Ascension: Online

Hm… the girls are all running out of stamina. In order to make it to the sect, they had to pass this test. If they were to fall here, all my efforts from the shadows during the tournament would've gone to waste.

Just when I was racking my brains out, trying to devise a good plan and fighting against the clock in the process, someone unexpected saved the day.

"Hah…" Koroth suddenly doubled over in mid-air, coughing blood out of his mouth.

I immediately rushed over and held him up, preventing him from falling to his death below.

"Ngh…" I gritted my teeth from the weight. It was hard enough flying on my own, but carrying supporting someone with me? A grown man like Koroth, no less?

"A-Are you okay…?" I mustered out, face strained from the pressure put on my arms.

Even with a STR stat of over 300, this wasn't easy. Not because I couldn't carry him, but because of just how difficult it was to stay balanced in the air, with no solid ground below me to help out.

"G-Gah…" Koroth groaned, the trace of pink blood on the corner of his lips and dripping down his chin.

At this, everyone else stopped flying, stopping in place. That is, everyone but the elders. After seeing all of us stop, however, they did as well. However, the look they sent us was not one of concern.

"Why are you helping him?" Elder Zhang asked coldly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Why…? Because he's hurt…?" I responded hesitantly, feigning cluelessness.

"He is simply not good enough to keep going," the elder replied. "If you let yourself get dragged down by the weak, you will one day become one of them, even if you originally had the potential to become strong."

"Not good enough, huh?" I chuckled, then turned to Koroth, laying in my arms. "I don't know about you, but it doesn't look like he simply ran out of energy to me."

"… No excuses. No matter the case, he failed the test. Let him go."

"Oh? Are you sure about that?" I raised an eyebrow, daring to challenge him further. "With all due respect, you've seen him fight, Elder Zhang. His immense strength and durability are incredible. The only aspect he's lacking in is stamina — which is exactly what this test needs. Don't you think that's a bit unfair to him?"

"Tch…" Elder Zhang gritted his teeth, but did not protest further, and instead turned to his co-workers for help. "Elder Ning, Elder Han, what do you think of this boy's nonsense?"

"Boy? Elder Zhang, you aren't all that much older than him," Elder Han laughed, amused. "But jokes aside… I do believe he has a point. This test has its flaws — he merely spotted that and stood up for his peers using it. I can appreciate that personality."

Elder Zhang was clearly dissatisfied, but he couldn't argue with them after asking for their opinion, so instead, he turned to the final remaining elder.

"And you, Elder Ning?"

"Hm…" Instead of replying directly, she flew closer to me and smiled. "For now, let us descend first. It must be tiring, holding him in your arms."

Thank god… I didn't know how much longer I could hold Koroth up for.

One way or another, I had succeeded in securing the girls some rest.

*****

"You're an interesting one. Normally, our new disciples would be honored to simply be able to join the sect. They would never consider arguing against an elder for their friends," Elder Ning said once we were back on solid ground.

We stood within a dense forest, a common biome in the continent of Azrine. I set Koroth down, leaning him on a tree, then did some arm circles to loosen up.

"Koroth here can hardly be considered my friend," I replied, completely undaunted even though I was speaking to a superior who could probably kill me with a snap of her fingers. "I just find this test unfair — even if he had not fallen ill here, I still would have brought the matter up."

"You find it unfair? But you seem to being the best out of the six of you. Why bother playing the hero when you can simply take the easy road?"

"Sorry, you overestimate me," I shrugged. "I'm not trying to play the hero here. I simply cannot accept me beating a test that was biased towards me to begin with. There is no sense of accomplishment in doing that."

"So then, how do you want to do it?" Elder Ning asked, a wry smile on her face.

"Elder Ning…" the two other elders glanced at their leader, dumbfounded at this sudden turn of events.

I smirked. "I believe we should have a series of different tests — the flight portion just now was only one of them. I recommend a strength test and an agility test as well… maybe also a hidden art test plus an intelligence test?"

"This…" the two male elders exchanged glances, shocked by what was coming out of my mouth. I didn't know why, but I would soon find out.

"Congratulations," Elder Ning suddenly said. I raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"You just named all five entrance examinations needed to enter the sect, had you not been selected directly from this tournament," she explained. "In other words, the flight test you had to go through just now is nothing compared to what the other young people looking to join the sect have to endure. Count yourself lucky."

"Is that so?" I chuckled. "I find it hard to believe the endurance test for those people is as long and tiring as ours. If I'm not wrong… the total amount of energy needed for our test is not far off from theirs, right? Theirs is just spread across five different examinations, while we only have one."

"And what leads you to that conclusion?" Elder Zhang interrupted. "You have it far easier than what other disciples have to go through to enter the sect. That is a fact."

"By watching the battles, you can already determine our strength, agility, hidden art capabilities, and intelligence as well. The only aspect you cannot gauge too well is endurance — after all, matches usually conclude quickly, hence why you only gave us, the selected disciples, to go through this endurance test. But I have a feeling…"

I shifted my gaze from Elder Zhang onto Elder Ning and stared straight into her eyes.

"… You weren't expecting us to complete this challenge in the first place, right?"

Elder Ning seemed to be surprised I managed to figure that out, and smiled deviously.

"As I thought… you are different from the rest."

"Not really. It was pretty obvious," I shrugged. "You all knew from the beginning Koroth had weak endurance, yet you picked him still to join the sect. Then, you set one final entrance exam that requires nothing but incredible endurance? That's quite contradictory, if you ask me."

"That is merely train-" Elder Zhang began, trying to cover their true intentions up, but I quickly cut him off.

"Training? No, not even close. It's common sense for one to start training mildly, steadily getting harder and harder. As an enormous sect, I find it hard to believe you don't understand that theory. But here, right off the bat, you pushed an extreme task onto us. That's not training — but then, what was it?"

I grinned, winking charismatically as I continued. "Naturally, it was to test our limits. By telling us we could still be rejected by the sect if we fail here, you are essentially threatening us to do our absolute best if we don't want to drop out before even beginning. But… you never had any intention of actually expelling any of us, have you?"

"False," Elder Zhang declared. "I would not have told you to drop that boy if what you say is tru-"

"Ah, but that's part of your plan, isn't it? By telling me that, you are also testing me — my personality, that is. If I dropped him there, you definitely would have saved them, while kicking me out instead. I know for a fact that your sect values personality greatly."

Hell no, I didn't. That was just a bluff, but they didn't need to know that.

"That i-" Elder Zhang continued trying to argue, but Elder Ning, who had been staring into my eyes for the past five minutes, cut him off.

"I see. Indeed, I must say, once you lay it clear like this, our intentions were quite obvious… but still, not many people would notice," she said, walking closer to me and lifting my chin with her hand seductively. "But you did. Quite the observant little one, huh?"

"I've been told that a lot," I replied calmly, unaffected by her seductive movements. I was so used to Hina-nee clinging to me that this was nothin-

"I like you. Why don't you become my direct disciple?"

I blinked. Now this, I did not expect. My calm facade threatened to break, but I reined it in and managed to keep up my demeanor.

"Direct disciple? Sorry, this is my first time joining a sect. Is there some difference between normal disciples and direct disciples…?"

Elder Ning giggled and backed away. "Of course there is. This is a world where the strong prey on the weak. The powerful get more powerful, given the best items and resources, while the weak have to claw their way to the top with nothing but their own strength. Disciples are no different."

Huh… so there are different 'ranks' of disciples, I'm assuming…? I've only read Japanese light novels before, not Chinese xianxia ones, so I had no idea what she was talking about.

Thankfully, she then began explaining everything to me, answering all of my questions.