Chapter 84: Selection Exam

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If you were to start the journey in the capital of the Crimson Cloud Empire, you’d need to travel west for many days and many nights. Cross the Red River, traverse the Yellow Swamp, and go far beyond the Hundred Caves. Brave the sweltering heat of the Great Red Plains and survive its many dangers.

Only then will you reach the Summer Forest.

It is a beautiful place with trees of all colors and shapes that stretches for countless miles. Some trees are barely taller than a person. Others rise higher than the tallest of buildings. There is no pattern or order to them. They grow where they wish, wild and untamed.

However, there is one exception.

A series of seemingly endless steps made out of white stone runs deep into the forest. Twin red columns joined by tiled roofs appear in the path every few miles, the only decoration among endless white surrounded by dense foliage.

This is the Ash Road.

As long as one follows it, they will not be attacked by the many Spirit Beasts in the forest. However, that does not make this path safe. The Eternal Flame Clan, one of the top four Sects of the Crimson Cloud Empire, lies at the end of the Ash Road. There is no guarantee they will welcome strangers trodding upon their property.

Despite that, a crowd of outsiders has gathered outside the Summer Forest this day. They stand, not afraid, but nervous and excited. If all goes well for them, they will not be outsiders for much longer.

Today is the day of the Eternal Flame Clan’s Selection Exam.

The event only happens once every year. People from all over the Crimson Cloud Empire and beyond have come in hopes of joining the esteemed Sect. Some of them have been traveling for weeks, others for months. Some have been camping here for days. Others have been staying in the nearby Ember City until today. The ordinarily quiet Ash Road is full of noise as even whispers can be loud when there are hundreds of them.

This is the scene that welcomes a young traveler.

He looks and is fourteen-years-old. His clothes are dirty and have numerous tears and patches, evidence of his hard journey until now. Their color was once a vivid green, but time has dulled it to something swampy and pale. His hair is black and disorderly, his face angular and strong.

His eyes are blue.

He is Huang Shing from Soaring Cloud City, and he has come all the way to the Eternal Flame Clan’s Selection Exam with many feelings in his heart and just as many thoughts in his head.

Right now, he is feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

Huang Shing was not unaware of the Eternal Flame Clan’s reputation. He is not that clueless. He knew many people would show up to the Selection Exam. To be part of the Eternal Flame Clan is to be a cut above. Not a single person would be able to look down on you after joining. Instead, they would go out of their way to gain your favor.

Prestige, access to ancient techniques, cultivation secrets, and more.

That is what it means to be part of the Eternal Flame Clan.

However, there is a difference between knowing that in his head and seeing the large crowd gathered before him. It is not just their number that surprises him, either.

It is their Qi.

Certainly, Huang Shing has never once dared to think he was remotely close to being the strongest. However, he thought he had reached a fairly good level for his age. At the age of fourteen, he is already in the Ninth Level of the Nascent Realm. That is, without a doubt, a considerable achievement.

Right now, it seems mundane.

In this crowd, people in the Nascent Realm are the norm. Only fairly young children who have come accompanied by retainers are lower than that. Among the people close to his age, Huang Shing’s level is far from unique. There are many who are in the mid to late stages of the Nascent Realm.

A few are even in the Spirit Realm!

Huang Shing has gone through rigorous training before daring to come here and has overcome many difficult challenges on the way. Each trial helped him gain confidence in his strength. Yet, in front of so many aspiring candidates, that confidence can only falter. In this crowd, the power and skills he was so proud of moments ago are not that special.

In other parts of the Empire, Huang Shing’s strength might be called overwhelming.

However, everyone here is overwhelming.

Those are Huang Shing’s most sincere thoughts. Certainly, the strength of the Eternal Flame Clan is something he already experienced in the past, but time had fooled him into thinking he had grown closer to his goal. He had fooled himself into thinking the difference between him and Feng Zhi was not that big anymore.

Now, it seems like even getting through the front gate may be too much for him!

Huang Shing is so shaken by these thoughts that he is barely paying attention to where he’s going. In a crowd as large as this, that can only lead to one possible outcome.

“Oomph!”

“Watch where you’re going!”

Huang Shing cannot reply. He is momentarily stunned by being forced to come to an abrupt stop after bumping into someone. His head is ringing. It is as if he has just run into a wall. An unreasonably tough wall at that. He blinks and looks up.

And up.

“Well?” The person he has just bumped into says, crossing his arms. He is tall and broad-shouldered with dark eyes and hair of a very light shade of brown. “Aren’t you going to apologize for bumping into me? Do they not have manners where you’re from?”

Huang Shing knows he is at fault here. This person is not wrong to demand an apology from him, yet the comment about his home, along with the derisive tone, makes Huang Shing bristle.

A musical laugh reaches his ears before he can say anything.

“Bei Hong, don’t concern yourself with someone like that,” a girl says, coming up from behind the now named Bei Hong. She stands close to the tall teen and places her hand on his arm.

She is beautiful.

The moment Huang Shing lays eyes on her, all his indignation seems to vanish. Blooming curves her robes do little to disguise. Pure white skin without blemish. Reddish hair falls past her shoulders in wild spikes. She has it tied in a loose ponytail as opposed to some elaborate hairstyle, yet that adds to her allure. Her amber eyes are pools of gold that invite him into their depths.

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“Look at him,” the beauty continues speaking. A dainty hand is waved in his direction. “Look at his clothes. He might as well be a beggar that has stumbled here by accident. Why concern ourselves over it?”

Huang Shing blushes as Bei Hong laughs. At once, the trance the beauty of this girl had placed him into is dispelled by his rising anger.

“Yes! Yes, you’re right, Lu Mei! Today is a good day! Why should we concern ourselves with this trash!”

The two laugh without a care in the world. They laugh at him. Huang Shing gnashes his teeth. He has not gone through numerous trials just to be insulted like this!

And yet, right now, staying silent and bearing this shame is clearly the better choice.

Huang Shing is in the Ninth Level of the Nascent Realm.

The beauty, Lu Mei, is in the First Level of the Spirit Realm.

The large man he bumped into, Bei Hong, is in the Third Level of the Spirit Realm.

Huang Shing has gone through several trials and tribulations. He is not weak, yet in front of these two, he might as well be. He is only in the third realm of cultivation while they are already in the fourth.

However… if he backs down here, if he lets these two make a fool out of him, how can he be expected to face Feng Zhi? Is the Nine Dragon Slaying Palms he spent blood and effort to master so worthless that he can allow these two to mock him?

No!

“Take that back,” Huang Shing manages to get out through gritted teeth. Bei Hong, who was just about to turn away, stops and glares at Huang Shing.

“I said—”

He stops talking.

He stops moving.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Mei moves in front him, silencing him by merely placing a finger on his lips. It is soft and smells like roses. Suddenly, that is all Huang Shing can think about.

“You should stop talking,” she says, her golden eyes almost glowing. Even as she pulls back her hand, Huang Shing finds himself nodding to her words. It only makes sense. Everything she says makes sense. Why disagree?

“In fact,” Lu Mei’s lips twist into a cruel smirk, “Wouldn’t it be fun if you punched yourself?”

Yes, that sounds fun. He should do it.

Wait, no! That’s dumb.