Forming A Team 

Making use of this training session and examination, he mustered his courage and asked the three of them whether they would like to work as a team. To his relief, all of them agreed and were willing to work together. 

For Hong Yao, he had already been accepted into Hua Military Institute and so, the University Admission Scores were not important for him. As for Lin Xi Xi and Kong Huo Yu, both were not Combat-inclined people. Lin Xi Xi was a savant in Computing and was not really interested in anything else, as such, she did not do amazing in the GPPT. On the other hand, Kong Huo Yu was a jack of all trades, but a master of none. The only thing he was good at was talking out of his ass. 

With that settled, Li Tian filled in everyone's information and handed the form to his form teacher on Friday. Jun Wang's eyebrows were raised when he saw the names in Li Tian's team. Other than Hong Yao, the other two did not have any notable talents in their combat ability or cultivation. Yet, Jun Wang did not bother to ask about Li Tian's reason of choice. Personally, he knew that just Li Tian was more than enough to beat anyone in this high school. 

… 

In a blink of an eye, the 18th of September had arrived. Last weekend, after Li Tian talked about the year 3 exercise to his parents. Ming Guang Rong and especially, Li Xian started to get worried for their little boy. Although they had sent him off to the Li Army camp before, there was his uncle and his subordinates to watch over him at every move. This time, he was only going with his groupmates to camp inside the Red Iron Forest. If there was a sudden ambush by Demonic Beasts, even though there were teachers' station around the place, it would still take some time for them to arrive at the scene. It was only after Li Tian proved to his parents that he was able to hold his ground against a mid-level Qi Refinement Realm expert, did they relax their guard. To say the least, both of them were shocked in their child's progress. 

There were nine layers in the Qi Refinement Realm. The first three would be the low-level, followed by the next three being mid-level and finally the last three being high-level. To them, Li Tian was still at the first layer of Qi Refinement and was able to defeat a guardsman that was in the fourth layer of Qi Refinement. With that, Li Xian sent her youngest son off personally to the enclosed Red Iron Forest grounds that Friday. She kissed him on the forehead wishing him luck. Li Tian smiled as he gave his mother a hug back. He enjoyed little moments like this. 

Li Tian found his form teacher and got him to mark his attendance. He was early that morning and Hong Yao had not reached yet. 

"Hey, twerp. How you been?" Li Tian turned around to find the voice that called out to him. It came from the guy in gold-rimmed glasses, Jiu Lian Xiang. With his hands in his pocket, he walked up to the young boy who was more than two heads shorter than him. With a threatening tone, he asked, "I heard that you had bumped into my younger brother during your CPT. The word from him was that you had tarnished my family name. Is that correct?" 

"Ah? That dainty little dude was your brother. No need to thank me. I was only passing by and decided to teach your brother some manners." Li Tian waved his hand, not worried about Jiu Lian Xiang. 

"What did you just say?!" Angered by his nonchalant attitude, Jiu Lian Xiang grabbed and jerked Li Tian up by the collar of the school uniform. Li Tian was on his tippy toes at this point. 

Just then, a shout came from behind. "Jiu Lian Xiang! What do you think you're doing?" 

The gangster teenager obediently listened to his words. He knew that it came from his form teacher. Right before walking away, he gave Li Tian some parting remarks. 

"You better be watching your back in the forest. I'm coming for you." 

"Peh!" Li Tian fake spat on the ground as he tried to get the bad taste out of his mouth. If it weren't for the fact that he did not want to expose his strength, he would've sent the gangster wannabe six feet under. 

"Li Tian, are you alright?" Hong Yao asked worryingly. He was getting his attendance checked when he realised that Jiu Lian Xiang was squaring up with Li Tian. He immediately told the form teacher of Jiu Lian Xiang's doing. 

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" 

Li Tian waved it off as more of their classmates had finally arrived. When the attendance was fully marked, Teacher Jun Wang instructed everyone to change out of their school uniform into the standard issue army uniform. For the Red Iron Forest climate, just the normal long-form army uniform was enough. As Li Tian was especially small due to his age, he was issued the extra small-sized female uniform to wear. He looked like a little boy playing dress up as an army soldier. Jiu Lian Xiang and his lackeys laughed at him on the side. To their disappointment, Li Tian wasn't affected by it one bit. 

Eventually, once everyone was changed, the person in-charge of the Year three's training session, Principal Zhong Chen gave his piece of mind to the students at his school. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, if any of you are new to this and haven't grasped the significance of today's training session, let me clarify its importance. I hope you'll take my words to heart as you embark on this exercise." 

"This training session serves as a direct bridge to your upcoming "Survival Of The Fittest" examination scheduled in November. The examination will evaluate the very core skills you'll be honing during your time in the challenging Red Iron Forest. These skills include hunting, sleeping, and eating. Consider these three days and two nights as a mere teaser for the more extensive seven-day, six-night examination that awaits you." 

"Now is the perfect moment for all of you to identify your weaknesses and work diligently to improve upon them. I want to assure you that our dedicated teachers will be strategically positioned throughout the forest to ensure your safety and that no life-threatening situations arise. So, rest assured and take this opportunity to learn, adapt, and mature as the future cultivators of Hua." 

"Your performance today could very well shape your success in the "Survival Of The Fittest" examination. I have every confidence that each of you will rise to the challenge and show your unwavering commitment to your personal growth. Best of luck to all of you." 

Principal Zhong conviction could be felt throughout the speech. The year three students knew the importance of today's exercise. With the well-timed speech over and done with, everyone broke into their groups. 

In Li Tian's group, Kong Huo Yu was yawning to the side. The night before, he had been binging the latest anime series that came out from Getflix. Unlike conventional platforms, this company would release large chunks of episodes at once. Unable to curb his curiosity of whats going to happen in the next episode, Kong Huo Yu stayed up till 3 in the morning, before leaving for the forest at 5. 

Lin Xi Xi, although having gotten 8 hours of sleep, looked at tired as Kong Huo Yu. She sat in the corner silently, with her knees close to her chest. Hong Yao, on the other hand, was well rested and ready for the training exercise. He had built great sleeping habits and a proper study schedule, while was how he managed to acquire a top ten ranking in the GPPT. Li Tian was the same as Hong Yao. He did not think much of the exercise that was starting soon and so, was able to get sufficient sleep the night before. Besides, unlike Kong Huo Yu, he had a photographic memory and was able to watch anime during the exercise. 

"Alright, everyone, let us do one round of introductions about our Element Affinities." Hong Yao clapped his hands as he started off the introductions himself, "I'm a dual element cultivator in Water and Earth." 

Lin Xi Xi followed with, "Dual element in Wind and Water." 

Kong Huo Yu then added, "I'm a Dual element cultivator in Fire and Earth." 

Li Tian finished off with, "I'm a Triple element cultivator in Fire, Wind and Light." 

"Whewww… A triple element cultivator?" Kong Huo Yu whistled in surprise. It was rare enough to have three elements. But to have the rare Light as his third element, that was even more uncommon. 

"Alright, since we have two Wind element cultivators, the two of you should practice being the scouts of the team. This means finding Demonic Beasts, fresh water and a suitable shelter. Are y'all okay with that?" Wind element cultivators were known to be one of the fastest and nimblest cultivators out of all of the elements. This makes them suitable for scouting and escaping sticky situations. 

"Mmm." Li Tian and Lin Xi Xi nodded. 

"Kong Huo Yu and I shall focus on following your lead while foraging food."