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  As they climbed the ladder, they asked a boatswain how much it would cost to travel to the capital.

  “Sixteen coins,” he said, in between shouting something to the sailors. “Each.”

  Cursing Paris and Rahaim, the friends climbed aboard. They didn’t have much of a choice. If they rode their desert ravens, it would take them about twenty-one years to reach the capital through all the lands of the Empire, provided that they didn’t make a single stop, of course.

  During their flight, they had to help the sailors and servants defend from harpies, repel the attacks of sky pirates, survive two storms, one of which was created by a creature so powerful that the captain had to use an artifact at the Lord level to drive it away, survive a disease similar to scurvy, not to mention almost falling off the edge of the ship several times and other dangerous adventures.

  By the third week, their new clothes had turned into tattered rags, the frigate was barely able to stay in the air, and at the end, it almost crashed into the beautiful emerald domes of Dahanatan.

  The miserly captain refused to give even a small reward to the friends for their assistance. So, after wandering through the labyrinthine streets of the seemingly endless city, they finally found themselves in front of a huge gate.

  Chapter 425

  While on board, Hadjar had been able to fully appreciate the splendor of the capital of Darnassus. The city spread out across a vast plain covered with meadows and lakes.

  Its walls were about 65 feet high, and so wide that several houses could be built on their parapets. Stately palaces and castles rose within the city, and in the center was a forbidden region. Covered in a magical, cloud-like veil, it was hidden from view, but it made Dahanatan seem even more magnificent. Its streets were as wide as avenues, and its avenues were as wide as trade routes. Dozens of flying ships hovered in the sky above the city, and hundreds of skyboats and countless cultivators riding various winged creatures were taking off and landing everywhere.

  The streets were filled with citizens so diverse that Hadjar sometimes saw peoples that South Wind had mentioned only in ancient legends.

  All the Schools in Dahanatan didn’t just have massive and beautiful gates, but were also situated on high ground. It looked extremely magical. Huge chunks of earth seemed to have been carved out of the ground and shaped by a giant artist. The streets leading to the Schools ended in a thirty-foot cliff, atop which, on the smooth surface of the plateau, stood the Schools’ many pavilions and castles.

  The city was so huge that a mere mortal couldn’t cross it on foot, going from one end to the other, in less than two weeks.

  After landing, Hadjar and Einen walked through the streets, sometimes stopping at different shops. Mostly at bookshops, weapon shops, and alchemical shops. The abundance that was presented to them surpassed the auction of Underworld City. Any practitioner or cultivator from outlying kingdoms could find everything that they’d ever dreamed of here.

  However, the prices made the friends’ hearts weep. For some of the Technique scrolls, the merchants would ask for up to a hundred coins; for artifacts at the Heaven level — one hundred and fifty coins was the minimum. The prices in the alchemy shops started at one thousand coins.

  “Today is the fifth day of the exams...” everyone murmured.

  “The penultimate day!” Someone added excitedly.

  “Cultivators from all over the country have come to the city to try their luck!”

  Hadjar and Einen were upset to find that they’d arrived on the fifth day of the exams. When they’d left Underworld City, they’d calculated their travel time so that they would reach the capital with time to spare. If everything had gone smoothly, they would’ve arrived a week before the start of the exams. Unfortunately, due to numerous delays along the way, they were almost late.

  The majestic gates of ‘The Holy Sky’ School resembled the front of a fortress: they were massive and heavy, built into the wall that covered part of the rock atop which the school itself was located. There were many people gathered at the foot of the stone-paved square. They were all waiting for noon — the hour when the gates would open and anyone could enter the outer courtyard of the school, where the exam would be taking place.

  “Impressive, isn’t it?” Einen asked breathlessly.

  Hadjar was about to reply when something hit him gently in the back of the head. He turned and saw a leather ball rolling across the square. The children who had thrown the toy had disappeared. As he stooped to grab it, Hadjar felt something hit his head again. This time, it was a drop of rain. One, then another, then a third, until a real downpour began.

  “Rain!” Hadjar shouted. “It’s rain!”

  With his arms outstretched, grinning like a little kid, he stood in the pouring rain and angled his face toward it. He allowed the rain to wash away all the dirt, dust, and sand from his body. It was the long-awaited rain he hadn’t felt for three long years. Since leaving Lidus, he hadn’t seen a single drop fall from the sky. And now he was enjoying its coolness while most people hid under umbrellas and awnings.

  “My friend,” Einen said.

  Hadjar opened his eyes and saw the islander standing on one leg and kicking the ball into the air with the other. The game called football didn’t exist in this world. Instead, they had the popular game called ‘Sun’. A player needed to juggle a ball with their feet, then pass it to another player. The one who couldn’t receive, juggle, and then send the ball back would lose the game.

  Neither Hadjar nor Einen, who was equally happy to see the rain, cared that the square immediately turned into a muddy mess because of the downpour. They were laughing, rolling around in the mud, and kicking the ball everywhere. The people around them looked at them with disdain. Hadjar didn’t even notice that they were being watched. It wasn’t because the people were interested in their antics, but because there was absolutely nothing else to do while waiting for the gates to open.

