Cultivation Fever 22 Tes

"Li, Dong. Shao, Fu. Rot, Pjeter. Du, Yijun. Minniti, Romeo. Xun, Rong…"

He continued down the list until he reached ten names. I noticed that the majority of the names sounded similar to Chinese, with a few exceptions.

The kids stood in a haphazard queue at the bottom of the steps.

"Li, Dong."

Li Dong walked up the steps and stood there, confused.

"Go on. Put your hands on the testing crystal," Wu impatiently instructed.

Li Dong walked up to the crystal and tentatively placed his hands on it. It started glowing, and he yelled out in shock, then collapsed after a few seconds.

Many different coloured orbs formed inside the crystal. The largest one was gold, but not by much. The orbs quickly faded, and the crystal went back to normal.

Chairman Liu called out a few words,

"Qi force 43, affinity 22%. Fail."

Guards filed into the main hall, and the first one walked up to the stage. He picked up the kid, then marched out.

Davide leant closer to me and whispered,

"I didn't know it made you pa.s.s out…"

"Yeah…" I responded absent-mindedly.

I was more interested in the results. The orbs seemed to represent affinities, and gold must be the affinity they were looking for. I started getting excited, wondering what my result would be.

"Shao Fu!"

He crept up the stairs and reached out to the crystal, seemingly a bit scared after Li Dong had pa.s.sed out.

"Qi force 71, affinity 12%. Fail." Another guard dragged him out.

"Rot, Pjeter!"

"Qi force 58, affinity 40%. Fail."

"Du, Yijun!

"Qi force 82, affinity 60%. Pa.s.s!"

Du Yijun was carried through a door on the right, and an excited hum built in the crowd.

Wu called out the next name, and chairman Liu continued.

The list kept droning on, fail after fail, only about one in ten kids pa.s.sing. The same coloured orbs kept cropping up: gold, green, orange, blue, and yellow.

"Yao, Daiyu!"

"Qi force, 162! Affinity, 92%! Pa.s.s!"

A gasp of awe spread among the crowd, as Yao Daiyu crumpled to the floor without a sound. Her long black hair pooled over her dress and onto the floor.

She was picked up by a guard and her hair looked like a waterfall.

A sharp elbow dug into my side. I turned to see Davide, eyes wide.

"Did you see that! I thought only we were gonna get scholars.h.i.+ps."

"Yeah… but there's gotta be a few more right?"

Davide snorted and let out a little giggle.

"Big bro, are you nuts?"

I shook my head and looked back to the platform.

"Zhou, Yon. Tang, Ah. Schwarz, Oscar…"

My heart skipped a beat, and I pushed my way through the crowd to get to the front. Why was I so nervous? It was just a test!

"Good luck big bro!"

Davide's tiny voice somehow reached my ears and calmed me down. I had a few seconds in the queue to think.

Father said I should use a fifth to a quarter of my qi, and I wanted to play it safe. The criteria were higher this year, and I wanted that scholars.h.i.+p, whatever it was.

I let out 200 drops, adding it to the qi already in my body.

"Schwarz, Oscar!"

Climbing up the steps, I ignored Wu's angry gaze, and walked straight to the chairman.

"Still ignoring orders? Put your hands on the crystal Schwarz!" Wu ordered.

Chairman Liu waved his hand, and Wu looked away with an irritated click of his tongue.

I s.h.i.+elded my hands with my body and brought out the doc.u.ments. Chairman Liu looked over them, nodding his head. He let out a little smile, then gave them back to me to put away.

I walked up to the crystal and placed one hand on it. Qi rushed from my body, forcing open my qi channels, but I was used to that pain now.

When all the qi left my body, I relaxed a bit, but I felt a valve in my soul burst open. The crystal was trying to suck in everything!

I panicked, and ripped away my hand, but a little bit still escaped. Had I let out too much?

The crystal emitted a brilliant pulse of light, and a huge golden orb formed inside. I could see tiny tendrils writhing at its surface.

"Ho, ho…" chairman Liu chuckled to himself, "Qi force, 286! Affinity, 100%! Pa.s.s!"

To not arouse suspicion, I pretended to pa.s.s out. As a guard carried me out, I could hear excited chattering in the crowd. I peeked out of one eye and saw Davide's mop of hair bouncing up and down.

We pa.s.sed through a doorway into a makes.h.i.+ft hospital bay. Some kids were out cold in their beds, others were groggily waking up.

The guard walked past the bay and into a separate room. I caught Yao Daiyu out of the corner of my eye, sleeping away. The light streaming through a small window gave her a ghostly aura.

I felt my body fall on a soft bed and shut my eyes.

I checked on my soul and found that I had lost 220 drops of qi. If I were to include the qi in my body, then qi force seemed to scale 1:1 with drops of qi.

That meant that my body's qi force was 66. It dawned on me just how strict these entry requirements were. If I hadn't cultivated, I wouldn't have pa.s.sed the basic entry requirements!

Light meditation didn't increase my body's qi storage. It boosted my regeneration speed and improved the flow of qi. What method had this girl used to get such a high qi force?

I lay in bed in light meditation, biding my time until it seemed safe to wake up.

"Nurse! This one's convulsing! He's a scholar too!"

Someone burst through door, followed closely by another set of footsteps.

A body dropped onto the bed next to me, and I could hear the bed-frame rattling.

"Poor thing… tell me exactly what happened."

"Miss, I don't know. After he pa.s.sed out, he just started twitching and now…"

"Alright, alright."

Through my shut eyes, I could see a light spreading. The rattling slowed down, then stopped.

"I've supressed his nervous system for now. But you need to go find his parents. Do you remember his name?"

"It was Davide, but I don't remember his last name."

My heart sank. What had happened to Davide? I didn't care about covering myself anymore and shot upright in bed.

"He's my friend! What's happening?!" I cried.

The guard was startled, but the nurse didn't skip a beat.

"Has this never happened to him before?"

I shook my head.

"Okay, do you know what his parents look like?"

I nodded, and the nurse turned to the guard.

"Go escort him out," she turned back to me, "find his parents and ask if they know what this is."

I ran out of the room, and the guard chased after me. As I sped through the hall, I could feel the whole crowd staring.

Rus.h.i.+ng down the stairs, I called out,

"Aunt Lucia! Uncle Tony!"

I tried to pick them out from the crowd, but it was so hard to see through the throng of people. Maybe father knew where they were?

Looking for father was easier, and I spotted his huge body in an instant. I pushed through the crowd to get to him, but mother met me first.

"Baby, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, where's aunt Lucia and uncle Tony?"

"Oh, Tony's right over there."

She pointed back at father, and I was off.

"Uncle Tony!"

Tony stopped chatting with father and turned to face me.

"Oscar! What is it?"

"It's Davide, he started thras.h.i.+ng around when he touched the crystal."

Tony's usual whimsical demeanour flipped in an instant. His eyes were like steel, his jaw clenched.

"Take me to him."