"Hello, which room are you in? I can take you there."
A gentle voice came from behind Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan turned around and saw a sweet-looking woman. She smiled at him, looking very charming, especially with a beautiful dimple on her left cheek when she smiled.
"Hello, my name is Zhou Yan. I'm in room 99," Zhou Yan replied.
"Hello, my name is Ma Qinglin. I'm in room 11. I know where room 99 is. I'll take you," Ma Qinglin said.
Ma Qinglin's voice was soft and comforting, like warm water.
"Thank you then. Qing Qing Zi Jin, that's a beautiful name. Your parents must be very good at naming people," Zhou Yan complimented.
"Oh, it's just a casual name," Ma Qinglin smiled.
"Who is that Luo Yushuang? Do you know her?" Zhou Yan asked curiously.
"I arrived a bit earlier, so I saw her with Li Bufan and Dong Qingyi. They all came from the capital. I don't know their background. I'm not too familiar with them," Ma Qinglin replied.
"No wonder," Zhou Yan nodded.
"Sister Luo Yushuang is just a bit mischievous. She has a good heart. They've been causing trouble for a few days, you don't need to mind them. However, you should be careful that people don't mistake your room," Ma Qinglin offered a kind reminder.
Luo Yushuang is a good person?
He remained skeptical of that statement.
He could tell she was a spoiled young lady who was used to having her way at home. He just wanted to stay away from such people.
After guiding Zhou Yan to the correct room, Ma Qinglin waved goodbye to him.
Zhou Yan thanked her and entered the room, bolting the door.
This was different from the academy he had expected. They weren't going directly to the academy but were arranged to stay in an inn.
And it seemed they had to wait for all the students to arrive, or perhaps wait for five days before being arranged into the academy.
He was about to return to his territory to check on it when someone suddenly knocked on the door.
He opened the door, and upon seeing the visitor, asked, "How did you know I was staying here?"
"I met Sister Ma Qinglin earlier, and she told me. Let's not talk too much. I need to hide in your room for a bit," the person said.
The visitor quickly entered the room, closed the door, and gestured for Zhou Yan to remain silent.
Zhou Yan saw a figure flash past the doorway. It was likely someone who had been chasing this guy.
After a while, the man patted his chest and said, "I'm having the worst luck in my life. How could I have encountered such an unreasonable tigress?"
It's hard to say.
If a woman mistakenly enters a man's room, it's called a mistake.
But if a man barges into a woman's room, he's either a hooligan or a pervert. If you hit him, there's no point in complaining.
Being a man is truly difficult.
"Hello, my name is Lin Hao, and I'm from Hangcheng," the man introduced himself.
"Lin?" Zhou Yan was taken aback.
"Yes, why? Are you also surnamed Lin?" Lin Hao asked.
Zhou Yan extended his hand and introduced himself, "Hello, my name is Lin Dong, and I'm from Qingyang Town!"
"So you are surnamed Lin! Perhaps we are from the same family a thousand years ago," Lin Hao said familiarly.
The other person actually believed him.
Men quickly became acquainted. The other party briefly introduced his background. Zhou Yan learned that he was the scion of a family with a history of several hundred years. He scored over 800 points this time and then chose Ziwei Academy.
Later, Zhou Yan confessed that his name wasn't Lin Dong, which left Lin Hao speechless for a while.
In his words, he had been deceived.
Zhou Yan then curiously asked, "Even if you weren't a match for that woman, you wouldn't have been beaten up like this, would you?"
Lin Hao quickly explained with manly pride, "As a man, how could I lay hands on a woman?"
Zhou Yan clearly didn't believe this nonsense and stared at him.
"Alright, I'll tell you the truth. I'm going the route of a farming lord. I didn't have the strength to fight back. My level is only 1. How could I fight her? If I hadn't run fast, I'd probably be in the hospital now," Lin Hao said.
So that was the truth.
"Why aren't we going directly to the academy?"
Zhou Yan was very curious and hoped the other party knew more inside information.
"You're from a commoner background, aren't you?" Lin Hao said, understanding Zhou Yan's background.
"Yes, I'm just an ordinary person. I was just lucky enough to meet the admission requirements for Ziwei Academy."
Zhou Yan replied.
He had only scored 2022 points.
It was only more than double the second place, not a huge difference.
Lin Hao quickly explained, "Uh, buddy, I don't mean to look down on you. Please don't misunderstand."
"It's okay, it's okay. I understand what you mean."
Zhou Yan could tell this person wasn't looking down on him, otherwise, he wouldn't have chatted with him so much.
People from these families possessed things that others didn't, and he could gain more information about lords from them.
It was necessary to befriend people like him.
Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Lin Hao answered his previous question, "Ziwei Academy has a long heritage. I heard that in the very beginning, it wasn't an academy but a sect."
"Therefore, this academy has a completely different style from other academies."
"In other academies, we are called students, but at Ziwei Academy, we are called disciples."
"Actually, we are not true Ziwei Academy disciples yet. At most, we are auxiliary disciples. We still need to pass the academy's assessment to officially become introductory disciples of the academy."
Zhou Yan was a little surprised. He hadn't expected the admission requirements for Ziwei Academy to be so difficult.
They had all emerged from the national newcomer trials, yet they still needed to be assessed to officially become members of the academy.
"What happens if one fails the assessment?" Zhou Yan asked curiously.
"You go back where you came from," Lin Hao replied.
Zhou Yan immediately asked, "Aren't those who applied to Ziwei Academy and failed the assessment wasting their application?"
Lin Hao smiled and explained, "Not entirely. There's still a chance for those who fail the assessment."
"As long as they are willing to stay and serve as auxiliary disciples of the academy, they can undergo the assessment every year. As long as they pass, they can still become introductory disciples of the academy."
"Of course, that's if you're willing to persevere. Many proud people leave on the spot. The rest are those who want to persevere to become introductory disciples."
"Let me tell you something. The auxiliary disciples accumulated from previous years' newcomers number in the thousands at Ziwei Academy. I heard the oldest one is over forty years old."
Zhou Yan was stunned and exclaimed, "No way, there are so many? Doesn't that mean some people fail every year? Why don't they leave and just keep trying?"
Hearing that a forty-year-old was still trying made him speechless. That guy had persisted for 22 years.
Good heavens, wasting their youth here, was it worth it?
Lin Hao retorted with a smile, "Don't you think about it? If you, a top student ranked over a thousand nationally, couldn't get into one of the four major academies and had to choose a third-rate academy, how would you feel?"
The enrollment quotas for every higher academy are fixed, and they rarely accept someone who has been rejected from the four major academies.
Only those third-rate academies would accept them. Those lord universities would have no enrollment restrictions and would even be happy for these people to study at their academies.
Of course, it's not impossible that some first- or second-rate academies would recruit them based on their unique territories or strong connections.
However, the vast majority of those who leave can only choose third-rate academies.