Azreal, never feeling more alive, increases his speed, surpassing anything possible for his body in the real world. Tears forming at the corner of his eyes. 'I am finally free! I will conquer this world and achieve more than I ever could back on Earth!' Azreal feels an excitement build that he never allowed himself before.

A sudden realisation assaults Azreal's mind and darkens his mood, 'I will have to return to the real world and all of my problems soon… if only I could stay here forever.' Azreal's mood only drops for a moment before his thoughts race through his mind as he dodges and moves quickly through the trees.

After running for half an hour, Azreal is surprised at how high his endurance has become, 'I wonder if this is the Vitality stat?' he thinks to himself, before a small notification appears in his vision.

Azreal nods before reading through the descriptions of each stat.

"Hey! Watch out!" a delicate voice can be faintly heard. Azreal's occupied mind, racing with new information, fails to react in time as he turns towards the sound of the voice.

Bang!

Azreal feels something incredibly heavy crash into the side of his arm, sending him flying into the ground and tumbling across the dirt until he collides with a tree stump.

"ARGH!" Azreal screams in agony, glancing down at his arm, his face pales when he sees the damage done. A sizable cut across his shoulder and upper arm is bleeding profusely. 'What the fuc….' Azreal's mind goes blank as he looks up and sees another disciple carrying a long snake-like metal sword pointed directly at his face.

"Now… How did a little failure of a cultivator like you get so far into the forest so quickly?" A young man with jet black hair and dark green eyes sneers at Azreal.

Azreal's previous elation is nowhere to be found, his heart thunders against his ribcage as he stares into the young man's eyes. "I-I am taking the Entrance Exam, just like y-you!" Azreal manages to squeak out.

"You? Like me?" The young man begins to hysterically laugh before his face contorts in anger. "No! You are nothing like me!" The young man screams directly in Azreal's face, small bits of spittle flying from his mouth and landing on Azreal. The young man collects himself, before raising his head, only to look directly down on Azreal to speak again. "I don't know why our glorious Sect has taken in scum like you… if only my uncle was the Sect Leader."

The young man swiftly lifts his sword high above his head, with a small amount of sunlight breaking through the tree line, the sharpness of the sword highlighted. The young man looks into Azreal's eyes, "I will do the dirty work that the Sect Leader is too weak to undertake. My family will not allow the weak to feast off the spoils of our hard work!" The sword begins to move down towards Azreal's body, he is still shocked by the young man's words and aggression, and could never hope to react in time.

However, just before the blade hits Azreal, he screams "No… I won't die here!" With a burst of power and speed, Azreal narrowly rolls out of the way, the sword striking the trunk where he had been moments before.

"HA! So, you do have some life in you… this will make things much more fun!" The young man begins to laugh hysterically again. Azreal glances at the wound on his upper arm and to his surprise, it has already begun to heal, slowly closing over.

Ding! A notification enters Azreal's vision which makes his eyes go wide.

Azreal manages to get to his feet before quickly reading the message and stares directly at the young man with a steely determination. "Leave me alone! I only want to take this examination in peace! Why must you attack me?!?" Azreal screams at the young man.

Causing his face to distort into anger further, with a wicked grin, he retorts, "The strong bully the weak, you are so pitifully weak... and I am strong, far stronger than you!" The young man takes a stance Azreal has never seen before, which causes his survival instinct to kick in, 'I must dodge this attack or I die.'

With speed faster than Azreal's eyes can follow or unable to react in time, Azreal braces for his life to end and stares at the sword, believing it to be his last moment in this world.

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Clang!

"Junai! You monster! Why are you trying to kill fellow participants!" a calm voice says.

Azreal's vision takes a second to adjust after he had locked onto the sword and accepted his fate. What he sees takes his breath away; a beautiful woman, who has blocked Junai's attack with ease, has appeared out of nowhere and stands directly in front of him.

Thud!

The sound of Junai's sword hitting the ground is louder than Azreal had anticipated… 'This strike would have killed me before I could even react,' Azreal thinks as he begins to stumble backwards.

The beautiful woman, who has long, golden blonde hair and a light pink blush to her white skin, is wearing the same white robes as Azreal and Junai. She quickly darts towards Junai and delivers a swift kick to his stomach causing him to wheeze and spit a small amount of blood out of his mouth.

"Bitch!" Junai screams, after pulling himself together and charging at the woman, with his sword poised to strike. However, much to Azreal's surprise, as Junai charges at her, his eyes widen, and he quickly stops himself.

"Miss Kayleen Lu, why would someone of your talent save scum like him? Think of what you could be if you put losers like this behind you. This is what's wrong with your Lu Family… always helping those who don't even have the capabilities to receive your help. So tell me, Miss Lu, what are you doing here? Why did you save him?" Junai fires his questions off in quick succession.

