Chapter 197
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It didn't take long for her to arrive at the final assessment for the exam. The last exam was from the Array and Talisman department. As both of these techniques were support class, they were meshed together into one department. It didn;t exactly help either that a lof of people didn't actually care to dig deeper into arrays so most applicants ended up joining the Sword or Fist Department. Rarely would anyone choose to enter the Array and Talisman Department despite it's usefulness.
The proctor from the last assessment had handed over her sword while they were conversing and she had put it back on her waistbelt. Now, her plain and inornate sword was behind her equally unassuming dark red whip.
The other people that had finished the Taming Department's assessment were once again gathered in the center of the circular space that looked like a large town square. In the middle was a spectacular fountain made of stone with the water spout built into a tiger's mouth pouring water into the pool at the bottom. Below the tiger were various animals and demonic beasts, trampled underfeet the ferocious tiger.
The pool itself came up to Shen Tianyu's waist, filled with water clear enough for one to see the intricately painted six-pointed star surrounded by different symbols that made the bottom of the pool vaguely resembled an array formation. In the direction pointing North, as Shen Tianyu walked around it to fully take in the view, was a wide ocean with a small green island at it's center filled with shrubbery and small animals. On it's left was a similar but smaller island that was completely barren. In the direction of the wind that rustled the larger island's stalks of grass and plants sat a large, sky blue dragon winding it's way around a multitude of clouds. It's white fur emphasizing it's proud nature rather than old age. To the South was a blazing red and orange flame that almost seemed to be flickering, two shots of flames acting as horns to give it the semblance of a phoenix. sat a luscious mountain with a myriad of trees. In the West was a luscious forest sat atop peculiar white mountain. The leaves of the trees were rustling from the wind coming from the East and the small animals seemed to blink or turn their heads. The mountain itself vaguely resembled the silhouette of a sleeping tiger. And connecting all these different landscapes was one circle inside a bigger one that made up the base of the pool. The first circle was emitting faint fluorescent light of different colors. The part connecting North to East started as blue and faded into light green, East to South intensified from green to red, and the curved line connecting the flame to the forest of white soil darkened even more from red to brown, the last connecting part from the West back to North lightened from the color of soil to that of the vast ocean. In between the connecting circle and the edge of the pool were ancient looking symbols that were perhaps the first pictograms which eventually made up the modern language of the continent.
That was another reason people disliked learning Array formations and Talismans. Both of them used an ancient language that was very reliant on artistic talent. The modern languange, which sounded and looked like Chinese to Shen Tianyu, was already hard enough with some literate people not even being able to remember all the characters up until their death. Learning another language on top of that was neigh impossible and more a bother than anything else. Rather thna learning such a time-consuming technique, many youths would just rather learn things with more visible and immediate results like sword fighting or fist fighting techniques. They all required memorization and the latter two was more directly powerful while the former required an exponentially more memorization and was less useful in a direct fight.
After admiring the fountain and it's splendor, Shen Tianyu searched around fro Ningwu Liushan again to talk some information out of him. Unexpectedly, there were more people gathered here than the Beast Taming Department's assessment so the crowd was thicker. Still, there was a small circle of space around Ningwu Liushan and his friend despite how squished the people outside the circle looked. Shen Tianyu managed to squeeze her name through the tight crowd and skipped to Ningwu Liushan's front.
"Senior brother Liushan!" She called to him in casual greeting.
"Junior sister Tianyu." He returned with a smile and nod.
She then turned to his friend. "And hello again." She barely talked to him so despite his earlier introduction from Ningwu Liushan, she forgot his name already other than that his surname was Bai.
He also seemed to have picked up on the fact that she forgot his name. "Bai Longtian." He supplied before turning away.
"Ah, yes. Senior Bai, nice to see you again." She then turned back to Ningwu Liushan since she knew he wasn't going to respond anyways only to find the latter smiling wryly at his friend. She disregarded it and went to the point. "By the way, what's this test about? There are so many people here, even more than the Beast Taming Department's assessment."
"Ah, it seems to not have started yet." He responded with a slightly confused tone as well. Shen Tianyu responded with her own noise of confusion accompanied by a tilt of her head as she looked around the premises for the proctor. Unfortunately, she could not find the special badge of the School's officers nor anyone wearing the uniform.
