Testing the Physical Strength

Su Yan rubbed his hands when he reached this part. This was the perfect introduction of the tests! Now, the readers would know what awaited them and that it wasn't anything all that special so they wouldn't feel too bad if he glossed over it. Thus he continued to nail down the first part of the admission test.

[After a few more words from the Elder, the first test began. The first recruit stepped forward and was asked to display his strength. He tilted his head, thinking about what he should do and finally decided to follow the example the Elder had given and run around the sect grounds. After all, he didn't really know what else counted.

The Elder nodded. It wasn't the first time that one of the disciples just chose what he had mentioned. It was a safe choice not to take something that was too out of the ordinary. He turned to the other disciples that were still waiting.

"Anyone else that wants to do this as his test?"

The children looked at each other and in the end, about a dozen of them shuffled forward. Most of them were children from ordinary families so they hadn't learned any sword arts and knew almost nothing about the deity sects. If they were supposed to lift something heavy, then maybe it would be too heavy for them. Running around for a while was still better. They were quite confident that they would manage to do that.

The Elder nodded and brought the disciples to the path leading down the Sect Master's peak. "Just follow this path down. You'll see a sign at the end that will point you in the right direction. Just follow it and continue to run on according to the signs until you reach here again."]

Su Yan's hands stopped moving and he stared at the screen. This wasn't right. If they just sent the disciples away, then how would they be observed? They could hardly have some Elders do the observation while the other disciples took different tests, right? After all, there should be a lot of children that wanted to take the test. At least a hundred would be reasonable.

Su Yan frowned. Wait. Had he already written about that? Argh, it was all because he had been forced to take such a long break! Now he couldn't remember all those details anymore! Well, it wasn't that bad. He would just assume there were a hundred children and if it weren't, he would just change it in the other chapter when he edited everything. Mn, what a good plan!

Su Yan nodded to himself and wanted to continue but then he remembered that that hadn't been the actual problem. The problem was what to do with the supervision of the possible recruits. Some of the Elders might want to take in a disciple after watching them do the test so it didn't make any sense if not all Elders watched them. In that case, everyone would have to watch while the disciples took their test.

He pursed his lips. This was logical but just how should that happen? The sect grounds were big and the ones attempting to run a lap around them were young children. Never mind that it was already asking very much of them to run around them once, even if they didn't grow tired it would still take a few days. The Jin Shan Sect was located on the Jin Mountain, after all. Which child could run around that in a short amount of time?

"Argh!" Su Yan ruffled his hair. This didn't make any sense at all! The Elders could never wait that long or the admission test would take at least a month. After all, nobody knew what the other disciples would want to do.

Mn … Maybe there was something the sect used to speed things up? Maybe it had to do with those signs the Elder had described? Su Yan straightened up, his eyes going wide. That was it! This was a deity sect full of people proficient in all trades that might lead to immortality. Even if the description of their admission test sounded incredibly simple, it might not be so in reality. So, most likely there really was something up with those signs.

They could be tied to some sort of array that would change the way where the disciples were running. For example, it could teleport the disciples to a spot farther or closer to the goal. Maybe they even did that depending on how the recruits fared.

Su Yan tilted his head. Wait! Why would they even need to do that? These were just some small children that didn't know the first thing about spiritual energy or arrays. Whatever happened they wouldn't know it was the cause of something the sect had done. So maybe … they weren't running around the sect grounds at all but only thought so?

Su Yan's lips curved up in a foxy grin and he started to type again.

[The Elder turned back to the other recruits still waiting in front of the palace and had the next one step forward as if he didn't care at all how that first batch would fare.

On the stands where the other Elders sat, one of them took out a crystal orb though and after imbuing some spiritual energy, an image could be seen inside. It showed another square in the Jin Shan Sect that was further down the road leading from the Sect Master's palace to the foot of the mountain. Small, red stones were erected around it that gave off a gentle light and equally red lines crisscrossed between them, creating a complicated pattern.

Just then one of the recruits that had left earlier could be seen approaching the square. He stepped onto the pattern and slowed down as if he didn't intend to run the rest of the way but only walk from now on. He took a few more steps forward and then turned to the side, walking to the left for a while before taking a sharp turn to the right.

He seemed as if he had completely forgotten that he was supposed to run around the sect grounds.]