Chapter 76: High, Middle, and Low Tiers (1)
At the six and seventh-stage Source Opening Realm, a cultivator would open their eye acupoints. There were barely any Nanyuan students with those acupoints opened. In any case, Su Yu had not seen any. On the fifth floor, apart from Su Yu, those who were still following Old Xie were all from the capital. He was basically surrounded by guest students.
Su Yu was curious. Looking at the student who had exchanged papers with him earlier, he asked softly, "Is the sixth or seventh-stage Source Opening Realm not enough to get through the exam in the capital?"
That was somewhat hard to believe. That cultivation level should grant one a decent chance at passing the examination even in the capital, right?
The guy first glanced at Old Xie. When he saw that Old Xie did not react, he softly replied, "Those at the sixth or seventh-stage Source Opening Realm aren't the best of the best in the capital. They're only middle-tier students. They have a decent chance at passing, but cultivation level isn't everything. Apart from the basic cultivation tests, there are other tests as well. Do you know that?"
"Yeah. Riding and archery tests. Those two will be tested every year." Su Yu nodded. However, he was still doubtful. "But how does that relate to whether one can get through the exam in the capital?"
"Of course it does!" The young man replied helplessly, "Riding and archery tests are both bonus tests. But in the capital, too many people are good with both. If we take the exam there, we will definitely rank lower and fail to get the bonus marks. Generally, the bonus marks for those two tests will only be given to the ones at the top.
"In the capital, those at the eighth and ninth-stage Source Opening Realm will be occupying all the top positions. Nothing will be left for us.
"Although Nanyuan is a small city, if we can perform well, we can get the bonus marks easier here."
Su Yu nodded before asking again, "With at least 200 marks, one would be guaranteed to pass. Therefore, apart from the one placing first, it isn’t important for others to get more marks, right?"
"It's obvious you're clueless." The young man shook his head and said, "Since you're here, it's obvious your cultivation is above the fifth-stage Source Opening Realm. You need to know that sure, two hundred marks can help you enter a war academy. But the students accepted will also be given different tiers of evaluation. The students of the various academies are mainly split into nine tiers."
"Low-low, low-middle, low-high...all the way until the highest tier, high-high."
The young man gnashed his teeth and said, "Low-tier students will receive the worst treatment in the academy. They won't be mentored by a teacher. For these students, life is hard in the academy. They might as well not enter the academy. You need at least a middle-tier evaluation to gain more support.
"Those with less than 300 marks are all considered low-tier students. Therefore, you need at least 300 marks to become a true war academy student."
The young man looked at Su Yu with pity and said, "For the war academy exam, apart from language and cultivation tests, the practical tests hold the most weight. They give the most bonus marks in the exam. In fact, they give as many bonus marks as the Divine Character test of the cultural research academy exam.
"Therefore, I'm here at Nanyuan to get a better result and a higher rank for some bonus marks. In the capital, people like us can hardly get any bonus marks."
Su Yu finally understood. He nodded before looking at the young woman ahead of him and whispered, "If competition is stiff for those in the sixth and seventh-stage Source Opening Realm, how about the eighth-stage? Those at that stage should be considered a genius already, right? Why is someone like that here as well?"
He could sense a higher source qi density around that young woman. She was at least an eighth-stage Source Opening cultivator.
"Eighth-stage?" The young man wasn't someone trying to enter a cultural research academy so he didn't know Wu Lan well. When he followed Su Yu's gaze, he hesitated and said, "I'm not sure. Is she here to get first place? A cultivation like that will make her a genius ?even in the capital. Maybe she only has a high cultivation level and is bad at everything else. That's why she's here to guarantee a pass."
At that moment, they finally arrived at the next room so Su Yu stopped asking questions.
...
Looking at the students behind him, Old Xie calmly said, "For the sixth and seventh-stage Source Opening Realm, you can gain a total of 80 marks. This test is simple. You only need to have a fast reaction time. A hundred balls will be shot at you. Among them, 80 are red while 20 are white. You will gain a mark for every red ball you catch and lose a mark for every white ball you catch."
"You need to catch the balls as fast as possible. If you can't determine their color in time, just catch them all. You can probably get at least 60 marks doing that. That's better than missing too many red balls."
In front of them were five small rooms. There were only about ten students left, so they only needed around two rounds to finish this test.
Old Xie added, "The duration is only two minutes. On average, one ball will be shot per second. Again, remember to manage your strength and energy well. You need to know that even giving up can be harder than persevering.
"If you spend too much energy here, I'm afraid that you might not be able to last through the remaining tests."
