by <unknown>
Gao Yuanlong was rendered speechless. Everyone glanced at each other. From the bottom of everyone's heart, everyone had an urge to strangle Jiang Shaoyang to death.
In the depths of the metallic dome, was a control room full of holograms that were displaying the scenes from various parts of the metallic dome. Stood in the control room were three highly reputed, veteran refiners. Each of them had the emblems of refiners' association on their chests. They were all none other than the three examiners who were in charge of the No.19 examination hall.
On the left, stood a stunning middle-aged beauty. She was dressed in the same deep blue uniform as Jiang Shaoyang. However, compared to the uniforms of the students, hers was more beautiful, refined, and luxurious. A faint spiritual energy was lingering around it, bringing a sliver of immortal-like grace.
Only a "professor" level teacher of Deep Sea University held the qualifications to wear such uniform.
She was Professor Zhu Yueqin of Deep Sea University's Refining Department. This year, she was already seventy-nine years old, yet she appeared to be in her forties or fifties.
"Professor Zhu, is that long-haired teenager the nephew of Supernova Jiang Sheng, Jiang Shaoyang? I have heard that his aptitude is just as Jiang Sheng's, when Jiang Sheng was of his age. At such a young age, he is already on par with 'Novem Stellae' and also won the nickname, the 'Tenth Star'. Geniuses keep on emerging from the Deep Sea University one after another, you are truly worthy of being called the holy land of refiners!"
Stood in the middle was a slightly fat but smart looking, middle-aged man, what's more, was that the number of fingers in his hands were surprisingly six. As he spoke, his tone carried a bit of jealousy.
This man was Dong Liuqi, he was born with twelve fingers which made him unsuited to train using normal refining techniques.
However, he was quite gifted as well as had a firm and indomitable temperament. After painstakingly training for a couple of decades, he actually created a set of refining techniques for twelve fingers that was second to none and became a top refining expert in one of ten strongest sects in the federation, the Thousand Sun Sect.
Owing to the fact that in his teens he still had not yet successfully developed a refining technique for twelve fingers, Dong Liuqi wasn't admitted to Deep Sea University and graduated from Star Nebula University's Refining Department.
Having seen his alma mater, Star Nebula University, being completely suppressed, whether it was in terms of the number of examinees or in the imposing aura emanating from the examinees of Deep Sea University, Dong Liuqi's voice inevitably had a hint of jealousy mixed in it.
Dong Liuqi turned to the square-faced military man on his right side and said with a smile, "Director Yan, I noticed there was an interesting kid called Li Yao recommended by the Grand Desolate War Institution on the list of examinees, isn't he the kid who is known for challenging the Deep Sea University? Now that he and Jiang Shaoyang are in the same examination hall, they can also be considered as competing on the same stage, we will have to pay attention to them later."
Even before "Director Yan" could speak a word, Zhu Yueqing couldn't help but coldly scoff and interrupted, "He is just an ignorant, hot-headed kid, who is shooting off his mouth, nothing more nothing less. Elder Dong, you can't be serious?"
"I beg to differ, I feel that he is quite courageous, the young should be just like this, they should have guts to speak and fight!" calmly said the military man, he took a step forwards while looking at Zhu Yueqin.
He was Yan Tianhe, a refiner in the army and also the head of the armament center at military base 8734.
These three examiners represented three different forces.
Professor Zhu Yueqin was from Deep Sea University and there was on behalf of the academies.
Elder Dong Liuqi was from Thousand Sun Sect and there was on behalf of the various major sects.
Needless to say anything about Yan Tianhe, the stars on his shoulders showed that he was a colonel; he was clearly representing the military.
The three examiners were going to invigilate together, mutually checking so as to ensure the fairness of the exam.
In regard to Li Yao's attitude, the opinion of the three had subtle differences.
Zue Yueqin treated Li Yao completely like a crazy kid who didn't know how high the heavens were and how deep the earth was—an idiot clown and it was beneath her to even pay attention to him.
Dong Liuqi was different, in the refiners' community, the Deep Sea University had been in a dominant position for a very long time, and refiners like him who didn't belong to Deep Sea University had been faintly discriminated in the refiners' circle, after a long passage of time, they couldn't help but accumulate tons of resentment in their heart.
Li Yao was presumptuous to challenge, but it could be said that he had spoken their minds. As the saying goes, the spectators aren't afraid of making things big. Dong Liuqi eagerly wished for Li Yao to show spectacular results and render these proud and arrogant teachers and students of Deep Sea University speechless.
However, the possibility of that happening was next to nothing.
As for Yang Tianhe, his thoughts were even more different.
Who was Li Yao? Federation Class 1 Disabled Soldier!
What was the army? It was the organization that best concealed their own mistakes.
Even if anyone in the army was guilty of crimes, he or she would be punished accordingly only in military court.
And Li Yao was just impulsive for a moment, the blood had rushed to his head and said a few words of rhetoric only.
In the eyes of many soldiers, it was nothing, simply nothing. Some even appreciated this little guy.
Meanwhile, the army had been most dissatisfied with the dominant situation of Deep Sea University.
