Exam Begin!

James and all of the Disciples gathered and waited around 30 minutes before Fourth Elder finally called for time and began explaining the exam, "Now that all of you are here let's begin. The Inner Disciple test is a test to see if any of you truly have any value. Those of you who pass will be proving to us and the world that you truly are willing to fight the weight of the world to become the strongest." Fourth Elder said starting off his speech by rousing the fighting spirit of all those present.

Once Fourth Elder saw that they were all adequately listening he continued to speak, "Now, as for the actual exam. The way that it will work is we will spread all of you across the edge of a forest. This forest surrounds the west side of the sect and is used as a hunting ground for Inner Disciples normally but for this exam, it will only be you guys. From the outside of the forest, you must make your way to the center while fighting beasts tooth and nail. Only those that make it to the center of the forest and the center platform will have passed the test. The time limit is 7 days and any of those that fail will have to wait another year before you can try again." Fourth Elder said surprising many people present.

'An entire year?! I have to pass this time because I can't wait that long.' James thought to himself with conviction. If he were to fail the exam and stunt his growth here there was no telling what would happen within the next year of waiting.

James was also afraid that if he showed any incompetence Noel and Cara would get rid of him since he wasn't strong enough. Even though he wanted to believe they would never do such a thing, an aching in his heart forced him to pass this exam here and now no matter what.

From here Fourth Elder began assigning areas of the forest for each Disciple to start. James ended up with the farthest part of the forest which was a good distance away from the sect. Even if he wanted to quit he would have to run through the entire forest to even reach it.

'Good, this will take the thought of leaving even more out of my mind.' James thought with a smile as he followed the crowd toward their destination. Fourth Elder would be escorting them to each of their spots before he begins the test an hour after he drops the last person off.

What James didn't know was that he was specifically chosen to be farther from the sect alongside a group of other people who were the target of the other Disciple's wrath. While it may help James it would help them even more when they could bury his body without a trace and hide the screams of his death from the sect miles away.

Slowly but surely the group made their way inside the forest which was eerily quiet to James. If they were supposed to be hunting beasts all the way to the center of the forest then why hadn't they seen one yet?

While James was questioning this he also realized that a lot of the Disciples were giving him strange glances as they whispered to each other. Some had looks of admiration while others had looks of jealousy and anger.

The only thing James could gather they would be talking about would be his relationship with Cara and Noel.

'Heh, you can all continue to be jealous but the second you try anything funny toward them I will kill you all~' James thought to himself as he outwardly smiled and continued walking.

After the group got sufficiently deep into the forest Fourth Elder began stopping the group periodically and leaving some of the Disciples behind. He told them that this was their starting area and that if they didn't want to meet any beast before the exam even started that they needed to stay still.

James was of course not among the first few to leave and ended up being one of the last. Due to this Fourth Elder had placed James and a few others onto his flying artifact to take them to their spot quickly since it was so far away.

He was placed in front of a large river that he didn't even know existed which seemed to run all the way to the middle of the forest.

'Maybe this runs all the way to the center?' James thought to himself as he thought he might have gotten amazing luck to pass the test easily.

James' surroundings were pretty open which let him see far down the river but no matter how far he looked he still couldn't see the center platform he was supposed to get to.

Since there was nothing else to do while waiting James sat down and consolidated his already full Dantian some more until a ball of Qi suddenly shot into the sky signaling the beginning of the exam.

'Let's do this!' James thought in his mind as he shot forward running along the edge of the river. He made sure not to get too close so he wouldn't slip and fall in but still followed it toward the middle.

James continued running for over 30 minutes trying to make as much time as possible since he hadn't seen anything strange. He was hoping that by some chance he would be able to make it all the way in one go but he knew it wasn't going to happen the second he heard rustling in the bushes next to him.

Instead of James questioning the noise or asking if it was a person he quickly took out his sword and got in a fighting stance prepared for any scenario.

His choice was quickly proven right when a large wolf with red eyes jumped from out of the bushes aiming for James' neck.