Chapter 40: Northern dragon slayer
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The second phase of the theory test went by quickly,
and once again, instructor Zi found herself looking at Zhu Rong with a puzzled expression as she saw his perfect score and his sleeping figure.
'Where the hell did this weirdo come from?' she wondered while looking at the tablet displaying his score.
Unlike the first phase, where the answers would be reviewed later, in this phase, the results of the illusion were given immediately.
And that's because the illusion was designed in such a way as to evaluate the person based on the time they took, the actions they carried out during the process, and the final result of the task.
Needless to say, for an expert like Zhu Rong, the whole thing was a walk in the park, and he finished the test in less than 20 minutes from the start.
20 minutes which, outside, were no more than 2 minutes.
The illusion not only created a mental environment where the test took place, but it also altered the sense of time, turning the 10 real minutes of analysis into 100 minutes inside the illusion.
So it was understandable that the three of them were shocked when they saw that after only two minutes in the real world, a student had already finished the test.
She turned to the male instructer next to her, the one specialized in forging,
and he personally went over the illusion's results, reaching the same conclusion as the illusion's score:
a perfect result.
And so, what was supposed to be a difficult test that often caused several students to fail, turned out to be an easy stroll for this student.
"Now that I think about it, I feel like I've seen of him before," the male instructor suddenly said, sinking into his thoughts for a moment.
Then his eyes widened as he realized where he had already heard this student's name.
"Ah right, if I'm not wrong, this is that kid from the Zhu family, the one who was engaged to Teacher Liang," he said, finally recalling some rumors he had heard.
"Hmm? Engaged to Teacher Liang?" Even Teacher Zi remembered something, and soon her eyes widened too as she realized who it was.
But then a confused expression appeared on her face as she murmured,
"I think I heard a few rumors about that, but it's strange, it's different from what I've heard.
As far as I know, although this person belongs to the Zhu family, he has a very low status because of his talent, and in fact, his performance in his first year at the academy was among the worst.
Could it really be the same person?"
The two instructors had heard all kinds of rumors on the other side, and understandably, they were both confused about whether this was the same Zhu Rong or another student.
If it really was him, then this would be way too surprising, because the Zhu Rong they'd heard about was supposedly trash, in both cultivation talent and everything else.
And now he had delivered a performance that was way too astonishing, even for them.
Both his academic knowledge and forging skills were excellent, and all of this was just way too different from what both of them had heard.
They both wondered whether a person could improve this much out of nowhere, and for a moment they started to question if those rumors had been true or not,
after all, the reality in front of them was completely different.
In the end, they decided to set the matter aside and continue with the test.
It wasn't like they could just rush over to him and clear up their doubts right now.
Even if those rumors had been true, if his performance stayed this good for the rest of the exam, they both understood the academy would have a hidden talent in its hands.
This thought excited both of them, and they couldn't help but look forward to the upcoming tests.
As far as they knew, no one else had noticed his talent, and only the three of them had seen it.
If they could bring him under their wing, the rewards from the headmaster wouldn't be small at all.
And so, while the instructors got lost in their thoughts for a moment, the exam came to an end, and soon they moved on to the third test.
Just like the first two tests, the third one was also a breeze for Zhu Rong.
He wasn't surprised by this result , after all, with the mountain of knowledge he had built up over five centuries of life, there was no way simple tests like these could get in his way.
He had taken way more complicated ones before, and compared to those, these were literally child's play for him.
And so, by the end of the morning, the theoretical exams for all the students were over.
Now everyone was gathered in an open area while waiting for the instructors to give the next set of instructions.
Some still had downcast expressions, others looked happy as if they already knew they'd gotten good scores,
and only a few were calm, patiently waiting for the instructors for this next test to arrive.
And it didn't take long before they appeared, three more instructors arrived, a woman and two men.
When they saw them arrive, some disciples couldn't help but make sour faces while muttering:
"Of all the people we could've gotten, why him," one said, as if remembering something.
"Wait, wasn't he on a mission outside? Why is he here?" said another, and so a bit of chatter started up,
though it didn't last long, because as soon as the three instructors arrived, silence fell over the place.
The person the disciples were talking about, was the instructor in the center,
Zhao Tianlei.
He was a tall, middle aged man, with long white hair, deep gray eyes, and an expressionless face,
carrying a look that seemed to treat everyone in front of him like nothing.
Zhu Rong, seeing the man, couldn't help but pay a little more attention as well, not because in his past life this instructor had overseen the exam,
but for another reason.
'The Northern dragon slayer'