Way of the Knights

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Inside the room where the people from Ancient Elysium Sect and the two Empyrean Knights of Azure Sun Great World was watching the trials. The two elders that Henry brought with him were still arguing with each other using voice transmission. 

They were mostly betting on whether a certain participant they are observing will pass the exams or not. 

As Elders of the Ancient Elysium Sect and the ones who also participated in creating the trials, they of course knew the criteria of passing. 

The Test of Courage is something that was created by another elder on the sect, Test of Knowledge and Test of Will is created by these two. In order to move on to the next part of the exams, a participant has to pass at least two out of three tests in the Aptitude Tests before they could move on to the second part of the exams which is the Smelting Trial. 

Though these elders had strange personalities, it doesn't change the fact that they are Elders from Ancient Elysium Sect. This is not the first time that they participated in the recruitment so they understand how to gauge an individual's chances of passing. 

Most of the people they were observing failed, which made them disappointed. Just like what the Empyreans and Henry discussed earlier, the performance of juniors are getting worse as time goes by. Even though the difficulty of the exams had been lowered by the sect already, they were still struggling to pass. 

'If this continues, then no matter how many disciples we brought back to the sect, aren't they going to end up as a waste of space and resources?' The elder with numerous moles on his face and a bulbous nose spoke to the other elder. 

'You toad, don't be a jinx!' The elder with a long grey beard glared at the Toad Elder. 'We both know that the sect isn't lacking neither space nor resources. What we lack is disciples.'

'But we can't bring back useless brats since they'll be bound to kicked out anyway!' Elder Toad frankly commented.

'This…' The elder with a gray beard unconsciously said. 

'See? Ain't I right again? A pity, a pity! We've prepared some goodies for the brats today but it seems that none of them would be able to get their hands on it. Say? You think we can keep the prizes instead? I kinda lacking some spirit stones lately.' 

'Shut you trap and look at the guy who passed the Test of Knowledge earlier!' 

'Oh? What's up? Let me see...' Elder Toad squinted his eyes and gazed at the table. His eyes were then focused on a guy with an aqua-marine colored hair who exhibiting a feral killing intent and is currently surrounded a gray shroud. 

Elder Toad's face changed his eyes help surprise. All the playfulness on his face were now gone and was replaced by rare expression of solemnity. 

'Quasi-Slaughter Intent. What do you think Graybeard? Shall we inform Young Lord about him?' Elder Toad asked. 

'No need.' Elder Graybeard replied. He sneakily gave Henry a glance as well as the other Empyreans and thought for a bit. 'With Young Lord's senses, I think he already noticed the kid. Let's just act like nothing happened. We can't let those two scheming old coots do something drastic.'

Elder Toad and Elder Graybeard then turned silent after that. Instead, they silently observed the other participants. They were hoping that someone else will give them another huge surprise as well.

***

As soon as world around Raven shattered, he similarly woke up from the special state that he's in as well. 

Out of nowhere, he was surprised to figure out that he's releasing a very aggressive and dense killing intent. A frown surface on his face, and with the addition of the ferocious expression on his face, Raven looked like he lost his composure and is prepared to tear down anyone who will try to cross him at any given moment now. 

Raven stopped paying attention to his surroundings and focused on inspecting his body. During his first inspection his frown deepened since he didn't see anything that caused his killing intent to surface. And even though he's releasing a very aggressive aura right now, his mind was actually exceptionally clear. 

He also managed to see the shroud covering his body, he was surprised at first but he noticed that this shroud wasn't anything harmless at all, in fact it was hardly visibly due to him also wearing black colored robes. If anything, it just caused his body to look like he was covered in some sort of a visage. 

He then sank his perception inside his core and as soon as he did that, he finally managed to discover what happened to him. 

'The energy of slaughter.' Raven murmured inwardly, 'Slaughter Intent? No, it should be a quasi one. But how though?' 

He thought for a bit and his eyes began shining. 'It's probably due to how much people I've killed. How many did I kill anyway? I don't remember. But I guess have this now. Well, I'll foster it. After all, not everyone manages to condense something like this.'

Due to the special state he was in, most of his actions within the Test of Will was like a blur to him. He can't recall how many people he killed or how many times he was revived. All he could remember was constantly perfecting his fist arts and that he killed many people. Because of that, he didn't even notice that he experienced some sort of change. 

'If I manage to evolve this Quasi-Slaughter Intent into a true Slaughter Intent. Then I'll be able to release the Slaughter Domain. Not only does this domain able to supersede with my Champion's Influence, it could also suppress my enemies by a lot while also boosting my attacks.'

'If I get the chance, then I should meditate upon this. A pity that I'm a bit pre-occupied by now as well as my Avatars.'

Raven took a deep breath and the black shroud covering his body disappeared. His killing intent subsided and he no longer had this feral expression on his face. Everything about him looked like how it was used to be. 

He then felt a tug on his consciousness, and when the feeling subsided, Raven opened his eyes and saw that he was back at the place inside the curtain of lights. He briefly looked around him and saw that some people woke up roughly the same time as him. He then felt something buzzing within his sleeves. 

Raven then took out the badge on his sleeves and sank his consciousness within in order to check what's happening with it. Rows of information then showed themselves to him and he saw that there were some changes on them. 

Participant #89: Vendrick Valorheart

Merit Points: 620

Power: Champion Knight Realm

Test Results: Aptitude Exams: (3/3), Smelting Trial: N/A

???

'Wait what? My merit points increased that much?' Raven inwardly mumbled, 'And this three out of three in Aptitude Exams means that I passed right? If that's the case, then the increase of merit points should have something to do with me passing then.'

'Next is the Smelting Trial, that Elder said that if we passed the Smelting Trial as well, then we already are considered as disciples of the sect. I wonder what kind of smelting trial it is.'

*Weng!*

"Congratulations for passing. You may now proceed with to the next area where the Smelting Trial will occur." The Elder's voice transmission echoed on his ears which basically confirms that his guesses just now was on point.

Raven sighed and stood up. He stretched his body for a bit before walking out of the curtain of light with the others.

As soon as the second batch walked out of the light curtain, the rest of the participants were already looking at them. Those who had yet to take the exams were feeling nervous. This is due to the different expressions of those who just finished theirs. 

Some people looked wretched and haggard, it was as if they experienced the most horrifying scene of their entire life. Those who looked relatively fine could only be counted on one hand, even then their fatigue was visible to everyone as well. 

As the curtain of light disappeared, the Elder's voices sounded on the hilltop once more. 

"Alright, same deal with you second batch. Those failed, go down and get out of here. Those who passed, follow that disciple and she will lead you towards where the next part of the exams will occur."

"Participants #101 to #150, step forward!" 

Raven stopped paying attention to the elder and walked towards the guide prepared for him. He glanced around him and saw that aside from him, there are four other people who managed to pass and Jason was one of them. 

When Raven's gaze landed on him, he couldn't help but feel a little surprised. He then saw Jason walking towards him wearing a weary smile. 

"Formidable, formidable. I can't even see any sweat on you." Jason commented. 

"I'm just good at acting. In fact I'm even more exhausted than you." Raven lied, he then cast a deep and meaningful look at Jason as added. "You're burdens must be…"

Jason only smiled and waved his hand, Raven gave him a nod and decided not to pry on anymore.. Instead, he just silently walked together with the rest towards the next location.