Leave a comment

After passing through the busy streets, Lilith finally arrived at St. Caroline’s admissions office with Thea.

There were no grand buildings or a beautiful bridge over a gently flowing stream. There was only a lonely door standing at the center of the huge square which was surrounded by a huge crowd of youthful-looking candidates.

The way everyone was gazing at the door with enthusiasm in their eyes reminded Lilith of those countless believers in the Whispering Square.

The two crowds were very similar, yet fundamentally different.

One pursued meaningless faith while the other pursued a meaningful future.

This was the exact reason why, despite the existence of the Luminous Church and the brilliance that the goddess bestowed upon them, Luminous Theocracy was still no match for the Holy Dragon Empire which never believed in religions.

The citizens of the Holy Dragon Empire never prayed for anything. They only took the Dragon God as their own totem to be raised during the turbulent times and use it as their tower of strength against the demons.

“Dong…”

The bell rang melodiously. The sun ascended higher into the sky, shining upon the huge square that was previously covered by the shadow of the only peak on the plains.

Unbeknownst to everyone, a rickety old man had appeared in front of the door in the middle of the square. His figure resembled an old dying locust tree but his voice was extremely powerful and full of vigor.

“EXAM!”

The huge door slowly opened following the old man’s deep voice. It was all pitch black on the other side, almost as if the door was connected to a void.

“Students who wish to apply to this academy, please enter from here.”

The candidates scrambled to enter the door, acting as though they would be disqualified from sitting for the entrance exam if they entered late.

The old man frowned at the sight of that, mumbling to himself about the deteriorating quality of the candidates as of late. Did they think that they would be able to pass the exam just by moving quickly? If that was the case, they might as well just compare who literally had a sharper brain.

He scanned the square and stroked his beard, feeling impressed when he noticed that there were two candidates who remained standing still.

It would seem that there were still some fine samples that remained unaffected by the chaotic environment around them. Hmm, not only that, they were two good-looking girls. He would have to keep their faces in mind so he could put them to good use next time.

“Disgusting, disgusting, how disgusting!” Lilith kept wiping the fist that she had punched someone with earlier, as though there was something filthy on it.

“Everyone’s gone already, are you really sure it’s alright if we don’t get in early?” Thea asked worriedly at the gradually empty square.

“No hurry, no hurry. I must clean this up first. The thought of that gorilla’s blood on my hand just makes me feel sick.”
“But you’ve been doing that for half an hour already.”
“You think half an hour is enough? If it wasn’t for the pain, I would have just chopped my hand off.”

While saying that, Lilith continued wiping the non-existent blood on her hand without raising her head.

To be honest, she really wasn’t in a panic.

Unlike those hard-pressed candidates, Lilith had connections here.

Yes, as long as she had a letter of recommendation from Professor Flint she could be admitted directly to the academy without sitting for the exam.

However.
Who was Lilith?
The almighty dragon princess!
Would she take the initiative to pull a few strings?
Never!

Besides, Lilith was extremely confident in her own strength. Although her fighting technique was still stuck at blindly clawing at her opponents, at least the gap between their strengths still existed. There was no way those brats would be able to fight her, unless they knew some ultimate skills like Thea’s Goddess Descent Skill or if Lilith stood still and allowed them to hit her.

If she couldn’t even fight this group of brats and had to resort to pulling some strings to get herself admitted, then she might as well just find a rock and hit herself to death.

She couldn’t afford to disgrace that person.

“I’m done. Let’s go in.”

When Lilith was finally done with wiping her hands, she led Thea across the empty square and entered through the huge door.

As soon as she stepped through, the old man standing at the door suddenly flashed a smile at her.

Not only that, he was even unconsciously nodding at her as though he was appreciating a piece of fine jade.

That sent a shiver down Lilith’s spine.

Could this old man be another perverted lolicon that came out of nowhere?

She must ignore him and ignore him she must!

