His cudgel was resting on an incline, the bottom of the cudgel touched his foot while the other tip of it was pointed to the distant building behind him. He was currently seated on the ground and didn't want to place the cudgel horizontally in front of him so… he was now confident that no one in the world is ever behind him at a given moment when he's seated on the ground with a cudgel at least.
An hour had passed and as the time ticked, more people got over their fears and walked forward with shaking legs and the majority of the times a repeat situation of what had happened to the first 'failures' as the cultivator in front of him liked to call them. While, other times they turned back last second and were still deemed as 'failures' to the cultivator on the bridge since they were picked up once again and thrown away.
Most of the people who didn't fail were part of the followers for the two big family nobility while the rest were peasantry class citizens with a select few among them that were wealthy.
Mo Chang accompanied him with his seating and sat down next to him, Mo Chang was watching the exam with a very bored expression while Zu Dai took it upon himself to greet everyone who passed the exam with a wave of his arm or a verbal callout to them.
And soon the little group that was Zu Dai and Mo Chang increased. Zu Dai called the people who weren't a part of the groups of nobility over to him which they obliged since they were both of similar origins farms and alike that wanted to get a better opportunity with life.
While talking to one of his new what he considered 'initiates' just simply one step away from followers he figured out that there were four distinct groups of people here. The loners, which were people who either had no one to talk to which included Bo Jiang. The two nobles Bing Ai and Su Ming with their followers had their two own separate groups, while Zu Dai considered himself and all of his 'initiates' as a newly formed separate group.
Zu Dai wanted to create a group as fast as possible mostly to make some connections with the people here if they pass the exam.
Zu Dai maneuvered his cudgel to the outside of his leg and placed two hands on the 'handle' he then pulled himself up basically using the cudgel as a ledge to pull off the deed more simpler. He now only held the cudgel with one hand now as he looked toward the bridge with some interest. He expected that the gate would most likely close after some time had passed… they don't want to give people on the bridge all the time in the world now?
His expectations were met when the cultivator on the bridge waved around his hands and the gate once again showed the exceedingly impressive blue inscriptions but this time the green outside of the gate also shown and mixed with the blue inscriptions to form a dense presence to what Zu Dai could only assumed announced the closing of the gate to all nearby parties…
He shrugged and turned his head toward the old man who had told him to slow down when he was entering the sect, and as expected the old man walked round the group of people until he reached the middle of the courtyard in front of the groups.
He didn't need to clap his hands nor did he need to talk over the people, his footsteps alone were enough to make the people within the groups of people to shut up and follow his movement. Zu Dai started to wonder if that was something he could learn when he became a cultivator or whether it was simply a perk of becoming a cultivator.
The old man shrugged once he looked at the group, his great white beard drooping down from his lip and touching his chest, he moved his hand and stroked his long beard while seemingly within deep thought his eyes pondered the group and then changed toward the sky where he said "Oh."
"You all have decent aptitudes, some of you better than some in terms of aptitude but nevertheless, I've been required to tell you all this… Your aptitude doesn't matter currently at all and uhhhhh…" he began to rub his beard and look back toward the sky again…
"Do your best…"He said after going into deep thought and thinking of what to say next… which made Zu Dai's mind begin to race about the meaning behind his words unlike the before challenge which was after all just a test of natural born aptitude. This challenge was the first real challenge that Zu Dai had an ability to change his outcome if he truly wanted too.
The Elderly man walked to the side and the people followed his movements with their gaze until he walked into another gateway which led deeper into the sect. Su Ming took a step forward to follow the old man but froze. He looked up toward the sky and then immediately took a step back. The entire action was bizarre so Dai followed Ming's eyes to see a man on a sword in the middle of the air.
The man on the sword was just suspended there and he continued to look down at the people, Zu Dai squinted his eyes and found out that the person was the cultivator from before who threw people off the bridge.
The man slowly descended while still hovering on the sword to an appropriate height, which was still above everyone's head but at an appropriate height where no one needed to fully tilt their head up into the air to see him.
Zu Dai was the first to look down and observe everyone elses expressions to find that the people around him were all surprised at the man on the floating sword, the same way he was because they had all never seen this before.
While, those of the nobility were completely fine with it… which still didn't explain why Su Ming froze before stepping back but he placed the thought out of his mind and looked toward the cultivator who was now casually looking at all of them with a steel gaze.
He then said "You all fight." He then raised up a hand "Five minutes, whoever is knocked out or killed is eliminated from the competition." he then looked up to the side as if he had forgotten something and said this " You all must disable or kill two people in order to proceed to the next event."
'Shit, there goes my plan for a huge disciple base.' Zu Dai could almost guess where this was going to go… his followers didn't really owe Zu Dai anything and he was almost sure that they would begin to fight among themselves while those of the nobility followers were use this situation as a way to take two out each and then avoid the rest of the fightings if there aren't any left of the villagers and they still got a few who needs points they turn on each other and start fighting…
'I got a choice now…' He could either make a move on his own possy with a surprise attack and take a few out and try to run away for the next five minutes… or organize these people and fight against the nobility…
"Begin." The cultivator interrupted his thoughts and flew to the sky, the first thing he heard was a shout from behind him so he twisted his hips while moving his leg back removing himself from his previous position.
A silver blurr streaked down in front of his face and his eyes looked toward the person who struck at him first and he frowned heavily, 'Plan three it is.'