Red Cloud Hall

Akata walked into Red Cloud Hall and found that there were multiple people inside of the building. When he saw them, they all turned to look at him back.

‘Peizhi Xiuying, Pulong Chu, and Xiao Pao are here. There are others here as well. Wait, isn’t that Cho Re and Sno Re? The twins that have grown super strong lately? I saw their names on multiple top ten lists and people have been speaking of them.’ Akata looked closely at the two people.

‘Now that I think about it, they were both on the second floor of the Tower of Clouds. Hold up.’ Akata’s eyes focuses more clearly on the two. ‘They’re both at the 7th Grade? For family to be so close to each other in strength, they must be truly close.’

It was indeed rare for family or for people with close relationships to be close in strength. The twins however, were actually at the same level of strength. There power output would be the same and with them being so close their teamwork would work extravagantly.

Akata quickly seated himself near the various people and waited for someone to show. Either more disciples or an Elder. After a few moments the door behind him opened up and a person dressed in gray robes walked in. When he saw all of the people he was quite startled.

‘Fang Zuwa? He’s here too? Whoa! He’s already at the 7th Grade as well! He was just at the 5th Grade a little while ago. How could he have advanced so fast?’ Akata was truly shocked and not just him, but everyone who had seen Fang Zuwa a short while ago were flabbergasted. His strength increased by two levels in a short amount of time after all.

Fang Zuwa noticed the quiet atmosphere and decided to seat near the crowd silently, just as Akata had decided to do. No more disciples came in after Fang Zuwa and the crowd just waited there. After a few minutes of waiting, Third Elder walked in.

He walked gracefully as if he were an exalted being in the universe. Every stride he took made it seem as if he could tread the world in a single step. His head was held high as if he could overlook the heavens themselves. The natural pressure emanating off of him felt to the disciples that he was a transcendent being from another world.

He eventually stopped in front of the disciples and looked them over calmly, a slight smile on his face. He said in a cheery tone, “Disciples of our here Red Cloud Sect. The thirteen of you have shown that you have what it takes put in hard work. As such you all shall undergo a special test during the Red Cloud Sparring Day event.” Third Elder looked at the puzzled faces of the disciples.

“Since you have shown that you have the strength, we shall now see if you can lead. For you see, this years Red Cloud Sparring Day event is a bit different. Instead of competing individually like we have the previous years, we will compete in groups. And… you all will be a leader of your own group. There will be exceptions however, such as Cho and Sno Re. You two will coordinate together under the same group. In other words, you’ll work together as one leader.” Third Elder could see the faces of the disciples become even more confused than ever.

“There is a good reason for this as they have been known to work together on everything. It could be said that they share the same mind in different bodies. So, me and the other Elders decided to let those two be together. There group will have a bit more people than the rest but that’s about all.

Also since those two will be considered one leader, that leaves one more spot to fill the thirteenth. And that spot will go to none other than the Sect Leader’s disciple.” Third Elder turned his head to look toward the side.

There was a door that was off to the side. The door slowly opened and out walked a figure in a clean and pristine white robe. He had short black hair that moved along with his own movements as if they were an extra limb to him. On his back could be seen a red greatsword that was inside of a white scabbard. His face was calm and when he walked in he saw all of the faces looking at him. His face immediately flushed red with embarrassment.

“Uh… Um… H… Hi y’all.” He was barely able to mutter as he hurried to the side of the crowd. He tucked his head down and didn’t dare to look anyone in the eye.

The whole crowd of disciples were awestruck. Their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when they saw who Third Elder was talking about. The sole disciple of the Sect Leader? They didn’t dare believe that it was actually one of the people they knew. Let alone Huihe Ji! Sure he was strong, but he was a complete country bumpkin. There was nothing wrong with it, it was just that it didn’t fit his image at all. It was completely unexpected.

