《Path》Chapter 3 The Examination

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The city of Cronea

The Main gate were gigantic, it was atleast 50 feet tall. The gate has intricate designs which displays lavishness and nobility and how wealthy the city is. There were guards stationed at the gate. There were also a small gate that’s twice as big as a normal door for individual people to go in.

There were people lined up at the small gate, each people is paying city entrance fee. The fee was 20 copper coins for adults and 5 copper coins for children.

We lined up to the small gate and do the procedure as it is.

When we entered the city, you can see the beauty of it. Comparing it to the town of Alacreya, the town pales in comparison. The roads were paved and the sidewalks were paved nicely with great looking stones and looks like a marble and as the sun shines on it, it deflects the light which shows it was refined nicely. All the buildings were concrete. There were hundreds of pedestrians in each side walks which makes the town of Alacreya a ghost town comparing it to the city of Cronea.

Carriages everywhere with different beast that pulls the carriage can be seen. Some were bird like creatures, some were like horse but with scales or thick fur, some were tiger-like or lion-like, some were dog-like.

A variety of tamed beasts were used as a horse to pull their carriage.

“Wow!” Draenol exclaimed

“The city feels so festive with people these much” Draenol added

“This can still be considered a small amount of people, son” said his Mother

“Eeeh?”Draenol was surprised by what his Mother said. “This is still a small amount? How much more if its a lot already?” Draenol thought to himself.

“Okay now, let’s go to the Asura hall and register Draenol for the aptitude exam. Then, if we still got time we’ll eat lunch” said his Father

The Asura hall is the one that facilitates the exam. It is an Independent organization but is affiliated with different schools and sects. Its influence is not a little bit lower to an Empire. Asura hall is well-known for the only one to offer and facilitate Asura examination.

Asura examination is a 5-part series of examination. If you pass the Asura exam then you’ll be given a badge as a proof that you’re a full-fledge Asura.

An Asura is like a mercenary, they’ll do things as it pays and you filed a proper mission to the Asura hall. It is in the discretion of the Asura to take it or not but sometimes they’ll get requested by the higher-ups of the Asura hall depending on the mission. In short an Asura not all Asuras’ are upholder of justice, you can be an Asura as long you have a skill to back it up but Asura’s like these are hiding in the shadows and you won’

A payment for an Asura is a lot huger than a normal mercenary. Also being an Asura gives a lot of benefits like tax exemption, you get information not available for the general public, and be treated as an honorary guest in a city or capital.

Although an Asura has lots of perks and they still carry substantial danger with their lives just for being an Asura. An Asura carry outs the most dangerous mission and just the Asura exam is hard that its mortality rate is around 95%. In short, only a few can be Asura even if they wish to become one, its not enough for someone to wish for it but you need skills and talent to back it up.

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So the Asura hall composed of Asura as workers is an organization to be wary of, that’s why Empires pay respects to Asura, not to mention cities.

Also, Asura hall uphold equality, so during any exam facilitated by Asura hall then you can be ensure that everyone will be treated equally no matter who they are.

The Renza family gone straight to the Asura hall

The Asura hall was huge and has a gothic design with strange aura surrounding the building that can be felt by cultivators. It’s covered with shiny black-colored marble showing slick texture that made the Asura hall a huge jewel because of it.

The moment the Renza family enter the hall, they saw a reception desk with 7 people in it.

The Renza family approached the desk and one of the receptionist said, “How could I help you sir?”

And then Manje said, “We would like to register our son for the aptitude exam”

“Oh, then please fill up your name and age here”said one of the receptionist

Manje fills up the form in Draenol’s stead.

The receptionist handed out a number plate to Draenol, which shows “2096”.The receptionist then said,”The exam will be later 1PM. Just go here at 1PM and then you’ll be given further instructions after that.”

“Okay. Then thank you for your accommodations” said Manje

“It’s my pleasure to help you” the receptionist replied

The Renza family got out of the reception hall

“So where do you want to go, son?” said his Father

“All over the city” cheekily answered by Draenol

“We don’t have enough time for that, How about we just go to the park and eat our lunch then go back here to take your aptitude exam then after that well stroll around the city?” said her Mother while smiling beautifully.

“But won’t the exam take long?” said Draenol then continued, “If it takes long wont we have any time to stroll around the city?”

“Then we’ll extend our stay here in the city so that you can just enough time to go around the city” his Mother dotingly said to Draenol

“Yay!”childishly replied by Draenol

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Cronea’s Park

“Wow, its sooooooo beautiful here, it feels sooo peaceful, and its even soooooo big” exclaimed by Draenol

Draenol only acts this way with his parents. Draenol’s different when he was alone in Alacreya and going out of town to go to the Hunt zone to battle Fanged brown wolves to train. He doesn’t act like this but with his parents besides him, his spirit of being a kid gets resurrected.

