Chapter 216: The Fight For A Place In The List
Ben Wang, an inner disciple of the Drizzle Peak in the Cloud Sect, followed other disciples to have a look at the test of the outer disciples.
There was no need for him to worry as he was at the seventh grade of the nature level. He was much stronger than the one at the eighth place among the inner disciples of the Drizzle Peak.
A test like today's was normal among the inner disciples of the Drizzle Peak every day. Even the magic array itself was a regular training place for the inner disciples.
Ben's best performance on the test was a high score of 18 thousand, while the disciple in the eighth place only got 15 thousand. There was a huge gap between them, and Ben thought the latter wouldn't catch up soon.
But recently he heard a rumor that an outer disciple, Zen Luo, would attend the All Peaks Competition representing the Drizzle Peak.
There were only seven disciples that could attend the All Peaks Competition and they had been chosen by their ranks. If Zen Luo would attend the Competition as a disciple of the Drizzle Peak, Ben would lose his qualifications to attend the competition.
Ben hadn't thought of it first because there was no way an outer disciple could be stronger than an inner disciple. But after the practice of killing demons, another inner disciple, Cleve Lin, had confirmed that Zen was extremely strong and that he had beaten demon generals.
Although Cleve was a strong well-ranked inner disciple, he was not as good as those in the top ten. So, what he said could have only been partly true and he was just giving Ben a piece of information.
Despite that, Ben was still anxious and a little scared. That outer disciple had defeated demon generals, which was something he wasn't sure he could do by himself.
From this point, Zen could probably get a place in the top seven to represent the Drizzle Peak.
Today, the other inner disciples in the upper rank arrived to observe the test with Ben. These were the third-ranked disciple named Glenn, and the fifth-ranked disciple.
Glenn was a member of the Shi family. He had monitored Zen since the latter was at the half-step into the nature level. At that time, Glenn had predicted that if Zen would become an inner disciple, he could even rank as one of the best ten in the inner disciple list.
However, even if Glenn spoke highly of Zen, he still believed that the latter needed more time to practice before he could win a place in the inner disciple list.
But Glenn was still surprised to find out Zen needed a shorter time than he had expected. Only after a few months, Zen had reached the nature level. And now here he was, trying to win the seventh position of the inner disciple list.
Glenn gazed at Zen from a distance. He could see that Zen was very confident from his expression. Suddenly, Glenn started to think that Zen was not only aiming to be part of the top seven but win a higher rank in the disciple list.
But whatever place Zen would win, the one to be disqualified was Ben. It meant that Zen was not a threat to Glenn at all. And even if Zen surpassed his rank, he would still be qualified to participate in the competition.
When the top thirty outer disciples had finally arrived, the tutor announced the starting of the test.
The first disciple to take the test was Ziv Zhao, the 30th place on the outer disciple list. Since he had just entered the top thirty outer disciple list, it was impossible for him to win a place of the top ten. However, this test gave him an opportunity to use the magic array for free for his training. To most outer disciples, this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was quite precious.
When Ziv went into the magic array, a column of white fog appeared and surrounded him instantly.
This medium magic array didn't have the ultimate scenario simulation to completely change the surroundings. It could only surround the person who attended the test and made a suitable scenario simulation for that person alone.
Soon Ziv dramatically quivered and then the fog disappeared slowly.
The tutor read Ziv's score out loud, “Ziv Zhao, 410 points. Failed.”
If an outer disciple desired to become an inner disciple, the first requirement was to win a place in the outer disciple top ten list. The second requirement was to obtain at least three thousand points. If an outer disciple successfully won a place in the outer disciple top ten list but his points had not reached three thousand points, he could still not become an inner disciple. This could explain that the whole level of the outer disciples was too low, and he did not have the qualification to become an inner disciple.
But Ziv was still very optimistic. Although he was not satisfied with his performance, he now clearly knew his own strength. For the outer disciples, to know oneself clearly was a good strong point.
Some warriors had excellent talents and never met obstacles in their practice. They always wanted to win regardless of anyone who they fought with. If the warrior was narrow-minded, his defeat wouldn't give him the right idea to strengthen himself further. And this would create a huge barrier on his upgrading way and his achievement would be impossible to meet.
“The second one, Xu!”
“The third one...”
A disciple would averagely consume five minutes for the test. Some of them would take longer than ten minutes.
The points of the disciple went higher as the test moved forward.
The 13th disciple so far had the highest score at 3, 100 points.
This meant the thirteenth disciple had the qualification to be an inner disciple. But another requirement would still depend on the remaining twelve outer disciples' performances.
If from the remaining disciples, three got a score of less than three thousand, the 13th disciple could have the opportunity to be an inner disciple. But the chance of that was still very slim.
From the success of the thirteenth disciple, it could be concluded that the level of the Drizzle Peak had improved. This would make the competition even more challenging.
As the 12th, the 11th and the 10th completed their tests, it was announced that they all got more than 3, 000 points.
