Chapter 3: The Arena

The Arena is the place where competitions and some of the tests are held. It looks like a normal building from the outside, but inside the tunnels people will get a strange feeling and when they will finally enter the Arena field they'll perceive all the history of it, all the battles, all the excitement, all the bloodshed, all the wins and losses that happened inside of it.

Today the arena field is filled by a group of kids, the eldest barely older than 13 years old. All of them were separated in 3 smaller groups. The first group is standing on the left side of the field, inside there are 22 kids and their age ranged from 5 to 7. The second group is standing on the right side, there are 15 kids in it and their age ranged from 8 to 10 and the last group is standing in the middle of the others and only have 7 kids that were between 11 and 13 years old.

In front of the three groups of kids there are 4 men standing in different outfits The first man has black curvy shoulder lenght hair and a short beard that is 4 cm long, he has a healthy color and is almost 2 meter tall, his body build is quite muscular, emanating a feeling of strenght off him, he's wearing a similar outfit to Jiang but the only difference is that he has some goldish engravings on his armor and that he's wearing only a single belt but on the middle there's a circular object made of a strange black stone, that gives off the feeling of an oppresive aura, with the wolf symbol engraved.

The second man has white long hair and a clean face with bright blue eyes. Compared to the first man he has a less muscular build with an height of 1.80 meters. He's wearing a hanfu with some light blue parts and markings that look like swirls going upward from the lower area. Above the hanfu he's wearing a light blue robe that exudes a mysterious and wise aura, he too had the symbol of the wolf on his clothes, to be exact on his back and he even has a book in his hands.

The third man has short black hair and black eyes, his face so common that anyone has atleast seen his face once in their lifetime. He's wearing a simple blackish kimono, the wolf crest on the upper left chest area. He looks quite young and he's the shortest of all the others being only 1.60 meter tall, on his clothes there are some strange symbols that at first look like simple, but after staring for some time they will start emit a profound feeling and together with that his body radiates a powerful aura off as if he's warning everyone that he's not someone that you can joke around with.

The fourth man has brown hair and an unclean face, it's filled with dirt and he has a scar on his chin that forms an "X" and he has a straw in his mouth too, he has a bull like figure and quite a few muscles, he's wearing a green kimono and a straw hat. The kimono is a bit loose so you could see his chest area with some scars, the hat surely had seen better days, some bear marks are visible on it.

At first the man doesn't give off any feeling but after looking for some time you would start perceiving him more like a predator and you being a small animal.

The second man suddenly steps out and looks over the three groups "Welcome young ones, we four are the judges for this test. We will examine you all in different categories to see if you are worthy to join our clan or not". He continues to look over and his gaze stops five times. Twice in the third group, once to the eldest boy and the second time to a somewhat sick looking boy. Then it stopped once in the second group to a slim girl in somewhat good clothes and then once in the first group, to be exact Nie.

"But don't worry even if you fail, we will give you the opportunity to join our clan as servants, because we know that sometimes some of you have no other place to go". He looks again over the same kids and now some of them that looked like they would panic at any moment looked a bit calmer. "Now before we start we shall introduce ourselves. I am Láng Li and I'm one of the teachers of the five element institute and an elder of the clan".

After saying this he goes back to the place where he stood and the first man moves out, beginning to talk in a deep voice "Láng Zhan, I'm one of the 3 Generals of our clan and one of the gate guardians of our town".

He goes back too and the fourth man steps out, he begins to talk in a somewhat excited and loud tone "I am Tamer Láng, I have no other name, since my birth I was one of the tamers and guardians of our precious beasts in wild ring".

After returning back to his place the third man proceeds to walk out and in a neutral tone "Láng Shen, I'm the top refiner and alchemist of the clan and because of you guys I needed to stop in my pill refining, I hope we have some talents between you or-" Suddenly Li slaps Sheng on his backhead to stop him from talking "So now you know us all. We shall now begin with the assessments, you all will go through three tests.

The talent test, in this examination we will evaluate your general talent, the compatibility test, there we will assess how compatible you are with our clan techniques and the last examination is the cultivation test, there we will evaluate your cultivation and your talent for it."

After saying so he can see some dumbfounded looks "oh right, some of you may not know yet what cultivation is. Cultivation is something mysterious; it is an ability to go against the natural way, to acquire abilities that normally women and men can only dream off. At that cultivations is separated in multiple stages, at the beginning everyone starts in the body forging period. In this stage you will forge your body and strengthen it to be able to cultivate.

The Body forging period is separated into 3 major periods called 'Strenght Period' 'Vitality Period' and 'Energy Period' and all of them have 3 minor periods and these are separated into 3 levels, minor success, large success and perfection. This is all that you need to know for now, let the testing begin.

The first group to start is the batch with the age range of 11 to 13 years old" As he say that all the kids of the group begin to step forward while the 3 others elders already began to activate some kind of formation. While activating it some strange symbols begin to shine on the arena floor together with lines that link them together, the more time passed and the brighter the Arena became together with the increasing of the numbers of symbols and lines, and when finally the middle section of the arena was filled with the latters did the light suddenly explode upwards to create a pillar of light.

