Core Disciple Selection

Shui left Serina's residence soon after and returned to his home.

"I forget sometimes, but Boss really is the same age as us."

As she remembered his fading back, Serina had the same thought.

"He always seems so calm and prepared, as if he could hold up the sky on his back, but even he doesn't know everything. Even he's not perfect."

Serina wondered: if Lisa saw him like this, would she still have the same opinion?

Back at his residence, Shui decided to settle down by evaluating his current status. His body cultivation remained at 50% above peak saint body, but he could now utilise his transcendent force at will. The divine force was still out of reach, but excluding that aspect, he had close to complete control over his body cultivation and believed that he could contend against peak Masters with it.

Similarly, his soul cultivation also hadn't progressed, and he didn't have any leads on how to quickly improve it either. However, there were a few skills that he hadn't mastered yet, such as the soul encroaching technique, so he wasn't in a rush to increase his soul cultivation. Thanks to him improving his control over his soul and body, he could now fill his house with his aura and then leave it without anyone noticing his presence or lack thereof. Shui tried to be low-key while at the manor, so this was a great boon to him, and it led to other disciples giving up on catching him.

His energy cultivation stayed below the late Soul Realm, and while he was closer to the answer, the mystery of Soul Perfection eluded him. He kept up his study of Heretical Ascension and could control his divine energy as he wished, but he couldn't compare to Kate in this aspect. As it was his most powerful and versatile spell, Shui continued to practice the Four Elements Technique. Although he remained at the manipulation stage, his skill in controlling his elemental manifestation had vastly improved to the point where he could shape the elements into realistic creatures. He was far from making them mimic life, but paired with illusions, it would be hard to tell the difference.

As for Nature's Eternity, Shui made little progress due to his lacking understanding of the elemental laws. He found that his wood-attribute soul and refined metal body made it easier for him to comprehend the laws of those elements, but not to the extent that he could touch those laws in less than a year.

He hadn't made much progress in arrays or inscriptions, but he made slight improvements in his forging technique after crafting Reinhart's custom sword artifact. Overall, he was confident that his current self was superior to his self one year prior, but when he recalled the task entrusted to him as one with the Sage God Eyes, it never felt like enough. This was especially true since he was lacking in real battle experience. Though there were opponents who could threaten him in Silver City, they weren't people he could approach easily, and he wasn't so much of a battle maniac that he would attack them without reason. Therefore, Shui had decided to leave the five cities region to one of the kingdom's danger zones once he was done tidying up the manor for Kate. He still hadn't made this intention known to her, but he had given hints that he would eventually depart. While it was nice to stay in the city with her, both of them had their own paths to take.

As he was acknowledged as a great seedling by the elders, Shui already had a spot in the Core Disciple Selection, but usually disciples would have to accumulate contribution points by doing missions while being at most twenty years old and in the early Soul Realm, or at most thirty years old and in the late Soul Realm. Due to the high number of contribution points necessary, most entering the selection ended up being above twenty and in the late Soul Realm. However, only twenty disciples would be evaluated during the selection, and as ten had already been seeded like Shui, only ten more from those applying could move on to the selection. To decide these ten, a preliminary test would be held.

Fatty and Serina had done a few more missions after the Hundred Face Beggar incident, but they weren't even close to the necessary amount of contribution points. Still, since Shui would be in the selection, they invited him to see the preliminary test. Due to the varying cultivations of the applicants, when there was a need to lower their number, there were two rounds of the test. The first round measured talent, while the second round measured combat skills, and the results from both were used to determine the final list of applicants. For the second round, disciples of similar ages were paired together and made to spar. There was luck involved in the second round, but one's talent was generally fixed, so most disciples focused on that round. 

Shui's group had no interest in the first round, so they went to the venue, the main sparring area nearby the elder's meeting hall, shortly before the second round began. They apparently weren't the only ones like this, as they noticed many other groups heading to the venue and a crowd already waiting there. There were far fewer seats than the number of inner-section disciples, and the sky was already occupied by elders, so inevitably, the late disciples didn't have much of a view.

"Serina, Shui, over here!"

Serina's housemate, Sasha, called out to them once they arrived. She was together with Serina's other housemate, Julie, but there was no sign of Kasia. There wasn't any other incident involving Kasia even after Rodney was released from house arrest, but she spent more time outside their residence than in it. 

"I tried to get seats for us, but I forgot how popular the combat round was," Sasha apologised.

"No, it's fine. Worst case scenario, we can always use our spiritual senses."

While Shui was right, in a crowd like this, using spiritual sense would be very troublesome for most. Fortunately, Shui's popularity still existed.

"Is that?"

"I think it is."

"Hey Shui, are you here to watch?"

"Come up here!"

With the support of the early crowd, Shui's group was given a better spot to watch the combat round. Shui didn't feel right accepting such favours from strangers, even if they were fellow disciples, so he tried to pay them back, but they said it was unnecessary. 

"We're like fans of yours, so we just want to do what we can to help."

"Yeah, plus it's hard to spot you around the manor, so we should be thanking you for making an appearance."

"I see? Uh, thank you all."

"You're welcome!"

"Wow Boss. You're more popular than I thought."

"It's surprising to me too."

This event made an impression on Shui, but once he detected the hostile gazes he had attracted, he immediately shifted his focus. Among the spectators were disciples like Shui, who had already been guaranteed a spot in the selection. Shui spotted Clyde and Lionel, as well as a few new faces who didn't seem to like him.

'They're not Kate's enemies, so I can handle them as I wish, but I'll spare them as long as they don't go too far.'