Breaking the silence, the children once again became lively and talked loudly with eachother.

Moments later, participants disappeared one after the other.

“What’s happening??”

“Why are people being teleported out?”

“Did they fail?!”

“No! Did the exam start already??!”

“The exam started already?! He didn’t even say anything!!”

The crowd became even more nervous when more and more people started disappearing.

Li Jian stood there next to the Meng brothers, as calm as water, observing the situation.

‘The participants who moved onto the second stage must have noticed something, but what? Huang Fang didn’t hint at anything when he explained the exam.. Or did he?’

“Meng Zhao. Meng Jiao.”

“Did you discover something?”

The three huddled together and whispered amongst each other.

“There’s an array inscribed into your medallion. I believe this is how to move onto the next part.”

“How did ya figure that one out?”

“Meng Jiao, quickly, use your spiritual energy to open the array and let’s move on. Thank you, Li Jian. Good luck on the exam, we’ll be seeing you at the end.”

When Huang Fang was explaining the exam, he said that those who passed or failed would be teleported. This introduced arrays to Li Jian. With that small hint, he wondered if there was also an array on the medallion. Using his spiritual energy, Li Jian looked at his medallion and had, indeed, found one.

The Meng brothers both teleported out.

Li Jian immediately imbued some of his spiritual energy into the medallion and an image of a man formed in Li Jian’s mind.

“The first part of the exam is to test one’s perception and knowledge of spiritual energy. Spiritual energy can be used for a multitude of things, and one of those is creating arrays.”

When the man finished speaking, Li Jian was teleported.

Opening his eyes, Li Jian was in a different room. This room was not as large as the previous room and was made out of pure white stone. There were no windows or doors, and nobody else in sight.

‘So this is the second part of the test?’

After a few seconds, a giant turtle spawned in front of Li Jian and charged at him.

‘A 2nd level Earthly realm Black Clawed Turtle?’

This was a fast turtle that would run towards its prey. Gaining more and more momentum, the turtle would deal increasing amounts of damage.

Without wasting any time, Li Jian rushed forward and dashed to the side of the turtle.

“Four Palm Strike!”

The first palm landed on the side of the hard shell, followed by three more palm strikes. When the last one landed, the turtle’s shell broke and screamed in pain eventually disappearing.

In one move, Li Jian defeated the turtle.

Many people mistake the shell for being the Black Clawed Turtle’s strongest trait, but it is, however, the weakest. By revealing its large and sharp black claws, attention is drawn away from the shell. Along with the turtle’s claws, its speed also misdirects attention.

When the Black Clawed Turtle disappeared, another one took its place.

Li Jian lunged forward, spun to the side and unleashed another Four Palm Strike. When the Black Clawed Turtle disappeared, another one spawned!

‘How many do I have to kill?? There must be a trick to this part of the exam.’

After a minute, Li Jian had already slain 24 Black Clawed Turtles and was getting exhausted. Sprinting towards the 25th turtle, Li Jian felt his spiritual energy running low. As he was about to spin to the side, Li Jian made a mistake in his footwork and was instead headbutted into the wall.

Li Jian, steadying himself, wiped the blood from his mouth.

‘There’s no end to this, and it’s obvious there’s an array spawning these turtles. I don’t have the strength to keep going on..’

The turtle turned towards Li Jian and charged him once again.

Focusing his spiritual energy, he looked at the array in the center of the room. It was on the floor where the turtle kept spawning in from.

'I won’t fail here.'

Li Jian stood up and madly dashed towards the turtle. At this speed, the two neared each other at the center of the room. Just before collision, Li Jian spun to the side successfully, only this time he jumped up.

“Four Palm Strike!”

Li Jian aimed at the top of the turtle’s shell and slammed the turtle heavily into the ground on top of the array. With the momentum, the array cracked.

Immediately after the turtle disappeared, Li Jian focused all of his energy into his palms and unleashed yet another Four Palm Strike onto the array.

Deep within his dantian, the small white crystal glowed slightly, releasing a small amount of condensed spiritual energy.

“Four Palm Strike!”

This Four Palm Strike radiated power that was unseen. With only the first palm strike, the array had been broken. The second, third, and fourth palm strike cracked the floor.

With the array destroyed, Li Jian was teleported once again.

“Participant 336, Rank 100, Disciple 100.”

Standing in the room, Li Jian faced a bald headed man in a jade-green robe.

“Congratulations 336, I am Elder Luo. I welcome you to the Jade Moon Sect. Because you are last to pass, you will not be reaping any of the top ranking rewards.”

‘Last place..I guess that was to be expected. I spent too much time in the second part of the exam.. Although rank 1 would have been nice.’

"Wasn't there a time limit before deciding the disciples?"

