Of course, the only reason Gan Jin dared to provoke them was because he knew the Dean of Academic Affairs could only fume in anger, having no real way to touch him. He hadn't expected the Dean to be waiting for him right here.

"Professor, it’s fine if I can’t retake the exam," Gan Jin shrugged dismissively. "The Trial Exam doesn't affect whether I get into the Superior or Good-tier Dou Ling Grand Formation later on."

"Nonsense!" Rodriguez's not-so-large palm slammed down hard on the desk, causing the teacup and other books resting there to rattle violently several times. "Even if it has nothing to do with which Dou Ling Grand Formation you enter, it has everything to do with whether you get to observe the Heroes of the Four Seas Assembly! If you don't see the Heroes of the Four Seas Assembly with your own eyes, how will you ever know how truly powerful a warrior can be? If you don't witness it firsthand, how will you be motivated to work twice as hard to compete yourself when you return?"

Gan Jin watched Rodriguez’s mounting agitation, subtly twitching the corners of his lips. Since the founding of the Oakland Academy of Warriors and Mages, hadn't they always been eliminated in the preliminary rounds? They were merely accompanying the other academies for show.

"Gan Jin, don't mistake my non-top-tier warrior rank for a lack of discernment; trust me, my eyes never mistake true talent!" Rodriguez's expression grew more animated, his eyes blazing with confident light. "You are the best warrior prospect I have ever seen, and you will become a formidable warrior in the future! While you might not be able to contend with the Bloodline Warriors, it won't stop you from becoming a great warrior who contributes immensely in the fight against the Demon race."

Bloodline Warrior? Gan Jin’s eyebrows knitted rapidly together and then separated, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest of his chair. That name used to be so familiar. Yet, after the test for the Primary Awakening, the term had instantly become impossibly distant—farther away than his hometown by millions of times.

"Believe me, Gan Jin! You are the best warrior I have seen in this academy!" The fervor in Rodriguez's eyes did not diminish as he raised two fingers high. "Two years! Just two years! When you enter your third year, the year you are about to advance to the advanced warrior school, you will be the core member of the Oakland Academy of Warriors and Mages that year, participating in the Heroes of the Four Seas Assembly, attracting the attention of prestigious schools. That will be infinitely beneficial to your future career! If warrior students there perform well enough, they can even use the Dou Ling Formations independently to advance their Dou Qi ranks—and you know that significantly increases the success rate for breakthroughs..."

Dou Ling Formation? Gan Jin chewed over Rodriguez’s words, a faint bitterness rising in his mouth. The Dou Ling Formation, in a certain sense, held the power to almost dictate a warrior's future prospects. The greatest advantage of a prestigious school wasn't just the variety of Dou Ling Formations or the abundance of Dou Ling Stones; their advanced cultivation techniques for warriors were far superior to those in ordinary academies.

For many, entering a prestigious school represented an infinite future, a place with scholars dedicated solely to studying Dou Ling Formations, backed by relatively massive commercial sponsorships that allowed them to acquire expensive Dou Ling Stones ordinary people could never afford, alongside advanced techniques summarized and created by predecessors, and high-tier methods scoured and purchased by the top schools.

Gan Jin sighed softly. Superior warrior techniques! That had once been so close, and now its shadow was too distant to even glimpse. If not for occasionally discovering a dusty book on his family’s bookshelf, which contained a strange map annotated with 【Peerless Wind and Cloud Dou Qi】, it was unknown whether he would even be standing here.

"Gan Jin, although this trial has no direct bearing on your entry into the Dou Ling Grand Formation here at the academy, it has an indirect one," Rodriguez leaned in half an inch closer to him. "If you can't enter a prestigious school, how will you use better Dou Ling Formations to help you break through in the future? Without high-tier techniques, how can you possibly become the greatest warrior?"

"Therefore," Rodriguez stared at Gan Jin with unshakeable resolve and summarized, "you cannot approach this trial with indifference. If you can secure a substitute spot this time, you can observe the most outstanding warriors up close. In three years, unless our luck runs completely dry and we are drawn into the same group as the Qian family, who possess the Elf King Bloodline Warriors, we stand a chance of winning a qualification slot for the Four Treasures Prefecture, entering the finals of the Eight Continents and Four Seas competition. At that point, prestigious schools will notice you."

"That's right..." Rodriguez seemed to be encouraging himself, nodding repeatedly under his breath. "As long as we don't run into the Qian family's Elf King Bloodline Warriors—who knows if someone else in the Qian family, one of the three ultimate strongest Bloodline Warrior families, has awakened."

Awakening? A barely perceptible bitter smile touched the corner of Gan Jin’s lips. An ultimate awakening among the Qian family’s Bloodline Warriors only occurred once every few centuries. But if the entire Qian family only had one ultimate awakened Bloodline Warrior, they would have been annihilated by the Empire long ago!

Aside from the Ultimate Elf King Bloodline Awakening, which was hailed as one of the mightiest on the continent, someone in every generation of the Qian family achieved the Primary Awakening. Last year, the most Qian family Bloodline Warriors awakened, with over thirty individuals reaching the Primary Awakening simultaneously.

Based on the Qian family's history regarding the Ultimate Elf King Bloodline Warrior, this ultimate awakening was highly likely to occur among these thirty-odd individuals. Consequently, the Qian family placed extraordinary importance on the descendants of these thirty-plus Primary Awakenings, as one among them might allow the Qian family to once again stand at the pinnacle of the current age, overshadowing the other two Bloodline Warrior families!

Indeed, judging by the awakening cycles of the Bloodline Warriors, the three ultimate bloodlines had never awakened concurrently. Whenever one family’s ultimate bloodline awakened, they temporarily became the strongest! According to the Qian family records, the ultimate awakening of the Elf King Bloodline Warrior should be happening within this youngest generation.

"No, that's not right." Rodriguez vigorously shook his head. "As long as you are willing to work hard, combined with my cooperation, even if you encounter the Qian family's Elf King Bloodline Warriors—even if they practice both martial and magical arts—you still have a chance to fight and win."

Gan Jin offered another wry smile. The Elf King Bloodline Warriors could dominate the continent and stand as one of the three ultimate powers of human Bloodline Warriors for a reason; they possessed strength outsiders could never comprehend. Even a Primary Awakened Elf King Bloodline Warrior possessed an astonishing growth rate, especially their dual cultivation of magic and martial arts, which was a nightmare for pure warriors or mages.