The sky was ablaze with the fire of setting sun, as a woman with emerald hair, similar to Kora's and silver eyes, with facial features matching Athelisia, Kora's cousin, was looking at the village in front of her, from a cliff of a nearby mountain, with a small frown on her beautiful face.
"You can still back out of the ritual if you wish to, Jazmine..." spoke a 'woman' in a cold tone, who was standing next to Athelisia's mother. The 'woman' snorted and continued, "And lose the benefits it could provide..." the 'woman' giggled mentally as Kora has already told her about Jazmine's greedy personality.
Jazmine's eyes shone green with avidity, her eyes became resolved, determined, and firm. She has already come this far, betrayed her husband, along with this 'woman' in the same bed with Kora, and made the deal with the devil, that although looks promising on the surface, held sinisterness she couldn't fathom, so why not surrender herself completely to the demon who promises mighty boons and will help her accomplish anything, as long as she stays loyal to him?
With a dry laugh, Jazmine capitulated herself to the devil. She has fallen too deep that escape was not an option. The addiction to advance further in cultivation, smoothly, was like some high-quality narcotics, further enhanced by Kora's profound techniques that her mind literally shut itself down, and enters a new state of enlightenment while indulging in the pleasures of the flesh with him.
Jazmine exhibited a small smile as she was already missing Kora and his relentless assaults, she turned towards the woman and asked with curiosity flickering in her eyes.
"I still don't know how you hooked with him. Care to tell the story?" Jazmine raised one of her brows and inquired.
"None of your business, Jazmine." The 'woman' replied coldly with a piercing ice-cold gaze.
Jazmine laughed and cambered her head slightly to a side while flicking her emerald hair, "You could at least tell me who approached first?"
"No. You can ask him and I wouldn't mind if he is the one telling..." The 'woman' rubbed her forehead in annoyance.
"Hmm..." Jazmine pursed her lips and mentally noted to herself that she would definitely ask Kora about this," ...Let's go!" Jazmine vanished from her spot and appeared near the village, as the woman followed suit.
Sneakily, the two women drew various esoteric markings around the village using tools that FormationMasters utilized, copying from the scrolls left behind by Kora. They dug various small holes around the village in which they stored bottles, filled with a chalky white liquid and created simple formations, to connect them to talismans. When their task was done, they moved towards another location, but each location was specifically chosen to form an even bigger symbol all over the Vrigaipis Marquessate!
"Now we only need spirit stones!" Said the 'woman' with a self-satisfied nod, to which, Jazmine replied with a difficult expression, "And that is the most difficult part..."
"Tsk, don't chicken out now...Bruce is not your husband anymore...don't feel guilty for him. In fact, he would kill you if he knows you are an Ozonal Demon." The 'woman' muttered, and at her displeased expression, Jazmine sighed as they both vanished.
***
Meanwhile, Arcene heard about two Ace-level talents and informed her most trusted dog inside the Academy.
"Void. No surname. Cultivation level- Rank-4 Elementary Profound Realm." Jadyn reported with shining eyes and a benign smile.
Arcene's neutral expression didn't falter as she sipped on her cup of tea.
They were sitting on elegant chairs, around a circular white marble table in one of the small private courtyards, inside Arcene's Faction Hall as Arcene took a sweet biscuit lying on the table, gracefully, and took a small bite, "The other one?" She queried in a monotonous voice.
"Elliot. No surname. Cultivation level- Rank-5 Elementary Profound Realm."
Arcene narrowed her eyes and with a giggle, she muttered in a low voice, "Really? you came up with this half-brother?" as a sly glint slashed across her eyes.
Jadyn was confused. When did he become the Fourth Princess' brother?
Scrunching her nose in annoyance she shooed away Jadyn while throwing a storage ring as Jadyn was the only one who could provide her with this information. Since nobody unleashed their cultivation stages outside the Pocket Realm, no one knew about the cultivation stages of students except the elderly figure at the Grand Celestial Steps, who might have probed on his own. But that professor was not Arcene's dog, thus Jadyn was the only other individual with reliability. Since Jadyn was the one who installed the formations, connecting the talismans inside the Pocket Realm, he could spy on the information network.
As soon as the students unleashed their cultivation inside the Pocket Realm so that teams could be assigned to them, Jadyn received information about the cultivation levels of all the individuals on his personal talismans. And Arcene was an individual who preferred to be ready for all and everything.
