to 100 to

His speed was just too fast. He just turned 15 few months ago. He is advancing very fast. But this time, he will be encountering a bottle neck. But this bottleneck isn't as difficult as others. They have to get an enlightenment, but Sam's cultivation is mostly breaking a barrier forcefully just like beasts.

But the higher his cultivation, the more energy he requires and the stronger the barrier is. Advancing from Novice level 3 and Novice Level 4 is stepping from initial stage Novice to Middle-stage. The barrier is strong and he needs more time to breakthrough.

Chaya left after some small talk.

Sam didn't know if people from the Falcon Cliff city are here yet.

He completely threw all thoughts and responsibilities out of his mind and went to his room. He is going to laze around for this whole day.

Even though, he has experienced all kinds of cruel circumstances in his past life and lived in a worse place one could stay, that only made him cherish his vanity for these luxuries more and more.

That is the reason, he never compromised on the place he stayed in any city. He used a very rare precious metal like silver meteorite sand and Black meteorite sand to make a hover board. Even though, it has some perks to do battle, the main reason is that he didn't want to walk these long distances in city.

Even if his task is reaching the peak and to meet Ling Tian, he will never ever sacrifice the comforts he earned. He will drown and sail in his vanity and enjoy his life to the best of his ability and his enjoyment lies in the comfort he gained with his efforts.

So, this whole day, Sam went to swim in his lake, took a sun bath in his yard, ate all kinds of street food he could get his hands on. Finally, he had a best sleep in his comfortable bed.

The next morning, Sam went to the academy zone very early. The ordinary folk aren't allowed here at all like previous times in Falcon Cliff city and Starwood city.

He saw a lot of people were there. There are ten Counts under the Marquis and a total of hundred participants were selected from all of them. The Marquis city selected 20 people, so a total 120 candidates will be participating in this special branch.

Sam came to the gate and found the people from the Falcon Cliff city. When he went there, everyone greeted him with enthusiasm, of course, the weird trio is an exception.

After some small talk, Philip asked.

"So, what did you do in this month? Did you get your hands on that guy?" Philip is Philip after all. Even getting back at Marquis' son is fun thing for him.

"Well, I planned a lot for him. Maybe, he is cursing my 18 generations as we speak." Sam said as he smiled. Until now, his plan is pretty much success.

"Oh, what did you do? Tell me the details." Philip's interest piqued. He really didn't understand why Sam came a month earlier and that too when his cultivation isn't up to par. Being nosy is his nature and now his curiosity is all time high.

"Nothing much, I just trimmed his tail which made him so proud a little bit and he is now hiding it between his legs." He replied clearly not wanting to elaborate and, in an attempt, to change the topic, he asked Hawk.

"Why are there no representatives from the Count mansion are Falcon Cliff academy?" He noticed that there are no representatives for other groups as well.

"This is the order from the Marquis. Yesterday, my father came along with us and Marquis immediately sent him back the very night itself. Not only him, every representative was sent away. They weren't even allowed to stay within the city." Hawk replied.

Sam just nodded and didn't say anything. He started looking at the rest of the candidates.

He saw, all kinds of people in the bunch. The excited guys, the nervous one, the arrogant guy, self-assumed leader. He could see all kinds of candidates. His gaze finally landed on the Marquis city group.

There are twenty-one people and the extra one is Zeke who got lucky. Even though, Sam didn't expect that Marquis will bring back the people from the two cities, he is glad that Zeke could still make it. He has something else planned for Zeke inside the academy.

The only thing that Zeke could be proud of was that his access to superior resources and his superior strength to Sam.

Sam wants to remove that feeling also. He is the going to show him that these two will only last so long and he planned to completely crush his will. By the time he was done with the guy, he will feel so depressed that even if he saw a spoon full of water, he will consider diving in it to commit suicide.

Beside Zeke, Sam saw two other people and one of them is Luther the second son of Marquis who he already met and the third person is someone who he is not familiar with.

But he could easily guess his identity as the nose which is touching the sky and eyes climbing over to his head gave him away. That arrogance and Pride can only be possessed by one person and that one person is none other than the third son of the Marquis the inheritor of blue flame.

Sam didn't linger his gaze on him and looked at another familiar face. The lady waved her hand as she saw him. He returned the gesture. She is none other than Jasmine Violet dew.

He had already made a deal and it wouldn't hurt him if he was a little bit nicer to her. And the main reason is that Sam didn't want to pollute Jasmine's pure mind with his cynic nature. In his previous life, there are many sleepless nights he spent thinking that he could be as pure as her.

Devoid all the darkness he saw in the society, he just wanted to be a pure hearted common person. But the cold harsh reality didn't give him a chance and pushed him to the point of no return.

Even though, he couldn't guarantee that she will never change and she could keep her pure heart, Sam didn't want to be the person who is responsible for that, he would do his best to ensure that she would remain same until his mission is completed.

A few minutes later, the gate of the Academy zone opened and all the 120 members entered it at the same time. Just as Sam thought, the academy zone itself is like a self-sustained city.

He saw the lanes, houses, restaurants, shops everything run by the people wearing same type of uniform.

An Elder guided all of them to a place which seemed like the outskirts of the city where there is a very huge wall. The huge wall is as tall as the city wall of the Blue flame city. It is more than 2000 meters tall.

For that wall there is a huge metal door.

Marquis and another middle-aged man were both standing in front of the door looking at the coming students. There are some more elders of the academy standing behind them.

Even though, starting the special branch is a grand event, the people who attended it are very few. There are not even any special guests and grand ceremony.

Sam observed the wall and the door as he waited for the Marquis and others to speak. And soon he did.

"Welcome everyone. Today is the day you are waiting for. The special branch is going to start. I don't want to waste your time with small talk. But before we go in, keep all your weapons, armours, articrafts, everything in your spatial ring and please be quick."

Everyone was puzzled when they heard his words and they exchanged glances.

Sam took off his feather coat and placed it inside the spatial ring. Everyone took off their armours and weapons they held in their hands and threw them inside the storage rings.

After making sure that everyone did as they were told, Marquis gestured and the huge door opened.

"Everyone, please enter."

They entered the door. Marquis or any other elder followed them. When they entered the door, what they saw shook them completely.

The whole place stunk of odour. The ground is devoid of grass. The land is covered with trees but the area isn't densely packed with them.

Sam could see hundreds of meters of the area and it is just like that. The other side is covered by the same kind of tall wall as it was near the entrance.

The spoilt nobles are clearly bothered with it.

But before they could express their dissatisfaction the door closed behind them and a loud majestic voice was heard from the horizons.

"I am the Principal of the Blue flame academy. I will be announcing the rules you have to follow. From this day onwards for other six months, you will be staying here and these rules will dictate how you are going to stay.

1. From this day onwards until the end of six months, you will not be having any access to the outside world.

2. From today onwards, you have no access to your spatial devices, if you don't believe me you can give it try.

3. You will not have any spiritual energy. You must have noticed that the spiritual energy around you is negligible. You will not be able to use your spiritual stones as well.

4. The food provide is the only way for you to obtain the spiritual energy.

5. Last and the most important rule of all, whatever your status is outside it is nothing for these six months. And anything can happen inside. The test is that you will have to survive until the end and any change of circumstances will be announced

Now, the special branch shall commence."

Chapter 99: First Mission -I

When the candidates heard these rules their faces became black, just as they were about to complain.

*Smack*

A loud smack was heard and the principal's voice which gave a majestic feel immediately took a 180 degree turn.

"You, old bugger, just because you are Marquis don't think I won't beat you to death. How dare you smack me?"

The candidates were immediately floored. Particularly the twenty people who are from the marquis city. Some of them are previously students of this academy and they saw principal many times. But all those times, they only knew the dignified leader of the academy.

Never did they expect that he would be swearing the Marquis like this. Marquis' voice interrupted their thoughts.

"you, old fool. I wish I could really beat you to death. Can't you say the rules properly? Let me tell them. I will deal with you later." After a brief pause, he addressed the candidates.

"Everyone, the rules stated by the Principal are all correct except the rule about your spiritual energy. I will make it clear to you.

Your cultivations will not be sealed and you can use your spiritual energy, but in order to restore the energy and recover, you don't have any access to spiritual energy sources. The environment around you doesn't have spiritual energy dense enough to allow to you to absorb and cultivate. Your access to the spatial storage items is also gone and you won't be getting any spiritual stones from us.

The only way you can restore your energy is from the food we are going to send you.

Other than that, we will be giving you some missions and the ones who will achieve the best score will be rewarded. So, until the next announcement, take care of yourselves.

As your principal said, anything can happen inside those walls and you can do anything. Your life is in your own hands regarding the status you have outside and you will have to be responsible for your actions. Nobody from outside is going to interfere, no matter what happens.

Those who aren't able to take it anymore and want to give up come to the main door and shout out that you want to surrender"

After that statement everything went silent and after that brief silence, the candidates started to chatter. Some of them are confused, some of them are looking forward to it and some of them are feeling vexed that their cultivation isn't going to improve.

