The outside of the academy’s buildings was filled with many people. Of course this included Wulan who was standing next to Luna. The voice that was transmitted with the help of Mana resounded in everyone’s ears. 

The person who spoke was an old man standing at the top of a square shaped rock. The old man had the aura of a Magus Apprentice surrounding him.

 You could feel the blazing fire Mana surrounding him. This would usually mean that the person specializes in fire the element.

“I repeat: The academy entrance exam is starting! The students who were here last year or before should go to their assigned classes. Meanwhile the new students that are at the age of 15 should stay to take your entrance exam.” 

Lanlan and Wulan’s other siblings started to walk into the academy’s building while around 200 people stayed. 

Luna stayed as well. Although she was a 4th level Magus Novice genius she could only join the academy this year because of the age requirement.

“Hey Wulan, I forget to ask how you manage to reach the second level.”

She immediately snapped out of her previous embarrassed state and asked him casually.

“Oh, I don’t know, I think it may be because I was at a bottleneck for seven whole years.” 

He would obviously not tell her that he was the Solar Martial monarch. Even if he did, nobody would believe him and only laugh at him.

She knew the old Wulan very well and she could tell if he was lying or not, but she couldn’t hint anything from him today. Although He still had the memory from his past life, this new body was still that of the kid Wulan so he tried his best to cramp those expressions and use fake ones.

“Well, never mind, if you pass the exam we will probably be in the same section. There are only 200 people here, most will fail, few will pass.” 

“Yeah, I will try my best to not fail—”

“Now, all the new Magus students, please come forward. We need to check which element you have affinity for, in order to choose your class, if you pass, if you are an Martial artist we will need you to choose a class.”

Before Wulan could finish his act, the old man’s voice once again resounded.

“We will talk later, for now, let’s just take the exam and get over with it.” Luna said while walking forward to the side of the old man.

From what He saw in his Essence, he had an affinity for all the elements, so he pondered, what he should do.

He could feel that he was able to hide his elemental affinity, just like his Qi, in the Magistial Rex. He came to the conclusion that it would be the best course of action, if he displayed one element and hid the other six.

He patiently walked, he didn’t run to the front like the other 200 people around him and instead patiently waited as one of the last people in the line.

Luna was the first person in the line to be tested. She stood In front of the big square shaped rock.

“Place your hand on the rock, some of your mana will be drained by this ‘Brills’ rock, it will identify which elements you have affinity with.”

The old man clearly looked very interested in the results. What else would one expect? Luna was the only 15 year old person in the whole gore city who already was a 4th Novice.

She slowly injected her Mana in the big rock instead of waiting for the rock to react and obtain her mana. There were two stars flashing, one was dark while the other one was bright.

“Luna, affinities with two elements, light and…”

The old man paused and looked startled, he looked again, and again.

“Ah, the, the second element is… darkness. Ah, äh, congratulations, your affinities are light and darkness.”

“WHAT?! The 2 elements are darkness and light?!”

“Has there ever been someone who had the affinity for those two elements before, aren’t those two opposing each other?”

“Nope, Gore city never had a person who had affinity for these elements.” 

“I haven’t heard of anyone in the whole blood moon province who had darkness and light!”

“As I know, those elements should not coexist!”

The old man's face was stunned and the whole crowd was astonished as well. 

Wulan was pretty surprised too. But not because he never saw this combination, it was just the person who had this combination.

 The only one who was able to wield those opposing elements was Lakiron, but now, suddenly there was a second person who could, and this person was Luna!

His shock was even greater than the one the crowd around him received, because other than the people around him, who didn’t know about the top of power, Wulan knew many powerful individuals. 

But because light and darkness contradict each other, there was almost a law that those two can’t exist within the same Essence. 

‘Could it be, that this has changed since the time I died? After all, a great amount of time has passed, so of course there are changes, but to think that someone like Luna would pop up in this little town… I should really investigate what happened while I was dead and all the things that have changed.’ 

……

The time passed by and 200 hundred people finished testing. It was Wulan’s turn to be tested. Within his Essence he hid his 6 elements, only the red star started to shine, it was the fire element.

If cultivated to the highest, fire could be the most destructive law, while electricity would be ranked second. If fire was cultivated to the peak, it could even melt any types of ice.

Wulan had always used fire based martial techniques in his past life. He also thought that the fire element would be the easiest to learn, so he chose it.

 Actually, Lakiron has used fire as the main example to tell him about Mana when he dueled with him, so he could say that he knew this element the best.

 Lakiron also said that it was the easiest to learn, even when Wulan asked him what element would be most suited for him if he was an Magus, he replied with: Fire.

