Veila freaks out

'That was…' Veila stood stunned in the corner of the circular garden.

She was so shocked that she didn't even notice she defied every law of geometry with her position in the garden Theo picked for his selection.

She arrived at the place a few minutes before everything began only to see Theo carrying the huge coffer on his own shoulders towards the gazebo before giving the last few sets of instructions to the kids he brought along.

She didn't know what was in the box nor what Theo intended to use this small crowd of children for.

She was pleasantly surprised when Theo showed a complete lack of stage fright, a quality that boded extremely well for his future within the inner sect where one's social skills would often prove more valuable than one's cultivation potential.

Veila stood in her spot, fighting with herself to not react when Theo revealed the idea behind the selection to everyone with his short speech.

'I can agree with how ruthless one needs to be as a cultivator, but…. This is too much!' she thought when the shit was about to hit the fan.

Veila's fingernails ended up digging into the flesh of the inner side of her hands when she was forced to watch the dreadful scenario playing out right before her eyes.

And yet, she didn't interfere.

Initially, she wanted to just observe the events to learn more about the man that caught her interest. But by the time the candidates started to beat the children up with the extremely painful-looking strikes of their whips, only the presence of other observers stopped her from intervening.

'No matter what, I can't get involved in a way that would give that guy's division a reason to bitch about it to the elder,' Veila thought, unable to do anything but squeeze her fists stronger and stronger, all the way to the point where her nails cut through her skin, marking the tips of her fingers with her own blood.

And when everything finally came to an end along with Luo's observation and Theo then confirming its validity… Velia was simply too shocked to react in any way.

First, the way in which Theo played the situation out was simply genius. He was a mere outer disciple. A mere second-stage cultivator, someone who wasn't qualified to even look at her without incurring the wrath of her followers.

And yet…

'He fooled me,' Veila thought when the first reveal came. 'Still,' Veila then squinted her eyes. 'Just how did he protect those kids from those…'

Then, Theo snapped his fingers, sending the second mental strike that threatened to make Veila pop her eyes so hard they threatened to actually fall out of her sockets.

Theo dispelled the illusion placed on all of the whips with a simple snap of his fingers. That feat alone was simple, rudimentary. Connecting the breakage of the technique to an uncommon movement was something that all the cultivators learned.

The same couldn't be said about casting an illusion on over a hundred items at the same time, though. An illusion so strong that Veila didn't see through it, at that!

'Illusions are a domain one should reach upon advancing to the sixth stage,' Veila thought while gulping down her saliva. 'Maybe fifth if they are talented in this field,' she quickly corrected herself, looking for any possible way to rationalize what just occurred.

Veila then took a deep breath and closed her eyes while forcibly relaxing her hands.

Only after calming down for a second did she dare to resume her analysis of what she saw again.

'What the hell was that illusion anyway?!' The second Veila allowed her thoughts to resume, she turned right back to freaking out.

'Even if I assume he can somehow fool everyone to think he is on a second stage while he is actually on a level of some of the best inner disciples… it still wouldn't explain how the heck did he manage to fool me!'

There was a massive difference between fooling someone with an illusion they were not aware of and an illusion that they attempted to discover. And while Veila didn't pay her full attention to it, she did indeed check those whips for any shenanigans when she saw them used for the first time.

Veila took another breath before shaking her head and finally opening her eyes.

'There is no use thinking about it,' she reached a simple conclusion. 'Rather than freaking out on my own, it will be easier to just go and…' she thought, raising her eyes to see which direction she had to go to approach Theo…

Only to realize that she ended up freaking out for so long that he not only concluded the entire selection but managed to leave the garden already!

'I need to catch him!' A single thought appeared in her mind, forcing the girl to rush out of the garden at the greatest speed she was capable of.

In that single moment, she couldn't care less about startling the observers who were likely to report her unusual actions to the elder of a potentially hostile division.

'I need to get to him before anyone dares to mess with that guy!'

Veila's head filled with the images of the man she was so interested in. She recalled how he kept up his act without a single slip-up, acting like the cold tyrant he wanted to be taken for. She then saw the kind, charming smile that appeared on his face when he finally could drop the ruse and explain the situation to everyone.

'Am I actually developing a crush on him or something?' Veila suddenly asked herself when such a stray thought entered her mind. And coupled with how her own teacher heavily suggested that to be the case…

Veila's cheeks covered with an intense blush, with the girl only having the intense breeze caused by her speed to thank for her face not burning up on the spot.

'There he is!' Veila's thoughts all stopped when she noticed the back of the disciple she was looking for.

Armed with all that she learned about his mysterious way from the selection, she attempted to peer into his true level of strength, determined to blast right past all the illusions he was using to hide it…

And then she stopped.

Veila killed all of her momentum with a mere few steps, struggling to keep herself upright for a second before finally coming to a complete halt.

'I can't see through him?' she thought, shocked by the discovery.

No matter how hard she tried, all Veila could see was the confirmation of the common knowledge. No matter how hard she tried, she could only see him as a second-stage weakling!

And yet…

There wasn't a single thing about the force hiding inside that man that matched his cultivation level!

'Just who the hell is he?' she asked herself, so shocked she struggled to keep herself upright.

Veila then shook her head.

'No!' she screamed at herself in her thoughts. 'There is no time to get distracted like that! I will never get anywhere if I let every surprise that he brings shock me like that!'

Veila raised her hands and slapped her cheeks, using the momentary pain to clear her mind. And with this new, artificially created clarity, she fixed her expression before running up to the man's back and calling out,

"Excuse me…!"