Sam probed to access his normal spatial ring and he wasn't able to access it. When he tried to do same thing to the divine dimension, he was able to see and communicate with Yanwu and Sky inside it, but wasn't able to get anything out of it.

But he still has one advantage over others and that is, his cultivation improvement isn't going to stagnate. Sky and Yanwu will cultivate for him and who knows, maybe by the end of six months, if he can meet them, he will even reach the Novice level 6.

After some thought, he felt that it is useless to worry about it and started observing the surroundings.

The ground isn't that damp, in fact it is a bit on the dry side and the trees are also not that dense in this land. There are a lot of open spaces with in this area.

There are no residences, no trees which have edible fruits, not even a single beast could be seen. Even the trees are a bit unusual. They only have leaves and the wood seemed to be strong.

Sam went to one of the trees nearby and scraped some bark. The bark isn't hard and tough, it is smooth and more like skin of bamboo. It has slight moisture content.

He observed the wood, which is hard and dark brown in colour, he wasn't able to recognize the trees.

While Sam is looking at the tree, members of the Falcon Cliff city are also doing the same except for Philip and Jack. They are waiting for Sam to say something.

They knew that they are slightly vulnerable in a new environment, so they aren't trying to do anything that they don't know.

Sam is very good at this, since their relationship isn't that bad, they aren't ashamed of getting his help.

The rest of the members are trying to do something, some of them are trying to communicate with the people from other cities, some of them are checking the surroundings and some of them are still hung up on that vexed feeling because of the rules.

After checking around, Sam started walking. First thing he did is get out of the crowd and went to look around the area. He walked slowly as he looked around seriously observing everything.

Philip and Jack followed him hurriedly.

Soon, they found something. They saw a stream which is more than ten meters wide flowing near the wall.

Sam looked around and came to a conclusion. The area they are in is rectangular in shape and surrounded by the tall walls, completely isolating them from the outside.

The only connection to the outside world is this stream which is flowing from one side of the rectangle to the opposite side. And even this stream didn't have any fish or other animals.

Sam took a sip of water and after confirming that they are normal and drinkable, he sighed. He suddenly felt glad that he enjoyed himself yesterday.

"Sam, what do you think we should do?" Philip asked.

Sam looked at both of them as if asking 'Are you planning on following me blindly?'

Jack felt a little shy, but wasn't completely ashamed as he felt that admitting what he doesn't know and asking for help isn't a bad thing. But Philip isn't least bit shy and in fact his face was proud as if saying. 'Isn't it obvious?'

Suddenly, Jack felt that he shouldn't have told Philip about how good Sam was, in that wilderness test of the Falcon Cliff city.

Sam didn't know what to say when he looked at Philip's expression and resigned himself to explain.

"I don't think the test is as simple as they said. The main point isn't even following the rules but the missions. Particularly the statement, 'anything can happen' is giving me a bad feel.

The main thing is that we have to frugal about the spiritual energy. So, we can't stay openly and need a proper place to rest to have enough energy. So, the first thing is we need to find a place to stay.

And we have to wait for the food they are going to send. Even though, with our cultivation we can stay without food, we can at most stay for a week or so at our level and it will cost spiritual energy.

We will think what to do after we are done with these two things."

"Okay, then where are we going to stay?" Philip asked.

"We will decide but the resources we can gather."

Even though, he can make a camp with resources of the wilderness, Sam couldn't find any of them here. The tress here are only suppliers of the wood, but there are no vines or any other things suitable to make long ropes.

Even though, the bark is a little on the soft side, it isn't easy to do make a rope out of that.

To have a camp, he needs to see, if he can gather any more teammates.

So, three of them went back to the crowd, who are now sitting down and talking with smiles. The people from the Falcon Cliff city all sat together and when Sam and the duo following him went there.

The weird trio are sitting separately seemingly not interested in joining their conversation.

"What are your plans?" Sam asked Hawk and others.

Hawk looked at Sam and said. "I don't know. I think we can wait for the mission first and see what type of missions there will be. After that we will plan on what to do."

Even before Sam could reply, Philip said.

"We want to make a camp and have a place to stay and rest anyone wants to join us?" He is pretty straight forward. The rest of them looked at them and then exchanged glances. Kelly is the first one to agree.

"I don't mind." After some thought, Hawk said.

"Sure. But where do you want to camp?" The rest of them also agreed.

"We found a stream nearby, so we can find a place near it to make a camp." Again, Philip took it up on himself to say. So, even without his effort Sam now has six teammates.

Just as they were about to move, Sam felt some one tugging his vest. He turned around to look at Jasmine's innocent face.

"Where did you go?" She asked. From her tone, she must have been looking for him.

"Nowhere, come follow us." Sam said and now he has seven teammates.

Soon, they came near the stream. But Sam didn't let them camp too near and moved them 50 meters away from the stream.

There is a considerable area of open space surrounded by trees in this place.

Sam looked at the crowd and said.

"Since, we are on the same boat, I will tell you how I feel about this competition…" And explained his opinion just like how he did with Philip and Jack. After letting them digest the info properly and giving them a chance to contemplate, he said.

"Even though, you guys might think that it will waste your spiritual energy to make a camp and you will be having some hard time in missions. But in long term, I think it is necessary to have a place t rest properly."

After some though, everyone agreed and Sam asked.

"Okay then, I need to know your abilities to be more efficient. One by one tell me you abilities."

"I am wind and water dual elemental mage." Hawk said first.

"I am earth and fire dual elemental mage." Kelly gave a surprise to everyone. Because, nobody knew that she is a dual elemental mage at all.

Sam felt even more weird. He has been meeting this dual elemental mages and warrior mages too often, considering that they are supposed to be rare.

"I am a warrior, swordsman."

"I am also a warrior, Sabre wielder." Drew and Ray said. Sam didn't ask Philip and Jack since he already knew his abilities.

Finally, he looked at Jasmine who is silent all along.

"I am metal element mage." Sam nodded.

Metal element mages have slight disadvantage as most of their attacks are close range and many of them use weapons. They are more like warriors. The metal element is one of less versatile elements.

He thought for a moment and said.

"Kelly, Hawk. Both of you are responsible for making shelter. Since the soil is dry it will be hard to mould it, so Hawk, you will use your water element to make it gain some moisture just enough to mould it.

Kelly, use your earth element and raise walls using these seven trees as corners. Don't worry about the roof. It will take a lot of energy from both of you if you do it." Both of them nodded and went to work

Sam took the remaining people along with him. He started cutting down the tress one by one and split them along vertically. All this time he used his wind element. Since, his control is high, he used minimum energy to make maximum work

Soon, the remaining guys came while carrying the wood to keep them as room.

Finally, Sam took a large bunch of leaves and covered the gap along with them. To finish the roof of the house.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 100: First Mission-II

The small mud house, has a eight small rooms and there is a circular common place for everyone to sit together.

The rooms aren't big. Just enough to fit two large people. If two people lay on the floor, the room will be full. Since, everyone has a room for them individually it would be sufficient.

By the time they were done, they observed that the other people in the crowd are also moving around and they are also building the houses. But they were not like Sam and others.

They started building big and comfortable rooms and more than one third of the area of the rectangular zone is occupied with the houses.

They didn't care about the spiritual energy as they have one thought in mind. They thought that, they will be provided with the food and they don't have to worry about it.

By the time everyone settled down, it is already evening.

Sam suggested that they go to sleep early and just as they were about to go to sleep, someone came to their place and all of them are from the Blue flame city members.

There are four people who came and all of them have haughty looks. Clearly indicating that they are from the noble families.

"Jasmine, why are you staying with them, you can come and stay with us." One of them said completely ignoring the remaining members.

Jasmine didn't talk to them and just walked inside and went to her room. Her master said to listen to whatever Sam said and since Sam said that they need to sleep she didn't want to waste any time and went inside.

Just as they were about to enter, Sam blocked them and said.

"You aren't allowed to enter. If you want to talk to her, you can do so when she comes out."

"Then call her out." One of them said impatiently.

"And why do you think I would do that?" Sam said a bit coldly. Just that guy in lead was about to retort one of the guys whispered something and four of them stopped in their tracks and left without speaking anything.

Sam didn't care much and went to sleep.

The next day all of them didn't see any changes at all. There is no sign of the food that was supposed to be sent in and there is no sign of any mission. They just spent time idling around, since they can't even cultivate.

Days passed, and they didn't do anything. They started to feel tired and Sam's team is the only thing that is faring better. Even the weird trio who used wood to make a small cabin are having a better time as they tried to make it as humble as possible.

The remaining teams started feel the tiredness as they spent the most energy in making the camps.

On fifth day afternoon, they saw a bunch of bird type beasts flying over the field. Everyone came out as they looked at them.

The bird types beasts lowered their altitude and each of them dropped a package. All of them are puzzled and moved to catch them.

"Everyone, try to catch one. Don't go for extra package. Catch only one parcel. If you cannot catch one, immediately ask nearest team member for help."

Sam said and immediately moved. The rest of the team also started spreading.

When the packages reached a certain height, the speed of the falling slowed down.

Sam climbed a tree and leapt towards the sky. He reached onto one of the packages and landed. Everyone is trying their best to get one.

