A few days later, the first phase was finally over. As expected, Krune's team got the most Black Tokens between all groups by far. While elder Kirian had an ugly face, Elder Loni was smiling brightly! He extended his hand and asked elder her.
"Well, where is my prize? It couldn't be that an elder of our Divine Path Sect would go back on her words, right?"
Elder Kirian heard that and replied.
"Hmph! We have fallen out hundreds of times, have I ever gone back on my words? Here it is. There isn't a single drop less than what it should have."
Overall, Elder Kirian contestants got more tokens than Elder Loni ones, which shows that they are indeed a better-developed Planet than Makui. But it didn't make her the least bit happier since she lost her bet anyway.
Elder Loni saw her angry face and felt even better. It was true, they really bickered each other who knows how many times. But neither side had ever gone back on their words. It was their pride and the pride of their sect on the table, after all.
In the end, Elder Kirian gathered her contestants and left as soon as possible. As for Elder Loni, he stayed behind and called Krune's group over. He then took out a bottle with the six drops of Dragon Essence Liquid.
"Here is what I promised for you. Not a single drop more, not a single drop less. It is up to you how you will share between yourselves."
Krune received the battle and thanked elder Loni. After that, they left straight away. Outside, Krune's group gathered together with the others and waited for Elder Loni to come out and talk about the next phase of the Martial Gathering.
"Alright! As you can see, the initial plan has changed. We have only 113 remaining participants after the end of the first phase, the rest had failed in gathering three tokens or more, so they are disqualified. Because of that, the second phase has no meaning anymore. So we will jump directly into the third phase, which is the final one."
Everyone was paying attention, the second phase was for the sake of cutting the initially planned 400 contestants to 160. It then would follow the same rule as the Mercenary Selection, which was the brackets system. In the end, there would be precisely 10 contestants remaining. But now, the numbers don't match.
"I know that we don't have the planned 160, so I'm changing this last phase to something else."
Elder Loni then asked for his subordinates to bring a few testing pieces of equipment out. After installing it in the middle of the room, they left.
"We are going to test your elemental control. There is no need to think about several elements at the same time, go and pick the one you are most confident with. It's a straightforward and simple way of finding the 10 best candidates for the Divine Path Sect entrance."
Everyone was taken aback. To think that the final test would end this way.
"It doesn't matter how many elements you can control at the same time. What I want to know is how good you are with the one you like the most. The equipment will then show your aptitude with that element through a score."
Krune looked at those pieces of equipment and noticed that they are quite similar to the Alchemist test. The only difference is that they were made to test a single element instead of several of them.
Elder Loni then continued to talk.
"The higher your realm, the easier it is to control the elements and use more than one or two at the same time. But in the end, most of the cultivators would still focus on the elements they are best at. So our Divine Path Sect puts a lot of importance on how good its members are at controlling a specific element."
Everyone was eager to try and see their scores. Some of them might not be able to use three or more elements at the same time, but they are still confident if it only counts their best one.
"Alright, you can start now."
Suddenly, Krune noticed a figure flying to one of those pieces of equipment. Surprisingly, it was none other than the Thunder Hawk Tasier.
"So, he also passed the first phase. Doesn't that mean that all five cultivators and demon beasts from the Mercenary Selection succeed in the first phase?"
Arlan heard that and nodded.
"It's not that hard to accept. The three of us already make up for three of the five slots of the Mercenary Selection, which means that as long as Tasier and Lofa passed as well, we would have all five here."
Krune and Ao agreed with what he said, it really makes sense.
Tasier then used his wings to channeling the Lightning Element power and discharged electric currents everywhere. Soon, a score appeared for everyone to see.
-Lightning Element, 4329 points.-
Although everyone could see that number, no one knew if it was good or not. Even Krune doesn't understand since the equipment back in the Alchemist Guild could only show scores up to 3000 points. So it is evident that the measure used by it is different from the alchemists.
To confirm if it was good or not, the other contestants could only try it themselves and compare their own scores in the end.
One cultivator or demon beast after another went close to the equipment and used the elements that they are most confident with. Slowly, the results started to accumulate.
-Water Element, 3910 points.-
-Ice Element, 2761 points.-
-Wood Element, 4178 points.-
-Fire Element, 3498 points.-
Elder Loni looked at that and didn't say anything. Those results were well within his expectative. What he wants to see is how well Krune and his friends will do.
Lofa finally gathered enough determination and went forward to test herself. She uses both Water and Ice, but if she were to select one, it would definitely be Ice. She took a deep breath and gave a final look at Krune's group direction.
Krune, Ao, and Arlan noticed her looking at them and waved to her while smiling. She then smiled back and turned to the equipment in front of her. Krune had helped her a lot in the last few days they stayed outside, thanks to that, her control of the Ice Element improved to a whole new level. Of course, compared to Shinja or Yusa, she is still leagues apart.
She concentrated her spiritual energy and used it to control the Ice Element around her, then she placed her hand on the machine and started to revolve it. Not too long after, the result appeared.
-Ice Element, 5628 points.-
The room went silent, around half of the contestants had gone over to test their elements control already. But the highest so far had been 4925 points from a genius of the Divine Swords Sect. That result crushed all the previous contestants to the ground.
