The resounding voices echoed down the side of the mountain filled with disbelief.
One of the young participants looked down at the step they were on before shifting to the gate and then steadily counted down from the top, you could almost see the hope in his eyes as his gaze slowly slid down to his position.
"752… I… I… I DID IT, I MADE IT!" His face became filled with joy, and it wasn't just him, there was a small handful of people ahead of him that had been pulled from the pit of failure.
On the other hand-
"What do you mean?! You said we needed to reach the gate to pass!" One among many shouted their complaints, stamping on the ground in anger which echoed the feeling that many others were feeling at that moment.
"Oh? Did I? Are you sure about that?" Su Wen raised his eyebrows as he looked at the one yelling at him.
"Yes! You said it clearly! That when we touched the gate we would pass!" He pointed at Su Wen in accusation.
"Yeah! I heard you clearly".
"Definitely!"
Others heckled on and agreed with the man that was complaining.
"Yes, I did indeed say that" Su Wen nodded.
"Then-!"
"But I never said that was the only way to pass, right?"
"That's just sophistry, if you told us the full rules from the start then-"
"Then what? You would have actually bothered to continue walking up the steps? I saw you, many of you, when you saw that the goal was too far away and you felt the pressure of the time limit fall upon you, you gave up."
The man opened his mouth to complain but then caught his words in the back of his throat as he felt a heavy pressure descend upon him.
'How can a gaze feel so heavy?!' He felt his back sweat heavily as he shook, simply because Su Wen's glare fell on him.
"What this exam tests is the will of our examinees, for people that give up when the going gets tough, you're not worthy! Go home!"
"I-…" The man was left speechless.
"Those of you who kept pushing and fainted, you should be coming to about now; Those of you that passed, congratulations, those of you that didn't we will welcome you back in the next exams, your determination is worthy but you will isn't strong enough yet, forge it and return!"
The people laying flat out on the steps woke as they heard the words, the majority of them had failed yet the words from Su Wen at least made them feel like they'd have a chance next time, as for the couple that had passed, there were two young men and one of them…
"I… passed?"
Wei Yu pulled himself sluggishly off the step, his eyes hazy and mind foggy, yet the words of Su Wen circled in his head.
The dread of failure was wiped away from his heart and he felt some joy, yet there was something off.
'I passed! And yet.. why do I feel like this?' He looked up at the three next to the gate, Gang Bo grinned at him and spoke, but he didn't hear what he said.
'I didn't reach the gate, I fell behind and fainted before I reached my goal… this is failure, this bitterness'.
For the first time in his life, Wei Yu had failed at something he had put his all in to, a taste of defeat he hadn't felt before rested on his tongue.
He then stood up and began walking towards Shu He and Gang Bo with one thought in his mind.
'I need to remember this taste'.
…
"Okay, will everyone who didn't pass please head back to the stone elevator! The protectors will guide you to the way out!" Su Wen began showing the failed examinees out while the ones who had passed all gathered before the gate.
The many failures walked away with bitterness in their eyes, many of them would return to live as a normal mortal, others will attempt to go to another sect, some come here to attempt the exam again and some will never be heard from again for one reason or another.
One such man gripped his fists tightly as he sent a death glare at the gates of the sect.
"I should remind you all, if you try to attempt something stupid, you, your family, your clan and everyone related will be restricted from entering any of the five sects in the future".
A cold chill crawled up the spine of many.
'So harsh!' They all thought.
Any thoughts of acting up among the bunch was extinguished immediately.
"If anyone was stupid enough to do anything, they deserve that" Mei Ling spoke with a harrumph while looking down at the people leaving.
Shu He looked at the protector that was guiding them, he used his sight to observe him.
'Yeah, these guys are no joke, there's no chance you could pull something with them watching over you'.
The protector was like a maelstrom of Qi, the only time he'd seen someone with comparable Qi was Chao Shi who seemed to be on a level of his own, not even the instructor Su Wen who presided over the exam was on the same level.
"You made it in the end so it's fine!" Shu He turned his head to see Gang Bo patting Wei Yu on the back in reassurance.
"I know, I just wanted to reach the gate…" Wei Yu murmured seemingly depressed.
"It-" Shu He opened his mouth to speak but before he could-
"Hah! You expected to be able to reach the end even though you haven't lifted a finger to work in your life? Don't be stupid!" Mei Ling scoffed at him.
"What's that supposed to mean! Who are you even!?" Wei Yu yelled back confused as to why this random woman would start insulting him.
'Does this girl really only have a passing interest in him?' Shu He couldn't help but doubt.
"Why should I tell you, who couldn't even reach the gate!?"
