"It's uhh, Brenda yea." She told, strangely looking at her hand while introducing herself. Not caring for the slight oddity Kazami gave her a firm handshake while telling her,

"Ah, good name for the sword maiden! And from your nice soft hands, I can tell you practice with a sword every day. Oh, the name Kazami by the way." Taking his hand back, he still had a welcoming smile on it while Brenda was back to her indifferent expression, but her eyebrow got raised.

"Sword maiden? Soft hand? Those are rather weird terms nobody uses to describe me as." She said rather bluntly, but Kazami only found her to be a bit amusing.

"I prefer calling it unique terms or original terms. Though I'm sure there is one term people do describe you as."

Brenda earnestly thought about it but gave up, shrugging her shoulder saying,

"What would it be?"

"A beautiful girl naturally." Brenda held no outward reactions and began to think a bit.

"From my memories, rarely would people call me beautiful. Um, are you one of those guys charmer? After all, you have those girls looking at you intensely." Turning over his head, Kazami did notice Kuzumi having a big smile on his face as if she were waiting for something and Lun Yuo dawning a curious expression.

"Oh, the one with the big smile is my sister Kuzumi and the thinking one is my friend Lun Yuo."

"Hello, there, weird girl!" Kuzumi waved at her.

"Hello." Lun Yuo greeted, although she wrinkled her eyebrow a bit.

Confusingly she pointed to herself then back at them.

"I'm weird? You three are weird. I have never seen any youths like you three."

"It would've been a dishonor for us to be on the same level as the youths here." Kazami lightly boasted about himself, and this got a reaction out of Brenda.

She held an earnest gaze, looking him in the eyes saying,

"You hold much more weirdness to you then, right? Duel with me."

"Oh, you're not the one to beat around the bush, huh. Any particular reason why you want to fight?"

"I feel-I feel like you can give me something." She stated she was not sure what herself truly meant, but inside she felt her blood pumping thinking about a duel with Kazami.

She rarely feels any enthusiasm in her life, yet this boy effortlessly manages to get her blood roaring. It was too weird that I had to explore it more!

Getting pumped up, Kazami stared into her eyes with his inviting playful smirk saying;

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Alright then, since you're quick to want it, who am I to refuse a duel from a sword maiden like yourself."

"Warning, I never lost to anyone my age." Brenda indifferently stated like it was a fact of life.

"I have a warning as well; I never hold back even against beautiful girls. After this mission, we'll duel." Enthusiastically putting out his hand Kazami challenged and teased back.

Though Brenda merely looked at his hand, confusion plaster on her cute face. In which Kazami only shook his head and grasped her hand again, shaking it.

"You sure do lack basic social cues."

"Social Cues?"

"Oh, boy! Hey, you know what you want to be friends and rivals?" Kazami suddenly thought of something while hearing her question of social cues.

"Friends never had one. Rivals never had one too." Brenda shrugged her shoulders, thinking about her non-existent past relationships.

"Well, then count yourself lucky cause you just made one today." Kazami smiled at her, and for the first time since they began to talk, a small, barely noticeable smile dawned Brenda's face.

"You really are weird..."

...

"Hey Kuzumi, why aren't you say anything and stopping me from trying to say something." Lun Yuo complained to her as every time she tried to jump in their conversation, Kuzumi would distract her.

"Was I? Must've didn't notice it hey look at the older division field someone exciting is going up." Kuzumi quickly pointed to a mysterious figure dressed all in black with a small black mask and even had long black hair going down towards his legs.

This man was the last one going to take the test as well.

"That doesn't asnwe-"

"We'll have plenty of chances to talk later, for now, look at that guy." Grudgingly turning around, she did notice how weird the guy was.

He seemed like a robot moving very stiffly and showing only a dull emotion on his face even when he against the Ruler Transformation rhino beast.

The black shade man was in the 10th level of Origin Formation, the peak of the realm, and out of everyone that came up so far was the strongest.

It looked like he faced no pressure from the beast despite the difference in the realm.

Faster than any Origin Formation cultivator could see the beast rushed the man. Expecting another quick failure, the man surprised them all when he, at the last second, used Dark Qi to paint the floor in darkness. It managed to slow the beast down momentarily and dodged it at the last second.

The beast swiftly turned around, but the man already dashed way out of its reach and made the floor go entirely back.

The rhino beast attempted to rush the man down, but by the time it reached him, 5 seconds already passed.

"Good! Now!"

And in a split second, a deep blue crystal beam shot towards the man, but the man raised his arm, and the darkness on the floor rise as a shield and absorb the beam fully!

"Woah, that was so cool, man!"

"How did he do that?!"

"Wow, that guy is special, eh?" Even Lun Yuo couldn't help but comment on him.

"I told you he was weird." Kuzumi joked with her.

A full-power attack completely absorbs this was certainly something no ordinary cultivator can achieve.

"Passed! Alright, test over! Everyone who fails, you can now leave."

With a disappointing sigh, the huge crowd started to clear out the field.

"Oh, tests got done," Brenda stated, looking around the field.

"Huh didn't even notice the time, it flashed by in an instant while we were talking," Kazami said while stretching out. Throughout their talk, it was mainly Kazami throwing all sorts of questions while Brenda gave odd responses.

It was like she barely interacted with another human, yet now she just found a sudden interest.

"Alright, the rest of you! Follow me!" A new tall, dignified man came out to the small crowd of people that was left indicating his status.