Chapter 4318 — Between a Rock and a Hard Place

At this, the crowd exchanged uneasy glances. Quitting halfway was no great crime—at worst, it meant forfeiting one's place, and any penalty would surely be a mere formality. None of them had imagined the academy staff would come down so brutally hard.

"Hmph! A mere ant at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage dares to sneak in and pass himself off as a candidate? This is but a small warning. Since you mean to enter, you had best think it through beforehand. If anyone else dares to disrupt the order of this selection and waste everyone's time, this old man will not be so lenient next time!" the academy staff member said coldly to the assembly. Such an obvious warning to the rest by making an example of one made everyone involuntarily shrink back.

Only then did the crowd understand. No wonder the man had suddenly faltered at the last moment—he was merely a cultivator at the great consummation of the Foundation Establishment stage. To dare come and pad the ranks at an occasion like this—who knew how that creature's brain was wired? He had only himself to blame for being crippled.

At that moment, however, amid the crowd, Wei Zhao watched the scene unfold and felt a chill creep into his heart. He lowered his head to look at the test token in his hand, and cold sweat broke out at once.

Judging by the look of things, was it possible that even quitting halfway was not permitted? Unlike that great-consummation cultivator, Wei Zhao met every selection requirement, but he had no intention of taking part in the selection at all. Was he not about to follow in that man's footsteps?

Had he never received this test token, there would have been no problem. But the trouble was that, because he had not been paying much attention earlier, both he and Huang Xiaotao now had test tokens in hand!

"Brother Ge, does taking a test token at the start mean you can no longer withdraw from the selection? Not even to forfeit voluntarily?" Wei Zhao drew a deep breath and asked Ge Wei, who stood nearby enjoying the spectacle. This man was the king of information—he ought to know every trick and byway of such matters clearly.

"Of course not! Once you have gone and taken a test token, you must step onto the stage and take part in the selection!" Ge Wei answered with a look of perfect matter-of-factness. "Think about it, brother—there are nearly ten thousand people present. Arranging a selection for so many, how much work is that? If you had no such intention, why go and take a test token in the first place? Wouldn't that just be making trouble for others for nothing?"

"Uh, put that way, I suppose it makes sense..." Wei Zhao could not help but grimace speechlessly, secretly regretting how careless he had been.

Had he known earlier, he should have handed the tokens back when the academy staff member tossed them to the two of them. Now it was too late—what had been a trifling test token had become a hot potato.

"Some people, well, they bring it on themselves. Who knows whether they've been kicked in the head by a donkey or have water sloshing around in their skulls, daring to come muddy the waters even over something like this. Do they ever stop to think whether there's any chance of success? In the end they can only end up like that creature—realizing at the last moment that they're incurably stupid, too late to take it back, and all you can say to them is two words: serves you right!" Ge Wei, without so much as glancing at Wei Zhao's expression, prattled on and on.

"Then what if that man just now hadn't backed out halfway and had forced himself to take part in the selection? What if, once on stage, he was found to be only at the great consummation of Foundation Establishment—what then? Would it still be like just now, making an example of him and beating him into a cripple?" Wei Zhao pressed on.

"That it would not. In that case, it would merely count as failing the selection and being eliminated—it wouldn't come to such an end. Of course, such a person would still be knowingly breaking the rules, and would ultimately be blacklisted by the academy, never to be admitted." Ge Wei shook his head, then curled his lip. "That's just what I mean by incurably stupid. Even if he gritted his teeth and finished the selection, the worst he'd get is a blacklist entry—so how would he end up beaten into a cripple like that? Tsk, tsk!"

"Oh—then what if someone is selected? Can they decline to join the academy?" Wei Zhao asked instead.

"Absolutely not! If you had no intention of going to Morning Star Academy, why take a test token at all? To take part in the selection under everyone's watchful eyes and then, having been chosen, refuse to go—what would that be? A public provocation of Morning Star Academy?" Ge Wei said, speechless.

"It wouldn't necessarily be a provocation of the academy, would it? Maybe they just changed their mind partway through..." Wei Zhao said, twisting his lips somewhat awkwardly.

"That won't do either. Whatever the original intent, once such a thing happens, it deals a blow to Morning Star Academy's reputation and gives outsiders something to gossip about. Strictly speaking, it's far worse in nature than what that fool just did. If such a person were merely stripped of their cultivation, that would already be lenient—under a harsher hand, they'd likely be executed on the spot." Ge Wei spoke with utter certainty.

Hearing this, Wei Zhao was left even more speechless, cold sweat already soaking his back. From what Ge Wei said, it seemed he had today pushed himself into a pit of fire, with no time left to turn back?

"I say, brother—asking me all this, you're not thinking of backing out halfway too, are you? Don't tell me you're like that creature, lacking in strength and scared stiff?" Ge Wei suddenly caught on and eyed Wei Zhao up and down with suspicion.

"Ah? No, no—I was just asking idly, that's all. I'm a genuine expert at the Golden Core stage..." Wei Zhao hastily waved his hands.

"Mm, I'd say you are. So long as nothing's wrong, that's fine—otherwise, if you really ran into such bad luck, no one could save you." Ge Wei offered the reminder, laden with unspoken meaning.

"Mm, I know." Wei Zhao nodded as though nothing were the matter, yet in his heart he had already sunk into an abyss.

Ever since arriving at the Southern Island, apart from that first run-in with the buffoon Cheng Qitian, everything had gone smoothly. Never mind that he had obtained the infant ginseng, the Ten-Thousand-Passage Golden Core Fruit, and the Star-Ink Milk, each and every one—he had even unexpectedly reunited with the Great Fire Lion and the Great Spider, and now had laid eyes on Wang Xinyan, the one he had pined for day and night.

Everything looked beautiful—yet now, because of a single accidental oversight, he had been driven into such an awkward corner, and it was maddening.

All because he had failed to promptly return the test token tossed into his hand, he now could not leave. Wei Zhao had never imagined he would land himself in such a rotten fix!

He turned to look around. The whole of Zhenduan Plaza was under Morning Star Academy's control, with experts at the Nascent Soul stage at every post. Slipping out from under their noses was simply impossible. Only one kind of person could leave Zhenduan Plaza—those eliminated and unselected. Apart from them, no one was permitted in or out.

Now Wei Zhao's originally fine mood had turned utterly overcast. Advancing or retreating—both were impossible. The situation before him was truly thorny!