A student rushed towards one of the cages that were placed on one side of the courtyard. She looked at the weird creatures in the cage for a while, probably afraid to go closer.
The black cat-like animals looked fierce and wicked with large red eye that looked like they would fall off at any moment. The minute the animals saw her, they lunged forward but were stopped by the bars of the cage. The animals bare their long fangs at her while growling.
The girl seemed to be frightened at first but after remembering that they cannot attack her, she let her shoulders fall and let out a sigh of relief.
She opened the small pipe made of bamboo in her hand and closed her nose with her forearm before she threw some powdered substance into the cage.
She waited for a few seconds before the animals started to twist and turn while whimpering for a while before their noises came to a stop and they lost conciousnessness. The girl smiled and opened the cage and then pulled out one of the animals.
Heading back to her table, she spotted Ah Yue Fan standing there and surveying the busy students with his eyes. "Greetings to senior!" The young girl bowed. Her loud voice startled the rest of the students who turned to look at the gate before they all abandoned their work and bowed in greetings to him.
Ah Yue Fan chuckled and walked inside the courtyard. "Don't be formal with me. I'm of the same age as most of you." He said, but who would dare to treat the devil as an age mate?
He waved his hand and said, "continue what you were doing, I'm not here to distract you."
"Thank you, senior!" The students chorused and stood by their tables without touching their work.
"What poisons are you making at the moment?" He asked them.
A boy with a red sash on his waist who seemed to be the leader of the group answered, "we are making the first grade of the face corroding potion."
"Oh, so how far have you gone? Let me…" Ah Yue Fan frowned slightly and drew out his sword. Without looking at the direction, he slapped the incoming object back to where it came from. He heard the object hit something and made a puffing sound before he heard a scream. Ah Yue Fan raised the corner of his lips and without looking at who the person was, he walked to the first table by his right.
The students were flabbergasted. They couldn't believe that a recruit would dare to seek death from the devil so soon. Did he think senior Ah Yue Fan was nicknamed the devil for naming sake?
Some students shook their heads in pity while other sneered and mocked the young boy for being stupid.
The young boy screamed for a while before he stopped feeling the pain– That was weird. Just now after the bag of poison was slapped back to him. From what he was told, the poison is one of the deadliest poisons made by the most brilliant boy in the Yulan house. The symptoms of the poison according to the one that sent him are:
Severe pain on the affected part, rotten flesh and death after five minutes, but here he was still alive and perfectly well after five minutes. What is happening?!
The boy grew terrified of the weird thoughts that crossed his mind. Why was he not feeling the symptoms? Since he failed his mission, it was better for him to die than to be tortured. Just when he was about to bite down on the poison hidden under his teeth, a sharp pain shot through him and his teeth fell off, leaving his mouth bloody.
The boy's eyes widened and he tried to touch his mouth, but his hands wouldn't move. The boy's heart sank as he frantically tried to free himself from whatever was holding him in place but he couldn't.
The pain he thought wouldn't come suddenly hit him in full force, making him fall against his table and falling over with all the poisons he had already made, plus the deadly little insects inside the small battles got freedom when the bottles shattered.
Some got onto him while the others chose other students to suck from.
The boy wanted to scream as the pain was becoming unbearable but he couldn't find his voice no matter what he did, making the pain intensify.
The students closest to him ran away in fright when the deadly insects were starting to run, or fly towards them.
Seeing this, Ah Yue Fan sighed. He saw one insect flying towards a terrified looking girl in glee and he immediately stepped on a table and leaped into the air while unsheathing his sword. With one slash, he cut the insect in two and repeated the process a few times while stepping on objects or people's heads to remain in the air when he felt he was about to go down. He did that until all the bloodthirsty flying insects were killed. He landed soundlessly with his black robe still flying in the air and sheathed his sword.
The insects running on the floor had been killed by the students, so they were free to start working again.
"Thank you, senior!" They chorused again, but this time, Ah Yue Fan was not in the mood to play or respond to anyone because he was angry. Someone in this guild dared to seek his life even when he hadn't stepped on anyone's toe for the longest time he couldn't remember.
He walked round table after table, correcting and putting the students through the hurdle they couldn't pass while ignoring the student that was lying on the floor with sweat drowning him.
His face had become ugly from how twisted it had become. By looking at him, one would understand that he was in severe pain as his eyes were red from shedding tears. His nose was red and mucus was flowing out. His lips had long been dyed red due to the heavy amount of blood he was coughing out.
No one knew whether the symptoms were intensified due to the insect that had bitten him or from the poison.
Some of the faint-hearted recruits started to feel pity for him, but understood that he asked for it.
"What is this?" Ah Yue Fan's cold voice asked the young girl who had gone to pick up the cat-like animal earlier.
The girl shivered when she heard the unfriendly cold voice that made her feel like a devil was crawling out of his leir. "I– it's a face corroding potion." Her volume continued to go lower with every word she said.
If the new recruits had only heard stories of how wicked Ah Yue Fan was, then, they have witnessed it with their own eyes today.