She quickly walked past with Thea.

The old man by the door was instantly taken aback and touched his wrinkled face self-consciously.

Was he so ugly that a girl would be that frightened at the sight of him?

He sighed, then gazed into the distant blue skies.

Truth be told, this old man was once the most handsome guy in the academy. He even lost count on how many female students tried their best just to see his smile.

Unfortunately, time was merciless.

He had no choice but to accept his old age.

On the other side of the door…

After recovering from the dizziness caused by teleporting, Lilith found herself in a huge unknown space.

The only source of light here were the countless floating lights that looked like glowing fireflies.

There were more than a hundred round arenas here. Any smart person could tell what the first round of the examination would be when they saw this.

There was a huge and high platform surrounded by the arena. There were about a dozen figures standing on the platform, both men and women.

One of the middle-aged men came forward. He had white sideburns, but was still full of vigor. He spoke in a decent volume to the tens of thousands of candidates, but was clear enough to be heard by everyone.

“Thank you for your interest in applying to St. Caroline Academy.”
“As everyone knows, St. Caroline Academy is the best academy in Xedrios. It is also our pride and persistence. Since we are known as the best, we must possess the strength that befits our reputation.”
“As they say, if you wish to wear the crown then you must bear its weight. Most of you are here due to the academy’s great reputation, but know that our academy does not accept any empty cans. Only a small number among you, which are talented and gifted enough, shall be recruited.”
“The academy will only be recruiting for three days. In the first two days, we received two hundred forty-three thousand and six hundred candidates but only eight hundred and fifty-four people were qualified.”
“And you are the smallest group we have, only fifty thousand people. Hence, we will also be recruiting the smallest number of candidates from your group because we will only be accepting enough to get a total of one thousand students!”

The candidates immediately erupted into discussions. Even Lilith also pouted. Recruiting 146 people out of 50,000 people was no less difficult than applying to National Tsing Hua University in her previous life.

“Silence!”

The middle-aged man scanned the crowd intimidatingly. “This academy is built upon the foundation of martial strength. Hence, strength is the best pass for our academy since its founding.”

“Look at the stages in front of you, it’s known as an arena. These can be spotted everywhere in our academy. The bigger they are, the more durable they are. You may challenge whoever that you don’t see eye to eye with to a duel of life and death at any time.”
“Therefore, you should leave now if you are scared.”

No one responded and no one left either.

The middle-aged man nodded. “Very well, it seems like you are all not as useless as I thought.”

”Well then, let us proceed to our first round of exam today…”

Lilith flexed herself with a fierce look on her face.

She hadn’t had enough yet from beating the golden gorilla. After all, just his blood alone disgusted Lilith, so she only casually broke a few of his bones.

Well then, let me fight to my heart’s content for one time –

“The first round of exam today is… essay writing.”

Huh?
Huuuuuuhhhh??
Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh??!!

The middle-aged man waved his hand and a few hundred antique desks and chairs popped up in every huge arena.

The seats were spaced apart with an opaque screen placed between them.

On the low tables were pen and papers.

Lilith started panicking a little.

Did the man say a bunch of nonsense about martial strength being the most important just to make us more surprised?

However, all the candidates seemed to be very calm. They looked as though they already knew the content of the first round of the exam.

Only people who rushed all the way here then overslept and never bothered to ask around to gather more information like Lilith were oblivious to this open secret.

It was at this moment, that cold sweat started to bead on Lilith’s forehead.

She had never even gone to school in her previous life, let alone sitting for exams…

Although she received private lessons in this lifetime, she hadn’t even learned how to form a complete sentence after studying for three years.

She could only read and write on a beginner’s level.

After giving it much consideration, it seemed like there was no chance of her passing this round.

Don’t tell me…
That I…
Lilith…
The almighty dragon princess…
who could easily best a child…
couldn’t even pass the first round.
Did she really have to resort to pulling a few strings?