Elder Loni finally showed some reaction as well.
"Not too bad, little girl."
Lofa got a little embarrassed with the Divine Path Sect elder compliment and immediately went back to her group. Jena looked at her, amazed.
"Lofa, since when you got so good at ice Element control? Even that guy from the Divine Swords Sect was crushed by you."
Luin was just as impressed.
"Right, right! As far as we know, you always had a control pretty similar to ours. How come it's so high now?"
Lofa was lost at words, she can't say that she got that better after just a few days of training, right? First of all, they would definitely not believe her to start with.
"I had a breakthrough during that time with the Fire Eagles attack, after I survived, I felt that everything I know was different. So I started to change my way of controlling the Ice element. But I didn't expect that it would change this much either!"
While saying that, she gave a furtive glance at Krune's direction. The reason was none other than that ordinary-looking guy with a rainbow-like hair.
Arlan decided to give a try as well, as soon as he got close to the equipment, the room turned silent again. They all know that Arlan has a Pure Yang body, which gives him a fantastic control over the Yang Elements, especially fire.
Arlan is different from Lofa, Yusa, or Ao. He already had a very high precision over the control of the Fire Element before meeting Krune. Even if they had never met, his score was bound to crush almost everyone. But he was curious now. That's because Krune still helped him to refine his control even further.
He channeled his fire elemental energy and used it on the equipment in front of him. A moment later, the results were out.
-Fire Element, 8973 points.-
Elder Loni finally looked impressed! He then opened his communicator to check Arlan's information, and soon found out that Arlan has a Pure Yang Body constitution. But even with that, Elder Loni was expecting something around 7000 points. That result is way higher than he thought.
"Boy, you are quite impressive. Haha!"
Arlan smiled back to the elder and returned to Krune and Ao's side.
Ao's competitive spirit was activated, and he immediately went further to take the test as well. Arlan looked at that and laughed.
"Hey, don't take it too seriously! This grandfather here has always been amazing to start with."
"Hmph!"
Ao ignored him and arrived beside the test machine. By now, the majority of the competitors had already finished their tests. As expected, no one got even close to Arlan's result. Ao started to use his Wind Element and let the machine measure it.
-Wind Element, 8453 points.-
Another wave of gasps appeared in the room. Elder Loni was already feeling like he found a treasure trove. Not in a million years would he expect to see so many talents at once in a plant like Makui. Everyone looked enviously to Ao. But he, on the other hand, had a disappointed look on his face. He came back to Krune and Arlan's side and didn't say anything else. Arlan didn't let it go, though.
"Haha! I told you that this grandfather here is amazing. But you weren't too bad either, remember that I have a Pure Yang Body, it does give me a significant advantage at controlling the Fire Element. Otherwise, I believe that our scores would be pretty much the same. I might have even lost."
Krune looked at that and sighed. He already gave up trying to stop them from competing for everything. There were only another five contestants to test their elements control, so Krune decided to give it a try too.
Arlan, Ao, and Lofa noticed that he made his move and stopped talking. Krune arrived beside the testing equipment and pondered a bit. He doesn't really have a preference for elements, he never had. Krune then looked at elder Loni and asked him.
"What element you think I should use?"
Elder Loni and everyone else was taken aback.
"Didn't I say to choose the element you are most confident with?"
Krune innocently nodded.
"I know, but I really don't have anything I specialize at. So I can only ask which one should be better for me to try it."
Some people felt that Krune was being too arrogant. Who would believe him to be able to use any element at the same level?
"Well, it doesn't really matter, just go for earth then. There weren't many people using it so far."
Krune nodded and proceeded with the test, he channeled his spiritual energy to control the earth element and let the machine measure it.
-Earth Element, XXXX points.-
Krune and Everyone else was puzzled, what does XXXX mean? Elder Loni, on the other hand, looked at Krune as if he was a monster. But he soon regained his composure.
"Forget earth element, just try fire element for now."
Krune nodded and did the same thing again.
-Fire Element, XXXX points.-
Krune started to feel annoyed and just tried to use other elements to get over with it, but...
-Water Element, XXXX points.-
-Lightning Element, XXXX points.-
-Wood Element, XXXX points.-
-Wind Element, XXXX points.-
-Ice Element, XXXX points.-
-Metal Elemen...
Krune's face was already ugly by this point.
"Come on, you piece of sh*t! Show me something, I can't believe I will fail here just because you can't show some numbers.
Elder Loni heard that and almost fainted.
'Fail your head! The equipment can only give a score of at most 9999 points, but your results are fuc*ing too high! It can't measure you correctly at all.'
That's what he wanted to say, but he couldn't lose his composure in front of a bunch of Juniors.
"Cough, cough. Let it be for now. I will arrange another testing machine for you."
He then opened his communicator and asked his subordinates to bring over a piece of more precise equipment. The reason they didn't bring it at first was that it was a lot bigger than the normal ones, so it takes longer to install. Not to mention that they didn't expect that the Makui Planet would have someone who would need it in the first place.
Everyone waited for it to be installed, two hours later, the equipment was finally ready. Elder Loni then turned to Krune and said.
"Alright. You can test it now."
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