The bronze gong atop the Dragon-Leap Gate boomed three times, its heavy metallic vibration rattling the tiles of the outer plaza. Two thousand examination candidates and over a thousand silk-robed noble spectators flowed into the Grand Spirit-Measuring Courtyard.
At the center of the white limestone amphitheater rose three thirty-foot obelisks carved from translucent Sky-Veined Quartz—the legendary Spirit-Root Measuring Pillars of the Great Qian Royal Academy. Under normal testing protocols, a child under fourteen would press one palm against the base of a pillar: an iron-grade martial constitution would light up the bottom three feet in white. A bronze-grade talent would reach ten feet in green; a silver-grade prodigy would illuminate twenty feet in blue.
And a once-in-a-decade gold-grade genius would send a crimson beam all the way to the twenty-five-foot mark.
Today, however, the dark bronze runes recessed into the pedestal beneath the three pillars pulsed with a heavy, leaden violet light.
Senior Head Instructor Lei floated down from the gate tower balcony, his purple Academy robe billowing around his burly frame as he landed on the raised judging dais. Behind him sat thirty noble clan matriarchs and court ministers under shaded silk canopies. Led by Lady Zhao—Second Prince Qian Ye’s maternal aunt—who waved a peacock-feather fan and glared down at the registration line with undisguised hostility.
