Era of Mist

"Look, that must be the proctor for this provincial exam."

"He came with the Lord Sacrificial Officer, so he must be a big shot in the Student Union too."

"Whoa, am I seeing things? Void Traces? That’s a Dragon Map Scholar!"

"It’s real! Void Traces... That’s incredible!"

"How old is he? Is he even eighteen? A true peerless genius!"

’What in the world?’

’Void Traces? Dragon Map Scholar? What are you all talking about? I don’t understand a single word. Can someone please explain it to me! Wait, what did they just say? That Dragon Map Scholar with the Void Traces thing isn’t even eighteen?’

’Someone my age!’

’Or at least from the same generation!’

’We’re only two years apart at most, yet one of us is a Dragon Map Scholar high up in the sky, admired by countless people, while the other is a decorative model down on the ground that no one gives a damn about. The difference is just too vast. No, I can’t stand it. The curiosity is killing me. I have to see what this peerless figure looks like.’

’I’ll just twist, and twist, and... Dammit, there’s no way I can twist my eyeballs all the way to the back of my head!’

’—Hey, you, the girl in front. Yeah, you, the shorty exam-taker on the platform. Can’t you do something a girl is supposed to do? Like, I don’t know, take out a compact to touch up your makeup, so I can see what’s behind me in the reflection!’

Just as Shi Tiexin’s mind was racing, itching to see what was happening behind him, the Dragon Map Scholar proctoring the exam did something. A strange and immense aura suddenly swelled forth.

"Open!"

Shi Tiexin heard a cold shout. Then, an indescribably massive sensation erupted from behind him, blasting outward. It was like the beating of war drums, the crack of sudden thunder, or the explosion that creates a new world. Shi Tiexin couldn’t begin to explain what the feeling was like.

There was sound, but it wasn’t just sound. There was light, but it wasn’t just light. An unnamable, immense field of energy descended, instantly stunning Shi Tiexin’s mind into stillness, driving away all stray thoughts and leaving only a blank void.

His mind seemed to disconnect for a moment.

When Shi Tiexin came back to his senses, the world before him had undergone a heaven-and-earth-shattering transformation.

The entire high platform suddenly erupted in a light of indescribable color. Space churned, its borders rolling and expanding like molten glass. A vortex of space-time enveloped all the exam candidates. They were still on the circular platform, yet they were no longer on it. They were still around one another, yet they were not.

Shi Tiexin was stunned.

Every space and time was intimately connected yet mutually separate. Every change was both natural and breathtaking. It was like a cosmic wonder of the universe, both terrifyingly strange and yet possessing a flow that felt as if this was how the world was always meant to be.

A secret realm.

This was a secret realm!

A secret realm created by a Saint of Space-Time, who had inscribed the Great Dao and established its rules!

It wasn’t that Shi Tiexin had never seen a secret realm before; he had even dueled someone in one. But he had never seen one appear on such a massive scale, nor one so peculiar.

"The Wenxin Secret Realm!" someone knowledgeable in the stands exclaimed, providing an explanation at the most opportune moment. "This is the Wenxin Secret Realm, which can only be opened by a Grand Scholar or even the Lord Sacrificial Officers when the Student Union holds an official examination!"

"So this is the Wenxin Secret Realm. I’d only ever heard of it; this is the first time I’ve seen it with my own eyes."

’The Wenxin Secret Realm?’

’Specifically for exams?’

’So that’s how it is. No wonder the candidates aren’t separated into different examination halls. There’s simply no need.’

Shi Tiexin observed everything before him, his heart filled with endless wonder. All the candidates stood on the arena platform, yet each existed in their own separate, untouchable space. Every single one had the entire platform to themselves, completely eliminating any possibility of overcrowding or lack of room to maneuver. Yet all these secret realms, completely isolated by space-time, could be displayed simultaneously.

Shi Tiexin found it difficult to describe the feeling.

It was as if the limited space of the small, circular arena had suddenly been expanded with over two thousand identical layers. When you stared at one candidate, you saw not only them but everything within their complete secret realm. But when you looked at another candidate, you could instantly switch channels and observe what was happening in a different secret realm.

It was as if human beings had suddenly gone from three-dimensional to four-dimensional beings—wondrous, mysterious, and incomprehensible.

No wonder they had to come and observe in advance. If he hadn’t, Shi Tiexin could have racked his brain forever and never imagined an examination hall like this.

But the examination hall was just one small part of a proper exam.

The voice of the Dragon Map Scholar from behind him rang out. It wasn’t loud, but it carried throughout the entire venue. "All candidates, prepare yourselves."

"HAAH—!"

"HYAH—!"

"OOH—!"

Right in front of Shi Tiexin, the two-thousand-plus candidates all underwent a startling transformation. Not everyone shouted, but every single one of them roused their spirit and energy. A multicolored radiance suddenly lit up from the domain of each person’s mind, and then this light shot out of their heads, coalescing in the void into clusters of light, some dim, some bright.

Shi Tiexin was mesmerized. He stared, unblinking, at the short girl closest to him, trying to understand what these clusters of light were.

"Come!"

The short girl let out a great shout, and the cluster of light in the air suddenly dove down, striking her with a series of CRACKS like armor being donned. It rapidly formed a multicolored, radiant outer shell of armor. Shi Tiexin’s eyes went wide as he stared intently at that outer layer, looking at it from every angle but failing to understand it.

But for some reason, the thought-force representing Basic Mathematics in his mind trembled. Shi Tiexin suddenly understood that one of the strands of light represented the thought-force cultivation of Basic Mathematics.

Looking again at the other areas of light on the short girl’s body, Shi Tiexin logically deduced that these clusters of light came in six types, which were in fact manifestations of one’s cultivation in the Six Basic Heart Techniques. The brightness or dimness of the glow, to a certain extent, represented the level of one’s cultivation in the six heart techniques.

’Holy crap, who would have thought!’

’Old Tie has never taken an exam in this timeline before. I never expected it to be completely different from how it was at Fengming First Middle School!’

But Shi Tiexin immediately discovered that he had been surprised far too soon.

The Dragon Map Scholar gave the order: "Examination, begin!"

SWISH SWISH SWISH! The Wenxin Secret Realm changed once more. Ten meters in front of every candidate, radiant figures materialized from the void—genderless and faceless, but with distinct limbs.

These humanoid figures were composed entirely of six-colored light, their bodies glowing evenly. At first glance, they all looked the same, but upon closer inspection, the patterns and ways the various colored lights intertwined were all slightly different.

Without a second of hesitation or delay, the radiant figures and the candidates charged at each other in the blink of an eye. BAM! The short girl landed a vicious uppercut right on her radiant opponent’s chin. In the other secret realm layers, more than two thousand battles officially began.