CHAPTER 20

The third day, Okami was still sleeping, and Mir asked elder Bu:

“Elder Bu, where are the disciples doing the mountain challenge?

-To the Lab. The management elder there is in charge of the mountain challenge. But no one really attempt the challenge. It has a cost to participate as well. If you win the challenge, they give you back the money though. But it never happened so there are nearly no challenges being done. There hasn’t been one in a few thousand years in the Herbal Mountain. Well, where are we going today, Mir?

-The Lab!”

Elder Bu thought Mir wanted to check the records of previous challengers and due to that, his expression when Mir told the management elder he wanted to challenge the mountain was priceless. Both elders looked at each other, they didn’t know what to do. Mir was five years old; how could he challenge the mountain? This was just a joke. However, Mir was serious, he handed his card full of gold coins to the management elder and added:

“I’m serious, I’m issuing a challenge here.”

The management elder frowned but turned serious as well. Challenging the mountain. Even if the words came from the mouth of a child or a VIP, they weren’t things one could joke about here. The management elder nodded and said:

“Very well, we’ll be taking one million golds as a fee to participate. If you succeed, it will be given back to you ten times. However, if you fail, don’t come crying later on. You may be young but challenges aren’t to be taken lightly.

-Exactly what I want, elder. When can I start?

-Tomorrow, at the challenging mountain first arena, when the sun rise!”

Elder Bu brought Mir back to the pavilion. He fell down on a sofa in the ground floor, Mir sat in front of him. Soon, a waitress brought tea for them. Elder Bu had been silent for a while and now he was hanging his head between his hands. This kid was bringing him too many problems. And he did that while the grand elder was away at that! He had been ordered to watch over the kid so he didn’t mess around and yet, he let him challenge the mountain! He was going to be severely punished for that, the situation was bad. He looked at Mir angrily. In the end, all his affection towards the kid had vanished in a matter of minutes. Mir felt the angriness behind elder Bu’s eyes but didn’t care in the slightest. He did that because he couldn’t get a school token in a different manner. Sure, he promised elder Lan to not do eye-catching stuff but, hey, it’s not his fault if he has no other choice, right? Elder Lan will forgive him. Probably. As he was awkwardly being fixed by the angry elder, a younger elder ran from the first floor and screamed to elder Bu:

“Elder Bu! Okami woke up!”

Mir smiled and ran towards Okami’s room. He was followed by the elders. Though they didn’t run, it was to keep their image. Truth is, they really wanted to run. As he arrived in the room, Mir saw something unexpected. In the room, Okami was sitting on his bed. He was calm. However, he was in briefs and had silver hair growing on his legs and arms. He had bloodshot eyes. Also, his nails had turned into claws. His ears were higher on his head and they were pointed. His hair was longer and silver, it went down to his ass. He looked like a werewolf. As he saw Mir enter, he smiled revealing a range of sharp fangs. Then he said in his normal voice:

“I never thought it would work, you have my eternal gratitude, young boss. From here on out, consider my life yours. I accept your deal!”

Mir smiled brightly. He had his first loyal clansman. After the words were uttered, the elders arrived and saw Okami. They all had perplexed looks on their faces. Wasn’t this child a normal cultivator, how come he was a bloodline owner?! And they could feel the strength of this bloodline, it was far from normal. Elder Bu also noticed the state of the room. Everything was destroyed and there were marks of claws everywhere. Mir was already sitting with Okami. Elder Bu asked:

“Okami, what clan do you belong to?

-I am an orphan, I am young boss’s servant since I owe him my life!”

This left the numerous elders shocked. Most clans with bloodline were famous. They were showing off most of the time after all so every single bloodline in the kingdom were known. But they never heard of one like that. Okami’s appearance had changed so much and he exuded some kind of strange aura. Elder Bu frowned and asked a second question:

“Okami, what is the name of your bloodline, you should know since you awakened to it.

-It is the silver alpha wolf.”

This stunned the elders. Basically, Okami’s true bloodline was the Violent Flesh-eater Giant Silver Alpha Wolf, a rank(M) beast. However, Mir had talked with elder Lan and they decided to hide that fact. Before the elders entered, Mir had told Okami to say that his bloodline was from a silver alpha wolf. It was a distinct species that possessed similar appearance though far weaker. The silver alpha wolf was a rank (D) beast. It would mean that his bloodline was one of the strongest in the kingdom! From only this, his status turned from a nobody to a genius that was worth giving their all to nurture. He was a blessing to the Herbal Mountain. Elder Bu rejoiced. He lost value in Mir but now he found some in the beggar kid, Okami. His smile came back as he looked at Okami. The other elders were the same, they were making plans and dreaming of the future of the Herbal Mountain. After some chatting with everyone, Okami suppressed his bloodline and his appearance turned back to normal. Then he put on the official ancient robe of the school and on Mir’s orders, he went to the training center. From here on out, it was important that he became familiar with this new ability of his. Mir didn’t have anything left to do so he did what he enjoyed most since he was birthed in this world: lazing around and doing nothing. He found a nice spot under the shadow of a tree and laid down. He stayed there until night came. The next morning, before the sun set up, the door to his room was forcefully opened. The Lab’s management elder was there with a dozen others. Mir was only half-awake. The management elder smiled and said:

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“You didn’t forget about the challenge, did you child?

-…Hum…I didn’t. Do I have time to change?

-Be quick.”

