Chapter 1: Knight Examination (I) (2/2)
Long Hao Cheng went up in front of Balza but did not take out his wooden sword like the others. Instead, he placed his right hand on his chest and bowed, saluting Balza.
“Teacher.”
Balza’s originally serious look softened slightly. He nodded, saying:
“Start.”
“Yes.”
Drawing out his sword, Long Hao Cheng took a deep breath and suddenly swung it with full force and hit the block of stone.
With a puff sound, the stone bean bounced; but it obviously did not reach ten graduations.
Balza immediately frowns, “Spiritual energy level of nine, you don’t pass.”
From the speed of the slash from Long Hao Chen’s sword that he saw, he could see that Long Hao Cheng had really used all his power and gone all out, but, he could still not pass the examination to become squire.
Long Hao Chen’s pretty face became flushed and looking at Balza, he said pleadingly, “Instructor, I, I…”
Balza slightly sighed and said, “Go down.”
Long Hao Chen eagerly repeated, “Instructor, give me another chance. I will definitely pass.”
Balza scowled, saying, “But, that would be unfair to the others who didn’t pass.”
Long Hao Chen suddenly became silent but the determination in his eyes persisted. Balza noticed the expression in his eyes and at the same moment, he could not help but stare blankly at Long Hao Cheng. What is that? Perseverance? The Perseverance described in the Ten Standards of a Knight? The Ten Standards of a Knight are the ten essences of the knights. Even some Genuine Knights are unable to display some of these ten essences, but this kid before my eyes…
While Balza was lost in his thoughts, Long Hao Chen turned to face the other examinees and using a very sincere tone towards the ones who trained alongside with him for the past year, declared, “I beg of you, give me another chance.” As he pleaded, he unexpectedly kneels down.
Balza was flabbergasted. The youths were also flabbergasted. To these kids that were eight to nine years old, it was fundamentally impossible to understand why Long Hao Chen was so persistent.
Balza’s eyes widened, if it was another kid, he would have believed that the kid was greedy or cowardly, but it couldn’t be the case for Long Hao. Because, even though Long Hao may seem thin and weak, during this past year’s training, amongst all of the kids, he was the most assiduous one. Not only did he perfectly accomplish the mandatory training everyday, he also came an hour earlier and left an hour later.
Balza was tied as a 10th ranked Standard Knight but he had already been an instructor for ten years and Long Hao Chen was the most diligent student he had ever seen. This boy never needed to be supervised and not only trained hard every day, but also was good to everyone and helped his fellow trainees whenever they asked him for help.
This is also why when arriving at Long Hao Chen’s turn, Balza’s look became gentle. But the fact that Long Hao Chen didn’t pass the exam took him aback. If such a diligent child didn’t pass the examination, the only explanation would be that he didn’t have any talent.
1. (TL Note: Sheng Mou Da Lu : The name of the mainland (recurrent thing to call something Da Lu the name of the place where the story takes place in Chinese novels), it literally means Magical Continent.