Chapter 200
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"I thought you guys already figured that out and that was why you wrote down the answers so readily."
"Well... not exactly... I just thought it would be fine as long as I didn't copy it exactly since it didn't seem like the proctor was paying attention. But now that you mentiaon it..." Ningwu Liushan trailed off in embarassment.
"Speaking of which, why did you trust me and write down the answer so fast?" She asked him.
"Well, I figured if you were trying to sabotage us, you did't need to give us the answer since we were more likely to get it wrong if you just let us be." He responded.
"...She was the one with the answer?" Bai Longtian finally spoke to his two companions.
"Yes. She was the one who gave me the answer. Don't worry, I'm sure she didn't change her answer so we all have the same answer." Ningwu Liushan answered him. "I didn't notice the Silencing Talisman either. I'm actually surprised you noticed." He turned back to her and Bai Longtian also looked at her.
"Well, despite having so many people within the room, there was no sound leaking out at all so I got curious and went to look around. That's all." She summarized all of what happened in just one sentence. "You guys just might not have noticed because there weren't as many people in the room when you guys went to sign up."
"But we still could have found it if we were attentive enought to look around the Hall..." Ninguw Liushan lamented.
The talismans they had been following began to slow down and they knew that they were nearing their destination. They stopped in front of a fenced off section of the road. Though, there was only one rope tied to four different poles stuck in the ground. The poles were the height of an adult and made of stone with flowing script running up the sides with the rope placed in the middle of it, coming up to their midsection. The poles themselves were far enought apart to fit at least five people between each of them. Their aura around the talismans quickly faded away and they fell onto the ground as scrap paper.Shen Tianyu picked up hers and pocketed it as the two boys looked around.
"There's no proctor or Officer to tell us how to take the test or even what it is." Ningwu Liushan commented.
"Well, it's the Array and Talisman Department's test so it probably has to do with arrays or talismans right?" Shen Tianyu also began looking around, focusing on the stone poles with the Ancient Script used for Array formations and Talismans. She touched the poles all over to find some way of getting an instruction only to see nothing. However, she did feel a faint outline on the pole to their left located on it's side. "Hey, I think there's something here." She called out to her two companions that were investigating the surroundings. They both walked over to see what she was refering to.
"What did you find? Another talisman?" Ningwu Liushan asked her.
"No. I can feel an outline here." She indicated to her hand that was resting over the rounded rectangular outline. "I can't see anything different visually though." She added as she leaned over to peer at her fingers on the stone pole. "It feels like the shape of our number plaque."
"Our number plaque? So do we insert the number plaque to get some kin dof an instruction?" Ningwu Liushan contemplated out loud.
"No, it's too sdhallow for that. I think we just place it on the outline. I don';t know if we'll get some instruction but it'll start something for sure." She rummaged in her lapels to pull out her plaque.
"Are you sure? Maybe one of us should go first?" Ningwu Liushan caught her looking for her number plaque and guessed what she was going to do.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I was the one that gave you the answer to the first question, remember? I'm not that badly versed in Array formations and Talismans." She pulled out her plaque and placed it on the outline that she was still covering with her fingers so as not to lose sight of it. when she did, the stone pole lit up and shortly after, the other three poles did too. More specifically, the light was being emitted by the ancient script all over the sotne poles. It eventually grew so blinding that they had to close their eyes and shield themselves with their arms. When they finally felt the light recede, they put their arms down and opened their eyes... only to find something was missing.
Shen Tianyu opened her eyes to see an oasis of trees amidst an endless land of sand. She quickly swung her head aorund to find her companions only to find that they weren't there.
"Is this the Department's test? Though there are Teleportation Array formations, those take some power to make, depending on the distance. This place doesn't seem anywhere close to the city nor does it look like any placce I've passed through before so that definitely was not an Array formation to take the initiator into some landscape within their minds. And it also crosses out the possibility that we are near the Chengyuan School at all. There's no place like this within the city or the other kingdoms Rong Jian and I passed through. Are we on another continent? No, that's not possible, they wouldn't go that far for a test. They also wouldn't do anything dangerous like sending the applicants to some faraway place, because if they got lost or died, it'd be a detriment to their reputation and a loss of talent if that applicant has shown potential in something other than Array formations and Talismans. Besides even the Beast Taming Department said they didn't put anything dangerous in their assessment, which could be interpreted as the School's stance on this entrance exam.... so either that wasn't a Transportation Array or this is some kind of artificial place they built for training or the exam?" She immediately started to try to deduct what exactly the formation was as she moved around to take a lok at her surroundings, the oasis she had appeared on. "There's also the possibility of this being a fake dimension made by an Arrray formation to test the applicants..."
