It didn't take Arthur a long time to finish testing the six new recruits and if he were to rank them then the strongest is, of course, Ardor, followed by Cristina, Shu Ru, Bora, Rosea, and Ho Qing.

Cristina, especially, had a unique spear technique which greatly empowered her and allowed her realm to jump by a few grades. Furthermore, her black spear was a 2nd grade Mysterious-ranked artifact, something which is very rare to find, even in the richest sects.

Before he brought them to this training ground, Arthur had a small talk with each and every one of them and, apparently, the two friends, Cristina and Bora, deserted their sects due to some 'complications' and vowed to never betray Arthur if he protects them, which he agreed, obviously.

The Dark Blaze High Realm houses many strong sects, like the Dark Blaze Sect, the ruler of the realm and the place the duo originally hail from. There's also another interesting fact; Bora is deeply in love with Cristina but, it's not mutual, unfortunately for him.

To sum it up, Cristina is a cold and slightly haughty girl who's confident in her techniques and, amongst the six, she's the one who mastered her spear technique almost to perfection. She even has the title 'Spear Destroyer', which is equal a grade below 'Sword Saint'.

When her attack couldn't even penetrate through Arthur's clothes, the girl wasn't that pleased, nonetheless, she didn't try anything funny.

Bora, on the other hand, was a calm and polite youth, full of energy and very optimistic about becoming part of the MoonStar sect. He also didn't hide his love for the girl and tried to get close to her whenever there's a chance.

Shu Ru and Rosea were two rare beauties and became friends in a matter of minutes.

The only one who stood in his corner and remained absolutely quiet was Ho Qing. He didn't interact with the rest and even when talked to, he would answer perfunctorily.

…

When the testing was done and Arthur criticized their execution of the skills and in which category they were lacking in, he clapped his attention to gather their attention and spoke with a clear voice.

"The tournament isn't going to be a series of one versus one. There's many stages and there needs to be cooperation so… we'll begin with that."

…

In the blink of an eye, two days passed, Arthur faced the six youngsters with arms crossed and an ugly expression on his face. He did nothing and watched them bickering…

"It's your fault! I'm not the one who got caught by the vine!"

"What do you mean it's my fault? It was you who threw it at me!"

"Y-you guys… calm down."

Cristina and Rosea were disputing and Bora tried to calm them down but the two girls were furious and almost started fighting each other. In the end, the two were forced into submission as Arthur smacked the back of their heads with his hand.

It wasn't a fatal blow but, inexplicably, it hurt the two females so much that they fell on their butts and held their heads while begrudgingly glaring at him. They didn't dare curse at him and swallowed back their anger.

"One, two, three…"

As he started counting, the two hurriedly stood up, straightened their backs and apologetically bowed their heads to him. Cristina's defiance could be seen on her face as she gave him a piercing glare but Rosea's eyes were a bit teary as the pain was truly excruciating.

Arthur chuckled as he noticed Cristina's face, he raised his hand and smacked her again, this time knocking her unconscious.

He waved his hand, causing her body to float next to him before he ordered them to continue while disappearing with the girl. When the two came back, three to four hours later, Cristina's face was red from all the tears.

The cold and indifference that she usually had was nowhere to be seen, she just looked like a wronged teenage girl who got punished by her parents.

"That's two strikes for both of you. If I see you fighting again, you'll both be thrown out, understood?"

Cristina dropped her head and joined her new comrades while Rosea forced a smile and nodded her head continuously.

Actually, it wasn't only those two who always fought. Bora and Ardor would sometimes bicker too as the former would miss his target and accidentally hit the sword-wielding youth.

Only Shu Ru and Ho Qing were very obedient and followed Arthur's orders to the letter.

The hellish training they were going through was made of several stages. For the first day, he transformed the terrain into a poisonous area filled with thorny and moving vines, occasional earthquakes, erupting magma, cracking space, and told them to survive for at least 24 hours.

He didn't let them rest even when they used all their Nether Energy and that's because he wanted to force cooperation on them. When one cannot fight, another will protect him or her till they recover, and so on…

Actually, not even a Sovereign can escape unscathed from the transformed terrain so it goes without saying that the six were on the brink of death by the time Arthur brought them to safety.

Their bodies were fully healed thanks to his Life Energy but they were mentally exhausted, however, Arthur refused to let them rest and told each one of them to hit a dummy he created.

The dummy was glued to the ground and was the size of a normal tree. It didn't attack and its only function was to empty their Nether Energy pool.

And so, like that, everyday for the six youngsters was no different than hell itself. Their bodies were beyond tired and they would fall unconscious more often than not but that would only result in being brought to a separate dimension by Arthur and subjected to Dark Magic.

Arthur would use Dark Magic and make them feel an agonizing pain, so much in fact that they'll sober up and force themselves to complete the task within the time limit.

It's a very cruel way to train his new disciples but it was effective and by the 4th day, they significantly improved. Two of them even managed to achieve a breakthrough. It was Ho Qing and Cristina.

"The first test is just basic survival. You'll need to dodge flying metallic projectiles…"

Arthur stopped talking and by the next second, the sixth youths were blown away dozens of meters, their foreheads were reddened due to being hit by a supersonic metallic object.

"Of course, it won't be as fast as this one but it's still not something anyone can dodge."

Arthur could have shown them the speed of the bullets without hitting them, or so thought the six but none dared to complain, they just stood up real fast and lined up within two seconds.

Bora hesitantly raised his hand and when Arthur signaled for him to talk, he asked,

"Teacher… aren't you supposed to keep the stages of the tournament?"

The parasite spread his hands and replied, "I'm the organizer, moreover, it's not like I told you everything. I just gave you a tip about the first stage."

He furrowed his brows and asked back,

"Or perhaps you don't want me to help?"

"Nonono! Teacher, I, I was just c-curious."

The youth hastily dropped his hand and kept his mouth shut.

"The tournament begins the day after tomorrow and since I've taught you the basics and although I'm not that pleased with the results, your performances weren't that bad."

As he finished speaking, a graceful figure appeared next to him, her long silver hair shining under the setting sun. Lucy, who has been busy dealing with other things, rarely came to the training grounds and barely spent time with her husband.

Also, without exception, the six disciples were fearful of the White Specter, who wasn't as talkative as their teacher and is known to be a merciless killer. The parasite is also cruel and a very harsh and violent teacher, nevertheless, he seemed to be more social than his wife.

Even the rebellious Cristina wouldn't dare acted arrogantly in front of Lucy, who was more like a demon than a goddess.

"Beginning from this moment, Lucy will be training you…"

Arthur grinned at the six youngsters, who were startled by his statement.

"Hehehe… good luck!"

After saying that, the man vanished, leaving an expressionless silver-haired woman in his place.

Lucy looked at the six of them, her eye glowing with a blue light, which frightened them even more. She didn't even say anything and just vanished from their sight and when they came back to their senses, all six were sent flying in a direction, while Lucy motionlessly stood in the location they were standing at.