The disciple of the 13th place felt hopeless. The remaining higher-ranked disciples couldn't possibly get a lower point than he got. This meant that he could be ruled out even though he had got more than 3, 000 points.
When Wurth Zhang came out of the white fog, he was wearing a satisfied smile on his face. His face said that he was confident about his performance.
The tutor then announced loudly, “Wurth Zhang, 4, 033 points!”
He was the first one to obtain a score higher than 4, 000.
The following test was no suspense at all. What they cared about was how many points the disciples could get. These outer disciples were excellent, and as long as they showed their actual strength, they could all turn into inner disciples.
After the tutor announced Henry Hao's score of 5, 500, it was finally Zen Luo's turn to take the test.
Most people paid attention to Zen's performance on this test.
All of the people were expecting that Zen would give the best performance, and he might probably get twice as high as Henry's score.
Some of the disciples turned to look at Ben since they heard that Zen was vying for the top seven inner disciples. But they knew that Ben's point was as high as 18, 000, so Zen would probably fail to surpass that.
“Well, Ben, are you nervous?” an inner disciple beside Ben asked.
When Ben looked around, he saw that it was the second-ranked inner disciple. Seeing his expression of schadenfreude, Ben felt a little annoyed. There could be a chance that Zen would get the highest point amongst the inner disciples, and if that happened, Ben would be ruled out of the competition.
Ben felt angry knowing that he had become the laughing stock. The second-ranked disciple was at grade nine of the nature level, almost at the consummation of the nature level. And Ben was so much weaker than him, so all he could do was to wait with his hand clenching tightly as Zen went into the magic array.
The All Peak Competition was crucial, and it was also a good opportunity for each of the disciples at the Cloud Sect.
The disciples who didn't have a good performance could show their extraordinary talents in some way. They could also have the chance to be the personal disciple of some big master in the Cloud Sect. There were a lot of such successful disciples every year, so everyone was willing to try.
Zen entered the runes and saw the runes shine in blue light. Soon, the white fog appeared and covered him entirely.
Compared with the magic array of the Seven Star Sword Light Platform, this middle-powered magic array was simpler. After he was covered in the white fog, the surroundings did not change, but some figures appeared from a place not too far away from him. The figures were walking towards him and tried to get him surrounded.
'Half-step into the nature level?' Zen showed a slight smile as he licked his lips.
All these figures were at half-step into the nature level, and with his current power, Zen could easily defeat them.
But there was only one challenge—the number of figures was large. Zen estimated that there could be almost one hundred of them surrounding him totally.
Zen took out his Streamer Sword. With his slight motion, he cut some of them with the Streamer Sword's radiance.
The figures that were cut soon turned into white fog.
“Come on!” Zen spoke loudly at them.
Zen's sword radiance was so sharp that once it cut the figures, they soon disappeared into the fog. The test seemed to measure how Zen could kill the figures.
Even though the figures were more than one hundred, Zen was able to finish them in a few minutes.
'Is that all?' Zen thought it was too easy for him.
But before he could say more to himself, other figures started to appear in front of him. The figures this time were stronger than the first group. They were almost at the same level as Zen.
There was a great gap between half-step into the nature level and the nature level. The people at grade two of the nature level wouldn't be able to bear Zen's sword radiance, but it took Zen longer to finish this group.
Some figures in the second group could even attack Zen while he was busy attacking the other figures.
Having extraordinary strong defensive power, Zen ignored their attack and focused himself on offense. This time, Zen killed them one by one sooner.
The figures dissolved into white fog as soon as Zen cut through them. Five minutes had passed, and he was able to regain some of his lost strength.
'Anyone else?' Zen held his sword tightly with radiance floating around it.
Soon, the third group appeared.
'This group is at the grade six of the nature level. Although they only have the basic power, I should still take them seriously, ' Zen told himself with a serious expression on his face.
Zen could defeat all of them if he fought them one by one. But the problem was, there were twenty of them.
One against twenty. Faced with twenty grade six of the nature level figures, Zen had to give his best.
“Bang!”
When Zen tried to cut the nearest one, the figure just fended off the sword. This caught Zen by surprise.
'The figures at grade six of nature level are really different from others I have encountered. They are much stronger. But do they think they can survive my fairy weapon?' Zen thought with a cold smile. Zen waved his sword hard, and a grating sound was heard when the Streamer Sword hit one of the figures' weapon. He cut the weapon and the man with one hit, and then the man turned into white fog.
After Zen killed one, another four figures charged at him. Zen couldn't take them all at once, so he had to have a plan.
He strode aside quickly to avoid their attack. At the same time, he began to fight back like a snowflake in the storm.
“Flick the sword!” Zen shouted.
Flick the sword was one of the most powerful motions in the basic swordsmanship. His hand holding the sword pulled back while his right foot was raised. His whole body tilted. Then he stamped his right foot on the ground. Together with the strength of his right foot, Zen's whole body formed a high mountain and crashed forward like huge stone falling from high mountain with great power towards the four warriors.