The oasis itself was not very large, only about the size of a small town. However, there were no signs of life within the place except for the trees and small shrubbery. There was a decent sized pond of water in the middle but she was too wary to touch it. Outside the oasis was nothing but sand, sand dunes, more sand and the beautiful blue sky. there was not even a rat in the vicinity nor any rattlesnakes or other dessert animals. There were only acacia trees, dessert willows and a few bushes of brittlebush on the oasis. No cactuses or prickly pears as far as she could see.
After making one full round around the oasis and making sure there were no threats did she finally stay still.
"Strange... there's no weird spiritual fluctuation... was that really a Transportation array then? If so, where could this be and how do we get back to the School? There's definitely a time limit. If they didn;t want to fail everyone, ther should be an easy way to get back via another Transportation Array... Is it in the dessert?" She reluctantly looked at the mass amount of sand outside the oasis and the burning sun in the sky. "Someone could have heatstroke if they walk around in that... and speaking of which, I haven't eaten or drank anything for the whole day... Ugh. Let's not think about that, I'll just get hungry and thirsty... Let's look around here a bit more before we go out there." She turned away from the dessert sands and looked back at the oasis. She again went around the oasis, spiraling inwards to look for clues but didn't find any. She arrived at the spring at the center like this and peered in. There wasn't anything special about the water in the spring, it looked just like regular water. There wasn't any formation or anything at the bottom of it like the fountain either. She tentatively reached her hand out to touch the water and slowly submerged her whole hand but didn't feel anything unusual. She patted around the bottom and sides of the spring only to have the same result. She sighed and took her hand out. Turning to the sand dunes outside, she lamented. "Looks like I'll have to step outside the oasis to find a way back... But the sun is the enemy of the skin for women... Well, with this kind of a body I guess it doesn't matter if I get a tan though..."
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"I thought you guys already figured that out and that was why you wrote down the answers so readily."
"Well... not exactly... I just thought it would be fine as long as I didn't copy it exactly since it didn't seem like the proctor was paying attention. But now that you mentiaon it..." Ningwu Liushan trailed off in embarassment.
"Speaking of which, why did you trust me and write down the answer so fast?" She asked him.
"Well, I figured if you were trying to sabotage us, you did't need to give us the answer since we were more likely to get it wrong if you just let us be." He responded.
"...She was the one with the answer?" Bai Longtian finally spoke to his two companions.
"Yes. She was the one who gave me the answer. Don't worry, I'm sure she didn't change her answer so we all have the same answer." Ningwu Liushan answered him. "I didn't notice the Silencing Talisman either. I'm actually surprised you noticed." He turned back to her and Bai Longtian also looked at her.
"Well, despite having so many people within the room, there was no sound leaking out at all so I got curious and went to look around. That's all." She summarized all of what happened in just one sentence. "You guys just might not have noticed because there weren't as many people in the room when you guys went to sign up."
"But we still could have found it if we were attentive enought to look around the Hall..." Ninguw Liushan lamented.
The talismans they had been following began to slow down and they knew that they were nearing their destination. They stopped in front of a fenced off section of the road. Though, there was only one rope tied to four different poles stuck in the ground. The poles were the height of an adult and made of stone with flowing script running up the sides with the rope placed in the middle of it, coming up to their midsection. The poles themselves were far enought apart to fit at least five people between each of them. Their aura around the talismans quickly faded away and they fell onto the ground as scrap paper.Shen Tianyu picked up hers and pocketed it as the two boys looked around.
"There's no proctor or Officer to tell us how to take the test or even what it is." Ningwu Liushan commented.
"Well, it's the Array and Talisman Department's test so it probably has to do with arrays or talismans right?" Shen Tianyu also began looking around, focusing on the stone poles with the Ancient Script used for Array formations and Talismans. She touched the poles all over to find some way of getting an instruction only to see nothing. However, she did feel a faint outline on the pole to their left located on it's side. "Hey, I think there's something here." She called out to her two companions that were investigating the surroundings. They both walked over to see what she was refering to.
"What did you find? Another talisman?" Ningwu Liushan asked her.
"No. I can feel an outline here." She indicated to her hand that was resting over the rounded rectangular outline. "I can't see anything different visually though." She added as she leaned over to peer at her fingers on the stone pole. "It feels like the shape of our number plaque."
"Our number plaque? So do we insert the number plaque to get some kin dof an instruction?" Ningwu Liushan contemplated out loud.
"No, it's too sdhallow for that. I think we just place it on the outline. I don';t know if we'll get some instruction but it'll start something for sure." She rummaged in her lapels to pull out her plaque.
"Are you sure? Maybe one of us should go first?" Ningwu Liushan caught her looking for her number plaque and guessed what she was going to do.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I was the one that gave you the answer to the first question, remember? I'm not that badly versed in Array formations and Talismans." She pulled out her plaque and placed it on the outline that she was still covering with her fingers so as not to lose sight of it. when she did, the stone pole lit up and shortly after, the other three poles did too. More specifically, the light was being emitted by the ancient script all over the sotne poles. It eventually grew so blinding that they had to close their eyes and shield themselves with their arms. When they finally felt the light recede, they put their arms down and opened their eyes... only to find something was missing.
