Death... and me

Chapter 1598 First tests

”The first test is strength, which is the only thing everyone will have no issues understanding. Of course, we have many cultivators at the Nascent Soul Realm. But at the same time, we have people in the realms below. We can’t have those in the Nascent Soul Realm fighting the ones weaker. With that said, the strength test will be separated by cultivation realm.”

The twins didn’t invite anyone in the Soul Transformation Realm to the sect. Well, it’s not that they wanted to, but that the Soul Transformation Realm was still a divider. There was no lack of Peak Stage Nascent Soul Realm cultivators in the sect that were never able to find their path. As for those at the Soul Transformation Realm, they would not be in the streets or in similarly bad situations. Just their cultivation alone was enough for them to find some well-paying jobs. One must remember that the twins’ offer still looked extremely suspicious even though that wasn’t their actual intention.

Roan then looked at Rean and Havek after that. “Have you two prepared the slaughter formation?”

Rean and Havek confirmed. “Obviously. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have started this test.”

”Good.” Roan turned his attention back to the sect members as he continued, “This slaughter formation will match the strength of each person here. There’s no need to worry about dying. Although it can definitely dish out some painful damage, it’s not lethal. Besides, we’ll be watching in case anything goes wrong. Your strength score will be based on your age, cultivation, battle experience, reaction time, speed, strategy, judgment, resilience, and defense.”

’That’s quite a stringent test,’ most people thought. ‘Can they really give us a fair score if so many things are tested at the same time?’

Naturally, Rean and Havek could tell what the candidates were thinking. ‘Hehe! If we didn’t get the DPU reward, it would be extremely hard to set up such a formation. However, with the DPUs, calculating the parameters the Circuitry Formation will test everyone on is an easy task. These people have no idea what they’re dealing with.’

Roan then remembered something. “Right. There’s an age limit to this test. Anyone below five years of age will not be allowed to take it.”

In fact, the sect almost had no one below five years old. Well, it’s not like such kids wouldn’t end up in the streets like the others, but that they mostly wouldn’t survive when that happened. With that being said, among the two hundred or so kids in the sect, only thirteen of them were below five.

Roan didn’t want them to take the test, mostly because there was nothing to test with. What strength would be there for them to use? What cultivation progress was there to be calculated. At first, the trial would have no knowledge test. But even if it had, what knowledge would one expect to get from those kids? In the end, it was simply better to exempt these ones. Even those at the age of five or six most likely wouldn’t show any meaningful results either.

Hage was entrusted to help the kids, and he was assigned a few other adults to help. Thus, they quickly found those kids below five and took them away from the field. 

”Alright, everything is set. Initial Stage Foundation Establishment disciples, come forward.”

It went without saying that only kids followed Roan’s words. It didn’t matter how bad one’s talent was. It was just too hard to find any teenager, let alone adults, in that realm.

Sister Orb then announced. [124 candidates in the Initial Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm.] They were the youngest kids, as anyone could imagine.

She then called their names in alphabetic order, sending them into the slaughter formation. They were all given wooden weapons to defend themselves. Sure enough, the formation adjusted its level to match the kids’ cultivation and age. For anyone watching outside, it looked more like a joke. 

Most of the kids couldn’t do anything in front of the formation’s attacks. In the end, all they got was a bunch of crying kids that had been beaten quite badly. Well, Rean just laughed as he used his Light Element to heal them straight away before Hage’s group took them back.

The same thing happened to those in the Middle and Late Stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm. It’s just that instead of being around five years old, they were six, seven, or eight. If there was any difference, it was that the older ones could hold their tears a little better.

As for the kids at the Peak Stage of Foundation Establishment, they were mostly between eight and ten years old. Being older obviously helped as the number of cries reduced quite a bit when their time arrived. Then again, nine out of ten kids still ended up in tears nonetheless. Gender didn’t change this average statistic at all.

However, there were obviously exceptions in the strength test for those at Foundation Establishment. Vusban, Crimei, Ophilia, Qanvit, and Duma. These five kids got very good results in the slaughter formation. There were no tears, only determination to pass the test given to them.

The strength test would give one a score that went from 1 to 100, and they all got between 60 and 70 points. Don’t look down on that score. Roan had purposely made Rean and Havek create a formation that was extremely hard to get high scores. Those were definitely amazing results, especially considering their ages.

Of course, their test wasn’t over yet. The next test would be on their cultivation progress. This one was a lot simpler, though. After checking the candidates’ talent color, their cultivation speed would be checked. After all, everyone now had access to very good cultivation techniques, so this was a very good test to tell who could make the most of the techniques they had chosen themselves. 

Well, battle talent and cultivation talent were two different things. In the end, only Duma ended up getting a score similar to her first test. 

”The Foundation Establishment tests are over. You can all check the ranks in your badges.”