Night approached. The starless sky was casket-black and sullen. Even the clouds seemed grumpy. Duan Jian clutched the bone-freezing ice-sword as he stared at his foe.

With ghostly moonlight glistening on the sword of ice, the examiner screamed; "Start!" and startled the tense viewers nearby.

Duan Jian and the ice-faced stone puppet sprinted forward simultaneously and sent dust flying into the air.

Cutting the eerie wind in two, his ice-blade descended onto the puppet with a soul-biting screech which sent everyone a shiver down their spine.

*BAM!*

A thunderous noise sent the ground into turmoil and left it shaking in fear and fright. Examinees lost their balance on the trembling ground and were forced to kneel down. A fierce shock wave accompanied by splinters of ice rushed through the serene air and sent it into a frenzied state.

Ice splinters cut like blades through the rough skin of the viewers and rampaged like a tempest through the examination ground. Thousands of flesh-deep cuts sent fountains of magma-red blood gushing into the cruel and calamitous air.

Distorted screams of despair accompanied the screeching winds. The petrifying stench of blood assaulted their noses and left a bitter, mordant perfume of death on them.

It was carnage.

With the winds screaming and slashing at the examinees faces, they forced their pain-ridden eyes open to catch a glimpse of the scene.

Bathing in the ghostly moonlight, Duan Jian's dominant demeanour sent them goose bumps all over their body. His glittering ice-blade was stopped by a single finger of the puppet and was left with fractures.

"I knew something was amiss. You're not a puppet! Who are you?" Duan Jian felt perplexed and jumped backwards to gain distance between them.

". . . . ."

The owl faced puppet remained mute.

*crack* . . . . *crack* . . . .

Its head started twitching and making ticking motions like a clock; shooting its chin to the right and moving it back only to repeat this motion sharply like clockwork. Maybe it had a screw loose?

Duan Jian lost his patience with this insane thing. "If you don't want to say it then I will force you to."

The temperature suddenly changed and a bone-freezing, cold wind blew through the examination field. A rapture of moonstone-white light broke through the raven-black sky and illuminated Duan Jian.

Flickering crystals in the colour of the moonlight emerged above his head and formed a silver crown of few prongs. The moon-silver crown was twice as large as his head and floated prideful above his white-haired head.

"Let me introduce myself again. I'm Duan Jian - Pursuer of the Throne of the Moon God. And I will claim what righteously belongs to me!" he announced full of pride and resoluteness.

The bone-chilling sword of ice split into uncountable, deathly splinters and danced spectacularly around Duan Jian like a tornado. With the moonlight glistering and shimmering on the ice splinters, it looked awe-inspiring.

He made a simple movement with his index finger and the swirling tornado of ice rushed towards the puppet. The tornado levelled everything in its way and tore a scar of destruction and frost deeply into the barren ground of the examination field.

Suddenly, a wave of devilish heat blew the cold and chilling winds away. The space above the owl-faced puppet twisted and split open as an enormous eye opened from its deep and dimensionless slumber. A giant blood-red serpentine eye flaming with hatred and horror gazed down upon Duan Jian, which sent a shiver down his spine.

A glowing, golden crown with a diameter of one meter - more than thrice its head size - floated like an immortal cloud full of resentment above its head. The nine prongs on the crown showed the high cultivation stage of it and that it was near advancing to the next crown-stage: the halo.

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"The devils eye, huh? So you are pursuing the Throne of the 3rd Ruler of Hell!" Duan Jian shouted.

The emitting light of the golden crown grew stronger by the second and the pressure on Duan Jian and the others grew heavier.

It felt like a humongous mountain weighing down on them. Breathing got harder and harder and then impossible as the pressure sucked the dry air out of their deflated lungs. With pale faces and cracked lips void of blood, the already severely wounded examinees lost consciousness and dropped face-first onto the barren, bloodied ground.

The other examinees had to summon their immortal headgear to withstand the pressure of immortality from the golden crown.

Coincidentally, every headgear of them showed the cultivation stage of the bronze laurel wreath, which is the lowest. But the types and amount of leaves as well as the size of it varied from person to person.

Some of the examinees had a bronze laurel wreath nearly four times the size of their heads, which is near the breakthrough to the next level: the silver laurel wreath.

The frozen face of the puppet cracked and a pugnacious smirk formed from the crack in the cold ice.

