Court 107

An Old man was standing on top of a platform wearing a black robe with a specially designed silver thumb ring signifying his standing as an outer court elder of the Variety Fortune's Sect.

"The exam is quite simple. The sect you're all trying to enter value one's fortune and luck equally to one's cultivation. Your task is to find one 'Black Pearl Berry' in the forest beside you. If you were to find the Black Pearl Berry, the sect will either buy it from you for 800 gold or you may keep it for yourself to nurture your cultivation. And take note that only five of you will pass this exam!" The strict and tidy looking elder said as he gazed at exactly 1000 people that looked at him with patience.

The elder took a brief pause in order to scan the area and then said "You have a time limit of two hours. In this time other than killing and crippling, everything is allowed. Gazing Formations are set all across the forest so no one will be able to commit these crimes during the examination. Now Begin!"

The crowd of one thousand looked at the elder in a daze which made him smile. The moment the elder smiled, everyone realized that the examination had begun and one after another, everyone ran towards the forest till no one remained in the open field in front of the Variety Fortune Sect Gate except the elder a few outer disciples.

Kal ran into the forest, not because he was afraid that all the Black Pearl Berry's would finish by the time he reached there, but because he knew for a fact he could use his creation powers to create one in an instant. After all, even though it wasn't easy to find, it was still uncommon and not rare.

"Ya know if you keep walking that slow all the Black Pearl Berry's will be gone before ya know it!" a short black haired girl dashed past Kal as she slapped his back in encouragement.

He didn't get a chance to see the girl's face but her comment made him chuckle nonetheless and before Kal had a chance to reply, she had already disappeared into the forest. Kal avoided all the gazing formations and camped at his spot.

An hour passed and Kal saw that some people already started to come out of the forest. He created a Black Pearl Berry and came out of the forest. The limit of people allowed to pass the exam was 5 and Kal had already seen three people leave the forest so without further hesitation, Kal left the forest and approached the elder.

Presenting the Berry to the Strict and tidy elder, he said "Un. This is a Black Pearl Berry freshly picked." he ruffled in his robe and picked out a thin stone tablet with the number '4' written on it.

The elder handed it to Kal and said "Congratulations. Now we're waiting for one more person to arrive. For now, you can wait with the others"

Kal took the tablet and put it in his inner suit pocket.

The elder had also taken a notice to Kal's suit and stroked his long white beard in silent contemplation.

Kal, approached the group of people who passed the exam and noticed that among them, the girl who patted his back earlier wasn't there. He was kind of disappointed that he didn't get to see her but he wouldn't lose sleep over it.

The group of people were talking with each other and seeing Kal approaching, the largest built among them smiled at Kal and spoke "I see you've also passed! Including you and the next one who comes out of the forest, the five of us will all stay in the same courtyard until we either leave the sect or become inner disciples! My name is Lu Wengchen!"

He brought out his hand for a handshake.

"I just go by Kal" Kal brought out his hand to shake Lu Wengchen.

"Kal is it? That's a unique name if I've ever heard one. Say, where did you buy your clothes? It looks quite fancy!"

The elder from earlier who was standing a bit farther away perked his ears up when he heard Lu Wengchen's question.

"I made it, but if you want, I can make one for you for a price" Kal said letting out a cheeky grin.

"Hmmmm… I'll think about it but your outfit doesn't look to freeing"

"Anyways, come meet the others!" Lu Wengchen brought Kal over to the group and introduced each of them. In the entire group including Kal, there were three guys and one girl. Each shared their own stories of how they found there berry's and when i came to Kal's turn, he shrugged his shoulders and said

"I literally just found one when we entered the forest on a bush. I was scared that the elders would think I cheated so I waited an hour before returning"

The entire group sighed and one person spoke up. She was a short red haired girl named Lilly "You're so lucky! I had to fight a 3rd stage Profound Indulgence Realm beast and I got a cut on the back of my leg, see! It hurts and it might turn into a scar!"

She turned her right leg to show a long red thin cut on her right leg.

And as it turns out, each person in the ground had their own difficulty finding the Berry as it was clear that the berry didn't grow anywhere easy to get. All of them just counted Kal off as lucky since the elder confirmed that his berry was freshly picked from the forest.

Soon, 1 hour and 55 minutes passed since the start of the examination. And just as everyone thought that no one was coming and only four people passed the exam this time, a yell was heard just outside the forest.

"Waitt!!! I'm coming!!!!" a girl with short black hair and a face covered by dirt ran to the elder who started to pack up the things used for today's exam.

Kal faintly smiled recognizing the voice and black hair of the girl who ran to the elder with a bright toothy smile with clear ocean blue eyes untainted by corruption.

Kal seeing her eyes sighed in relief. He was happy that existence wasn't so unbalanced that uncorrupted people like the girl running towards the group, with her right hand raised up in the sky showcasing the Black Pearl Berry in all its glory, ceased to exist.