Sam looked around and as he saw that Jasmine and Kelly are having trouble to get one, he immediately caught other two.

The wind element really came in handy this time. The other team's wind elementals mages aren't idling either, they are also doing their best to catch more.

After everyone caught one, they came back to their camp.

Sam and his teammates sat down and opened the packages.

All they could see is some kind of boiled meat paste. But they could feel one thing. It is filled with spiritual energy.

"Dig in as fast as you can. Don't even think about saving up. There will be a commotion soon."

And they didn't need him to say that as they ate in rapid pace as they felt hunger and tiredness due to lack of spiritual energy. After using their energy to catch the packages they were only left with a last bit of spiritual energy. If any person even an acolyte in late stage comes back, they would be able to take one of them down.

When they are halfway through their meal, they could already feel their body's spiritual energy replenishing. But at the same time, they could hear a large commotion outside. When they wanted to go out, Sam said.

"Finish your food first." They didn't understand why he insisted, but they just followed and completed their food. After that they just left the containers there and immediately went outside.

"Hey, did you find any packages that are dropped away?"

"No, there are no packages. Seems like all of them are caught."

"What should we do now?"

"Someone might have caught extra packages. How could our packages be missing?"

As soon as Hawk and others came outside, they heard a bunch of people discussing this. Hearing this they also felt puzzled. They also thought that someone might have taken extra packages and felt that it is unnecessary as one package is enough to fill their spiritual core. They even felt that it is a bit more than they needed.

"There is a deficit of packages. They only sent hundred of them." When Sam said this, they immediately got shocked.

"You guys might not have concentrated as you are fully focussed on the packages, but I counted the number of birds. They even sent them in ten rows and each row has ten birds. That is why, I asked you guys to catch one immediately."

By the time, Sam finished, there is already a fight between some people.

Those who didn't get any box started attacking some people who hadn't started eating yet. The people who used built the houses were the ones, that aren't able to catch anything and there are twelve people.

The remaining eight people are the ones who delayed.

Many people still haven't eaten yet and these twenty people started wreaking havoc.

Even though, their spiritual energies are low, the people who caught the packages didn't have much energy left as well. they are in the same level now and those who didn't eat yet became the targets.

Now Sam's teammates understood why Sam asked them to eat faster. If not, they might have been the targets for this fight.

As time passed the fight grew intense. And finally, all of them came to truce and shared the food and that is not enough. But at least they were able to get half of the spiritual energy.

Sam looked around and saw few people observing the situation calmly.

One of them is Luther. Sam knew why they are looked like that, because, they are also the ones who moved as fast as him to get the packages. They also must have counted the birds.

Only these few felt that the situation is odd and the first ones to find that out.

Sam's initial guess was right. The test here is not as simple as it sounded. Even before they got the first mission, they were already having trouble and internal fights.

That night, not only Sam's teammates a lot of people weren't able to rest at all.

They already got some inkling of the situation and they knew that this special branch isn't what they imagined at all.

They got really nervous. They didn't know what will happen tomorrow.

The next day nothing happened but this made them even more uneasy, they felt like they were on pins and needles. On the seventh day, they finally saw, what is coming.

A majestic voice announced their first mission.

"Attention all candidates, your first mission had been decided.

A total of 10 tokens have been sent into the Special branch zone by using ten beasts.

The candidates have three days to catch the beasts. The ten token holders at the night of the third day will have the right to choose, who can get the next meal.

Each token holder can choose other nine people and a total of hundred people will be getting the meal. The remaining twenty people will not be served with any meals.

From this moment onwards the first mission starts."

As soon as the voice ended everyone became alert and started moving. They never expected the first mission will be suddenly announced and they only have 100 spots for food.

The remaining twenty people has to suffer and nobody has absolute trust in the people they were with. The first meals sent by the bird types beasts made them suspect everyone and they don't want to place the trust on other people. If they could get the token themselves, then only they would be guaranteed with a meal.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 101: Taking Action

Sam and his teammates didn't move at all. And they aren't the only ones that didn't move yet. There are still some people who just stood there without moving.

Some of them are alone and some of them have their close friends or trusted teammates with them.

But they are not more than thirty people who are just in place.

The remaining 90 people went on search.

Why are these thirty still here? Well, for Sam's teammates it was because they controlled themselves on Sam's orders, but the remaining people, they also realised that this isn't that simple mission.

If not for the fact that all the teammates are in a state of paranoia due to the incident with the food, they would have realized that the mission just won't end as soon as they caught the tokens.

Because, the announcement clearly stated that the token holders by the end of the third day will be the ones that will decide the food allotment and there is no guarantee that the person who caught the beast and obtained the token will be the final token holder.

All the people standing here are going to take the easy way after the chaos broke out.

But Sam has another reason.

Right now, he is staring at the wall at the front door side.

From outside, he could see that the wall is two thousand meters high. Even though, he wasn't able to clearly see the whole wall, he was sure that the wall is completely in his field of vision albeit vaguely.

But from inside, he could see the wall was only a few hundred meters tall.

Initially, Sam didn't particularly take notice of it, but when the food was sent by the bird type beasts, he noticed that the wall isn't that tall from inside. How is that possible? He doesn't know and he isn't very adamant about knowing it.

At this moment his main thought is, how did they send the ten beasts inside.

Even though, they are bit far from it, the main door is still in their field of vision and they didn't see the door opening and the beasts coming inside, that is the reason is a bit confused. This fact, is not only noticed by him but also by other people who are still standing.

After more two hours, the whole area was completely searched by the ninety people and they weren't able to find any beasts at all.

This made them feel confused. Even the people who didn't move at first and thought of reaping the benefits without much effort are also confused.

Every candidate started to become worked up, some of them are even thinking if the announcement was a prank. But they knew that it was impossible to be a prank.

So, they picked themselves up and started searching again. This way, the first day of the first mission everything is chaos in the special branch zone.

The candidates are in a frenzy as they kept on searching, even the stream wasn't left alone, but by the end of the first day, they couldn't avoid giving up the search.

After all, they already searched almost every nook and cranny, but apart from the useless trees and some large rocks, they weren't able to find out anything.

So, the first day of the mission came to an end with all the participants tired and going to rest.

The next day, something peculiar happened.

Some people who woke up early to again search for the beasts came back to the place all of them gathered by afternoon to see if any of them has found anything.

Sam and his teammates are also there looking at the group of people who searched.

Sam is also a little impatient now that the half time of the mission has already passed and there are seemingly no clues at all. He also wanted to look around.

Just as everyone was in deep thoughts, one of the people who went to search in morning walked towards the nearest person and punched hard in the face.

"You bastard. Why did you hit me?"

The person who got hit immediately shouted. The other person didn't say anything and just ran away. The one who got punched immediately became even more furious and followed the other party.

Just as everyone is feeling peculiar about this, same incident happened. A girl in the group hit the person beside her and ran away immediately without even saying anything.

And soon, same incidents repeated again and again.

Everyone became curious what is going to happen and why did these people hit others.

So, everyone divided into groups and followed the people who ran in different direction.

Even Sam and his team mates went to look and they went in the direction of the first attacker.

By the time they entered the scene, they saw that the attacker is laying on the floor with blood flowing out of his mouth while the one who got punched by the attacker is standing there panicking.

The people who came along with Sam and his teammates are the ones who are from the same city that the attacker and the one who got punched came.

The scene immediately made them serious.

"Why did you attack him so viciously?" A young man who seemed to be the leader of the team asked seriously.

"N- No, I di…"

Just as the guy was about to explain another girl interrupted.

"You don't have to kill him for this small conflict right, you can save your explanation. We will report this incident to the Count when we get back."

"No, I didn't attack him, by the time I came here he is already like this." The guy who got punched in his face tried to explain himself. But the rest of them didn't listen to his pleas and left after they picked up the guy on verge of death off the ground.

Sam felt that something is off about this situation. After all, even though they didn't follow the duo immediately they still aren't that far off and they didn't even hear any sounds of fight. They only saw a person laying on the ground and another person standing there.

Sam didn't leave the place and just stood there along with his teammates. He started observing the place and soon found out something. There are traces of person struggling to get out of a grip or choke hold.

He thought of something and when he was about to ask the person who was believed as a killer, he was nowhere to be seen. He was in a distance walking towards the camping place.

Sam immediately turned around and was about to follow him, but suddenly the person disappeared as he turned around a tree and the tree blocked him from his field of vision.

"Stay as a group. Don't stray off and everyone hold hands with at least one person." Sam said as he also held hands with Jasmine and walked slowly with his group. When he arrived at the spot where the person disappeared, he immediately frowned as he looked at the same traces of struggle.

"Sam, he is there." Philip said as he pointed at a distance. Everyone turned to look at that direction and saw that 'killer' is walking towards the camp. His walking seemed stiff and rigid at the same time very slow as well.

Sam didn't follow him immediately and looked around. Then behind a bunch of rocks, he found the unconscious body of the killer.

When the group saw it, they immediately had Goosebumps. If the young man is here, then who is the one that walked away. This is the only thought in their minds.

Sam immediately examined the young man's body and he found some, scaly patterns on the torso.