"I've also looked around and the proctor isn't here. Looks like the test will only start once everyone arrives here." Ningwu Liushan told her not to bother looking for the proctor.
"What does Chengyuan School mean by this?!" A ass-kissing voice sounded from the crowd around them.
"Yeah! Making us wait for the last test like this, it might be fine with some other people but there are some of us whose statuses are not like all the others! How could they make us wait outside like this in this blazing weather?!" Another arrogant voice rose.
'Buddy, it's not even that hot, it's the middle of winter for God's sake. If you think this is hot then you need to see a physician.' Shen Tianyu thought as she looked at the direction of the second voice with uninterested eyes. 'And what you mean by status? The top two in status haven't even begun to sweat much less express discomfort, just where are you coming from to climb their heads?'
"Yeah, yeah. How coud they allow the two Young Masters of the Bai and Ningwu family mix with lowborn peasants?" Came a familiar female voice that Shen Tianyu did her hardest to ignore. Not because the girl in particular was annoying, though that was part of the reason, but because if she looked at her and happened to see her face, Shen Tianyu was afraid she'd burst into unstoppable laughter. Full well knoing the comment was directed at her, Shen Tianyu acted as if there wasn't even a whistle of wind from that direction.
"By the way, Senior brother Ningwu, are you going to be staying in the dorms or in the city? I'll come visit you some time to play." Seeing the other's darkening face, Shen Tianyu tried to pull him into a lighthearted conversation.
"Ah? Um, I'll be staying at a family estate in the city." Caught off guard, it took a bit for him to come to his senses.
"Eh... you guys have a family estate in the city? How come I haven't heard about it?"
"It's not very big, just enough to accomodate me and a few servants. It wasn't meant to be used long-term after all. It belongs to the family, not anyone in particular so if anyone had business in the capital, they'd at least have somewhere to stay instead of having to check-in with an inn. Not that it's a bad thing but it can be an inconvenience, you see?"
"Ah... makes sense. As expected of a big family, having it's own family inn in a big city like a coutnry's capital and providing servants to specially manage the place."
Ningwu Liushan gave a little laugh. "We're not trying to show off or anything... a previous generation just agreed that it was a good idea."
"Hm? I didn't say anything about that. If you were trying to show off, it'd be as extravagant as the Imperial Palace, if not bigger, and everyone would know about it, right?" Shen Tianyu reasoned. 'Well, it's not a surprise a family with resources would think that. We use Lavender Palace as a resting stop for our members too, after all. And, some deals, you just can't trust some run-of-the-mill inn to keep a secret. Besides, they might tell to the government under pressure and that could put the family in a tight spot.'
"By the way, will you be telling me where it is? Or would you rather just meet up at the School?" Seh asked.
"Ah, yes. It's in the southeast of the city, in the middle of the residential district for the distinguished generational families."
"Okay. I should probably be able to find it if I asked around there. I'll come over to play some time."
"Of course, you are always welcome."
...
And that was when a certain persoon stepped into the square.
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It didn't take long for her to arrive at the final assessment for the exam. The last exam was from the Array and Talisman department. As both of these techniques were support class, they were meshed together into one department. It didn;t exactly help either that a lof of people didn't actually care to dig deeper into arrays so most applicants ended up joining the Sword or Fist Department. Rarely would anyone choose to enter the Array and Talisman Department despite it's usefulness.
The proctor from the last assessment had handed over her sword while they were conversing and she had put it back on her waistbelt. Now, her plain and inornate sword was behind her equally unassuming dark red whip.
The other people that had finished the Taming Department's assessment were once again gathered in the center of the circular space that looked like a large town square. In the middle was a spectacular fountain made of stone with the water spout built into a tiger's mouth pouring water into the pool at the bottom. Below the tiger were various animals and demonic beasts, trampled underfeet the ferocious tiger.