  Soon, the attention of the crowd was drawn by a more fascinating sight: on the opposite side of the street from Einen and Hadjar, two applicants had started a fight. Both were at the middle stage of the Heaven Soldier level. Despite the fact that they looked like young men in the prime of their lives, they couldn’t have been more than twelve years old. The process of becoming a true cultivator affected the body’s structure too much. It left the cultivator’s body as perfect as its genes allowed.

  Hadjar, after going in for another lunge and almost landing face down in the mud, thought he was seeing things. After a couple of blinks, he realized that he wasn’t. Across the street from him, a figure moved toward the square, standing out in the crowd like a white star in the night sky. A girl was riding a powerful, six-legged horse. Her pink skin looked impossibly soft, as if it had never been touched by water, light, or wind. Her white hair, lush and wavy, framed a perfectly round face. Her almond-shaped, blue eyes regarded the two friends with disdain and indifference. All she wore was a kind of leather vest that covered her stomach and chest, but left her arms and back bare. Tapering at the base of her belly in a tempting triangle, it abruptly transitioned into her pants. This seemingly ordinary outfit, when viewed through the World River, turned out to be a very valuable artifact. Surely, if she so desired, it could easily transform into full leather armor.

  However, it wasn’t her armor, nor her aura of a Heaven Soldier at the advanced stage, nor even the maddening beauty of the blue pendant on the girl’s chest that had attracted Hadjar’s attention. He was staring at her... ears. They were long and pointed. They peeked out from under her hair and were about three inches long.

  “What’s the matter?” Einen asked Hadjar.

  “By the High Heavens, is that an elf?”

  “I’m surprised you’ve even heard of them, my friend.”

  Hadjar had indeed heard of elves. However, he’d heard of them on Earth! He’d had no idea that there were other intelligent races in this world besides humans!

  Although, now he understood wh
y the Shadows, when speaking about the Land of Immortals, had always referred to them as ‘beings’. Damn it! If there were elves here, then somewhere under the sun, there were also-

  Hadjar’s thoughts were interrupted by a sudden message. It flashed before his eyes, reminding him of the old days:

  [System notification!

  The neural network has finished rebooting!

  Would you like to update the interface?]

  Hadjar shook his head. The neural network should’ve been at least a year and a half away from being rebooted. However, his breakthrough to a new level of cultivation had probably affected the speed of the reboot.

  Anyway, he had no choice but to accept. There was only a ‘Yes’ button under the message. He’d learned so much over the years that the neural network needed urgent recalibration. He was so glad to finally have it back!

  [Update started!

  Approximate time needed: 72 days, 13 hours, 52 minutes, 49... 48... 47 seconds!]

  His rejoicing had been premature…

  At that moment, the gates of ‘The Holy Sky’ School opened and a white-haired man wearing green robes appeared in front of the silent crowd. He looked around calmly and thundered:

  “The fifth day of the exams begins now!”

  Chapter 426

  Upon hearing the herald’s words, people started moving toward the gates. The elf girl soon disappeared into the crowd. Hadjar decided to hold off on asking Einen about the elves for now. They had far more important issues to deal with first.

  After shaking off the dirt (which only ended up staining their clothes further, making the friends’ appearance even more unpleasant), Hadjar and Einen joined the crowd. ‘The Holy Sky’ School allowed spectators to attend the exam as well. In fact, it even encouraged it: each spectator was someone who might go on to spread the word of how the best of the best of the younger generation had come to their School to participate in their trials. After all, you could never have enough prestige.

  “Watch where you’re going!” Hadjar was shoved in the shoulder.

  “Master, you’ve been dirtied by the masses.”

  A white silk handkerchief was handed to the young man who had pushed Hadjar. He wiped his hands carelessly, and, after throwing the handkerchief away, he moved on. Two old men and a young, pretty girl trotted after him. The young man, dressed in white robes, had a coat of arms on his back depicting two swords crossed within a strange hieroglyph.

  “That’s the Predatory Blades clan crest,” Einen whispered in his friend’s ear. “They’re one of the seven family clans.”

  “I know,” Hadjar said.

  He looked at the people around him through the World River. Once again, he was made aware of the fact that this world was much larger than it had once seemed to him from the walls of the Palace of Lidus. While ordinary people had meridians as wide as the thinnest thread, the young man from the ancient family had meridians as wide as the branch of a shrub.

  The young man had a sword that shone with energy so bright that there was no doubt about it: it was an Imperial level artifact. Its owner radiated an aura no lower than a Heaven Soldier at the middle stage. What was even more shocking was the fact that his servants, including the young girl, were at the Spirit Knight level.

  “Do you see it?” Hadjar whispered.

  Einen nodded.

  “At fifteen, she is already a Spirit Knight,” the islander replied.

  The girl definitely wasn’t sixteen yet. After they’d advanced to the level of true cultivators, their perception had sharpened so much that it was simple for them to determine someone’s age at first glance. Barring, of course, the various Techniques and artifacts that might’ve concealed it.

  “Her meridians,” Hadjar squinted, “they’re thicker than the others’ meridians, but thinner than that bastard’s.”

