Maw 47

"I have remembered their faces." Ryo says through the connection. "They will be punished, but first I have to make sure that no one's going to die on me." He floats off in the direction Kenki and every other outer disciple had come from in an anticlimactic fashion.

The man's movement appears slow, however the boy is certain that it is anything but. With how fast the cultivator was fading into the mist Ryo must be flying off with a speed that is close to breaking the sound barrier.

'Does the sound barrier even exist in this world' Ken wonders for a moment before inevitably shaking his head. That question would be answered in due time –when the knowledge is required.

Wet slaps drag Kenki away from his train of thought. He turns his head in order to face the origin of the noise. There, a familiar face can be seen revealing itself through the mist.

It's the blonde-haired girl he had not gotten the name of –she had chatted him up back in the building that had been the starting point of the sudden marathon. She's panting heavily, wobbling like a leaf in the wind as she trudges through the marsh-like environment of the forest.

"Is this the place?" She blurts out with a hopeful yet tired voice, leaning against a crooked tree nearby. A frightened 'Eep' passes through her lips when she lays her eyes on the bunch of loitering outer disciples.

Eleven intimidating –from her perspective– pairs of eyes are looking at her. The collective pressure of the gazes makes her legs wobble.

‘Huh...’ Kenki is a little baffled by the scene. The aura that the girl gives out just feels off. Her personality has undergone a complete one-eighty change –the confidence displayed an hour and a half prior is gone, instead replaced by frightfulness and uncertainty.

“Right. I-I’ll just… I’ll just be taking a break here then.” She stutters out, sheepishly pressing index fingers together. Her choice of a resting place is an exposed rock sticking out of the dirt –just high enough for one to sit on as if it’s a chair.

The bald-headed disciple snorts in dark amusement at the girl’s antics before looking away. Everyone else, with the exception of Kenki, follows the example by going back to whatever they were doing.

'Most likely simple arrogance, hell if I know.' Ken tries to explain the sudden shift in personality. The two momentarily lock eyes, however the girl opts to immediately look away once she realizes that Ken is still observing her.

'Weird.' The long-haired boy lazily places both hands on the nape of his neck, they perform the same function a cushion would as he leans back against the tree. His interest in the blonde-haired teen has completely burned up.

=================

And, as it seems, she is the last outer disciple to turn up. Only twelve remain out of the original twenty or thirty. And it isn't too long before Ryo floats in as well, the beaten up disciple presumably rescued.

"Well, there sure are a lot of you today." Ryo comments as he rubs his hairless chin, his eyes roaming over the group of twelve.

Kenki is still wondering what will happen to the group of four for their crimes, however it seems that the senior cultivator is not interested in punishing them at this exact moment.

"Alright." Ryo claps his hands "Let's move on to the final step in the examinations, a combat test!" He raises a finger to the sky. "We shall be traveling to a danger zone within the Emerald Forest, one that is almost solely used for the purpose of gauging the strength of newly advanced disciples like yourselves. It is filled with spiritual beasts that have power roughly equivalent to that of a third realm initiate."

The words provoke a reaction from some of the outer disciples. Nobody speaks, however their sudden restlessness is evident. Glances are exchanged and weapons are gripped.

"Now, now." Ryo notices the tension so he gestures for everyone to calm down. "I would not have taken any one of you with me if this were an insurmountable task." He laughs.

"This should be common knowledge but I guess that now is as good a time as any to learn about it." Ryo begins. "In the lower realms the general trend is that a cultivator is capable of fighting a spiritual beast one realm above their own on equal ground. That imbalance of power exists almost solely due to the fact that spiritual beasts are incapable of using techniques at this early stage. The imbalance is corrected in the higher realms due to a multitude of factors that I won't be getting into here." The senior cultivator helpfully explains.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"So for all of you who have gathered here, killing a fifth realm spiritual beast should be beyond easy. Felling a fourth realm beast should still be doable as long as there isn't a severe elemental disadvantage, just not as easy as defeating a fifth realm one. And as for beasts in the third realm?" Ryo chuckles as he shrugs his shoulders. "Well… I've led you here in order to find out if you have what it takes."

The man turns around. "Follow me, and don't flag behind or you're out." He starts flying away.

Ken can almost feel the collective groan from the disciples as Ryo turns his back towards them. They'd just gotten through a monstrous marathon and now he wants them to run even more? The dissatisfaction is not made known audibly, however it is more than evident in everyone's body language.

'What's this bozo happy about?' Ken wonders, noticing the big satisfied smirk on the bald teenager's face. The teen's eyes roam around, condescendingly checking out all the other outer disciples, his smile growing wider and wider the more he does.

