Chapter 0109 – Unexpected Topic
After Ning Cheng gave his Spear to Ji Luo Fei, he followed the other 4 participants from the God Wind Academy onto the large square platform in front of the main altar. From the God Wind Academy besides him and Meng Jing Xiu, there were three other people. Gu Hong, who was tall, and looked healthy and strong, and had the cultivation of True Condensation 8th Level. Chu Yong Xin was the person with the highest cultivation level among the five from the God Wind Academy, with a cultivation level of True Condensation 9th Level. But Min Rui was the skinniest and the smallest out of the five, but his cultivation level was at True Condensation 7th Level, although he did not know why he was placed amongst the five participants, but Ning Cheng estimated that it was because the God Wind Academy really did not have many outstanding talents.
But what made Ning Cheng surprised, was that of the five participants from the Falling Star Academy, he actually knew three of them. One of them was Meng Yu Jing, who Ning Cheng had gone to look for before, she had the cultivation level of True Condensation 7th Level. But at this time there was no veil on her face revealing an extremely beautiful face. No wonder she was called the flower of the Falling Star Academy, Ning Cheng estimated that there was probably no one in the entire Mo Ze City who would be more attractive than her.
Immediately next to Meng Yu Jing was another girl, but this young girl was staring at Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng just gave her a nod, but the girl frowned, and turned her head away. Ning Cheng did not expect that the Falling Star Academy would send Yue Ying onto the stage to participate in the tournament. At present Yue Ying’s cultivation was not low, it was at Qi Gathering 6th Level, so at most she would only be able to participate in the first and the second round.
However, when he thought that Yue Ying had already advanced to the Qi Gathering 6th Level, Ning Cheng heart skipped a beat, wasn’t this kind of speed simply too fast? When he had seen Yue Ying before, she had not yet started cultivating, so how could she advance this quickly to Qi Gathering 6th Level?
One must know that he had a variety of lucky coincidences in his journey till now, and only arrived at his current cultivation of True Condensation 3rd Level. However, when Yue Ying came to the Falling Star Academy, her cultivation speed was just simply too explosive, to the point that it was really frightening. Moreover, as this young girl cultivation climbed higher and higher, it could be seen that she was definitely not inferior at all to Meng Yu Jing and would also grow up to be stunning like her.
As for the third person from the Falling Star Academy, Ning Cheng knew who he was, it was none other than the white robed man who had jumped from the restaurant and single handedly stopped the fierce beast by himself, Shui Yu. This Shui Yu also had the cultivation of True Condensation 7th Level, however it appeared that he had only just advanced to that level. Since he was a person from the Shui Clan, how could he be a representative of the Falling Star Academy in this Tournament?
When Ning Cheng looked at Shui Yu, Shui Yu also glanced at Ning Cheng, Killing Intent flashed in his eyes as he glanced at him. It was evident that he knew who Ning Cheng was.
As for the rest of the people, other than Leng Yi Tang, Ning Cheng did not recognise anyone else, however as for the rest of the people who Ning Cheng did not know, he simply did not have any interest in getting to know them. He knew that the people who were chosen by their Academies to enter the square platform, would definitely be someone extraordinary.
Ning Cheng just casually grabbed a seat and sat down, he immediately found that his Spiritual Sense was completely confined. It was just like before in the previous first round, none of them could use their Spiritual Sense.
That majestic looking man sitting in the middle of the main altar finally stood up, while simultaneously the rest of the examinees filled up the 25 places on the square platform.
As he glanced at the 25 candidates sitting in their seats on the square platform, he spoke in a slow voice, “The people sitting on the stage who came to attempt the first round of written test, should be the elites of the Hua Continent. The time for this first round is only the time it takes an incense stick to burn….”
Ning Cheng thought that since this was the Tournament of the 5 Star Academies, then the time given to the first time would certainly have been longer, at the very least it would be of the same duration as that of the first round that he had attended before. He did not expect that it would only be for the time it took for an incense stick to burn, it was just too short.
The time it took for an incense stick to burn was approximately 30 minutes, still just half an hour to completely read and memorize a topic, how would they even write the written test?
