in the real world. The sense of pain, even from the illusion of the spell, was the same as getting real injuries. If the subject was seriously attacked and the Sphere decided that he could no longer fight, it meant that the subject was defeated, and the Sphere would immediately eject that subject from the test platform. Saying that they should have pressed on with the fight was therefore only something to comfort themselves.

The tests on the platform continued in plain sight, but in secret, corruption was about to happen again.

"Senior Brother Hong Kun." Normally, Hong Kun already received respect from the outer disciples of the Azure Dragon Academy, but with the inner disciples was another matter.

"Ah ..." When an inner disciple was honoring him like this, he was surely satisfied. "Junior Brother Li Biao, what’s the matter?"

Li Biao grinned without responding because he knew that to negotiate bribery, using actions before words would be easier. He then put a bag of ten Qi stones into Hong Kun's hand. Of course, when Hong Kun opened it, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"This ... you’re giving me ..."

Li Biao made a hush gesture to calm Hong Kun down. "I just realize that Senior Brother has enough talent to ascend to the Elder position, and I’d regret it if that opportunity slipped away since the resources received per month are very few. "

Hong Kun nodded because he indeed had a problem with receiving too few Qi stones per month as Li Biao said. "But ... I hope you aren’t asking me to violate the Academy’s rules for helping your friend to pass the test."

Li Biao shook his head. "I don't dare to ask Senior Brother to do such a terrible act, just ..." Li Biao deliberately opened up the end of the sentence to tempt Hong Kun to take the bait.

"No need to say too much. We’re brothers. if the matter you’re requesting is not too much, feel free to talk." Hong Kun said as he put a bag of Qi stones in his own pocket.

When Li Biao found that the fish was hooked, he then leaned in and whispered in Hong Kun's ear. Of course, Li Biao's 10 Qi stones were enough to make Hong Kun nod his head to every word uttered by this villain of the Li family.