"I was thankfully passing by and heard a commotion that sounded like a weak and pathetic Nilxan family member, doing what they do best, bullying anyone who is weaker than them. Luckily I managed to save this young man from your murderous actions!" The words cut through Junai's confidence like a sharp knife.

Junai looked down at the floor, clenching his fist. After a few moments of tense silence, he raises his head and stares past Kayleen directly at Azreal, who has fallen to his knees in fear, Junai having a crazed plastered across his face. "You lucky brat! If she didn’t save you today, I would have cut you into pieces… Now, if either of you mention this to anyone, I will make your life a living hell in the Sect."

Azreal, at a loss for words, simply nods at the aggressive words from Junai, before looking down and staring at the forest ground, unable to move from his spot. Junai snorts before moving away and dashing towards the mountain.

Kayleen kneels next to Azreal and puts a hand on his shoulder, “It's okay, you're safe now." Kayleen's attempts to help Azreal fell on deaf ears. A few moments pass before Azreal lifts his head to look at Kayleen. Once their eyes meet, Kayleen takes in a small breath. She had expected to see sadness, defeat, and even expecting Azreal to be crying. However, what she sees intrigues and scares her at the same time. An incomprehensible determination shines deep within Azreal's eyes. Years of being walked over, forgotten about, and pushed to the side like trash, Azreal's anger and determination begin to surface.

‘What is this feeling… It feels like I’m being crushed by a mountain just by looking into his eyes,’ she thinks. Azreal is yet to even register that Kayleen is staring directly into his eyes, his thoughts running wild in his mind.

‘ARGH! Again and again, I am useless, I am pathetic! Every step in my life has been failure and humiliation, and now in this fake world I am still bullied. Fuck this! I refuse to fail without trying ever again! The strong bully the weak, good! Good! I will show you, Junai. I will become your worst nightmare, I will rip you down from your fake heights and make you realise just who you have fucked with.’

Ding!

Azreal clicks yes without a second thought.

Azreal’s eyes widened while reading this information, ‘Amazing! It immediately gave me a high comprehension of this Martial Technique! This system is simply amazing!’

“Hey! Are you okay? You haven’t moved in a few minutes, can you hear me?... Do you need me to call an Elder to take you out of the exam? I'm sure my grandfather will help if I ask.” Kayleen says while looking over his body for injuries, which have already healed.

Azreal, who has been in a daze since the words from Junai enraged him to the core, snaps back to reality. “Sorry, I was caught in my own mind, I was really focused on getting my anger under control. My fear and anger seemed to mix, and I escaped into my own mind for a moment there,” says Azreal with a small laugh, trying to hide his awkwardness.

Azreal begins to stand and offers his hand to help Kayleen stand. She stares at him with an intense look, her beautiful green eyes shining like emeralds and staring into the depths of his soul.

Kayleen takes the hand on offer, and with a little effort, stands up. She dusts off her robes before speaking, “Don’t worry about it. Your first life-threatening confrontation will shake you to the core, mine certainly did…” said Kayleen, as she seems to lose focus in her eyes for a brief second. Azreal's words bring her back to reality. “Ah… yes… I was confident I would die then, I had so many regrets…” Azreal responds in a slow tone, considering his words as he spoke.

Deciding to show his sincerity, Azreal slightly bows towards Kayleen and speaks with a determined tone. “My name is Azreal, and I owe you my life. I hope you can accept my gratitude, and I promise that I will return the favour one day! And I owe you a favour, no matter how big or small.”

Kayleen, staring at Azreal, blushes hearing the sincerity and determination in his words, tries to dismiss his attempt at thanking her. “You shouldn’t have had to fight with Junai, but evil people thrive in the cultivation world. He and his disgusting family will always be a thorn in our Sect's side, especially since his father is the leader of the Crimson Sword Pavilion. I would advise you to avoid joining them if you manage to pass this exam.”

Taking a few seconds to investigate the surroundings, Kayleen points towards the direction of the mountain. “Now, I am confident you will pass the exam and enter the Sect! However, I want to impress my grandfather, so I am going to go ahead and try to achieve first place,” she says with a beautiful and large smile plastered on her face.

“Good luck, Azreal. I hope you manage to stay alive; I want to cash in that favour someday!” Kayleen says, a small smile on her face before she begins to run in the direction of the mountain, faster than Azreal can keep up with. Azreal stares at her slim and petite frame retreating from his view, ‘Some of the women in this world are very different…’ he thinks as he begins to check his body for any damage.

Looking at his already healed arm, he pokes it with his index finger. ‘Hmm… minor regeneration is a very powerful ability. I can’t believe I have so many amazing abilities already! I need to finish this exam as soon as possible to get noticed and accepted into the Sect!’ Azreal begins to formulate plans to use his broken abilities to give himself an advantage in the cultivation world. ‘Enough thinking! I spent enough of my life inside my head, let's live outside of it.’ Azreal begins to run towards the mountain peak.