Chapter 421
Chapter 421: Height Is A Fatal Blow
Translated by Rachel of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao had only been in ZhongTian for no longer than a few days, so they didn’t know the grudges they had between them. But the sparks colliding in the air didn’t lie. Even outsiders like them could sense the tense atmosphere.
“This person looks very powerful, I’m so nervous!”
“Yeah!”
You XiaoMo subconsciously responded to the voice beside his ear, only realising what he had done later. He turned his head, only to see the youth from the second test standing behind him since god knows when. Catching his gaze, the youth smiled.
“Hello, I’m Yan Hui.”
“…” You XiaoMo’s brain stopped functioning for a moment.
Seeing as he got no response, YanHui scratched his head and smiled sheepishly, “I’m from Dong Zhou. I came to Zhong Tian specially to participate in XiaoYao Institute’s admission test. What about you?”
It couldn’t be… This guy thought he found a ‘comrade’ because he was also alone?
You XiaoMo felt he had uncovered the truth. But seeing as he was so enthusiastic, he didn’t have the heart to no reply him.
“I’m You XiaoHa. I come from the Southern Continent.”
“The Southern Continent?”
Yan Hui paused for moment before he suddenly asked in surprise, “Your surname’s You? Can it be that you are part of the Vermillion Blood Clan? I heard they also have You as their surname.”
“No, I’m not familiar with the Vermillion Blood Clan.” You XiaoMo denied immediately. While he might be related by blood, there wouldn’t be a connection anymore after he rescued Feng ChiYun and found his so-called father.
“Oh,” Yan Hui said in pity.
“Look at the test, it has started.” You XiaoMo quickly pointed out.
Yan Hui’s attention was immediately redirected.
Jiu Ye was very tall. The place where the colored strip appeared was just above his eyes, and he could just see it if he raised them. His colored strip was similar to Qiao WuXing. It jumped directly from pink to blueish-green and as it stretched towards where Qiao WuXing last stopped, it was still rising up slowly.
Three minutes later, the coloured strip broke through the fourth square and started to turn pale blue, only stopping when it reached a quarter of it.
Rainbowed Fifth Grade. A high grade.
Currently, it was the highest grade. While it was still two grades away from Seventh grade, it was only a matter of time.
Jiu Ye stared at the color strip and frowned. When he saw that the colored strip had really stopped, he released his hold. He was number one now, but he wasn’t satisfied with his result.
“Congratulations fellow Jiu Ye!” Qiao WuXing walked in front of him and cupped one hand in the other to congratulate him. His dimples were deep on his face, so he probably was congratulating him genuinely?
“Thanks!” Jiu Ye turned his head around to look at him and muttered his thanks coolly. Then, he walked away and left.
“What a hateful person! WuXing-gege congratulated you in person and you show him such attitude! What’s so great about Fifth grade! Hmph!” The young girl stuck her tongue out at him.
“Tian Xin, don’t be so rude!” Qiao WuXing chided her.
“Oh fine, fine.” The young girl laughed.
Elder Qing’s face was full of smiles.
“Not bad, the Rainbowed fifth grade is the highest grade in a thousand years. I hope you continue to work hard and strive to break through the fifth grade.”
“Thank you for kind words.” A faint smile spread across Jiu Ye’s face as he cupped his hands together to receive his blessings.
Elder Qing stroked his beard and nodded. As his gaze left him and landed on the last person, which was also You XiaoMo, he called for him.
“You must be the last one already, come here.”
Once he had given the order, WanYa and the other three looked towards You XiaoMo at the same time. This youth who had broken the stone plate record, even beating Jiu Ye’s record by a long way, how high would his grade be? Could it be higher than Jiu Ye’s?
“His grade definitely won’t be higher than Jiu Ye’s”, An Qiao gritted out. His claim wasn’t unfounded as the level of the soul wasn’t as easy to level up as a Mage’s level. Every grade up was as hard as ascending the heavens.
“We’ll see.” Zhang LanYu said.
Under everyone’s gaze, You XiaoMo walked towards the testing stone. He just knew that being the last person was going to be the most stressful, especially with Jiu Ye being tested to be a fifth grade. His stress level was as high as the mountains!
You XiaoMo extended his hand to touch the testing stone. The higher the grade, the better. I shouldn’t be that bad, he thought to himself. From the Long Xiang Continent to the Tong Tian Continent, his whole journey had been very smooth sailing.
His original goal was to earn enough money to keep himself alive, but later on money came too easy. So he changed his goal. He thought he would just take whatever he could one step at a time. It was only until he met Ling Xiao did he want to get stronger and climb to greater heights.
You XiaoMo knew what he could do was refine pills and he wanted to refine even higher grade magic pills that could help Ling Xiao. So if his grade was too low, he worried that he wouldn’t be of use in the future. He couldn’t help but feel uneasy when that thought came to mind.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing as he hadn’t moved at all, Elder Qing asked.
