Han-Bi said: " You defeated five people at second stage of refinement, right? Do you think you could spar with someone at the fifth stage? "

Jin had no idea. In fact, he hadn't seen anyone at that stage battle. He went for the test only after witnessing their strength at the time. But he hadn't seen any fifth stage. In fact, he had only ever seen those at second stage. So, he couldn't know. And he wasn't going to be overconfident either. The true might of the second stage was scary enough.

If not for his vast experience, hours of training...If not for his past life in fact, he would have been destroyed by those kids. Maybe if the kids had a little more battle experience, they could have defeated him. Or at least prove to be far harder to fight. After all, their strength had been very impressive. If his own style had been based on his own strength to fight, he would have lost. Fortunately, his style was about grasping the flow of movements.

All that considered, there was but one answer he could give if he was honest: "I don't know, I have only seen those of the second stage fight"

Both Han-Bi and Sang-Min found this a little weird. After all, this kid was supposed to be very strong in battle so the question of who taught him was a given. And they had pondered on that issue. And they thought he was some cultivator disciple or descendant... Anyways, they believed he had been taught by a cultivator. As such, he would have come into contact with those of higher cultivation.

The fact that he didn't... Not only would it mean their assumptions had been wrong but the kid was likely to had a lower starting point than they could imagine. After all, around the capital, mortals are extremely rare... And fights often break out here and there.

They decided to ask at a later time and instead Han-Bi asked him: "If you saw a few battle, would you be able to accurately know if you could spar with one? " and Jin nodded. If he saw how strong they were, he would be able to discern if he had a chance. Sang-Min nodded in thoughts and Han-Bi continued: " Let's go see some battle at the arena then " and Sang-Min interrupted her: "No, we can't today, we have that to do"

Han-Bi sighed as she nodded. She didn't seem to do that whatever that was. Jin didn't ask. It didn't matter much to him. Then, Han-Bi grumbled: " And we have already promised to spend tomorrow with Seung-Ja... Hm...How about the day after tomorrow then?" and Sang-Min nodded : " Yeah, nothing already planned at that time "

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Han-Bi clapped her hands as she said: "That settles it then! After lunch the day after tomorrow, we will go to the outer court arena! " She didn't even ask Jin if he had any plans. He had none but still. Sang-Min tapped him on the shoulder as he whispered loudly enough for all to hear: " Get used to it, she's always like that "

After some banter, they finished the meal, and the two left Jin. They had something to do after all. Jin went back to his house and went to his bedroom. He lit up a candle and once again tried his best to absorb the spiritual energy dots floating around...

...

The day after tomorrow arrived and Jin was woken up by the knocking on his door. Han-Bi and Sang-Min were true to their words. He joined them for lunch but he couldn't find any joy in eating this delicious meal...He was still unable to absorb a single fucking damn dot of energy. And he did try hard to.

As he told them, Han-Bi tried to reassure him saying that he would soon be able to however Sang-Min was more realistic and said: " Some people never manage to absorb them through their entire lives though " which made Jin quite fearful. Regardless of his knowledge of fighting, if he couldn't cultivate because of a lack of talent in the domain, his second life was fucked.

It was with a pale face that he followed them outside the inner sect grounds and all the way to a giant arena in the outer court. It looked a lot like those old ruins back in his world dating from the ages of iron where gladiators fought... Seeing such a big construct standing proudly awed him. It was very impressive.

The inside however was unlike what he expected. There were hundreds of small rings seeming to be five x five meters squares. Inside each were two outer sect disciple fighting each other. And on the side of each was a perc on to which a crow sat. There was always one perch with one crow. It was quite weird.

Sang-Min pointed to the crows noticing the confusion on Jin's face: "Those are Spiritual Animals, Sun Crows. They are the beasts we favor in our sect and most of those in the taming sub-industry go for those. The few here serve as referrees for the matches. Don't underestimate them, they're all stronger than even the outer sect elders"

Jin was amazed at that fact. To think that a simple crow could be stronger than even the elders? It was a groundbreaking discovery. That being said, he felt even more surprised when a crow close to where he walked by spoke. He turned around on himself right away fixing the crow with an incredulous for a few moments. Seemingly annoyed, the crow looked at him and spoke again: " The fuck you're glaring at, kid?! " and, Jin, like the cultured man he was, uttered loudly in disbelief: " What the flying fuck?! Is this crow actually talking?! "

To not only the amusement of his two inner sect friends but also the amusement of just about everyone, he managed to ridicule himself. What seemed to be something beyond normal and incredible was in fact just the usual average to those young cultivators.

" A talking crow? Yeah, so what? "