When the 132 participants stepped through the paifang, they were each teleported to a different location as their starting point for this exam. Through the paifang gate was the basic beast forest, a deep forest that’s filled with dangerous monsters and hazards that in normal conditions could kill many strong experts. So it wasn’t a surprise that a day in nearly 80 people were already injured to the point where they had to be teleported out to preserve their life. Unfortunately these poor souls weren’t able to gain much treasures.

This many disqualifications right of the bat although disappointing couldn’t really be used to gauge the worth of these new disciples. The original purpose of this third exam was to find the most talented out of hundreds of talents for the sect to nurture after all. So it wasn’t really surprising for more then half to participants to be eliminated before the first day was up.

This process just goes to show you the absurd talent the rest must have to survive all this. Every single new disciples had been through a similar process when they were first inducted. This survival of the fittest mentality was what originally allowed the Sacred Beast Sect to thrive for so long. Despite this harsh way of thinking, the sect was never unkind to the not as talented disciples. They instead put in effort to nurture them so they can at least protect themselves.

In the past, these methods gave the sect an illustrious reputation as a place for everyone to become powerful in their own right. At the peak of their power, the Sacred Beast Sect was only surpassed by the primordial superpowers like the Three Pure Ones, the Buddha and the Jade emperor. In fact, the founder of the Sacred Beast Sect was also from a similar era as the time that produced those primordial superpowers.

Currently the Grand Elders are watching the exam through the cloud mirror. The scene before them showed Shi Xuegang fighting against a monster. This particular monster resembled a tiger only much bigger and possessed wings. Standing at 12 metres tall and 29 metres long was a Qiong Qi tiger demon beast fighting against Shi Xuegang. This battle would definitely not be easy.

“Yah” with a leap, Shi Xuegang summersaulted through the air sipping his hands in arc shapes sending waves of sword Qi as tangible energy attacks. These waves flew through the air towards the winged tiger at high speeds. Noticing this attack the winged tiger jumped out of the way before roaring loudly at the prince.

‘Damn, this thing is loud’ Shi Xuegang could feel his ears bleeding from the sound alone, ‘I got to end this soon’. Thinking fast, Shi Xuegang sent a stream lined beam of sword Qi directly into the roaring tiger’s mouth. However the tiger’s senses were much higher than expected, it instead tilted its head and dodged that attack and flew forward for a swipe of its claw.

Shi Xuegang also leaped back avoiding the claw that just made a crater in the forest ground. Landing on a forest branch, he counter attacked by firing off more energy sword Qi waves. All these attacks proved to be ineffective as the tiger sent a blast of energy of its own to clash with the word Qi waves causing an explosion that sent several tall trees flying.

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‘Shit, this thing is stronger than I though’ Shi Xuegang was put on the defensive again as he moved through the forest avoiding the winged tiger’s attacks. ‘It’s too agile for me to land a decisive blow and it’s more than capable of matching me dead on’ Shi Xuegang began forming battle plans as he continued to avoid getting hit. ‘Come to think of it, the tiger seems to be looking around a lot’ while this observation may seem weird, it is indeed really strange, Qiong Qi winged tigers are generally known to use their noses to detect their opponents while not really relying on their eyesight as opposed to other species of tigers. ‘So the fact that this particular tiger is relying on its eyes must mean that its scent is abnormally bad’.

Concluding his observations, Shi Xuegang jumped off a tree and disapeared amongst the tree tops. Flying up into the skies, Shi Xuegang cloaked himself in an invisible barrier, ‘I have got to thank father for this technique’. By enhancing his eyes and saw the winged tiger also coming into view as it flew into the sky. It frantically looked around trying to find the prince who was now 100% sure of his hypothesis.

Whoosh!

Just then Shi Xuegang reappeared right above the tiger materialising two energy short shagger in his hands, ‘You’re mine’. With one action faster then the tiger could notice, Shi Xuegang jammed both blades into the tigers eyes. In response the beast immediately began roaring and frantically moved everywhere now terrified that it lost one of its greatest weapon. In its distress, it didn’t notice Shi Xuegang flying right in stabbing the monster in its heart, this attack killed it instantly.

Shi Xuegang followed the corpse as it plummeted down to earth and landed as it crashed into the ground. “Geez, this thing was tough” using sword Qi, the prince skinned the creature and stored its skin and bones into his inter-spacial ring. Picking up a small red gemstone on the ground, he though to himself ‘This could be useful, a Demon Beast Core of this level is definitely beneficial to my cultivation. But I better get a move on, there’s still many treasures out there’. Deciding on his next actions, the prince sprinted off into the forest.

“You were right. This kid is truely not bad” Ezzel himself was very impressed with Shi Xuegang’s display of power and tactical knowledge, “He would serve well under my tutelage”. Hei Hainan smiled ,“Yes he is indeed a good seedling”. Tacking a drink from his wine glass FengHuang stated, “It seams that Wan Kun fellow is attempting to surpass mortality”.

Hearing this, the many grand elders looked to another section of the forest and notice WanKun sitting there meditating. The teen was surrounded by a sea of monster corpses with over 50 Demonic Beast Cores around him being absorbed into him. “To see so much good stuff go to waste for just one boy to surpass mortality is truely saddening to see” Shu Meiyan could not help but cry at this sight, not only were there Beast Cores but there was also many rare herbs lying around being absorbed.

“Just surpassing mortality require this many recourse? Just how tough is his Nascent Soul?” Xue Hui was shocked, this was certainly unexpected. “Seeing that he leaned a supreme art invented by Buddha himself, I’d say very strong” FengHuang told him. One had to understand that most talents could surpass mortality with 1/10 of the stuff he’s using right now.

Wan Kun was currently trying to sever his Nascent soul from his Dantian. ‘This is much harder than expected but I’m almost there’ with a lot of effort, the Nascent soul was almost out. After a great deal of recourse, Wan Kun had almost surpassed mortality.

‘Yah’ with a scream within his mind, Wan Kun forcefully yanked his gigantic Nascent soul from his Dantian causing an explosion of energy. This energy shockwave could be felt all around the entire dome.

Somewhere north of Wan Runs location Da Chang also felt this energy, ‘what was that?’ After ra brief stop he continued on in his herb collecting. Similar actions were performed by almost everyone still remaining in the exam.

Meanwhile Wan Kun was now consolidating his power immediately reaching the peak of Spirit Severing stage. “Kid, from here on out, your progress will be extremely easy” Wan Kun’s master told him, with Wan Kun’s unshakable foundation, his future cultivation speed is sure to increase by leaps and bounds