*puff* . . . .

The puppet disappeared abruptly and only left ghost-grey mist in its place. Creeping through the noiseless and bloodless air, the sombre mist drifted towards the serpentine eye and ended up being devoured.

The destructive tornado lost its target and kept rushing straight ahead where some ill-fated examinees stood rooted to the ground. With death at the door, the examinees lost all color in their eyes, and eyes void of a soul replaced their gaze.

Duan Jian reacted as fast as possible but was still a second to slow to disperse the death-dealing tornado.

Carnage descended - again.

Ice shards tore through the examinees robust armours at high speeds and took them easily apart. Fountains of molten blood spouted into the lifeless air and coloured the tornado from a cold blue to a magma red.

Duan Jian dispersed the tornado and enforced the blood-stained ice shards to regather into a sword at his cold hands. He gave no heed to the mess that he left behind and ignored the putrefying stench.

Duan Jian could feel his blood rushing frenziedly through his veins. His heart pounded against his rib cage.

*ba-bump* *ba-bump*

Nervously he searched the field with his ice-blue eyes and shot his gaze left and right. He shouted; "Come out!" in agitation and felt a heavy heat wave crawling by.

With a twist of his body he turned around and held a bloodied ice-sword as defence in front of him. But he couldn't catch a glimpse of the freakish puppet and the only things he saw were the bloody bodies of examinees and an expressionless Bai Long who protected them with not even a single drop of blood staining his battle attire.

Even though the examinees behind Bai Long looked terrible, he blocked most of the immortality pressure from the puppet with his own silver crown, or else the examinees would already be dead or crippled. But because his immortal headgear was also too low in front of the golden crown, he couldn't protect everyone.

When Bai Long noticed the confused expression on Duan Jian's face, he gave a smirk while baring his teeth. He gave a signal with his head towards Duan Jian that he should look up to the sky.

Duan Jian reacted as fast as he could and shot his gaze towards the abyss-black sky. Raven-black feathers accompanied by ghost-white feathers descended from the sky like snowflakes. The black feathers kept dancing around the white ones like they were protecting them from all the misery of the mortal world.

Duan Jian lifted his bone-chilling ice sword and aimed at the white feather. The wind sighed heavily in front of his chilling blade and made way.

Surprisingly, the blade went right through the feather and didn't cut it in the least - it was like it passed through soft mist. He tried again and again, but the result stayed the same.

*Kekekeke* A scratchy laugh could be perceived.

Swiftly he turned around and found the puppet standing behind him. In its hands made of stone it firmly grasped a silver shining crown.

*crack* . . . *crack*

Cracking noises originated from the owl-faced puppet and cracks spread along its icy beak. With a firm grip on a silver shining crown, the devilish puppet devoured the crown with crushing and crunching noises.

*ba-bump* *——*

Duan Jian's heart stopped and he spritzed blood through his mouth.

Duan Jian realized while spurting ember-red blood that it was his loss. His cold hands let go of the cold sword and hanged limp down. The floating raven-black and ghost-white feathers merged with the lifeless air and disintegrated into nothingness.

The puppets head rose; Duan Jian fell.

The whipping winds died down and the scenery turned serene again. Silence finally filled the examination ground again.

Duan Jian's vision became fuzzy and his glassy eyes gazed towards the heaven-piercing tower before him. He noticed a golden clad girl watching him with sorrow from a terrace.

He felt too ashamed of himself to look into her bright eyes. He turned his head and avoided her gaze. With love and regret he whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry, that I can't return your love. Sorry, that I can't be with you."

"And mostly, I'm sorry that I let you down."

"But I will make things better."

"I'll better my reputation to be fit for you. I'll better my character so I won't be a shame to you. So, be patient for my selfish wish."

The examiner, Bai Long, stepped between the puppet and the unconscious Duan Jian and shouted; "Number 365! Result: Total Failure," with a stern voice.

"You intentionally injured dozens of people severely. This crime is punished by one year in the H.I.V.E. prison which is immediately valid." Bai Long ignored the injured people and continued to talk down on the unconscious Duan Jian.

With those words, damnation-black armoured guards with masked faces rushed swiftly towards Duan Jian and dragged him by his feet away like a filthy garbage bag. Duan Jian's face was dragged on the ground and scratched open, leaving behind a trail of dirtied blood.