“Wulan, affinity with one element, Fire.”

He walked back to his spot where Luna was standing. Then She looked at him strangely while saying with a confused tone:

“Gah, I thought you would have an affinity with water elements like your mother. After all you inherit her silver hair, blue eyes and face.”

He was a little shocked by her words. Was he supposed to display the water element? But then he remembered something and quickly said:

“Haha, it looks like I at least inherited the affinity of my father’s element.” 

Molin was specialized in the fire element, inheriting affinity was a pretty common thing. 

From the viewpoint of everybody else, these flames came from his father.

He didn’t have any memory of this body taking an affinity test, so he just chose fire. According to Lakiron fire was the easiest element to understand, especially if someone had an affinity for it. In regards to ranking, fire would be the most destructive one, though thunder is stronger in account to the attacking power. 

But fire is also the least useful element, it can only destroy, not much more, so it is mostly used by people who want to fight in destructive battles. It is useful against several people, destroying cover and smoking people out. Lakiron had given him a several hour lecture on how many uses the least useful element has and it really surprised him. He diligently listens to it in order to find every weakness of Magus.

In his past life he had mostly used a fire base martial technique. He lived a life that you could call: ‘Play with Fire’. Always risking his life for strength. Wulan often had the thought that maybe; if he tried hard enough he could find someone who really cared about him, like a family. 

{Author: count how many times I said fire!!}

{Ed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTk7HLqKPEY}

As he grew older he started to notice how naive this thought was. Until the end, he truly cherished the friends he already had but he never felt the feeling he longed for. He himself didn’t know what he was searching for, but after he met his mother in this life, he thought that maybe, finally, he would understand what it was that he truly wanted.

“Ahem, 199,200,201, good. Everyone has an affinity for at least one element. Now, let’s move on to the real exam.”

 

The energetic old man said while reading the numbers of the people on the list. His mid magus apprentice rank could be considered a master level in this small city.

When the old man spoke Wulan turned his head in his direction. He didn’t feel nervous or scared like all the people around him. Rather, there was a different emotion in his heart: Impatience. He wanted to get over with these low rank exams...

“Ok, this exam will determine whether or not you qualify to study in the highest academy in Gore city.”

“Every year the exam is changed, so don’t expect any of your petty tricks to work. First of all, this small magic portal will lead you to the Ranuing forest.”

Portals are an amazing creation that were invented by the Magus Monarch Lakiron. He then simplified it into smaller portals thus allowing others to learn how to use them. 

Lakiron was called the incomparable Genius; he invented many Magus spells and revolutionized the whole world with his spells. At the age of 565 he stood at the top of the world and the only person who could stand at equal footing with him was Wulan, excepting the Demon Monarch who came from another ‘realm’.

“In the Ranuing forest there are many level 2 Novice beasts roaming the forest. In order to pass this exam you need to at least kill 5 of them and bring their hearts here.”

Just like humans, the core of a beast was their heart. The Essence was in it and it had several uses, thus it could be sold and had a certain value. Of course, a strong beast had greater value than a weak one. 

“I repeat, everybody must bring 5 Novice beast hearts a—-“

“Wait master Ninor, even if there are a lot of level 2 beasts roaming. There are 200 of us, there is no way there are 1000 beasts otherwise the Gore city would’ve long been invaded and the barrier of the space would’ve been broken”

“Yes master Ninor please explain! There is no way there are that many beasts!”

The crowd started to comment about the old man's statement. 

“Hehe”, the old man started to chuckle a little, he looked like a kid who successfully played a prank on his friend. “Of course. This is why I said that the tests change every year. This time it will be quite interesting.”

One of the students spoke up with a clueless expression:

“Pardon master Ninor I don’t get what your saying?”

“Hehehe, this is why I enjoy testing new students' some of you are just  clueless kids. It’s amusing to watch.”

“...” 

Some people looked a bit confused, others smiled at those, as if they were pitiful and others were thinking. But the real goal of the test was simple to understand: 

‘Eliminate and recruit! This is not a bad idea for an academy to use. They want the students to fight over the beasts. While they observe they can easily tell who is talented and who is trash. The 5 beast hearts is just a pretext they made for the students so they fight over it. The few who don’t even get that are not fit to be Cultivator whose biggest weapon is their mind knowledge and intelligence.’ 

Wulan thought and looked around to observe what the reactions of the other people were. Coincidentally his eyes met Luna’s, it seems she was looking at him to make sure he understood the real goal of the test. He smiled for a second and Luna smiled back. She was obviously more concerned about him than about herself. 

