It wasn’t long before the trio neared the Pavilion, and as they did, Ace’s eyes couldn’t help but widen.
Inside Yin-Yang Mountain, there were close to 30 young and weak auras he didn’t recognise.
“Ooh right, I completely forgot to mention it earlier,” Amira said when she noticed his surprise. “A couple of months after the start of this new era, the Pavilion finally opened its doors for its first official selection tests.”
“You should’ve seen it, boss,” Leo voiced via their connection. “There was a sea of literally tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of humans. I’ve never seen anything like it before!”
“So many?” Ace asked back.
“Of course!” Amira replied, having guessed what Leo had said. “Even if you exclude your accomplishments in the O’Brien Empire, the fact that the rest of us managed to challenge and completely suppress all the top students at each of the strongest establishments for mages and warriors in the continent was enough to solidify the Pavilion’s standing as the number one school on the continent.
Then when you factor in your results at the War God’s College and Master’s single-handedly fighting O’Brien and Fain, the O’Brien Empire’s two strongest experts, to a standstill…
The day the Pavilion announced its selection date to the world, people from all over the continent began to rush over, hoping to get a glimpse into what makes us so special.”
“That would explain the new mountains,” Ace said, pointing at the new cloud-piercing mountains in the distance.
“You can thank third brother for that,” Amira explained. “When the numbers began to reach the astronomical range, eldest brother had Lazerim reconstruct several of the mountains for the purpose of viewing.”
“Just viewing?” Ace asked. “Where did they all stay?”
He could imagine that a selection process of that magnitude lasted much longer than one day as it did for his cohort.
“Everyone was forced to stay in some of the neighbouring cities in the Anarchic Lands,” Amira explained. “Which reminds me, you really found yourself a good subordinate.”
“Subordinate?” Ace questioned before realising who Mira was referring to. “You mean Cirulus? He’s alright? That’s great!”
The last time Ace saw him, Cirulus had been blown away by Shamar. He had no idea if Cirulus had even managed to survive, but hearing Mira bring him up now, meant that he had survived.
Even though they hadn’t been together long, the loyalty he had shown that day was more than enough to earn Ace’s trust and respect.
“Alright?” Mira smiled. “He’s great! He saw the upcoming selection as a chance to help you further your plans for when you awoke.”
“He did?” Ace asked curiously. “How?”
“I’ll let him explain that himself when you see him personally,” Amira smiled mysteriously.
Ace’s curiosity had definitely been piqued when he heard that, but he knew Mira wouldn’t say anything after having made her decision, so he didn’t bother pestering her for answers. “So, how many applicants were there in the end?”
He knew that with everything that the Pavilion had revealed, the majority of those who came to view was likely just experts who wanted to know more about this mysterious but incredibly powerful upstart.
“Altogether, there must have been over 50,000 children who attempted to enter, some of whom were actually students of some of the other institutes that had wanted to jump ship,” Mira explained. “Because there were so many, eldest brother was forced to hand off the responsibility for the first stage – the aptitude phase – to the Dawson Conglomerate, who, thanks to Joel being a direct descendant and also their desire to get closer to the Pavilion, agreed to do it for free.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Still, the first phase alone took over a week to get through, and the numbers went from 50,000 to under 1000.
“So many failed?” Ace asked in surprise.
“Have you forgotten the talent requirements for the Pavilion?” Mira asked, rolling her eyes. “Do you think geniuses aged ten or under who haven’t begun cultivating their battle qi and be on track to reach the second rank as a warrior by their eleventh birthday, as well as having an exceptional-grade affinity to at least one of the laws and have a minimum of 20x as much spiritual essence as the average person of the same age grows on trees?”
“I knew there’d be a high failure rate; I just didn’t expect the first phase to cut so many,” Ace sighed.
“It’s to be expected,” Mira shrugged. “Our Yin-Yang Pavilion has incredibly high standards to maintain after our batch. Plus, Mathias explained that the Pavilion wouldn’t accept any students connected to the Radiant Church, Cult of Darkness, or, as you can imagine, the O’Brien Empire.”