However, that smile melts the moment that his gaze lands on Kenki. Focused intent filled with annoyance and hostility is sent the transmigrator's way.

"Tch." The disciple spits on the ground before looking away.

'Wha… excuse me!?' Ken's brows rise at the open disrespect, more in puzzlement than offense 'Have we met before by any chance? I don't remember ever encountering anyone looking like him, let alone ticking him off to the point where he'd openly spit in my direction' The boy combs through his memories in an attempt to explain the odd behavior.

Ken had only been on the grounds of the sect for two weeks. One week if the time spent locked up in Rinako's mansion studying for the customs test isn't counted. The disciples he'd spoken to during that time numbered one to two dozen at most and Ken does not remember ever running into such a character.

'Troublesome. Maybe I should lay low for a while after this trial. I should also take extra care not to make the location of my residence known…' The boy reasons. The reaction might be a bit overexaggerated, and Ken will admit that it is, but this is the world of Xianxia that he's living in and not America. One can't be too careful. '...I can go cry to Rinako in the event that something does happen, but that should be no excuse for inviting trouble.'

"The area that we are currently traversing is simply referred to as 'The Mists'." Ryo's voice demands Kenki's attention so the boy ends his chain of thought there.

"As some of you may or may not have noticed already, the mist isn't exactly natural. It is a warm springs day for one, the conditions for a mist forming just aren't there." The man continues, explaining the nature of the surroundings even as most of the outer disciples struggle to keep up with his speed.

"That is due to the fact that it has been manifested through the use of a colossal inscription, one that wraps around the entirety of the Emerald Forest. It is filled with detection and illusion techniques that turn any spiritual creature that happens to cross into them around, humans are immune to the effects of the illusions so we can travel through without issue."

"In essence, The Mists act as the border of the forest. They are the reason why the outer sect hasn't been flooded with beasts."

=========================

"Hah… hah.. haah"

Labored breathing can be heard all around Kenki, from the left, the right, from the front and back. Everyone is exhausted, Kenki included. The sole exception to the rule seems to be the bald disciple that had disrespected the transmigrator.

Ryo is still increasing the speed of his flight. Over the last quarter of an hour their jogging had steadily transformed into an outright desperate sprint. Every single person is madly dashing forwards with a speed that would surpass any Olympic champion back on Earth.

'Damn. I don't know how nobody's collapsed yet.' The boy glances around. Some of the disciples are on their last breaths, their feet barely rising from the ground as they run, sometimes catching a fallen branch or an exposed tree root and causing them to trip.

But they never fall.

'I'm willing to bet all my coin that we're going to be forced to fight in this ragged state.' Ken heaves out another heavy breath as he looks on to the horizon, well, as much as he can with the trees blocking the distant views anyways.

There is something there. Dead ahead in front of all of them, a well of power, a source of overwhelming Qi stands. Kenki can feel the waves of energy growing stronger and stronger as they wash over his skin. He's forced to contract his dantian to the furthest point he is capable of for fear of suffering another bout of Qi poisoning, he even deliberates slapping Rinako's Qi reduction talisman back on his forehead but ultimately decides against it.

The force behind the waves of Qi remind Kenki of the wild-haired Lyraxi woman that had dropped him right outside Ornthar.

"Here would be a good spot to rest." Ryo suddenly calls out as he stops right at the center of a grassy glade. The group had long left the mists so the beautiful sun has no obstacle that prevents it from unpleasantly lighting up everyone's day. Somehow it just feels stronger here in this forest, scorching even.

The disciples come to a grinding halt, half of them lose strength in their knees then and there, tumbling to the grass like a sack filled with stones.

"Oi, be careful you clutz!" Ken bites out in annoyance when the blonde-haired girl collides into his back and almost knocks him over. Nevertheless, even through the temporary irritation, he gets a hold of the girl, gently setting her down on the ground.

"S- Sorry…" She apologizes as Ken seats himself down beside her. "...and thanks."

The boy waves a hand dismissively "It's nothing, if even I am winded then I can't imagine how hard this sprint must have been on someone who hadn't spent half their lifetime specifically training stamina." He replies.

"Oh?" She exclaims "Are you from one of the families?"

"Families?" Ken tilts his head. 'Like…cultivator families?' the question hangs in the boy's head.

"I don't know a thing about any 'families' but I was a soldier in training before…" he lies through his teeth, calmly sweeping his hands over the surroundings "...all of this, you know? One day I was captured by the city guard and unceremoniously carted off here." He relays with a chuckle.

"Same as the rest of us then" The girl nods before extending her hand "Name's Suzu by the way, nice to meetcha!"

'The hell? Her confidence is back.'

"Kenki." He shakes Suzu's hand with some hesitance, though he does not let it show.