by Tinalynge
"Finally is the group of criminals." the commander laughed as he made a brief explanation as to what kind of criminals there were. "We have rapists, bandits, murderers. All kinds of criminals end up in our cages if they have the right cultivation base and have been sentenced to death."
"We promise these criminals that if they kill ten recruits, they are allowed to be sent to another place where they will live much better than they do here."
"If they die, they get nothing and their bones and flesh will be used to feed the Fierce Beasts in confinement."
"Of all the creatures we have captured, only a tenth are Fierce Beasts, and they are usually saved for the Genius Camp to use to get used to life-and-death battles against their kind."
"So today, you will either encounter a deserter or a criminal. I hope for your sake that you will encounter a criminal, as the deserters are anything but easy to deal with, even for someone above their rank."
His words caused some of the experts present to feel even more worried and uncertain about the decision they had made. Could they truly survive this?
Xue Wei was thrilled. He wanted to fight the opponent as soon as possible; his fighting spirit was rising with each and every word that the commander uttered.
He could also feel his killing intent moving within him, bursting with the desire to leave his body and envelop everyone around him.
The commander glanced at everyone with curiosity to see how his words had affected them. When he saw how some of them were already cowering in the face of such odds, he snorted.
Then his eyes landed on the two women, and he nodded his head and praised them in his mind. They had not changed expression at all, their demeanor as cold and disconnected now as it had been before.
"Well then, go down and line up," the commander ordered with a smile on his lips, and the youngsters dared not say anything as they all rushed down the stairs to the arena grounds.
The first one to arrive was also the first to enter the formation and the stage.
It was a young man. He was either fifteen or sixteen years old, and his body was rather underdeveloped.
Still, he had a confident air about him as he stepped into the arena and Xue Wei frowned when he saw a few of the young man’s movements. They were elusive but not as formidable as the Forbidden Rush movement technique.
"Well done," the commander praised him from the very start. "To have a movement technique and already understand as much as he has, there is a chance that he might succeed!"
Unfortunately, a movement technique alone was not enough to prevail against the criminal he was up against.
He spent all his time fleeing from the attacks, and he found no opportunity to return with an attack of his own, causing him to eventually run out of energy and be decapitated by the criminal.
The next person in line was one of the women. She too floated to the stage as if she was a leaf falling from a tree. Clearly, she too had a movement technique.
"I thought that I was special for having a movement technique," Xue Wei mocked himself, "but it seems that I am not the only one who has one here in the Kingdom of Heping."
Xue Wei observed the fight. This woman was much more aggressive than the young man who had fought previously. She likewise used her movement technique to avoid attacks, but she wielded a sword, and her qi had a frozen attribute to it so whenever she attacked frost appeared on the blade and the criminal.
This frost was not difficult for the criminal to disperse, but he needed to spend some energy to do so. As a result, the woman held the upper hand, though the fight was very bloody, wounds appearing on both competitors, and it was not before the criminal made a mistake that the fight ended with his heart being skewered by the woman.
Panting heavily, she could not avoid gripping her fists tight as she knew that she had now made it. She was a member of the Genius Camp.
After her, the other woman was eager to engage in battle. While the first woman had an ice attribute to her qi, this woman had one of fire. From this alone, one could see just how much of a genius the two women were.
After seeing two women succeed in the trials, others became cocky and overconfident and the challengers died one after another until the only one left was Xue Wei.
So far, no one had encountered a deserter. All of them had been common criminals, and all of them had been at the first layer of the Earth Warrior rank.
Out of those seventeen, only two had succeeded, and now it was time for Xue Wei to give it his all.
The commander had not paid much attention to Xue Wei, as all his focus had been on the two women, but now that he looked at Xue Wei he frowned.
Most people who saw all the blood and gore that they had seen today would have felt bad or nauseous, but when he looked at Xue Wei it seemed as if the young man had become even more energetic, filled with fighting spirit the more death and blood he saw.
"Most will feel sick when seeing this much blood and gore, but it seems it is exciting him instead," the commander frowned. "Some youngsters who get excited by blood turn out to be our biggest enemies, with the rare few becoming our most revered heroes."
Xue Wei could feel the killing intent threatening to burst out from within him, and he rushed to the stage where he was to fight someone else.
Just as he stood on the stage, a malicious grin began spreading on his lips, a grin he could not control, and his hands were shaking slightly from excitement.
It was clear that he was bursting at the seams to begin the battle, and that he would not hesitate to kill his opponent.
"This kid has great potential if he can be molded. His fighting spirit is without a doubt proof of his gallant heart."