Before any of them could start a conversation of their own about the Sect Leader’s sole disciple, Third Elder cut back in. “No asking why he is her disciple or anything of the like. Right. On to more important matters. The Red Cloud Sparring Day exam will be held in groups like I said before. These groups have already been picked for you so you won’t have any say as to who is on your team. Your team will be scored differently from you so don’t worry about having your whole team pass. Though, your decisions as a leader will have an impact on how greatly they can score.

Speaking of scoring, in order to gain points you must complete objectives. The harder the objective the more points given. It’s really simple. The whole point of this exam is to see how well you can lead a group of your own in a battle. So, needless to say, the objectives will simulate the orders and tasks given out in war.” Third Elder looked to see a disciple raising their hand. “What Liger Tea?” His face became displeased. He really didn’t like answering questions.

“If this is supposed to simulate war and battle then who will we be fighting? If it’s ourselves then what if we get injured?” The one named Liger Tea spoke quickly. The other disciples nodded their heads at the question. It was something they wanted to know as well.

“Humph. Of course you won’t be fighting each other. What kind of simulation would that be. You already know each other so that wouldn’t be useful at all. Instead you’ll be fighting various beasts.” Third Elder’s face all of a sudden grew a wicked smile. “And you’ll be fighting these beasts in Misty Forest.”

The faces of all the disciples changed drastically. Fight in Misty Forest? It was true that they had all grown strong to an impossible degree. Even so much to the point that they even dared to venture into Misty Forest on multiple occasions. But… they only dared to go as deep as the Middle Ring. Any further than that was too dangerous for them. Even someone as strong as Peizhi Xiuying was only capable of making it close to the edge of the Middle Ring. Some disciples had even died trying to go past it. So even though they had grown stronger than they could imagine, Misty Forest was still no laughing matter.

“I guess since I told you the place where you’ll be at I can tell you a bit more. For one, you’ll all be there at the same time. For two, the most basic objective is killing beasts or capturing them. For three, the objective that gives the most points… is reaching the Center Circle!” Third Elder exclaimed heartedly.

“Reaching… the Center Circle?” One disciple said as if his soul had left his body. He wasn’t the only one that felt like that, but all the rest even had fear written on their faces. Huihe Ji even gasped in shock as his face went pale. As the sole disciple of the Sect Leader he had to venture out into Misty Forest on multiple occasions and was therefore very familiar with the terrain. But even he had only made it to the starting edge of the Inner Ring.

The mood in Red Cloud Hall instantly plummeted. It became much more serious than it had been previously. Third Elder looked around to see the gloom on everyone’s faces. “That’s all for now. Get some rest and once all of the disciples are summoned tomorrow we’ll begin the exam. Do try not to tell anyone of these matters. We would hate to have one less potential captain. Study these for now and become familiar with the technique that is included. If you can become a captain then you’ll get the most important parts of the technique.” Third Elder waved his hand and a piece of jade landed in everyone’s hands. With that he disappeared.

Akata looked at the piece of jade in his hand. It was a simple rock that didn’t really stand out. As he held it in his hand all of a sudden a bunch of information popped into his head. The jade started to glow as the information was transmitted. Luckily, the transmission was calm and soothing, otherwise, with all the information that was transmitted, it would’ve caused many of them to pass out.

Leader: Akata Kaminari

Team: Laim Oh, Fou Rest, Ran Bow, Bur Gers, Sumting Wong…

Potential Rank: General of the army/ Dragon of the Cloud Corps

Main Objective: Reach the Center Circle of Misty Forest

Side Objectives: Kill beasts, capture beasts, gather intel, acquire resources, sabotage enemies…

Thundercloud Brigade Technique…

Akata quickly scanned through the contents of the jade. The Thundercloud Brigade technique really piqued his interest and he would definitely spend his time on learning the basics of it. After scanning the jade he pushed it to the back of his mind as he thought of one thing. He looked in the distance to see a lone figure that was obviously entranced within the jade’s contents.

Akata slowly made his way over to that lone figure and stopped in front of him. The figure looked up and then smiled. “Huihe Ji.” Akata said joyfully.