The preliminary selection for the much-anticipated New Fire Academy, which had stirred ripples across the entire Yunhui Grand Domain for over a month, officially commenced.
New Fire established selection venues in sixty-four Tier 1 cities within the Yunhui Grand Domain—cities equivalent to Tier 7 oases and above.
While the Yunhui Grand Domain boasted more than sixty-four Tier 7 oases, capitals and similar oases were often off-limits to outsiders. Furthermore, New Fire lacked the manpower to set up more selection venues.
For this recruitment drive, the New Fire Academy spared no expense in renting venues… Xiao Huan grumbled about the expenditure already exceeding income and vowed to make it back.
The expenses weren't limited to venue rentals; they also covered supplies and security.
The New Fire headquarters had only a few thousand official personnel, with even fewer assigned to the academy. Typically, only three to four or six to seven members would be dispatched to any given selection venue. These "veterans" would lead a contingent of trainees and official students to oversee the selections, but manpower remained insufficient. The academy was forced to hire reputable mercenary groups and bounty hunters to maintain order at the venues and guard against potential saboteurs.
Having revealed its "true strength," the Seven Great Nations were unlikely to openly oppose the New Fire Academy, nor was it necessary for them to do so. They were more likely to adopt a wait-and-see approach, observing whether New Fire would eventually depart and if the cult of the Evil Gods would truly escalate.
However, the Seven Nations were vast. While the Seven Nations might observe, it didn't mean that the mythological figures and powerful families within those nations harbored no ulterior motives. The Yunhui Grand Domain was home to numerous powerful factions beyond just the Seven Nations.
Should any unforeseen incidents or bloody conflicts arise during the recruitment selections, the New Fire Academy would likely become a laughingstock.
"This inaugural Grand Domain Recruitment must proceed without a hitch!"
Although termed "Grand Domain Recruitment," its scope was actually limited to sixty-four Tier 1 cities like Turbulent Harbor, Grand Plan City, and Sandfall Fortress. Even within these mega-cities, not everyone was aware of the New Fire Academy's recruitment.
Only a select few in these cities had even heard whispers of it.
After all, the "academy's name" had initially circulated only among the elite awakened individuals. Even with its wider dissemination, it was difficult for the news to reach ordinary people.
For the common, impoverished folk, hearing about it would be no more than a distant rumor. The idea of a "carp leaping over the dragon gate" remained too remote and intangible in their minds. Only a select few possessed the courage to gamble everything and chase such an ephemeral dream.
Even among the awakened, most were unwilling to leave their homes. In their hearts, they simply didn't believe that a mere "wild chicken" struggling in the mud could transform into a phoenix.
"Pies don't fall from the sky. This New Fire Academy recruitment claims to be open to all, but I know without even thinking that only the children of the powerful and wealthy will pass the selection. People like us, the poor, will only be subjected to humiliation and serve to highlight the brilliance of the wealthy geniuses."
"You're right. Even if, for argument's sake, the New Fire Academy's recruitment were fair and just, how could we possibly compete with those who have enjoyed superior resources since childhood… Geniuses, aren't all geniuses built with money?"
"Only geniuses can enter the New Fire Academy, but without money, one cannot become a genius… Alas, it seems there are no such things as 'carp leaping over the dragon gate' in this world."
"Instead of thinking about the fantastical idea of getting into the New Fire Academy, wouldn't it be better to consider if we could get our eldest son a job in a great noble's household? If we could pull some strings to get him in, that would be a 'carp leaping over the dragon gate' in itself."
People's perspectives differed. The vast majority treated the New Fire Academy's Grand Domain Recruitment as mere dinner conversation. Perhaps they envied it, but it was only envy.
Only a select few packed their bags and departed two days before the recruitment day, heading towards the vicinity of the selection venues.
These were locals living in Tier 1 cities.
Outside the Tier 1 cities, even fewer residents in the surrounding oases learned of this news. They also rarely had the means to travel across the wilderness to other cities.
However, even if only a very, very small number were motivated enough to attend, the scale of the gathering applicants remained immense.
Outside the venue, a dense crowd surged, a sea of faces. Yet, under the pressure exerted by the high-level awakened individuals, a basic level of order was maintained.
A formal student stepped before the crowd. After a brief pause, his voice boomed like a bell.
"Those intending to register for our New Fire Academy's preliminary selection, please proceed to Zone One for identity registration. Afterwards, follow the guided steps in an orderly manner."
"Remember! Anyone who interferes with the recruitment selection will be severely punished by our academy!"
Soon, long queues formed before several registration points.
Most of the queues consisted of mercenaries and unaffiliated awakened individuals, clad in rough attire and bearing sharp swords. Occasionally, one could spot common civilians in coarse linen, their expressions tense.
A minority of applicants stood out from the surrounding crowd. They wore opulent robes, accompanied by dozens of servants, occupying a considerable area and deterring others from approaching.
Even so, many young men and women from wealthy backgrounds frowned.
"This New Fire Academy actually makes us queue with these commoners. How outrageous!"