He stood up and seemed a little frustrated.

Sam immediately ran after the 'young man' who is walking towards the camp.

When they are still half way there, Sam caught up to him and immediately jumped at the 'young man' directly.

Both of them struggled in the grip of each other. Sam activated elemental fusion. His hands which were choking the young man suddenly lit up with golden flames and the 'young man' immediately started struggling even harder.

By this time, the rest of the teammates also caught up with him and when they saw the struggle they don't know if they should attack or not.

Suddenly, they saw something that gave them chills.

As the flames around Sam's arms intensified, the 'young man's' body suddenly started making some cracking sounds and in front of their astounding gazes they saw him turning into a big scaly figure.

Sam didn't leave his grip and instead tightened it around its neck. The scaly beast's tail started whipping around and finally wrapped it around Sam's torso.

But Sam didn't leave the beast alone. He tightened his grip and forcefully pried open the beast's mouth and put his hand inside. Before the beast could do anything, he immediately shot small fire balls continuously.

The beast started making whimpers, but soon it came to rest as a burnt smell spread across.

Sam finally stood up and the rest of the team, quickly came forward to support him. But he rejected.

"Don't touch me." Sam said and went towards the beast. He used a wind blade to cut open the beast and soon found the token.

"Don't touch the carcass. Get back to the camp."

Sam gave out the order and immediately ran towards the stream and jumped into it without a second thought. He started swimming around and scratching his whole body at the same time. He only came back to the camp after an hour.

And the camp is completely in chaos by the time he came.

He saw some people fainting in the place and some people having blood oozed out of their mouths. He went to their camp and saw that his teammates are all inside.

"What happened? What type of beast is that?" Philip is the first one who asked as he saw Sam's half naked body fully red due to scratching.

"That beast is called Myriad mirage Chameleon. This beast is normally not that powerful, but at a situation where the spiritual energy is scarce is a nightmare.

These beasts are a bit peculiar compared to other chameleon type beasts. Mostly chameleons roam alone, but this one will travel in groups.

Their abilities are also completely peculiar.

First ability is, it can change into any form depending on the cultivation level. The beast I took down is in Level 3 which is equivalent to a Novice

Second ability is that it can immediately disappear and blend into surroundings. It takes a lot of effort to find it as they don't make any sounds at all.

If we attack it from long range, they can sense it and dodge it. Even in short range, their defence is quite high and if they aren't killed in a single punch, they will immediately disappear and blend into surroundings. So, the only way to attack is either one hit kill or grapple. The current scarcity of energy doesn't grant us the liberty to attack it with a powerful skill to perform a one hit kill.

Third ability is illusion. That is why a lot of people are unconscious outside.

The final ability is, on its last breath, it will leave a certain odour on the killer which will attract the killer, that is why I immediately ran away from you guys and washed away until I almost bled.

Even more dangerous thing is you will be poisoned if you eat that meat. That is why I didn't want you guys to touch it. By this time, the rest of the beasts must have gone near the dead body.

"Don't you think it is better to tell the rest?" Hawk asked.

"No need. They will learn of it soon. If I am not wrong some of them must have realized that a beast is behind the peculiar incident, so they will take action." He said slowly.

Chapter 102: First mission over

Sam instructed his teammates to sit inside, while he walked out to see the situation.

What he saw wasn't that much different from his expectations, the Myriad mirage chameleons are a type of beasts with a great sense of comradery. Seeing, that one of them is dead, the remaining of them would surely take out their anger on the killer.

Since, he destroyed the odour on him which is the only way for them to find the killer, they will take the anger out on the common enemy, the candidates.

The candidates are all in chaos. Some people are unconscious, some of them are injured, some of them are arguing on what the hell is happening.

There are only a few people who are still a bit calm and they are the ones who assumed the leadership positions of their respective teams.

Suddenly, the third son of Marquis made a move, a large blue coloured fire ball was shot from his hands and it flew towards a young man who is walking stiffly.

Before the people could react, the 'young man' was hit by the fire ball, but as soon as he landed on the ground, he disappeared.

This is the scenario, Sam wanted to avoid, if they became invisible, it is really hard to find them and if they really want to kill it while it is still invisible, the only way is to use an attack with high damage as well as a large area of effect.

It is not a good idea to use those type of skill when they don't have a guaranteed supply of spiritual energy to restore their strength.

But Marquis' son, doesn't have much choice, so after performing a series of hand seals, a large wave of blue flame engulfed the area where the 'young man' disappeared. And in a few seconds, they could hear growls from the flames and within a minute after the flames disappeared there was a fully burnt scaly figure, in between a large patch of a burnt area.

Marquis' son, became visibly weak. Even though, his attack was powerful, it took an equally large toll on his spiritual energy.

His two brothers Zeke and Luther, immediately moved forward. One of them stood near their third brother, and the other one went to check the corpse. After ransacking the corpse for a few minutes, they finally found the token and three of them immediately went back to their camp.

Even if they had some differences and grudges among them, the three brothers are quite united for now in front of outsiders.

As soon as the spectators saw that the token was in the three brothers' hands, some people from the marquis city who has a closer relationship, mostly noble offspring, joined them.

Looking at this scene, the remaining candidates erupted in frenzy. Everyone is looked at one another in suspicion, thinking if the other party was the beast. But their suspicions got lost in a few seconds as a few 'young men' started running towards the three brothers to attack them.

The candidates immediately understood, by the weird bodily movements of the 'young men' and soon the battles started.

Only at this moment, Sam started walking. He went back to the place, he grappled with the chameleon and took back the corpse with him.

Even though, the meat isn't edible, Sam has some other uses for this corpse.

Since, they have scarcity of spiritual energy, they need to find a way which uses less spiritual energy for attacking. And a myriad mirage chameleon's body has a lot of this which might come useful in future and one of them is its scaly tail.

The tail is one of lethal weapons a myriad mirage chameleon uses to attack people. The tail acts just like a normal python.

It wounds the tail around the abdomen and chest of the victim and the muscles of the tail will tighten at the same the scales will start to pierce through the skin. The tail bone of this beasts is one of the hardest parts belonging to the level 3 beasts.

Sam took the beast carcass to a distance away from the camp, he took his team mates along with him. After it is dead there will be some secretions that the dead of this beast will release which is the major reasons the meat is contaminated.

Sam along with Kelly and Hawk's help made an earthen pot with mud. Even though, it isn't useful for long term use and isn't that sturdy, he still made it for this short-term purpose.

After preparing the pot, he started cutting open with the wind blades. Hawk looked at the short and small wind blades Sam is making without any hand seals and minimum expense of spiritual and couldn't help but open his mouth wide.

After cutting open the carcass, he took out the tail bone. It isn't the whole tail but rather the largest part of the tail. It is about one and a half feet long and it is not that thick

"This is for you. Even though, the handle isn't there and the edge isn't sharp, I think it is better than nothing. Hide it properly and do necessary arrangements as you seem fit."

After that, he placed his palm like a knife and it is surrounded by the condensed wind, he started peeling the scales off of the skin and meat off of the bones.

He piled the bones away separately and placed the meat inside the pot before burying it.

After that, he picked up some scale which are the part of the tail and buried the remaining. There are ten scales in his hands. After that he took some intact and long bones which and buried the remaining along with the rest of the organs and waste of the beast.

"This pot might be one of our greatest help in the near future. That is why, I am doing this in front of you. Remember the location properly. After three days, one of us will come here and take it back."

Everyone nodded their heads and all of them left the place back to the camp.

Here most of the people are settled by now as they killed the beasts. Seems like somebody in the crowd is knowledgeable enough, that nobody ate the beast meat and all of them are on their way of burying them.

But more than twenty people among the group are in a frenzy as they failed to find a beast and that included the weird trio. Because, none of the knew that Sam killed the first one.

The night fell and everyone went to rest. The next day, the last day of the first mission. Sam made his teammates act like they were searching the beast. because, the last twenty people will go crazy if they find out about it.

Even though, the fight might be inevitable as it would be revealed sooner or later, if others exhausted, the fight might be on their side and that is why, he ordered everyone to make sure not to use the spiritual energy.

While they were searching, Sam sneakily went back to his room and took out the scales and bones he buried at the corner.

He took a scale in his hand to check the sharpness. The scale is even harder than the bones and it is even sharp enough to cut through the bones. That is why it is not a good idea to let a Myriad mirage chameleon to sneak up on you.

He picked up a foot-long bone and started sharpening one of its edges with the scale. Even though, the scales are sharp, they are short and since he has some things that can be made into weapons, he is going to make some which will help them in danger.

And by the evening, Sam has more than ten bone knives. He passed on each to everyone and kept the rest to himself.

They aren't that long and can be hidden inside their clothes.

After the night fell, an announcement came.

"All the candidates who have tokens with them, come to the front door."

After hearing this announcement, Sam came outside and walked towards the front door. Even though, some of them were surprised that Sam got hold of the last token, no one said anything, lest they were monitored and leave a bad impression on the person who is inspecting them.

After arriving at the front door, the voice instructed again.

"Now walk towards the right side of the door and you will find some slots for the tokens, drop them inside."

