All the kids who didn't participate in the fight against the Wretch Beast were instantly killed as the Palace Chief had said, while the ones who risked their lives to fight the beast were enrolled into the Sect Academy and officially became disciples of the Venom Sect Academy. Only 9 out of the 16 kids got into the Academy. Sifeng was among these nine because of his feat in taking the beast down. If not for him, all the kids would have been killed by the beast, as many had been killed in the past during the same test.
The sect had been conducting this practice since the Sect Tournament ended some months ago. They saw how strong the disciples of other sects were. Although they managed to win the tournament as usual, the disciples of other sects were able to match their power level, and some were even stronger, which hurt the Venom Sect's pride.
For the past thirty years, they have been producing the strongest and most skilled disciples in the cultivation world. Although Venom Sect is not the most powerful Sect in the world, as there are other Sects with elders far stronger than theirs, the talented disciples coming out of Venom Sect every five years in the Sect Tournament have made them considered the Sect with the brightest future and the only Sect to have ruled the cultivation world for a complete 30 years.
However, during the recent tournament, the Venom Sect elders realized that disciples from other Sects were closing the power gap. Some of their disciples even got defeated, which hurt their pride. The main purpose of the sect tournament is for each Sect to show how powerful their disciples were, so nobody will welcome the idea of waging war.
After witnessing the power other disciples have displayed, Venom Sect decided to take their training to another level. They initiated a mission for all their disciples at the Hunter rank. Only those at this rank are allowed to participate in the Sect Tournament. They hoped to produce another set of monsters before the next tournament by sending all their Hunter-ranked disciples on a mission to hunt Fiend Demons. They had to bring back the life core of two Fiend Demons as proof, a task typically only achievable by those at the Monarch rank.
Out of a few hundred disciples that went on this mission, only 25 returned. Of those 25, 15 had made a breakthrough to the Warrior rank, meaning they couldn't participate in the next tournament. This left them with no more than 10 disciples at the Hunter rank. It was a great loss, as more than two hundred disciples perished.
However, they had anticipated this and began bringing in different sets of young teenagers to train to the Hunter rank before the next tournament. They aimed to accelerate their progress, putting the kids through dangerous tests, such as killing a Wretch Beast. None of the previous sets had succeeded until today.
Faced with death, one of the kids fought desperately and eventually killed the beast. Apart from the green-haired boy, none of the kids saw how Sifeng killed the beast; they just heard that the wolf died under his blade. What surprised the elders and older disciples was that Sifeng used an elemental attack with his life energy to kill the beast. This is the talent they were looking for—someone who could make an elemental attack at this stage. A true talent.
The Wretch Beast was not only killed by a single hit of his energy attack, but it was turned to ashes, erasing the beast from existence completely, leaving only its life core behind. None of them had witnessed a feat like this from someone at the Cub rank. Even among the rare classes capable of elemental attacks, they hadn't seen anything like this before.
A Wretch Beast is powerful enough to annihilate an entire village of non-cultivators, and it would take at least 20 powerful cultivators at the Cub rank to take one down. If there were 19 more of the green-haired boy, they could take on the beast with better weapons provided. Now, the boy killed the beast with one hit of his life energy. They didn't know why he hadn't used it from the start or when he was being chased by the wolf. He only used it when he was faced with death, after losing so much blood. The elders could only think there was some flaw or ritual to summon the energy.
But that wasn't the only thing that surprised them. What surprised the elders even more was the golden energy the boy had used. The energy was the life force the boy had cultivated, the same as the sect leader's life force. The boy's life force was the same as the palace chief's energy, a strange and dangerous energy that defied all the Venom Sect rules. It was a power that had allowed the sect leader to maintain his position longer than any other leaders of the Venom Sect, the power that brought him to the position of a sect leader in the first place.
The deputy chief shivered upon thinking of it.
"This might be a problem,"
He thought, staring at the chief as he walked off. But then his lips curled up, a devilish smile appearing on his face.
"Well, maybe he'll become a tool."
---
Some hours later, all the disciples, including the newly enrolled kids, were asked to gather in what Sifeng could only describe as a hall. Just like outside, a large arena was raised at the front of the large room with a golden throne at the front and 8 to 9 seats surrounding it from the back to the two sides. The throne and the seats were pretty empty as the chief and the elders hadn't arrived yet. The disciples stood calmly at the front as they waited for the arrival of their elders, while the newly enrolled kids looked around the hall with curiosity.
There was a mixture of young teenagers like them among the disciples, as well as adults and young kids. The newbies stood at the back, separated from the others. Sifeng was also among them, but he made sure to stay 5 meters away from them, creating a sense of social distance, just to be cautious.
It seemed some of the kids had known each others before coming here, or they had just met here. Sifeng didn't know, but he could see that they got along well as they discussed among themselves with smiles.
None of them had approached him except the green-haired boy, who threw a quick glance at him every few seconds. But Sifeng decided to ignore all of them as he took his precious time to ponder his thoughts and actions. Kim had explained the pros and cons of showing his special life force in the Academy and had warned him not to use any basic spells until he had control over his wild energy.
And now, it was that same energy that saved him from the wolf, and everyone had witnessed it. Kim wanted him to keep the fact that he could use basic spells a secret because of this same energy.
'It's not as if I had a choice. Even if I could control the energy, I would have still used it, or else I would be dead,'
He knew that for sure. But now, he had to find a way to face what was about to come. Kim had claimed that an eye would be kept on him and he would be put through many trials just to see his worth.
Not only that, but the other disciples would also be jealous of him for receiving special treatment and would try to eliminate him.
'Does that mean all these monsters will be on my back?'
His gaze moved around the hall, studying each of the disciples' faces, they had all removed their mask after the test ended and Sifeng couldn't lie that they all have a charming face. Moving his gaze around as he study all their faces, he saw a very handsome man waving at him at the front corner of the room. He had a oval shaped face with small nose and puppy eyes, his black raven hair stretches downward.
Looking at the hair closely, Sifeng realized that he's one of the two men who had came to fetch him, the man he had ride on his back on their way here.
'Huh?'