Entrance Exam Begins!

"I can't wait for the exam to start!"

"John, get back here! Stay with the group or you'll get lost!"

"Hey, you're taking the exam too? What a coincidence!"

William and the others had arrived at the site of the entrance exam. Hundreds of people had gathered here and were conversing in loud voices. There were even tents set up from people who had arrived here yesterday.

William thought of Lucky, who was stuck back at the hotel. Of course, one of the guards had promised to help him look after it, but he was still worried.

A few minutes later, a loud whoosh could be heard and someone pointed up at the sky.

"Look up there!"

"What is that?"

William looked up and saw a person flying in the sky, coming closer to them

"It's a nascent soul realm cultivator!"

Flight was the hallmark of the nascent soul realm. At that stage, you would use your abundant spiritual energy to lift yourself into the air, essentially allowing you to fly. Of course, it was not unheard of for spirit condensation realm cultivators to fly, it's just that their spiritual energy was not enough to sustain flight longer than a few seconds.

The nascent soul realm cultivator landed on the ground in front of the forest, facing the crowd. After waiting for the crowd to quiet down, he cleared his throat and started to speak.

"The entrance exam will be starting in three minutes. Prepare yourselves. Before then, I will speak of some details regarding the exam. Some of this may have already been gone over, but I'll say it again as I think these points are important."

"First of all, in the event that your life is endangered, you may shatter the jade token you were given and it will protect you. It will also send a rescue signal, and me or one of the other cultivators here will come help you. These cultivators will have this crest."

The cultivator flashed a badge with a golden wing etched on it.

"However, this will disqualify you from the exam. In addition, I must warn you that this exam has a twenty percent death rate, meaning that one out of every five cultivators that enters will die in this forest. If you do not feel up to it and think the risks are too great, you may leave right now."

Many of the people in the crowd hesitated, and some of them started to leave In the end, only two thirds of the examinees were left. Some of the girls from the village had left, and a guard was escorting them back to the hotel. Surprisingly, none of the boys left, and even Freddie had steeled himself to go.

"To those of you that are left, I'll tell you a bit more about the exam. At the start of the exam, you will and head into the forest. Be aware that there are some spirit condensation realm beasts in the forest, meaning you shouldn't go charging in recklessly."

"If you are planning to stay in a group with others, you are welcome to do so. However, each member of the group still needs to have at least three beast cores at the end of the exam."

"One last thing. Do remember that attacking others during the exam is prohibited, and if discovered, will lead to disqualification from the exam. That is all."

"The test will begin... now."

Immediately, many people started rushing into the forest, pushing and shoving each other.

"Move out of the way!"

"Hurry up!"

"Will you just go!"

William quickly lost track of the others from the village in a chaos. Frowning, he tried to get into the forest as quickly as possible. After wading through the crowd, William finally exited on the other side.

"Finally!"

Now that there was more room, William brought a greatsword out of his spacial ring. He had bought it earlier from this system since his other swords were too small for what he wanted to do.

"Rise!"

The greatsword started to float slightly above the ground and William jumped on top of it.

"Let's go!"

The sword rose above the trees, and started to travel towards the exit. William flew smoothly above the heads of his competitors, allowing him to avoid the rest of the crowd.

"Seems that practice hasn't been for nothing," William said, smiling.

For the past three days, William had made it his sole objective to fly on his swords. And just the day before, he finally succeeded! He might've wasted a lot of SP, but with this, he was already far ahead of the others on their way to the exit!

Stopping after a minute of flying, William looked around. He was already a fourth of the way to the other side of the forest. With a few more minutes of flight, he could easily reach the end. However, he was already out of spiritual energy. Plus, he still had to collect a bunch of beast cores to get into a good school.

"This seems like a good place to stop."

William slowly descended and jumped off the sword just before it landed on the ground. hen, he surveyed his surroundings.

"Now, where can I find some spiritual beasts?"

Suddenly, William heard a loud rustling behind him.

"There you are!"

William took out Dusk Bringer from his spacial ring and turned around while swinging his sword.

"Thud!"

"Thud!"

Two halves of a corpse landed on the floor, creating loud thuds.

