CHAPTER 25: FIRST ROUND

The competition hall was deadly quiet, leaving only the shallow breathing and the ink brush scraping against the scrolls.

Both old and young apprentices wore solemn expressions on their faces. Even those that were acclaimed as geniuses in array formation were serious.

At this stage level, as long as they could prove themselves, their bright future would be set in stone, and the association wouldn’t stop at anything in nurturing them.

At the forefront, the proud young man contemplated every second before he continued drawing the array formation.

He raised his head and turned his gaze, and a sneer crept up his face when he saw the various tensions plastered on other apprentices’ faces.

He shifted his gaze and looked at the calm and beautiful girl in the middle area.

’Continue to pretend. When I come first and show the world your clan’s inheritance is nothing, but a joke compared to my master’s, then it will be too late to come back to me.’ He gloated inwardly.

He lost interest in the other apprentices. To him, apart from her, the others were nothing but stepping stones to his fame.

So, he thought.

Just when he wanted to turn his head and focus his attention on the last part of the array formation diagram, he saw something that stunned him.

A young man younger than him stood up, wearing a calm expression.

’What’s he doing?’

’Don’t tell me he’s done? Impossible!’ He screamed in his heart.

He knew how difficult the test was. How could anyone dare claim they had finished the test?

While he was having a tug-of-war inwardly, other apprentices also raised their heads and looked at the youngest person in the hall.

"What happened?"

"Is he giving up or what?"

"Of course, he’s giving up. This damn test is too difficult."

"What a shame. Such a young apprentice. He should have held it in until the end of the competition."

Jun Wu walked calmly forward, unbothered by the various gazes directed at him and their gossip. Why would he care about their insignificant gossip?

The test barely took him a minute to complete, and the rest of the time was him contemplating his next action when he left the array competition.

He was a Grade-1 Array Formation Master. How could some insignificant test pose any challenge to him?

Arriving before the five elders, "Elders, I’m done," he said calmly. His voice was clear, without any nervousness.

"You’re done?" the only woman among the elders asked, knitting her brow.

"Yes," Jun Wu nodded.

All the elders locked their gazes on him before they shook their heads in pity.

"Alright. You can submit it," she said and received the scroll. "Go out and wait for the test result."

Jun Wu nodded and left the hall under the various gazes locked on him. One of the elders looked at him and clicked his tongue in irritation.

This was not the first time he had seen someone like Jun Wu who wasn’t serious about the competition.

They thought they were special, only to get a reality check.

"Just throw his scroll aside. He’s just a waste of our precious time," he said, his voice filled with irritation.

The female elder nodded and placed Jun Wu’s scroll to the side.

Seeing this, all the apprentices could only sigh. They’d expected such a result.

How could anyone claim to have completed such a difficult test in less than half of the time?

The young man at the forefront sneered. ’I knew it! How can a nobody dare claim to have completed the test when I’m not even done with it?’

He clicked his tongue, and a prideful smile crept up his lips as he resumed the test.

Meanwhile, Jun Wu did not know what was going on in the competition hall, as he had already found a seat in the quiet lobby, calmly waiting for the competition to end.

Close to an hour later, the first person came out. It was a young man with a prideful smile on his lips.

He looked at Jun Wu with a condescending gaze before he sauntered to the corner and picked a seat. ’Continue with your act. Humph!’

Slowly, more and more apprentices trooped out of the competition hall. When they saw Jun Wu, most would gloat. At least they tried their best, unlike an ignorant brat.

Quickly, they formed groups of two or three, discussing the test.

Surrounded by a lot of array apprentices, Ma Lon, the young man with a prideful expression, responded to their queries with an air of arrogance.

He was a lot younger than most of the apprentices, yet they couldn’t help but come to flatter him.

Standing in the corner, Yuan Lan wore a calm expression as she watched the noise in the lobby.

Apart from coming for the competition, this was a rare chance for many to network themselves with many powerful clans.

Her gaze fell on Jun Wu, and she creased her brow. To her, Jun Wu was an enigma. He did not look like someone who didn’t know what he was doing.

He was just too calm and confident for it.

Shaking her head, she averted her gaze and closed her eyes to clear her mind, preparing for the next stage in the competition.

While the apprentices were talking in the lobby, the five elders had already started grading their scrolls.

For a Grade-1 Array Formation Master, marking apprentices’ tests was nothing. Swiftly, they graded the scrolls into two groups.

Those that passed and those that failed.

Among those that passed, there was an inner ranking to determine their ranks. This was based on the number of errors they found and corrected.

Quickly, time whisked by and they had all completed the marking.

"Hahaha. Who would have expected the Young Miss of the Yuan clan to come first in this round?" an elder said with a light smile on his face.

The elders nodded. Most of them thought Ma Long would come first, but they were wrong. He was short by a few points.

"This is just the first round. There are two more rounds to go. Anything can still happen," Elder Feng, the leading elder, said with an air of indifference.

Just as they thought everything was over, Elder Shen, the only female elder, raised her head, her face filled with shock.

"How did he do it?!" she exclaimed.