Tony closed his eyes for a brief moment, withdrawing his awareness into the quiet void of his mind. ’System Spirit, wake up this instant,’ he commanded internally, trying to force a connection with the hidden interface that had governed his entire past life. However, his consciousness remained completely dark and silent, showing absolutely no response.
The digital countdown was still stubbornly locked behind the spatial friction of his cross-world traversal. Tony let out a low, silent curse under his breath, realizing that his grand cheat was still out of commission, leaving him to handle the upcoming trial entirely with his manual willpower and his raw, newly acquired 7th Class Disciple magus power.
Just as the massive flying turtle completed its slow, heavy descent and hovered near the stone docking platforms, a group of arrogant senior disciples dressed in magnificent, crimson-and-black academy robes stepped onto the wooden deck.
They carried glowing ledger crystals, their voices echoing aggressively across the crowd as they began collecting the mandatory entrance test fee from the applicants. In the Eternal Sun Realm, entering the academy grounds required a standard payment of five low-grade Aura crystals—a sum that was easily affordable for wealthy nobles, but a massive fortune for ordinary commoners.
The collection line moved rapidly until the senior disciple stopped directly in front of Tony’s tail section, his eyes narrowing with instant contempt as he recognized the famous, older failure of the city. "Hand over your entrance fee, boy," the senior disciple barked out coldly, extending an open palm. "Five low-grade Aura crystals. Hurry up, we don’t have all day to waste on historical artifacts."
Tony casually reached his hands into the empty pockets of his dark hunting cloak, his expression remaining perfectly calm and lazy even as his strategic mind realized a highly troublesome reality.
The original host of this body had been so thoroughly abused and neglected by his greedy uncle that he didn’t possess a single Aura crystal to his name. He was completely broke, standing at the absolute gates of his final opportunity without a single penny to pay for his admission.
Seeing his empty hands, the senior disciple let out a loud, mocking scoff, a cruel grin spreading across his face as he raised his hand to summon a wave of kinetic force.
"A penniless cripple wants to become a magus? What an absolute joke! Get the hell off this transport right now before I personally kick your ribs in and toss you down the mountain cliff!" The surrounding teenagers immediately erupted into a wave of malicious giggles, completely enjoying the sight of Tony’s sudden humiliation.
However, just as the senior disciple’s hand was about to unleash the aggressive strike, the nice-looking lady with the paintbrush stepped forward from the side railing, completely breaking her quiet demeanor. She reached into her faded cotton robes, her delicate fingers pulling out a small, glittering velvet pouch before she casually tossed a handful of glowing, high-grade crystals directly onto the handler’s ledger crystal.
"I will be paying for his entrance token today, Senior," she spoke softly, her refined, elegant voice carrying an absolute dignity that made the senior disciple’s hand instantly freeze in mid-air. She then turned her violet eyes toward Tony, a warm, genuine smile gracing her lips as she lightly patted her sketchboard. "Repay me whenever you happen to find the time, young master Tony. Consider it my genuine thanks for the perfect crimson-gold ink mixture you gave me last night."
The surrounding young nobles immediately mocked her choice loudly, their voices full of pure, unadulterated scorn as they watched the transaction. "Is that poor girl completely insane?!" one young master shouted from the middle deck. "She just threw away her family’s hard-earned crystals on a permanent failure! He is going to fail the screening barrier anyway, and she will never see her money back for the rest of her miserable life!"
The disguised merchant heiress completely ignored their childish barking, her face remaining entirely serene as the senior disciple begrudgingly handed Tony a glowing bronze test token. Tony took the cold metal token, a slow, highly amused grin curling the corners of his lips as he nodded his head slightly toward her. "A very wise investment, miss," Tony murmured smoothly, his tone full of shameless confidence. "I can assure you that you will be receiving a thousand times your returns before the sun sets today."
With their travel tokens officially verified, the massive crowd of applicants began stepping off the turtle’s back, walking down a grand cobblestone pathway that led directly toward the colossal iron gates of the Black Fire Academy.
Positioned right in the center of the main entrance archway was a towering, semi-translucent screening barrier that hummed with absolute, terrifying power. This massive spatial array was the primary security filter of the institution; it automatically scanned the bone age, meridian flow, and elemental attributes of every single person who passed through its glowing grid, instantly repelling anyone whose talent fell below the academy’s baseline standards.
Many of the younger applicants ahead of Tony were trembling in fear, their faces pale as they slowly stepped through the light grid, several of them being violently blasted backward onto the hard ground by the barrier’s defensive laws after being flagged as untalented trash. When it was finally Tony’s turn to approach the glowing screening array, the surrounding crowd held their breath, waiting for the famous failure to be smashed into the dirt.
However, Tony did not show even a fraction of hesitation or anxiety. According to the inherited memories of his duplicate, this screening barrier was actually a hurdle he had already successfully passed since his last 3rd attempt in the past. During his very first two attempts years ago, his meridians had been so completely blocked by his uncle’s slow soul poison that he had indeed miserably failed right here at this gate itself, unable to even step foot onto the campus. But once his basic meridian paths had opened slightly during his later years, the barrier no longer rejected his physical presence.
Tony strode forward with his standard, lazy posture, his dark cloak billowing slightly as his leather boots crossed the threshold of the light grid.
As expected, his newly acquired, perfectly hardened 7th Class Disciple magus body easily crossed the screening barrier without triggering a single spark of defensive resistance. The golden runes of the array hummed beautifully, recognizing his qualified baseline power, and allowed him to walk onto the grand central plaza completely unharmed.
All the way at the front of the inner plaza, Lady Julie Faith was standing alongside a group of elite, senior inner disciples who had gathered to watch the arrival of the new applicants. Her sharp gaze had secretly been locked onto Tony’s figure the entire time. Seeing him smoothly walk through the terrifying screening barrier without a single hitch, her beautiful face flickered with a sudden, momentary flash of genuine interest and surprise.
She had been completely certain that the slow soul poison would have paralyzed his core systems by now. However, a cold, condescending scoff quickly returned to her lips as she saw him casually twirling his bronze test token between his fingers like a careless rascal.
"A mere baseline screening means absolutely nothing," Julie Faith murmured arrogantly to herself, her voice dripping with pure, unadulterated scorn as she turned her back on him. "The true physical combat trials begin inside the arena, and a mortal trash like him will eventually be broken into absolute pieces when the real test starts."
She quickly turned her attention away and smoothly joined her elite academy disciples, walking toward the high, elevated viewing galleries of the main arena to watch the grand trials unfold from a position of absolute power, entirely unaware that the young man she was looking down upon was about to completely shatter the destiny of her entire lineage.
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