Wu Guang knew that no names were meant to be announced and so calmly waited for the ceremony to end.

So after a message glyph landed on Elder Ku's hand and he continued to talk after reading it, Wu Guang was definitively surprised

"As everyone knows, the Sect normally does not announces the names of the top scorers during the 'Nascent Pride' but as full marks are extremely rare, the Palace Masters decided to do it this time, especially as the top scorer is indeed someone who we can call a new pride for the sect" With this said, Elder Ku took a brief pause and then continued

"The two full scores owners are the team of Wu Guang and Yuan Taotu. Both of them are new disciples in the status of inner disciples-in-waiting and the former also is the first applicant in several years to get a perfect entrance score. Disciple Wu Guang also got a special mark from the comprehension test, as he was judged to be the best participant, showing an intermediate level of mastery. Thanks to the latter, he was determined as the top overall scorer of all the outer circle. Disciple, please stand up"

Hearing this, Wu Guang stood from his place and half-bowed and after saying

"Disciple Wu Guang thanks the Elders for the high praise" straightened and stood up there calmly. He did notice several glances and a pair of them could be considered even hostile, but as all came from behind, he ignored them fully. Some inner disciples did throw a glance, but there was not much interest, so Wu Guang judged that these tests were indeed not important.

"Good, please sit down" Elder Ku said and after it was done continued to announce the contribution points rewards. Teams that passed the Palace tests but did not get more than half of the maximum score will get 50 points for each one. Everyone with higher scores but outside the top 5 would get 100 points. The top five had a better reward, comprising 150 points.

For the comprehension test, the rewards were extremely small, being only 10 points for passing, 20 for passing with beginner mastery or higher, and 50 points were assigned to Wu Guang as a special case. So judging from this, Wu Guang got 350 points in total, while Yuan Taotu got 320. This was also confirmed by Elder Ku, but he added that each of the two Palaces decided to reward them with 50 contribution points for getting perfect scores, so the totals would be 450 and 420 respectively.

With this Elder Ku finished and the High Elder that was seemingly the one in charge of the Inner circle started his own section. There were two main tests as well, but the survival one was changed for a combat test, so their scores depended more on wins and losses for that one. Surprisingly there was a perfect result of 20 wins and 0 losses during it and the Elder also disclosed the name of the disciple who accomplished this. It was a female disciple called Kuang Xiulan but as she was not present, Wu Guang and the rest did not have the opportunity to see her. Initially, Wu Guang wasn't interested, but as he heard several discussions about her, his interest was piqued. Most of the talks were about her being the first beauty of the Sect, but the part that made Wu Guang interested was the one about her being also the strongest inner disciple and having a high place in the Elite ranking without being one.

As this was finished, Wu Guang understood that as no Elite or Palace disciples took part in the Nascent Pride week, scoring first was truly easy. This also explained the lack of interest in the results, after all, only the best disciples would generate enough interest.

The second part of the Ceremony was about the graduating disciples. In total, only six disciples choose to graduate without waiting for the 'Three Hills Tournament'. Still, as they were graduating, it was logical that their names were announced. None of them was a member of a palace, so the Palace Masters did not come on stage.

The graduates were called out and asked to come to the stage, and so Wu Guang saw Ji Yong. Internally he was glad for him, so when the Elder asked the disciples to congratulate their leaving brethren, Wu Guang did it honestly.

Part of the graduation process included a brief explanation of their future path and unsurprisingly Ji Yong was announced as a new outer circle Elder and received a copper badge right on stage. Two disciples that were standing to his sides were going to join the Boundary Hill City guards while the remaining two were announced as returning to their families. The explanation was far more detailed, but as Wu Guang did not care he simply ignored it for the most part.

After some customary good wishes from several Elders, Master Sikou stood up and made a small speech about the fact that although they are leaving, they will be still part of the Sect so they should always abide by the morals of the sect, also adding that everyone hopes for their success in this new path they are starting. With all this done, the disciples were led from the stage and after a while, the three Palace Masters took the stage.

They announced that the 'Nascent Pride' week is declared officially finished and congratulated everyone who participated and passed. When they finished and left, several elders from the Martial Palace announced that after a small break, the arena will hold several exhibition matches and some inner disciples who had applied for entrance to the Palace could also take part in them. The names of these disciples were announced and one of them was Xiao Feng. Hearing this Wu Guang decided to find the latter and then stay to observe his match.