Right then, a person appeared on the stage, and the commander sighed. "He is done for." He shook his head in disappointment. "To think that he would encounter a deserter. Even if he has the ability to fight a one layer Earth Warrior, there is a difference between the quality of the two."
The commander did nothing but feel that it was a shame that this youngster would die, but he noticed that one of his subordinates were fidgeting randomly and looking uncomfortable.
"What's wrong?" he asked with a frown. These men had seen death many times, and they had been in beast hordes many a time, but now this fidgeting subordinate of his seemed uncomfortable as if he was watching his own son going into the lion's den.
"You know I got rescued by Primordial Beast Hunter Xiao Lei once before?" he asked tentatively, and the commander nodded his head. Everyone who knew this person had heard the story about when he was saved by the best Primordial Beast Hunter of all time in the Heping Kingdom.
"His nephew. This is his nephew!" he exclaimed afterward, and the face of Commander Chen turned pale, then red, and then pale again.
His eyes bulged out, and his jaw dropped. Everyone in the capital had heard that Xiao Lei adored his nephew more than anything else and that he was a piece of trash that could not cultivate.
"No, it can't be!" he exclaimed with fear in his voice. "He was incapable of cultivating; he cannot be here now!"
"He is the hottest topic of gossip in the capital right now," another person said hesitantly. "He has a special physique. He has trained as a mortal to a ninth layer Ordinary Warrior in half a year. Not only this, the Crown Prince looks at him favorably."
"But most importantly, Xue Wei is the most treasured person for Xiao Lei. Who is to say what he might do if he finds out that he died in the Recruitment Camp?"
Thinking for a moment, the commander cleared his throat. "We cannot change the rules just because of his background," he eventually said, sighing.
"Everyone knows the mortality rate of the Genius Camp test, and this is why so few try it each year. Xiao Lei can blame no one but his nephew for his untimely death."
It was clear that no one thought he would be able to survive the encounter with a deserter.
On the stage, the grin on Xue Wei's face had turned as wide as it could. in an instant, the killing
intent erupted from his body without restraint and locked onto the opponent, enveloping him.
To the deserter, it was as if he had been thrown into a bucket of cold water. His hands started trembling, and his mind felt feeble. It was as if he was struggling to stay awake; the cold was so invading that he could not understand what was going on and cold sweat started dripping from his forehead.
On the stands, everyone turned quiet, and a severe expression appeared on the face of the commander.
"This kid... what mountain of corpses has he walked through to acquire such a killing intent? I don't remember hearing about any cases where a lot of people have been killed, so has he been slaughtering Fierce Beasts in the thousands? Or is something else the origin of this intent?"
The commander knew that one was incapable of getting a killing intent without experiencing some terrible things in one's life, usually. To have this killing intent and only be fifteen years old, it showed that Xue Wei was truly special.
"Perhaps he will actually be able to make it through the trial," one of them muttered, but the others were not optimistic.
At the same time, Xue Wei felt like a free beast that had just been released back into the wild. He merged with the Forbidden Rush movement technique and vanished from sight.
Although all the experts of the higher ranks could see his movements, everyone around the Earth Warrior rank had difficulty locating him.
Chapter 16 - The Prophet
"What an elusive movement technique!" the commander could not help but praise as he saw Xue Wei’s movements.
But before anyone had time to react to the statement, Xue Wei had appeared behind the deserter and threw out a palm attack.
Shattering Mountain Palm!
The deserter was incapable of sensing Xue Wei's movements, yet the moment the attack was executed he felt an intense danger descend upon him, and he narrowly escaped the attack by rolling to the side.
Xue Wei's palm landed on nothing, but he did not panic. He once more turned elusive like the wind and vanished from sight; the deserter was the one who started to panic as he sensed the next attack descent.
The deserter completely depended on his instincts and feelings of danger to avoid the attacks, but the more he avoided, the more worried he became.
The attacks did not seem to become weaker and weaker. Instead, they seemed to gather momentum, and at this point one attack would be enough to kill him.
At that moment, the worry had overtaken the deserter's mind. Moments after, a grunt escaped his lips as he was sent flying like a kite cut loose from its string.
Blood sprayed from his mouth as he continued to stumble forward, but he had no time to say anything before he felt a coldness arrive at his throat, and his eyes turned dim.
The decapitation had been so swift and painless that the deserter never even noticed what had happened before he died, and even the experts on top of the observation platform were stunned, at a loss for words.
