"Anyone who's at least early stage Elemental Profound can follow me if you want to pass the exam" An arrogant young man stood up on a tree and spoke to everyone. The young man is the prince of the Fire Kingdom, Prince Waltz.
Prince Waltz has an impressive cultivation of mid stage Elemental Profound at the age of 13. The Fire Kingdom prevented him from participating in the entrance exam until he reached the age limit to assure the best possible ranking. Many kingdoms actually did this as well. The higher one is on the entrance exam ranking, the better one gets placed in the academy. More resources would be invested into higher rankers while the lower ranks would only get a tiny piece of the fortune.
The only exception to this strategy was Prince Edward as he was already strong enough to take the first place. The Phantom Kingdom wanted to accelerate his growth so they allowed him to enroll in the Imperial Academy as early as possible.
Several people decided to follow Prince Waltz because they were guaranteed to pass the examination if they have a strong leader. It was too risky to operate alone as the risk of dying was very high.
"Good, all of you will follow me and obey all my orders." Prince Waltz smiled at his new followers and headed to the center of the Forest of Solitude. Meanwhile, all the other powerful prodigies also formed their own groups. Anyone who was lower than early stage Elemental Profound turned into preys for the elite groups.
Once again the only one who deviated from this strategy was Prince Edward. He wanted to fight against his peers and rely on no one. He absolutely believes in his strength. Prince Edward dashed toward the center of the Forest of Solitude hoping for a fight.
Unlike everyone else who was either hiding or hunting for prey, Bruce had a much different strategy. His plan was to find a comfortable spot in a deserted location of the Forest of Solitude to relax and nap. Naturally, such place would be at the depth of the Forest of Solitude.
The Forest of Solitude was given its name due to no humans living within the forest. If a human enters the forest in regular times, that human would most likely be the only human in the forest. The forest was inhabited by profound beasts.
The Imperial Academy made sure that all profound beasts in the forest are at stage 1 or 2. Stage 2 profound beasts are on par with a peak Elemental Profound cultivator. If the students are unlucky and encounter a stage 2 profound beast, they would most likely die if they don't run away quickly.
Bruce put on his mask and sneakily made his way to the depth of the Forest of Solitude. He encountered many profound beasts as he made his way to the end. He sent out his aura which scared away the beast.
Few hours passed by and he finally found a perfect spot to nap, a cave on top of a mountain in the depth of the forest. Unfortunately, that cave was inhabited by a stage 2 profound divine beast.
Bruce walked into the cave and found a medium sized monkey sleeping in the cave. He felt envy toward the monkey as the monkey was clearly having a good time napping in the cave.
"Hey Monkey, get out of my spot!" Bruce walked toward the monkey and stated his intention.
The monkey opened its eyes and saw Bruce standing next to it. It growled and launched itself toward Bruce. Unlucky for the monkey, Bruce happened to be way stronger than him. Bruce swiftly smacked the monkey on the cheek and knocked it away far.
"Eeeeh oooh aaah" The monkey yelled out loud. Bruce looked at the monkey strangely as he thought the monkey was stupid. He then on figured out why the monkey kept on yelling when he saw a bunch more monkeys coming toward the cave.
The monkey smirked at Bruce after seeing his reinforcements arriving at the cave. All the new monkeys arrived and got into a battle formation. Before they were about to attack Bruce, he pulled out Light Piercer and shot at a nearby location.
BOOOOOOOOOM
A gigantic crater was created in the forest and the monkeys were immediately shocked. They swiftly surrendered to Bruce and let him have the cave. However, Bruce didn't let them go that easily.
"Stop right there!" Bruce yelled out.
"I'll be here for 7 days so you guys will be serving me" The monkeys said no but Bruce pulled out Light Piercer again which forced them to agree.
"Alright, your job is to bring me delicious meat every day. For you Mr. Monkey Leader, I want you scout the entire forest every day and tell me how many humans are still in the forest. Understand?"
The monkeys nodded as profound beasts are quite intelligent.
"Good, I won't treat you guys badly I promise" Bruce laid down on the cool floor and started his nap. His plan was to wait for more candidates to drop out before he seriously participates in the exam.
Meanwhile, near the center of the Forest of Solitude.
"Prince Edward, what is the meaning of this?" Prince Waltz stared at Edward with great hatred as he had just heard the most absurd thing in his life.
"There is no other meaning, give me your cards and I'll leave. Otherwise, I'll fight you all for them" Edward calmly replied with an indifferent expression. Internally, he was excited because he wanted to fight without holding anything back for so long.
"You do realize that I'm at the same cultivation realm as you right? I also have 20 people behind me at early stage Elemental Profound. Do you seriously think that you can defeat all of us" Prince Walts had never hated anyone more than Edward right now.
Walts always had been praised as a genius in his family. He wanted to look good in front of his followers and right off the bat, Edward had to come near his group and look down on him.
"Yes" Edward brought out his sword and released his aura.
"Everyone, destroy this arrogant bastard!" Waltz now had to save face and fight Prince Edward. If he were to give in to Edward's demands, everyone would mock him. For someone as prideful as Prince Waltz, that was equal to death.
"Don't be so confident that you have more numbers. I hope you can give me a good fight" Edward charged up his sword and struck Waltz causing the ground to shake.
5 days later….
Bruce was leisurely sleeping in the cave while still maintaining his initial score, which was at 10,000 points. He didn't know how many points the other people had and he didn't really care. All he had to do is to make sure that only 5000 people are left in the forest before the exam ended. The monkey walked into the cave to meet Bruce and give him the daily update report.
"Yawn.. Is that you Mr. Monkey?" Bruce opened his eyes and saw a monkey standing in front of him. The monkey communicated to Bruce the number of humans he had found throughout the day. For some reason, every since Bruce was born, he was able to understand profound beasts. Communicating with the monkey was quite easy for him.
"Alright, so only about 15,000 candidates are left in the forest.." Bruce got up and ate breakfast. After he finished eating, he put on the mask and moved toward the entrance of the cave.
"Mr. Monkey, keep the cave clean. I'll be back at night"
It was time for Bruce to remove the other 10,000 candidates. He could have easily hidden in the cave and defeat someone with high points to secure a spot but that was too boring for him. He had nothing to do for 5 days so he wanted to join in the fun.
As Bruce traveled across the forest, he would knock out candidates and throw their cards away, ensuring that they would fail. As he approached a new group, Bruce saw someone familiar. A devilish smile appeared on his face.
'Oh hello Mr. Jonathan Hopkins. We meet again!'