The elder confirmed the Berry was picked in the forest today and brought the girl to the group and said "Now that the five of you have passed the exam, behind your tablets is your courtyard number and room number.

Kal, like everyone else was in courtyard 107. And also like everyone else, they all got a small room to themselves. Kal had got room number four.

Other than the court and room number, there was also an ID number.

The elder dug into his pockets and picked out five bronze thumb rings.

These rings are autofitting. This or the sect robes must be worn at all times. If you aren't wearing one or the other outside your courtyard, a disciplinary measure will be executed.

Everyone took the rings and put it on the fingers of their choosing.

Kal personally put the bronze ring on his left hand's thumb.

Lu Wengchen put his ring on his left hand middle finger and the girl who was covered in dirt put her ring on her right hand pinky.

The elder left the group to an outer court disciple who led the ground to their courtyard, 107.

The grass field in the center of the courtyard was maybe the size of half an outdoor school basketball court.

"Our journey begins hahahaha!" Lu Wengchen laughed excitedly to see his room which was number 1.

Lilly nodded in silence, her room number was three.

The group entered each of their individual rooms.

Kal and the girl with short black hair had their rooms side by side as they were number 4 and 5 respectively.

Kal entered his room and saw it was all literally one room. A small twin size bed with a thin mattress and right next to it was a wooden desk and chair with a light powered by a formation array. The chair of the desk was out and it's back had already hit the bed, meaning Kal had to slither his way into the desk's leg room space if he wanted to sit in the wood chair.

The washroom was separated by a door and only contained a toilet and sink, no shower.

The shower in question was outside in one of the other rooms of the courtyard, remembering that one of the courtyard doors was open and Kal clearly saw a shower in it.

"One shower shared by five people… Seriously?" Kal sighed seeing the crappy room he would be living in. Of course Kal didn't need to shower as he could use a complete cleaning technique that he knew, but it was by no means a common technique. Each person in the courtyard will take showers and thus, Kal had to also so that he could keep appearances and let people know he wasn't some unhygienic person. Of course, the suit was cleaned daily as well.

After Kal filled his small dresser with a few casual clothes, boxers and suits (no hangers), he left his room.

Leaving, Kal saw that Lu Wengchen was sitting on the courtyard floor that surrounded the courtyard's garden zoning out into space.

Seeing that someone finally left their room, Lu Wengchen's eyes suddenly turned bright "Finally someone finally came out!"

"Kal! Lets go to the martial stadium and duel!"

Kal raised his eyebrows and said "Why do you wanna fight all of a sudden?"

"Isn't it obvious? The best way for men to get to know each other is through combat!"

Kal gave it a moment's thought and then said "Why not, we may as well. But what about everyone else?"

"I'm sure they've already heard me when I told you. Now let's go!"

Kal agreed, the walls were pretty thin...

Lu Wengchen approached Kal and grabbed his arm, dragging him along.

"Okay, okay! There's no rush!" Kal broke free from Lu Wengchen's grip and walked side by side with him to the arena.

====

Kal and Lu Wengchen found themselves an arena to duel on.

"Don't hold back on me! I'm an 8th stage Profound Indulgence Cultivator and I never hold back my attacks"

Kal who had his hands in his pants pockets took them out. He felt that when Lu Wengchen said not to hold back, keeping his hands in his pants pocket was just plain disrespect. And Lu Wengchen had been treating him well so there's no point in offending him.

Lu Wengchen stood at a tall 6'5 and was extremely well built. His muscles bulged out and veins protrude along his arms and legs. He was probably only 20 years old which was the freaky part. He was bald and had piercing black eyes that stared Kal down like he was prey.

A powerful aura exploded from Lu Wengchen that pressured the air around him. Lu Wengchen lept towards Kal at startling speeds, almost leaving afterimages behind him and before Kal could realize, a large fist hurled down to his head.

But before Lu Wengchen could land a hit, for some reason he felt a repulsion force as if a rope suddenly wrapped around his body forcibly pulling him away from Kal.

"What the hell?" Lu Wengchen looked around himself but except the few people looking at their match in equal surprise on the arena's seats, he couldn't find anything that pulled him away from Kal.

Lu Wengchen focused his gaze back on Kal only to see Kal give him a smile almost saying, 'What's wrong, something happen? Well I know exactly what happened and won't tell you!'

"Did you do that?" Lu Wengchen asked.

"Maybe. You're just going to have to find out aren't you?"

At this point, the rest of the group for 107 arrived at the stadium and after looking around, they finally found Kal and Lu Wengchen staring each other down.

The group of three sat down on one side of the arena looking intently at the two's match.

Lu Wengchen once again leaped at Kal with startling speeds and unlike before, he didn't feel any force tugging him away.

Kal smiled which startled Lu Wengchen, so he put as much force as he could behind his kick aiming right above Kal's waist.

Kal used his gravitational force manipulation to weigh down Lu Wengchen's right leg as if a hundred extra pounds was suddenly added to them.

