A man in black robes sat at the back of the higher stands where the sect representatives occupied, dark qi swirling in his body as if it had learned to breathe without light, and this man was from the Devil Sect. He had witnessed the events happening below with the unfazed face of someone who had seen powerful families and their descendants too many times to sit forward for them, but things changed after he saw three people his spiritual sense could not detect, a surprise sharp enough that he immediately marked them, because even the Ju Emperor's sense had come back empty and Elder Mo's was not in the habit of coming back empty.
When he saw the two women floating in a sitting position and drinking something unknown, juice in glasses this continent had no word for, he became more interested still, because beauty that sat on air and drank summer was either a trap or a realm he had not been invited into. Next to him stood a member of his sect, also in black, bracelets around his arms, waiting the way knives wait.
"Feng Ku, check with our spies in the Ju Empire for information about these three."
"Yes, Elder Mo."
Elder Mo sent a qi message as he spoke, and the next moment the ground opened and Feng Ku sank into it, disappearing from the stand as if the stone had always been a door, the other members seeing it and not reacting much, because Devil Sect business was the kind of business you survived by not asking to be shown. Other sects had their own suspicions and doubts about Patrick's group, especially after the strength he had just displayed, such power with just a pinky meaning he must be the disciple of a powerful cultivator or at least from a powerful family, and with that thought many began evaluating their views of his background, deciding he was probably high-ranking, considering he had two extremely beautiful women as his company and did not look at them as if they were prizes.
Patrick and the host entered the training ground where they tested comprehension of the skills cultivated, the room big, crystals illuminating it from within so the stands outside could pretend they were in the room too. The man led the way and then turned and looked at Patrick, wondering if this youth had truly comprehended the cultivation books in seconds after seeing them, and if that were true it would be best to acquaint himself with such a genius before the sects tore the acquaintance into pieces.
"Young brother, this is the testing room, and there are three stages, if young bro... if Master needs anything, I will be here."
The man changed his way of addressing Patrick from brother to Master mid-sentence as he tried to curry favor, and Patrick realized it at once, being a man who had watched mortals do this since before their empires had names, nodding to him as he walked into the testing room, the door shutting behind him. There were many doors so others could test at the same time, which was the empire's idea of fairness, many rooms, one set of eyes on the screens.
Everyone watched Patrick enter, their attention shifting to the display of results and points, and the Emperor was the most interested in this genius he had set his eyes on, his main goal still to obtain the body cultivation technique he believed Patrick cultivated, greed sitting beside the older order to retreat from the Shi as if the two hungers could share a throne. Moments after Patrick entered, Kang Mu finished, and many others with him, his first action being to look for Patrick and see if the weak man was still cultivating, but to his disappointment he saw an empty spot and asked the host standing at the foot of the stage, voice already looking for a bruise.
"Where has that weak man gone to?"
The host, hearing "weak," almost punched Kang Mu in the face, because if Patrick was weak after displaying such strength then the rest of them could be considered nothing but ants, yet he ignored the arrogance as he spoke, swallowing the punch for later.
"For those of you who were unable to comprehend the cultivation techniques in the required time, you are eliminated, the rest of you come with me."
Those who failed held disappointed faces as they walked down the platform, while the remaining stood in a cluster amounting to twenty, only twenty left in the fourth phase out of the thousand who had come to be looked at, and they followed the man to the testing rooms as they prepared to demonstrate their comprehension and impress their families and the sects that still might want them. On one of the screens displaying the inside of Patrick's room, everyone could see him about to begin his first test of attacks, clean robes, hands already thinking of going behind his back.
The door shut behind Patrick as he stood in the bright room, a mechanism activating, wooden dolls beginning to attack, the comprehension test being for the cultivated skills so he had to use those skills and nothing else, which was a rule made for people who had something else to hide. The wooden dolls came, but before their attacks reached him Grace spoke in the quiet way she did when a toy had been named.
[Skill: Golden Buddha Shield activated]
A golden shield clothed Patrick, and he stood with his hands behind his back as the dolls surrounded him, watching as the shield took no impact at all, then seeing the crystals and smiling at them, mocking the other candidates who would sweat for a scratch he would not grant this wood. People saw the scene, dolls attacking, Golden Buddha Shield answering, and many were shocked, especially the host who had doubted, now completely believing Patrick and thanking his ancestors for not agitating such a person further than a mouth already had. The sect representatives were more stirred still, their goal being to have such geniuses in their halls, and the stands found the same sentence in different throats.
"He indeed comprehended the methods in seconds?"
"Are you blind, he used the Golden Buddha Shield, but why do I feel like this shield looks more golden than the normal shields everyone practices?"
