Way of the Knights

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As soon as the elder's voice was heard, every single participant inside the hall stood up and faced him. 

Seeing this, the elder turned around and swung his sleeves. Suddenly, a humongous door appeared on the nearby wall and revealed a scenery beyond. Light flooded the halls and momentarily blinded the contenders. When their vision adjusted, all of them saw the a long road leading a nearby hill. The Elder's voice sounded once more. 

"All of you follow me. Don't wander around, if you were caught, then don't blame us from disqualifying you." The Elder's cold warning echoed on their ears, somewhat alarming some contestants. 

The Elder then lead the way with the contestants on tow. None of them dared to slight the Elder's warning and just followed him closely. No one wants to get eliminated this early. 

As they went up the hill, some contestants took this chance to look at their surroundings. 

This was definitely the interior of Twin Star Academy. The energy here was so dense that it's almost visible. The infrastructures here were also grand and majestic. Everyone could see a couple of mountain peaks occupied by some students of the academy, they could see some student running some errands, some training and others just hanging out and relaxing. 

Due to them being too auspicious, almost every student inside the academy were looking at them. 

This made some contestants unknowingly puff out their chest in pride, yet most of them didn't know how laughable this action of theirs was to the students of the academy. 

The group eventually reached halfway through the hill before seeing a wide a flattened ground. There are some people who're already waiting for them there. Once everyone reached the flat area of the hill, the Elder then turned around and said:

"This is where the next part of the exams will take place. Everyone, please take out your badge and look at it. As for those who doesn't have one, come up here to receive one." 

The contestant did what the Elder said and looked at their badge. Those who doesn't have badges came up received theirs as well.

To their surprise, a change appeared on their badge. On its surface, one could see some details. 

Participant #89:

Merit Points: 0

???

???

???

This is what Raven could see on his badge. He glanced at Jason's badge and saw the same details aside from the participant number. Raven was numbered 89 while Jason was 45. 

"Don't be alarmed." The elder spoke once more, "Your Participant Number doesn't represent any ranking. It is just a place holder. Now, I would like each one of you to sink your perception on your badges. After doing that, you shall see a short questionnaire. Try filling it out as detailed as you can but don't think that we're forcing you to do so. Whatever you put in there is what we will use, I trust that each of you understand the word responsibility so go ahead."

After he finished saying this, the participants then started sinking their perceptions on the badges and also answered the questionnaire inside. 

The questionnaire is only filled with basic questions like name, age, birthplace, and etc. If someone wanted to, they could totally put in some fake details here but none of these contestants were foolish enough to do that. 

As the Elder implied, they will be responsible for everything that they will put in here. None of them are muddle-headed enough to fake their identities in front of the Ancient Elysium Sect, that's just courting death. 

When he finished answering the questionnaire, the details on the badge changed once more…

Participant #89: Vendrick Valorheart

Merit Points: 20

Power: Champion Knight Realm

???

???

'Oh, that's neat.' Raven muttered inwardly as he withdrew his gaze from the badge. Although he placed in more details compared to what the badge was showing, it seems that the badge won't unnecessarily display those. He thought that maybe, only those who have higher positions on the sect could see it. 

"Are all of you done?" The Elder asked, none of the participants reacted, "Alright, since that's the case, then let's proceed with the actual tests."

"According to the arrangements of the Ancient Elysium Sect, the tests would be divided into three parts. The first part is called the Aptitude Tests. Second Part is the Smelting Trial and the final part is the Tournament."

"Those of you who could pass the second part of the tests will be admitted as official disciples of the Ancient Elysium Sect." 

As soon as the Elder revealed this, an uproar rose to the contenders. The atmosphere for heated, everyone was blazing with fighting spirit and some were even getting slightly impatient and want to start the tests right now.

The Elder looked at those people, not even bothering to hide the smile of disdain in his face. Seeing this basically confirmed some of Raven's suspicions. 

"Don't be too happy yet." The Elder scoffed, "You people really think too highly of yourself. Do you honestly think that its that easy to join the Ancient Elysium Sect? Stop dreaming."

His words were like a cold bucket of water that snuffed the enthusiasm of the participants. Some were disgruntled by this but the Elder couldn't care less. 

"Hmph! Allow me to explain how the first part of the exams work." The Elder swing his sleeves once more and caused several curtains of light to appear around them.

"The Aptitude Test consists of three tests: Test of Courage, Test of Knowledge, and Test of Will. All of you will be tested in batches of 50, we will go according to the participant numbers on your badges. The first 50, step forward."

And just like this, the first batch of people stepped forward and disappeared within the curtain of light. Everyone was watching in anticipation, each had their own ideas about the exams. 

"Hey, what do you think is happening inside?" Jason leaned in and whispered beside Raven. 

Raven didn't answer at first, he discretely opened his ocular technique but it only allowed him to see the people inside the curtain of light. 

All of them were sitting down and had varying faces. Some expressions were twisted in anger, some were confused, some were crying and some on the verge of getting mad. 

This alone was enough to give Raven many clues. His gaze lingered on some of the people that seems to not be having any difficulties with this. He saw most of those people were the ones that Jason introduced to him before. 

"Well, I don't hear any fighting…" Raven answered vaguely. 

Jason's eyes flashed for a bit after hearing this, it seems that he could guess what Raven is trying to say here. None of them spoke anymore and just silently stood there. 

Time passed and after three hours, the curtain of light dimmed down. Everyone looked over, only to see the first batch in different states. Majority of them had dull gazes, almost as if they just lost something extremely important to them. Some's eyes were still red from either crying or madness. Others had wisps of blood trickling down their mouths. The ones who looked mostly fine could only be counted on one hand, even then the exhaustion is still visible on their faces. 

"You people know your results, those who passed follow that person. Those who don't, go down the hill and you will see someone who will escort you away from here." 

As the Elder's voice sounded out, some people began moving. What's shocking is that, only ten amongst the first batch passed. The rest were dejectedly climbing down the hill. 

"I am unwilling! I don't agree!" One of the disqualified participants roared in fury, catching the attention of the rest. 

"What bullshit test is this!? How can showing me nightmares, forcing me to learn something completely useless and killing me more than a hundred times be an accurate representation of whether I could join the sect or not!"

"No! I don't agree! I refuse to accept this result! Take to the Envoys! I need some explanation!"

*Boom!*

As soon as the guy was done roaring out in fury, his body suddenly rocked and shot back like a broken ragdoll. He spurted blood and felt like a mountain was pressing him down. 

"What an audacious brat! Who do you think you are?" The Elder scoffed as he berated the child. The rest of the participants were quaking. None of them saw the elder moved at all yet he almost killed that guy. 

"Bullshit test? Since when was it your turn to question how the Ancient Elysium Sect does their job? Do you really think you're someone valuable? If you fail the exams then you fail! What's so hard to understand about that? If you're trash, then you're trash. You've no one else to blame!"

"You're unwilling? You refuse to accept this result? Even if your whole trash of a clan thought the same as you, what can you do? Not even our Deans could casually seek out audience to the Envoys of the Ancient Elysium Sect yet you demand to see them and give you an explanation? Again, who the fuck do you think you are?"

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