The system''s notification blinked before Nn''s eyes, which shed with an extra bright light in the morning.


    He had been preparing for this day for exactly six days now, and he felt incredibly confident about the exam toe.


    Afterying his bed properly, he skipped to the bathroom, had a good bath that helped cool his hot brain, and then dressed in his best before carrying his bag.


    Since it was the day of the exam, most of the students wouldn''t find a need to bring their bags with them, but not Nn.


    He ced somest-minute revision notes inside, which he had written on an extra sheet for the exam.


    There were exnations that Nn didn''t think were important or would be asked on the exam, but he kept them within a notebook, just in case.


    With everything set, he quickly headed out of his room, joining the hundreds of studentsing out of their dorm rooms and making their way forward.


    This time, the venue of the exam wasn''t in their ss, and they all headed to a ce Nn had never been before:


    The Neer''s Hall.


    A 20-minute walk of following the other students was enough to bring him before the stadium.


    It was a strange stadium, shaped like a lion''s head roaring out loud, and the architecture surprised Nn quite a bit.


    The Celestial Heirs'' imagination, applied to their various buildings, was nothing short of mind-blowing and majestic.


    Students from different sses and all areas of the academy poured into the lion''s mouth, walking over to a stop by the side where three instructors marked down their names and sses.


    Nn also walked over, submitting his information before being allowed in like the rest.


    When he fully stepped into the hall, he found it resembled a football stadium on Earth.


    The blue sky was clearly visible, and rows upon rows of seats in a circr manner covered everywhere.


    There were already some students who had arrived earlier, and they all sat at the front, so Nn and the rest who were justing in could only sit down behind them, with Nn moving to the farthest back to take his seat.


    The various murmurs of the students were nothing but deafening, but Nn didn''t mind as he grabbed the notes from his bag and began going through them one by one.


    The stadium only became more and more filled until it was half-filled to the brim. Only then did Nn observe that no more students wereing in.


    Strangely, the cacophony of noise slowly reduced as time went by, with intense pressure settling in on the students as the minutes passed.


    They were all aware of the stakes that were held during this exam.


    Failure would mean a repeat of five years and getting left behind by their peers while also remaining stuck at the same level of cultivation with zero improvement.


    The reality was nothing but chilling to the incredibly ambitious Celestial Heirs.


    Passing wasn''t just a badge of recognition from the academy; they also had a bloodline''s respect to uphold, and that could be said to be even more monumental than anything else to them.


    Thirty minutes after thest students entered, the open space in the center of the stadium began to change as the green grass suddenly began parting and shifting to the side.


    A white light shone on the ground, and something began to rise up—a strange altar in the shape of a tiger''s head.


    The pir supporting it resembled the tiger''s rising neck, and it slowly moved up until it reached about five meters into the air beforeing to a stop.


    Then, a total of three seats appeared on the stage. Less than a few minutester, three figures appeared in the sky above the stadium, causing everyone to raise their heads upward, and even Nn wasn''t excluded.


    The figures were three, all of their features covered by the intense light they were oozing.


    Nn felt his heart quaking from their presence.


    One of the figures emitted a white aura, giving off an intense feeling of purity, another was brimming with an intense dark aura that reminded Nn of the aura of Venus, while the third one was brimming with a special green aura, filled with purifying nature essence.


    Slowly, they all floated down from the sky, gentlynding on the altar before the lights dimmed, finally settling as they stood on the tform.


    Immediately, whispers could be heard from the various gathered students, and Nn was quick to pick up the information, his gaze narrowing at the three figures.


    Two of them were males, one possessing the dark aura and the other the white, while thest person was a female, with the same strange tattoos as the ones that Gaia possessed.


    She was the one oozing with the green aura.


    "So these are Ascendants, huh?" Nn mused to himself as he looked at the figures.


    ''How strong are theypared to me?'' Nn asked the system with interest.


    [You should be able to avoid getting killed by any of them if you use your Anti-Aether.] The system replied, and Nn''s eyebrows furrowed before he understood.


    ''So they''re twice as strong as I am. Interesting...''


    The faces of the three Ascendant students were stoic, and no smile could be seen at all.


    Just that alone was enough to make any whisper the neers possessed instantly die down.


    Even though they were all probably just older than those in the Neers ss by three or even fewer years, the Neers and the Ascendants could never bepared in the same breath.


    They weren''t close at all in all manner ofparison.


    The Ascendants were not only stronger, but even more knowledgeable, more privilege and they definitely held more weight in the Academy than any Neer could ever do.


    Maybe apart from the godly ten.


    And talking of the godly ten, Nn noticed they were absent from the exam, even though they were also Neers just like everyone else.