The speaker glanced at a teenager nearby, dressed in patched clothing, with an expression of disgust. "These lowlifes actually dare to aspire to enter the New Fire Academy? Heh, they're lowering our standards! These people should just scram and not pollute our eyes."
His voice was utterly unrestrained, like a piercing winter wind, carrying a chilling cold that turned faces pale.
The malice of a noble offspring was something ordinary people could not withstand.
Even with laws within the oases, they could only deter the malice of other ordinary people, not that of true nobles. This was the situation in the oases under the jurisdiction of the Seven Great Nations. Oases outside the Seven Nations might be even more chaotic, brutal, and starkly stratified.
The Ghastly Oasis had always been this way.
The impoverished, like grasshoppers, had no right to ascend the high mountains.
But…
"Disrupting the order of the recruitment selection. First warning."
The noble youth was stunned, his anger gradually rising.
"If you repeat this, it will be more than a verbal warning."
The noble youth looked at the man in the New Fire formal student uniform not far away. He snorted and fell silent.
Two New Fire students gradually walked away, continuing their patrol.
The younger student was still full of indignation. "We should have expelled that guy from the line immediately!"
The older student shook his head. "These are the rules. Since this fellow hasn't truly disrupted the order of the line, we can only issue a verbal warning. These are the rules set by our academy, and we should be the first to abide by them. As for whether he is qualified to participate in the assessment, that will be determined by others."
"However, there's no need to worry about such individuals slipping into the academy. Given his displayed character, even with extraordinary talent, he will be screened out in the preliminary selection. At the academy, talent alone does not determine everything."
Seeing the young man's glint of schadenfreude, the older student hesitated before saying,
"Individuals are individuals, and status is status.
"Those from humble origins should not be looked down upon, but those from noble birth should not be met with hostility. Within the academy, we all share only one identity: that of a student."
The preliminary selection at the New Fire Academy did not involve overly complicated assessment procedures.
If they adopted the assessment methods of the Blue Star era, the recruitment selection would take too long and cost several times, even ten times, more. There was no need for it.
The situation in the Ghastly Oasis was vastly different from that of the Blue Star.
The academy's assessments were adapted to local conditions, and many new peculiar artifacts were employed, including standard Candela peculiar artifacts and the New Fire-style peculiar artifacts, more suited for the new era, designed by Master Wang Chui.
One significant peculiar artifact was the "Truth-Telling Light Bulb."
This peculiar artifact was integral to a crucial segment of the preliminary selection—the "Grand Q&A of Truth-Telling" segment.
Its purpose was to filter out individuals with malicious intent.
Naturally, such a peculiar artifact was not infallible and could be countered by certain special abilities or high-end peculiar artifacts. However, it was sufficient to affect the vast majority of awakened individuals and more than adequate for the preliminary selection.
During this process, many individuals revealed their identities, many dared not answer and left with a guilty conscience, and some individuals with limited intellect became irate and were subsequently knocked unconscious and thrown out by patrolling students.
The sheer number of people gathered at the venue, a mixed bag of individuals, led to frequent disturbances.
However, these were forcefully suppressed.
Such scenes were observed by spies from various factions secretly watching from the sidelines, who expressed their astonishment.
"Wasn't that person Actu, a Six-Awakened expert from our Sandfall Fortress?"
"Indeed. He entered the New Fire Academy a few months ago. At that time, he was just a regular Six-Awakened, but now… he has at least the combat power of a second-rate titled expert!"
"The rumors aren't false. Studying at the New Fire Academy leads to immense improvement. Now I'm a bit envious of those unaffiliated awakened individuals. At least they have the opportunity to apply to the New Fire Academy freely and 'leap over the dragon gate'."
The preliminary selection of the New Fire Academy concluded after two days.
What surprised the major factions was the selection standard of the preliminary round: many titled Six-Awakened and young prodigies were eliminated, while some unremarkable boys and girls passed the preliminary selection.
The elimination of the former was not unexpected; the academy's assessments had always been stringent, and a Six-Awakened or ordinary genius might not be qualified.
However, with even young prodigies being eliminated, the passing of some impoverished awakened individuals, and even ordinary people who had not awakened, came as a great surprise.
This also sparked dissatisfaction among many eliminated geniuses and experts.
Then, there was no 'then'.
Initially, these geniuses and experts planned to gather and protest, pressuring the New Fire Academy to change the preliminary selection results. But they soon realized their naivety.
Genius? A four-awakened at twenty years old daring to call themselves a genius?
Expert? A six-awakened daring to claim to be an expert, aren't they everywhere on the streets?
In this era, strength was power, strength was the rule. The deep backgrounds of many geniuses were like paper paste in the eyes of the New Fire Academy. After some troublemakers were punished, both 'geniuses' and 'experts' gradually came to their senses: the New Fire Academy was not a force they could influence; it was a colossal entity second only to the Seven Great Nations.
The New Fire Academy could disregard the prestige of even mythological figures, let alone them.
Regardless of what the eliminated individuals or other factions thought, it had no impact on the New Fire Academy's mentors and students, who were systematically preparing for the second phase of recruitment.
