The Assessment (2)

Qing Shan found himself lying the middle room, in a pool of blood. Qing Shan immediately checked his body, and was relieved to find that none of the blood belonged to him.

However, this was not entirely a good thing. Qing Shan felt a bad feeling in his gut, and immediately stood up. Looking around the room, shock filled Qing Shan's mind. He felt his heart beat start to ring in his ears and felt his stomach jump up to his throat. Qing Shan bent over and emptied his guts onto the floor.

Qing Shan stood up, wiping his mouth. The stench of the room only made him want to vomit once more. There were bodies everywhere. In his rage, Qing Shan had not only killed the ten people who bullied the others, but he had also snuffed the life out of the twenty people who had been barely hanging onto life. There were thirty corpses scattered around the room, and Qing Shan was the only live person among the sea of flesh and blood.

Trying not to focus on his environment, Qing Shan used his hands, drenched in the blood of thirty humans, to pick up the bags filled with shards. Qing Shan emptied all of the bags into his own, and waited.

As Qing Shan laid on the ground in wait, he soon saw the ceiling of rock above him crumble. He Quickly moved to the side as a small hole was made in the ceiling. As the rock fell, it made a sickening splash in all of the blood. Qing Shan's stomach churned at the sound.

Elder Kang jumped through the hole in the ceiling, truly curious as to what he would find. He had the organizer of dozens of these trials, and had never seen so many bags with shards stay in one place for so long. Before a few hours ago, he could tell that there was a conflict, as twenty bags were emptied into the bags of ten others. A few minutes after that, a person owning a bag filled with ninety-six shards entered the conflict. That bag-holder had been the only one to move for exactly one minute, and then nobody had moved for the past three hours in this room.

This had been the case until a few minutes ago, when all of the shards in the room were drained into the holder of the ninety-six shards' bag. This was the first time that one bag holder had a grand total of three-hundred and twenty-six shards.

Once Elder Kang surveyed the room around him, he was surprised he knew only one word that could describe the scene.

Gore.

'I guess one of those Origin Soul kids got a bit angry.'

However, when Elder Kan turned his eyes to the Peak Formation Soul Qing Shan who was still staring sorrowfully at his blood-stained hands, his eyes bulged, and mirth filled his eyes.

"Oho!"

Qing Shan barely showed any response to the noise, and continued observing his hands and his environment with a blank look on his face.

*sigh*

'I hope he isn't broken…'

Elder Kang through Qing Shan's limp body over his shoulder and picked up Qing Shan's bag of shards.

Once Elder Kang walked out of the set of caves and back to the entrance, he dropped Qing Shan's delirious form onto the ground. The seventeen people who were already there looked at Qing Shan's blood-covered form, and one gird cried out.

"Shouldn't you save him? He looks like he is about to die!"

Elder Kang looked back at the immature girl expressionlessly.

"Lass, the only thing about to die is that brat's soul. None of that blood belongs to him."

After Elder Kang spoke, and almost everyone looked at Qing Shan like he was a monster. As they were doing that, four pairs of eyes swept over Qing Shan's body, appraising him. These eyes belonged to the four Origin Soul kids who had cleared the trial first.

Qing Shan gradually began to stabilize his mental state. He was lucky that he had ten times longer than other people to process events such as these. Unfortunately, his equivalent of about an hour since he woke up, at least by his time perception, was nowhere near long enough to clear his mind.

While Qing Shan being in shock at the amount of humans he killed suddenly skyrocketing from zero to thirty was part of the reason his body went out of commission despite him being conscious, he also did this so that he could focus entirely on his mind. After suddenly sticking his hands into a pool of blood, Qing Shan needed to focus his mind.

It was almost worse that Qin Shan could not remember killing those thirty humans. He could blame the deaths on his berserk state, and that was definitely part of the problem, but he would never have killed all of those people if some part of him did not desire to do so; at least, this is what Qing Shan guessed from prior incidents with his berserk state.

Every single time Qing Shan had killed many beings at once, he had had control over his thoughts and actions. He had maintained a clear mind and never gone too far beyond the limits of his comfort.

That was normally the case.

Qing Shan had literally been blinded by rage and taken twenty innocent lives, and ten not-so innocent lives. In hindsight, their innocence did not change the fact that Qing Shan had inhumanely slaughtered thirty people.

'The only reason this happened was because I let my emotions control me. That is all.'

With this thought, Qing Shan finally found ground to step onto. Unfortunately, this ground was slightly different than his normal mindset. With this one thought that had brought Qing Shan back from the brink of insanity, a whole piece of Qing Shan's identity shifted.

Unknowingly, Qing Shan just took a large step toward the strength he desired. Unfortunately, this was a step that he would regret taking repeatedly in his future.

Now, however, Qing Shan felt no regrets. In fact, he did not fell much of anything. It was like the door to his heart had suddenly closed.

His inner conflict resolved, Qing Shan fell unconscious. It was surprisingly exhausting to forcefully cause a change to your identity.

Qing Shan soon awoke in an unfamiliar environment. However, upon searching the room he noticed the seal of the Fallen Sky sect on the wall. It appeared that they had taken him to their infirmary.

Qing Shan hopped out of the bed and exited the room. Qing Shan was unsurprised to see someone waiting for him. After all, he was not yet formally a part of the Fallen Sky Sect, and they would definitely not let an outsider freely roam their territory.