The pool itself came up to Shen Tianyu's waist, filled with water clear enough for one to see the intricately painted six-pointed star surrounded by different symbols that made the bottom of the pool vaguely resembled an array formation. In the direction pointing North, as Shen Tianyu walked around it to fully take in the view, was a wide ocean with a small green island at it's center filled with shrubbery and small animals. On it's left was a similar but smaller island that was completely barren. In the direction of the wind that rustled the larger island's stalks of grass and plants sat a large, sky blue dragon winding it's way around a multitude of clouds. It's white fur emphasizing it's proud nature rather than old age. To the South was a blazing red and orange flame that almost seemed to be flickering, two shots of flames acting as horns to give it the semblance of a phoenix. sat a luscious mountain with a myriad of trees. In the West was a luscious forest sat atop peculiar white mountain. The leaves of the trees were rustling from the wind coming from the East and the small animals seemed to blink or turn their heads. The mountain itself vaguely resembled the silhouette of a sleeping tiger. And connecting all these different landscapes was one circle inside a bigger one that made up the base of the pool. The first circle was emitting faint fluorescent light of different colors. The part connecting North to East started as blue and faded into light green, East to South intensified from green to red, and the curved line connecting the flame to the forest of white soil darkened even more from red to brown, the last connecting part from the West back to North lightened from the color of soil to that of the vast ocean. In between the connecting circle and the edge of the pool were ancient looking symbols that were perhaps the first pictograms which eventually made up the modern language of the continent.
That was another reason people disliked learning Array formations and Talismans. Both of them used an ancient language that was very reliant on artistic talent. The modern languange, which sounded and looked like Chinese to Shen Tianyu, was already hard enough with some literate people not even being able to remember all the characters up until their death. Learning another language on top of that was neigh impossible and more a bother than anything else. Rather thna learning such a time-consuming technique, many youths would just rather learn things with more visible and immediate results like sword fighting or fist fighting techniques. They all required memorization and the latter two was more directly powerful while the former required an exponentially more memorization and was less useful in a direct fight.
After admiring the fountain and it's splendor, Shen Tianyu searched around fro Ningwu Liushan again to talk some information out of him. Unexpectedly, there were more people gathered here than the Beast Taming Department's assessment so the crowd was thicker. Still, there was a small circle of space around Ningwu Liushan and his friend despite how squished the people outside the circle looked. Shen Tianyu managed to squeeze her name through the tight crowd and skipped to Ningwu Liushan's front.
"Senior brother Liushan!" She called to him in casual greeting.
"Junior sister Tianyu." He returned with a smile and nod.
She then turned to his friend. "And hello again." She barely talked to him so despite his earlier introduction from Ningwu Liushan, she forgot his name already other than that his surname was Bai.
He also seemed to have picked up on the fact that she forgot his name. "Bai Longtian." He supplied before turning away.
"Ah, yes. Senior Bai, nice to see you again." She then turned back to Ningwu Liushan since she knew he wasn't going to respond anyways only to find the latter smiling wryly at his friend. She disregarded it and went to the point. "By the way, what's this test about? There are so many people here, even more than the Beast Taming Department's assessment."
"Ah, it seems to not have started yet." He responded with a slightly confused tone as well. Shen Tianyu responded with her own noise of confusion accompanied by a tilt of her head as she looked around the premises for the proctor. Unfortunately, she could not find the special badge of the School's officers nor anyone wearing the uniform.
"I've also looked around and the proctor isn't here. Looks like the test will only start once everyone arrives here." Ningwu Liushan told her not to bother looking for the proctor.
"What does Chengyuan School mean by this?!" A ass-kissing voice sounded from the crowd around them.
"Yeah! Making us wait for the last test like this, it might be fine with some other people but there are some of us whose statuses are not like all the others! How could they make us wait outside like this in this blazing weather?!" Another arrogant voice rose.
'Buddy, it's not even that hot, it's the middle of winter for God's sake. If you think this is hot then you need to see a physician.' Shen Tianyu thought as she looked at the direction of the second voice with uninterested eyes. 'And what you mean by status? The top two in status haven't even begun to sweat much less express discomfort, just where are you coming from to climb their heads?'
"Yeah, yeah. How coud they allow the two Young Masters of the Bai and Ningwu family mix with lowborn peasants?" Came a familiar female voice that Shen Tianyu did her hardest to ignore. Not because the girl in particular was annoying, though that was part of the reason, but because if she looked at her and happened to see her face, Shen Tianyu was afraid she'd burst into unstoppable laughter. Full well knoing the comment was directed at her, Shen Tianyu acted as if there wasn't even a whistle of wind from that direction.
"By the way, Senior brother Ningwu, are you going to be staying in the dorms or in the city? I'll come visit you some time to play." Seeing the other's darkening face, Shen Tianyu tried to pull him into a lighthearted conversation.
