The results of the battle royals

The only man who kept his suspicious expression, looked at each of the ones arguing for them to not attack the little girl. They didn't have much in common, and he was sure being compassionate wasn't one. Furthermore, he knew that two of them could commit much graver acts than beating up a single girl.

'What's causing this?'

As he was trying to find the cause behind their sudden change, his eyes met the eyes of the little girl, and he quickly made a decision.

Serina was also confused as to why the group surrounding her were arguing over her, but she wasn't naïve enough to think that everything would work out. While they argued amongst themselves, she quietly gathered all of her nature energy.

The only man still suspicious didn't see through this. He only thought it would be best to get rid of the source of this argument. He smoothly took out his dagger and silenced his presence. After a quick check, he was sure that no one had their eyes on him, so with a clear mind he cast a spell to boost his speed. Then, once he saw the opportunity, the man pounced at Serina.

In the blink of an eye, his dagger was already near her fragile neck. However, as if she had seen him coming, Serina's whip wrapped around his wrist like a snake.

"What?!"

By the time the rest of his group noticed his scream, the man's body was already thrown at another one of their members. And just as the two collided, Serina fired a gale of wind at them that knocked them both off the stage.

"Huh?"

At this time, most of them were still slow to react so without wasting a second of this chance, Serina went after another one of them. She caught this person by their ankle and spun them around, making sure they hit each of the others at least once.

"Ah-ah-ah-!"

As she spun this person around like this, those who had been arguing against ganging up on her felt as if thunder had clapped right next to their ears.

'What poor little girl, this is a monster.'

After about four spins, Serina threw the person outside of the platform and focused her attention on those that remained. She managed to quickly take care of three of them, but she was still far outnumbered by the rest. However, this numbers advantage didn't seem to register in their minds as they merely stood still as they faced her.

"Ho, what a skilful girl."

One of the elders who took a break from watching Fatty's group glimpsed at Serina's situation. Since most of the remaining competitors in her group were a level above her and there was still someone two levels above her at the fourth level in the Soul Realm, it didn't seem likely that she could make it to the end. But that was only assuming she was a normal little girl.

'She's like a serpent stalking its prey before gulping it down in an instant. Usually I wouldn't be much of a fan of this delicate fighting style, but if she makes it through this I'll keep an eye out for her.'

The pressure had decreased, but Serina was still in a difficult situation.

'It would be too close.'

She didn't think it would be impossible to make it through this, but the risk was too great for a confrontation that likely wouldn't be her last. Therefore, rather than charge forth recklessly, she escaped.

"Huh?"

"She fled."

"...Should we chase after her?"

"No, let's just look for someone else."

Much easier than Serina expected, they let her go and changed their target. Following this, Serina ran around the stage trying to stay as covert as possible and finished her fights quickly when it wasn't, and so she managed to last as one of final three due to luck, to her at least.

There was still one group left to finish so while they waited for that one, Serina made her way to where the other winners were and quickly showed a smile once she saw that Fatty was among them.

"You made it through."

"Well, of course. Did you ever doubt me?"

"Nope. I believed in you from the start."

"Eh, ehem, thanks."

Even with his thick skin, Fatty found it hard not to be a little embarrassed from Serina's words.

Once the last group was finished, the twelve of them were gathered and each was handed a red sash with the sect's volcano emblem.

"Congratulations. All of you have proven yourselves worthy of joining our great sect. I know that most of you have come drifting from Silver City, but now that you have joined us you must remember where your loyalty must now lie."

"Yes, elder!"

The elder who spoke nodded approvingly at their firm response before taking out a red badge for each of them.

"These badges store information on the facilities you are allowed access to with your current status. It also has the location of the residence you've been allotted but you don't have to stay there."

Of the new inner sect disciples, Serina and Fatty were the only two who weren't thinking of staying in the sect. After a couple more minutes of the elder's speech, the two thought about heading back home, but since their celebration wouldn't be ready yet so they decided to look around the sect first.

Fatty had misgivings about this, but he knew that he couldn't run from it.

The other new disciples took their time looking around the outer section of the sect, so Fatty and Serina were the first to head to the inner section. Fatty had only visited the outer section of the sect, so this would be his first time in the inner section, just like Serina. The gate between the two sections required their badges to open but after walking through the gates, the two were frozen still.

The inner section of the Burning Mountain Sect felt like another world. In the distance there was a volcano that couldn't seen from outside the sect, and from that volcano came widespread heat.

"Wow, it's so hot!" Serina exclaimed.

"Yeah, I did hear about it but it's worse than I thought. Guess I won't be seeing any other chubby comrades here."

The inner section was located around the base of the volcano, so naturally the heat constantly attacked them. The two could resist this high temperature without using any nature energy, but they still sweated a vast amount. If they weren't cultivators, heat stroke would have been the least of their worries.

The residences for inner sect disciples came right after the gate to the inner section. With a few cursory glances at the simple stone houses along the way, they walked through this area. After this would be the arena and special cultivation facilities so the sight served as the appetizer before the main dish.

Unfortunately, the appetizer had an unexpected kick.

"Tch, how did a fat punk like you manage to get here?"

Normally, he would just ignore this comment, but since he recognised the voice, he knew it wouldn't be so simple. As Fatty suddenly stopped, Serina looked at him in confusion before taking notice of his slightly trembling hand. She then looked behind them, at the scowling young man who was approaching.

'He must be one of the bullies.'