Selection begins

"My name is Theo, and I will be conducting your selection!" the man dressed in the white robes of the outer sect disciple announced right after he welcomed Kaya's group of a roughly hundred candidates.

'So this is it,' Kaya thought, squeezing her hands so hard her fingernails threatened to cut through the skin of her inner palms. 'No more doubts, no more hesitation,' she thought, taking a deep breath to focus and then concentrating all of her determination on the next few moments.

"First off, I want you all to calm down," Theo said with a kind smile. "I still remember how it felt to take part in the selection," he said, only for his lips to crack under the pressure and form a slightly nervous smile. "And the only advice I can give you in advance is that…"

The slightly handsome cultivator made a theatrical pause, clearly playing with the nervousness of his victims.

"Is that there is no need for you to be as nervous as you are," Theo said with a gentle, sympathetic smile.

Kaya's mouth twitched.

'Is this a trap?' she instantly thought, trying to see through the selectioner's intentions. 'Or is he for real…?'

"Let's not waste time, then," Theo said, turning around and clapping his hands.

A group of children, all between ten to thirteen years old, came out from the gazebo while dragging a huge coffer on the stones that the garden was paved with.

The chest that they brought up was so big a whole six of the children had to combine their strengths together to drag it out.

"Thank you," Theo said to the kids once they brought the massive coffer the size of half of Kaya's bed before him.

Then, the kids bowed deeply to the cultivator before moving to the side… only for a lot more of the children to come out from the seemingly small and empty gazebo, all lining up in a single file.

"Now then," Theo muttered, taking a step forward and kicking the cover of the coffer open. "Everyone, I need you all to take one of those."

'What's in there?' Kaya thought, focusing most of her attention on the box… only to fail miserably when her eyes gravitated toward the long line of children. 'Wait…' she twitched when she noticed a certain detail hidden from those who only looked for… well, details.

The number of children that the cultivator brought to the selection appeared to match the number of candidates!

'Are they somehow related to this event?' Kaya thought, obediently waiting in line that formed for her turn to take a peek into the box. And soon enough, she approached the coffer… only to see a huge number of disgustingly practical-looking whips stacked inside.

'What's with those whips?' Kaya thought, her eyes widening as she struggled to figure out the intent behind the selection. And while her mind was at the peak of how confused it could be, her hand followed the order and picked one of the whips out.

'This really feels nasty,' she thought as she inspected the weapon in her hand, even going as far as to slowly and lightly move it around, just to get a proper feel of the item.

'Don't get too excited,' Kaya lectured herself when she was about to lose her focus and add a bit more strength to her slow swings. 'Maybe he is eager to see who won't be able to hold themselves back from swinging it around?' she thought, lowering her whip-bearing hand as she turned her head… only to see that a few of her fellow candidates didn't have the same mindset as she had.

The noise of the whips cracking as they snapped in the air filled the entire garden.

Kaya moved her eyes to the disciple in charge of the selection.

'He is watching,' she observed only to then gulp her saliva. 'Thank heavens, it looks like I nailed it!' she thought, unable to stop a small grin of satisfaction from forming on her lips.

The process of distributing the whips between all the candidates took only a few minutes. And even without an order from Theo, the disciples ended up lining up the moment the last of them got their hands on the weapon.

"To cultivate," Theo spoke out only once all the potential disciples organized themselves into an orderly line, "is to go against the heavens," he spouted one of the well-known truisms. "By cultivating, we refuse to obey the heaven's will that wants us to grovel on the ground, never to pick up our heads and look up with pride."

Theo's words were nothing new. Kaya heard those kinds of things back when she was still training back at her family's ranch and then read about them while awaiting the day of the selection.

Theo's words were nothing new… but his voice… His voice had this strange, enchanting feeling to it. A strange type of energy coated all the disciples, Kaya included, and forcefully imposed an insane degree of immersion on them.

'That's the voice of a preacher,' Kaya thought, gulping her saliva down once she recognized the phenomena. 'But wait… isn't he an outer disciple?' she thought, taking a quick look at the selectioner.

Without a doubt, the man was wearing exactly the same robes as she did, save for small differences stemming from Kaya's gender and slightly lesser height.

The man himself put his hands behind his back and turned sideways to the cultivators. Rather than moving toward them, he approached the long line of young and clearly malnourished children before he began walking along their formation.

"I need you all to show me," Theo said once he made a full round to the end of the line and returned to the point where he started. He then turned around on his heel and finally faced the disciple candidates. "I need you to show me that you have what it takes to cultivate," he announced.

'Wait…' Kaya hesitated.

She looked down at the whip in her hand. Then, she raised her eyes to the line of children whose number appeared to match the number of the candidates. And as she added the potential, possible meaning of Theo's words, her eyes widened in dread.

"I need you to show me that you possess the ruthlessness you need if you want to survive in the world of cultivators," Theo finally changed his wording, no longer keeping up a pretense of a kind, sympathetic guy.

His face changed. The kind smile that decorated it ended up being replaced by a cold, emotionless smile.

And his eyes… His eyes moved along the line of the candidates as if he was already judging them all.

"Show me that you can be as ruthless as it gets to succeed," Theo ordered, taking a step back. He then raised his chin and squinted his eyes.

"The selection begins now."