The guard following me caught up just in time to see my sprint back to the hall, weaving through the crowd."You! Wait up!" he called out, but I ignored him.
I ran with Tony to the steps. The line of guards tried to stop him, but he pushed by with ease.
The hall was almost empty now, and I sprinted through to the hospital bay, before taking Tony to Davide.
"You said that he was thrashing around…"
"She said that she stopped his nerves," I explained, pointing at the nurse.
"Sir, are you his father?" she asked.
"Yes, do you know what"s wrong with him?"
"That"s what I wanted to ask you."
"I don"t…"
"What const.i.tution does he have?" she interrupted.
"Ma"am I…" Tony sounded hesitant.
"Don"t worry. Every scholar has a special const.i.tution."
"It"s the Golden Web const.i.tution," he replied reluctantly.
"His central nervous system is erratic. Does that const.i.tution have anything to do with it?"
"I don"t really understand it, but I was told that qi is woven into his nerves."
The nursed sighed.
"In that case, I"ll keep him sedated until his qi recovers enough. His motor function should return in time."
She stood up and looked Tony dead in the eyes.
"You should have arranged a special appointment with the chairman." Her tone was scathing.
"I was hoping that your school would be able to tell me more about it. I didn"t know this would happen…"
"We treat scholars differently because they have potentially dangerous const.i.tutions. If you already knew about his, you should have been more careful."
"Yes…"
Tony seemed somewhat defeated.
"Chairman Liu will give the scholars a quick introduction speech when they wake up. For now, go wait in Little Yard."
"Little Yard?"
"Sorry, force of habit. Just go back to the rest of the parents." she turned to face the guard, "This time, can you escort him properly?"
"Yes ma"am," he sheepishly replied.
They left the room, and the nurse went back to the other hospital bay.
What the nurse said interested me. These special const.i.tutions must be the reason for their unnaturally high qi.
Unless something else was different about me, I was just a fake. My Soul Becoming World const.i.tution was a lie. Just a cover to stop people from asking questions.
I lay back down on my bed and did some light meditation to ease my worries.
Yao Daiyu woke up first. With barely a sound, she got up, made the bed she was lying in, then stood beside it.
I waited for her to say something, but nothing happened. I decided to break the silence.
"Hey, I"m Oscar."
She looked at me, briefly nodded her head, then looked back at the door.
"I heard we"re gonna be scholars… do you know any more about it than me?"
She looked back at me, and a slight frown crossed her face, before she looked back to the door.
"Probably the silent aloof type… I guess I won"t bother her," I thought to myself.
After a few minutes, Davide woke up. He groaned in pain like an old man when he sat up.
"Big bro… what happened?" his voiced was strained, and he looked at me with painful eyes.
"You went crazy when you touched the crystal. Something to do with your const.i.tution thingy," I explained to him.
"Oh okay." He tried to turn around, but yelped out in pain "Ow ow ow… It really hurts…"
Tears welled up in his eyes as he hugged his side.
"Nurse!" I called out, "He"s awake and he"s really hurting!"
The nurse came in and looked him over.
"You"re going to be okay sweetie. Here! I"ve got a sweet for you!"
She pulled out a small round pill and handed it to Davide. He grabbed it eagerly and popped it in his mouth. After a second, a look of pure disgust crossed his face.
"I know it"s bitter, but if you swallow it, you"ll feel a lot better!"
Davide looked betrayed, but pain overcame his taste and he swallowed.
"Good boy."
I heard m.u.f.fled tapping, then the door swung open.
"Chairman."
The nurse bowed, then left the room.
"Congratulations. You three are this year"s scholars."
Even these simple words were incredibly dynamic, and I felt excited at the prospect of being a scholar.
"Sir, what does being a scholar mean?" I asked
"Hm. I will get to that in due course. Our testing methods are designed to select two types of students."
"The first is those that have high innate qi. Those children are best suited to enter the middle ranks of the military."
"The second is you three. You, have special const.i.tutions."
He paused and walked underneath a beam of light from a small window.
"Your const.i.tutions are of a particular type. They drastically increase your innate qi and render you incompatible with other sources of qi."
"The teachers at my school are well equipped to teach you appropriate techniques for your const.i.tution."
He looked at me with a little smile.
"Now, I will address what makes scholars special in our school. You will follow the standard curriculum, but you will also be a.s.signed a suitable mentor.
"Before I send you back to your parents, do you know what your const.i.tutions are? If you already know, it will hasten the process of selecting your mentor."
Davide spoke up first.
"I"ve got the Golden Web const.i.thingy!"
His pain seemed to have already disappeared, and he was as cheery as ever. Before I could speak, a nervous murmur escaped Yao Daiyu"s mouth."
"… Qi const.i.tution."
Chairman Liu leaned over towards her,
"Would you be able to speak up?"
"Crystalline Qi const.i.tution."
Yao Daiyu"s voice was louder this time, and Chairman Liu seemed a bit taken aback at her words.
"My, my… and you are taking the appropriate medicine I presume?"
Yao Daiyu shook her head.
"What?!" Chairman Liu"s calm demeanour was broken in an instant, "How are you… I will have someone take you to the Crow immediately."
I was alerted by the name. This was probably the same Crow that I knew. Chairman Liu turned to the door and called out,
"Guard!"
A guard burst through the door,
"Sir?"
"Take this girl to go see the Crow urgently. Tell him that she has a Crystalline Qi const.i.tution and hasn"t taken any medicine. Tell him I sent you."
"Yessir," he turned to Yao Daiyu, "follow me."
Yao Daiyu started walking after the guard, but was stopped by chairman Liu,
"Stop! You can"t be walking, guard, you must carry her."
"I"m fine," she interjected. Her voice was timid, and she seemed scared.
Chairman Liu seemed unnerved for a second, then regained his composure.
"If you say so."
They left the room, and Chairman Liu turned to me.
"For you, I have read your doc.u.ment. I haven"t heard of that const.i.tution, but I will pa.s.s it on to the head archivist. For now, you two may go back to your parents. Come back tomorrow at sunrise."
Chairman Liu started towards the door when Davide called out,
"Mr Liu, what did I get? I didn"t hear my results…"
I saw a little smile creep across Chairman Liu"s withered face.
"Your qi force was 153. Your qi affinity was 91%. You"ll need to work hard, little upstart."