They did as they were told and small compartments opened and there is a brush and a paper along with some ink in each compartment.

"Write the names, of the people you chose." The voice instructed again and when they wrote the names, they kept the papers inside the compartments and closed them.

Soon, the names were called on by one in a loud voice.

To their surprise, two of weird trio were also called along with Sam's team members.

After everyone was gathered ten large compartments opened with food packets inside them.

After taking it out, everyone was happy but the twenty people who didn't get any food soon came towards them. They are even ready to attack.

Looking at them all of them started to eat. Only the weird trio waited for their partner and three of them shared together. Since, they are smart enough to conserve some of their energy, the food was sufficient for three of them.

After having their meal, when they were about to thank Sam, he interrupted them.

"Thank Hawk. I am not that kind. Even though, our grudge might have been over, I wouldn't be so kind to give food to you."

After that everyone, went back to their camps.

The weird trio went back to their camp after thanking Hawk. Even though, their meal seemed peaceful, the remaining batches weren't same.

Except for the twenty people from the Marquis city and Sam's group who ate faster than the rest, the remaining candidates who ate slowly, were attacked and just like the first time, the fight for food went on.

And just like before, some of them had to agree for a truce. But this time, more than ten people didn't have any food at all.

They could barely sustain for another day or two if this goes on.

Sam looked at them and shook his head as a thought flew past his mind.

The first batch of candidates who decided to give up will emerge soon and it is just the first mission, that is completed.

He was looking forward to the future missions and also want to see how many of them will be getting past these six months and continue with the special branch.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 103: Second mission

The next day after the first mission was over, the first batch of the people who gave up as well as people who were dead because, they weren't able to hold up due to injuries caused by the chameleons.

Now, there are only 102 people left inside the zone and out of the 18 members six of them are dead and the remaining twelve people gave up.

Sam is inside his room as he closed his eyes and laid down. He is contemplating on how to get past this stage with minimum effort. The first step for it is the pot filled with meat of Chameleons which he buried day before yesterday. By tomorrow it will be ready.

But he wasn't sure if it is really as useful. Even the bone knives he made can only be used for few times and they aren't that powerful.

The usefulness of these things will mainly depend on the task will be given next.

Next day, Sam along with Kelly and Hawk went to the place where the pot is buried.

He slowly dug out the pot and opened the lid. A pungent and acidic smell came as soon as it was exposed. After looking at the liquid substance that is almost filled the pot, he closed it and kept it aside carefully.

Then three of them started making some tiny finger sized small cups with the mud in cylindrical shape.

One side of the cup is closed while the other side is opened completely.

The cup is so thin and delicate that it would break as soon as they apply slight pressure. Sam filled three-fourths of the cup with the pungent greenish liquid and they closed the other side with mud and again baked it.

So, a closed capsule made of mud and filled with this weird liquid is made after so much effort.

Even the making is time consuming, they didn't stop. After all, there is all the time in the world. Even though, it is twelfth day of the special branch, there is nothing much they did and it itself will create some mental problems to these people who are always busy with cultivating, training, or even squandering.

So, making somethings that might be help full isn't a bad idea. So, they kept on making these small mud capsules and they were done by the night. Now the large pot is empty and there are around hundred capsules.

Sam went back to the camp and called his teammates as he distributed the capsules to them. After everyone took their share of capsules to their camp, he said.

"These capsules maybe small, but they will be useful in a fight in our current circumstances. Since, we can't use our spiritual energy carelessly, these may come in handy. All you have to do is throw them at the target and it will work as long as the target is a living being.

By next day all the candidates knew about Sam's weird actions of making some small items with clay and mud. They just thought that they are doing this out of boredom and some of them even threw some mean comments like they lost their mind or they became crazy.

But they didn't care.

There is one thing that annoyed Sam and others though. The noble kids who came to get close to Jasmine are still trying to pester her and it is kind of annoying them.

If not for the fact they should be careful about their usage of the spiritual energy, Sam might have fought it out with them… No more like he would have kicked their assess.

Days passed and fifteenth day came and this day the food was delivered by the bird type beasts, but still there is a deficit of twenty packages. This time also fights broke out and Sam, Hawk and Jack also got into fights.

Sam and Jack won instantly but Hawk has a tough opponent. Hawk is only at Novice level 2 while the other guy is at Novice level 3 which made his fight harder, but finally he won the battle as the other party doesn't seem to have left with much spiritual energy.

After their meal, the days passed by again and on eighteenth day.

Sam and his group are chatting to pass the time in their small camp.

But suddenly sounds of rumbling and explosions came from outside and when they went outside, they saw that a camp was blown away by a huge flame explosion.

At the same time, an announcement could be heard.

"Hello, candidates. Some of the prisoners of the marquis city who were sentenced death and were staying in jail to be executed are now with you in the Special branch zone. There are exactly 82 death row inmates which we painstakingly arrested within the whole of Marquis' territory.

But they were given a second chance.

Now they are your opponents. If anybody of you are killed by them, they will be given the chance to redeem themselves by joining the army.

For the candidates who killed the inmates, they will be given a portion of food for every person you kill.

And by the way, they are all at Novice level 3 to Level 5. So, all the best."

The voice sounded mischievous and playful as if that person is watching a game playout.

Every candidate felt frustrated. When they first got here, they thought they were going to learn something, but even though they are learning now, they are being forced to learn by these situations.

Some of them are even regretting coming here and particularly those candidates who were once dropped out due to Zeke and were forced to come back again by the Marquis, their initial excitement was gone.

Now, they are thinking, why the marquis even came to them to get them back.

The worst thing is that they didn't even have enough time to lament on these things. The death row inmates who were given a chance at second life are already near the camps when the announcement was made.

They already started attacking people as soon as they came. After all a new lease at their pathetic and almost ended lives isn't something they can pass up on.

The first attack on the camp already injured a person. If not for the fact that all the candidates are already on their toes and sensed the danger when it was about to strike, the injured wouldn't be just one person.

"Keep the capsules in your hands and stay near the camp. Stay close. And don't let the capsule break in your hands. It would be disastrous if the liquid touches your skin. Don't attack the enemies with your spells and battle techniques.

Finish them with the capsules if it is possible and only use your attacks for defence or killing blows. Stay together and don't spread."

Sam immediately gave orders.

It became beneficial that their camp is the last one and the inmates have to go through all the other camps to reach them.

And the inmates seemed to be carefree as they were already informed about the situation of the candidates.

Lack of spiritual energy to restore or cultivate and their last intake was three days ago, and their cultivations ranged from Novice Level 1 to Level 4. For them this is a piece of cake, so they are enjoying themselves. And the most important thing is that they are no restrictions on what they do.

But soon, they realised one thing, they clearly underestimated the elites. Even though, the candidates don't have a battle experience of years, they are still elites chosen from hundreds and even thousands of candidates.

So, the inmates soon met with a wakeup call.

The attacks of the candidates are even more vicious than the inmates' attacks. This gave them a surprise.

And why are the kids so fierce, that is because, they are already very frustrated and since it has already come to a situation where there is a possibility of their death, they didn't hold back.

After all, they can get the food to eat after they kill a person.

So, they aren't conservative about the attacks at all.

And the first body that fell was that of the inmates' and not of a candidate. The person who fought with Hawk yesterday used all of his remaining strength to sneak up on an inmate at Novice Level 3 and killed him.

Just as he heaved a sigh of relief that he can have a full portion of food, a palm surrounded by sharp spiritual energy was pierced through the abdomen as a man with a vicious expression appeared behind him.

An inmate tried to take the easy way to get a free kill without any effort.

"Brother." A young man who is not far away shouted in agony and attacked the inmate and soon the inmate was dead.

But the young man wasn't happy, he held his brother tightly and tried to stop his bleeding as he tore his shirt open and tied the wound.

Sam looked as the young man carried his wounded brother to the front door. He looked at the tears and snot as the young man cried but still grit his teeth as he carried his brother over and ran. Suddenly, he felt a little uneasy.

By this time there are already some inmates charging at him and his teammates.

Just as he said previously, the teammates stood closely with backs against each other and threw the mud capsules over.

The inmates didn't really care much as they knew that there are no weapons with candidates. They thought that the capsules are some stones and when they didn't feel any kind of spirtual energy they even felt like laughing and didn't even bother dodging.

So, the capsules hit them and soon blood curdling screams of the inmates rang throughout the zone. All the fights stopped for an instant.

Six inmates who made are near Sam's group held their faces or abdomens and various other parts where the weird liquid was splashed.

The liquid is the result of secretion from the flesh of myriad mirage chameleon.

This liquid has a highly corrosive property and it intensifies if there is no atmospheric air present. When a myriad mirage chameleon dies its corpse will be completely corroded by this secreted liquid and it will soon disappear into the atmosphere due to the dilution by the spiritual energy.

Since, Sam left it inside the a closed pot for some time and particularly since there is lack of spiritual energy, the corrosive property is quite high.

So, when it was splashed, all of the skin and flesh at that spot started to dissolve.

The team immediately killed the six members and turned their targets to the nearest inmates. Before they could come out of surprise from the cries of the first batch of inmates, two more people were targeted and became dead bodies.

