Chapter 11

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The interface displaying an introduction to the Echo Butterfly disappeared.

Afterward, Cao Yan heard the woman in her fifties, who was called Examiner Xu, say, “There are quite a number of applicants today, though.”

She looked at Cao Yan and asked, “Judging from your age, you’re a student?”

“No,” Cao Yan said truthfully since personal information could be easily looked up. There was no point in hiding it.

“Then are any of your family members trainers? Or perhaps they are in related professions?” Examiner Xu continued asking.

Cao Yan shook his head once again. “No. My family fishes for a living. It was by chance that I tried being a trainer.”

He did not dwell on it further, but he revealed that he had never undergone professional training as a trainer.

Examiner Xu frowned. “Are you sure you’ve got what it takes to pass the elementary trainer test?”

“You should really think about it. If you change your mind before the test, you can still take back your $5000.”

Examiner Xu was just stating the facts. From what Cao Yan revealed about himself, it did seem improbable for him to pass the test. Besides, she had been seeing many youngsters attempting the test after grasping a little something just because they were envious of others in this occupation.

For people like that, it was best to persuade them to give up. That little income meant nothing to the association, and there was also no need to waste each other’s time.

Cao Yan said calmly, “I am ready for the test.”

Examiner Xu did not speak further. She said to the middle-aged man, “You’ll invigilate then.”

The man agreed. He stood up and gave Cao Yan a warm smile. He pointed to the door at the side and said, “That is exam hall five. Follow me.

“If you pass the test, you will be qualified. If you fail, you can only retake the test half a year later.”

The middle-aged man spoke while leading Cao Yan over to the door and pointing at a set of rules, “Take a look at the rules of the test. If you do not have any questions, you can go in.”

The rules were about prohibited things during the test, no cheating, and such. After reading the rules, Cao Yan followed the middle-aged man through the door and into another area.

After completing its mission, the guiding butterfly flew away.

Soon, another guiding butterfly came over and brought another candidate for the test.

Examiner Xu said, “Wait for a while. There aren’t any empty exam halls right now…”

The candidate nodded and waited quietly at the side.

The examination hall fell into silence. Examiner Xu sat on her chair and pulled out a large crystal ball.

As she touched the crystal ball, its surface shook. A few moments later, a blurry silhouette appeared inside. The images in the crystal ball kept changing. They were the scenes of what was happening in the exam halls.

With this world’s level of civilization, it was not impossible for technology such as the screen interface to exist. However, Examiner Xu was relatively conservative and insisted on using the spatial projection crystal ball to monitor what was going on in the exam halls.

On the fifth image-change in the crystal ball, Cao Yan and the middle-aged invigilator appeared walking into the exam hall.

In the image, Cao Yan and the invigilator were going through a corridor.

The end of the corridor was connected to a small eco-garden filled with vegetation. There was even a little man-made lake at the center. Many animals were roaming in the greenery, including a cute and lazy little koala sitting under a tree, a golden-brown monkey leaping from tree to tree, and a magpie with ruby-like eyes tidying its beautiful feathers on a branch.

In the water, there were all types of fishes and an old tortoise lazing on a rock in the center of the lake.

It was quite a surprise to see that the exam hall was a venue like this.

The middle-aged invigilator took out a demon ball and a strange pen with a flat tip and said, “The test will be on the usage of the demon ball. This is only a half-completed item, with flaws in its surface patterns, so it is unable to capture anything. All you need to do is use your knowledge as a trainer to mend and complete this demon ball.

“After that, go into the demon eco-garden with this demon ball.”

He continued, “There are more than 30 animals in the garden, but only one of them is a demon beast, the rest being ordinary animals. You have to find that stage one demon beast, capture it with the demon ball, and bring it over to me. You have one hour. If you do not finish the task within the stipulated time, it would be considered a fail. You are unable to retry if you make any mistakes in the process…”

The middle-aged invigilator rambled on about the examination process.

Cao Yan expressed his understanding and received the demon ball and that strange pen that was as fat as a blade.

The skill book did mention this pen. It was made using the bones of a beast that could transmit signals spiritually. Similarly, the ink inside was composed of a particular type of demon beast blood that had been extracted after processing. It was used to draw symbols on the surface of the demon ball to seal the space up, and hence, bringing the demon ball to “life”.

The demon ball Cao Yan received had some missing symbols on its surface. Therefore, it was currently a normal, hollow, metal ball. It did not have an interior space that could capture and contain demon beasts.

The moment he held the demon ball, the information from the skill book flooded into Cao Yan’s mind. Soon, he was able to find the content about the symbols that he could draw on the ball.

Nonetheless, it was his first time doing it, after all. Cao Yan was not very confident. He held the pen firmly in his hand and started to draw the symbols on the surface according to the book’s description.

The moment he landed the first stroke, the pen started moving naturally, as though the information in his brain had been used millions of times. He promptly drew the rest of the symbols without pausing.

Every symbol he drew glowed slightly, and after flickering a few times, it was engraved on the surface of the ball. Lines of varying thickness started spreading across the surface, intersecting to form patterns, as though they had a life of their own. They completed the missing parts of the patterns.

At the same time, the surrounding space flowed into the demon ball, as if it had morphed into water.

This was a process that could not be seen with the naked eye. However, on the spiritual level, Cao Yan could distinctly feel it happening.

After a while, the lines on the ball’s surface solidified, and the space within the ball had expanded to more than a meter.

“Such accurate drawing…”

Examiner Xu, who was watching the scene through the crystal ball, was amazed by Cao Yan’s performance.

“Very skilled application of the space symbol…” The middle-aged invigilator was similarly astonished.

“That’s interesting.” After making use of the knowledge from the skill book, Cao Yan was in an exceptional mood. He sauntered into the eco-garden with the ball in his hand.