Pathway

Although he would have tried if he had a weapon. Actually, he preferred to have a weapon but he had no weapon. His thought went to the training sword, he should have kept one sword in his spatial sac for times like this. But who would have thought?

He had drifted away to the mountain side looking for something to use when he felt a deep sense of danger coming from the behind. He didn't need to turn for him to know that it was a really big dangerous animal and was very close behind him. He quickly used the swift spine technique to move forward several yards before swiftly turning around.

A second after leaving that spot, a mighty paw of fourteen inches iron claws raked the empty air. Those claws might have cut him into four pieces. He could see the beast clearly now, it was the rare white longdan tiger.

The white longdan tiger was watching with him with keen dead eyes, growling as it inched forward.

Watching the beast drew nearer, Ju Feng started to contemplate. He had never used the shifting hand in a true combat before and definitely had never used his Chi in combat. He quickly came into conclusion to use only the Shifting Heavens hand technique without using Chi. Though, he was stronger, the white longdan tiger's claws and teeth were the dangerous weapons he would try to avoid.

How powerful were they? He slowly took backward steps watching the white longdan tiger with complete focus. Though, he wasn't sure about the power of the tiger, he was sure about its speed. It definitely wasn't faster than him.

The white longdan tiger attacked with very fast speed, Ju Feng who almost had his back to a tree, waited agonisingly until the last moment before he quickly used the swift spine technique to evade the attack. As he was moving past the tiger, he used the tiger's momentum to twist its right arm under it. With the force of its flight, it collided with the tree, the force impact drove the nail of its claws into its own guts, disembowelling it totally. The longdan tiger tried to move but finally collapsed.

It was a really big longdan tiger. Ju Feng looked at the corpse of the longdan tiger and wondered how he was going to remove the core from the it. He had neither knife nor sword. He had been thinking of getting a weapon. Maybe, after today, he would start looking for a weapon. Even a small one would do. He was still thinking of what to do when he heard a soft voice not too far from his position.

"It looks like you need some help."

"Uhm, hello. Didn't see you there. I guess I do, a knife or something to remove the core. Didn't bring mine. Silly me. Name is Ju Feng by the way."

"Genji. Here have it."

She said and handed him a long knife.

"I saw your fight with the tiger, your strength is good for an outer disciple but, your speed? No outer disciple can move like that."

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. No outer disciple should be able to move the way he did. The move was in the mould of the inner disciples' techniques.

"Don't think like that, there's nothing to it, I'm just naturally fast. Thank you for helping me out anyways."

He removed the core, cleaned the knife and returned it to her.

"Hm."

"What about you? Have you gotten one?"

"Yes, I have. And, are you not taking the hide and the claws?"

"If you want them, you can take them. I don't want to burden myself with loads, too lazy for that."

Since you've finished, time for me to go then. See you."

She placed the removed hide and claws on her shoulder and disappeared with flash steps.

Tracing his path back, he left the dale of beasts with his acquired core and returned to the flying stars school with few minutes to spare on the original time and delivered his core. The core's strength was measured and entered it to his name. They did the same to other disciples too, the strength of their cores were registered to their names accordingly.

Afterwards, the sect grandmaster addressed the audience again.

"The first round of the competition has finished and the names of all the successful disciples have been recorded. Tomorrow, the successful disciples will move on to the second phase of the competition, martial combat. The life of a cultivator is a hard one, you will face foes and opponents, if your martial combat is lacking, you will die. This competition is not to primarily show your combat skills but your combat hearts. A heart willing to learn is a heart worth teaching. Prepare for the second round, tomorrow morning we'll continue. Good day to you all."

What would happen now? He didn't even know what he was supposed to do now. The Savants wanted him to go on solitary solitude, who knows where?

He would just follow the other outer disciples away from prying eyes.

He followed them to the outer premises of the sect where he saw a sect steward and quickly approached him. Twenty minutes later, he was assigned to a room he would be sharing with three others, Jiang, Fa and Chaun.

He wouldn't be able to practice any martial or mystical techniques because of his new room mates. He wouldn't be able to cultivate because of heavenly tribulation that would descend the moment he tried to. He wouldn't be able to use his spatial sac too and no meat.

With sagged shoulders, he shook his head.

Time to prepare for the following day