"Dong dong dong!!!" Neif stayed in bed till noon when a huge bell was being rung to signal the beginning of the exam for prospective students of The Great Zhou Academy. The bell woke him from his thoughts and plans and finally got him to stand up. He conjured up water and cleansed himself and his clothes before using magic to dry them and putting them back on. He strode confidently towards the city square, where the exams were to be conducted.
From what Neif had been told last night, he could deduce a few things about this exam. This exam was meant to measure the potential of an individual. It was easier for mana cultivators because a device had been created for just this purpose. It could sense what type of spirit root a person had, if at all they did.
The spirit root was something humans had that qualified them to cultivate mana. It was mostly defined from birth, but depending on where and how you live the first five years of your life, your spirit root could improve, or its grade could even reduce. There were seven grades, from high to low: immortal, vagrant, celestial, unique, rare, uncommon, and common. Neif chuckled as he recalled this knowledge. It was part of the few things that had survived the erosion of time and persisted till now. He had taught these things to humans; however, he had never given out a single immortal spirit root, well, until now.
When he was born, he naturally had his consciousness. He had altered a few things till now to create for himself an immortal spirit root. If The Great Zhou Academy could not recognize his talent, then they were moving steadily towards destruction. Through all his thinking, he finally arrived at the city square. This place was packed full of people, and they were all youngsters. According to the style of the academy, they would not accept anyone above the age of ten and below the age of five. Luckily, Neif fell into this age gap.
Not long after he came, a few more youngsters were led to the city square with their guardians, and after getting close enough, the guardian would leave them to continue while they stood and watched. It was already an unspoken rule that no adult come near the city square during the examination.
Neif took a look around. There was a podium that had been erected at the center of the square. "This podium wasn't here yesterday," he thought. "As expected of someone the academy sent. Let's hope he doesn't disappoint me."
Soon, there were no more people coming to join the already huge mass of youngsters, and an elder with a long white beard that matched his immaculate robe floated up to the podium. "Now listen up, boys," his voice echoed. "I am sure I don't need to go into specifics. Since you are all here, I trust that you know at least basic knowledge." Everyone nodded. He smiled and continued. "We will first test for spirit roots to see if any of you are qualified to cultivate mana, before testing if you can be a qualified body cultivator from the remnants."
"Now, you'll come up in batches of five. Let the first set come." As soon as he said this, another four old men in white came up the podium; however, none of them had a beard to match their white robes, and the aura they gave off was not as domineering as the first elder. The testing immediately began. All five elders brought out a transparent stone, and everyone who came up would put their hands on the stone for five seconds before leaving dejectedly.
After about seven batches, there was finally a reaction on one of the transparent stones. It shone with a whitish-blue light for five seconds before slowly fading away. The elder who was holding the stone was delighted. "Hahahaha, good good. There is such a genius here. To find a celestial root here of all places. Come, come, your starting position in the academy will definitely be a good one. Such a genius cannot be overlooked."
The young girl looked to be no more than seven years old, around Neif's age. He took a quick look at her and then turned his head. The likes of this little girl were unable to catch his attention. A while later, there were less than a dozen untested children left, including Neif. A lot of them were scared of going up because after the little girl, the number of spirit roots that appeared was too low in comparison to the number of people being tested; in other words, they were crumbling.
Neif finally walked up to the podium, along with four others who were barely able to muster the courage. He walked directly to the old elder and placed his hand on the transparent stone. The stone lightly buzzed but did not show any light. Naturally, this would mean he had no spirit roots and was unable to cultivate mana, but this elder was not some little kid. He had clearly felt the stone buzz just now.
Unfortunately, this was not the first time some weird situation had happened, so he paid it little mind. "Fail, move on," he said softly. "No, I didn't fail." Neif strongly refused. "Hmm? You clearly failed. Get lost." The old man waved his sleeves and summoned a gust of wind that took Neif off his feet to where the ones who failed the test were. However, before he landed, another gust of wind blew around Neif and kept him hovering in the air before carrying him back to the podium.
Seeing this, the old man's eyes widened in disbelief. "This brat might actually be one of a kind," he thought. He recited a spell under his breath and pointed at Neif. Huge vines surged out of the ground with terrifying speeds and burst through the air lift, aiming to entangle the little boy. Neif snapped his fingers, and the vines reformed and turned into a huge green throne, which he sat on, looking down on the world.