Elder Chao was very fast.

Of course, Yu Xiang was already aware of that fact, what with the old man being several realms higher than him and all.

But just knowing about it on a theoretical level was completely different from seeing it with his own two eyes.

The middle aged looking man was taking casual strides forward, moving leisurely with his hands held behind his back as his decorated robes swayed in the wind caused by his swift passage. Yu could not sense any spiritual energy coming off of the Elder nor could he see any of the tell tale signs of a technique bolstering his movements, so he couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that he wasn't using any kind of enhancements.

Which meant that he was equaling Yu’s newfound speed through nothing but the pure, unaided power of his muscles.

No, the young reincarnator realized after a moment, he wasn’t simply equaling his speed.

For a few brief moments, he pumped more spiritual energy into his movement technique, going forward in a burst of acceleration and leaving Fen Lin, who’d been following just behind him thus far, in his trail.

Just as he expected the distance between him and Elder Chao didn’t decrease, so he diminished the flow of his spiritual energy and returned to his previous position and speed.

Elder Chao followed his example and once again mimicked his speed.

Yu Xiang chuckled to himself as a helpless smile formed on his face, all while Lin Fen was looking at him like he’d sprouted a second head since he’d just witnessed his erratic behavior but wasn’t privy to his observations.

The green eyed cultivator wisely decided to put his conclusions about the test out of mind as they wouldn’t really help him. Sure, he could slow down a bit to conserve energy and give some of his weaker fellow aspirants a bigger chance of succeeding but he doubted that such a tactic would fool an Elder, assuming Elder Chao hadn’t already noticed him noticing the details of this part of the test, and his actions might even make things harder not only for him but even for the other disciples.

In the end, he simply decided to keep going at his own pace, ignoring the Elder as long as he kept staying in his general vicinity.

With his mind made up, Yu Xiang elected to concentrate on something else.

Namely, the constant pressure of a superior aura trying to crush every test taker under its metaphysical weight.

The young reincarnator already knew who the owner of the constraining aura was since he made not even a token attempt at disguising himself.

The core disciple was running alongside them, staying roughly in the middle of the pack by a side. His presence stretched over hundreds of meters, farther than Yu Xiang could sense with his own aura.

This pressure had started the moment they left the outcropping outside the outer compound, which had pushed Yu Xiang and Lin Fen to combine their auras to better protect themselves, and since Elder Chao hadn’t berated the young looking man, Yu could not help but come to the conclusion that this was just another part of the test.

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Trying to see how they reacted under the quite literal pressure maybe?

For some reason, Yu Xiang doubted that was the real reason. It was too artificial to really make them show their true worth.

Or so he thought until he took a look behind him.

The young reincarnator was presented with a crowd of teens gritting their teeth in obvious strain and sweating in exertion from every pore. Trembling limbs and heavy shaky breaths were not uncommon, and Yu even spotted some of the younger looking disciples darting their eyes around in badly concealed panic.

A frown twisted the green eyed cultivator’s features. Something didn’t add up.

Yu Xiang untangled part of his aura from Lin Fen’s, shaking his head at him in reassurance when he received a questioning look from the feline cultivator, then he sent a strand of it towards the core disciple’s own presence.

Once again Yu Xiang was left with more questions than answers by his findings.

Indeed, he could clearly sense an undercurrent of hostility and antipathy emanating from the core disciple’s aura, which would normally explain why so many of the aspirants were so rattled. Or at least it would if it weren’t for one detail.

In layman terms, the aggression coming off of the core disciples was, well… a paper tiger.

It was completely fake.

Yu Xiang turned his head towards the core disciple. The man looked bored to the bone, half lidded eyes barely focused on his front.

The young reincarnator frowned again, until an obvious, in hindsight, possibility struck him. Was he simply overthinking things?

Stealthily, Yu Xiang turned his head towards the only other aspirant besides himself and his companion currently in the Constitutional Realm.

Su Rong was moving swiftly through the rough mountainous terrain, pinkish flames sputtering erratically from his legs, seeming to be faring much better than the other lower realm disciples, and so did the two aspirants flanking him, which Yu Xiang realized he had never seen before along with his self appointed rival.

Then again, the young reincarnator was usually perfectly content with ignoring him whenever he wasn’t bothering him.

One of them was a boy around their age, with messy brown hair and dark eyes, his almost too thin frame looking particularly prominent next to Su Rong’s stockier form. The other was a younger girl, her dark hair and brown eyes matching the fiery cultivator’s and clearly making her related to Su Rong.

Anyway, even with the worst possible interpretation, Su Rong was merely looking constipated, which wasn’t really an all that unusual look for him, instead of suffering or panicked.

Which ultimately led Yu Xiang to take his latest conclusion as truth.

It was simply a matter of difference in cultivation rank.

From what he could gather from the core disciple’s aura he couldn’t be more than one realm higher than himself, which certainly made for a huge power gap but not nearly enough to strain him without the older cultivator actively trying to do so.

While most of the other aspirants were a whole two realms lower than the outer disciple.

It was certainly simple in hindsight.

With an effort of will, the young reincarnator spread his aura further away, covering some of the aspirants closer to him. The young cultivators that fell under his protection let out a collective sigh of relief, sending him grateful looks once they sensed him.

As Yu Xiang mentally patted himself on the back for being so smart and compassionate he suddenly registered something else. Or rather a lack of something.

The inner disciple was nowhere to be found.

This time Yu Xiang didn’t even try to hide his intentions as he turned around searching for the missing member, which then brought him to another realization.

When the test started there were twenty three outer disciples participating, himself included, while currently there were sixteen remaining. Or fifteen, actually, he amended as he saw a disciple at the tail end of the crowd wobble and fall.

Before he could fall down to the ground, the inner disciple he’d been looking for appeared at his side, picking him up off the ground then disappearing again.

Well, that answered that.

Yu Xiang flinched as Lin Fen poked him in his side. He turned towards his long time friend with a questioning look but the feline beastfolk simply motioned forward, towards the Elder’s position.

Yu turned around and finally beheld their destination. A steep mountain made of some kind of dark stone stood in a valley between the snow capped peaks, standing shorter than many of its kind, almost looking more like a tower.

Yu Xiang sighed in relief. It looked like the first part of the test was finally almost over.