Star Gate

“Why is your martial dao… different from the others?” asked the Black Armor.

“All daos lead to the same destination, it is only the journey that is different,” Li Hao intoned. “There is nothing wrong with what I do. You’ve seen it too, senior. I am not weak. Since the times are different, there is no need to limit ourselves to the path of ancient martial dao…”

“That is true,” agreed the Black Armor after some thought. “Then you pass!”

It turned to Hong Yitang. “You remind me of someone. Although the difference between you two is great, having the heart that you do is good. You pass as well!”

It then turned to Sky Sword. “You are very pure and more like an unapologetic martial blockhead in my view. You might be more suited for the military academy, but… you’ll do. You pass as well!”

Sky Sword heaved a sigh of relief as the Black Armor turned to Hou Xiaochen. Here, it hesitated. “You have too many thoughts in mind. Your ideas are rather scattered and conservative. The Broken Will Spear is a very pure spear intent! There might be good results if you trade with the sword user, but it’s fine. You count as passing!”

Hou Xiaochen felt a bit awkward after the assessment, but didn’t say anything. Finally, the Black Armor turned to Qian Wanhao’s group. A disapproving tone entered its voice as it pointed at Qian Wanhao. “Perhaps you purposefully wrote to my preferences as your scroll is different from what I sense on you… but a test is just a test. It matters not whether you resorted to trickery, so long as you didn’t cheat. You count as having passed!”

Qian Wanhao breathed an immense sigh of relief. Yes, he had indeed employed trickery. He was aware of the personalities of some ancient powerhouses, so the martial dao he’d written of were the thoughts that he’d held eighty years ago. While those were indeed his thoughts, they stemmed from when he wished to overthrow the monarchy.

Clearly, the Black Armor found his ideas feasible. Just as he’d thought back in the day, they were good ideas!

“You…” The Black Armor irritably waggled its finger at Hu Mingfa from the Ministry of the Judiciary. “You say that you are part of law enforcement. With the laws being the foundation and precursor to dao, your words speak only of a hierarchy of power. There is an innate conflict between law and class. This makes no sense whatsoever, you do not pass!”

Hu Mingfa’s expression shifted drastically! The Black Armor ignored him and dismissed the one from the City of Supernaturals.

“You have entirely inherited the dao of New Martial and have absolutely no innovation to speak of. There is no change in your methods, but core origin dissipated long ago. There is no future path ahead for you. You do not pass!”

The Arcanus from the City of Supernaturals widened his eyes and couldn’t help but say, “But… this plant spirit… also focuses on the core origin…”

“You fool, it can continue down its path because it possesses core origin dao!” snorted the Black Armor. “You do not pass!”

Color drained from the supernatural’s face. Failing to pass meant that he could not become a student. Didn’t that mean he was stuck here forever? At least… he wasn’t immediately sentenced to death just because he didn’t pass.

The ministers of Examination and Foreign Affairs waited eagerly for the Black Armor to judge their entries.

“You two are middle-of-the-road without any particular outstanding points, but neither do you demonstrate any major flaws,” it pronounced after a while. “You are on the cusp of passing and I could let you pass, but… there are many who have passed already. Therefore, you do not pass!”

The ministers’ expectant expressions fell off their faces. What the heck was this??

“Sir, since we were on the cusp of passing… isn’t this decision… unjust?”

“On the contrary, it is very just!” the Black Armor responded calmly. “This is a premier institution of learning, not the ordinary establishments of trash out there. You two do not qualify to attend in the first place!”

It then turned to the little tree. “You are a core origin cultivator… and pass for your description of core origin!” Finally, it looked at Panther. “You are lazy and only keen to eat. Compared to your ancestor… Forget it, your ancestor was an exalted emperor as well and thus cannot be easily referenced. You do not pass!”

Panther grew frantic! I do not pass? Then I can’t leave either?

“Arf arf arf!”

“Shut up!”

The dog immediately fell silent, but still despaired. It looked at Li Hao. I failed, what do we do now? The little tree made it!

Five people and a tree had passed. The world spun around them again, shocking the group. How was the Black Armor doing this??

“Students of martial universities must have real skill to their name!” Six puppets appeared on the field. “I have adjusted their strength to be on par with yours. They possess the capabilities of regular cultivators in the New Martial era. Defeating a peer of the same level is a passing mark, defeating two is a good result. Defeating three is excellence!

“Those who qualify will enter the next round. Good marks will receive rewards, and excellent marks will receive special rewards!”

Li Hao’s quartet looked at each other. A peer? Who among those present weren’t standouts of their period? A peer from the ancient civilization should be fine, right?

“Then… can we face one puppet at first and increase the number if we find it feasible?” asked Li Hao.

“You can. The puppets do not tire and this kind of fighting does not consume too much of their energy. It can also be replenished at any time without affecting their battle strength!”

Li Hao breathed out in relief. Then they could each challenge one at first and add more if they found it possible.

