Huang Ying slung the case containing his weapons over his shoulder and left his room. He didn't own any items other than these weapons, he didn't even own a second set of robes as he had yet to go out and buy some, so there was nothing in the room to clean. Luckily these robes that were created by his devouring element were nice and sturdy so they hadn't torn yet, cleaning them was a bit of a hassle since he didn't have anything else to wear while cleaning them so he knew that he would have to buy some new robes once he entered the academy.

The 11-year old son of the inn owner handed Huang Ying two copper coins when he left, he hadn't come down to eat all of his meals so they returned some of his money. Huang Ying casually put away the money and stepped out of the inn, entering a veritable sea of people. The sky was cloudy and gray, a somewhat strong and chilly wind blowing over the entire city, but that didn't stop thousands of people from arriving in front of Fierce Flame Academy to either participate or to observe those that underwent the tests.

Some of the people present belonged to other sects or clans, or even merchant groups that were on the lookout for new talents that they could recruit. The people trying to join the academy were the perfect targets for these organizations, they were often young and easily swayed by quick benefits.

Huang Ying pushed his way through the sea of people until he reached the large open grounds in front of the academy, where there now stood several youths clad in orange robes. Standing in front of these youths were various elders, ranging from middle-aged to so old that all their hairs had turned white and was starting to fall out.

Standing at the very front of all these people was a middle-aged man with a full black bear and brown hair that was somewhat unruly as it hung down to his shoulders. The man had powerful blue eyes, his sweeping gaze enough to cause some of the people present to go weak at the knees. The man continued to sweep the surrounding sea of people with his gaze for another four hours before he finally spoke out, his deep voice reaching the ears of everyone present.

"Those who have come to take part in the entrance tests, form 99 lines in front of me!"

The hopeful youths quickly rushed forward after the bearded man spoke out, all of them flooding into the open area in front of the academy gates and starting to line up. 99 lines quickly formed in the open area, the bearded man directing a few people until each line contained 33 people, with six of the lines containing 34 people. In less than ten minutes, almost 3300 youths had lined up in front of the academy gates, each one hoping that they would be among those that got to step past them.

The bearded man nodded his head at the hopeful youths and then waved his hand, the elders behind him swiping their rings and causing 99 blank humanoid puppets made from a strange beige wood to appear on the ground, one in front of each line. Huang Ying had heard about rings like these, interspatial rings that contained a separate space that could only be accessed by the wielder, but they were far too expensive and rare in this part of the continent, so he had no way of getting his hands on one yet. The bearded man pointed at the puppets, wasting no time with starting the first test.

"First test, you must shatter one such puppet with a single strike. If you fail to do so you can just leave right away, do not force me to escort you away because you are unsatisfied with the result!"

The bodies of the youths quickly tensed up as silence descended over the area. A burly youth with a wide back decided to bite the bullet and stepped forward, his muscles bulging as he punched the puppet in the chest with all his might. A dull thud echoed across the area, but the puppet remained completely unharmed, not even receiving a scratch. The youth lowered his shoulders in disappointment, Li Jun's laughter sounding out in Huang Ying's mind as the youth turned to leave.

"Gehehe, as if brute force would be enough to shatter these puppets, makes me wonder if that kiddo might be retarded."

As if to prove Li Jun's words, a second youth from a different line stepped forward shortly after the burly youth failed. The bald youth stopped in front of the puppet for a bit, fondling his chin as he inspected it with faintly narrowed eyes. After observing the puppet for about half a minute, he stretched out his arm and gently poked the puppet's left armpit.

The entire puppet suddenly collapsed to the ground in a heap of parts, the surrounding sea of people quickly exclaiming in shock. The puppet quickly rebuilt itself, but the bearded man still nodded his head, the bald youth stepping past the dolls and sitting down on the ground a bit further away. Huang Ying had to admit that he had no idea what the trick was, especially after he saw several people try to copy the bald youth and fail, so he asked Li Jun, quickly receiving a response.

"The puppets are designed in such a manner that they'll fall apart once their weak point has been touched, but the trick is that the weak point constantly moves around. I'll teach you the trick to find it once it becomes your turn, you just sit back and observe the other people here, there are quite a few... interesting ones mixed in with the rest."