Mir got up, stretched and put on the school robe and the leaf armband. Then he got out and followed the elders. They went down the mountain. As they walked down, many elders joined in the procession. Elder Bu was there with Okami. They crossed the bridge and went to a different mountain. It was the challenging mountain, named from the fact that there were only arenas on this mountain and its grand elder was a fan of fighting and such. They led Mir to the biggest arena, the first one. He was led to the central platform. There was a chair and a desk. The arena was strangely deprived of people. Only elders from the Herbal Mountain were there. However, in the VIP zone reserved for grand elders and such, there were four people. One of them was easily recognized by Mir, it was elder Lan. As he saw Mir going up on stage, elder Lan was furious. This kid said he wouldn’t do anything too eye-catching and here he was doing the most eye-catching thing he could have done! He screamed from his seat:

“Mir! What do you think you’re doing?! Why did you challenge the mountain?!”

His voice was so loud that people heard him from all over the school. Discussions began everywhere in the Burning Sea School and slowly, disciples were heading towards the challenging mountain. Facing the elder’s voice, Mir could only turn his head and started humming as if he didn’t notice the elder. It made elder Lan even more furious, he was nearly ready to jump on the stage and take Mir away. At that moment, the three other old men started laughing. It was a rare sight. They were respectively, the headmaster, the challenging mountain grand elder and a previous grand elder. The headmaster told elder Lan:

“Quin Lan, why don’t you calm down. This child that you brought back from the genius tournament is really gutsy! Ahahah!”

The challenging mountain grand elder added:

“You should rejoice! Your mountain earned a million golds at once! Ahahah!”

They were laughing at the disciple taken by elder Lan. A few days ago, when elder Lan went to see the headmaster, it was to tell him officially that he planned on taking Mir and Okami as his personal disciples. He had also requested to go fetch the third person sitting here, an old friend and previous grand elder because he thought he had a way to cure him. And right now, his mountain had been challenged and by whom?! By the five-year-old kid he said he was taking in as a disciple a few days ago. This was like a slap to his face. What the hell was this kid thinking?! But elder Lan wasn’t angry because of that. He was angry because he knew. He knew that for Mir, this challenge, he might just win it. He feared that a five-year-old child would succeed a Mountain Challenge. That was because he knew Mir’s abilities. However, the other three didn’t know and thought it was just going to be a big joke. They were here because of the school rules but since they came, they wanted to see a nice show. They were going to laugh at elder Lan and his impressive new disciple. It was hopeless. In the end, elder Lan sighed and screamed once again:

“Mir! Since you didn’t pay any attention to my words and did this, you better win it! Don’t make me lose any more face or I swear you’re going to suffer!”

The three old men laughed even more frantically and Mir’s actions didn’t disappoint. This time, he turned around and with a smug look, he made a “V” sign towards elder Lan. The great elders had never laughed so hard. Mir was sat down in the only chair and the management elder took out a bunch of papers and a pen. He said:

“Here are ten thousand papers talking about herbs or animals related to herbalism, you have four hours to guess correctly as many of them as possible. By my honor as a management elder, I swear that there will be no cheatings whatsoever and will assure the fairness of the challenge. To that end, twenty elders are also going to stand watch and the contestant is forbidden from wearing anything but the formal ancient school robe. Now, contestant Mir, please start!”

Mir took the pen and the papers. On every paper, there was a drawing of a plant or an animal and a few characteristics were written as hints. He didn’t even need them, with just the drawing, he knew what they were. One after another, he filled in the names of the plants and beasts. Forget four hours, an hour and a half later, he had finished and started lazing on the chair. Even if he had finished early, they wouldn’t check before time was up, those were the rules.                 As he was lazing in his chair and actually fell asleep, all the elders couldn’t contain their laughter and were teasing elder Lan to no end. What’s more, there were an increasing number of disciples and elders coming to the arena to see what the fuss was about. This wasn’t going to end well. The teasing went on until the four hours were finished. Mir was still snoring on the chair. The management elder sighed and said with a loud voice:

“Time for grading!”

He had to, even if it was a humiliation. There were so many people, he had to uphold the rules even if the whole situation felt like a joke and everyone was laughing their ass off. He took out the two herbal books and started grading. He took the first page from the pile and compared it. He was shocked yet still managed to say it loud:

“First page: Bacteria Adinhytlick, Correct!”

He kept on taking the papers and they were all correct. Soon, the faces of the people turned from mocking to seriousness. Mir was still snoring and elder Lan had his hand over his face, he couldn’t bear to watch it happen. He knew it, Mir had made a perfect. And it didn’t miss. In the end, it was a perfect score, 100% right. It was entirely quiet in the arena. Someone then screamed:

“He cheated!”

And the whole stadium turned into a rage. This woke Mir up and he didn’t know what was going on. Confusion lasted for only a few seconds as the management elder smiled to him and explained the situation.

In the Vip area, the headmaster sighed and got up. He looked towards elder Lan and told him:

“No wonder you were so angry. It wasn’t because you would lose face, rather it’s because he was talented enough that it was best to conceal it.

-Indeed, headmaster…”

The headmaster nodded and turned towards the arena:

“On my honor as headmaster, I proclaim that there were no cheatings during this challenge! Disciple Mir proved his worth! He can now challenge the second test! Bring the plant!”

Ten elders came while supporting a giant pot on their shoulders. It was big because it contained an enormous tree. The second test was similar to one of the quiz questions during the genius tournament. However, it was on a whole other level. Just with a look Mir could see hundreds of plants were composing this tree. It wasn’t going to be that quick.

The management elder gave Mir a bunch of blank papers and a pen. Mir began writing as he walked around the tree. It took him an hour to go over all the plants used. There was even some blood from a beast to link it all…No wonder it would have been impossible to clear. With only the knowledge from the books, it would have been impossible. Anyways, he succeeded again and became the first in history to do so.