“I’ll go!” Sky Sword stepped forward. He was always one to volunteer for something that he felt should be done. A puppet manifested and brought a sword down on Sky Sword. He grunted and waved his broadsword in response, colliding with his opponent via a loud impact!

Undaunted, he continued to strike again and again. His sword intent was stately and grand!

He beat back the puppet with ease.

“Another!”

A second puppet quickly appeared and the two coordinated their moves in a thunderous offensive. The Black Armor watched silently, not making any audible judgments.

Sky Sword sent one of them flying after a few moments, completely defeating it. He did the same with the second a while later. As easy as it’d seemed for him, he did not call for a third puppet. Only after he stopped could the group see his condition clearly. He was covered in sword marks and blood seeped out of all of his wounds. He breathed heavily with a frown, clearly finding it embarrassing that he’d only defeated two puppets.

These were just two puppets with ordinary battle strength in the ancient civilization, but he’d almost fallen in defeat!

“Be careful, they’re very strong. It’s best if you take them on one at a time!” he transmitted to the group when he stepped to the side. These were very strong puppets and he’d had issues taking on two at once.

Li Hao and the rest simply walked out instead of responding. “Just send one at first!”

Several puppets manifested—one each. Li Hao promptly deployed his abilities and rushed forward with his sword. However, his puppet disappeared. So fast! He was a five element Arcanus and had just barely managed to grasp the last element. Apparently, the Black Armor wouldn’t let him just face a four element Arcanus. The puppet was also at the five element strength.

Li Hao exchanged a dozen blows with the puppet in the blink of an eye. He stumbled backward after the latest boom, disbelief brimming in his eyes. I can’t even defeat a single blasted one?? How is that possible?! And I wanted to fight three at once!

Various thoughts flitted through his mind before inspiration struck. His sword aura flared—the aura was the center of his attacks this time, not sword intent!

You don’t know sword aura, do you?

Characters materialized in a spray of wind, fire, lightning, and water. It was the puppet that was subject to immense constraints this time. Thunder and lightning crackled with fury and a ferocious tiger emerged to send the puppet flying!

“More!”

Another two puppets appeared—not just one. Three attacked at the same time!

Booms and roars echoed from all sides as the Black Armor quietly watched them, observing their performance. When it looked at the little tree and saw that the tree was summoning the imperial palace again… it quickly shouted, “You pass with excellent marks! This…”

This is almost cheating! Who in the modern world can stand against a corner of the imperial palace?

But it hadn’t said before that the palace couldn’t be utilized, not to mention this was part of the little tree’s heritage. There was nothing that could be said about it.

Damn that cheating plant!

The little tree quietly backed off of the battlefield. It had no choice as it didn’t really stand a chance against the puppets and could only use its trump card.

There were two unlucky souls having a difficult time—Hou Xiaochen and Qian Wanhao. Qian Wanhao had just set foot into four element Arcanus and Hou Xiaochen had just become a supernatural. They were both stronger than they’d been before, which would be a good thing, but that meant they met stronger opponents now than they would’ve!

Qian Wanhao was utterly routed in a few seconds! Just as Hou Xiaochen seemed destined for defeat, he shouted and broke another supernatural lock to send his puppet flying.

“Breaking through in the field…” grumbled the Black Armor. “Fine, that counts too!”

Hou Xiaochen spontaneously breaking a lock was cheating as well, but again, the Black Armor hadn’t said ahead of time that that wasn’t permitted.

Hou Xiaochen didn’t say anything, choosing to stop after defeating one puppet. He brooded silently, despite being able to challenge two or three puppets if he so wished. Instead, he was caught up in the shame of having almost been defeated.

Qian Wanhao wilted in the distance like he’d just lost his wife. He might be the only one to fail this stage. It was an awfully depressing possibility. He looked with resignation at Li Hao and the rest. Those guys were very strong—much stronger than him despite being of the same cultivation level. Despite that fact, why was he so dejected at being less than them?

Qian Wanhao sighed to himself. Was he really going to be trapped here forever?

In the meantime, Li Hao was starting to have too much fun. These puppets were susceptible to the characters and couldn’t really follow the trajectory of the abilities coming from the characters. It was a delightful discovery and he luxuriated in the exchange, despite being surrounded by three puppets.

The Black Armor quietly observed the young man. This was Tranquil Star’s ultimate art, but also not quite! It contained energy, blood qi, mental strength, and a unique dao related to the mind. It was rather surprising!

It then considered Hong Yitang. Here was another interesting person. He also employed written characters, but they differed from Li Hao’s in that his was one word going through multiple permutations. How strange, the two were of the same dao, but also different. It was interesting, in any case!

Li Hao defeated the three puppets after a while, as did a heavily panting Hong Yitang. He shook his head, however. He’d employed some trickery again because, like Li Hao, he’d won through attrition by taking advantage of the fact that the puppets didn’t understand their characters. That was how he emerged victorious.

etvolare’s Thoughts

There was an author note at the end of this chapter: Let me think about the third test, I haven’t come up with it yet.

Lawl.