If someone was special enough to have Li Jun refer to them as interesting then it meant that they were incredibly special. Huang Ying gave a faint nod of his head, his eyes starting to sweep around the area and observing the other youths. He was at the very back of his line so he had plenty of time to observe the others while waiting for his turn.

The hours quickly passed, some people passing while others failed, exclamations of joy mixing with cries of sorrow and unfairness. Huang Ying's turn was rapidly approaching and he felt that he had discovered some of the people that Li Jun referred to as interesting.

The first one was a male youth who seemed to be about 16 years old who had a rather well-built body. He had bright yellow hair and deep green eyes, a calm and casual smile seemingly perpetually hanging on his lips. When he stepped up to the puppet he delivered a simple punch to the puppet's chest, but that simple punch caused the puppet to scatter as if it had exploded from within, the pieces spreading across the entire open area. The puppet was a bit slower to reform this time, the bearded man giving the yellow-haired youth a deep glance before allowing him to move on.

The second person was a young girl who didn't seem any older than 12, probably the youngest person present if you didn't count Huang Ying's actual age. The girl had waist long raven-black hair that hung loosely down her back and smooth skin befitting someone her age, but it was her eyes that were the strangest part of her. Her left eye was a shimmering violet while her right eye was a bloody scarlet, it almost seemed as if the eyes didn't belong on the same person.

The girl cheerfully skipped up to the pupped and tapped it on the head without studying it or making any preparations, the move seemed completely random. And yet, after she hit it, the puppet crumpled to the floor and required a full minute before it could rebuild itself. The bearded elder cast a deep glance at this girl as well but didn't stop her from moving on.

Another hour passed before Huang Ying's turn finally came, at this point it had already been nine hours since he left the inn, the sun already starting to set. But this was apparently normal for the entrance tests, Huang Ying had heard that it would usually take two or three days to finish all the entrance tests, everyone forced to participate all through the nights if they wanted to join the academy. Huang Ying stopped in front of the puppet, Li Jun guiding him on what to do.

"Focus your entire perception on the puppet, don't bother with anything else and just focus it on just the puppet. Let your senses observe every inch of its surface, every scratch and groove on the body. Look for the spot that feels off, the spot that ignites your instincts. And then punch it, hit it with all your might when you find it."

Huang Ying did as Li Jun advised and focused his entire perception on the puppet, losing vision of his surroundings as he did so. He focused everything he had on the puppet, and when he did so the puppet seemed to come alive. The puppet turned into a living person in his vision, brandishing a long halberd as he launched attack after attack in an impenetrable formation. Huang Ying ignored the person as his perception and vision continued to focus, turning sharper and sharper, the person's movements slowing down somewhat.

And then he found it, a hole in the person's attacks, a small gap he could attack through, a weakness in his defenses. Huang Ying's right arm swung forward as fast as possible, gliding just beneath the halberd in the vision and slipping past the person's defense, striking the very edge of his left waist. The vision vanished once Huang Ying struck the person's waist, the puppet collapsing to the ground in scattered pieces.

Huang Ying blinked his eyes a few time, focusing them like that actually left them rather tired and weary. He glanced at the bearded man, stepping past the puppet once he saw that the man nodded his head. He sat down on the ground amidst the other people that had passed, about 2900 people, and quietly observed the rest of the people taking the test.

The first test ended half an hour later, only 3001 people moving on to the second test while the rest were rejected. The 99 puppets were stored away by the various elders, the bearded man turning to face the youths that had passed, each of them tensing up until the man finally spoke.

"The second test this year will be a test to determine your combat proficiency. Most of you will be paired up in groups of 50 who all have about even strength, we will then have you fight each other and look at how you act during the battles. Let me warn you, you might not pass just because you win, we are looking at your proficiency and potential, not just your current strength. Some of you are a bit luckier, or unlucky depending on how you see it. The youths behind me all entered the academy one year ago and all of them have the right to challenge one of you to a sparring match where both parties will decide on a condition for victory. Even if you lose, there's still a good chance that you'll pass depending on how you do, but if you were to win the match, you will receive an automatic pass to the final test and you can also make one request, within bounds of course, of the person you beat."

