The tests involved going through various hurdles that reminded Alex of the Sanctum.
Not only did one have to be strong enough to pass the test, they had to be intelligent, resourceful, adaptive, and most of all, courageous.
They were also tested on their knowledge as well as their past. Each individual that was going through the test had to eat a Truth Seeking pill to confess anything wrong that they had done in the past.
Depending on the truth that was heard, they could easily be failed.
The tests took a very long time, but they were all entertaining. Because most tests were made to be like a competition of sorts, with points to distribute, the crowd immensely enjoyed the show.
Alex enjoyed it quite a bit as well. Watching so many different people go through various tasks, if nothing, was entertaining. It was like watching a reality show back at home.
“What do you think, your Majesty?” one of the elders asked. “Do any of them catch your eyes?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure,’ Alex said. “I once fought that young man from the Yao family in the Battle Arena. I think his unique Dao gives him quite a bit of an advantage.”
“Is that so?” Yao Ning spoke as she looked at the young man from her family. “He doesn’t have the highest cultivation base, but he is still one of the best.”
“Right, was Saint Core 9th realm really the highest cultivation base?” Alex asked. “Some of them are hiding it, aren’t they?”
“They most certainly are,” the elders said. “We crafted the formation knowing that they would want to hide their cultivation base. If they believe they are good enough to be accepted while they hide their cultivation base, then who are we to tell them otherwise.”
“True,” Alex said. “Oh right, that guy over there is doing good just because of his items. If he loses those items, he is useless. Are the tests taking that into account?”
p、A,nd A-n、o、ve,1
“Mm,” he nodded.
The test continued for the entire night and through most of the morning. With how many people there were, they simply couldn’t rush through all the tests.
“Your Majesty, there’s still an entire day’s worth of tests left. We will only be done tomorrow morning,” the elder said. “Do you perhaps wish to leave?”
“No, I can stay here and watch,” Alex said. “It’s fun anyway. Besides, I want to make sure I am here for the actual competition to start.”
“Oh, are you looking forward to the Competition, your Majesty?” the elders asked.
“Very much so,” Alex said.
“You must really want to watch them fight, don’t you?” the elders asked.
Alex smiled at them and went back to watching the tests. The elders didn’t question his silence at all.
The unique tests continued for much longer, surprising Alex with just how much thought was put into the various tests.
“How did you guys even come up with so many ideas?” Alex asked. “It’s like you tried to make another Sundering Sanctum without the Sanctum.”
“That was actually the inspiration, your Majesty,” the elders said. “We wanted to have unique tests that the participants had to work to get through.”
“Instead of just having simple tests, we wanted to make tests that gave us the same result through a different scenario. Of course, that sounds redundant since the result would be the same, but the difference it tests is bound to cause confusion in the participants. We’re testing them to deal with confusion as well,” the elders said.
“I see,” Alex said and continued watching the tests.
He stroked his royal robes while making random remarks about the participants or the contents of the test.
Soon enough, another day passed and the tests were finally coming to a close.
“Please wait for a while so we can announce the results of the tests,” the elders said and converged to talk for a bit.
There wasn’t much to talk about as they had already decided on who to pass and who to fail based on the points that the participants had received that were hidden from them.
The current meeting was only to see if there were someone exceptional that they missed, or if there was someone really bad that somehow managed to make it through.
After careful consideration, the elders released the first of the two lists.
“Here are the True realm cultivators who have passed,” the elders said as they pointed to the sky.
The large screen in the sky flashed with 4 thousand different names, all of which had a number to the side, that was their registration number.
The people who had passed cheered while the ones that failed were saddened.
The elders waited a few minutes before they spoke again. “Here are the Saint realm cultivators who have passed!”
A list with 860 people flashed in the sky.
“What’s going on?” Alex asked. “Only 860?”
“I’m afraid so, your Majesty,” one of them said. “More didn’t join, and we have to have a bottom line on who could join and who couldn’t, so it ended up this way. I’m sure with can reach 1000 once we held more tests.”
“Sigh, forget about it. This many is still quite good,” Alex said. “Just 2 dozen years ago, I couldn’t even have imagined 86 Saints in a single place, let alone 860. This number is quite nice.”
“Thank you, your Majesty,” the elders said.
As everyone cheered once again, Alex fell into thought.
“Tell me how you’re planning to hold the competition exactly?” he asked.
“It’s like this,” the elder started explaining what they had intended for the competition. It was a simple competition with fighters fighting against each other to climb through the ranks like any other competition.
Alex heard everything and nodded his head. He thought for a moment and released his spiritual sense as if to search for something.
“What are you looking for, your Majesty?” one of the elders asked.
“I’m looking for someone,” Alex said but did not elaborate upon it.
“Looking for who exactly?” the elders asked.
“It’s better if you don’t know,” Alex said. “Ah! Found them.”
The elders were confused, but they sensed Alex’s spiritual sense go down around the arena where the competition was being held.
“What did you do, your Majesty?” one of them asked.
“You’ll find out once you announce the competition. Don’t forget your work just yet,” he said.
“Ah! Yes,” the hosting Elder said. He went up ahead and announced the next phase of the test.
“Since your tests are now complete, all 860 individuals will now have a chance to register for a competition that we will be holding. Based on the results, over a hundred of you can choose from various treasures that were taken directly from the royal treasury,” the elder announced.
The crowd went into a cheering frenzy once again, and the new Royal army proceeded to get both excited and nervous about the upcoming competition.
“They will start at any minute now, so go register if you want to join,” the elders said.
The group of people lined up, ready to join. Not all of them lined up, but there were enough for the competition to last another day or two.
Alex watched them all and smiled as he brought out something.
The elders noticed the pill and the formation plate that he had brought out. “What are those, your Majesty?” they asked.
“I’m going to use these,” Alex said and placed some spirit stones under the formation plate. He placed the plate on the ground and looked at the pill for a moment.
“Your majesty? What are you doing?” the elders couldn’t help but ask.
“Remember when you asked if I was having fun watching the tests half a month ago?” Alex asked. “Do you remember my answer then?”
“Uhh… yes,” one of the elders said. “You said…”
The elder paused. He frowned a little as he remembered exactly what Alex had said. Not only he, the rest that had been there all remembered exactly what he had said.
Alex pointed at the formation plate beneath him. “That’s a formation that will cause you to have intense spiritual pain,” he said. “Make sure to destroy it immediately.”
He then ate the pill in his hand and swallowed it. As soon as he did, his body and face slowly shifted.
“Your Majesty, you can’t—”
Suddenly, the formation activated, causing all the elders in the surrounding to feel intense spiritual pain. They couldn’t use their spiritual sense and had to look through their blurred vision as they saw Alex’s body disappear from plain sight.
“I’m gonna go have some fun.”
One of the elders managed to destroy the formation plate, but by then it was too late.
All that remained on the throne was a simple royal robe. Alex himself was nowhere to be found.
“Your majesty?” the elders called for him, but there was no answer at all. They released their spiritual sense to search for him, but they couldn’t find him either.
“Where is he?” Yao Ning asked as she searched around, but there were too many to search through.
They all turned towards the crowd of saints that were registering for the competition. The various saints wore various robes of different colors and types. With such diversity, it was impossible to find someone that would be intentionally hiding amongst the group.
“He’s changed his face and has mixed into the group,” the elders said. “I don’t think we will be able to figure out which of these is him anytime soon.”