"Ah? Um, I'll be staying at a family estate in the city." Caught off guard, it took a bit for him to come to his senses.
"Eh... you guys have a family estate in the city? How come I haven't heard about it?"
"It's not very big, just enough to accomodate me and a few servants. It wasn't meant to be used long-term after all. It belongs to the family, not anyone in particular so if anyone had business in the capital, they'd at least have somewhere to stay instead of having to check-in with an inn. Not that it's a bad thing but it can be an inconvenience, you see?"
"Ah... makes sense. As expected of a big family, having it's own family inn in a big city like a coutnry's capital and providing servants to specially manage the place."
Ningwu Liushan gave a little laugh. "We're not trying to show off or anything... a previous generation just agreed that it was a good idea."
"Hm? I didn't say anything about that. If you were trying to show off, it'd be as extravagant as the Imperial Palace, if not bigger, and everyone would know about it, right?" Shen Tianyu reasoned. 'Well, it's not a surprise a family with resources would think that. We use Lavender Palace as a resting stop for our members too, after all. And, some deals, you just can't trust some run-of-the-mill inn to keep a secret. Besides, they might tell to the government under pressure and that could put the family in a tight spot.'
"By the way, will you be telling me where it is? Or would you rather just meet up at the School?" Seh asked.
"Ah, yes. It's in the southeast of the city, in the middle of the residential district for the distinguished generational families."
"Okay. I should probably be able to find it if I asked around there. I'll come over to play some time."
"Of course, you are always welcome."
...
And that was when a certain persoon stepped into the square.
It didn't take long for her to arrive at the final assessment for the exam. The last exam was from the Array and Talisman department. As both of these techniques were support class, they were meshed together into one department. It didn;t exactly help either that a lof of people didn't actually care to dig deeper into arrays so most applicants ended up joining the Sword or Fist Department. Rarely would anyone choose to enter the Array and Talisman Department despite it's usefulness.The proctor from the last assessment had handed over her sword while they were conversing and she had put it back on her waistbelt. Now, her plain and inornate sword was behind her equally unassuming dark red whip.The other people that had finished the Taming Department's assessment were once again gathered in the center of the circular space that looked like a large town square. In the middle was a spectacular fountain made of stone with the water spout built into a tiger's mouth pouring water into the pool at the bottom. Below the tiger were various animals and demonic beasts, trampled underfeet the ferocious tiger.The pool itself came up to Shen Tianyu's waist, filled with water clear enough for one to see the intricately painted six-pointed star surrounded by different symbols that made the bottom of the pool vaguely resembled an array formation. In the direction pointing North, as Shen Tianyu walked around it to fully take in the view, was a wide ocean with a small green island at it's center filled with shrubbery and small animals. On it's left was a similar but smaller island that was completely barren. In the direction of the wind that rustled the larger island's stalks of grass and plantssat a large, sky blue dragon winding it's way around a multitude of clouds. It's white fur emphasizing it's proud nature rather than old age. To the South was ablazing red and orange flame that almost seemed to be flickering, two shots of flames acting as horns to give it the semblance of a phoenix.sat a luscious mountain with a myriad of trees. In the West was a luscious forest sat atop peculiar white mountain.The leaves of the trees were rustling from the wind coming from the East and the small animals seemed to blink or turn their heads. The mountain itself vaguely resembled the silhouette of a sleeping tiger. And connecting all these different landscapes was one circle inside a bigger one that made up the base of the pool. The first circle was emitting faint fluorescent light of different colors. The part connecting North to East started as blue and faded into light green, East to South intensified from green to red, and the curved line connecting the flame to the forest of white soil darkened even more from red to brown, the last connecting part from the West back to North lightened from the color of soil to that of the vast ocean. In between the connecting circle and the edge of the pool were ancient looking symbols that were perhaps the first pictograms which eventually made up the modern language of the continent.That was another reason people disliked learning Array formations and Talismans. Both of them used an ancient language that was very reliant on artistic talent. The modern languange, which sounded and looked like Chinese to Shen Tianyu, was already hard enough with some literate people not even being able to remember all the characters upuntil their death. Learning another language on top of that was neigh impossible and more a bother than anything else. Rather thna learning such a time-consuming technique, many youths would just rather