The man introduced himself, but Qing Shan did not care to remember it. He brought Qing Shan out of the infirmary, past a few buildings and into another. Surprisingly, it was an auditorium. Qing Shan sat in a seat near the back, out of comfortable speaking range with a any other people, just like he wanted.

In the front of the room, Elder Kang was lecturing all of the attendees on the rules of the Fallen Sky sect. Including Qing Shan, there were thirty people present. Qing Shan zoned out until he heard something interesting from the Elder's mouth. The man began talking about the placement of the thirty that were to be admitted into the Fallen Sky Sect.

"Even though it was stated earlier that the top ten fastest finishers of the trial would move into the Inner Ring of our sect, I have decided that this would be unfair to anyone who's strength was unable to flourish in the trial. For instance, do any of you think that someone who collected over three-hundred shards in less than three hours should be sent to the Outer Ring? Because of this person we will be having a sort of trial for the twenty who would be sent for to the Outer Ring. These twenty people will have the chance to challenge any of the Inner Ring position holders that have the same cultivation level as themselves. If you win your fight, your will be able to take that person's spot. People who have entered the top ten through this method will not be able to be challenged.

"Any questions?"

None of the ten with spots in the Inner Ring had any questions, and smirks spread across most of their faces. Of the people whose faces were not covered, Qing Shan could see that five of the eight of them had arrogant looks on their faces.

The remaining nineteen others asked some questions, which caused Elder Kang to clarify the safety rules of the competition. Finally, Elder Kang brought the thirty applicants to the place of the rankings competition.

As the applicants walked out of the auditorium, many rubbed their backs and behinds; it was hard not to cramp up after sitting in stone chairs for half an hour.

Although he did not show it, Qing Shan was impressed by the venue where the ranking competition would be held. It was a large circular stage, about one hundred meters in diameter. It was lifted off of the ground by one meter. Outside of the stage, there were stands that allowed a great view of the stage. The stands were about ten meters away from the stage, and had some runes that Qing Shan could not understand written along the base of them. The only fault Qing Shan could find with this arena was that the stands were once again made from stone.

Elder Kang brought the ten seeded applicants onto the stage, and had each of them state their cultivation level. They were organized from fastest to slowest in the trial going from left to right.

The man all the way on the left did not seem to be especially rich compared to some of the others. His cultivation level was Peak Formation Soul.

Next to that man was another male, who looked about seventeen years old, most likely younger than Qing Shan. He was covered in expensive Runic Armor from head to toe, and had a beautiful sword at his waist. Surprisingly, he was only at the 9th level of Formation Soul.

The next four people to the left were two women and two males, all at Peak Formation Soul. Of them, the one that had been the fastest was a tall woman, who appeared to be about nineteen years old. She had a beautiful appearance and gave off an air of nobility.

'She's strong.'

The next four people Elder Kang did not make speak.

"These fastest four men and women are all at the Origin Soul realm, so I would advise you not to fight them if you want a spot in the Inner Ring. Now, anyone who wants to challenge someone for a spot, please step forward, state your name, and the rank of the person you would like to challenge."

Since no one was stepping forward, Qing Shan did so.

"Qing Shan challenges rank five."

The beautiful woman stepped forward.

"Shen Yi accepts your challenge."

Elder Kang directed everyone toward the stands, while he remained on the ground next to the stage. It seemed that he was going to make sure that no one dealt any fatal damage.

"Begin!"

Qing Shan and Shen Yi, who stood twenty meters across from each other, closed that gap in an instant.

Shen Yi had quickly pulled her rapier from her belt and started to attack Qing Shan, who had left his staff inside the Primal Pocket Dimension. Luckily for him, and unluckily for Master Liu, Qing Shan was far more talented at bare-handed combat than combat with his staff. Maybe he needed to use a different weapon…

As Shen Yi unleashed a flurry of lightning fast stabs with her rapier, Qing Shan began to doge and weave like the wind, flowing around any obstacles in his way. To Shen Yi, it seemed as though Qing Shan had somehow forced her to miss all of her attacks.

'Her swordsmanship is admirable.'

Qing Shan could tell how much Shen YI had trained with the sword just from this small interaction. Not only did she have amazing talent, but she also had at least ten years of practice under her belt.

Qing Shan's eyes cold, he darted forward from where he had been and launched a powerful punch at Shen Yi's back. The girl did not manage to fully block the attack, but she moved fast enough to minimize the blow. She then attacked Qing Shan again, sending more than nine attacks at him in just one second.

For Qing Shan, who's one second felt like ten, he could easily predict where each and every one of her attacks was aiming. Unfortunately, he had just thrown a powerful punch, and most of his weight was on his front foot.

With such a sluggish body, Qing Shan knew that he could not evade all of the attacks. He flexed his calf as much as he could as slightly moved himself at an angle towards the floor. Because of this tiny movement, six of Shen Yi's nine attacks. Unfortunately, Qing Shan was unable to evade the remaining three, and they pierced him through a lung, his thigh, and his stomach.

"Ugh!"

Qing Shan's unbalanced body collapsed toward the ground, avoiding Shen Yi's next nine attacks.

Suddenly, she stopped, looking down at Qing Shan, who had three bloody holes in his body. He had spent too much time trying to suppress his emotions, and had not fully focused on the fight. Of course, Qing Shan did not realize this.

"I… concede."