In this way while Sam was still looking at the young man who is carrying his brother towards the faraway front door, his team got enough kills to have sufficient meals.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 104: Anything Can Happen

Sam looked at the two brothers as he remembered something from his past life. He is in the same position as the one who is injured and the one who carried him isn't his brother but someone who was close to his heart but he didn't realise it until the other person was dead.

That fateful day was one of the things that he would never forget.

Now looking at these two siblings, he could relate to the situations but he was still hesitating. To help them or not.

After some thoughts Sam decided to wait, he wanted to wait and see if they are worthy of his help.

His teammates looked at his expression and didn't disturb him. And among them there are two curious people who are waiting to see what Sam would decide, they are Jack and Philip.

These two are the ones who spent most time with Sam and one could even say that these two people understood Sam the best in this life. But their understanding is still limited as they didn't see the depth of his character completely.

But Sam didn't know their thoughts and just looked at the two siblings.

By this time, the fights already intensified and some are even completed. There are some candidates lying dead and there are some inmates' corpses.

Many people already noticed the fleeing sibling pair and some inmates started chasing them. After all, who would reject an easy target.

The person who is carrying his brother also noticed that the inmates are chasing him and grit his teeth as he started moving faster. The lack of the energy didn't help and the agony his brother is going through dues to the wound is making him even more anxious.

There are three inmates chasing after him. The siblings are less than twenty meters away from the door but the inmates caught up.

If he leaves his brother and runs by himself, that guy will be able to make it safe. But he didn't do, even when tripped due to anxiousness, he still grits his teeth and dragged his brother slowly. He clearly knew that it was hopeless situation but he didn't want to give up.

Just when an inmate raised his arm and about to make a move,

*Swoosh* a white shadow flew over and pierced through the neck of the inmates who was about to attack. Blood splashed over as he fell down.

The siblings and the inmates looked at the direction where the bone knife came from and when they saw Sam standing there with an expressionless face, they didn't know what to think of it.

The siblings are grateful for his help but the inmates are clearly displeased. Previously, all the inmates clearly gave up on the thought of messing with Sam and his team members as they were clearly afraid of the corrosive liquid.

The painful screams of the victims of that liquid are clearly not so easily forgotten.

But they didn't expect that Sam will come here looking for them even though they tried to avoid him.

The remaining two inmates looked at him and didn't know his intentions.

They wanted to test the waters by attacking him but the problem is that they are warriors and didn't have any long-range weapons and most important thing is that they are clearly afraid to get close to him, more precisely it will good to say that they are afraid of the corrosive liquid.

Sam didn't say anything and slowly stepped forward as he took two bone knives which were hidden under the back of his shirt.

The inmates didn't dare to do anything. They exchanged a glance and nodded at each other. Judging from their actions, they seemed to be quite familiar with each other.

Both of them went to the corpse of the inmate who died by Sam's first knife and it looked it they were trying to lift him up to leave.

But Just as they saw Sam nearing them, one of then took the knife from the dead body's neck and leapt towards Sam.

Just as he was about to feel smug about it, Sam also moved but he didn't try to defend. His moves seemed to prepared as if he already knew that the inmate is going to do something.

Sam jumped to the side as the bone knife just scarred his arm a little but at the same time, his other hand moved as he threw the knife at the other inmate and this time, it went through his eye.

Before the last remaining inmate could react, Sam moved and cut the opponent's throat and moved towards the sibling pair.

Before the siblings could react, Sam placed his palm on the injured one and started healing. Soon, the guy felt his pain reducing and except for the fatigue and exhaustion due to his blood loss, he felt fine.

"Thank you." Both the siblings stood up and bowed to him.

"Just stay here, until the battle ends." Sam said as he also sat there along with them.

The siblings just sat there.

Only a few people saw this scene and they didn't keep on watching them and went back to the battle.

After some time, the battles finally ended. The surprising thing is that not a single inmate escaped. Everyone was dead.

The inmates who came to get a new life all lost their lives. All they did was reduce the number of candidates.

A total of 18 candidates died and more than ten people were injured.

If they don't get healed properly even with the help of the spiritual energy, they won't be able to get past two days with the injuries.

This time, the candidates were called one by one to get their portions of food and Sam got three of them and if he includes the one portion his team got for him by his team, he would be having four portions.

And having multiple portions became a problem.

Because, even though all the inmates are dead, not all of them were killed by the people who are still alive. In fact, out of eighteen people who died, ten of them are dead after they killed an inmate. After they exhausted their energy they were sneaked up on by the inmates as they became easy targets.

So, there are twelve candidates who didn't get any food because they didn't kill anyone. And Sam is the only one who got extra portions as he killed multiple inmates.

So, now he is a juicy prey for more than twelve people.

When he came to the camp there are more than twenty people who are stood in front of him. Twelve of them are obviously for the food and the remaining are the ones who are injured or someone related to an injured person.

They wanted to get him to heal.

But Sam completely ignored them. He already ate one portion at the wall itself and there are still three portions left.

The food portions wouldn't help him cultivate as the energy isn't dense enough to expand the spiritual core.

Sam is looking at the people and said.

"I am not going to heal anyone and the food I earned belongs to myself. So, leave the place while I am being nice."

"How can you be so selfish?" The one who said isn't from the group, but a person who is standing a distance away and that person is the third son of the marquis.

Sam didn't expect that he would interfere in this as they didn't have any prior interaction, but when he saw Zeke standing beside him, he understood and again confirmed something.

No matter how many disputes these three sons had in between them, they are still quite united in front of outsiders or at least for now they seemed like that.

Seeing that Sam didn't reply, the third son went on with his noise.

"Look at them being injured and weak. You can clearly help them, but you choose not to. I never met someone as selfish as you. Can you be anymore inhumane?"

The more he spoke, the more the candidates who surrounded him felt that he was right.

Sam looked at that guy and asked. "What's your name?"

"You can call me Blue fire." The third son said quite proudly. Sam raised an eyebrow at this.

He understood one thing and that is this third son is quite conceited. There is no chance that his parents named him like that, so he must have renamed himself after he awakened the blue flame attribute in his spiritual core.

Since his father isn���t dead it would be not appropriate if he changed his name to Blue flame, but still changing to blue fire doesn't make it any better, it is as if saying that I am the future marquis and all the people should remember this.

After getting his reply, Sam didn't bother with him, he knew clearly what other party is trying to achieve.

He wants to use the crowd to take revenge on behalf of his elder brother. Even they might not dare to kill him, he wanted to make him a target of all the candidates.

But he underestimated one thing, that is Sam isn't just an ordinary person who is intimidated by a crowd.

"You should really share the food."

"Yeah, after all you can't fully eat them all and it wouldn't be useful to you anyway."

Some people from the crowd are already forming some opinions on him.

Blue fire was feeling smug about it.

Even if Sam shared his food, there is no way it would be sufficient to all of them.

Even if he did share it, he would be offending the rest of the people and the grudge will be higher, it would be better if he didn't share at all.

As for healing them, it is completely impossible. He would be emptied out of his spiritual energy and will put himself in a vulnerable position.

So, he took a step back and placed the food portions on the ground. He took a bone knife and said.

"Any one who is confident in getting a portion can get it. As long as you touch it that is yours. But think about the price you must pay before you make a move."

Everyone was stunned. Even the blue fire was surprised.

Never did they expect that he would make a decision to take on a crowd in these conditions.

They looked at each other and just as they were about to make a move, Sam confirmed that they decided on making a move against him and he didn't even let them attack him, he held his bone knife and immediately moved.

He didn't hold back at all. He stabbed the person who is in the front on his right chest. The crowd stopped in their tracks, but before they could make out what happened, he took out the knife and threw it at a mage who stood in the back trying to attack.

The knife pierced him in the lower abdomen.

But Sam didn't stop there. He reached out to a closest guy and broke his arm and when the people around him finally came out of their stupor and made a move at him, he concentrated his wind energy and swung his arm.

"Breeze style: Silent slash"

Sam muttered inside his heart. A gentle breeze flew past the candidates, but they immediately stopped in their tracks, because as soon as the breeze flew past them, they could feel as sharp sensation on their throats.

Subconsciously, they touched their throats and saw some blood. They immediately felt a chill run down their spines.

If Sam got serious, they would have been dead.

Sam looked at Blue fire and Zeke and said mockingly. "As you father said earlier, anything can happen in here, so you better watch your mouths."