“Yes it is. Now then let’s find a good spot for us too eat and have fun.” Said his Mother

The Renza family ate their lunch and had a joyful conversation

Draenol asks a lot about their adventures and a lot about Ki and cultivation

In their talks Manje also taught Draenol about Ki application like applying Ki to your body to boost its physical capacity like in your punches and kicks or all over your body which is nearly understood instantly by Draenol.

Then after Manje taught the application, he proceeded on teaching Draenol a simple punch martial technique. Manje taught him the [Roaring Fist], its a simple technique that envelopes the user’s fist and then releases the enveloping Ki that the user gather and make it explode hearing a Roar-like sound.

Even though it’s a simple martial technique, Draenol understood it directly. The couple was stupefied of the show that Draenol did again.

“No matter how simple it was theoretically, to apply it and succeed immediately is really unheard of, unless he is one too” the couple thought

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Manje had a conversation with Rose secretly while Draenol was practicing [Roaring Fist] to perfection

“I think Draenol is one of them” said Manje then continued, “Earlier when we were travelling and now this, there’s no doubt about this”

“Yes, it seems he’s one too”Rose worriedly and quietly said to Manje

Then after their secretive conversation, Manje calls out Draenol

“What is it, Father?” said Draenol

“Don’t tell anyone on how learned [Roaring Fist] so fast and also what you showed to us while travelling, okay?” said Manje with a serious face

“You’ll know it during the exam, if not then after we’ll tell you” said his Mother

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The Renza family got back to the Asura hall and the time for the exam has come.

The hall of the Asura hall was full of people, it was so crowded. The count of the people was around 4000 and most of it were kids ranging from 8-12.

They were oriented first about Ki Level, Element, nature and Body Forms.

Ki Elements were:

Light

Darkness

Fire

Water

Wind

Earth

Lightning

Ki Natures affects on how your Ki behaves and affects your skills and cultivation if it’s not according to your Ki nature and these Ki natures are:

Compact – People who have compact Ki natures finds it easier to circulate Ki within their body, letting them reinforced their body faster than anyone

Spread – People who have spread Ki natures finds it easier to spread their Ki giving them wider range of Ki field when trying sense something or shooting out raw Ki

Flowing – Is like all the nature but weaker in their respective aspect

Waving – People who have Waving Ki natures wont have Ki’s more resistant with external disruptions

Exploding – People who have Exploding Ki natures can shift the Ki focus to another in instant

(ex: When you focus all your Ki in your right arm, you can immediately change the concentration of Ki to your left arm)

Corroding – People who have Corroding Ki natures are more resistant to foreign Ki or objects that’s harmful to the body

(Each natures give birth to nature too)

Body Forms:

Dragon – All aptitude but weaker in respective aspects

Tiger – Faster Ki flow

Phoenix – Faster Ki Regeneration

Turtle – Denser Ki

Whale – Bigger Ki Reservoir

Wolf – Tougher Veins

Monkey – Efficiency in Ki use

Ki levels:

Each realm has 10 levels: (from lowest to highest level)

Elementary

Intermediate

Master

Heaven

Great Heaven

King

Emperor

Saint

Supreme

Dominator

?????????

These were explained by the facilitator and it seems half of the kids already knew about this information.

The Facilitator added, “There are exceptions of this, These are the [Anomalies]. [Anomalies] are people whose body can go against a god. It is said that an [Anomaly] is a human possessing a blood of a god. These people can’t cultivate the same way as normal humans since they oppose common sense. Although, [Anomalies] are considered geniuses since their level growths are astonishing. They’re growth are stunted when they can’t refine Ki at high. It seems that in the higher level [Anomalies] can’t use anymore any cultivation techniques.” He exclaimed

“[Anomalies] got a body that is envied by all cultivators. Their body absorbs Ki naturally and refines it. Their body does this like an instinct to forged the body to battle the gods”

He furthermore said,

“An [Anomaly] usually has better perception than normal human beings, it is said that all [Anomalies] are geniuses but not all geniuses are [Anomalies]. An [Anomaly] also has special abilities according to their body/bloodline that can’t be learned through; it can be copied but doesn’t muster the strength of the special ability. Although, [Anomaly] can be considered a blessing since from birth you are bestowed upon a body on par with the gods. It’s also a curse, since if you can’t cultivate according to your own body/bloodline’s ability then you’re nothing but a future cripple”

“With all these said, an [Anomaly] can’t still be looked down upon on. An example of an [Anomaly] is the Falling Sakura, Kagerou. It is said that he’s an [Anomaly] with the ability to conjure his Ki into sakura petals that can cut through steel easily. It is also said that when you’re inside his Ki field, you’ll be cut to pieces that nothing will be left from you” the facilitator said.