Shen Tianyu opened her eyes to see an oasis of trees amidst an endless land of sand. She quickly swung her head aorund to find her companions only to find that they weren't there.
"Is this the Department's test? Though there are Teleportation Array formations, those take some power to make, depending on the distance. This place doesn't seem anywhere close to the city nor does it look like any placce I've passed through before so that definitely was not an Array formation to take the initiator into some landscape within their minds. And it also crosses out the possibility that we are near the Chengyuan School at all. There's no place like this within the city or the other kingdoms Rong Jian and I passed through. Are we on another continent? No, that's not possible, they wouldn't go that far for a test. They also wouldn't do anything dangerous like sending the applicants to some faraway place, because if they got lost or died, it'd be a detriment to their reputation and a loss of talent if that applicant has shown potential in something other than Array formations and Talismans. Besides even the Beast Taming Department said they didn't put anything dangerous in their assessment, which could be interpreted as the School's stance on this entrance exam.... so either that wasn't a Transportation Array or this is some kind of artificial place they built for training or the exam?" She immediately started to try to deduct what exactly the formation was as she moved around to take a lok at her surroundings, the oasis she had appeared on. "There's also the possibility of this being a fake dimension made by an Arrray formation to test the applicants..."
The oasis itself was not very large, only about the size of a small town. However, there were no signs of life within the place except for the trees and small shrubbery. There was a decent sized pond of water in the middle but she was too wary to touch it. Outside the oasis was nothing but sand, sand dunes, more sand and the beautiful blue sky. there was not even a rat in the vicinity nor any rattlesnakes or other dessert animals. There were only acacia trees, dessert willows and a few bushes of brittlebush on the oasis. No cactuses or prickly pears as far as she could see.
After making one full round around the oasis and making sure there were no threats did she finally stay still.
"Strange... there's no weird spiritual fluctuation... was that really a Transportation array then? If so, where could this be and how do we get back to the School? There's definitely a time limit. If they didn;t want to fail everyone, ther should be an easy way to get back via another Transportation Array... Is it in the dessert?" She reluctantly looked at the mass amount of sand outside the oasis and the burning sun in the sky. "Someone could have heatstroke if they walk around in that... and speaking of which, I haven't eaten or drank anything for the whole day... Ugh. Let's not think about that, I'll just get hungry and thirsty... Let's look around here a bit more before we go out there." She turned away from the dessert sands and looked back at the oasis. She again went around the oasis, spiraling inwards to look for clues but didn't find any. She arrived at the spring at the center like this and peered in. There wasn't anything special about the water in the spring, it looked just like regular water. There wasn't any formation or anything at the bottom of it like the fountain either. She tentatively reached her hand out to touch the water and slowly submerged her whole hand but didn't feel anything unusual. She patted around the bottom and sides of the spring only to have the same result. She sighed and took her hand out. Turning to the sand dunes outside, she lamented. "Looks like I'll have to step outside the oasis to find a way back... But the sun is the enemy of the skin for women... Well, with this kind of a body I guess it doesn't matter if I get a tan though..."
"I thought you guys already figured that out and that was why you wrote down the answers so readily.""Well... not exactly... I just thought it would be fine as long as I didn't copy it exactly since it didn't seem like the proctor was paying attention. But now that you mentiaon it..." Ningwu Liushan trailed off in embarassment."Speaking of which, why did you trust me and write down the answer so fast?" She asked him."Well, I figured if you were trying to sabotage us, you did'tneed to give us the answer since we were more likely to get it wrong if you just let us be." He responded."...She was the one with the answer?" Bai Longtian finally spoke to his two companions."Yes. She was the one who gave me the answer. Don't worry, I'm sure she didn't change her answer so we all have the same answer."Ningwu Liushan answered him. "I didn't notice the Silencing Talisman either. I'm actually surprised you noticed." He turned back to her and Bai Longtian also looked at her."Well, despite having so many people within the room, there was no sound leaking out at all so I got curious and went to look around. That's all." She summarized all of what happened in just one sentence. "You guys just might not have noticed because there weren't as many people in the room when you guys went to sign up.""But we still could have found it if we were attentive enought to look around the Hall..." Ninguw Liushan lamented.The talismans they had been following began to slow down and they knew that they were nearing their destination. They stopped in front of a fenced off section of the road. Though, there was only one rope tied to four different poles stuck in the ground. The poles were the height of an adult and made of stone with flowing script runningup the sides with the rope placed in the middle of it, coming up to their midsection. The poles themselves were far enought apart to fit at least five people between each of them.Their aura around the talismans quickly faded away and they fell onto the ground as scrap paper.Shen Tianyu picked up hers and pocketed it as the two boys looked around."There's no proctor or Officer to tell us how to take the test or even what