Not only was Ning Cheng thinking of this, but the same was true for the rest of the participants as they all looked with a doubtful look at the majestic man who was hosting the first round of the competition, none of them could understand why the time given was so short.
But this man did not care about the response from the 25 participants, and directly took out leather like parchment in his hands and said, “The content of the written exam of this first round will be from this leather parchment in my hands, in a while I will personally open this parchment in front of everyone, you all will only have the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to take a look at it before attempting to answer the questions, even for answering the questions, you will only have the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to write down your answers.”
That’s it? Ning Cheng and the others simply did not believe it, the parchment roll in his hands, even if it was fully opened up, it would only be 3 feet in length and just a foot wide. To ensure that the words written on it were visible to everyone, the writing on it would definitely not be too small. How much content could it even have on it?
All of them suddenly came to understand, no wonder the time given to attempt the first round was just the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, it seems that the first round was just to go through the motions, only a mere formality.
After saying that the man opened the parchment, the parchment seemed to look like it was very old, the 25 participants on the stage immediately set their sights on the parchment in the hands of that man.
The characters written on the leather like parchment was not very big, but not very small either. Even the cultivators who were outside the square platform, would be able to see them from their distance. Ning Cheng reckoned that the number of characters on the leather like parchment would at most be a thousand words, and as such would not pose any challenge to him.
However, the next moment, Ning Cheng felt that it was not right, the characters written on the leather like parchment simply had no connection to each other, none of them formed any kind of sentence or even meant anything. Moreover, even the space between any two characters were different, one of the characters was the character for horse and the very next character was the character for bull, there just simply wasn’t any connection between them.
But Ning Cheng reacted immediately, and almost at the same time realised that the leather like parchment was not as simple as he thought out to be. He did not dare to have any other kinds of thoughts, and immediately focussed his entire mind on the contents of the leather like parchment.
Ning Cheng’s strong memory capacity at this time was undoubtedly the highlight of this round, and in just two seconds, he completely memorized the entire content on the parchment.
But then Ning Cheng sighed, he suddenly found that the content on the leather like parchment now was completely different from before. He subconsciously widened his eyes, and this time he saw it clearly, the content was truly different from before, moreover not even a single character was the same as before.
This really was not as simple as he thought it out to be, Ning Cheng no longer dared to indulge in any other fancy thoughts, once again concentrated his entire mind on it, and started to memorize the contents for the second time.
After a few seconds, the contents on the parchment similarly disappeared, and was replaced a third time by an entirely different content. This new content was also the same as before containing different characters but without any meaning or connection to each other.
At this point Ning Cheng already knew that this parchment was not as simple as it looked, and as such regarding the changes in the contents of the parchment every few seconds he now did not find it strange, his entire mind was now focussed on the contents of the parchment. A bit later, he even forgot that he was participating in the first round of the tournament. What he was currently seeing was a drawing on the parchment made from the characters, moreover he even saw a note in the picture.
“Good, it time to end it.” A sudden voice interrupted Ning Cheng who had various pictures now flowing around in his mind.
Ning Cheng finally woke up from his subconscious, he knew that the time it takes for an incense stick to burn was finally over. The one who spoke was the majestic looking man, as he rolled up the parchment and put it away.
But at this moment, Ning Cheng’s heart was filled with storms, and his mind was also filled with several hundred kinds of different pictures floating around. Plus, there was still those several hundreds of thousands of characters, although they seemed to be different, but he could tell that they all has a secret hidden within them.
Thinking about the age of the parchment, Ning Cheng was sure that that the contents of this parchment definitely contained either a very profound Cultivation Method or a similarly profound technique. Even his intuition was telling him that once he could combine these images together in his head completely, it could reveal an enormous secret.
By this time, Ning Cheng finally understood why did that man took out the parchment and showed it to them. This was only one side of the parchment, one had to view the other side of this parchment, in order to know what the secret it held.
It seems that the people from the Intermediate Class Continents were really broad minded, to even bring out this kind of thing as their exam material, which would definitely profit the examinees.
But then Ning Cheng suddenly thought that something was wrong with this kind of thinking, for the first round of this tournament he could have chosen any kind of topic, so why would he take out this kind of parchment?
At this time Ning Cheng could now hear the participants near him start their discussions.
