That night, no matter the effort, the tribe leader did not manage to find Shengan. In the end, the enraged tribe leader declared Shengan banished from the tribe and named him a criminal who had deceived and harmed the tribe's members. These news would soon spread among the tribe and even reach the canyon Town that paid attention to their affairs.
The tribe leader personally went before them to speak of the crimes Shengan had committed—all, of course, fabricated by him. But the canyon people did not know the truth and could only believe what the tribe leader said. Afterwards, he asked if they had spotted Shengan and told them to hand him over to the tribe.
The tribe leader received a half-hearted response as a result of his request from the canyon town's leaders, but it was good enough for him. After returning, he once again tended to his grandson's injury. Since tomorrow was a big day, he did his best to bring his foolish grandson to the best of his condition.
The morning eventually came. The wind-eater tribesmen had gathered with their children, where a man from the academy had arrived to collect them. But to the tribe's surprise, they too were allowed to participate and observe the process of evaluation. The tribesmen were more than happy and followed the man deep into the canyon, toward the grand academy.
The group went through the path that the kids had already taken once before, and through the giant gate, the children and tribesmen entered the giant hall where a magnificent staircase led upward.
Same as before, without an inch of difference to the eyes of the children, there stood the figure with a smile on his face upon the stage. The man was dressed in very colorful clothes and had an unknown burst of long feathers tucked into his hair, Yas, the man had hair now.
"Welcome, welcome," said he, but the children weren't laughing or feeling at ease this time. Deep inside, they felt a faint, creepy feeling from the man and more than that it was because the life changing point of there life is coming and they're getting narvous. However, the tribesmen weren't as unsettled as the children. Having already heard of this man from their stories, they greeted the man with the utmost respect and manner.
looking among the group of children, the man's eyes twitched.
"Is anyone missing?" he inquired.
The old man, Tao Tai, was baffled and surprised. He had not thought the academy would notice, since it was only one child they didn't know of—but it seemed this man kept a keen eye on everyone.
"Great lord, one measly child has been absent from our tribe since last night. The brat has caused quite a chaos in the tribe and isn't fit to be anything but a criminal," the old man declared.
"Oho, if you say so." To the old tribe leader's joy, the man did not dwell on the matter for long. "Of course, how could a great daemon like him care about a mere brat," he thought to himself.
"Come along, come along," the man then said in a strange manner, turning and walking further onto the stage. At the end, the man was met with a wall. The tribesmen and the children all looked at him with curiosity as he stood facing it.
The man—who was, in fact, the leader of this place, which indirectly made him the head of the academy—placed his hand upon the wall, and suddenly, a door opened, revealing a secret passage.
"Don't be nervous. Follow me obediently, all of you," he said before stepping inside.
The tribesmen and the children followed behind, not knowing where they were headed. Along the way, they saw numerous paintings on the walls—most of which they did not understand, though some appeared familiar. Among them was a painting that the tribesmen assumed to be the story of how the canyon town began.
Although they had already been informed of how it happened when they entered the town, they still gazed curiously at the paintings.
There were five great men, surrounded by others who seemed to show reverence toward them. The five figures were depicted much larger than the rest of the humans in the painting. These five, along with their companions, appeared to be battling a beastly figure. The creature in the painting was depicted as a bull with a human body, the head of a deer, and the tail of a wolf.
Even just looking at the painting made the tribesmen feel an ominous pressure weighing upon their hearts.
The being was truly fierce—in the first few paintings,and in one picture it apperd as a four legged creature with quill filled back, dark mist coverd face and a tiny star like shins in the back of its body.the creature managed to fend off the five men and their group time and time. But eventually, with constant effort, it appeared that they had managed to bring the beast down.
"Those five great figures… they must have been daemons," old man Tao Tai thought to himself. Eventually, after a long walk through the passage, the group saw its end, where natural light shone faintly from afar. As they finally arrived, they beheld a magnificently beautiful tree—and upon its branches rested a group of cranes.
Aside from the tree and the cranes, there was nothing else besides the stage built before the tree. Yet the sight of the tree and the cranes alone was enough to draw all attention there was to give. Both the tree and the cranes exuded a strange kind of aura that filled the tribesmen and their children with awe.
In the desert, the wind-eater tribe could rarely see a well-grown tree. Most of what they encountered were dried remnants—trees struggling merely to survive. This was the first time in years they had seen such a flourishing tree, and to them, it felt like a breath of fresh air.
"Let the kids step first while you all stay back," the academy head instructed, then made his way to stand beside the stairs leading up to the stage.
"Come, one at a time," said he, looking at the children—clearly indicating that it was the beginning of the purity test.