The First Phase

Shiro looked at the other participants, his martial awareness was back and so was his cultivation base. The other participants looked at him with skeptical eyes unsure of whether to approach him after all he was a kid who could easily take someone's life.

They didn't go over to meet Shiro neither did he bother to meet them, he just sat at a corner and waited for Shin and Eris to come through the passage.

"Why did you kill him?"

Shiro heard a voice ask, he turned and saw a boy who looked to be a little older than him.

"I don't think there is anything wrong in killing someone who has already taking the life of others"

Shiro answered indifferently, he really didn't see anything wrong in killing a single person.

The boy then pulled out a stick from a small pouch, magic circles began forming at insane speeds before splitting into two.

'A doubled layered magic circle? At this age?'

Shiro smiled, this kid was talented.

Shiro looked at the boy intently but did not move, his hand however hovered above the hilt of his sword.

"What is your name?"

Shiro asked with a dull tone, he had already lost all interest in the boy. The kid was talented but was too inexperienced, the magic circle had finished forming and it was a spell that Shiro recognized. The spell the boy had cast was a common grade fire ball spell, the number of magic circle only helped in enhancing the power of the spell but that did not change the fact that the original spell itself was weak.

"Emris"

The boy answered, Shiro looked at him again but did not say anything, after a few seconds he got up and left. By this time, Shin and Eris had finished signing their names and had come to meet him, both of them wore perplexed expressions on their face as they looked at Shiro.

Shiro just sighed, he killed someone to allow them pass and they look at him like he is the bad guy, he wasn't in the right mood to babysit kids who didn't know anything about the world they were in. Shiro had experienced the vile nature of this world, in other to get what they want, people will willingly turn even their own flesh and blood to a stepping stone.

"I don't care if you did it for our sake or not killing is wrong"

Shin said

"Don't do things that will make those around you feel unsafe"

Shiro did not know what to say, he just shook his head and walked towards the other participants, the number of people who had passed the test had increased significantly and there were nearly the supposed three thousand participants in the small space.

Suddenly, a faint light glowed in the sky as an old man came falling down, the old man crashed into the center of the participants stirring dust clouds. This was the same old man who had wringed the life of one of the wards the day before, the old man walked towards Shiro's group before placing a hand on Shiro's shoulders.

"Killing is not wrong but please do not take life as something unimportant, people only live once"

He then turned to the other participants before continuing

"Congratulations to those of you who had passed this phase, we had said this was the first phase but that was a lie, this phase was made just to filter of those the academy does not need, if you can't survive a day without your cultivation then you are finished in the cultivation world"

"Rest a little, the first phase will start very soon"

The old man said before leaving the participants to do their own things.

Shiro looked around before motioning for Eris to come closer, when she came Shiro led her to where Emris was standing.

"Teach her that spell"

Shiro said to the boy, before leaving.

Eris and Emris did not know what to make of this, he just commanded the boy to teach her something before leaving.

The two stared at each other in confusion for a while before Eris decide to break the silence.

"My name is Eris"

She introduced herself

"Emris"

The boy responded, he then became silent for a while before casting the same spell again. The magic circle formed at a slower rate than the first one but this time it was three circles instead of two, without wasting anytime, he aimed his staff at Shiro in the distance before releasing the spell.

A large fireball breezed through the crowd before heading towards Shiro at an extremely fast speed. Shiro's martial awareness immediately alerted him once the spell entered his range.

Three meters wasn't a long distance to cover but for someone with Shiro's level of expertise, even dodging a point blank common grade spell was not impossible, Shiro swerved his body to the right only dodging the attack by a hair's breadth before launching himself at Emris.

His figure blurred as he appeared right in the middle of Eris and Emris, he placed his right hand on his left shoulder then placed his sword that was been held by his left hand on Emris back with the tip of the sword touching the boy's body.

Emris' body jerked as his mind registered Shiro's presence, he was stunned by Shiro's evasive ability and was to late to react to Shiro's follow up.

"You really have no experience, do you?"

Shiro said, Emris looked at Shiro in horror, he had experienced Shiro's ability to take life without batting an eye, if Shiro wanted to kill him now he wouldn't even be able to react.

Shiro saw the fear in his eyes and decided to sheath his blade, the words Shin said to him began to make a lot more sense now, if he continued this way he was sure to end up lonely.

"You don't have to teach her anything if you don't want to"

With that Shiro went away, he still had to practice his evasive technique so that he could get more accustomed to it.

At the end of the day, Emris still took the time to teach Eris some of the common grade spells he knew. He didn't teach her everything he knew simply because giving your competition too much help was not a wise thing to do.

The day ended dully with almost nothing of worth even happening.

The next day, the participants gathered around in a small hall were they would be instructed on what to do in the next test.