Hero of the Seventh Peak, Kang Bai

When the other disciples heard this shout, they too were puzzled.

Kang Bai hadn't come out of the Spiritual Medicine Mountain yet, and the Elders were announcing the end of Stage Two and were now about to proceed with Stage Three.

Everyone present knew that Kang Bai was one of the most talented disciples taking part in the Inner Court Entrance Hunt. He was more known for his perseverance and hard work than his talent. And was undoubtedly one of the big figures among the participants in the Hunt with more than two levels higher than the average cultivation of all participants, and for elders to ignore him made the disciples feel weird about this situation.

The one who had called out the elders was one of the Kang Clans disciples, Kang Shao, and Kang Bai was his cousin. He was expecting Kang Bai to come out and surprise everyone and make the Kang Clan proud. Since he was also the son of Kang Clan Patriarch and most probably the future Patriarch of Kang Clan, everyone from Kang Clan had eyes on him.

However, seeing that he had not come out from the underground cave paths made him anxious, so he couldn't stop himself from asking out loud. He was afraid of the worst-case, and looking at the change in the elders' expression when they heard his shout made him even more fearful of the unexpected news he was about to hear.

Elder Mu pursed his lips and turned towards Elder Wu, signaling him to handle the situation.

Elder Wu stood up from his seat, came forward, and gazed at the disciples from left to the right. He cleared his thoughts and took a deep breath before starting, "Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice and is never the result of selfishness."

"A cultivator follows the path of Dao so he could attain so-called immortality, but sometimes fate has other plans. And today, we saw one of the unexpected shows of fate, which even tied our hands, unable to let us interfere."

"Kang Bai, outer court disciples of the Gracious Sword Sect and the blood of the Kang Clan, embraced death with a smile on his face as he made the ultimate sacrifice to save the life of all his friends and fellow disciples present here."

"About two hours ago, a high tier Qi Stealing Mole escaped from the Core Region of Spiritual Medicine Mountain due to sudden failure in the Qi Arrays, which had caged it and prevented it from coming out all this time. This unexpected accident happened while more than four hundred of the most talented Outer Core disciples of the Seventh Peak were still inside in the Underground Cave paths, and the Seventh Peak is closest to the Core Region since this area has the thinnest Middle Region. This made all the lives of the disciples inside to fall in grave danger. One must know that the high tier Qi Stealing Mole is no less powerful than us, the elders who have cultivation in Qi Stabilization Realm."

"As soon as we saw the Qi Arrays malfunction, we ran to calm down this situation and take out the high tier Qi Stealing Mole before he could hurt anyone. However, before we could get to the beast, it met Kang Bai."

"This encounter, which was most probably going to be the one-sided massacre of Kang Bai, actually didn't happen like it was supposed to. With no way to escape, Kang Bai had no choice but to fight the high tier Qi Stealing Mole. And he fought valiantly. Even though his cultivation was two Realms lower than his opponent, he didn't back down and even managed to cut off a claw of that beast, severely injuring it."

"This led to the beast go berserk, and even after many tries when it couldn't kill Kang Bai, it decided to self destruct by triggering its beast core. The after-effects injured Kang Bai, and by the time we had arrived at the scene, he had already embraced his death, saving all the participants from an untimely demise."

"Outer Court Disciples of the Seventh Peak, the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice. Kang Bai may not be the most talented disciple in our sect, but he was undoubtedly the disciple with the most perseverance. This cultivation world may be cruel and merciless, but it is not unfaithful. Kang Bai will forever be remembered as the hero of the Seventh Peak!"

…

The disciples were solemn. The pin-drop silent atmosphere in the Underground Hall made many feel heavy-hearted. As for Stage Two participants, they knew that they were standing alive, unharmed, only because of a fellow disciple who sacrificed himself and stopped a high tier Qi Stealing Mole. They knew this was a blessing for them, and most of them would remember this incident.

After some time, Elder Lai Chang broke the ice as he said, "Sometimes fate just can't be avoided. Kang Bai shall be remembered forever."

Then he took a deep breath and spoke, "Now, I will announce the Pre Rankings, which are as follows. In cases where disciples have the same amount of beast cores, higher ranking is given to the younger disciple."

463rd place, Zheng Xiang, 13 beast cores.

462nd place, Su Hu, 15 beast cores

..

10th place, Qin Shunyuan, 102 beast cores.

..

5th place, Yang Chang, 280 beast cores.

4th place, Mao Rong, 297 beast cores.

3rd place, Ling Yun, 342 beast cores.

2nd place, Hou Xing, 391 beast cores.

1st place, Fang Chen, 482 beast cores.

….

The Pre Rankings list created a newfound commotion among the Stage Two participants, with varying reactions of shock, jealousy, and awe among the many others.

Lower ranked disciples were jealous and awed by the number of beast cores the top disciples had acquired, while the other high ranked disciples felt frustrations and shock at the number of beast cores Fang Chen had acquired.

Ling Yun and Hou Xing had contrasting expressions, with Ling Yun clearly showing his frustration and anger by his scrunched expression while Hou Xing's face had a shocked expression before he tightened his fists, his face turned cold.

Hou Xing had never had any problem with anyone after entering the Gracious Sword Sect; even when the older disciples challenged him, his emotions were mostly calm and positive. However, two months after entering the sect, he met the most hateful and annoying person of his life, Fang Chen. And the fact that he couldn't do anything to him due to family ties between Hou and Fang Clans, even though when Fang Chen had half of his cultivation and zero of his talent, Hou Xing bore with him.

The Fang and the Hou clan had been allies for a long time, even though in terms of status, Fang Clan was way above the Hou Clan, which only had a city or two under its power, while the Fang Clan was one of the big four of the Xin Royal Kingdom.