After he said that, he took his food portions and walked to his camp as the candidates gave him way automatically.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 105: Final mission

The spectators who were anticipating a good show couldn't help but feel stunned at Sam's actions, not only did he make a move against twenty people but he also made it that the group can't even retaliate.Suddenly, Zeke felt a bad premonition. He has a feeling that they made a mistake by trying to make Sam a target. But Sam isn't bothered by them as he felt that Zeke and his brother were some small fries, he could handle anytime he wants.Right now, he is thinking about this special branch and what is the meaning behind this.From the principal of Starwood academy, he found out that this has something to do with the emperor himself which left him curious and one thing is he doesn't have that much of a good opinion of this emperor.Why did Sam think of him like that? Because, all the journey he made from a rural village to the marquis city, even though the people's lives aren't bad, it isn't great either. It is more like an underdeveloped country. Not many people are having an average life and most important thing is, he never heard a single thing about the emperor.A good ruler will have a sufficient exposure that even the people from the rural areas will know about them. But Sam hasn't heard about him even once. There are no good things or bad things he could hear. It felt like as if the emperor isn't even ruling them and the people aren't even the part of the empire.That is the main reason, Sam didn't have a good opinion and since he knew that this special branch and all these continuous competitions are created on the demand of the emperor himself, his impression only worsened.After all, what is the emperor planning so much that he wants to find a person who passed through all these trials filled with cruelty and rivalry.But these answers aren't something he could get just by pondering, so he threw these thoughts to back of his mind and looked at the food packets he brought to his camp.He called Jack over and both of them dragged the dead bodies of the inmates to the place where they dealt with the chameleon corpse.Sam thought of something, but didn't know if he should do it or not. If it was his previous life, he would have done it without a second thought, but this time, he is considering whether he should this side to the others.Just as he was thinking, Jack's voice came from the side."What do you want to do with these bodies?" He asked with some curiosity in his voice as well some disturbance.Even though, he was surprised and admired by Sam's abilities of making most out of the available resources, he wasn't comfortable with the idea of Sam making something out of the human corpse.Sam finally came out of his daze and immediately shook his head."Nothing, let's just bury them. I was only thinking what we have to face in the future."After that, Sam went on and stated cutting the trees around his camp and made a log cabin. Their camp was a bit damaged by the previous attack from the inmates and that's why he made a log cabin. Even though, it isn't that much sturdier than the previous mud house, it is a little more comfortable.But the most important reason is, Sam is really sick of being in that mud house, that's why, he took the extra food portions. So, that he could use his spiritual energy liberally.Those food portions might not hold the spiritual energy for long, so he finished the log cabin as fast as possible and consumed the food before it became useless.Soon, the third mission came and after that the fourth mission and so on…Like this, there was a mission approximately for every ten days and every time there is at least one casualty from the candidates.These candidates had to fight beasts, humans, and some times among themselves so that they could get a portion of food to replenish themselves.Soon, six months passed and Sam is nearing his sixteen. He is sitting in the log cabin as he looked at the night sky. If his guess is right after mid-night, the eighteenth and the last mission of this six months special branch education will start any moment.And just as he predicted after a few hours, an announcement was made and everyone immediately came out side of their camps."Dear candidates, this will be the last mission in the special branch zone for you and you can finally get out of this situation you are in.So, I hope you will perform your best in this last mission."The voice paused briefly and the remaining fifty candidates are looking at each other.Yes, there is a total of seventy candidates who either gave up or died.The announcement came again."Your mission objective is to get out of the special branch zone alive. All you have to do is cross this front door."As soon as his sentence was finished the front door which they saw opening only when somebody gave up and went outside opened fully. But as soon as it opened, a huge tide of beasts started running inside towards them."But your mission wouldn't be that easy. You have to cross it without being killed by these beasts. And these beasts aren't your only obstacles. Please turn around." At this statement all the candidates looked around, Sam included and they were instantly struck dumb.The walls which they felt impenetrable had a lot of hidden doors and from those hidden and beasts started running inside. Even the stream is full of alligator and crocodile type beasts coming out of it."All the best." The voice from the announcement immediately woke them up.Then only they felt the tremors caused by the beast tide. Sam immediately climbed on top of his log cabin to see how many beasts are coming in. When he saw that there are more than five hundred of them. Sam became anxious.He immediately told his teammates to get to a higher position, so they too soon climbed a tree Even though, in a beast tide of this range, climbing a tree wouldn't help that much, it is at least as little better than staying on the ground.While the beasts are nearing them with a moderate speed, Sam is looking at them as if he was searching for something.And he really is searching for something. Because, there are mainly two cases a beast tide happens. One of them is that all the beasts are afraid of bigger predator or a natural disaster and wants to move away from that place and the other one a strongest beast is directing them to do so.Since, a planned beast tide like this wouldn't happen for the first reason, so Sam is finding for the beasts which are in control of the tide. If he can subdue those beasts, the root of the problem will be solved. So, he started looking at he soon found three targets. One of them is an ape type beast, which has white and golden fur. It stood at a corner at the back end of the tide and is looking at all the beasts with some disdain. He immediately recognised the beast. It is Golden-fist ape. This is one of the close combat type beasts that uses its fists as if it was a boxer and the main thing is that this beast has no element and uses the neutral spiritual energy. He looked at the second target, which is in the stream. It is a Blue scaled alligator which is a water type beast. This beast is one of the predators in the water and its scales are in a shiny blue colour.The final target is near the front gate and that is a scarlet lion which is a red coloured lion type beast. It is actually a fire element and also blood elemental. Just like the blood hyenas he faced before this scarlet lion can also easily increase its spiritual energy by consuming the blood.Out of three beasts Sam liked the Golden fist ape as it has the best blood line origins of the three.It is a descendant of a Golden ape. Even though, its blood line isn't as superior as Yanwu or Sky it is just a bit lower.That means if we rate Yanwu's and Sky's blood line as 10 which is the top of the scale, Golden ape is one that has a bloodline at 8.And the Golden fist ape is the descendant of the bloodline and the purer the bloodline is the more the golden fur on the ape.And this ape has more than fifty percent of its fur in golden colour, so Sam is quite happy and decided to get this.But at this moment, Jack called him."What's the plan?" Only at this moment, did he realise that he completely forgot about the situation they are in. Sam thought for a moment and said."There are three bosses in the beast and all of them seemed to be in Level 3 which is equal to the Novice level. The beasts that are coming at use are at Peak of Level 2 to Middle stage of Level 3. The bosses might be from Late stages of Level 3.If we need to get past this unharmed, I have to say that it is almost impossible.Because, I don't think this boss beasts are for show and by the time we make it past these underlings, they will definitely make it past these underlings, they will make a move and I don't think we would be able to make it past these underlings unscathed in our current situation."When Sam said these words, the teammates felt depressed.Because, the number of beasts is ten times the number of the participants and all the candidates are not in their best shape. So, this task seemed almost impossible."As I see it, there is one way to get out of this situation but the probability isn't that high."When Sam said this, they felt hopeful again, even though the probability isn't high, they still want to give it a try. It is better than nothing after all."First let us create a space where you will be less targeted."Sam then looked at Hawk and explained him something.So, after a few moments, both Sam and Hawk started cutting all the trees around them with wind blades. They moved fast and started making piles of wood around the group, while Jack and Philip arranged them according to what Sam said.Even though, the beasts aren't moving at a high speed maybe, the arrangement of the examiners to let the candidates think of way out, they still didn't feel that they have enough time.So, by the time, the beasts from both sides got closer to them and with in twenty meters distance, Sam's teammates surrounded a huge blazing fire.All the candidates and beasts were startled. And the beasts that are now very near to them started to avoid the fire. From the fire one could see that there is still a lot of wood kept as reserve.Now, there are only fire type beasts which are actively moving towards the fire. But that is better than getting attacked by all the horde.So, Sam and his teammates stood in the square area which is about 10 square meters surrounded by fire as he thought of his next steps.

Chapter 106: Battle

Why did Sam make a fierce fire like that?

That is, he is using the basic instincts of the beasts to his advantage. Any beast which isn't of a fire attribute is aversive to that and since, the beast bosses doesn't seem to be a higher level and can't control each and every beast to forcefully tackle the flame.

If not for the fact, Sam is confident in his speed to cut down the trees, he wouldn't think of the problem. Now, only the fire type beasts which aren't too many compared to whole horde of beasts are the only one's attacking them by jumping through the fire and they could deal with them.

They are only left with about twenty capsules of the corrosive liquid.

Since, he doesn't have any of the meat of myriad mirage chameleon it is impossible to create it more.

But still, they are in a better situation than others. The other teams didn't even have the opportunity to copy this as the beasts already reached them.

While everyone is fighting, Sam is looking at the Golden fist ape. Even though, the scarlet lion is the one that is guarding the entrance which they have to cross, Sam's first target is still the ape.

There are two reasons for that and one is the ape's bloodline, if he can purify the bloodline of ape, then he would have a great pet under him. A tall ape butler wearing some modern-day formal cloths.

Sam really liked the thought and there is another reason which he really isn't sure of.

So, now he is thinking of way to get near that ape. He has one idea, but he is thinking if there is any other way since it is a bit risky.

After some thought, he wasn't able to find an alternative, so he decided.

Sam leapt through the fire and came outside of the area after instructing his teammates to maintain the fire as long as possible.

He was already being attacked by some beasts. But Sam held two bone knives in his hands and started moving in the direction of the ape. He just stabbed every beast that came towards him in its most sensitive parts. Like eyes, ears, heart. He made every move with utmost concentration and with minimum effort to be most efficient in his attacks.

When he reached his desirable distance, where the Level 3 beasts are of higher density, he halted his steps and looked for an elephant type beast which is near him.

For the first time, he activated his elemental powers. And soon a huge raging fire tornado swept the beasts away from him and a huge open space appeared.

