The Perfect Collection (3)

The guard on the side saw him. “Hey! Student? Not allowed to go in further!”

Shi An meekly stopped in his place and uttered an “Oh”. He pointed to the tall gray and green wall in front of him and asked, “What’s inside?” After seeing the fair and clean face of the young man in front of him, the guard’s tone also subconsciously softened as he replied, “This is the venue for the third round of the practical examination for the new students. It’ll not be open until the day of the examination.”

Shi An was stunned and turned his head to look at the wall.

The Abyssal Rift .... is in the venue of the third round of the test?

*

On the day the results of the written test examination came out, although Shi Rui’s face looked unconcerned, he still felt a great deal of apprehension in his heart. He could be sure that his score wouldn’t be too bad, but what he couldn’t be sure of was Shi An’s performance. Shi An had not succeeded in passing the academy’s entrance test for three consecutive years. If he was smart enough, he should have known to use this period to hone his theoretical knowledge. If he scored first in the written test, then in the most important part was the third round, which was the actual battle against magical creatures, he would have some advantage.

After Shi Rui figured this out, he immediately understood why Shi An spent a full three hours on the written test that day. Of course it was to take advantage of this and cleverly circumvent his deficiency in magic power in the third round. Worse still .... that guy might even actually achieve a sufficiently good rank. Then his advantage in this competition would be lost. After all, .... he was the actual bastard son.

Although Shi Rui had long understood his own identity, it didn’t hurt him any less, as though his heart was pierced by needles and the flames of shame burned, when he had the moment of realization. However, now he could no longer do anything. Even the people he had secretly instigated to find fault with Shi An all returned without success, and stammered, unwilling to say what had happened. Although Shi Rui felt anxious, he still maintained a look of innocence on the surface, and did not pursue the issue.

The day the results came out soon arrived. Shi Rui appeared calm on the surface but his eyes were anxiously sweeping from the top to the bottom of the list to look for Shi An’s name. Before he found it, he saw his own name.

Twenty-fifth place. It was a very good ranking.

Most importantly, Shi Rui could be sure that Shi An was not one of the twenty-four people ahead of himself. He felt a huge burden in his heart falling to the ground, and could hardly restrain the impulse to lift the corners of his mouth. At that moment, Shi Rui heard one of his friends say in amazement, “Eh, Xiao Rui, your loser brother’s name isn’t on this list?”

Shi Rui was stunned, “What?”

He asked, “Did you miss it?”

“Absolutely not, I’ve looked over it twice.”

Shi Rui quickly stepped forward and carefully, without missing a single name, scanned the list. Yes, Shi An’s name wasn’t there. “Did he get disqualified for cheating?” His friend said carelessly. Shi Rui reluctantly smiled, but he looked a little disoriented. Although he very much wanted to believe this was the answer, but ....There seemed to be something that spiraled out of control without him noticing it, and it made Shi Rui feel very uneasy.

At that moment, there was a commotion from the front of the crowd. 　Shi Rui was pulled out of his thoughts and subconsciously looked in the direction where the noise came from. Not far away, a man in a black coat with long silver hair walked unhurriedly onto the examiner’s platform一

He sat down in the only vacant seat. Almost all the students subconsciously let out an incredulous gasp. They had never expected that the only examiner who didn’t come was actually the legendary figure! The academy was actually able to invite him? Everyone was both excited and panicky, since this was the first time they had been able to see the legendary figure around them so close up.

Mu Heng sat at the top and raised his eyes to look at the trembling freshmen in the distance. He slowly swept through the crowd, but did not find the person in his memory; the pair of cold eyes deeper than depression faintly released an invisible killing aura. The other examiners couldn’t help but get nervous too. They communicated with each other with their eyes.

一Didn’t they say this fiend will only arrive in the third round? Why did he appear now?

一How should I know!

Shi Rui had yet to recover from his shock, only to see the people who were just joking and laughing beside him suddenly and violently took a step backwards. They almost panickedly hurried to hide themselves at the back, their faces were pale as dirt, with cold sweat oozing from their foreheads, and their pupils dilated一they were all showing an expression of extreme fear.

Shi Rui: “What’s wrong?”

The boy in the lead was called Duan Hua, also the one that Shi Rui had ‘unintentionally’ revealed Shi An’s whereabouts to. Duan Hua was pale with a ghostly complexion, his lips shivering and eyes dodgy when he finally whispered the truth. “That day .... we didn’t tell you, we actually went to corner that waste of a brother of yours. He cheated to get into the academy, he doesn’t deserve a placement here, but we didn’t succeed ....”

Shi Rui anxiously pursued the issue, “And then what? Tell me what happened?”

Duan Hua trembled and said with difficulty, “Then .... we were seen by Sir Mu.”

Shi Rui’s nails dug into his palm fiercely, but his face still wore a look of worry against his will habitually, “I’ve told you all not to go looking for trouble with him.”

“Later, I heard, someone seemed to have seen Shi An getting out of Sir Mu’s car.” Another person butted into the conversation. 　Shi Rui felt the smile on his face seemed to crack, and his nails sunk deep into his palm, sending a hot stinging pain.

一His luck is really good.

Not only did he have a good family, good birth, and good looks, but he always managed to avoid all the crises that came his way. It was the case during the simulation test, and now it’s this case again. Haze clouded beneath his eyes, and he slowly clenched his teeth. I would like to see when your luck will run out.

On the examiner’s seat.

Mu Heng withdrew his gaze, and indifferently lowered his eyes. The test machine snatched from Zhuo Fu was heavily weighed in his coat pocket; it had lost its meaning before he could pull it out. He frowned slightly and tapped the table with his gloved fingertips, making an even and dull tapping sound.

一It was a complete mistake to put off the follow-up on that secret mission and come specifically to come for the second round for interviews.historical

*

Meanwhile, inside a student dormitory, Shi An ran happily back into his room with a large bag of snacks hugged in his arms.

A notice slip was casually thrown on the table.

一After a long and difficult deliberation, the examiners finally made a decision to exempt Shi An from the interview and directly allowed him to pass the second round and enter the third round, which was the actual battle.

He contentedly threw himself onto the bed and turned on the game console he had borrowed from his new roommate. The cheerful background music of Mario played, and the plumber with the red beanie appeared on the screen.

一Games, simply the greatest invention in the human world other than snacks!