After hearing someone yell this out most of the eyes in the hall turned to the source of this voice. They all held scowls and angry looks, the young man who spoke looked like he was a year or two older than Naath. He was a few inches taller as well, with short jet black hair and eyes with a faint orange tinge. He didn't even take note of the heated gazes looking at him for what he had said. It was as if he looked down on everyone else in the world. The only person whose gaze he met was Naath’s, it seemed he only viewed him as an equal because of his combat demonstration.

The young man approached slowly stopping on the stage on the side opposite Naath. He spoke up saying “my name is Huo Xunfu, it is a pleasure to meet someone else who can do more than flail wildly. May I know your name as well?” Naath let out an annoyed sigh in his heart saying “I am called Naath, I was not given any other name but this. But if I may ask you a question, why disregard everyone else here?” The young man laughed and asked “didn't you do the exact same thing? You determined that nobody here was a fun fight and decided to simply get this stage of the exams out of the way right?”

Shaking his head Naath spoke “no I simply wanted to test where my strength stood amongst my peers and with any luck draw out a fun opponent. Anyway since this is in fact an exam and not a conference, shall we?” The other young man smiled and the instant Naath finished speaking he charged forwards at full speed launching out a fist. Naath actually almost couldn't see his movements and just barely managed to dodge to the side. He followed his instincts from when he had been hunted by Brutus, after sidestepping he immediately launched a full force strike out at Huo Xunfu’s side.

His fist landed and a dull cracking sound came from Huo’s side. The young man had to retreat several steps after taking the hit before stabilizing himself. When he finally stopped he looked at Naath with astonishment. “Nobody else my age has been able to even track my movements, or dodge let alone been able to counterattack. Haha, I found a fun opponent!” After that he charged forward once more, however this time Naath was prepared and saw his movements clearly. He decided to charge out at the same time taking the initiative to attack and meet Huo Xunfu in the middle of the stage.

On the front most stage, the four examiners and senior Zhen were watching their battle with interest. Senior Zhen was smiling as he watched and said “those two youths aren't half bad, neither one broke eye contact with me first earlier. Do you four happen to remember their information from the entry test?” The female examiner nodded saying “the young man with the disdainful gaze is named Huo Xunfu and he is at the peak stage at the second level of bone hardening. He produced a noise on his last breakthrough at the snapping level.” Senior Zehn nodded “good, good, a rare talent. And the other one?”

The examiner who had Naath shook his head and said “senior brother Zhen you wouldn't believe me if I told you.” Senior Zhen remained silent and simply stared waiting for an answer. The examiner let out a breath, “the young man's name is Naath when he tested he was at the initial stage on the second level of bone hardening. However, due to his noise level he is probably already at the mid stage. His noise level on his last major breakthrough was at the breaking stage and the distance was 30 miles.”

Senior Zhen started to nod his head as he listened but then he froze. “Did you say 30 miles?! What a little monster! Haha, our sect struck it rich this time!” Back on the stage Naath was battling on, the two of them had exchanged dozens of blows by now. Huo Xunfu’s face had gone a little pale. He finally realized something was off about the fight but couldn’t put his finger on it. He was exhausted and his martial energy was almost completely used up. However not only did his opponent seem completely unfazed, his aura actually grew thicker as the battle continued.

The two of them clashed once more, this time Huo Xunfu finally noticed what was happening. He retreated to the opposite side of the stage and a look of fear and confusion appeared in his eyes. He asked “y-you what the hell? What technique are you using?! How are you absorbing my martial energy every time we clash?!” Naath stiffened for a moment thinking ‘shit, he found out’ out loud he said “ah that, it’s simply an ability of the cultivation arts I practice. Don't worry you will be fine after the fight is over. Haha, I've even fought wild beasts and I always do the same thing.

You should recover in roughly an hour after the fight, there is no permanent damage.” The surrounding people heard every word of the conversation and all of them thought at the same time ‘A cultivation art that allows you to steal energy from your opponents?! Is that a demonic art? No even demonic arts can’t absorb energy from the opponent in the middle of combat, they can only refine them after killing them!’ Even the examiners were stunned upon hearing this information. Huo Xunfu was flabbergasted and said weakly in an embarrassed voice “I concede, you are better than I am.”

Naath cupped his fist and said, “thank you for the spar, it was enlightening.” With that Huo Xunfu left the stage dejectedly and went back to his seat. After five minutes of nobody daring to challenge him, and then another 10 minutes with only Naath remaining on the stage, senior Zhen said “Naath wins by default not by receiving any challengers, he moves on to the next part of the exams.” Naath cupped his fists to senior Zhen in thanks and then made his way to stand on the front most stage behind the examiners with Brutus in tow.

After about an hour someone else walked up onto the stage and stood at his side. glancing over he couldn't help but be surprised, asking “ah, it’s you?” The young man next to Naath looked over at him as well and said “haha fellow daoist how have you been? I give my thanks for helping me that day in the restaurant.” Smiling widely, Naath continued conversing with the young man until the end of the first part of the exams. The young man was roughly the same height as himself, with golden hair and blue eyes. From their conversations, Naath learned that his name was Baal and he was only a single month younger than himself.

After they talked for the longest time senior Zhen spoke up saying “everyone, all of the winners and losers from the first stage of the exams have been determined. We will now move on to the second stage of testing. To keep things fair we will perform the second test here on this main stage.” After saying that, senior Zhen waved his hand and the 20 combat stages disappeared once more, opening up the large hall. After that he took out some sort of light blue stone with strange runes carved into it. He placed it down on the center of the stage, after that the runes on the stone spread out across the entire stage and formed a large circular area.

Senior Zhen said “anyone who steps onto this formation will have their courage and will tested by seeing their greatest fears. Those that overcome will pass, those that fail will have to leave the stage. Now then we will go one by one in order of those who ascended to the stage first to whoever ascended it last. You may begin whenever.” With that the first person who had won his five fights moved forwards into the formation on the ground. He froze the second he came into contact with it as his eyes clearly dilated in fear.

He was being shown his greatest fears inside of the formation and had to overcome it. Naath was in the 8th spot in line so he had a fair deal of time on his hands while he waited for the others ahead of him to finish with the test. After three entire hours, the first person to go into the formation finally showed signs of movement again. He slowly started to walk towards the opposite end of the formation he had entered from. Senior Zehn started to nod in approval. In a matter of five minutes, the young man had finally passed through the formation and was panting slightly from exhaustion. This set the precedent for the test and the second person quickly went into the formation after waiting so long for their turn. However, they didn't freeze on the first step into the formation but on the third. Finally, several days later it was Naath’s turn to enter.