Chapter 13- Exams III

As I spoke those words it felt like world around me froze, everything went silent. Nobody moved. And everybody started to look at me. I felt that I did something that I should not have done. I slowly raised my head to look at the elder Weng.

But to my surprise she was just looking at me waiting for my response gesturing with her hand for me to continue.

I breath a sigh of relief and spoke.

"As for the technique it is rather special infusion technique that causes every one of my hits to apply debuff that slows downs the opponents by four percent, once it reaches 25 stacks it freezes them and they shatter into million pieces."

She nodded. "How many stack did the guys that were teleported had?"

"They were about to get the 25th one when they vanished." I responded truthfully.

"I see. So, if the amulet did not react, they would freeze and shatter?"

"Yes, assassination section leader Weng!" I responded and bowed politely.

This was when the angry elder from before spoke. "Bullshit, that's nonsense. Do you think we are going to believe you?"

"Silence!" Weng spoke and then mischievous smile appeared on her face. "Let's test something! Elder Ho you think that kid is lying right?"

He nodded. "Yes, assassination section leader Weng!"

"OK than go down there and let the kid hit you 25 times with the polearm!" She pointed to the ground.

"But…."

"You are the one that stopped the match, you are the one that is saying that the kid is bullshiting so go fucking ahead and prove your theory. If the kid won't shatter you in 25 strikes, we will nullify his results and toss him out, if he does you will die and your entire family will be dismissed because you slandered the integrity of the sect!"

 "Assassination section leader Weng, there is no need for that. If you trust the boy, I will gladly retract my claim." He spoke trying to wiggle out of this situation.

"Nonsense, go down and let the kid hit you, I don't won't to see you defend in any way. And you kid just scratch him, no stabs no deep cuts, let your technique do the work not your blade. Understood, both of you?"

We both nodded and elder descended down to the ground, visibly angry. I prepared myself and looked once again to elder Weng. She just nodded at me with smile. So, I just shrugged and started swinging, paying attention to do just shallow small cuts.

I reached ten in no time after that twenty. That was when elder Weng started to count aloud.

"21!"

"22!"

"23!"

"24!"

As I was about to land swing number 25 a barrier stopped my swing. Elder Ho looked dumbfounded together with all the elders that could see it outside of elder Weng. She chuckled and spoke.

"Elder Ho can you please tell us what is the barrier that just triggered against the attack of an applicant?"

Elder woke from the stupor and spoke slowly. "Lifenet barrier. The strongest barrier that can be installed into an amulet."

She chuckled and spoke. "I see and what are the conditions for the barrier to trigger?"

Elder started to spoke once again with unreadable face. "It will only trigger when I would lose my life with the next attack."

"I see, so do you now see why you were being a moron to a boy that is going to be a valuable asset to the sect? And why? Just because your below average son you pumped full of pills all life lost to him? Get lost from the sect with your family. I don't want to see any of you here ever again!"

"But ass…."

"Silence moron! Be happy I am in a good mood and you get to leave with your life in tact! Guards throw them out!"

The guards dragged the elder out.

"OK now you continue the match!" She gestured to the referee but before he could start the match something shocked everybody. All the applicants in my groups outside of me screamed in unison.

""I give up!""

They didn't want to risk to be hit by something that can even kill the inner elder of sect. Relaying on talisman to bail them out didn't really sounded reassuring enough.

What followed was an absolute silence followed by the beautiful melodious laughter of elder Weng.

"Boy you scarred them shitless. But I don't blame them, knowing you have to face something that does not give a fuck about your rank, and only needs to scratch you a bunch in hands of complete cultivator specializing in speed and ice. That's what I call fucking scarry proposition. What's your name boy?"

"Lei Fen, assassination section leader Weng." I answered and respectfully bowed my head.

She chuckled. "Look at you alternating between respectful bowing and gobbling me up with your eyes, not even blushing while doing that. It's rather comical. Do you like what you see that much?"

"Yes, very much assassination section leader Weng."

She laughed. "Pity, you are shit assassin, your martial art is too flashy and freezes everything around you, you would be leaving signature pointing right at you after every job. I would have taken you as my personal student right away."

I looked up. "I promise you that I will become good enough to be your personal student and more. Much more than just that."

She chuckled. "You are amusing, most people are scarred shitless to even think about being with me, and look at you declaring to make me yours. I like it! Let's do this, if you manage to become my personal student I will become your cultivation partner. How about that?"

I smiled. "Deal!"

She shook her head still chuckling. "You have a year, during that year you are under my protection, I won't take any personal students but you can't take any more partners to make it fair. You have just the girl you mentioned at the registration, right?"

I nodded. "Yes!"

"Good, make sure it stays that way! You have a year!"

As she finished speaking, I noticed that there was pin drop silence all around us. It took about a minute for our referee to wake up from the stupor and close our match with me as a winner.

Shortly after that I checked my stone and indeed, I was sitting at 150 points. I did it I had enough points to be core disciple. I quickly ran towards Yuki that was standing not far from ring with the rabbit next to her and hugged her tightly.

"I did it, I am core disciple." I whispered in her ear as I hugged her.

"Yes, and you picked up an elder, not just any elder but assassination section leader." She spoke.

"I apologize, are you angry?"

"Angry, no. Dumbfounded yes. I could not believe what you just did, you must have balls made of steel!"

"Why?"

"She is a beautiful strong cultivator; do you think you very the first one who tried to pick her up?"

"Most likely no!"

"She is known for being manhater, I don't understand how did you make her to react like this!"

"Manhater? She? Really, I found her really cute!"

Like this we chatted for a some time, when we were interrupted by voice of elder Qu. He sent everybody to a different building depending on the amount of points they received. With my score 150 I was meant go to the furthest building, next to the gate towards the part of sect meant for inner disciples. I was the only applicant that went that way. This kind of surprised me, I expected to be there at least one more person to reach 150 points.

As we reached the building, we were supposed to, we found it almost entirely vacant, there was just one person sitting behind the table. It was a man that looked to be in his late thirties. When he noticed us, he chuckled and spoke.

"Hello Lei Fen. I am leader of dark forest cleaning section, elder Luo! You made quite a ruckus; I don't know if I should be congratulating you or warning you."

"Hello leader of dark forest cleaning section Luo! Warning me from what?" I asked back.

"You managed to plus minus pick up the most coveted woman in the sect, what do you think the opinion of you is between men in the sect?" Elder spoke again.

"Well, at least you don't seem to be angry with me." I responded.

He chuckled. "I am happily married man; my wife is not a cultivator but her looks are exquisite. And her heart is pure. I love her a little bit too much to be honest. So, I am free to have fun watching everybody else loose there cool and all the woman being curious what kind of bunny made showing strong enough to get through to the ice queen!"

I nodded. "I understand, so I should be wary of a bunch of jealous idiots and curious women. Noted! Thank you!"

"You summed it up perfectly. But now let's get to the business. First is your sect identification."

Elder handed me badge that looked to be made of pure gold, it was depicting five daggers in the circle with there edges pointing out.

"Wear this on visible place, and always wear this."

He handed me a pitch-black bracelet.

"That badge is for everybody to see that you are core disciple from distance, nobody will bother you with that. That bracelet is what records everything about you here in the sect."