Although both sides are cooperating very closely, a lot R&D and manufacture of armed forces magical equipment fell on the lap of Deep Sea University...
But as far as the army was concerned, they did not wish for the majority of abilities and secrets to be in the hands of the civilians.
Therefore, they had always hoped that the Refining Department of Federation's First Military College could challenge the Deep Sea University's Refining Department.
However, even after challenging them for over a century, they had not been successful.
As for a blabbermouth and ignorant kid like Li Yao, it was even further from his reach.
But it couldn't prevent Yan Tianhe, as an elder brother in the army, from having a slight appreciation for this younger brother.
Noticing the two had the intention of standing up together, Zhu Yueqin didn't continue to struggle anymore. Reading the time on the upper right of the hologram, she changed the topic, "There are twenty minutes left, let's inform the examinees to enter the hall!"
"Alright!"
Dong Liuqi and Yan Tianhe didn't truly believe that Li Yao had the qualifications to compete with Jiang Shaoyang. Seeing Deep Sea University maintain its position for so many years, they were just a bit jealous and were just trying to make up an issue, nothing more nothing less.
Noticing it was time already, they immediately reined in their emotions and returned to the matter at hand.
A melodious female voice echoed in every corner of the lobby, "Examinees, there are only twenty minutes left for the exam, please head to the examination hall and take the seat according to the number displayed on your crystal processor. Please remain silent. It is necessary that you don't bring any non-permissible items in the admission hall. The list of non-permissible items includes..."
"Whoosh!"
The restrictive barriers at the center of the lobby were dispelled and thousands of dome-like cabins emerged from the ground; translucent golden numbers floated above the cabins.
"Tap-tap-tap!"
Thousands of examinees rushed into the examination hall.
Swallowing his last dumpling, Li Yao wiped his hands and searched for his cabin.
; Once he was inside, the semicircular crystal cover on the front of the cabin gradually closed tight, isolating the voices from the outside.
The crystal processor for taking the exam launched a hologram before a lot of information, like a cascading waterfall, dropped from above. These were the rules for taking the exam. At the bottom, there was also a small countdown.
"Beep! Beep! Beep!"
Soon, the countdown hit zero.
The first round of the Refiners' Registration Examination officially began!
Chapter 211: Toothpick War! |
"First question."
"Among the eleven flying sword blueprints mentioned below, seven of the flying sword blueprints are for the same model, while the remaining four flying sword blueprints are for different models, according to the difference in the design, choose the seven blueprints which are for the same model."
"Of the aforementioned seven blueprints, please answer as to which model of flying sword they belong to as well as the inventor's name and the refining sect of the very same flying sword. Furthermore, please list three exercises which could best unleash the strength of the flying sword."
"There is a total of three errors in the aforementioned seven blueprints, please indicate them separately and correct them as well."
"In accordance with the aforementioned seven sub-blueprints, draw the complete blueprint."
"In accordance with the complete blueprint previously answered, please draw the spiritual energy flow diagram."
"..."
The Refiners' Registration Examination wasn't as simple as the College Entrance Examination. There weren't any multiple choice sections or fill in the blanks questions; each question covered one of the most complex and comprehensive topics.
Having seen the difficulty of the questions, countless examinees drew a lump of cold air at the same time.
Taking a glance at the examination hall, one could see a painful look on faces of thousands of examinees through the transparent eggshells.
However, Li Yao wasn't among them.
Due to "stealing" the time in the Heavenly Refining Tower under the Super Perceptive State, his basics were rock solid, and with the modification of the 1st Generation Tai'e Crafting Furnace as well the development of Demon Beast Detector, he had accumulated a wealth of experience in designs.
As far as he was concerned, whether it was the blueprints or the spiritual energy flow diagrams, it was a piece of cake.
Li Yao's ten fingers bounced like crazy as though they were striking some imaginary zither strings. His speed of answering the questions in the hologram one after another didn't slow down the least bit. It only took, at most, a dozen seconds to answer each question, and quite easily at that.
The Refiners' Registration Examination was known for its difficulty and the astonishing number of questions.
Whereas the time allocated for the entire exam was only five hours; a vast majority of examinees were able to answer only 80% of the questions in this allocated time period.
Li Yao, on the other hand, only took three hours and nine minutes to complete the entire test.
Having double-checked the answers, Li Yao clicked on the submit button and drilled out of the eggshell-like cabin.
He had submitted the paper in advance!
As Li Yao stretched his body, he noticed another cabin gradually opening on the opposite side. The examinee who came out was none other than the long-haired teenager he had previously encountered.
Realizing that Li Yao had actually submitted the paper a few seconds earlier than him, the long-haired teenager was caught by surprise first before he raised the corner of his lips into a smile that carried a sliver of curiosity and delight. His eyes didn't conceal its fiery look.
Li Yao too curiously looked at the long-haired fellow. Especially his slender and delicate hands which were almost the same as his.
Someone who was from Deep Sea University and so young should be the Tenth Star, Jiang Shaoyang.
Li Yao licked his lips as he the veins on the back of his hands bulged.
