In the blink of an eye, half an hour of the assessment had passed. Gavin Lee had been tracking Ian Song for just as long, but to his frustration, Ian seemed to have vanished into thin air, as if he could fly or burrow underground.
"Gavin, what do we do next? Should we keep chasing that kid?" Justin Lee asked. He and Gavin Lee, along with Shawn Lee, were all Postnatal Perfection martial artists. Gavin was the strongest, so the other two deferred to him.
Gavin’s face was grim as he waved them off. "Forget him for now. Let’s go take the tokens from the other seven first. We’ll deal with that kid later."
There were thirty-six candidates in this assessment. Gavin, his brothers, and twenty-five others had all been planted by Logan Lee. Only Ian Song and the other seven were genuine candidates.
Following Gavin’s orders, the twenty-eight rigged candidates split into seven squads, each spaced ten meters apart, and began searching for the whereabouts of the other seven.
Five hundred meters away, in the thick crown of a lush tree, someone was hiding—it was Ian Song.
He withdrew his Clairvoyant Vision. Ian realized Gavin was about to go after the other seven candidates.
"Should I just watch the show, or help those seven out?" he mused.
As the saying goes, the more friends you have, the more paths open up. If those seven joined the Martial League with his help, they’d surely be grateful. Of course, timing was everything.
Soon, thanks to Gavin’s carpet-style search, one of the seven was caught.
He handed over his token without fuss. After all, Gavin Lee’s side had the numbers, so fighting to the death would be pointless—better to conserve his strength. Maybe there’d be a chance to win his token back later.
Seeing the guy knew his place, Gavin didn’t bother making things difficult. He took the token and let him go.
“Damn it.”
Watching Gavin’s crew swagger off, Luke Lü cursed under his breath. His cultivation had been stuck at Late Postnatal for three years thanks to an incomplete manual. He’d joined the National Martial League hoping to snag a better technique, but now that his token was gone, passing the assessment seemed like a long shot.
Suddenly, a figure dropped down in front of Luke—
"Ian Song?"
Before the assessment, Leon Lee had tried to recruit Ian as a disciple, so all the candidates remembered his name.
"Want to pass the assessment?" Ian asked with a friendly smile.
...
In the blink of an eye, another hour slipped by. Only half an hour remained in the trial, and out of the seven real candidates, six—including Luke—had lost their tokens to Gavin’s gang. Only one was still in hiding.
Ian used the promise of passing the assessment as bait, rounding up Luke and the other five dispossessed candidates into a six-man squad under his command.
"Ian, time’s running out. Shouldn’t we do something?" Luke asked anxiously.
"No rush."
Ian waved it off. "Relax. I guarantee you’ll all pass."
But Luke and the others weren’t totally convinced.
Ten more minutes ticked by. Gavin’s patience was shot, so he split his crew into five teams to hunt for Ian.
"Here’s our chance," Ian suddenly said.
Luke’s squad perked up instantly.
"You six, lie in ambush. I’ll go pull some monsters!"
As soon as he finished, Ian turned into a blur, flickering through the woods and vanishing from sight.
A five-man team was searching for Ian when, out of nowhere, a shadow dropped from a tree. Ian struck like lightning, chopping one guy on the temple and knocking him out, snatched his token, and darted off.
"It’s Ian! Get him!"
Seeing Ian about to escape, the other four rushed after him.
After two minutes of running, Ian stopped, turned, and smiled at his pursuers.
"Kid, why aren’t you running?" one of them sneered.
"Because we’re here. Time to fight!" Ian called out.
On his cue, Luke’s squad dropped from the trees. Thanks to the ambush, their numbers, and Ian having already knocked out the strongest opponent, the four were quickly taken down and relieved of their tokens.
With their tokens back, Luke’s squad finally saw hope of passing. They turned to Ian for the next move.
"Leave the rest to me. Just wait here!" Ian said.
With that, Ian vanished again. If Gavin hadn’t split his forces, Ian wouldn’t have been able to deal with them without revealing his Innate Master strength. Now, though, he could pick them off one by one. He’d originally planned to reveal his true power to save his uncle, but since Stephen was safe, there was no need to blow his cover.
Lee Shan led five men through the woods, searching for Ian. Suddenly, his eyes widened—ten meters ahead, a teenager stood smiling at him.
"Ha! Kid, you’re not getting away this time!" Lee Shan crowed, charging forward with his crew.
But Ian moved. His speed was off the charts.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Six knife-hand strikes flashed like lightning. Including Lee Shan, all six were knocked out cold, not waking up for at least ten minutes.
Ian collected their tokens and moved on to harvest the next team’s.
Time flew by. Only ten minutes remained, and Gavin still hadn’t found Ian. He was getting seriously annoyed. He’d wanted to put Ian in the hospital for months, but now he just wanted to end it.
"Forget it. Call the others and tell them to meet me here," Gavin ordered one of his men.
"Too bad—they’re not coming!"
A mocking voice rang out. Gavin looked up—sure enough, it was Ian Song.
Gavin was instantly overjoyed and sneered, "Ha! Kid, I was just worried I couldn’t find you. Now you’ve come straight to me—don’t blame me for being ruthless! You guys, guard the perimeter and don’t let him escape. I’ll handle him myself!"
"I think you should all attack together. You’re no match for me," Ian said to Gavin with a smile.
"You’re asking for it!"
Gavin flew forward in anger, his hands striking out in a flurry, forming layer upon layer of palm shadows.
"Told you, you’re not good enough!"
Ian threw a punch.
Bang!
The palm shadows scattered and Gavin was sent flying, crashing to the ground.
"How is this possible?" Gavin couldn’t believe he’d lost to Ian in one move. His face darkened.
"Everyone, attack together!"
"That’s more like it!" Ian grinned, darting around as dull thuds and groans rang out. Gavin and the others were all knocked unconscious.
"It’s over!" Ian said with satisfaction as he gathered the tokens.
Outside the woods, everyone had stopped chatting and fixed their eyes on the forest entrance—only two minutes remained in the assessment.
"Big brother, will Ian Song pass?" Zoey Zhao asked worriedly.
"Hard to say," Frank Zhao shook his head, also worried about Ian.
Just then, there was movement in the woods. Ian Song emerged, followed by six others.
(End of chapter)