Chapter Fifteen: Zhao Hu’s Assessment (Part Two)

Zhao Hu pressed on, fighting his way forward. On the first day alone, he went through eleven battles. The weakest of the beasts he faced were on the level of a spotted leopard, while the most formidable was enough to threaten a sixth-rank Body Tempering martial artist. After slaying it, Zhao Hu himself suffered serious injuries. As dusk began to fall, he chose a spot to stop, ate two pieces of roasted meat he had prepared at noon, drank a few mouthfuls of mountain spring water, then found a large tree, climbed up, leaned against the trunk, and closed his eyes to sleep.

Perhaps luck was on his side, for nothing unexpected happened that night. The forest was eerily quiet, and Zhao Hu slept soundly until dawn’s first light. Upon waking, he cautiously surveyed his surroundings. Finding no sign of danger, he leapt from the tree, several meters above the ground. Just as his body was midway between the treetop and the earth, a massive, foul-smelling whip lashed out from nowhere, striking toward him with ferocious speed.

The whip’s sharp force tore through the air, and Zhao Hu had no doubt that if it struck him, death would be instant. In that life-or-death moment, despite having nothing to push off from, he managed to draw out a burst of hidden potential, doubling the speed of his descent. With a thud, he crashed to the ground, narrowly dodging the deadly lash.

Landing painfully, Zhao Hu ignored the numbing ache in his hips and rolled rapidly toward a dense thicket. The whip struck the tree where he had spent the night, splitting the massive trunk—thick enough for two people to encircle—clean in two. The sight made Zhao Hu’s heart shudder. He didn’t dare look back to see what kind of beast it was, but from its power alone, he knew it was not something he could handle.

Without a second thought, Zhao Hu relied on his small stature, darting into the gaps between the trees and fleeing at breakneck speed. He did not know that his attacker was an Ironclad Python that had already evolved into a first-rank demon beast, a creature capable of hunting down even peak postnatal martial artists. In the python’s eyes, Zhao Hu posed no threat or challenge at all.

The Ironclad Python had attacked simply because it happened to be sleeping on that patch of ground the previous night, and Zhao Hu, either by sheer misfortune or some twist of fate, had startled it by leaping down from the tree, rousing its ire and earning a swipe of its tail. When the python saw that its seemingly sure kill had failed to finish Zhao Hu, it paused in surprise.

By the time it regained its senses, Zhao Hu had vanished without a trace. Perhaps deciding Zhao Hu was too small to make a worthwhile meal, or for some other reason, the Ironclad Python did not bother to give chase.

Unaware that he had just escaped a first-rank demon beast, Zhao Hu ran for several kilometers before stopping to catch his breath, listening intently. Hearing no further sounds of pursuit, he finally relaxed.

At that moment, Zhao Hu realized he had advanced a rank—the life-and-death crisis had spurred a surge of potential, propelling him to the sixth rank of Body Tempering, a feat that should have taken him more than half a year. Zhao Hu was overjoyed; this greatly increased his chance of entering the Moonwatch Sect, since a ten-year-old at Body Tempering sixth rank was a rarity even among martial families.

In the next two days, Zhao Hu faced several other crises, each time escaping by the narrowest of margins. At noon on the third day, utterly exhausted, he staggered to the summit. His clothes were nothing but fluttering ribbons, his body covered in countless wounds and claw marks—he looked as bedraggled as one could imagine.

But Zhao Hu no longer cared about appearances. Upon reaching the summit, his strength gave out and he collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. Moments before, he had been surrounded by five Split-Tooth Hounds, each powerful enough to rival a peak sixth-rank Body Tempering martial artist, and a black-skinned wild boar. Normally, wild boars and Split-Tooth Hounds were mortal enemies, but for some reason, they both charged Zhao Hu together, ignoring their mutual animosity.

Fighting desperately, Zhao Hu sustained serious injuries before finally breaking through the encirclement. Having reached the summit, his nerves relaxed and his body could muster no more strength. He lay on the ground, not noticing that only a few dozen meters away stood someone else—Zhao Qin. When Zhao Qin saw him reach the summit, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

As the sun set, the scar-faced man overseeing the first trial appeared out of thin air above the summit, his cold voice echoing in the ears of every examinee who had reached the top: “Not bad. There are actually 6,600 of you who passed the first trial. Now, the second trial begins…”

The second and third trials each lasted three days. By the end of the third trial, only 523 out of more than 3,000 candidates remained. From Zhao Village, three had passed: Zhao Hu, Zhao Qin, and Zhao Tie. To Zhao Hu’s surprise, aside from Zhao Qin, two other familiar faces were among the successful—those two youths, one tall and one short, who had tried to block his way during the first trial. Noticing Zhao Hu’s gaze, the two quickly looked away.

Zhao Hu glanced at them but said nothing. Before long, the scar-faced man appeared before the five hundred-plus survivors. His sharp, ringed eyes swept over them one by one. “This year, 523 of you passed the trials—more than I expected. But that’s fine. Since you passed, you are now outer academy body cultivators of the Moonwatch Sect. I hope you will not disgrace this title.”

“Let me give you a brief introduction to the outer academy. Like other sects, the Moonwatch Sect has two main branches: spirit cultivation and body cultivation. I need not say more about spirit cultivation. As for body cultivation, we have the outer and inner academies. The outer is called the Body Tempering Institute. But don’t think all our outer academy disciples are mere Body Tempering cultivators. On the contrary, anyone who remains in the outer academy for more than thirty years is without exception a Transcendence Realm martial artist. If you do not reach Transcendence within thirty years, you must leave the Moonwatch Sect and manage its various businesses in the mortal world.”

“As for the inner academy, they only accept those who achieve Transcendence before age thirty. Among you, anyone who reaches Transcendence before thirty may immediately enter the inner sect and become an inner disciple of the Moonwatch Sect.”

“Besides advancing to Transcendence within thirty years to enter the inner sect, is there anything else we should pay special attention to?” someone in the crowd asked quietly.

“Good question. If you hadn’t asked, I almost forgot to mention this: every three years, the outer academy holds a grand competition. Anyone who ranks in the bottom fifty for three consecutive tournaments will be expelled from the Moonwatch Sect,” the scar-faced man replied with a grin.

“Well, there’s nothing else of great importance to tell you. You’ll learn the sect rules and other matters after joining. My name is Kong Yan, instructor of the outer academy. Welcome, and I look forward to seeing several of you advance to the inner academy.” With a grand gesture, Kong Yan concluded his welcoming speech to the new disciples.