The first phase, the preliminary selection, involved an initial screening based on age, past experience, and talent. The second phase would feature the actual assessment.
This复试 (re-examination/final assessment) would be conducted within the New Fire Academy.
"Previous recruitment assessments were held outside the academy gates, and we primarily recruited 'old hands' among the awakened," Fang You mused.
Recruiting "old hands" wasn't without its benefits; they could be immediately converted into efficient laborers, especially the 'senior technicians' among them.
However, the downside was that "old hands" often lacked pure intentions. Even if a few among them eventually joined the association and ascended to the mythological level, they would most likely be 'peripheral mythological figures'.
The academy still needed more 'core mythological figures' with stronger convictions.
"Have you discovered any promising seedlings yet?"
"E
She had only heard from her neighbor, Old Auntie, that a faction called 'New Fire Academy' was recruiting… She mistook it for a job recruitment and, being alone, Qian Xiaocao immediately signed up. It was only after she muddled through the preliminary selection that she realized it wasn't that simple.
The New Fire Academy was incredibly powerful.
But she couldn't explain how powerful it was. She only saw many, many important figures vying for a spot.
Thinking this, she curled her body tighter, hiding in a corner, trying her best not to attract anyone's attention.
…
"This little sprout actually passed the preliminary selection, yet none of my imperial maids could!"
A princess, hands on her hips, thought resentfully.
She was the seventy-sixth princess of the Shuiman Kingdom. As a royal princess, she was undoubtedly one of the noblest individuals on this airship and was privy to much inside information about the New Fire Academy.
The academy was more incredible than she had imagined!
Her mother had told her to strive with all her might to enter the New Fire Academy.
"Damn it! If I could have secured a study abroad spot, would I have ended up being assessed alongside these commoners!"
She could already imagine the mocking faces of the others.
But she couldn't get it!
In the other six kingdoms, it wasn't difficult for princesses to secure a study abroad spot. However, the Shuiman Kingdom had too many princes and princesses—over a hundred. Even if only a portion of the princes and princesses were of age, and some were uninterested, the competition for study abroad spots was still fierce.
The seventy-sixth princess had narrowly missed out on a study abroad spot.
"It doesn't matter. This princess will definitely enter the academy and prove herself stronger than those who need study abroad spots to get in!"
"It's just…"
The thought of her having to exert all her effort and make countless preparations just to enter the New Fire Academy, while some commoners who knew nothing could also get in and obtain a status not much inferior to hers, made the seventy-sixth princess sulk.
Why!
…
The White Shark-class airship, filled with three thousand new recruits, officially set sail, beginning its inter-domain voyage.
On the first day, the new recruits were still very excited and enthusiastic.
By the second and third days, they gradually quieted down.
The intelligent new recruits knew that they were not yet New Fire students. Before them lay a hurdle they absolutely had to overcome before they could celebrate freely.
The White Shark-class airship traveled at extreme speed and encountered no incidents along the way, which was completely different from what was described in storybooks, the new recruits thought.
When the White Shark-class airship landed outside the academy gates, the new recruits disembarked in batches.
They beheld their surroundings.
Barren, desolate, withered… Although a marketplace had spontaneously formed here, with many awakened individuals living nearby, the overall environment was still wilderness.
However, except for a few new recruits of low strength, most had seen wild environments and were not surprised.
Led by the academy mentors, they soon passed through the Gate of the Secret Realm and entered the New Fire Academy.
Instantly, heaven and earth transformed.
Warm sunlight streamed down, and majestic peaks and a vast white jade plaza came into view.
New recruits from ordinary backgrounds let out gasps of awe at the sight of the secret realm.
But the minority of young girls and boys from noble backgrounds—princesses of great nations, sons of dukes, descendants of mythological figures—raised their chins slightly, wearing faint smiles. Glancing at the other astonished examinees around them, they couldn't help but raise their chins higher and curl their lips into even wider smiles.
At the academy gate stood a group of "old academy students" responsible for welcoming the new recruits and assisting with the arrangements for the assessment.
Some were still prospective students, others had only recently become official for one or two months, but this didn't stop them from acting like senior figures in front of the new recruits, enjoying their adoring gazes.
"Welcome to the New Fire Academy."
"Little ones, let this examiner see how many of you can truly stay here."
Miss Ruo, now dressed in New Fire mentor attire, strode out. She lightly clapped her hands.
Clap, clap~
The plaza in front of the academy gate seemed to tremble.
No, it was the four colossal gray statues standing at the four corners of the plaza that were trembling.
Their eyes moved!
Stone fragments were falling from their bodies!
They… they had come alive!
"Roar~!"
The giant dragon turtle let out a roar, the Thunder Divine Eagle soared into the sky, scattering countless bolts of lightning. The extreme cold Wolf King blew a chilling wind, and the biting cold assailed them.
This was a welcome ceremony added by Miss Ruo, and also one of the assessment items for the final examination.
The moment the new recruits stepped into the secret realm, the final examination… had begun.