"Hey, Tina, will you complain about the assault?" a second tester asked the woman who had her wrist bruised by Ken.
"And admit that I was beaten by a child? No way, let's remain quiet. These kids will keep their mouths shut if they know what's best for them," Tina said while moving her vengeful eyes around the room. Everyone looked down, avoiding eye contact.
"See? They know it," Tina said with a slight victorious smile when the shards of her ego reattached themselves.
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about. I heard lately that there's a child named Ken Sue from the Sue clan who took over the first rank among the age group of 17-24 years old disciples. It's said his beauty is ethereal and his red eyes are captivating, and I think number 183 fits this description," the man told Tina about the rumors.
'You could've told me before I attacked,' was the only thought that crossed the woman's mind.
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"Hello, I'm Ken Sue, I'm here to take the exam for the second-rank formation masters."
Ken pushed the door open and waltzed in confidently and announced his arrival.
"Hmm, sure. Show me your Formation Master token and take a spot at the end of the line. You are number 71, please remember it," a male tester shrugged and reached out to take Ken's token. There were much fewer examinees there, showing the difficulty of advancing to the next ranks.
Ken made the token float with a wave of his Qi toward the man and waited for his response.
"Why is this token unregistered?" The tester asked.
"Because I just received it from the room across the hall. It'd be a waste of time to go to the receptionist to get it registered only to return here and risk missing the test."
Ken said without wavering in his speech. As long as one sounded confident, they'd get away with most things.
"I see. Since you're so confident, go ahead and join the line," the man passed his judgment after a few seconds. He figured that there was no reason to insist as Ken's words made sense.
Looking around him, Ken saw the room was almost identical to the previous room he visited but smaller. Just like before, there were many cages scattered across the room.
"The test for the first three ranks is similar in nature. All you have to do is to get out of the cage within 30 minutes once your turn arrives," the test explained.
Ken chose to avoid stirring trouble this time. There were only 30 disciples in front of him in line.
"Everyone, I'm Ken Sue, the grandson of the Sue clan's patriarch. Whoever lets me go before them gets a thousand medium Qi Stones and my friendship," Ken announced loudly, enticing practically everyone.
"You can take my spot, Young Master, I will go to the end of the line," one disciple hurriedly left to the end of the line. Both rewards were very useful, and he didn't hesitate to be the first to make an impression.
"Young Master Sue, please take my spot too!" One girl ran to the end of the line as well. The two of them received their 1000 Qi Stones with big smiles until the third disciple removed them from their faces.
"Young Master Sue, take mine for free, you don't need to pay me!" The disciple gritted his teeth and made the sacrifice. They were all under the fourth rank and that amount of medium Qi Stones was colossal for commoners like them. However, he didn't hesitate to give them up to leave an impression on the young master.
Soon, everyone ran to the end of the line, leaving Ken at the front under the exasperated eyes of the tester.
"You guys…" he said quietly in annoyance. He did not like to see the young generation of the Formation Mastery division sell their dignity for money and lick the boots of an elite clan.
"Fine, number 36 passes, come and take your second rank token. Number 71, enter cage number 2," the tester said aloud.
Ken smiled at him and strolled to the cage, letting it close behind him. Again, he only needed a second to recognize the weak spots and nodes of the formation and another second to break them all, causing the formation to crumble behind him as he walked out.
"You didn't have to destroy the whole formation… Number 71 passes, come to take your second-rank token," the tester sighed in a complaint and got up to rebuild the formation in the cage after throwing the token to Ken.
Ken could solve the puzzle by finding the right node to destroy, which would amount to finding the exit in a maze, but taking it completely down was faster for him, which could be compared to running through a wall made of paper to get out of the maze.
"Sorry, I will be going now," Ken apologized and left the room without sparing his new "friends" a single glance.
He quickly left the room and followed the receptionist's directions to where the test for third-rank formation masters takes place. Although not much time passed since his first test, the higher ranks had fewer examinees which meant they'd last shorter.
He turned at the end of the corridor and pushed open the first door, finding another room with cages, proving the previous tester's words that the first three ranks faced the same challenge at different difficulty levels.
"Kid of the Sue clan, are you sure you're in the right place?" The tester rose his eyebrow and asked when he saw a young teen enters. He recognized him by the black tortoise embroidery on his robes.
"I am. Here's my second-rank Formation Master token, and I want to take the test to become a third-rank formation master."
Ken threw his new token to the tester. His storage ring was full of tokens lately – Discipleship token, Sue Clan token, Alchemist token, Formation Master token, and Bloodthirst Sect Inheritor token.
He even still had the token from the Divine Sword Sect as he never returned there to give it back, and another token from Elmer, the elder of the Serene Lotus Sect.
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