Immediately, he activated the Swift-Steps technique to move forward several yards before swiftly turning around. A moment after leaving his previous spot, a mighty paw harbouring several fourteen inches of iron claws raked the empty air. Those claws would've cut him into four pieces. He could see the beast clearly now.
The white longdan tiger. A rare magical beast of the mid-tier.
Ju Feng watched the white tiger growled in anger and frustration of missing its target as it inched forward, watching him with keen dead eyes. Observing the beast as it drew nearer, he began to contemplate. Should he make a run for it or stay and fight?
But there was a small issue. He had never used the Shifting-Heavens hand technique in a true combat before. And definitely, he had never used his Chi in combat before too. Truthfully, he had never fought before. Nevertheless, he decided to try his might against the tiger before making a run for it if he couldn't match up. Having decided to fight, he came to a conclusion to use the Shifting Heavens hand technique without his Chi. He only had to avoid the dangerous claws and teeth of the white longdan tiger at all cost.
How powerful were they? He never intended to find out. Slowly, he took backward steps while watching the white longdan tiger with complete focus. Though, he wasn't sure about the power of the tiger, he was sure about its speed. It definitely wasn't faster than him with his Swift-Steps technique.
The white longdan tiger attacked in a lightning speed. Ju Feng who almost had his back to a tree, waited agonisingly until the last moment before using the Swift-Steps technique to evade the attack. As he was moving past the tiger, he instinctively used the tiger's momentum to twist its right arm under its body.
Propelled by the force of its flight, the tiger collided with the giant tree. The impact drove the Sharp ends of its claws into its own guts, disemboweling it completely. It tried to move but its spirit gave way and it collapsed in a heap.
Ju Feng heaved a sigh of relief as he stared at the corpse of the longdan tiger and wondered how he was going to remove the core from the it. He had neither sword nor knife, and the longdan tiger was a really big one. He was still thinking about how to go about it when he heard a soft voice coming from atop one of the trees.
"It looks like you need some help."
"Huh?"
Ju Feng exclaimed, turning towards the direction of the voice. Perching on one of the branches of a nearby tree was a young girl of his age. Her black hair was arranged in fitting braids which gave her blue eyes a beautiful and mild look.
"Hey, didn't see you there. Yea, a knife or something to remove the core. Didn't bring mine. Silly me. I'm Ju-Feng by the way."
"Name's Ying. Here have it."
She said and handed him a long knife.
"I saw your move against the tiger. Your strength is good enough for an outer disciple, but your speed? No outer disciple should be able to move that fast. Not that I wanted you dead, but your speed..."
"There's nothing to it, Ying. Just naturally fast steps. That's all."
"Yea right."
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Ju Feng suspiciously which made him hurriedly changed the topic.
"You're so beautiful."
"Pfft."
"Thanks for helping me out, by the way."
He removed the core, cleaned the knife and returned it to Lu Mei Ying who gave a slight shrug of her shoulders.
"What about you, Ying? You found a core?"
"Yea, was about to leave when I saw you. What about the hide and claws? Are you not taking them?"
"I'm too lazy to burden myself with loads. But if you want them, you can take them"
"Alright, I'll take the burden then."
Few minutes later, Lu Mei Ying placed the removed hide and claws on her shoulder. She turned and regarded Ju Feng with a nod.
"See you around, Feng."
And with that, she took off in a flash.
Tracing his path back, Ju Feng left the dale of beasts with his acquired core and returned to the flying stars sect. He arrived with few minutes to spare on the original time and delivered his core. The core's strength was measured and entered it to his name. They did the same to other disciples too, the strength of their cores were registered to their names accordingly.
Afterwards, the sect grandmaster addressed the audience again.
"The first round of the competition has finished and the names of all the successful disciples have been recorded. Tomorrow, the successful disciples will move on to the second phase of the competition, martial combat. The life of a cultivator is a hard one. You'll face stronger foes and opponents. If your martial combat is lacking, you'll just die. This competition, is not to primarily show your combat skills, but your combat hearts. A heart willing to learn is a heart worth teaching. Prepare for the second round coming up tomorrow morning. Until then, good day to you all."
What next? Ju Feng's mind began to roll in thoughts. He didn't even know what he was supposed to do now. The Savants wanted him to go on solitary solitude, who knows where? Even the idea of the solitude was already giving him headache. He a group of the outer disciples moving towards the outer premises of the sect, and decided to follow them away from prying eyes. They reached the outer premises where he saw a sect steward and quickly approached him. Twenty minutes later, to his utmost surprise, he was assigned a room he would be sharing with three others. It was later he found out most of the outer disciples who came for the trials arrived the same day as he did.
Once in his room with his new room mates, he shook his head as reality dawned on him. He was in a different world to his birth one. He wouldn't be able to practice any martial or mystical techniques because of his new room mates. Also he wouldn't be able to cultivate, since there was a heavenly tribulation which would descend on him the moment he tried to. And finally, he wouldn't be able to use his spatial sac too which meant no meat.
Lost in thoughts, he closed his eyes in readiness for the following morning.