None of the students said anything. This test was not anything excessive. There were several ways a sixth or seventh-stage Source Opening cultivator could be tested. This test in particular had been used several times before. In fact, the various middle schools will also provide relevant training to prepare their students for this test.
Of course, the so-called relevant training was only provided in the capital. Here in Nanyuan, the students would only be told about the tests. However, no training would be given to prepare them. It wasn't that Nanyuan did not care about the tests, but there were hardly any sixth or seventh-stage Source Opening students in Nanyuan. Thus, there was never any need to prepare their students for this test.
"Five of you, go. Don't waste time." Old Xie ordered as he pointed at five of the students. The staff members around them started getting ready for the test.
Su Yu wasn't selected, but he was still paying close attention to everything that was going on. Prior to this, he had not been trained in anything related to this test. His recent progress had simply been too fast that he didn't have the chance to do any additional training.
The five selected students looked nervous. They did as told and entered the five rooms. The moment they walked inside the rooms, the machines in the rooms started shooting balls at them.
Pop!
One of the students was struck in the head by the very first ball.
Old Xie frowned and said, "If you can't react fast enough, you'll injure yourself. Decide for yourself if you should give up on this test."
He had barely finished speaking when the second barrage began. The balls moved rapidly, carrying quite a lot of force behind them. Apart from the student who was struck by the first ball, the other students seemed to be handling things well.
However, they still couldn't stop their bodies from instinctively catching some of the white balls. After all, the balls were moving too fast and they had to both determine the color of the balls and catch them at the same time.
The balls weren't always shot in a straight line. At times, the trajectories would change into curves, forcing the students to run all over their respective rooms. In less than one minute, all five of them were already panting heavily. One of them had a bruised face. He was the one who had been struck by several balls.
Su Yu was silently calculating for the worst performing student and couldn't help but to sigh, "Thirty two red balls and eight white balls for a total of twenty four marks."
He couldn't determine if that student was at the fifth or sixth stage, but it didn't matter as that student would probably fail to get even 30 marks. He also finally understood why some students weren't able to obtain the maximum marks for their cultivation level in the examination.
He then shifted his gaze to the young woman in a different room. That young woman was doing very well. In one minute, around 50 balls had been shot out. The young woman had captured 42 balls, with all of them being red balls. That signified that she had gotten full marks for every single ball she had captured.
"Something isn't right..."
Su Yu could see how difficult this test was. One's mind must be as responsive as one's body. The young woman seemed to be having an easy time on this test. From how she was able to accurately determine the color of the balls, she clearly had powerful willpower as well.
"She has strong willpower."
Su Yu frowned. In that case, she was probably not only here for the war academy examination. She was probably someone preparing to enter a cultural research academy as well.
Su Yu was confident he would be able to capture the red balls accurately as well. His willpower wasn't weak. In fact, the one second gap between each ball was rather long for him. That was more than enough for him to determine the color of the ball before catching it. But seeing how the young woman was performing, he realized that the competition for first place would be quite stiff.
And this was only one of the examination floors. There were four other floors, so who knew if there were better students elsewhere. While he was thinking, two minutes passed. One of the students gave up halfway through the test.
Old Xie did not mind. When the five came out of the rooms, he announced, "80 marks, 65 marks, 60 marks, 32 marks, 24 marks."
Those were the results of the five students. Compared to the previous tests, this test was much more straightforward.
The student with only 24 marks looked rather dispirited. He was a sixth-stage Source Opening cultivator. With his cultivation level, he should get at least 30 marks. However, he lost six marks just like that.
The other students weren't looking too well either. Those at the seventh-stage Source Opening Realm should be able to get 80 marks, but apart from the young woman, none of them had been able to get full marks.
"Next."
Old Xie pointed at five different students, including Su Yu. They hurriedly entered the rooms. Next, the machines started shooting the balls again.
...
Inside the room.
Su Yu had not received any relevant training, but with the first group serving as the example, he had a rough idea of what to expect. He released a small portion of his willpower and focused on the machine. The moment the ball appeared, he could see its color and trajectory.
Pop!
A ball smashed into his palm. He casually tossed the ball into the side. That was a red ball. Su Yu activated his eye acupoints, causing his eyes to glow slightly, granting himself a better eyesight.
"With willpower, it's like I'm cheating. Of course, I can use it since it's a part of my ability. But maybe I should try not using my willpower here..."
He stopped using his willpower and tried relying only on his eyes. Even without his willpower, he still wasn't having much trouble with the balls. He had a decent reaction time due to the years he had spent training his body with foundational martial techniques. And since he had been practicing the Lightning Source Blade recently, he had even tempered the acupoints in his arms, allowing him to catch the balls with relative ease.