it is." Ningwu Liushan commented."Well, it's the Array and Talisman Department's test so it probably has to do with arrays or talismans right?" Shen Tianyu also began looking around, focusing on the stone poles with the Ancient Script used for Array formations and Talismans. She touched the poles all over to find some way of getting an instruction only to see nothing. However, she did feel a faint outline on the pole to their left located on it's side. "Hey, I think there's something here." She called out to her two companions that were investigating the surroundings. They both walked over to see what she was refering to."What did you find? Another talisman?" Ningwu Liushan asked her."No. I can feel an outline here." She indicated to her hand that was resting over the rounded rectangular outline. "I can't see anything different visually though." She added as she leaned over to peer at her fingers on the stone pole. "It feels like the shape of our number plaque.""Our number plaque? So do we insert the number plaque to get some kin dof an instruction?" Ningwu Liushan contemplated out loud."No, it's too sdhallow for that. I think we just place it on the outline. I don';t know if we'll get some instruction but it'll start something for sure." She rummaged in her lapels to pull out her plaque."Are you sure? Maybe one of us should go first?" Ningwu Liushan caught her looking for her number plaque and guessed what she was going to do."Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I was the one that gave you the answer to the first question, remember? I'm not that badly versed in Array formations and Talismans." She pulled out her plaque and placed it on the outline that she was still covering with her fingers so as not to lose sight of it. when she did, the stone pole lit up and shortly after, the other three poles did too. More specifically, the light was being emitted by the ancient script all over the sotne poles. It eventually grew so blinding that they had to close their eyes and shield themselves with their arms. When they finally felt the light recede, they put their arms down and opened their eyes... only to find something was missing.Shen Tianyu opened her eyes to see an oasis of trees amidst an endless land of sand. She quickly swung her head aorund to find her companions only to find that they weren't there."Is this the Department's test? Though there are Teleportation Array formations, those take some power to make, depending on the distance. This place doesn't seem anywhere close to the city nor does it look like any placce I've passed through before so that definitely was not an Array formation to take the initiator into some landscape within their minds. And it also crosses out the possibility that we are near the Chengyuan School at all. There's no place like this within the city or the other kingdoms Rong Jian and I passed through. Are we on another continent? No, that's not possible, they wouldn'tgo thatfar for a test. They also wouldn't do anything dangerous like sending the applicants to some faraway place, because if they got lost or died, it'd be a detriment to their reputation and a loss of talent if that applicant has shown potential in something other than Array formations and Talismans. Besides even the Beast Taming Department said they didn't put anything dangerous in their assessment, which could be interpreted as the School's stance on this entrance exam.... so either that wasn't a Transportation Array or this is some kind of artificial place they built for training or the exam?" She immediately started to try to deduct what exactly the formation was as she moved around to take a lok at her surroundings, the oasis she had appeared on. "There's also the possibility of this being a fake dimension made by an Arrray formation to test the applicants..."The oasis itself was not very large, only about the size of a small town. However, there were no signs of life within the place except for the trees and small shrubbery. There was a decent sized pond of water in the middle but she was too wary to touch it. Outside the oasis was nothing but sand, sand dunes, more sand and the beautiful blue sky. there was not even a rat in the vicinity nor any rattlesnakes or other dessert animals. There were only acacia trees, dessert willows and a few bushes of brittlebush on the oasis. No cactuses or prickly pears as far as she could see.After making one full round around the oasis and making sure there were no threats did she finally stay still."Strange... there's no weird spiritual fluctuation... was that really a Transportation array then? If so, where could this be and how do we get back to the School? There's definitely a time limit. If they didn;t want to fail everyone, ther should be an easy way to get back via another Transportation Array... Is it in the dessert?" She reluctantly looked at the mass amount of sand outside the oasis and the burning sun in the sky. "Someone could have heatstroke if they walk around in that... and speaking of which, I haven't eaten or drank anything for the whole day... Ugh. Let's not think about that, I'll just get hungry and thirsty... Let's look around here a bit more before we go out there." She turned away from the dessert sands and looked back at the oasis. She again went around the oasis, spiraling inwards to look for clues but didn't find any. She arrived at the spring at the center like this and peered in. There wasn't anything special about the water in the spring, it looked just like regular water. There wasn't any formation or anything at the bottom of it like the fountain either. She tentatively reached her hand out to touch the water and slowly submerged her whole hand but didn't feel anything unusual. She patted around the bottom and sides of the spring only to have the same result. She sighed and took her hand out. Turning to the sand dunes outside, she lamented. "Looks like I'll have to step outside the oasis to find a way back... But the sun is the enemy of the skin for women... Well, with this kind of a body I guess it doesn't matter if I get a tan though..."