"She's Mei Ling from the Huo Clan" Shu He took it upon himself to answer, he didn't feel like listening to this annoying play.
"You-" Mei Ling shot an exasperated look towards him.
"H-Huo clan?!" Wei Yu's eyes widened as he took a step back, but then his brows furrowed.
"No, Mei? That's not right all of the scions have Huo as their family name… so you're from a branch clan then… but you're a woman? That's unusual"
"Huh? Why's that?" Shu He was genuinely curious, it seems Wei Yu knew more than he had been told.
"You… I've heard enough!" Mei Ling walked away with an uncomfortable look on her face.
"Ah maybe I shouldn't have said that" Wei Yu looked at her retreating figure and felt slightly bad.
"You've already upset her so you might as well say it" Shu He spoke casually.
Wei Yu glanced at Shu He, thinking he lacks any kind of tact but then decided to speak anyway.
"From what I've head, although the Huo clan is a powerful clan and has many branch clan, most of them have no power and are mainly composed of mortals and weak cultivators, on the rare occasion that one of the branch families produce a cultivator with good potential they are adopted by the main clan… at least if they're male, if they're female they're taken as a concubine for a scion of the main clan to produce better heirs."
"That's…"
'Disgusting' Shu He let the word hang on the tip of his tongue before swallowing it.
It wouldn't do him any good to speak it out loud, he was currently surrounded by scions of many clans, and he knew nothing about what the norm among them was, to him with values of a modern society buried deep inside of him it wasn't right, but to these people it might be normal.
"I don't like it either" Wei Yu spoke out loud getting him glances from the surrounding people, he didn't notice, nor would he really care, this left Shu He pleasantly surprised.
He lowered his voice to speak next as he moved closer to Shu He and Gang Bo.
"I don't really know how she got into this exam, but there's probably some scheming at play by her family and the sect to get her out of the Huo clan".
"The more I hear of them the less I like this clan" Gang Bo stated his opinion outright.
Shu He couldn't help but nod, he also couldn't help but be glad that there weren't any Huo clan scions taking this exam with them or he felt it'd get ugly fast.
"Alright, will everyone please take a step back!" Su Wen suddenly appeared behind them without them noticing causing them to jump in fright before moving to the side, away from the gates.
*GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
Without him doing anything, the grand gates suddenly began to scrape open filling the air with a sound that rattled their ears.
After a minute the sound stopped, and the two great metal doors were parted revealing a long tunnel pathed and decorated very similarly to the one they had first entered near the statue of the founder.
"Follow me" Su Wen spoke before he started walking casually without an ounce of urgently.
Having rested for a short while, the ones that had passed all proceeded to enter the gates as they stifled the nervousness in their hearts.
After they entered, the gates slammed shut behind them sealing them in with only forward to go, but none of them felt worried about that.
'11…' Shu He counted the number of participants that passed, it was low compared to the number that attempted, there was over 50 when he first arrived and at the end he would say there were around 80, so a lot had failed.
Thinking this made him feel even greater since he passed, but then he reminded himself not to become complacent.
This was just the beginning.
In the end there were 8 males and 3 females that passed, that included Shu He, Gang Bo and Wei Yu on the male side and Mei Ling on the female, 9 out of the 11 participants that passed were in their teens like Shu He and Wei Yu, whereas Gang Bo and one other were above 20.
'Will there be more exams? That one was tough… maybe just one more? No… if it's like this then the rule of three is more likely…' He thought about what was ahead as he walked among the pack'
After about 5 minutes of walking they came to another pair of doors that opened up revealing a large room.
'The roof is so tall… it's like a cathedral' Shu He looked up at the arches supporting the roof.
"What's that?" Gang Bo pointed to the centre of the room, there rested an array of pillars with a circle in the centre.
The pillars counted 5.
"I don't know… it kind of looks like some sort of formation" Shu He spoke, unsure at what he was looking at, he only recognised the lines that were running up and around the pillars and floor.
He used his sight to get a better look, there was no qi running through the formation right now, yet on top of the pillars were orbs and when he looked at them he saw something he hadn't seen before.
'More types of Qi?'
'Silver, yellow, red, green and blue' He counted the colours five in total just like the pillars.
'Ah! I know what this is!' His eyes snapped open as he had a moment of realisation, it was something that Bai Shun had mentioned to him before.
"Now then, before we begin the examination I would like to say something" Su Wen.
All 11 of them stood and listened intently, after that first exam they were on their toes expecting some sort of trick or lack of in the rules they were to be announced.
"Congratulations on entering the Titanic Steel Sect!" He said with a smile as he began to clap.
The others paused as they began to doubt their ears.
"Huh?"