"Wow, someone submitted the paper in advance!"
The front of the examination cabin was transparent. Many of examinees who were immersed in the sea of questions inadvertently raised their heads. Much to their surprise, two examinees had submitted the paper ahead of the schedule and more than one hour earlier at that. They could not help but feel aghast.
Soon, someone recognized that one of two was none other than the refining genius, Jiang Shaoyang.
The Deep Sea University holds exchange events with major universities every year. Everyone was well aware of Jiang Shaoyang's over the top intelligence, thus, no one was astounded by Jiang Shaoyang's submission in advance.
However, who was the other guy standing opposite to Jiang Shaoyang. Apparently, he had submitted half a minute earlier than Jiang Shaoyang.
The vast majority of the people had only heard of Li Yao; they had never laid eyes upon him.
Only a few examinees who were from the Wasteland recognized Li Yao. They could not help but break into laughter; their first conclusion was, "So it turned out to be him! He must have found the questions too hard and given up!"
In the control room, the three examiners had also noticed that someone had submitted in advance.
The identity of the two soon appeared on the hologram.
Noticing Li Yao's name, Zhu Yueqin exclaimed in surprise before glancing at the two examiners with a faint smile.
Dong Liuqi and Yan Tianhe were extremely embarrassed.
Dong Liuqi coughed forcefully as he caressed his chin with his six fingers.
Yan Tianhe was, even more so, flushed red to his ears. In his heart, he was rather somewhat disappointed by Li Yao, he could help but shout in his heart, 'So much self-confidence and yet so poor.
'So what if your level is poor. At any rate, you should have a correct mindset and stick to the end, no matter what's the result is!
'How can you give up in the middle just because you find the questions difficult?'
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The master crystal processor quickly started operating; its computing power soared to limit as it examined the answers of the two.
At the center of the examination hall, Li Yao and Jiang Shaoyang looked at each other for three seconds and respectively noticed the eyes of other party burning with eagerness.
One after another, the two tacitly walked out of the examination hall and came to the back of the waiting area.
"Do you wanna have a bout?"
After being silent for half a minute, the voice of the two with a provocative tone simultaneously rang.
Jiang Shaoyang smiled, straightened his long hair and said in an elegant manner, "How should we compete, you are welcome to use any method."
Generally, if a man had long, shoulder-length hair, rather than appearing feminine, he would appear slightly unkempt.
Very few people were like Jiang Shaoyang, even when they straightened and combed their hair, appeared to be handsome and confident, full of zeal and vigor.
Li Yao replied, "How about each proposes a topic? You first, I will follow your lead."
Jiang Shaoyang nodded. Looking left and right, he got up and brought a box of toothpicks from the cafeteria, placed a coffee table between the two before pulling out two toothpicks and handing one to Li Yao.
Jiang Shaoyang said while waving the crystal processor provided for the exam on his wrist, "First, let's see who can remove more components from the crystal processor with a toothpick in three minutes.
"Second, also with the same toothpick, let's see who can reassemble them in the shortest period of time."
As Li Yao weighed the toothpick a bit, his eyes sparkled.
The toothpicks used in the military bases were naturally far from high-end goods. Maybe they were taken from the soldiers' mess; they were very fragile and would break with the slightest force.
Whereas the crystal processor was a very soph
isticated piece of magical equipment. Generally, seven or eight different kinds of tools were needed to disassemble it completely.
Disassembling a crystal processor with a toothpick was tantamount to nonsense.
Nevertheless, Li Yao was extremely excited. His eyes flickered with a fiery gaze as he nodded his head without an ounce of hesitation, "Alright."
The two took their crystal processors off and placed them on the coffee table before they slowly and methodically started exercising their fingers, apparently, warming up. When both saw the incredible flexibility of other party's fingers, both felt a bit aghast.
"Ready?"
"Bring it on."
"Let's start!"
Almost instantly, a storm was set off on the coffee table. Two pairs of hands almost turned into four whirlpools that sucked in the two crystal processors all of a sudden. The movement of their hands was so fast that only vague, trailing afterimages were visible, all one could hear was "Click! Click! Click! Click" subtle sounds coming.
One after another, components that were even smaller than a fingernail jumped out from the whirlpools and accurately fell into a nearby tissue box respectively.
After three minutes.
"Time's up!"
The whirlpools came to standstill before they turned back into two pairs of red hands; apparently, the muscles had become red from heat. The toothpicks in between their fingers had almost been completely worn down, whereas the crystal processors had almost been dismantled into their most basic components.
"Three hundred and thirty-five." Li Yao smiled and said; he simply didn't need to count.
"That's impossible!"
Jiang Shaoyang happened to have his eyebrows raised with a look of surprise plastered on his face. Again and again, he carefully gauged Li Yao from head to toe, as if he was looked at a monster, "I'll be damned, just thirteen less than me? You are good! You're truly good!"
In the blink of an eye, Li Yao's smile froze. He picked up Jiang Shaoyang's tissue box and weighed it a bit before his face became pale. Li Yao clenched his teeth and didn't speak a word while he removed thirteen components from his crystal processor.