.

Guess you just want to die-

.

Leroy caught up with the students as they tried to recover from running. Before he could speak with them, however, a teacher appeared out of nowhere. Surprisingly enough not one that caused him any trouble.

"Glad some of you met up with each other!" The teacher said happily. He spotted Leroy walking up by himself. Which was slightly odd. "Leroy, where are the members of the Clear Tang Family?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea." Leroy gave a shrug and immediately was on guard.

Since it was the honest truth, but the lack of interest in other student groups was alarming. None of them had come to his tent when everything was going on and he did not try to look for them off the bat. Not until he made it to his lookout spot did he think about them having run in a very bad direction. And only in passing. Only a few of them were worth a damn really.

"Hopefully they found a teacher to help them in this craziness."

"Hopefully." The Teacher gave a wry smile. He took the implication that the students would be relying on him. With the look of some of the students, he hoped not. 'I took the wrong year to become a teacher. Should have waited another year as mother said. Bad enough I am only in the middle of the Foundation Establishment Realm.'

As the teacher had a mental debate about his decisions, a robed figure approached the group from the trees. Walking right into Leroy's Spatial Sense range and disrupting it a little, this surprised him a little.

*Fwip!* A rock was tossed in the general direction. Infused with the two qi's. The speed was enough to catch the stalker off guard but not enough power to one-shot them. The teacher turned from talking to his group to see as he felt the energy flux.

*Boom!* The rock exploded upon contact. Surprised, the cloaked figure took off in a flat run. Abandoning the ambush that was prepared. Despite the level difference, no sense in risking problems developing. The death glare given to Leroy was not ignored.

"I thought I saw a Demonic Beast out there." Leroy said sheepishly. He scratched his cheek giving a nervous look. "Just have the jitters I think from everything going on and no hints about where that Demon Beast that attacked Tang Bo might be."

"I understand." A student said from the side nodding. "Just hope we can find the others soon."

"Help!" A student cried out running their way. It was a young woman with black hair and purple eyes. The one who hung out with Tang Xui when they moved out initially. "We were all attacked by a weird demonic beast!"

She ran past the teacher all the way to Leroy directly. Immediately looking back to make sure she wasn't followed by the beast or if another student was still with her. That did not happen.

"What the hell is your name?" Leroy arched a brow at her despite knowing her name already. A willing participant would allow him to check something with his Flame Vortex Core qi after all. Right about the time to at least make things easier since Jasmine had not come around. "Where is Tang Xui and that group that is usually with you?"

"Tang Xui is with teacher Matsuo last I saw her!" She was still slightly panicked as she spoke. By the cuts and bruises she sported, she at least put up a fight before running away. "My name is Xiao Mei. A vassal of House Clear Lily." She finally settled down as another student came over to console her.

"Calm down!" The No name teacher barked seeing the students get restless. Despite himself, he did not want the students to think he was a coward and didn't have a handle on the situation. With false bravado, he made a decision. "You all wait here and I will try to go and see what I can salvage from the situation."

"Be careful!" A few of the students yelled out desperately. Some thought the teacher was great for this. Leroy thought he was either running away to safety or had another way to protect himself. He was after all safe by himself earlier.

Despite coming from the same direction as the Beast Stampede did earlier. As the students focused on recovering and consoling one another, Leroy had other plans.

'I have got to take that risk to see what I can get from the situation.' A small glance at those near him helped make up his mind really. He wasn't captain save the day, but keeping them alive would help with numbers for later fights. Plus Rexford was the one in charge of their Unit back home and making sure people lived during Operations. 'Hopefully, they won't get trigger shocked later. I need more resources to get stronger and fix my Dantian.' The fact that bodies were a type of resource passed his mind briefly. 'Hopefully, I do not make a habit of looking for corpses. This place does not have counseling of any sort from what I found so far.'

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Senior Brother Leroy," A student he never spoke to came up to him. He had been watching him the entire time he looked off in the distance to where the teacher ran to. "do you think everything will be ok?"

"Just Leroy, we are students in this together after all." Leroy turned with a small smile. "I think we can survive this if we stick together and if we fight when the time comes. I think everyone must steel themselves to be ready to fight as if their life depended on it."

