Unexpected Brilliance

Deep within her clear pupils, a white flame flickered.

But its light was too faint, barely able to travel a meter before being swallowed by the infinite darkness.

Huang Xiu turned her head, sweeping her gaze around. The darkness seemed unchanged, she couldn’t see anything, but something felt different.

She saw four buttons glowing faintly white in the dark, roughly distributed on the four walls. Switches, without a doubt.

Just as she was about to step toward the switch, she heard a female voice beside her. It was the girl in the dress.

“Everyone, I think I succeeded. I can sense fluctuations in Void Energy nearby, and farther away too.”

Huang Xiu abruptly turned toward the source of the voice. There, in the darkness, another white speck had appeared. But it wasn’t like the flame in her own eyes, it was a blurry glow floating at mid-height.

Chi Xue finished announcing her situation loudly, then turned to look at the location of the Void Energy fluctuations she had sensed earlier. The distant fluctuation should be a switch, but what about the closer one? Another switch?

The turn was instinctive, after all, in utter darkness, what could she see?

But this time, she actually saw…

She saw a pair of eyes glowing with white light, and beneath that light, the girl’s fair face.

“Huh?”

They stared at each other, both frozen. “Why are her eyes glowing?” Chi Xue wondered. “Why aren’t her eyes glowing?” Huang Xiu wondered. “How did she do it?” The question surged in both their minds simultaneously.

What was this? Brute force overcoming technique?

The man in the white lab coat laughed heartily. In front of him was a silver-white wall displaying footage of Huang Xiu and the other three. Though the exam hall was pitch black, the wall showed the scene as clearly as daylight. This room was called the main control room.

“She hadn’t learned the Void Energy Attachment technique, yet she specialized her eyes with sheer volume of Void Energy,” the trench coat-wearing invigilator beside him said in shock.

“In all my years invigilating the retest, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“So willful with talent!” the other invigilator in pajamas chimed in.

Two examinees had “seen” the switches, but everyone’s attention was on Huang Xiu. The other examinee was completely forgotten.

After sighing, the trench coat man fell into deliberation. “So how do we score this?”

Originally, this item had only one pass method: sensing the presence of objects imbued with Void Energy through changes in one’s own Void Energy. That was the method used by the girl in the dress, Chi Xue. But who would have thought Huang Xiu would pull a stunt that left them all at a loss.

Actually, the idea of attaching Void Energy to the eyes to grant special vision had been attempted before Huang Xiu. Most people’s first thought was exactly that. But they soon found it impossible. Even Mercury-rank Specialists couldn’t easily attach Void Energy to a body part without learning the Void Energy Attachment technique. Only someone like Huang Xiu, with S-grade innate Void Energy concentration and a Mercury-rank “Void Energy cow,” could pull it off. Moreover, without that stubborn determination to smash through walls, she might never have broken through the air-blocking Void Energy barrier.

“Full marks?” the pajama man said uncertainly, turning to look behind him. There, at the highest point of the tiered control room, sat the chief examiners from the four major institutions, each in a different posture on metal chairs.

“Maybe the leaders can offer some advice?” he said.

“The Void Energy Perception test examines the examinee’s control and comprehension of Void Energy,” the old man sitting majestically in the center said calmly. He wore a patched suit and shoes that had been re-soled many times. He was Yan Wenmao, director of the Yunnansheng Void Realm Administration Bureau.

“Her method, though…” he paused, searching for words, “though unconventional, since she completed it, we should score by completion standards.”

“Understood.”

The three below nodded and wrote 90 points in the first column of their score sheets. Full marks were 100. The 10 points were deducted for time.

“There’s also Chi Xue. Let me see.” The trench coat man flipped to Chi Xue’s page. C-grade innate concentration?

“Well, though her comprehension and control are excellent, that’s a 20-point deduction.” He sounded regretful, but rules were rules. Even if a C-grade excelled, they’d still lose points. D-grade would lose even more.

While the three were scoring, conversation started in the back of the control room. Yan Wenmao looked at the middle-aged man sitting to his right and said disapprovingly, “So, Old Yuan, no wonder you insisted on ditching us and going to Yingshi alone, you found such a fine seedling!”

“Hahaha!” Yuan Fei laughed heartily, crossing his legs and bouncing them nonstop. “Well, sorry about that! First strike wins, don’t blame me for not playing fair!”

“Hmph, you old fox, still so sly.” The chief examiner from the Specialist Higher Vocational College was a young woman in a red cheongsam as vivid as a rose, with red eyeshadow and red high heels. Sitting there, she was like a cluster of flowers, impossible to look away from.

“Didn’t you contact those examinees in advance?” Yuan Fei dropped the act and tore off his disguise. The recruitment field was a battlefield. Excellent students were the future of their institutions.

“That Li Xiushen and Bai Baibai, I heard their thresholds have been worn flat by you people,” Yuan Fei lashed out. “And you have the nerve to accuse me? Shameless, every one of you.”

“If that’s the case, why did you use your authority to block this girl’s preliminary exam information in the AI system?” the fourth examiner spoke, his tone sharp and on point.

Yuan Fei fell silent, knowing he was in the wrong. They had agreed on fair competition, but the moment he got the news, he sealed it. Though it was only for three days, the timing made a world of difference. These old fools didn’t know the real genius was in Banshi; they had run off to other places chasing ordinary “geniuses.” Even if they found out about Huang Xiu now, it was too late.

Upstairs, the argument grew heated, but down in the exam hall, all was quiet. After staring at each other in bewilderment, Huang Xiu and Chi Xue chose to finish the exam first. Time was likely a key scoring factor. They ran to the switches they had sensed and each pressed one.