When Earth Awakened, I Became a Sword Saintess

Chapter 48 : A Barrage of Phone Calls

48: A Barrage of Phone Calls

The gloomy sky over Magic City had no sunset. It simply grew dark.

A summer wind, too, could be bleak.

Yuwen Wenzhi walked out of the stadium through a side door. He did not take the bus he had arrived on, choosing to leave alone.

At that moment, the phone in his pocket rang at the worst possible time.

A flash of anger showed in Yuwen Wenzhi's eyes. He yanked out the phone, about to hang up, but one look at the screen made his expression change. He answered with a meekness that seemed unlike him.

"Senior Sister Lian…"

"I'm sorry, there were some unforeseen circumstances… 147, I'm afraid I might not even meet the cutoff line… It's… a long story." As the call went on, Yuwen Wenzhi's face grew uglier and uglier, alternating between pale and flushed. Though he was clearly reluctant, he could only grit his teeth and offer his apologies. It was unclear what the girl on the other end was saying, but his once-sharp, now slightly vacant eyes filled with a recurrent fear.

Clearly, even an arrogant prodigy like Yuwen Wenzhi had someone he was deeply afraid of.

And it was a woman.

"That Xia Yuyin? What? Possibly the top scorer in the country?"

"Her situation… I, I don't really know much about it either… I'm sorry, Senior Sister Lian… I'm sorry! I'll go see my father first, and then… ah, no, no, I understand… I'll come right now. I'm heading over right away. Across from the Huangpu Campus… at Senior Brother Wang and their club, right? Okay… I'll be right there."

Truly, at this moment, all Yuwen Wenzhi wanted was to find a deserted corner to hide, to see no one. But he had no choice but to rush to the intersection and use his phone to call a car.

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Yuyin, of course, took the bus back to No. 21 with everyone else. Along the way, she naturally became the center of everyone's attention, and their attitude toward her, in addition to the previous admiration, awe, and even secret gazes of affection, now held a new measure of reverence.

It seemed only Yingluo, sitting beside her, could still talk to her as usual. Perhaps it was because of their Dual Cultivation.

Back at No. 21, though it was already evening, a large number of parents were waiting there, reunited with the students returning from the exam to go home together.

As soon as Yuyin got off the bus, she found that the school leaders were already waiting. They escorted her to the school conference room for a round of praise and compliments. Yuyin, who had wanted to say a few more words to Yingluo, had no choice but to let her go home first.

"Student Yuyin, you are the most… since the founding of No. 21…"

In short, it was a torrent of grand, high-sounding flattery. Yuyin's energy was usually boundless, but right now, she just wanted to sleep.

"What? My score, was it that exaggerated?"

Only then did Yuyin realize why the principal and the others had come. Her score had actually broken the highest record in the publicly administered, unified Source Martial College Entrance Exam.

The previous record was 198 points, set last year by the "Martial Champion" who was admitted to Tiandu Source Martial Academy.

She was the first to break 200.

And she was very likely to be the top scorer of this year's Source Martial College Entrance Exam.

This, forget about startling the principal, would have been normal for it to alarm the entire Clerical Division of Lingdu. The national top scorer, this was no joke.

Yuyin was showered with praise late into the night…

At this point, a P.E. teacher came to report that reporters were already lying in wait at the school gate. The principal stepped forward to protect Yuyin's privacy, arranging for the Dean of Studies to personally drive her home.

By the time she got home, it was nearly nine o'clock.

"So tired…" Yuyin collapsed onto her bed. She felt that this evening's praise session had been more tiring than the exam itself.

She also blamed herself for not asking Yingluo for the statistics beforehand. Otherwise, she might not have gone all out. She possessed the secret of the God-Devouring Chess; being too conspicuous was not necessarily a good thing. But given the circumstances, with the sky suddenly darkening and what seemed like ten thousand demons coming to pay homage, her emotions had been fluctuating intensely. It would have been difficult to control.

She hadn't underperformed; this was entirely because Yuyin, when she was as weak as a newborn chick, had already been carried along in a translucent fairy dress by eight, very real, burly demons. In the God-Devouring Chess, she experienced strange sights and battles with monsters every day. These were just common phantom apparitions of spirits, so why would she be flustered?