Shortly afterwards it disappeared and a strange formation with the wolf crest in the middle appeared on the floor. "So, let the first person enter the formation" all groups looked at the formation and 90% of them are scared because of the strange light that appeared a few seconds before, but then suddenly one of the kids in the group selected steps out.

He has short red hair and is tall 1.60 meters. He wears a red judo uniform where the sleeves at the end have yellow markings, same at the ending of his pants. "Greeting seniors, I'm Huǒ Xìng which somewhat means nature fire" he bows to all four of the elders and then walks into the formation. The formation brightens up and strange symbols begin to fly around the kid for a few minutes.

After that time the symbols flew towards Láng Li's book

"Huǒ Xìng: Age 13, Gender: Male Talented in: Fightning and Scouting

Compatibility: High

Cultivation: Peak Strenght Period and Talent: Bright Yellow with a speck of green, low gifted rank. Excellent seed"

Says Láng Li, then he walks towards him, but before he could reach the kid Láng Zhan appears in front of him, blocking his way to the boy "Huǒ Xìng do you wanna join the warriors? With your potential you're gonna achieve great things from us" "Huǒ Xìng is honored to be chosen as a warrior for the great Láng clan" he kneels down in front of the General "Good, from now on you are a member of our clan juniour generation, go over there and wait for the others to finish" Láng Li shakes hi head but then just ignores what happened, asking for the next one to step out and walk toward the formation.

This time the person who walks out is quite small, tall just 1.30 meters and with a quite slim build too. He has black hair and he wears a dirty green kimono, his name is Bao Lee. Again the formation begins to shine and the symbols fly around, after it ended everyone looks towards Láng Li waiting for the result.

"Bao Lee: Age 11, Gender: Male,

Talented in: Farming and Planting, Compatibility: Low,

Cultivation: Low Strenght Period and Talent: 40% Red and 60% Orange above average seed".

Bao Lee steps out the formation quite discouraged but immediatly Láng Sheng steps out "Your talent is just above average but I could use some new farmers that know how to take care of medical fields" says arrogantly and then he moves his hand and Bao Lee flies over to Huǒ Xìng while his kimono gets cleared by the air, wearing it properly too.

After that the other collected themselves and began to try out, everything goes smoothly and rather quickly and 30 minutes later the first group finished entirely while in the second batch of kids between 8 and 10 already ten of them finished the examination, with that the total number of people tested is now 17 but only 3 new kids are standy next to Huǒ Xìng and Bao Lee, the rest failed and even the 3 new chosen barely passed because of their high enough talent together with their physical and mental talents somewhat suited for one of the elders.

Then suddenly

"Lian Xue: Age 8, Gender: Female,

Talented in: Memorization and Fightning(Ranged),

Compatibility: High,

Cultivation: Low Strenght period and Talent: Green with some specks of blue... Rare seed"

Immediatly all the Elders fell in an uproar, a green grade talent, that's something that is rarely seen too in the direct descendant of the most important clan members. All of them went toward her, but then they stopped except of Láng Li because of a suffocating pressure "Young girl, do you want to become my disciple?" Lian Xie looked shocked and at the same time confused at the elder but then begins to nod and kneels down to perform three kowtows "Lian Xue greets master" Láng Li smiles and snaps his fingers, immediately her unclean and dirty kimono changed into a ice blue colored one, then she walks over the other kids, after all of this the elder finally move again but they just look helplessly at the scene that happened.

They proceed with the testing and most kids have red grade talents with only some having a part of orange too with the exception of 3 full orange and the rest has either white or gray level talent. Now there are 10 kids standing together with the wolf crest and happy faces and 33 kids standing together and sobbing. The elders getting ready to deactivate the formation were suddenly stopped by a voice "Wait, elders... I haven't been tested yet" All of the turn and notice a single kid still standing there, looking confused at the situation they think //in the list there are 43 kids but this is the 44th// "Kid, don't try to foul us, there are only 43 names on the list and all of them got already crossed off so please go back to your group, so that I can finally go back to work on my pills".

Says Láng Sheng with an angered look and begins to move his hand as if he wants to slap the boy, but it gets stopped by Láng Zhan "Stop brother Sheng, this little one really wasn't tested yet and I know why he isn't in the list, it's because he was just registered a few minutes before all of this started" "Oh and why would you know that Zhan?"

Láng Shengs voice is filled with anger and he frees his hand from Zhan's grip and again moves towards the kid but gets interrupted again by someone, this time by Láng Li "Brother Zhan is saying the truth, now calm yourself brother Sheng and let's finish the last test" He turns to the boy "Little one sorry for forgetting you, I didn't check the message that Elder Jian gave me before the test started and I'm sorry for Elder Shengs bad temper, he was in the middle of something important when we interrupted him for this examination" the kid bows "Nie understands Elders".