As the students were seated waiting for Maadili to start his boring lesson, what he said next surprised them. "Put away everything on your desks, there will be a test today." On hearing this, all the students started perspiring. Some were complaining but on seeing Maadili's 'hard' face, everyone knew nothing could move him. They hadn't even settled down yet they were already getting a Random Assessment Test (RAT).

The class representative, a mousy kid nicknamed 'Combined Harvester' for his insatiable gluttony, quickly distributed rectangular stone tablets to each student. These 12 inch tablets were different from ordinary sheets, scrolls or books. The teacher simply had to use a 'Write Skill', a Rank 3 Magic Spell, to transfer the RAT questions from his mind to the tablets. And after the test was over, the content on the stone tablet could be deleted unlike with scrolls and books.

Seeing the RAT questions, many students felt a deep sense of hopelessness. The test was no joke! Maadili really lived up to his reputation as a 'hard' teacher.

1. Name and describe the 10 spirits of the body and 2 spirits of nature

"I can only name 4 or 5!"

2. Give the names of the three great nation's superior armies

"At least I know this one!"

The second question was a breath of fresh air for most students as it involved the general history of the Sword Scar continent. The entire continent was comprised of 21 nations: 16 Small Nations attached to 3 Great Nations and 2 isolated nations.

Each of the 3 Great Nations had a superior army: The Order of the Black Knights, The Demon Suppression Army, and Poseidon's Navy. Unlike small nations like the Kingdom of Toro, the military power of the 3 great nations put them at the level of hegemony. It was said that in these superior armies, even the lowest level soldier was a High Rank Crystal Warrior of at least the 7th level and their strongest had already surpassed the 9 ranks of Crystal warriors entering another unknown tier of strength.

3. Explain the relationship between the Kingdom of Gold and the kingdom of Darkness among the 3 great nations.

"Ah, these are easy, wheew." Mwana started feeling as if the test was simple but it turned out he had rejoiced too early!

4. Explain 10 major contributions of the human emperor

5. Discuss with detailed examples at least 5 fundamental meanings of each line in the true spirit canon

6. Write an essay discussing the thematic relevance of Petals of Blood in contemporary society [at least 500 words]

"5 minutes left!" Maadili's croaky voice came in at the worst possible time breaking the student's already messy concentration. Some were trying to write the essay so fast that their fingers were shaking from pain yet the minutes kept counting down. "Why is time moving so fast today?!"

7. Analyze the benefits and weaknesses of each route of the sun and moon arts
8. Differentiate between the following aspects of the soul: Soul DNA (Essence Soul), Soul Origin (Origin Soul), Soul Flame, Soul Core and Soul Root.

“What is this?! This isn’t a test you should be giving to 9 year olds!”

9. Describe the martial path. Provide an in-depth analysis of the following paths with respect to the way of the warrior: - Indomitable Will, Sovereign Ruler, Paragon Ascension, Destruction, Just Payments, Illusory Obsession, Fate Reversal and Dream Desire.

“Aaah, I give up!” Many sighs could be heard across the class room and some students completely gave up and leaned back on their chairs. Others like Cheza were busy trying to steal a peek at other students’ answers but Teacher Maadili was eyeing them like a hawk. There would be no cheating under his watch.

Mwana could barely answer half the questions in this test and he knew most would be far worse than him. “As for the second part of [Question 9], I only know Illusory Obsession – the obsession that truly remains in the mind. As for the rest, I’ll just guess off their names. I hope the naming is accurate and not just made up words to seem powerful or amazing, otherwise I’ll done for!” he sighed to himself after considering his thoughts.

Although almost everyone understood the basics of the martial path: “a path is a state of mind built off personality and experience,” it was still something too vague for these young children to comprehend. Even adults did not really understand it. The martial path could be said to be comprised of one’s experiences, dreams, desires, trials, and martial arts. It was the equivalent of a personal law.

“A path is both real and not real. It materializes by funneling one’s persona and experiences on a mental, physical and spiritual scale, into one direction that leads to one’s Core Power.” These words had been passed down for thousands of years from the Human Emperor, Sanaan Jin-Fire. Indeed charting the path forward for human martial artists was one of his great contributions [RAT Question 4].

“Alright, time is up. Everyone place your tablets on the table and stand up.” Maadili did not even give the students an extra second. Some children stood up while trying to continue writing but with a swipe of his wrist, a strange wind collected all the tablets as they flew into his arms. He did not even ask the class representative to collect them as if he feared that it would be too slow and give some students an few extra seconds. “What a petty man. Even using magic for this?” That’s what the students collectively thought. What followed after Maadili took the tablets was a series of “Fail, fail, fail,…” and endless scolding. It wouldn’t take long for someone of Maadili’s levels to mark all the tests.

As expected, the results were atrocious.

“Come receive your results one by one,” With Maadili’s words, the students could all expect a serious scolding. “How do you expect to pass the village Martial schools interviews with these types of results” When it was Maji 1’s turn, he was endlessly berated. Maji 1’s father had always been friends with Maadili so the latter promised to provide his son with ‘special attention’. Naturally, no student would be too happy receiving extra attention from a teacher even if it was for their own good.

Hearing Maji 1 get chewed out, Cheza couldn’t help snickering to Mwana, “Maji thought that the teacher would lick his ass just because they ‘talk’ haha.” However, his joy at other’s misery was quickly cut off as Maadili caught his grin off the side of his eye and called him next.

Although Maddili was being hard on the students, it was for a good reason. For these nine year olds, they would be graduating within the year after surpassing the third level. At that point they would have to join a Martial school in the village if they wanted to go further in martial arts.

However unlike the Academy which was government-run education in not just Jua village but the Kingdom of Toro as a whole, Martial schools were independent organizations. Invigilators from each school would come and observe the students to choose the best out of all of them. Depending on one’s talent and expertise, students could be picked by different schools after going through a series of tests to show their value. These included tests such as a written test, smithing test, farming test involving knowledge of spiritual herbs, hunting test, Sun and Moon Arts test, affinity and bloodline test, spiritual talent test and a dangerous test involving hunting demonic beasts and demonic warriors.

New Words

Toro – a descriptor for deep darkness [Kingdom of Toro – the kingdom Mwana is from]

Sanaan Jin-Fire – the Human Emperor from more than a thousand years ago: Sovereign of all humans. Among the different races, such sovereigns existed like the Sovereign of Demons, Sovereign of Beasts, Sovereign of Dragons, among others.