"Alright, I better get the beast core. System, get me a pair of gloves the right size for me. And make it less than 50 SP."

William eyed the corpse. Just looking at the blood and guts on the ground made him want to puke.

"Purchase [Metal Plated Leather Gloves(M)] for 45 SP?"

"Buy it."

William caught the gloves that appeared in the air and quickly put them on.

Hesitantly, he picked up one half of the corpse and inspected it.

"This is disgusting."

William held back the urge to barf and quickly picked out the beast core that he had found.

"So this is a beast core."

William tossed the corpse of the beast away and inspected the beast core. It was a dark purple, and was shaped like a smooth pebble, nearly circular in shape.

Putting it in his spacial ring, William started to walk into the forest. Now that he was ahead of everyone else, he could hunt in peace without competing with others.

Preparing for another battle, William took out his swords, holding Dusk Bringer and Morning Glory in his hands while the other swords floated behind him.

"Now that I think about it, I should probably get some more swords to go with this new technique. System, buy... thirty swords at the same level as Dusk Bringer."

"Purchase [Darkblade(3)] for 495 SP?"

"Purchase [Rodney's Greatsword(2)] for 290 SP?"

"Purchase [Flame Emperor(4)] for 680 SP?"

"Purchase [Dawn] for 155 SP?"

"Purchase [Midnight(2)] for 350 SP?"

"Purchase [Iridescent Blade] for 195 SP?"

"Purchase...

"Just buy them all."

"Affirmative."

Thirty swords in an entire rainbow of colors suddenly appeared in the air above William's head, threatening to fall on him. Expecting it, William waved his hand and controlled all the swords to stay where they were. Then, he made them float in the air behind him.

"Alright, now I'm ready. Time to kill some beasts."

...

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest...

"Commander Lynwood, signs of infiltration have been noticed. What should we do?"

A person dressed in all black kneeled in front of him.

Terrence sighed. As a nascent soul realm cultivator, it was demeaning to have him watch over this childish entrance exam. Still, they had been tipped off by someone that Obsidian Skull would try to infiltrate this exam and kill the fledgling cultivators here. As a result, the city lord had sent him here to investigate and take care of them if it was true.

"Sir?"

Snapping back to reality, Terrence spoke to his subordinate.

"Track them, but don't attack. We need to know what they're trying to do here. And try to make sure the examinees don't know they're here. We don't need a bunch of scared little brats ruining the situation."

"Very well, commander."

"Just go."

HIs subordinate flashed away, and Terrence was left to think on his own.

"What could they want from a place like this? Unless they know something we don't..."

...

"This is lame."

William picked up yet another beast corpse and fished out the beast core. Currently, he held only one sword in his hand, and all the swords floating behind him had disappeared. Keeping all those swords hovering behind him was preventing him from regenerating spiritual energy, so he put everything else away.

"How many beast cores is that? 50?"

William sighed. This was taking forever.

Another rustling in the bushes alerted him, and William swiftly turned around.

"Die, kid!"

"Eh?"

Suddenly, someone jumped out of the bushes, swinging a knife at William's head.

Not expecting there to be someone who would attack him during the exam, William stepped aside and hesitated to attack. Turning around, he faced his attacker, a mysterious man wearing black with a purple skull printed on his shoulder.

"Who are you?" He asked warily. He took another sword from his spacial ring and held it in his other hand.

"A corpse doesn't need to know!"

The man leapt at him again, swinging his dagger towards William's neck, while his other dagger struck at William's waist. Swiftly blocking both attacks with his swords, William retreated.

"You're clearly not participating in this exam, and you can't be one of the guards. To be attacking the examinees... are you part of a terrorist group?"

"Why should I tell you anything!" The man charged and William again.

"If you won't say anything, then I'll make you!" William took all of his remaining swords out of his spacial ring.

"Get him!"

William controlled all of his swords to surround the man, limiting his movement. Then, he ran up to him, giving him a hard kick on the chest.

"Ugh!'

The man fell onto the ground, and William disarmed him and placed a sword at his neck.

"Speak, or die."

The man grinned.

"You aren't getting anything out of me."

Biting down on something in his mouth, the man's eyes rolled up, and he started foaming from his mouth. In the blink of an eye, he was dead.