“Did you also feel that the contents on the parchment change?”
“No I didn’t, I only saw the content in front of me, although it was very difficult, but at least I was able to remember most of it by the time it took for the incense stick to burn.”
“The contents did change, moreover there were three different changes, but I could not remember them all….”
What made Ning Cheng surprised, that the majestic looking man did not even prohibit the following discussion, and after these discussions finally died down, he said, “OK, it time for you all to now answer the questions.”
Ning Cheng picked up the pen and paper on the table, and first wrote down his name and name of the 5 Star Academy that he represented, and then immediately discovered that 10 questions had immediately appeared on the white paper.
The first question: Whether the contents of the parchment changed or not? If there was a change, altogether how many changes did you observe?
Ning Cheng frowned, in his mind the numerous pictures were still rolling about in his head, moreover, he knew that if he could comprehend these things completely, it would definitely bring great benefits to him. But he did not believe that this person from the Intermediate Class Continent would be so gracious, and would share this kind of precious thing with them. Before he had also heard from the people standing outside the square platform that they could see the contents of the parchment change a few times, and there were still a few who could not see even a single change in the contents.
But Ning Cheng was different from the others, as he saw at least 600-700 different changes, moreover these changes were continuously comprehended and developed unceasingly in his head. How could he even write those kinds of things? Perhaps even the person who had taken out the parchment did not know about these kinds of changes himself….
A flash of light instantly illuminated Ning Cheng’s mind, he suddenly understood why he had taken it out.
He had never believed that there would be someone in this world who would give out free meat pies without expecting anything, this man who had brought out the leather like parchment definitely did not do so because he was a generous person. This man not only took out the parchment, but he even called upon the cultivators of the Hua Continent with the most powerful memories, just to see how many changes could they detect.
This person should definitely be aware of the extraordinariness of this leather like parchment, but it seems that he is unable to crack it by himself. As long as someone can crack the various changes in the leather like parchment, maybe they would be immediately taken away by them, and then specifically made to study that parchment. Otherwise, why would they bring out this kind of topic which was simply unrelated to the Tournament of the 5 Star Academies?
Thinking till here, Ning Cheng did not hesitate to write that there was no change in the contents of the parchment. Even if he had to fail in the first round, there was still two more rounds ahead of him.
Then Ning Cheng saw the second question, Whether or not if there was any change, write down the 567th character that you saw on the parchment. This question also did not pose any difficulty to Ning Cheng, and he immediately wrote down the 567th character before the contents of the parchment changed for the first time.
But then from the 3rd question to the 10th question, all of them left Ning Cheng dumbfounded, the 3rd question was, if there was a change, please write down the number of characters in the second change, the 4th question was how many more characters were there in the 3rd change compared to the 1st change. It simply went like this, all the way to the 10th question.
Ning Cheng sighed darkly in his heart, he simply put down his pen, he decided to not answer these questions. Even if he knew about the changes that he saw himself, the person who gave out these questions would definitely not know about it. However, he did not dare to even attempt any other question other than the 2nd one. Since this kind of heaven like object had been completely memorized by him, what he really wanted to do now was to find a secluded place to retreat and then quietly ponder over it.
As Ning Cheng thought about it, he gradually felt that the reason why he was able to perceive so many changes, was probably because of the Mysterious Yellow Origin. If he did not have the Mysterious Yellow Origin, he would at most only be an ordinary person with a strong memory.
Just what was the Mysterious Yellow Origin? Ning Cheng could vaguely feel that he had started to comprehend something, but why would the Mysterious Yellow Origin help him see all the various changes?
“The time it takes for an incense stick to burn is finally up….” The man hosting the First Round of the Tournament interrupted Ning Cheng’s thoughts, and simultaneously waved his hands, the responses of all the 25 participants immediately flew into his hands.
All the people there knew, that this majestic looking man would personally grade the papers.
Ning Cheng wanted to see the expression of the man as he graded the papers of the 25 participants, but he knew that if he stared at him at this time, it would absolutely not be wise.
Sure enough, in just the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, this man finally put away the 25 responses, as he simultaneously adjusted the several Array Flags.
After a few moments, the rankings of the first round of the tournament was displayed on the first projection Array Formation screen.