"Jonathan Hopkins… Who is that?" The priestess has not heard of anyone within the young generations. If someone was as powerful as Edward, that person should have been famous across the lands by now.
"I don't know this person either. All I know is that he wears a mask and used a frying .." Edward stopped abruptly before he disclosed to the priestess that he lost to someone who uses a frying pan as a weapon. How humiliating!
'I really hope no one knows what weapon that bastard uses. If people found out I lost to a frying pan, I would dig a hole somewhere and live there forever"
"Frying what?" The priestess did not catch Edward's last words.
"I misspoke priestess. I will repay this debt to you. I must go now!" Edward immediately dashed away from the area. He did not want to linger there and be reminded of the battle. He cursed Bruce for using such a stupid weapon and actually winning against him with it.
"Aw man, my frying pan broke"
During the final clash against Edward, Bruce broke the frying pan as it couldn't contain all of his energy upon impact. Bruce had deep regrets after the fight because it was one of his favorite frying pans.
'It looks like I'll need to create a frying pan divine artifact. Sigh…'
News traveled fast and everyone learned of the battle between Bruce and Edward. The entity that defeated Edward received a title, Bandit of Solitude. Once everyone learned that the Bandit of Solitude intends to rob them of their possessions, everyone hid and waited for the exam to be over. Some even left the Forest of Solitude and forgo the exam altogether.
Unfortunately for those who hid in the forest, Bruce was able to find them with ease and robbed them of everything. At the end of the exam, Bruce stopped his operation and returned to the cave. Surprisingly, Jonathan Hopkins was still unconscious. The monkey had been doing a good job in keeping Jonathan in that state for the past 2 days.
"Alright Mr. Monkey. Thank you for your services over these past couple of days but I must leave now" The monkey started to tear up in happiness because the devil was finally leaving.
"Here are some rare herbs that can help you progress to the next stage" Bruce handed the monkey precious herbs that he found in the victim's storage rings. Bruce is a fair person. Since the monkey had been working for him for the past week, Bruce paid him fairly for his time.
The monkey was surprised when Bruce handed him resources to grow to the next stage. He initially thought that humans are evil and greedy. He saw Bruce in an entirely new light and bowed down.
"No need for that. I'm just simply paying you for your service. I hope that you're at least a stage 3 profound beast when I see you again" Bruce bid farewell to the monkey and left for the exam entrance. It was time to come out of hiding.
In the last hours of the exam, news spread to everyone that the Bandit of Solitude has stopped working. Everyone remaining in the exam felt relived and came out again to fight for the remaining points. It was pure chaos during the last hours of the exam with fights occurring everywhere.
Finally, the entrance exam was over. It was time to tally up the scores of the candidates to determine the ranking.
The examiner looked at the faces of everyone coming out of the Forest of Solitude. He found it extremely weird that everyone was badly beaten up and had deranged looks. Even the geniuses had crazed looks on their faces as well. He could not figure out what had happened in the Forest of Solitude for everyone to be in this state.
"Ahem. Congratulations for making it out alive." The examiner finally started the announcement.
"Please step in this area and show your card to the device. We will now rank the candidates of this year's first class"
All the giant influences watched the ranking board waiting for the good results of their geniuses.
Jonathan Hopkins woke up 1 hour before the exam and had no idea what happened during the past 2 days. He walked into the line and felt relief that his card was still in his possession.
"Meredith Lockwood, 10 million points."
…
"Waltz Therian, 5 million points."
…
"Isn't the geniuses' points kind of low?" A spectator commented.
"Yeah, you're right. In the previous years, the geniuses have at least 80 million points. Why do they have such low scores?" Everyone began to wonder the same thing.
"Edward Solomon, 100 million points"
"There it is, finally a genius with 100 million points." A spectator commented.
"That doesn't make sense. Most people expect Edward to have at least 500 million points since he's the strongest" A divine king expert spoke up. It was well known that the Imperial Academy entrance exam is designed so that all the top geniuses would get the most points while the bottom would get little to no points.
"Bruce Pendragon, 600,000 points"
…
…
"Jonathan Hopkins, 1 billion points!" The examiner exclaimed!
"WHAT?"
"1 billion points?"
"Who is this Jonathan Hopkins?"
"Did he defeat everyone?"
"How is it possible to have 1 billion points?"
Questions began to appear in people's mind as they stared at Jonathan Hopkins, who had no idea what just happened. Jonathan was so spooked over the events that occurred in the last couple of days that he just wanted to get the exam over with. When he inserted his card into the device, he could not believe his eyes. He had 1 billion points!
When he looked up to the audience, he saw his family flabbergasted while everyone looked at him with murderous intent. Especially Prince Waltz and Meredith. Those two looked at him like he killed their entire families.
Edward glazed at Jonathan and realized something was wrong. There was no way someone this weak was the person who defeated him. However, he still had to confirm everything himself after the exam.
"Examiner, are you sure your device is not working correctly?" A protector from the Fire Kingdom spoke up.
"How can this weakling have 1 billion points? He's only at early stage Elemental Profound!"
"Yeah something is wrong with the device!" Another powerhouse spoke out as well.
"EVERYONE PLEASE BE QUIET!" The examiner released his Divine Emperor aura and silenced the audience.
"I assure you that the device is not defected. You can tell by the looks of the candidates that came out of the Forest of Solitude" The examiner pointed everyone to the deranged looks on every candidate's face. Clearly something happened in the Forest of Solitude.
"Examiner, please provide justice for all of us! That bastard Jonathan Hopkins robbed all our belongings and stole all our points!" Bruce began to cry loudly to the examiner. His shamelessness truly knows no bound.
"Yeah, that bastard went around stealing everyone's storage ring. He's the Bandit of Solitude!" Other candidates joined in as well.
"Please provide us justice!"
"Please provide us justice!"
"Please provide us justice!"
"EVERYONE STOP!" The examiner yelled out once again.
"In the world of cultivation, there is no justice. There is only winning and dying. Jonathan Hopkins has won against all of you and obtained all your points. Him stealing your belongings is indeed something frowned upon but it's not against the rules!" The examiner brought out the final judgement.
The candidate stopped speaking and dejectedly left the platform. Meanwhile all the influences and geniuses stared at Jonathan Hopkins.
'Oh my god, what just happened? I didn't do anything!' Jonathan wanted to scream out his thoughts, but he was too scared when multiple powerful auras locked onto him.
"Jonathan Hopkins is ranked 1st"
"Edward Solomon is ranked 2nd"
…
"Bruce Pendragon is ranked 4785th"
"I announce this year's Imperial Academy entrance exam is now concluded!"
Just like that, the entrance exam was finally over. Everyone went back to their influences to narrate what happened in the Forest of Solitude. The consensus was that a powerful masked cultivator with the name Jonathan Hopkins defeated all the geniuses and robbed everyone in the entrance exam.
Everyone knew that the Jonathan Hopkins shown in the concluding ceremony was not the real one. But the truth remained that someone stronger than Edward Solomon exists in the Imperial Academy. That news caused shockwaves across the land.