Shiro jumped into the scene and began mass slaughtering the monsters surrounding their camp, each monster took him around two minutes to slay. The guards were relieved to see that someone else was able to take down these beast, they had their hands full just trying to hold them back.
With Shiro, Shin and Eris joining the fray, the lizards were easily repelled and driven away from the camp.
Once everything was settled, Shiro explained to the guards that the monster he fought was not at the 3rd grade anymore, he was only able to survive because Shin and Eris showed up when they did.
The guards found it hard to believe that a kid at the 1st stage blood replacement realm could fight a grade four magic beast talk less of even killing it, however, having experienced fighting a swarm of grade three magic beast, the guard had to admit that there had to be a higher grade monster controlling the rest.
What the guards couldn't understand was why the monsters cultivation increased so rapidly, it hadn't even been three days since the village scouts confirmed the position of the magic beast and the forest already produced a pack of grade three magic beasts.
Since it had already happened, all the guards could do was put the matter behind and wait until they returned to the village to inform the village chief of their findings.
Once the group arranged their camps, the guards told the children to all go to bed since they would be leaving the next day, Shiro wanted to stay awake to keep watch but the guards insisted that since he was the one who fought the beast with the highest level and also the one who kept watch throughout he would need rest most, not wanting to prolong the argument, Shiro agreed and went to rest.
It was already mid-afternoon when Shiro woke up, the sun was up and busy while the rest of their group had finished packing. Shiro was pleasantly surprised to see that his things had also been packed, he was told that Eris had insisted on being the one to pack his things so he had to make sure to thank her later.
Everybody finished packing and began heading back to the village, on their way they didn't encounter any magic beast above the 2nd grade and most of the lower grade beasts had returned. Shiro guessed that due to the appearance of the grade four beast, a lot of the lower grade beast had either gone into hiding or had been killed off.
Their journey wasn't long since they already knew the way and the magic beasts were weaker mostly consisting of grade 1 and 0 beasts.
They weren't tough to handle so Shiro's group just breezed through them. It took them only a little more than five hours to arrive at their destination.
Once they reached the village, the group scattered as everybody went to do their own things. Many of the children went back to their home while Shin, Shiro and Eris went to Yato's house alongside some guards who went to report the incidents to him.
Yato was outside his house when he saw them return he received each of them with bright smiles except for Shiro to whom he just told
"As expected"
Shiro didn't mind the crude remark, he knew what was expected of him and the task Yato had giving them wasn't that hard. What caused the difficulty spike was the fact that they didn't know of the cultivation increase hence they were unprepared, but that was the cultivation world, anybody who wasn't prepared to face such situations wasn't ready to become a cultivator.
Once Yato heard the reports, he turned to face Shiro before smiling
"So you took the risk of fighting a grade four magic beast with such low cultivation, how very ballsy, hahaha".
Shiro just glanced at Yato for a second before returning to the house, he was tired and needed rest so he left without saying anything.
*
During dinner, Shiro expressed his plan to leave and join a cultivation society, he didn't mind going to a sect or a cultivation academy to study.
"About time…"
Yato said, he had been waiting for Shiro to ask for this for a very long time already.
"I have already registered you and Shin to take part in the Moon Sword Academy's entrance exams, since…"
"What about me!" Eris cut in and asked.
Hearing that, Yato wryly smiled, he had also registered Eris' name but he wanted to see if Eris would be willing to go before telling her about it
"Of course you will join them"
He said, his eyes looking at Shiro and Shin for help, he didn't look at his wife since he already knew what she would say after all, it was her that proposed the idea to him so he just left her out of the discussion.
"The exams will take place two days from now at the top of Mount Claudius, I hope you will be prepared by then"
Shiro returned to his room to ponder about the exam, he knew just how hard it was to get accepted into an academy especially one as prestigious as Moon Sword. Back in his mortal days, Shiro had once attempted to get into this same academy but failed however, this time was different, he was stronger and since he knew what to expect he was ready.
If he could still not get into the academy at his current level then there was nothing he could do.
*
The next day, Shiro went to the outskirt of the forest to train, he focused his training on his footwork, during his fight with the grade four armored reptilian, Shiro was unable to avoid getting hit even when he saw the attack coming but with a better footwork and better evasive skills he could fight longer battles with minimum damages and also perform his sword art more proficiently, with a set goal in mind, Shiro began his training.