If the thousands of youths present were asked which of the two options sounded the most appealing, most would say the second option. But if you asked them which option they would choose, almost all of them would choose the first option. Trying to spar against someone who had already been in the academy for one year was just too risky, even if the condition for victory was decided upon by both parties.

The bearded man and the other elders started to split the youths into smaller groups based on their strengths, the orange-robed students behind them heading out to the youths they had chosen to challenge out of curiosity. While Huang Ying was sitting there, wondering what group he would be placed in, a chuckle from Li Jun rang out in his head.

"Gehehe, seems like your luck is as shit as it always was, you've got company coming.

Huang Ying turned his head slightly after hearing Li Jun's chuckle and saw that there was indeed one orange-robe woman coming for him. The woman was rather tall and had almond-colored hair hanging down to her shapely buttocks, her black eyes carrying a fierce and excited glint as she looked at Huang Ying. Contrary to her shapely buttocks, her chest was actually almost completely flat, but thanks to this she didn't have any problem with having both of her weapons hanging over her shoulders and chest.

Her weapon of choice seemed to be dual blades, two blades that were each about a meter and a half in length hanging behind her back, both of them pressing down on a pink scarf she had tightly wrapped around her neck. The woman stopped in front of Huang Ying, her eyes roaming over his body for a short bit before her lips split apart into a fierce smile as she cupped her hands.

"I am Ling Uyong, my instincts tell me that you'll be able to give me a fun fight so I hope you won't reject me. How about we make you catching and holding onto my scarf for half a minute the condition for victory?"

The woman took a step back after stating her terms, drawing both the blades behind her back with ease. But after pulling forth the blades, she placed their bases against each other and gave them a slight twist, the two blades sticking together and forming a long spear with a sharp tip on each edge. Huang Ying's eyes lit up when he saw her weapon in its full form. He could see that the handle was surprisingly flexible due to how smoothly she had pulled it out, and looking at the veins bulging on her hands, the weapon also seemed to be rather heavy and sturdy.

Huang Ying stood up from his seated position and placed down the case containing his weapons. He opened it and took out the scaled gloves, slipping them on and then cracking his knuckles. He returned the fierce smile after he put on the gloves, his gaze roaming over the two-headed spear.

"Alright, Miss Anvil, I'll take you on. But if you lose, I want you to get me one of those weapons."

Flexible and strong like the spear he wanted, but it could also be split in two and be used as dual blades. If Huang Ying could get his hands on a weapon like that, he would have another weapon he could use in close-range combat other than these gloves.

While the thousands of youths were preparing to engage in their respective sparring duels, the bearded man was observing everything with somewhat scrunched brows, muttering to himself.

"Multiple bloodlines and strange physiques, bloodlines I haven't even heard of before, talents and skills that are enough to utterly shock me. Does this mean that it really was an omen?"

In previous years, just getting one or two bloodlines or special physiques, bodies that had special properties, would be good. But now there were already at least several tens of such bloodlines and physiques, as well as other talents and skills that were enough to shock him.

He couldn't help but think back to the phenomenon that took place about a month ago, a phenomenon that only cultivators above a certain rank had been able to see. For half an hour, the entire sun was dyed pitch black. Most people weren't able to see it, and it vanished without doing anything, but it was still enough to capture the attention and worry of everyone who was able to see it. Could the phenomenon have been an omen about what was taking place right now, with all the talents showing themselves here?

But what he didn't know was that it hadn't happened just there. The black sun had been visible around the entire planet, and shortly after, as if beckoned by something, strange bloodlines and talents started to show themselves in academies all around the planet. The Nine-Eyes Bloodline and the Sunborn physique in the Great Desert Academy, the Netherworld King physique and the Ice Phoenix bloodline in the Glacial God's Academy and the Beast King bloodline and the Heavenly Lord bloodline in the Sea's Horizon Academy.

Bloodlines and talents never before seen or once thought to be extinct were crawling forth one by one, gathering on the planet in numbers never before thought possible. It was as if they had all just been dormant within their hosts, bursting forth and awakening one by one in the wake of the black sun. It didn't take long for the news to spread and for people to start speculating about what exactly was happening. But everyone knew one thing, the dawn of the black sun ushered in a new era, heralding the end of the previous one. But would the end come in peace or would it have to be pulled forth from a sea of blood?