novelnext Chapter 609: The Exploits of the Law
Chapter 609: The Exploits of the Law
BOOM!
The heavy bronze horn sounded once more from the highest peak of the outpost, its deep resonance echoing across the blood-slicked cobblestones and instantly halting the chaotic slaughter.
"The two hours have expired!" said a powerful outer elder. He floated down from the central platform, his long grey robes billowing in the wind as his suffocating spiritual pressure blanketed the remaining applicants. "Everyone cease your actions immediately. We will now begin the tally and evaluation of your collected talismans."
One by one, the surviving cultivators marched forward to present their spoils to the counting disciples. The gap between the participants was staggering.
"Young Master Chen of the Iron Wood Clan: one hundred and twelve talismans!" said the counting disciple, his voice amplifying across the plaza.
"Young Mistress Liu of the Flying Feather Sect: eighty-four talismans!"
The crowd whispered in awe as the top core-region heirs proudly handed over their massive stacks. But when Ethan finally stepped up to the counter, he calmly tossed down a grand total of only two talismans—the ones he had ruthlessly stripped from the Red Lion siblings.
"Ethan Brightsword: two talismans," said the disciple, looking up with a brief glance of confusion.
Ethan didn’t care about the mocking snickers from the weaker applicants in the back. Throughout the entire two hours, he had carefully observed that the highest-tier noble heirs hadn’t scrambled like starving dogs to gather hundreds of pieces either; they had simply taken a few from those who dared challenge them. His sharp instincts told him that the absolute number of talismans gathered was likely a superficial metric, meant only to weed out the absolute bottom tier of the examinees.
Once the final tally was completed, the Chief Instructor stepped back onto the main balcony, his sharp eyes scanning the thoroughly thinned crowd.
"The initial culling is complete," said the Chief Instructor. "The remaining thousands of you have proven you possess the basic competence to avoid immediate death. Now, we shall move directly into the second phase of the examination."
"The second trial will consist of a comprehensive team battle," said the Chief Instructor, a cold, unreadable smile playing on his lips. "You must find your peers and formally establish your units before the gates to the inner valley open."
The moment the words left his mouth, a massive flurry of movement erupted across the plaza. Because the core-region heirs had already established intricate political alliances prior to arriving at the frontier, they formed highly synchronized, balanced groups within a matter of minutes.
Ethan stood completely still in the center of the square, watching the frantic organizing with a look of pure, detached amusement. Predictably, every single cultivator actively steered clear of him. Even the desperate, lone frontier applicants looking for a powerhouse completely avoided his gaze, terrified that joining a man who had brutally humiliated the Red Lion family would mark them for immediate execution by the core clans.
He was left entirely, utterly alone.
But as Ethan listened to the murmurs around him, a dark, brilliant smirk slowly broke across his face. He had carefully dissected every syllable of the Chief Instructor’s brief announcement. ’You must find your peers and formally establish your units.’
Ethan let out a low, dangerous chuckle, his piercing amethyst eyes flashing with absolute dominance as he realized the massive legal loophole hidden within the sect’s official rules. The instructors had explicitly ordered them to form teams—but not a single soul had specified the minimum number of members required to constitute a unit. To a lone wolf of his caliber, a team of one was more than enough to slaughter the entire field.
"The formation of the units is officially locked," said the Chief Instructor. He looked down at the organized factions, his sharp eyes eventually landing on Ethan, who stood completely isolated in his own empty space.
"Now, listen carefully to the hidden parameters of this trial," said the Chief Instructor. "The second stage is a survival race through the Crag of Wolves. However, your difficulty within the valley is directly determined by the weight of your collective spoils from the first round."
"The spiritual talismans you gathered earlier are heavily linked to the valley’s ancient array," said the Chief Instructor, his voice carrying a dark, amused tone. "The higher the total number of talismans your team holds, the more intense the spiritual gravity will be on your bodies, and the more aggressive the valley’s spirit beasts will become toward your unit."
The moment those words echoed across the plaza, a wave of profound enlightenment and sudden horror washed over the crowd.
"So that’s why they didn’t harvest more!" said a lone commoner, his face turning completely pale as he looked at the massive sack of over a hundred talismans his ragtag group had desperately accumulated.
The clever heirs of the elite core clans didn’t look surprised at all. Their powerful family elders had clearly deciphered the cryptic records of the pavilion’s past trials. They knew that greed in the first round was a literal death sentence in the second. By keeping their talisman count to the bare minimum—just enough to pass—their high-tier teams would face almost zero environmental resistance and could glide through the valley completely unbothered by the beasts.
Meanwhile, the desperate commoners who had mindlessly slaughtered each other to amass hoardings of eighty or a hundred tokens were now burdened with a terrifying, lethal disadvantage.
"This is perfect," said Ethan. He let out a low, deeply amused chuckle, tossing his two measly talismans into the air.
With a total count of only two, Ethan’s solo ’team’ carried the lowest numerical weight in the entire arena. Not only would he be entirely free from the suffocating spiritual gravity of the valley, but the savage spirit beasts would practically ignore his existence, allowing him to move at absolute peak velocity.
"Look at that backwater fool," said a noble youth from a safe distance, sneering at Ethan’s solitary figure. "He thinks he’s clever because he has a low count. He’s a single man entering a team battlefield. The moment the array activates, the elite squads will hunt him down like a dog, no matter how fast he can run."
Ethan’s piercing amethyst eyes flared with dark, predatory anticipation as he looked toward the heavily reinforced valley gates. The corrupt nobility had used their insider secrets to grant themselves an effortless path, but in doing so, they had accidentally created the perfect playground for a lone wolf. He wouldn’t just cross the finish line; he was going to turn their safe little vacation into a complete, blood-soaked nightmare.
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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinement Realm
Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??