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Doing as decided, Wu Guang motioned to Yuan Taotu to follow as he wanted to also introduce him to Xiao Feng while asking if he could become their mentor.

They approached Xiao Feng who was chatting with the Cui brothers and after the introduction and some brief talk, Wu Guang asked him about the mentorship. Xiao Feng agreed readily and explained this quickness by the fact that he would never allow free contribution points to go to someone else. Although this was meant as a joke, it was also a fact, after all, Wu Guang did not plan to take much time to ascend - so Xiao Feng would get his reward. As for Yuan Taotu, Xiao Feng considered that someone who Wu Guang choose as a team member could not be mediocre, although he mentioned that Lang Juan would be more preferable while smirking.

With this matter solved, Wu Guang intended to remain and cheer during the match but a disciple carrying a band that identified him as a member of the Wisdom palace came and informed that Wu Guang was being called by the Palace Master.

As Wu Guang had told Xiao Feng about the task and the Cui brothers knew that the Elder was appreciative towards the former, neither asked any questions. And so Wu Guang followed the disciples after leaving Yuan Taotu and wishing Xiao Feng luck while excusing himself for not staying for the match.

Wu Guang expected to be led towards the Wisdom Palace grounds that were located a mile to the east from the plaza, but he was wrong as the place that the disciple showed him to was a building near the Main Palace.

It was a small one-storied building mostly hidden by several trees, fountains, and flowers surrounding it. When Wu Guang entered, he found himself inside a room that occupied most of the building and seemingly was something like a center for practicing arts, as almost every space inside it was filled with instruments, paintings, supplies for writing and painting, weiqi tables, and several tables for other games. There were two people inside the room with one being Elder Chen and the other one a High Elder. Wu Guang quickly approached and saluted.

"No need to be so formal, I was the one who called you here after all. Let me introduce you, this is High Elder Mo. One of my closest friends and the person in charge of the arts for both the Wisdom Palace and the entire Sect" Said the Elder in his usual calm and warm voice.

"Young man, I know about everything that happened as you met, so you can address me as Elder Mo"

"Understood" Answered Wu Guang and then stood still silently.

"I remember that I promised you a reward if you took the first places during both the entrance and the 'Nascent Pride', so here you go" Casually saying this, Elder Chen operated his holding pouch and took out a simple pouch that was passed to Wu Guang.

"This is a basic holding pouch and inside you will find several useful things. Everything is meant to be used during the Spirit realm and you would not be able to operate a holding pouch without reaching it anyway"

"Thank you Elder" Wu Guang said while receiving the pouch, although internally he thought "So the next task from the Elder is to reach the Spirit realm quickly, even if he does not says it openly".

"Did you choose a mentor?"

"I asked Xiao Feng and he agreed, but I still have not informed Elder Di"

Elder Chen did not respond but after a brief silence, he nodded in approval.

The Elder spoke with Wu Guang for a bit more, asking his impression of the sect and other miscellaneous questions. Wu Guang answered everything while playing the same game of small talk as the elder. He had long sensed that the Elder had called him here and introduced Elder Mo who was briefed about the incidents that led Wu Guang to meet Elder Chen to talk about something important.

The wait was explained in a while when Head Enforcer Zhen Mang entered the room.

As Wu Guang guessed the matter was indeed related to the incidents and mostly involved him giving his own side of the story and answering several questions from Elder Mo. When this was finished, Zhen Mang explained that the questioning of the prisoners that they had captured during the incident and left in the care of the Enforcers present in the tower did not give any clues at all because everyone except the Deathsword died instantly after being asked about the mysterious Master Zao. The Deathsword did not die but the imprint inside his consciousness needed at least a Sage to dispel, so for now he would be transported to the sect's prison.

Although no clues were gained, the fact that someone managed to leave an imprint on everyone present that killed them as soon Master Zao was mentioned was a clue by itself. After all, an imprint that was hidden so well that no one noticed was also at least on Sage's realm level.

Elder Mo was included in the investigation for a reason. And it was because surprisingly he was the previous Head Enforcer. Retired as he may be, these incidents were important enough to ask him to participate in the investigation, which he agreed to. Wu Guang wasn't told about what the next steps would be, but Elder Chen said that when he reaches a decent level of fighting strength he most probably will be tasked with something related to this matter.

As no more was intended to be shared with him and the Elders would continue between them, Wu Guang was dismissed.