  The young man, who hadn’t gone very far, stopped in surprise and turned sharply toward the friends.

  “How dare you look at me, worm?”

  He shouted and held out his right hand. Swirls formed around it, shaped like blades. On top of everything, the boy was also a Wielder!

  Hadjar prepared to block his attack, but the crowd took a step toward a platform that rose behind the gates. The crowd carried the member of the Predatory Blades clan up with them, leaving Hadjar and Einen behind, waiting for their turn.

  Despite the fact that the platform was huge and could accommodate more than three hundred people at a time, there were still about twenty times as many left behind in the square. During the exams, up to two hundred thousand people could come to ‘The Holy Sky’ School. About two-thirds of them would come to take part in the exams themselves.

  “I don’t think it was a good idea to mock him,” Einen said, shaking his head.

  “I didn’t mean it like that!” Hadjar said indignantly. “I don’t care enough about the clans’ children to mock them…”

  Hadjar was no fool. That young girl walking behind her master could’ve defeated Sankesh with ease. Even if the young man had been alone, what could he realistically do against a young man raised as part of an ancient family of swordsmen? He’d probably eaten alchemical pills for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, took elixir baths, and trained with the best Masters and Teachers since childhood. Not to mention the Imperial level sword he carried.

  While waiting for the platform to return, Hadjar decided to look around through the World River. Plunging mentally into the endless stream of power, he looked at the people around him. Their silhouettes mingled and merged into a single haze of energy. Some looked like small sparks, others like a torch burning in the dark, but there were also people that shone with power, like a fallen star flying through the night sky. There were so many geniuses and even monsters in this crowd that Hadjar began to think that, even if they were to use Rahaim’s letter, they wouldn’t pass the examination for ordinary disciples, let alone the inner circle ones.

  The platform soon came back down. The crowd carried Hadjar and Einen onto the iron platform. Ten seconds later, hieroglyphs lit up at the edges and the elevator went up. The higher they climbed, the more clear it became that many people were crowding around on the square. What was most frightening was that there were tens of thousands of Heaven Soldiers among them! Hadjar staggered, but grabbed hold of Einen’s shoulder just in time. Instead of arresting his stumble, he almost knocked his friend, who was also shaken, to the ground.

  “Did you ever imagine you’d live long enough to see something like that?” The islander leaned heavily on his staff.

  By the standards of the islands and the barbarian kingdoms, true cultivators were akin to legends. Many didn’t even believe it was possible to advance to this level of power. And here, on the day of the exams, an insane number of them had gathered, and they were all under the age of sixteen.

  The Darnassus Empire occupied a vast territory. It was hard to imagine how many billions of people inhabited it, considering it could produce thousands of young Heaven Soldiers.

  When they reached a height of 130 feet, the iron platform froze. The crowd began to move again, and like a living ocean, it carried the two friends out into a clearing. Standing ankle-deep in the green, cropped grass, they found themselves in an even larger crowd than was still waiting at the foot of the gates.

  The school grounds were the furthest thing from what Hadjar had imagined. There were no walls, no tall buildings, nor any pavilions. In the center of the entire complex stood a seven-story tower, wide enough to fit two houses at its base. On the opposite side from the tower stood the walls of an oval arena. Behind it were dozens of small, white stone buildings with windows. Hadjar couldn’t guess their purpose.

  The crowd divided into three parts. The first and most numerous part moved toward the arch of plain stone. Another herald was standing beside it. He was wearing gray clothes without wrinkles, and he had gray hair.

  “If you wish to take the ordinary disciples’ apprentice test, please come here.”

&n
bsp; After exchanging glances, Hadjar and Einen joined this crowd.

  A still wide, but much less numerous, stream of people moved toward the arch in the center. It was golden, with a huge hieroglyph etched in the middle, and it stood behind a herald in blue robes — a slender and beautiful middle-aged woman.

  “The trial for fully-fledged disciples will begin soon.”

  There were only a few people walking through the last, jade arch, which was being overseen by a man in black. Among them, Hadjar noticed both the elf girl and the young man from the Predatory Blades clan. He wasn’t surprised to see that they had chosen this particular test. It was the most prestigious position new students of ‘The Holy Sky’ School could hope for.

  “Don’t get distracted,” Einen said.

  As they passed through the archway, they were suddenly cut off from the noise of the world around them. Behind them, the barely visible borders of the veil shimmered, and a hidden building appeared ahead of them.

  The crowd stood on a platform, and below them, in a wide square, was a table where the exam overseers sat: five bored middle-aged men and one young, haughty man wearing a white robe.

  Behind them, twenty yards from the table, a glass globe lay on a tripod. A rainbow cloud swirled inside it, radiating a very strange energy.

  “By the High Heavens,” Hadjar breathed out, awed. “I swear I couldn’t even feel the veil!”

  “It would seem, my friend, that we’ve made the right choice.”

  Einen was referring to their decision to start from the bottom. Hadjar agreed with the islander. It was unlikely that they would be able to pass the exam for the ordinary disciples, let alone the fully-fledged ones.