The attacks had been flawless from beginning to end. Xue Wei had used the Forbidden Rush movement technique to the fullest, making it impossible for the deserter to even know where he was. And although he had managed to avoid a few of Xue Wei's attacks, they had become increasingly fierce as Xue Wei felt his blood boil and his fighting intent soar.
The moment one of his attacks had struck his opponent, Xue Wei had materialized a sword in his hands and followed him, chopping off his head while he had no chance to defend himself.
As the head landed on the ground of the battle platform, Xue Wei also landed a bit away. His clothes were as immaculate as they had been before the battle, not a drop of dust to be seen on them.
Unlike the other two, he was not out of breath. his appearance was calm, and he flickered his hand, making the materialized sword dissipate into thin air once more.
As he stepped out of the arena, his killing intent had completely vanished, and now his eyes were calm and collected. The malicious smile and eagerness to do battle that he had shown before were nowhere to be seen.
The commander and everyone else were genuinely shocked. They had never expected that this young man would be able to kill a deserter as cleanly and as easily as he did.
This fight was the simplest of them all, and also the only one where the challenger had not been wounded. He had not been pushed to reveal much of his strength either; it seemed like the only thing he had to rely on was his movement technique.
"Congratulations," the commander stepped forward, and he congratulated the three victors. "This year, more than the average number has made it through the test, but we still lost some amazingly talented individuals during these trials."
"We will mourn them, but this is the harsh reality of life. To gain something you have to give something. You have to risk your life to gain lucky chances, and entering the genius camp is, without a doubt, a lucky chance for you."
"The other groups have been led to their respective areas; now you will be led to the Genius Camp. Follow me."
With the commander having said that, the group exited the arena and went towards a small district of tents where a lot of chatting was happening.
This was the Genius Camp. The closer to the center of the tent camp one was, the more talented the residents.
"Every division has its own ranking system," the commander explained, "and being ninth layered Ordinary Warriors, the three of you are ranked the lowest amongst the Genius Camp."
"The higher ranked you are, the more resources you will get. The way to rise in rank is to make breakthroughs in the different layers, or to defeat someone in a sparring match."
"If you defeat a first ranked expert, you will swap positions, making you first ranked, and your opponent is demoted to your rank. This is to encourage competition amongst cultivators and to convince people to continue cultivating hard."
Xue Wei contemplated for some time. He was currently just a ninth layer Ordinary Warrior, but he could match up against two-layer Earth Warriors. As such he was aware that if he wanted to gain a better ranking, then it was possible.
But he had to be careful. If he were to go against the third layered Earth warriors, he would have no other choice than to run for his life, and eventually he would run out of energy, making it impossible for him to keep it up. As a result, he would be defeated.
"Fighting outside of official challenges is forbidden, killing your opponent is forbidden, and stealing each other's resources is also forbidden. Everyone gets judged based on their strength, and this means you get what you deserve!"
"We are here," he announced, and suddenly they arrived in front of a group of tents. There were around ten thousand tents, but only around half of them were occupied.
"Take a tent each and claim it as your own," the commander said. "Your training will start tomorrow morning. For now, you should familiarize yourself with your comrades. In the future, these experts are the ones who will have your back. You need to trust them as comrades and as brothers!"
Xue Wei smirked. He understood that in theory the commander was right in what he said, but he also knew that it was not that simple. Since they wanted competition between these geniuses, it was clear that there would be someone that rubbed others the wrong way, and there would be different grudges that could not be controlled.
"Oh well, that's not up to me to care about," Xue Wei shook his head as he continued to smirk and look at everything that happened around him. Many experts had come to observe them with curiosity.
Xue Wei did not appreciate being a monkey in a show, so as a result, as soon as he noticed that the commander had no more to say, he saluted the commander before leaving the location and heading towards the tents, interested in finding one that suited him.
All the tents were white. There were ten thousand of them, but five thousand had been occupied already and Xue Wei was rather shocked by how many people the Genius Camp counted.
As he found a tent, he sat down, crossed his legs, ate some of his dry rations, drank some
of his water, and decided to cultivate through the night.
The rest of the camp was busy and bustling with life as everyone started getting to know each other, but Xue Wei had never been good at socializing, and he preferred staying in his tent cultivating instead.
The moon settled over the camp and everyone had returned to their own tents, preparing for the following day where they were to start the first day of training.
The following morning, Xue Wei awoke from his trance and got ready. As he exited the house, he found that others were also exiting their tents, all of them looking around with curiosity. When their eyes landed on Xue Wei, they all raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Many of these experts had seen him at the Crown Prince's banquet, and they were surprised to see that he had made it to the Genius Camp.