Today, she should just rest well! Though the sudden attention was a bit beyond her expectations, a high score was undoubtedly a good thing. However, this Primordial Energy value was something Yuyin had already known about, so she didn't feel overly joyous or satisfied. Perhaps she was number one in the country? But three years from now, when the Ghost King comes for her, would he care what her exam rank was? She couldn't slack off in her cultivation! Of course, she still had to do well on the physical fitness and academic tests.

But with her current Primordial Energy score, the academic and physical fitness tests would indeed be little more than a formality. Yuyin smiled faintly, got up, took off her school uniform, and walked toward the bathroom. As she walked, her fair, small foot lifted lightly, and the narrow lace fabric slid down from her ankle onto the floor…

After her shower, Yuyin went to bed early and slept very soundly and peacefully.

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The next morning, Yuyin had planned to sleep in, but just after the start of business hours, she was woken up by a phone call.

"Who is it?"

Yuyin's phone number was quite private. Aside from delivery services, Yingluo, Sister Dai, and the people from the Fighting Arena, no one would call her.

Yuyin sat up drowsily from the bed, her long hair scattered, one strap of her silk slip dress having fallen off her shoulder.

She answered the phone, "Hello?"

"Excuse me, is this Student Xia Yuyin?"

"Yes…"

"Hello, this is the Admissions Office of Tiandu Source Martial Academy. We were wondering if you have decided on your preferences, Student Xia?"

"Ah? I…"

"Our Tiandu Source Martial Academy is one of the nation's eight special-grade Source Martial Academies, commonly known as one of the 289. Our school has a long and storied history, with many Grandmasters on our faculty… Student Xia Yuyin, have you considered applying to our school?"

"I…"

"If you apply to our academy, your tuition and miscellaneous fees will be fully waived, and we can also offer you a special scholarship approved by the Tiandu Regional Commander… We sincerely hope you will consider our school. We would be very, very happy to have a talent like you! Relevant materials have already been sent to your QQ email…"

The call went on for a long time before it finally ended. It was a recruitment call from Tiandu Source Martial Academy, one of the 289 academies. Were they trying to poach her early? But as the other party was a famous institution, Yuyin naturally had to be polite in her response.

"A recruitment call this early in the morning? Wait… how did they get my phone number and email?"

Da-di-da… da-di-da… Just as she put down the phone, it rang again.

"Hello, we are from the Source Martial Academy of Dongfang Foreign Language University…"

Even a foreign language college has a cultivation academy?

Da-di-da… da-di-da…

"Hello, are you Student Xia Yuyin? We are the North Heavy Machinery Repair Academy. Don't be misled by our origins in machinery repair; our faculty and student strength are incredibly powerful. After all, we are also one of the 289! We were wondering if you have any interest in applying to our academy?"

"I'm sorry, I haven't made a decision about my applications yet. I need some time to think."

It was said that the North Heavy Machinery Repair Academy was extremely powerful, but the academy was 99% male…

This day, Yuyin spent almost all of it answering phone calls.

All sorts of Source Martial Academies, big and small, as long as they had some fame and strength, called.

Even Tiandu Source Martial Academy, the other of Huaxia's two top institutions, called. They expressed that if Yuyin applied to Tiandu, she would receive special training. But overall, Tiandu's posture was still rather high and mighty.

Not only that, but even the great sects like Emei and Tianshan called.

"Female benefactor, our Emei Sect only accepts female disciples, to save those who are fated. If you, female benefactor, have seen through the illusory nature of the mortal world…"

"Hehe… Thank, thank you, I need some time to consider, Master…"

"We are the Shaolin Temple… ah? You're a female… Why did the Huashan Sect mistakenly report that you were male… My apologies, my apologies for the discourtesy."

"Sigh…" Yuyin suddenly felt exhausted. She lay on her bed, staring at the mottled ceiling. What was going on? How had her personal information become known to the entire country overnight?

In the afternoon, the Admissions Office of Lingdu Source Martial Academy also called.

The caller was a middle-aged woman with a scholarly air in her speech: "Student Xia, although we learned through certain channels that you are a high school student here in Lingdu, we respect your personal choice. However, I also wish to convey our school's attitude on behalf of the academy: the gates of Lingdu Source Martial Academy are open to you. We very much welcome and look forward to you applying to our academy."