"Will it come to that?" Another student asked. One of the few who had trouble killing the demonic beast during the beginning of the Test. A reason it existed was for matters such as this to cut away from them. "Has to be a better way."

"That's right." Another student chimed in. "I say we let the teachers handle it." As slight dissent grew amongst them, Leroy had heard all he needed.

"Do what you want then." His eyes turned slightly cold as he looked them over. "I am gonna check to see if the other students could be saved. Then I will come back, if you all died I won't shed a tear. Nothing but cowards, you deserve that kind of fate!"

*Woosh!* He shot off focusing his Spatial Sense in a general direction. Some fighting had taken place as they were talking just then. If luck had it, he could ambush whoever was involved. The students behind looked at each other worried.

*Rustle!* Something in the bushed moved. They all jumped in fear at that. Out jumped a demonic beast. A white rabbit that looked at them bewildered then hopped away from the strange humans.

Not only were they all ashamed of themselves for being afraid of one little rabbit, they realized how their current situation might lead to them all dying from just a small mistake. Even worse being called cowards left a bad feeling.

They should have chased after the only one making plans.

Leroy counted his find lucky. The no-name teacher was dead with his blood still leaving his wounds as well as two students. Each with large scratch marks down their back the severed spinal cords. Searching around didn't lead to him finding anyone.

'Damn, this prick moves fast.' Leroy tossed the bodies into the Flame Vortex Core immediately. He would wait till later to see what could really be gained from the process. None of the bodies had anything on them of note. So that begs the question if the person doing this was looking for something as well. 'How did that no-name teacher survive to meet up with students before anyway? Was he used just to being followed or something?'

As he headed back, Leroy thought about the best way to use this in his favor. Information given to the students who were currently in a fragile state will help. It was time to throw Chan-Yeol under the bus he so desperately needs to be under.

Panic and fear used just right can help a lot.

Unfortunately, some other students had found the group while Leroy was away briefly. The gathering looked to be 1/3 of the original numbers that went out for the Test.The few teachers looked injured and not really mindful of the students' condition.

Moving the entire group from the current area was better than staying in the open.

Leroy sat to the side meditating instead of getting involved just yet with them. He used Spatial Sense to try and detect anyone that may have come near them and decided to lurk back instead when they moved. So far nothing of note.

They were right outside a cave that had some resources that he was determined to get. Just had to plan it just right. Thankful something good came from going back to the student group.

'From what those Journals said, there is a cave with powerful Crystals saturated in Ice Qi. Not to mention what is possibly else in there. Maybe I can find some really nice metals?'

Chu Xue decided for himself to go explore and get some food to eat. A few of the students joining in the search to hopefully obtain something good to eat. Victoria tried to speak with Leroy a bit to mend fences after realizing he was one of the few people not panicking and kept a cool head.

"Senior Brother Leroy," she called out sweetly. He opened an eye looking at her a bit. Just to let her know he was listening but didn't say anything. "I think we got off on the wrong foot really. You, Chu Xue, and I all have the same teacher and master, we should work better together. It would be best if we get along better to solve this situation. The trouble with you and junior brother Chu Xue..."

"Haa!" Leroy exhaled as he stopped cultivating. "That is really impossible. I am sure you have figured some things out about the current political situation that you have not shared with the others. Which makes sense. But you are misguided in your attempt to try and use me to your benefit. Most of the trouble with him is that he will bring to his own family by those he mixes with such as that freak Pin Feng. Most definitely not anything that a weak Family can handle mind you. But hey, thems the breaks when you have stupid children."

"If that is the case.." Victoria gave a small nod happy a little with what was said. "..can you help Chu Xue a little with his martial arts? If he learns to fight better his survival will increase."

"Say what now?!" Leroy was a little taken aback by that. Having no real idea where that came from since he thought she and others were helping him learn to fight. "With what time do you think I have to help him?"

"You helped the other students earlier. And I saw how you tried to change Tang Bo before his death." She watched him intently for any change in behavior. A small look of distaste had her confused about something. That was not the look she was expecting. "I think a little talking from you and some teaching about fighting will help our junior brother."

Leroy Spatial Sense picked up some movements further out. At the very edge of his scope and detection.