The attack noticeably slowed down.

The obvious downside to Lu Wengchen's big body was his lack of flexibility.

Kal grabbed his right leg and only lifted it slightly higher which caused Lu Wengchen to groan, not used to his leg stretching that much.

Taking advantage of the imbalance that Lu Wengchen suffered, Kal grabbed Lu Wengchen's neck and picked him up just enough allowing Kal to slam him head first onto the ground. Lu Wengchen spat out saliva which Kal dodged tactfully.

Chen Mu, the last of the five and nerd of the group readjusted his glasses and said, "Kal is pretty cool headed."

"How?" Zoey Palortha, the short black haired girl that still had some smudged dirt on her face from trying to wipe it away earlier asked Chen Mu.

"Isn't it obvious? Most people would be frightened seeing someone one realm above them rushing straight towards them. Not to forget Lu Wengchen's size, the fact that he could keep calm and make use of Lu Wengchen's poor flexibility to get him off balance. And then Kal raised Lu Wengchen's big stature and slammed him onto the ground. If that isn't an efficient way to subdue someone, then I don't know what is!"

Zoey only hummed as redirected her gaze back to the stadium.

Chen Mu then stood up and said "I'm going next."

====

Back on the stadium, Kal helped Lu Wengchen off the ground after he finished coughing his soul out.

"You need to think more and not just charge directly head on into battle."

Lu Wengchen just nodded and then asked "What was that earlier when I flew back like someone was pulling me? And then later when I tried kicking you, it felt like a mountain suddenly weighed down on my leg."

Kal knew that gravity techniques were extremely rare and shouldn't be disclosed so easily so he answered, "Family technique, can't tell"

The group who was listening on in the stadium nodded their heads in understanding. Family techniques were more powerful than what a 3rd rate sect could offer outer court disciples.

Hearing Kal's answer, Zoey who was always cheery frowned slightly. It wasn't her woman's intuition that told her Kal was lying nor was it a tick that Kal gave off. It was just that, her eyes were a bit special…

Chen Mu arrived at the stadium and challenged Kal to a duel. Lu Wengchen left the stadium and joined Zoey and the rest on the stadium seats.

Kal and Chen Mu's battle went underway after Lu Wengchen left and contrary to Lu Wengchen, Chen Mu didn't dash at Kal right away and only probed what Kal would do.

Kal wasn't a one trick pony and although he learned two techniques yesterday, it didn't mean he didn't know any before that at all. He knew many techniques that he could currently use but learned the two from earlier so that he wouldn't be helpless if he met someone several realms above him.

"Brother Mu, do you know the art of deceit and trickery?" Kal asked Chen Mu.

Chen Mu raised his right eyebrow in confusion but answered "Of course but most deceit and trickery based techniques require a large amount of preparation.

"Your right, but not all."

Kal slowly walked towards Chen Mu who was six meters away from him.

Slowly starting from his legs, his entire body turned into what looked like playing cards before disappearing completely.

All the people who were watching this match and people who weren't and glanced at the stadium seeing only one person standing there couldn't help but wonder what was going on. After all, one isn't allowed to step onto the stadium until both parties of the duel arrive.

Chen Mo quickly looked around him. Up, down, left, right, front, back, but he couldn't see Kal at all 'Did he run away? Was that an illusion' was a thought everyone had until they noticed that Chen Mo was suddenly bleeding from a sharp cut to his cheek.

Suddenly, dozens of sharp cuts appeared all across Chen Mo's body as if a sword was cutting at him .

But Chen Mo wasn't going to let whatever that was happening just happen. He started to run all over the stadium and noticed that the cuts he was getting happened less and less frequently, thinking that the technique Kal used required a person to stay still for maximum output and right now it was like a man was chasing Chen Mo with a sword. He may get many cuts in at the start when Chen Mo wasn't as mobile, but the more he moved, the less cuts he got.

When Chen Mo had the opportunity he used his momentum from his running on top of his strength as a 8th Stage Profound Indulgence Realm that equaled to 2600 pounds of force, and slammed his fist onto the ground.

The stadium shattered and Chen Mo noticed that at the corner of his eyes, the playing cards that disappeared a few minutes ago suddenly reappeared and formed back into Kal who was trying to steady his balance.

Chen Mo felt his tense body suddenly relax when he saw Kal but that was a mistake. The dozens of sword-like cuts caused trauma on his body and the only reason he could keep moving after the cuts he got was because adrenaline seeped through his body. And now that he suddenly relaxed, the adrenaline stopped pumping through his body and all the sharp and concentrated pain caused Chen Mo to fall on his right leg that felt completely numb.

Looking at Chen Mo, Kal sighed 'That's the problem with low level trickery techniques, although they're powerful, they're extremely sensitive and could be disrupted by one misstep.

Stretching, everyone from court 107 looked at Kal as if he were a monster 'What kind of technique was that?!'