(Author: Hello! A Keeper of the Dead visits Agemo and warns him of what he possesses. Agemo now heads for the selection test, of which there are five. Enjoy.)

-------------Chapter 12: The Trials Begin-----------------

"Okay, we're here you lot! Mage novices and apprentices, head toward the left area outside the stadium. The clearing over there is your testing ground. Practitioners, the same on your right. Mages, you are competing with about five thousand others. Practitioners, you face about two thousand. Don't be complacent! Mages might have more competition, but the Practitioner trials are much more difficult than any mage trial. Try not to get killed," Grey smirked and left them.

Agemo stared at the stadium before heading to the clearing to his right. Most people standing around the area were members of a martial arts sect. People from the same sect stood together and observed the competition. More than half were people of the first stage of Spirit Shaman cultivation. Agemo ignored those people and sat in the stands in the clearing, waiting for all the participants to arrive and for the selection trials to start. After an hour, all two thousand participants had arrived and were seated in the stands.

A middle-aged man in a crimson robe with a gold fur scarf appeared before them with a bang, sending a cloud of dust around him. He waved his hand and the dust vanished. The participants were silent as the Spirit Master of the first stage spoke.

"Hello. Welcome to Korgar, the capital of the mighty kingdom of Kasara! I am the uncle of the king and a Spirit Master, first stage. My name is Julio Kogard and I will be your proctor. Any who break the rules, I will eliminate," the man smiled, chilling the crowd as they did not expect a Spirit Master to proctor their trials.

"There are five trials. This year, we have a total of seven thousand people. Quite a lot of people this year. My sister, a Spirit Knight of the ninth stage, believes that the mages will win. Frankly, her childish thought astounds me. A Practitioner losing to a mage? Ridiculous," Julio spat.

Agemo ignored the others and Julio as he sat on the top of the stands and observed his soul lake. The red black hole had stopped and had become a red sun. This signified that he was at mid-stage of the second stage of Spirit Shaman. As he had red spirit energy of a demon, the demonic core in the bottom of his lake was actually augmenting and increasing the size of the lake of spirit energy. The five left wings on the demonic core still enclosed around the foot long demonic core, but one of the wings was uncurling.

Due to his demonic lineage, the single, white wing in the bead had turned red. No one noticed it under his hood, but his hair had turned golden, just like the hair of the Great Ancestor, while his eyes turned into a lightning blue. Julio paused to stare at Agemo's direction as he felt a sudden surge of spirit energy. His eyes narrowed as he saw a youth in a hooded, dark purple robe with clouds the color of sand.

He could sense that the boy was at the strength of the middle of the second stage of Spirit Shaman, but already had a Mystic Stone in his body. Did the boy just make a breakthrough? He noticed a dim, glowing bead on a white steel chain around the boy's neck. The boy looked at Julio and hurriedly hid the bead under his shirt as he noticed it glowing. It amused Julio and the crowd grew nervous at his sudden silence.

"Well. Time to begin the trial," Julio announced. "The first trial is simple. A quarter of you will be eliminated and unable to proceed to the second trial. Here's how it's gonna go. Four people will be randomly picked. They will fight in the clearing and the winner gets to pick which of the three losers is eliminated. I'm sure some of you can figure out the true meaning of my words."

"Those are some cruel intentions," Agemo observed. "Four will fight and the winner gets to decide who gets cut. People can choose to band together and let one person win. However, there is a chance they will get betrayed. There's also the chance of being put in a 3 vs. 1 situation. It's choice of who you can trust and who you want eliminated."

"Two thousand at the start and two hundred and fifty gone before the second. If I point at you, you will be in the next fight. Let's get started," Julio shouted.

"You are up," Julio shouted as Agemo was one of the last one hundred to be picked.

He did say it was random, but most people who won were people of the Kasara Kingdom. He would make the strong contestants from other countries fight the third stage Spirit Shamans from Kasara. He even had his niece, the youngest daughter of the king, defeat three people who were also third stage Spirit Shamans. Most of the strong contestants of the third and second stage were natives of Kasara now. He made sure that most of the soon-to-be two hundred and fifty losers be those from out of Kasara.

