Dance With Darkness And Light 27 The First Trial

Hugo shot Bazuul one more glance and scoffed. "Well, well, is there even the need for a little boy like you to take the test? I say you should go home and entertain your mother!" Then he walked off laughing as he lined up at one of the lines.

Bazuul didn't even care about this taunt and just lined up as well.

Behind every spirit grading stone stood one of the ten judges, reading out the name, origin, and the result of each compet.i.tor that took the test. Bazuul wondered how accurate or detailed the spirit grading stone was. Considering how rare an inner world was on Ytolan among the mortal tribes. He felt reluctant to have it revealed. He wished to stay rather low-key, regardless of the interaction with this diasian prince and princess beforehand. The problem was that, since it was so rare and he was unaware if others had an inner world too, he couldn't confirm it with the results that came before him.

Thirty minutes later and he was still waiting, from time to time feeling the gaze of some overconfident prince. At the same time, the judges continuously yelled out results. At certain times, some names would get more attention than others.

"Shu Huang, thirteen years old from Ralun, the third stage of the true qi realm. Fire element attribute and lower moderate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

"Corwin Bender, fifteen years old from Eras, the fourth stage of the true qi realm, earth element attribute and moderate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

"Brynja Donarim, sixteen years old from Donar, the sixth stage of the true qi realm, air and lightning element attribute and lower intermediate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

This, for example, caused some uproar, and not only because of her cultivation.

"Stage six at sixteen already, the royal house of Donar isn't playing around this time." Someone in the lines commented.

"Right. I heard the current king dotes a lot on the second princess of Donar. Dual elements and lower intermediate magical affinity is extremely talented, no wonder!"

Understand that magical affinity was ranked into five different cla.s.ses. It went from no affinity at all to an inferior affinity with which one could only learn low-level spells. Depending on the magical attribute, you could still make a good living as a worker if you weren't either a warrior or any other person of higher status in society.

After that came the moderate cla.s.s and then the intermediate cla.s.s. In the end, stood, of course, high magical affinity. Each of these rankings was then cut into three different qualities. For example, lower intermediate affinity, intermediate affinity if the base was full, and greater intermediate affinity if it closes in onto the next cla.s.s.

"Emilia Stark, fourteen years old from Ralun, the fifth stage of the true qi realm, light element attribute and moderate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

This result also turned heads!

"Fourteen and the fifth stage?!" Someone exclaimed.

"Impressive!" Another one commented.

"Hugo Dias, fifteen years old from Dias, the third stage of the true qi realm and inferior magical affinity. Pa.s.s!" At this, Hugo once again shot Bazuul a look of triumph, but Bazuul could only scoff at his false pride.

"Karon Ylvazad, fourteen years old from Ralun, the fourth stage of the true qi realm and lower moderate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

"Tarek Rashad, seventeen years old from Ralun, the sixth stage of the true qi realm. Air and fire element attribute and greater moderate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

"Emilia Quintana, thirteen years old from Ibera, third stage of the true qi realm, water element attribute, and moderate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!" Emilia also shot Bazuul a slight look of disdain as she walked off.

"Jian Zheng, seventeen years old from Shasta, the seventh stage of the true qi realm, air, earth and light element attribute, and greater moderate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

Many turned toward this figure because a lot of them had heard from Jian Zheng before their trip to Donar. This was the figure that was previously the favorite to win the royal tournament. Even though he had to take the hidden dragon trials as he was no prince of Shasta. He was the son of the Zheng family head, the patriarch of the Vermillion Sword Sect. He stood there cold and unemotional as if he himself was a sword. A lot of girls from a common background squirmed at the sight of him and his stoic features. The features of a true warrior. The commotion was abruptly stopped by the announcement from another judge.

"Ba...Bazuul Ylvazad, twelve years old from Ralun, the sixth stage of the true qi realm. Nature Elementalist with darkness and light attributes and intermediate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!" The judge announced whilst stuttering slightly.

Immediately everyone looked at him in utter shock and from the brief silence came commotion, whilst some still stood there with their mouths wide agape. A nature Elementalist could use all elements. Even more, if trained well, a nature Elementalist could harness the very essence of nature.

"WHAT THE…"

"HOW!"

"Twelve years old and at the sixth stage, what a monster!!" Someone said.

"Not only that, a nature Elementalist AND darkness and light attributes, plus an intermediate magical affinity with the age of twelve. This is unheard of! What enormous potential! It looks like we got a dark horse!" Another further indicated.

Hugo and Emilia both had complex expressions when they heard from Bazuul's result. Even Jian Zheng was looking at him thoughtfully. A compet.i.tive fire lit up in him as he had not thought he would have such a contestant in the hidden dragon trials. Even more so, a twelve-year-old.

"Ralun isn't playing around either it seems. They have two fifth stage cultivators and counting in the first prince that's three sixth stage cultivators so far." Someone pointed out.

"Right! If this goes on, they may even take half the spots from the hidden dragon trials this time!" Another one threw into the conversation whilst nodding.

More and more seemed to realize this. With how things stood, the attention of the other kingdoms automatically fell toward the compet.i.tors from Ralun. Bazuul, on the other hand, didn't seem to care for all of this, giving the people around him an aloof impression of him.

"Idriel Luminair, thirteen years old from Lumin, the fifth stage of the true qi realm, air and light element attribute, and high magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

Once again a lot of attention was brought up, and many hearts of these young men present started to beat.

"The third princess of Lumin…"

"High magical affinity!!!" Someone exclaimed in shock,

Even the young women around, through the jealousy, exclaimed.

"Waaah, so pretty!"

Bazuul also looked at her more intensively and thought, "The third princess of Lumin. So this should be her little sister." but in the end, he remained rather indifferent.

"Hylion Luminair, fifteen years old from Lumin, the sixth stage of the true qi realm, darkness and water element attribute, and higher intermediate magical affinity. Pa.s.s!"

This time it was the hearts of the young women present that started throbbing.

"Haaa, the people of Lumin truly are heretics, even I feel compelled to sin!" One of the female compet.i.tors couldn't help but say with an intoxicated look in her eyes.

"Her little brother." Bazuul thought.

This went on for a while longer. Meanwhile, Shu Huang had come looking for Bazuul. He was quite shocked to find out that someone he thought he knew well still had hidden his abilities to this extent. He was practically able to learn everything he wanted, use every element he wanted to use. Our young prince, on the other hand, felt miffed. So much for staying low-key. He himself was also surprised that all elements were available to him. Then again, where would he find the time to learn them, even if he wanted to.

As they walked toward the spot where everyone that pa.s.sed waited for the next trial, they both pa.s.sed by Hugo once more. This time he wasn't in the company of Emilia anymore, and his face seemed rather...flushed with embarra.s.sment. He looked toward Bazuul, but his disdain and pride were non-existent.

Bazuul silently said as he chuckled, "No elemental attributes and inferior magical affinity...let's not talk about being a prince, even as a worker you're a failure!"

Shu, even though unaware of their previous exchange was able to hear this and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Hugo's expression darkened as a wicked glint appeared in his eyes. His whispers infused with murderous intent. "Wait and see! Inside the labyrinth, I and my fellow diasians will show you our special care! So what if you got potential, what is potential that doesn't get the chance to be realized?"

Bazuul snickered slightly, "Mmh, sounds like a feast. I can't wait!"