“Sorry!” You XiaoMo didn’t dare to stall anymore. He immediately placed his hand on the stone and channeled his soul power. After he did that, he raised his head and stared at the grid above that the coloured strip was about to appear from.
Unlike others who could see it without raising their heads, he had to. His height was forever a pain in his heart, You XiaoMo thought bitterly.
The colored strip started to elongate and when it changed from yellow to green and started to advance, something flashed across Wan Ya’s eyes. As expected, his grade was higher than hers.
The expressions on people’s faces slowly turned to shock. The speed at which the colored strip continued to lengthen did not show any signs of slowing down. A few seconds later, it happily crossed the green square…
You XiaoMo gulped as he stared hard at the colours. Even if he wasn’t a sixth or seventh grade, a fifth grade would be fine too. At most he could slowly cultivate. But please don’t let it be a fourth grade or else it really wouldn’t be worth it, You XiaoMo prayed.
As if his prayers had been heard, the green square was full and the blue square was steadily being filled up, carrying You XiaoMo’s hope along with it as it inched forward. He had easily surpassed Jiu Ye’s grade and his was still moving forward!
Everyone held their breaths. The blue square was full and the next was the purple square. You XiaoMo only felt that that the moment was exceptionally long. His eyes were tired from staring at the coloured strip with blinking and his neck hurt from craning to watch it. In the end, he couldn’t resist blinking and tears started to fall. Afraid that others would see, he wiped away the tears at the corner of his eyes. Then, he raised his head again. Huh? It stopped?
“Only a sixth grade? Why not seventh?” You XiaoMo licked his bottom lip in disappointment.
The room went deathly silent.
You XiaoMo finally realised something was off and saw everyone staring at him. Feeling uneasy, he stuttered, “Wh…why are you looking at me?”
“Fellow You, sixth grade is already very good.” Qiao WuXing didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at his word.
At his words, You XiaoMo rubbed his nose awkwardly. His final goal was the seventh grade, the highest one of course!
“But that’s not what I want to talk about.” Seeing as he still had no clue what was going on, Qiao WuXing couldn’t help but sigh.
You XiaoMo was thoroughly confused.
“The test isn’t over, why did you move your hand away?” Qiao WuXing asked tiredly.
To be honest, when Qiao WuXing saw the colored strip turning purple his heart almost stopped. Just when he was thinking where the limit of You XiaoMo’s colour strip was, the progress of the color strip stopped moving without any warning.
For a moment, he did heave a sigh of relief. Because if his color strip really did reach the legendary seventh grade, he really couldn’t imagine it. But then he realised that You XiaoMo had actually removed his hand from the testing stone just to wipe away the tears at the corner of his eyes. Couldn’t he have used the other hand?
You XiaoMo saw him staring at his right hand and he immediately hid it behind his back as if he got an electric shock. He was too used to using his right hand.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it.” He said sheepishly.
Just when he finished speaking, the red curtain behind the crowd was lifted. A thirty something year old man walked in and found that everything seemed to have come to a standstill. Feeling a bit overwhelmed and having no idea what to do, the man started to suspect whether he was even at the right place.
Elder Qing was the first to notice his presence.
“Come here. You’re just in time for your turn.” He called in a deep voice.
You XiaoMo actually wanted to ask if he could be tested again, but since Elder Qing had already spoken, he could only give up on that. He retreated to the side sulkily.
When the other man took the test, it was revealed that he had the lowest grade. Although it was only the first grade, it still got him so emotional that tears of excitement almost flowed out. He probably never expected himself to possess the legendary coloured soul.
After that, Elder Qing told them about the timing of the third assessment before they were dismissed.
Qiao WuXing invited You XiaoMo to leave together.
“Fellow You, you really are the prime example of not judging a book by its cover. I’ve really learnt something today.”
You XiaoMo laughed dryly.
“What are your plans after you get into XiaoYao Institute? I’ve heard from WuShuang that you’re here to learn about Beast Transfiguration.” Qiao WuXing continued.
WanYa and her group immediately had their ears perked up to listen.
“That’s right,” You XiaoMo placed a hand on his head.
“Beast Transfiguration Technique and Beast Manipulation are different but they achieve the same result. Are you interested in learning ?” The dimples on Qiao WuXing’s face sunk in even more.
“Beast Manipulation is not something that everyone can learn. If you specialise in refining pills, it’s best not to distract yourself with these junk stuff. Or else it would affect your level.” Jiu Ye’s voice suddenly sounded.
“How is Beast Manipulation is a junk stuff?” Qiao WuXing raised his brow.
JiuYe coolly lifted his lower lip.
You XiaoMo looked at the two of them and he could somewhat feel the tension in the air. He quickly said, “Sorry, my friend’s waiting for me outside. I’ll make a move first” and he ran.