“You just need to follow the exam rules and gather 5 beast hearts. You can take them forcefully from others. Killing your fellow student will be an immediate disqualification and heavy punishment will be given.”

“Master Ninor, can I ask if we are allowed to team up, since you didn’t mention anything about team.”

The old man softly laughed and said with a smile:

“Of course you can. It doesn’t matter how you get it, any method is available. You just need to get 5 beats hearts in 2 hours.”

‘So you are allowed to attack everyone and the only thing that is forbidden is to kill? Doesn’t that mean that crippling and almost killing is allowed? Isn’t this a bit excessive for a simple entrance test? I wonder what kind of dire situation is the academy in’

“...”

“Wulan why are you spacing out? If you wanna team up with me I will get you 5 beast hearts in 30 minutes.”

Luna was always very kind to him and she would help him out if she could. Obviously she was saying those words to comfort him because she thought that he was nervous.

“Thanks, but I won’t team up with anyone. You have helped me out so many times, so I don’t want to burden you. I will get through this myself, please don’t worry.”

Of course he also didn’t want to show Luna that he has Martial Essence. But actually, he was truly grateful for all that she had done. Though it wasn’t the real him, she had looked out for the boy in this body all the time and he inherited not only his body but also his memories, so it influenced him to some extent. The fact that he wasn’t the boy made the impact even greater, because to him, she was a girl who was just kind to him without any ulterior motives. Something he never really had in his past life.

“What? Do you think you are safe because you reached the second level? It is dangerous! You could get seriously injured! Just let me help y...“

“Luna! I am grateful for your kindness but I have to go alone.” He was trying to shake her off but his voice was soft for some unknown reason and he couldn’t bring himself to be more forceful.

{author: mc is shy:: ☺️}

“Alright, I won’t force you and leave it to you then. Just take care of yourself.” She said while turning around, but Wulan saw a certain determination in her eyes: I will help him! 

‘Luna… you are such a good girl. I think she will probably follow and look after me or something like that. But I really don’t know how to deal with her, she is such a good person… aaahh, why is this so complicated! Seriously, I’m not even the person you love anymore, I’m a completely different person so  what do I do?! … Calm down Wulan! You are the Solar Monarch, the strongest Martial Artist in the world, how can you have problems with something like that?! It would be best to let it be for the moment and focus on the test. Yes, just focus on the test and don’t think about it, that’s the best way!’

{author: Yami wrote it not me… how could I write such a cringe paragraph}

While the rest of the students were getting ready to enter the portal that would determine if they could go to the academy, an achievement that would change their life, Wulan was immersed in an internal struggle.

{Ed: Priorities, ladies and gentleman, priorities!}

………. 

The moment the portal opened, all the people almost jumped into it, everyone wanted to be the first one to enter. It was a funny scene to look at and a little grin appeared on Wulan’s face for a moment. He stood around and waited for all of them to enter. But as he looked at the portal a different emotion swelled up in his heart and some scenes from his past life came to mind, as well as Lakiron’s laughter. 

Following the 200 people Wulan entered the portal his eyes closed. He was never good with magus portals……

‘Puh, good thing the other side of the portal wasn’t too far away, otherwise I might have puked… just the thought of the mighty Solar Monarch puking on the second day after reincarnation… Oh no, I already have a bit of a bad feeling… No, nonono! ….. Okay, I managed to hold it in. It’s alright now, hopefully.’

The old man still stood on top of the square shaped rock and looked at the portal through which the new students went just now. Then his face shift to the 4 black figures that appeared before him. They were dressed like assassins, their masks concealed their mouths and noses tightly.

“Master Ninor, master ‘Riswan’ summoned you. Will you please accompany us.”

“Hmm, that old fart? What does he need from me? I need to watch the students after all.” He said while holding something that looked like a ball, the images of kids moving around in a green forest could be seen in it.

“Master Ninor, he only told us that an 6th level Novice blue light beast had been found in the Ranuing forest and he needs to talk to you about it.”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?! A Blue light beast? This is bad! The students are in great danger! The portal is closed until 2 hours from now so they can’t escape through there and the forest has a barrier surrounding it! They are practically trapped in there!” 

The Ranuing forrest was a dimensional space that had been created by the only Martial Royal in this whole continent when he set a foot in this place.

“Sir, calm down! There might be a possibility that it is still hibernating, it will be ok.”

One of the black figures spoke trying to comfort the old man.

The old man spoke with an anxious expression. 

“I hope what you're saying is true. A couple of them are from one of the 5 families, I sincerely hope that nothing will happen……”

                                     To be continued.