Sam took out small cloth bag from the back of his vest and swallowed the food portion immediately. The last attack was one of his moves which uses fire energy accompanied by wind which increases the intensity of the fire.

But it almost emptied him out and these food portions are the ones he stored from the most recent food distribution. Even they don't have full restoration effect now, it is still better than nothing.

After swallowing it, his energy was half full, he immediately started tackling the elephant.

He used his physical which is same as a level 3 beast and threw the heavy elephant high up in the air. When his teammates saw this, they were quite confused, but the next moment everyone in the special zone and also those who are monitoring the situation were dumbfounded and dropped their jaws.

Sam concentrated his wind elemental energy below his feet as he curled himself and when he before they can understand what he is doing, a huge blast of compressed air through him upwards with a very high speed.

When, he reached the point colinear with the elephant, he uncurled and twisted his body in the air and he tapped his feet on the elephant's body.

Now, he is in horizontal position and his head faced the ape. With a smirk, again the huge explosion of air occurred as he was shot towards the ape at the same time, the elephant was also shot and turned into a horizontal projectile crashing into the beasts on the ground.

Sam was shot like a bullet towards the ape which caught the latter completely off guard.

But soon the ape quickly readied itself for the collision. Sam smirked at this and placed two bone knives in front of him at the last moment without giving the beast a chance to prepare.

*Boom* The collision wasn't small and both parties got injured. Sam immediately started healing himself. But at this moment he noticed something and couldn't help but leave a smirk.

That is the atmosphere has been filled with spiritual energy again and this is good news for him as he can control the spiritual energy around him. So, he took out the last portion of the food he had and ate it without a care. He is quite confident now.

The ape, slowly stood as blood oozed out of it from many injuries. Its ribs got broken, and chest got caved in. The most damage is done due to the two bone knives that are completely immersed themselves into its chest.

Sam just waited at his spot. His guess was correct as the ape is definitely in Level 3 late stage.

But still controlling hundreds of beasts, it might be because of its bloodline power.

The ape looked at Sam with an angry look. But it has lost a lot of blood and its injuries aren't light at all. If not for the fact that Sam's cultivation is lower than the ape it would have died right there.

When the ape looked at Sam who is healing himself and getting his complexion back while joining his broken bones, it almost lost its will to fight.

But Sam didn't give that a chance and immediately launched an attack. He didn't use his elements and rather used his raw strength to hit the ape which is seven and half feet tall.

Sam himself is tall for his age as he is already around five feet 9 inches. Even though, it isn't that tall, he is still in his teens.

When his small figure jumped and hit the ape in his head, it almost looked funny, but the beast didn't feel like that.

Sam's hit made it feel stunned and dizzy at the same time and it immediately fell on his knees.

At this moment, Sam placed his hand on ape's chest and closed his eyes. He is looking at the ape's beast core with his observation ability. Because, if someone made a contract with a beast, their signature will be imprinted on not only the beast's soul, but also its core.

But both of them are different. Because, the soul imprint will be the part of the contractor's soul and the core imprint is essence of his spiritual energy.

This is natural phenomenon which is made of beasts so that they can differentiate their master even if someone skilled in soul arts managed to imitate the soul of the master and the essence of the spiritual core of a person is almost impossible to imitate and not many people don't even know about this.

Sam only learnt this because of the knowledge he gained from the library of divine dimension.

But when he found out that there wasn't any imprint, he became quite disappointed. Even though, it would be easier to tame the ape, Sam has another idea. If this ape a tamed beast of any elder or even marquis himself, he would be returning the favour to them if he forcefully took it away.

But since it isn't there, then there is no point in dwelling over it.

Sam woke the ape and spoke.

"I want you to be my pet. I will purify your bloodline and I will open you a new door. You don't have to struck up in this city. But if you refuse my offer, then…"

Sam paused briefly and said.

"You can die." At this moment, his spiritual energy has surrounded the heart and the core of the ape. Just one thought from him and the beast would die. Sam also released his bloodline aura as he looked at the ape with cold look.

The ape immediately nodded its head and soon Sam made a normal contract.

Even though, the beast has a high-level bloodline, he still doesn't want to make the cultivation contract like he did with Sky and Yanwu. It isn't because of the bloodline level, but rather he doesn't want to waste the spot. If he made a cultivation contract with elemental beast, he would gain an element after all.

As soon as he was done with the contract, Sam started healing the ape while he fixed its bones back in the place. Even though, the beast felt the pain, soon the suffering ended and Sam immediately ordered.

"Avoid every person in the fire square." Sam said as he pointed at his teammates. The ape nodded obediently.

And with a roar all the beasts completely diverted their attention away from his teammates.

Sam and the ape walked towards his teammates slowly, by this time, the area was filled with corpses of various beasts.

Many people are already exhausted but they still killed many beasts, there are only few left but it would be quite difficult as all of them are of high-level.

Sam found out that it is quite peculiar that these beasts are all listening to the three beasts. Because, even if the level wasn't high, the beasts at the middle stage Level 3 and in this large number is not an easy thing to control.

Maybe they were trained for this moment.

By the time, Sam reached his teammates, the fire died down long ago. All of the followed Sam as they walked towards the entrance.

The two remaining beasts, Scarlet lion and the Blue scaled alligator are perplexed. But they didn't make a move against the ape as they didn't want to make an enemy out of it. The bloodline pressure of the ape, when they fought isn't a joke.

Sam looked at all the candidates who are at their wits end and are ready to use their trump cards.

He saw some of them using forbidden techniques and some of the realised the availability of the spiritual energy and took times to recover, but he really didn't care about them and just walked along with the ape and crossed the door.

Even though, the scarlet lion showed some objection and roared at the ape, both of them seemed to conversed as they roared at each other and soon they ended the conversation with the lion having a vexed expression while the ape is having a haughty expression as it held its head high and walked away.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 107: "My subordinate."

After they walked a bit, they saw a few middle-aged men standing there. They are the examiners who came out of their monitoring station after they saw Sam and his teammates coming.

At the lead of the group, the marquis and the principal are standing as they looked at them.

"Congratulations." Marquis was the first one to open his mouth. But he didn't see any happy expressions on the candidate's faces. And he knew the reason.

"For what? Not dying for your tricks?" Sam replied with a complete hostile tone. But the tone just didn't display his hostility, it also displayed his arrogance to speak to the Marquis who is far stronger than him.

Marquis didn't know what to say about that.

"It is not good to talk like that, young man. You might be a genius. But it is always better to be humble when speaking to others. Your arrogant attitude wouldn't be taken lightly by others." Principal said with a tone as if he is teaching his student.

But Sam didn��t really like it. Because, he is angry and frustrated. If not for the fact that his cultivation is low, he might have even attacked the marquis as soon as he came out.

After all, it is not a pleasant experience to be toyed by others in such harsh conditions without any prior warning or information. They brought all of them for learning and were forced to endure this.

"Who are you to teach me?" Sam asked directly. The principal frowned but still said in a majestic tone.

"I am the principal of this academy and since you are a student of the special branch, I have every right to teach you." He wanted to put Sam in his place and even raised his aura.

But what Sam asked next made him stupefied.

"Well, I am really surprised by his teaching methods. But I am just wondering what you want to teach them by killing more than half of your students?" Sam said that as he pointed at the special zone.

Principal wasn't able to say anything about it. He didn't have any reply to that. Even though, he did have orders from higher authorities, all this time he just thought about it as his duty to follow the orders as he saw the suffering of the candidates, but when Sam questioned him and he thought from his professional perspective as a teacher. He felt ashamed.

"As for me being arrogant. I am just being bold and honest now. If I was to act arrogant, both of you aren't even capable of taking it." He said his piece and walked off. But after he took a few steps, Marquis called him from the back.

"Sam, about the next stage.." Before he could finish sentence, Sam stopped him.

"I quit."

"You don't have that choice Sam. From the minute you came out of this, you don't have a choice, you should have quit when you are inside. Now, you already riding on a tiger, you should either go through it or you have to bear the consequences.

Trust me, the consequences are too hard for you to bear and even Chaya and background can't save you."

Sam turned around and looked at the marquis, who is hesitating.

Actually, Sam doesn't want to quit, he wants to see through why the emperor is doing this. What is the result that he is expecting? Because, Sam know one thing, if the further tests are like this, the person who finally survived all of them and get past this, will not be a normal person.

He or she will be having a drastic psychological change. The final result would be a highly sensitive, ruthless, merciless monster. The person will lose his humanity bit by bit.

And the person if further nurtured in a same way, he or she would be a walking disaster. That is why he is making these statements to guilt trip the Marquis to fish some information.

Finally, marquis opened his mouth.

"I can't tell you the details. But from now on, we are only the examiners and not the people in charge of tests. If you quit now, you will have to spend your youth on run and that is if you don't get killed."

Sam thought for a bit and agreed as he understood that he wouldn't get more info. Then the marquis said.

"You have two days to relax and you have to gather at the Marquis manner the third day at dawn."

Sam nodded and started walking along with his teammates. But marquis called again.

"What?" Sam asked as he looked a bit annoyed.