Taking out messaging talismans, she informed her people to prepare a surprise party...
***
'Should I kill her?'
Multiple thoughts swirled in Kora's head at once, as a small nuclear war went off inside his mind. The devilish side snorted and suggested killing, while the angelic side warmly proposed, sensual desires being the true salvation.
Closing his eyes, Kora took a deep breath to clear his thoughts.
'I won't abolish myself as I tried to in my previous life!' Opening his eyes with a firm resolve and forming ways to ensure Erisna would be loyal in the future, his breathing became steady, as calm as the sea.
Unlike Jazmine, who was an Ozonal Demon, a woman who committed adultery, a partner in crime, Erisna held no ties to Kora. Although Kora knew about Vorka's nature, who knows she might betray later, just like the Vorkas who attempted a coup in the past?
'Whatever crushes individuality is despotism!' Kora justified his actions by thinking about gaining a powerful ally and focused on long-term benefits rather than short-term boons. He completely ignored Erisna's bracelet and Soul Weapon that went inside her dantian, while collecting all the beast cores in another pouch.
"Let's go..." Kora walked towards the door connecting the hallway searching for more teams to hunt.
Erisna visibly relaxed when Kora didn't ask questions and neither cared about the Qi-Blast or her Soul Weapon. With a slight nod, she followed Kora.
It was another slaughterfest, as in the last seconds the teams formed to hunt wolves were hunting each other. A cold, calculative move by the Academy to have ruthless cultivators in their ranks.
As the timer ended, everyone was again teleported to the entrance of the last huge building.
Kora opened his eyes after the brilliance that blinded him. He could see from approx 50000 individuals at the beginning of the test, reduced to somewhere around half of that. Many were killed during the last few seconds in order to stay in the 10-meter radius, and many betrayals followed soon.
By now, everyone was covered in the blood and guts of several humans as their eyes lost the shine that they held when coming to the Academy with several huge ambitions. Unfortunately for them, the Kingdom needed soldiers, mindless beasts, fighting for them, and not individuals that they couldn't control. Dangling a few carrots made up of spirit stones in front of their eyes while kicking them towards committing mass homicide, aligned perfectly with the Kingdom's goal. It was easy to control insane rather than a sane individual who had a mind, as unpredictability increases by several degrees in their cases.
"Owww...So cute!" Felecia giggled looking at the horrifying scene of around 25000 individuals covered in blood and gore,
"..." The annoyance in everyone's eyes was clearly visible. They just wanted to finish the last test, get the rewards and go to sleep after this mental torment.
"How Unfair!" Felecia pouted, "I only told you to hunt wolves, and by 'Killing is allowed', I obviously meant 'Killing the wolves'. Don't blame me for what you did." Felecia glanced at Kora and Erisna, with a small smile. The fact that both of them were hiding Soul Weapons, and on top of that Erisna has something else up her sleeves attracted her attention, but she didn't care much about their treasures and she didn't have any greed as those things didn't hold any meaning in her eyes. She was already at Peak-Stage Ace-Tribulation Realm and couldn't advance further, even after repeated trials. A treasure that enhances the Qi-output? Felecia definitely had such treasure with her, thus despite being from a poor race, Erisna had such treasures, piqued her interest.
"Anyways, I have a piece of good news!" Felecia pointed towards her right with her index finger and the blackboard with results on it appeared out of thin air, "Many of you managed to climb up the leaderboards...Keep it up!" She cheered for everyone with a few claps of her palms.
[ #1 Elliot: 6840points!
#2 Void: 5950points!
#3 Erisna Loriare: 5750points!
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]
Kora sighed slightly but didn't feel an ounce of disappointment, or regret in his decision to make Erisna his teammate. 'Disappointment, despair, frustration, and regret are the evil siblings one should stay away from!' His mind held no greed thus it was easy for him to let go the allure of more spirit stones with an emotionless gaze.
*Clap!*
Bringing attention back to her, Felecia waved her arm as the door of the last building opened on its own with a single swiping gesture.
Everyone raised their brows slightly while looking at the swirling portal in the middle of the building.
"The Last Test- Leap of Faith!"
Instead of giving any instructions, Felecia simply vanished and let the people decide to do what they want to do with the portal.
Enter or Not?