"The rest of the participants were disqualified for their lack of understanding in part one and their performance in part two. Now, 500 contribution points will be awarded to you due to special circumstances for your performance. When you and the rest of the accepted disciples head over to the main building after the exam, you’ll be given an introduction of everything about the Jade Moon Sect. Do you have any immediate questions?”

“Thank you Elder Luo, but before the exam began, Huang Fang said there were three parts to this exam?”

“There are indeed three parts, but the 3rd stage is only for disciples who have passed the 2nd stage.”

“May I ask what the purpose of the second part of the exam was?”

“The second part challenges your strength. Any other questions?”

“How does one successfully complete that stage?”

“It is dependent on the individual. If you have no more questions, please follow me. The other 99 disciples are waiting.”

Elder Luo quickly walked through a door and Li Jian followed suit.

-- Main Building --

Back at the main building of the Jade Moon Sect, many participants were still confused and struggling. After Li Jian had passed the exam as the last disciple to be accepted, the remaining participants were teleported out.

“What the hell? Why are we all outside?!”

“What’s going on Huang Fang!!”

“You have all failed and are dismissed. The 100 open spots for new disciples has been fulfilled. Leave!”

It was Huang Fang’s thunderous voice that was telling them to leave. Even though the children were angry and upset, they had no choice but to leave. Exiting the sect, their entry medallions crumbled.

Inside the sect, Li Jian was escorted to a room with the other 99 disciples. In this room, the disciples were all seated in accordance to their ranking. At the front of the room was a table with an orb on top of it. Behind the table was a beautiful woman who had a pair of breasts the size of melons. She wore the same jade-green robe as Elder Luo, but it was very tight on her, especially around her chest. This woman looked to be only twenty with a cultivation most likely at the Spirit realm. She laid back in her chair and was quite carefree.

Looking at the frontmost disciples, Li Jian saw a kid in the first seat with a cultivation in the 6th level of the Mortal realm! In the second seat was a tranquil girl with long, azure-colored hair who was in the 5th level of the Mortal realm! In the third seat was a fierce girl with scarlet red-colored hair that was also in the 5th level. After these three, the disciples following had cultivations in the 4th level, in the 3rd level, and then to Li Jian, in the 2nd level.

Li Jian went to his seat and sat down. At the same time, Elder Luo walked up to the woman behind the table and whispered something to her. After listening to Elder Luo, she looked up and glanced at Li Jian before looking away.

Elder Luo then faced the 100 disciples.

“Now that all one hundred of you are here, let me formally welcome you to the sect.”

After some clapping and cheering, Elder Luo clapped his hands and it was silent again.

“We will be starting the 3rd stage of this exam immediately. This stage will only test your affinity with the elements. With this test, we will be able to see where your strength truly lies. The orb will radiate a certain color and will dictate which of the elements you are suited for. Red is fire, blue is water, green is wind, yellow is earth, purple is lightning. When I call your rank, walk up to this table and insert some of your spiritual energy into this orb.”

“Without anymore delays, Rank 1.”

The boy in the first seat stood up and walked towards the orb gracefully carrying with him an air of nobility. He placed his hand over the orb and a few seconds later, a purple aura radiated.

Looking at the outcome, the children and Elder Luo were shocked and ecstatic. To have an affinity with lightning was one in ten thousand. It was a very rare affinity to have! But to the woman behind the table, she couldn’t care less and looked like she just wanted to leave.

‘Lightning is that rare? I wonder what would happen if I were to have an affinity with lightning.”

Regaining his composure, Elder Luo then directed the boy to a door and took his entry medallion.

“Rank 2.”

The girl with azure hair went up to the orb and immediately the orb radiated a blue aura, meaning her affinity was water. She left through the same door and also passed her entry medallion to Elder Luo.

“Rank 3.”

The girl with scarlet-red hair did the same and a red aura radiated, indicating a fire affinity.

The ranks continued to be called.

“Rank 56.”

It was Meng Zhao and the orb radiated blue for water.

“Rank 57.”

Following Meng Zhao, was Meng Jiao. His orb had radiated yellow for earth.

“Rank 58..62..78.”

Once rank 78 was called, a boy with a dim expression walked up to the orb. This was Li Mu! Li Jian noticed right away and was overcome with happiness. However, Li Mu's expression worried Li Jian. Li Mu placed his hand over the orb when a green aura radiated; wind.

When 99 disciples left, rank 100 was finally called. Li Jian was stunned because only Li Mu from the Li Clan had passed the exam. How did the clans prodigy Li Xiao fail?

Li Jian walked up and placed his hand over the orb. When the light radiated from the orb, the woman behind the table shot up from her seat. She stood staring at the orb like she couldn’t believe it. Elder Luo stared at the orb with an even greater expression than when rank 1 had shown his lightning affinity.

“This!..”