Impossible!

The sound of that footstep was a clap of thunder in their ears.

The kid on the stage had just taken a step past the tenth metre!

They stared at him.

The young man's expression was neither strained nor exhausted. With his placid eyes and calm expression, it seemed weirdly like he was contemplating something deep and meaningful.

How was this the expression of someone being pressured by the famed blade's gravitational forcefield?

Van nonchalantly lifted his foot.

And placed it down.

The audience were shaken.

It was a simple motion, but to the audience, each footfall was a revelation. The sound reverberated through their ribcages. What was this kid's limit?

The originally sceptical spectators felt as if they had been backhanded. They avoided each other's' gazes, faces burning.

The examiner's excitement had grown to new heights. Half-disbelieving, he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

He wasn't.

The gravitational force bearing down on Van was now extremely oppressive. If the spectators watched more closely, they would have seen steam wafting off Van as he dredged up more fleshly power to hold up the enormous boulder. It grew heavier and heavier the closer they got to Hatred's Bite. Van's discomfort had only just started to rise.

However.

The bottom of that pond on Mount Steady was still much worse!

Van easily pa.s.sed the eleventh metre.

The spectators grew heated. The naysayers lowered their heads even more.

No one else had yet been able to reach twelve metres this year! They had to see this! Audience members leaned forward, wis.h.i.+ng they could climb onto the stage themselves, and fixed their eyes on his feet.

Step by careful step, Van advanced.

Lugging a ma.s.sive boulder, he crossed the twelfth metre.

The audience gasped admiringly.

To them, Van was like the inexorable tide. Nothing would be able to stop him from shattering all their expectations.

The final 30-second warning blared out.

Van had reached the fourteenth metre.

The examiner jumped on the spot. Astonis.h.i.+ng, simply astonis.h.i.+ng! One kid was already impressive enough but there was an even better one - this kind of physical talent was the type that appeared once a decade at most! The examiner was so happy he felt like his soul was about to fly away.

And if the kid made it to the fifteenth metre...!

Van blinked. He woke up from his daze. Face blank, he looked around him. Then he looked at his feet.

Hm?

Didn't that mark on the ground mean he had reached the fourteenth metre? Van raised his head and peered out at the crowd. He saw the hilarious expressions on everybody's faces.

What had he done to deserve such gape-mouthed expressions of shock? He was extremely puzzled.

Was his underwear showing?

He turned his head and inspected his backside. Nope. He turned his head and looked in askance at the examiner.

...

From the examiner's s.h.i.+ning eyes and red face, Van thought he had an inkling of what was going on.

A drop of sweat trickled down his temple.

It was not from the exertion – but rather the cold realisation that he might have gone overboard and shown something he shouldn't have. Silver Mark One had precisely invited him to the Cedar Sect to be monitored!

He decided to take a leaf out of Senior Ruskel's book of theatrics.

Van staggered on the spot, drawing exaggerated screams from the audience.

Their hearts pounded, was he about to fail so close to the fifteenth metre!? If he made it that would be breaking a three-decade-long record for the servants.h.i.+p exams!!!

Like small, solitary sailboat on the stormy seas, Van swayed from side to side. His movements made the hearts of the audience go up and down.

"You can do it!" They cried as he teetered about drunkenly.

"Don't fail here!"

The boy showed an exhausted and painful expression.

He drew close to the fifteenth metre as he staggered about.

Suddenly, he tripped!

Someone screamed. People in the audience closed their eyes. When they opened their eyes again, they realised- a miracle had happened.

He had fallen over the fifteen-metre mark!

The time ended. There was total silence for a whole minute. Then, deafening noise broke out.

"Oh, s.h.i.+t! He did it!"

"Fifteen metres? f.u.c.k, he's monster!"

"What do they eat in that village!?"

"I don't understand? How did they do it? I couldn't even last past the fourth metre!"

"Oi, trash, take a good look at yourself! Don't even mention yourself in the same sentence as those two!"

The fervent audience clapped until their hands looked like they were bleeding.

They had witnessed a big event - a thirty-year record had been broken! And this had happened right in front of their eyes!

In everyone's heart that thin young man's back grew larger.

Booming with laughter, the examiner ran up to the collapsed boy and gave him a hearty slap on the back. It made Van feel like he was going to cough up a lung. This examiner's cultivation was not low!

"I'll say! Well done, young fellow!"

"This result is precisely what I want to see - what the Cedar Sect wants to see!"

Over the din, someone in the audience scoffed loudly, displeased.

Van smiled politely.

Enthusiastically, the examiner grabbed Van's token to imprint his result onto it. As he did, he was able to access the previous exam's results.

His face changed.

Hadn't ever cultivated? Holy s.h.i.+t, what kind of amazing const.i.tution did this kid have? The others who made it to the eleventh metre had cultivated to the first level of Qi Distillation! He almost wanted to hug Van - was this the type of kid the sect had been waiting for?

Then, the examiner's face changed again.

He sighed with pity and shook his head as he read onwards.

Tsk. The Heaven's were unkind. Such a good physical body was wasted!

The examiner sent Van off to the exit of the hall but he continued to shake his head even after Van disappeared from view as if he were deeply saddened. His gusty sighs caused the expressions of some of the petty compet.i.tors below to relax. So, it seemed like that young man wasn't that big a deal, after all?

A few of them glanced at each other and came to an agreement.

They slipped off.

Van saw Ryan off in the distance and ran to join up with him. The other boy was still unsteady.

"How did it go?"

Ryan shook his head.

"Mediocre potential. No attribute."

Ryan's eyes were full of worry. He did not think either of his performances were great.

If he didn't get into Cedar Sect, what was he going to do?

Mediocre potential was still better than the judgement Van received. He wondered what his score would have been if his meridians weren't still recovering.

They handed their tokens to the young female teacher at the exit of the hall.

She pa.s.sed a hand over the tokens and closed her eyes.

Her brows furrowed. Like there were something difficult about their result. Eventually, she spoke:

"…Congratulations, you have both been successful in your application for servants.h.i.+p."

"As your overall mark is low, we hope that you will push yourselves to the utmost to improve your results. Oh yes, you must sign this contract."

Ryan closed his eyes, relief evident.

Van had a look at the contract. Everything seemed fine until he saw the fine print at the bottom.

A minimum period of twenty years as a servant if he did not rise to outer disciple within that time?

Van finally realised how good Mark One's plan was.

He conveyed the conditions to Ryan. The other boy was resolute. So was he. He had only 11 months left to reach Inner Disciple!

"I will sign."

They both marked an X on their contracts.

________________

Senior Ruskel was happily eating his sausage-skewer when he suddenly froze. The skewer dropped to the ground. Ruskel's mouth was opened into a comically perfect 'o.'

f.u.c.k f.u.c.k f.u.c.k!

He knew he had forgotten something.

Senior Ruskel felt nervous sweat drench his robes.

In anger he smacked himself upside on the head. He took off, running madly back towards the sect.

Not one second later, the sausage stall owner saw Ryan running back a second later, limbs akimbo.

"My beauties, forgive me!" Senior Ruskel cried. Like an eagle, he swooped down and grabbed a wrapped parcel he had accidentally left at the stall in his rush.

The stall keeper blinked.

And Senior Ruskel was gone.