Many began commenting on their thoughts and how things looked weird with Patrick's shield, God-grade trash still looking like trash that had been taken to heaven and refused to come down, but the main thing was that Patrick did indeed have the talent to comprehend methods in seconds while others took minutes, days, and years, and with such a talent sects would fight to recruit a person and even give him enormous benefits. Indeed they contemplated approaching him after the final results, or guessing which sect he would choose, some already contacting their mountains for more reinforcements because selection without backup was how a sect went home empty-handed and famous for it.
Kang Mu saw this as he headed for his testing room, this stranger having destroyed his image as the number one genius in the Ju Empire, and the fact that the sects were in disorder meant they would be fighting for him, and although Kang Mu was already a disciple of the Beast Sect he was still mad, engagement and tiger and Heavenly Beast Art suddenly feeling like yesterday's news. Patrick watched as the dolls kept attacking, then held two fingers and shifted them to the right, the dolls scattering to pieces as they flew that way, and with their destruction, as if someone were controlling the room, bronze dolls appeared at twice the number of the wooden ones.
The same process continued, but this time Patrick used Lightning Dragon Punch, causing half the bronze to shatter into dust as if lightning had been taught manners and then forgotten them. After bronze came golden dolls, only two of them, but these new ones had cultivations, the empire having created them to make the competition harder and to remind children that the last door before a sect could still kill. The two golden dolls walked slowly toward Patrick with faces like humans, releasing their cultivation and pressuring him, Spirit King seventh stage, the ultimate test for candidates before they entered sects, and a life-threatening one if you were actually a candidate.
[Skill: Ghost Shadow Steps activated]
Patrick disappeared from his position, and the two dolls immediately reacted, vanishing as well, both parties clashing as the room got brighter with flashes everywhere, the displays going blind because the screens could not show what was happening inside, some in the crowd complaining as if complaining could teach crystals to be gods. The host and other coordinators documented comprehension levels from each room, the host personally recording Patrick's result with a hand that had learned humility the expensive way.
A couple of moments later Patrick's door opened and he walked out unscratched, robes clean, which caused the crowd to fall into another commotion as they recognized him as the number one genius of the Ju Empire, or maybe the entire eastern continent, a sentence that would have been a joke an hour ago and was now the safest thing anyone could say. Other rooms began opening, candidates walking out, some passed out from energy spent, some failed as the machine automatically stopped if a candidate could not defend for long, and those who passed were slightly exhausted in the way mortals are exhausted when they have been believed.
"Congratulations to the rest of you who passed the comprehension and testing phase, you will all receive qi replenishment pills to recover your energies, and after that we shall begin the final phase, which will be the combat phase."
Kang Mu and the remaining participants received their pills, including Patrick, and although he did not need them he still accepted and gave them to another candidate next to him, a boy who was a little surprised by how this new dark horse acted, first extremely handsome for a man, his strength beyond his cultivation realm, first in all the phases, and now giving his pills away, which was very strange because most geniuses were arrogant and rarely spoke to people below them.
"Thank you, how may I call big brother?"
"Call me Alex," Patrick replied, as he had told Janea Forester in another life of this same face, and as the ledger at the gate had already been forced to believe.
"Since everyone has recovered, then we shall begin the final phase of the competition exams," the host spoke, and the crowd burst into commotion because this was the most exciting phase, where combat power was fully demonstrated and families remembered why they had bought seats. "First you all are to pick the wooden slates in the box, if your numbers match then that will be your opponent, the only rule is no killing, as for injuries, you get those fighting in the real world every day."
The first two were from middle-class families, both in the Mind Accumulation realm, not much difference in their strength, though one could predict the winner from their cultivated techniques if one liked predicting small weather. The fight began as both parties unleashed powerful attacks, causing the stage bricks to take qi marks, and a couple of minutes later the winner was declared, the crowd not much interested in weaker powers when powerful descendants were still waiting, though the Emperor nodded, approving, because reaching the last twenty already meant sufficient talent to enter sects if the sects were hungry enough.
"Next is Kang Mu and Li Feng."
That announcement put the crowd back into commotion, the person they had expected to display the most talent finally fighting, Kang Mu and the youth named Li Feng walking to the stage as they both cupped their hands, greeting in respect that Kang Mu only half meant. Kang Mu had his eyes on Patrick as if telling him to watch what would happen when they matched in this competition, and Patrick stood with folded arms on his chest as he smiled for the first time since the exam began, thinking of how he should devastate the arrogance of this boy and bring him the ultimate despair, not because Kang Mu was a threat, but because a pinky had already been polite, and a smile was how a god told an ant the picnic was over.