There were quite a few unhappy parents and representatives, but all those who were still mortals were quickly dealt with by me, Leo, Killian, and the others.
As for the few saints, most of whom came from the Radiant Church, they were roughed up by senior brother Wukong.”
Ace didn’t doubt that for a second; he knew that the average expert could be easily defeated with the strength of each of Leo and his classmates. As for Wukong, even though he didn’t know exactly how strong he’d become now, he knew that no ordinairy saint would be able to withstand one strike from his staff.
And by having all threats, be it mortals or saints, dealt with by mortals, it would only help to reaffirm the invincible image the Pavilion had built!
As for Mathias updating the Pavilion’s recruitment to exclude the O’Brien Empire as well, he was anything but shocked.
Although his hatred for the Empire as a whole had virtually disappeared the night he managed to truly awaken his conqueror’s haki, and even more now that his mother’s soul had recovered, he also understood and appreciated how protective Arianna and the rest of her disciples were of his mother.
The only person he would never forgive was O’Brien himself; as for the rest of them, he wouldn’t bother with them as long as they didn’t stand in his way.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Mathias and the others. After everything that happened, the O’Brien Empire were lucky Arianna’s disciples hadn’t caused them any more trouble.
Still, there was one thing he couldn’t help being curious about. “After everything that happened last year, I’m surprised the O’Brien Empire dared to step foot in the Pavilion’s territory. Did they send many people in the end?”
“Not many, just a few of their more unknown powerhouses. Probably in an attempt to gather intelligence,” Amira shrugged. “Still, with the intelligence of Sabre, Cesar had long since learnt the identities of each of the O’Brien Empire’s saint-level experts.
None of us killed any of those who acted out, but those experts sent by the O’Brien Empire… Wukong slaughtered all four of them.
It was after that that all the other forces understood just how deep the hatred for the O’Brien Empire ran for us here.”
Even though he didn’t harbour any strong feelings for the Empire of his so-called biological father, he still felt appreciation for the Pavilion; after all, it was for him and his mother that they were willing to go so far.
“But anyway,” Mira continued, bringing the subject back to the selection. “The second stage was a lot faster; each wave was composed of 100 kids and set off to climb to the top of Yin-Yang mountain.”
“I remember that,” Ace sighed as feelings of nostalgia started to well up inside him. “How did they all do?”
“None managed to beat the time set by you if that’s what you’re asking,” Mira rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time. “But there were still a few impressive times, some of whom actually managed to beat the times set by myself and Joel.”
It had to be remembered that back then, although her combat strength was second only to Ace, Amira’s realm as a warrior had only reached the early stages of the second rank; as for Joel, like Ace, he had reached the late stages of the second rank. The thing that separated Ace and Joel was Ace’s ridiculous willpower, but when you took into consideration the fact that Ace had two lives to temper it, that much wasn’t surprising.
Ace knew how competitive Mira was, so he knew better than to wind her up; as such, he simply waited for her to continue with her explanation of events.
“Of the 900+ kids that made it to that point, only a little over 40 managed to make it to the top,” Mira explained.
To that, Ace wasn’t particularly surprised. He could still vividly remember the difficulty of the climb. Even after you finished climbing all that way using nothing but your hands and feet, you still had to face the ever-increasing gravity as you hiked the rest of the way. It was a miracle that their batch had a 100% pass rate.
The only thing that still made him curious was the fact that there were apparently over 40 passes, but he could only sense 28 new auras.
But before he could give voice to his curiosity, the excited shout of an all too familiar voice entered his ears.
“ACCEEEEEEE!” A giant ball of meat shouted cheerfully as he took to the skies with flames propelling his large, round figure. “You’re finally awake?!”
“It’s good to see you too, Fatty!” Ace smiled as he returned the bear hug of his excited classmate.