Promotion Exam

On the raised platform, two disciples were fighting each other. One had a white badge on their robes, and the other had a red badge.

Badges represent your rank in the sect. White badges mean Outer disciple, red means inner disciple, and blue means Core disciple. The elders wear white robes instead of badges, while the Sect Leader wears a black robe.

The Outer disciple was struggling and was sending an onslaught of Water spears at the Inner disciple, who was dodging the spears and closing the distance between them. Once the Inner disciple got into range, he shot out a massive wind torrent and launched the Outer disciple off the platform.

The Outer disciple got caught by an elder before hitting the ground. The disciple had a disappointed look on his face until the elder held a red badge in front of their face. The disciple's expression lit up and the elder ripped off their white badge and put the red badge in its place.

Adonis watched all of this from afar with Lena beside him. He currently drinking orange juice to calm himself.

"I still don't get why you're nervous," Lena said confusedly

"Because if I lose or give a less than satisfying performance I won't rise in rank and the Sect Leader wants me to get to Core Disciple by taking the exam. If I fail, it means I lose a chance to rank up."

"Yeah...still don't get it. If you think that any of these Inner disciples could match up with you, you underestimate yourself too much."

"Thanks for that."

"Hey, I'm just speaking the truth."

"Either way, thanks." Adonis gave a sincere smile.

Lena blushed a bit at this, put her hand over her mouth, and muttered "Why the fuck do you have to be so cute?"

"You say something?"

"Nothing! Hurry up, it's your turn." Lena pushed Adonis toward the platform.

"Ok, ok, go it." Adonis made his way toward the platform and walked onto its right side.

Adonis waited for the person to come up and he saw an Inner disciple come up. When Adonis used his senses, he saw that they were Refinement Stage 2-spark. Immediately, Adonis calmed down as he had already defeated a person with the same cultivation level in the past.

The guy was a bit nervous but he was one of the disciples that doubted the claims that Adonis Lock became an absolute monster. He used his senses and was surprised by his cultivation level.

'He's...Foundation stage 5-spark?"

That's right; Adonis did not cultivate into the Refinement Stage. Adonis hadn't cultivated into the next stage even though he definitely could because he wanted to reach the limit of his strength. For everyone, there is a limit to their strength, and the only way to increase that limit is by cultivating it to the next level. If a person reached their limit and cultivated, that limit would increase by two-fold making them have more room to become stronger now. But, a person who cultivates before reaching their limit would have their limit increase less than a person who had reached it. Adonis had studied this and was now reaching the pinnacle of the Foundation Stage before going into the Refinement Stage.

The Inner Disciple scoffed at this and was oblivious to what Adonis was trying to do by staying in the Foundation Stage.

"Guess the rumors exaggerated you quite a bit, huh?"

Adonis didn't answer and closed his eyes.

"You're not answering? So that must mean I'm right, right?"

Adonis stayed silent.

The elder put their hand up and looked at both of them to see if they were ready.

"Hah! Guess I'll get the answer after I beat the shit out of you!"

The Inner disciple got into a typical sword stance and had a mocking expression. The elder swung their hand down, signaling the start of the fight, and what happened next caught everyone in shock.

Adonis disappeared and appeared behind the Inner disciple. The Inner disciple couldn't react before he felt something missing on his right side and saw his right arm in mid-air with the sword still in its hand.

The Inner disciple was confused and looked at his cut-apart right shoulder and slowly realized what happened.

"Ah...Aaaahhh!...AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

The Inner disciple screamed in agony and fell to the floor, trying to stop the bleeding by putting his left hand over the wound, but the blood kept gushing out like a waterfall. The elder came to their senses, reached the Inner disciple, and put a Spirit Grade Great-quality healing potion into the disciple's mouth. The inner disciple started to calm down as the pain subsided and the blood clotted.

The elder got up and looked at Adonis who was standing there calmly as if nothing had happened. The elder flinched at Adonis's reaction and slowly approached him.

They gave Adonis a red badge and said "Congratulations" before taking the white badge and going back to their spot.

Adonis put the red badge on and went back to Lena, with everyone that he passed staring at him with an expression of shock and fear.

Adonis reached Lena, who was also surprised by Adonis's performance.

"Sooo...what did you think?"

"I think...that you need to explain how the hell you did that in private."

Lena took Adonis's hand and dragged him back to her dorm.

"Ok...explain how you became did that!"

"Well, I just spread my lightning across my body internally and sprinted at that guy."

"...That's all...?"

"Yeah? Why? Did you expect it to be complicated or something?"

"I mean!...yeah...but now I want to know how the hell your train!?"

Adonis explained to Lena his "Physique", and how he increases his affinity and trains to control it.

Lena was staring at Adonis as if he grew a second head.

"Wow...you're cheating at cultivation now..."

"I would say I was just lucky."

"You're still cheating nonetheless."

"Alright! Say whatever you want about it, but now I'm officially an Inner disciple which means-"

"We can live together now!"

Lena forgot about Adonis's "cheating" and focused on the fact that Adonis could now live in the same room with her. In the sect, a male and female living together isn't against the rules as long as they don't disturb other disciples. Which Adonis and Lena could achieve as Lena could put a sound-proofing artifact in her dorm.

"Yeah, we can, but remember that I still need to train."

"Yeah, don't worry! I can wait until your free~"

Adonis chuckled at this and Lena jumped on Adonis.