Agemo stood up and walked over to the clearing. Two of the people he was fighting were members of opposing sects. It was quite obvious by the way they were gripping their spears and glaring at each other. One wore the green and black robes of the Jade Cloud Piercer Sect while the other wore the violet and white robes of the Violet Sundering Spear Sect. Both sects gave their disciples Practitioner weapons that comprised of various spears. It was rare for sects to have their disciples wield the same type of weapon and both sects argued which was the beast spear sect in Kasara. Most of the bloodiest battles, and almost all the deaths, were between disciples of these two sects.

"I am going to kill you!" the boy from the Jade Cloud Piercer Sect roared.

"Ha! Most of the people who won were members of my sect, you dog. Only our spear techniques can pierce the heavens!" the other boy shouted.

"I suppose you two don't care who wins and as long as you get to kill each other?" Julio asked, as if it had become a normal situation already.

"No, Spirit Master," they bowed in unison.

"Huh?" Julio frowned, shocked. "Why is that?"

"We lost too many disciples here and will settle for death matches in the tournament," the boy in the green robes said.

"We're gonna fight the one in the dark purple cloak with the third person over there. He's also a native of Kasara. We don't need outsiders here. Besides, we can't risk causing enmity with the royal family. That guy is the son of His Majesty. He is the son of one of the many concubines, but he is still the His Majesty's sons.," the other boy agreed.

"Great," a blonde boy in a brilliant crimson and orange armor laughed.

Agemo felt enraged and cracked his knuckles as he clenched his fist. Spirit force boomed from his body as he released his spirit energy. Only the male from the Violet Sundering Spear Sect was of the third stage. The other two were around the peak of the second stage.

"Begin the match!" Julio shouted and a gong was heard behind the clearing.

Agemo didn't bother drawing his katana and glared at three cowards who ganged up on him. Each of them drew their spears while the prince brandished a double-handed sword. The boy at the third stage stood back as the prince and the other boy charged forward.

Agemo laughed as he dodged the spear and punched the boy in the stomach. As his hand was veiled as the boy lurched forward in pain, he absorbed the boy's spirit energy and threw the boy off the clearing like a garbage bag. He spat in disgust as the prince tried to slash his back and merely slapped the sword, sending it flying with his tyrannical strength as he didn't hold back. The prince cried out in pain as his wrists were hurt in the process

"Scum like you don't deserve to be royalty," Agemo snarled and slapped the prince in the face. "Eat some liquid food. Solid food is too rich for such a disgrace.

The prince crashed into the stands. His face was missing some teeth, his left cheek was bruised, and the jaw was broken. The crowd couldn't believe the strength he had as he was clearly weaker in cultivation. No one cared so much about the prince as he wasn't killed and not the son of both the king and queen. The king had many concubines. Naturally, he would have many children.

If this was the outside world, he would have absorbed all their energy. However, he only took more than half the two boys' spirit energy so his demonic ability would not be detected. Those two were really lucky to anger Agemo in public. They would recover in a few hours.

"You're next. Get over here," Agemo said as he drew Rain Slayer.

"Hmph. A mere punk in the second stage wants to beat me?" the boy laughed. "Only death can befit such arrogance!"

The boy waved his hand and balls of fire short out at Agemo. Agemo frowned and slashed them all to pieces. He jumped back as small spears of earth appeared from the ground, extending from the other boy like a mountain range. This was the power of those of the third stage. This was why they were called Archons and were superior to mages. Only the gods are supposed to control the elements.

"See that! I am an Archon life form! You cannot beat me!" the boy laughed. "Suffer!"

The boy yelled and the image of a black lion with a red mane appeared behind him. Wisps of gold spirit energy emanated from his body as he charged forward, the blade of his spear wrapped in fire. Agemo simply stood still and held his katana steady in front of him. As the spear approached him, he flicked it aside with the side of his blade and smashed the cross-guard of Rain Slayer at the boy's chest. He screamed in pain as a small trail of blood followed him as he jumped back, but Agemo leapt forward.