learn things with more visible and immediate results like sword fighting or fist fighting techniques. They all required memorization and the latter two was more directly powerful while the former required an exponentially more memorization and was less useful in a direct fight.After admiring the fountain and it's splendor, Shen Tianyu searched around fro Ningwu Liushan again to talk some information out of him. Unexpectedly, there were more people gathered here than the Beast Taming Department's assessment so the crowd was thicker. Still, there was a small circle of space around Ningwu Liushan and his friend despite how squished the people outside the circle looked. Shen Tianyu managed to squeeze her name through the tight crowd and skipped to Ningwu Liushan's front."Senior brother Liushan!" She called to him in casual greeting."Junior sister Tianyu." He returned with a smile and nod.She then turned to his friend. "And hello again." She barely talked to him so despite his earlier introduction from Ningwu Liushan, she forgot his name already other than that his surname was Bai.He also seemed to have picked up on the fact that she forgot his name. "Bai Longtian." He supplied before turning away."Ah, yes. Senior Bai, nice to see you again." She then turned back to Ningwu Liushan since she knew he wasn't going to respond anyways only to find the latter smiling wryly at his friend. She disregarded it and went to the point. "By the way, what's this test about? There are so many people here, even more than the Beast Taming Department's assessment.""Ah, it seems to not have started yet." He responded with a slightly confused tone as well. Shen Tianyu responded with her own noise of confusion accompanied by a tilt of her head as she looked around the premises for the proctor. Unfortunately, she could not find the special badge of the School's officers nor anyone wearing the uniform."I've also looked around and the proctor isn't here. Looks like the test will only start once everyone arrives here." Ningwu Liushan told her not to bother looking for the proctor."What does Chengyuan School mean by this?!" A ass-kissing voice sounded from the crowd around them. "Yeah! Making us wait for the last test like this, it might be fine with some other people but there are some of us whose statuses are not like all the others! How could they make us wait outside like this in this blazing weather?!" Another arrogant voice rose.'Buddy, it's not even that hot, it's the middle of winter for God's sake. If you think this is hot then you need to see a physician.' Shen Tianyu thought as she looked at the direction of the second voice with uninterested eyes. 'And what you mean by status? The top two in status haven't even begun to sweat much less express discomfort, just where are you coming from to climb their heads?'"Yeah, yeah. How coud they allow the two Young Masters of the Bai and Ningwu family mix with lowborn peasants?" Came a familiar female voice that Shen Tianyu did her hardest to ignore. Not because the girl in particular was annoying, though that was part of the reason, but because if she looked at her and happened to see her face, Shen Tianyu was afraid she'd burst into unstoppable laughter. Full well knoing the comment was directed at her, Shen Tianyu acted as if there wasn't even a whistle of wind from that direction."By the way, Senior brother Ningwu, are you going to be staying in the dorms or in the city? I'll come visit you some time to play." Seeing the other's darkening face, Shen Tianyu tried to pull him into a lighthearted conversation."Ah? Um, I'll be staying at a family estate in the city." Caught off guard, it took a bit for him to come to his senses."Eh... you guys have a family estate in the city? How come I haven't heard about it?""It's not very big, just enough to accomodate me and a few servants. It wasn't meant to be used long-term after all. It belongs to the family, not anyone in particular so if anyone had business in the capital, they'd at least have somewhere to stay instead of having to check-in with an inn. Not that it's a bad thing but it can be an inconvenience, you see?""Ah... makes sense. As expected of a big family, having it's own family inn in a big city like a coutnry's capital and providing servants to specially manage the place."Ningwu Liushan gave a little laugh. "We're not trying to show off or anything... a previous generation just agreed that it was a good idea.""Hm? I didn't say anything about that. If you were trying to show off, it'd be as extravagant as the Imperial Palace, if not bigger, and everyone would know about it, right?" Shen Tianyu reasoned. 'Well, it's not a surprise a family with resources would think that. We use Lavender Palace as a resting stop for our members too, after all. And, some deals, you just can't trust some run-of-the-mill inn to keep a secret. Besides, they might tell to the government under pressure and that could put the family in a tight spot.'"By the way, will you be telling me where it is? Or would you rather just meet up at the School?" Seh asked."Ah, yes. It's in the southeast of the city, in the middle of the residential district for the distinguished generational families.""Okay. I should probably be able to find it if I asked around there. I'll come over to play some time.""Of course, you are always welcome."...And that was when a certain persoon stepped into the square.