“What’s the point and connection of saying things about [Anomaly] to us?” a kid honestly asks

“Good question, I’m telling you these things because your embarking now to the path of cultivation. You might meet a cultivator which has weird martial techniques that seems so odd, this cultivators has a huge chance of being an [Anomaly] and as a warning don’t battle an [Anomaly] of the same level if your in Great Heaven realm or below because you losing is already expected. This is a warning, [Anomalies] is better in all aspects.” The facilitator answered

“I would just like to add one more up before we proceed to the examination. Do not compare yourself to an [Anomaly]. It might discourage you to the path of cultivation, if you think that the top of cultivation are only for [Anomaly] you’re wrong. As the path of cultivation goes through higher realm, it doesn’t matter if you’re an [Anomaly] or not because true skill is the only thing that matters In the higher realms.”

The explanation of Facilitator then concluded. Although it seems it took so much time to be explained, in the real time it was only for a bit.

After the explanation ended, Draenol was in shocked. “So this is what Mother and Father means, I’m an [Anomaly].So that explains the natural occurrence of me absorbing Ki.” Draenol thought to himself

“So it means that my path of cultivation is now based on luck too, it seems that if I go on higher level I’ll be needing a cultivation manual suited specially for me but I don’t even know what’s my special ability” he thought

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The examination starts

People are called by 10 and there are 10 passages for each kid to go in.

The longest it took for a Kid the he stayed in the room was for 5 minutes only and the shortest was 15 seconds

“I wonder what’s the exam all bout” he thought to himself

After waiting for around an hour, its finally my turn

The Facilitator called out, “Number 2096, you’re next”

“Yes!”Draenol exclaimed with a really joyful face

“Finally, its my turn and it seems we can still stroll around after my turn” he thought to himself

“2096 please come in now in your respective passage” from an unknown source

Draenol gone in to the passage, it seems one entrance and one exit passage.

Draenol reach the end, he ends up in a circular like arena with glass windows on the upper part. The upper part was an array of people lined-up sitting. These people are wearing different clothing patterns but the one on the center of them is an old man, with long white mustache and beard, wearing a robe similar to the Asura hall facilitators.

The circular like arena has scriptures written all over it and infront of Draenol is a crystal orb.

“Release your ki” said the old man in the center

Draenol release his Ki, then the scriptures around the arena then glows. Showing on top of Draenol are “Intermediate realm level 2”.

“Hohohoho, it seems we got more genius this year” said the old man. “Maybe he’s an [Anomaly] considering he got to this level. Let’s test him then” the old man thought to himself.

“Do you have natural occurrence in your body like absorbing the Ki naturally?” said the old man

“Is he trying to find out if I’m an [Anomaly]?” Draenol thought to himself

“No” Draenol replied

“Then what kind of breathing technique did you train with?” said the old man

“[Ki Vortex circulation breathing technique]”Draenol replied

“Oh, what a high-grade one”said the old man while laughing. “it seems I’m mistaken then” he thought to himself

“Is the test finish?” said Draenol hurriedly

“Seem you’re in a hurry, put your hand on crystal orb in front of you” the old man said to Draenol

Draenol puts his hands on the crystal orb immediately. The crystal orb projected, a Dragon, glowing orbs in symbol on it: star, black sun, fire, lightning, rock and then said exception then other symbols were average. Then it showed Ki nature is compact.

The array of man sitting in line immediately stand when they saw the results

Body Type: Dragon

Elemental Ki affinity: Exceptional Light, Darkness, Fire, Lightning, Earth and other is average

Ki Nature: Compact

The man sitting in line and the old man exclaimed, “What? Exceptional affinity to 5 elements and average to other else?”

They thought respectively, “This kid is a genius, our school/sect must have him”

Invitations from each person sitting bombarded Draenol. Draenol was confused on what to do. Then the old man intervene, “Give him your invitation then let him decide on what school to pick”

Each of the school/sect representatives gave him special invitations with added benefits just for him

Draenol said, “Thank you for the offers but I must report this first to my parents before picking out any school/sect” then continued, “Please pardon me from not being able to give out an immediate answer”

“I think everyone here think that its justified to let this kid’s parents to take part into the decision making?” the old man said

The entire representative gave a nod to the nod signifying that they agree on what the old man said

And thus ends the commotion of the representatives and the examination of Draenol

The old man handed out a jade talisman with scriptures on it and the old told Draenol to give it to his parents. The jade talisman he handed out was result of the examination of Draenol.

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Before he exited the room, he bows to give respect to the representatives and then proceeded in going out.

He immediately rushed to his parents. As he run to his parents, the parents was astonished of the letters and scrolls he’s carrying. “What the hell happened during the examination?” they exclaimed inside.

“Here are the invitation I got, Mother, Father!” Draenol said calmly and then he continued, “Oh! The old man said to give this jade talisman to you guys”

The parents receive the invitations and jade talisman from Draenol.

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