The boy hastily blocked Agemo's katana with the shaft of his spear, but was sent flying. The boy no longer looked down at Agemo and threw several fire balls at him. Agemo's blade flashed as he blocked each fire ball, small explosions of fire blocking the crowd from seeing his body. As the explosion cleared, they saw Agemo's cloak repair itself as he poured spirit energy into it. He was unharmed and stared at the other boy.

"Is that the best you can do?" Agemo asked as he slowly walked to him.

"Take this!" the boy roared as he slammed his spear into the ground, sending another small line of earth spears toward Agemo.

Agemo took advantage of his tyrannical strength and kicked the earth spear, causing an explosion of dirt and earth to fly at the other boy. The boy paled at the strength of Agemo as he wasn;t even that strong despite being at the third stage. Most of the participants decided to take note of Agemo. He hadn't used any spirit techniques and had tyrannical strength. They guessed that his background was more mysterious than it seemed.

"How? How can you be so strong?" the boy howled as he stomped the ground in anger.

"I have faced many life-or-death situations and a lot of serious training before coming here," Agemo said as he calmly walked to the boy. "I didn't live a sheltered life while cultivating. That is why you have lost."

"NO! I won't lose!" the boy cried as he used the earth to propel him forward and stabbed at Agemo like a flying arrow.

Everyone watching cried in alarm as Agemo place on foot forward and braced for the impact. They thought he would be impaled and some looked away. a Loud clang was heard and people stared at Agemo in shock. The spear didn't even pierce his body and was sent back flying as if it were an iron spear bouncing off a steel made of diamond.

"You were not worthy to face Rain Slayer," Agemo sighed as he sheathed his sword and walked toward the boy. The boy was crying as he couldn't accept his defeat. Agemo looked down at the boy in disgust and slapped him with the back of his hand, bruising the face as the boy was knocked unconscious.

"Victory! We have victory!" Julio cried, mentally taking a note to observe the boy. "Who will you pick as the loser?"

"The disgrace of the royal family," Agemo answered as he nodded his head in the prince's direction. "He tried to do a thief's job and attacked my back."

"Very well. The three who passed will advance to the second trial. congratulations. White mages will heal your bodies shortly. Please wait at the stands until the rest of the participants have taken the trial," Julio nodded and the clearing was cleaned for the next bloodbath.

Meng Ce was watching the whole thing in the stadium with the other guardians. He laughed and approved on Agemo's actions. Those brats needed to learn about the outside world. He used the transmission bead in his pocket to tell the emperor of Agemo's progress. The emperor was shocked to hear that Agemo's black and cerulean hair and golden eyes had changed color, but also knew that it was because of the purity of Agemo's demonic genes. This meant that Agemo was slowly approaching the third stage. However, the transformation should have happened a long time ago as the outline of a tiger had already formed before the caravan arrived.

"What does this mean, Your Majesty?" Meng Ce asked.

"HAHAHA! Dual spirits. He has two spirits. It's not all that uncommon as others also have two spirits, but it is exceedingly rare. Perhaps the White Ocean Tiger you saw was the spirit given to him by some magical artifact that awakened his Spirit Pulse. Perhaps he will have two kinds of energy flowing in his veins upon the third stage. Has there ever been an incident where you two were separated?" the emperor asked through the bead, their conversation taking place through their minds.

"It was when we joined the Sky Angel Academy in pursuing the Hyperion," Meng Ce answered. "They were looking for something, but there was nothing there by the time I got there."

"Agemo must have found something. Keep an eye on Agemo. If the Hyperion realize they are missing something, they might track him. After all, they used some method to find the place in the first place. It might have been the items they tracked and not the place," the emperor warned. "I will send men to keep watch under the shadows."

"Understood. I'll let you know how he proceeds, Your Majesty," Meng Ce said.