Emperor's Reckoning

Lyon was inciting everyman's jealousy. The surrounding couldn't help but cursed him inwardly. Although the feat he did was astonishing, did he deserve such rewards? He wasn't even a king or an emperor yet and he already basks in beautiful women, even the elders could only sigh.

The dead tired Lyon slowly recuperate on the soft cushion while watching the continuation of the 'Ascension'. Ryona slowly combed his hair with her finger. She looked like a queen taking care of her emperor. None of the other ladies dared to interrupt them. Not to mention Biane and Clemora, even Luna and Karina had to wait their turn.

*ehem

"The second test of the Ascension may begin," said the other elder who whispered a message from before.

Once more, the disciples who passed the first test was being called out one by one. Each of them were to display their skills in the intermediate level of Mist Art. This includes a variety of a skill if the disciple managed to create one.

The intermediate level of Mist Art contained three main arts which could be varied according to the disciple's style. The first one was the 'Mist Edge', this art used the heaven and world's energies to sharpen their weapon by coating them with it. The book said that whoever learn this art to a peak level or beyond said that his or her weapon's sharpness couldn't be seen clearly like a mist was covering it.

Although the art sound so simple, the execution was not so. The concentration and focus must be on point since once they lose them, the art immediately disperse.

"Fleur, please step on the ring and show us your prowess," said the elder.

"Yes,"

A thin young man stepped on the ring with his shallow sword. He was a well known young man in the South Region. He had done almost a hundred missions from the clan and his talent could be considered the best.a

When his eyes became focused, the shallow sword's edges started to glow a little. Even a low cultivator could see it.

The elder nodded, "Do you have a variety for your art?"

"eh?"

With the sudden question from the elder, the 'Mist Edge' got canceled instantly.

.

.

.

"Fail!" declared the elder.

The outcome truly surprised the crowd. They would have thought that Fleur might pass this test effortlessly.

"I-i can do it again! Please give me one more chance!" begged Fleur.

"Hmph! A cultivator never begs to others!" the elder got more infuriated seeing the disciple's behavior before continuing, "You should train more on your concentration and focus, just a basic question made you lose it."

"A real cultivator will not get nervous over something as trivial as this. If you always begged to make the world favor you, don't blame others if the result is not what you want. Go back and train once more, I hope to see some improvements by then."

Although the voice was loud and harsh, the elder actually gave a pointer to the disciple about his flaw.

"I will tell you what you already know, the cultivation world is long and hard, if a simple failure like this made you waver. You will be stuck on your realm forever."

The encouraging word from the elder made the disappointed Fleur saw a new light. After regainin his wits, Fleur bowed to the elder and walked down the ring full of motivation to train harder.

"Next, please come forward,"

The elder continued the test once more. Although there were a hanfdful of disciples that passed the test. There were also the ones like Fleur. Every pointer the elder gave was carefully listened by those who failed.

"Biane, please stepped on the ring,"

"Yes,"

Answering from the audience seat, she jumped and land perfectly on the ring.

Before the elder could say anything, Biane's Santana already coated with heaven and world's energies, making the people struck in awe. The density of the energies was by far the thickest of them all. Even the crowd's eyes would occasionally blink as if the greatsword's edges was right in front of their eyes.

"Do you have a variaty of the art?" asked the elder.

"No," Biane answered calmly.

Nobody knew if she was telling the truth or not. But one thing for sure was that her concentration and focus were very well mantained despite her burst personality. Only a strong cultivators could control one's own.

Lyon was looking at this outcome with a hidden smile. He knew stright away that she had a variation of that art. That was because he already face one of it in the competition from before.

(Beautiful women always had innate acting skills. It's like a default skill they had since they were born or something) mused Lyon.

"Disciple Biane, you pass!" declared the elder.

Biane cupped her hand and gone back to her seat next to Lyon.

Her sister, Clemora also passed the test effortlessly. She also said 'no' when she was asked about the variaty, much like her sister.

"There are more promising disciples this 'Ascension'", said an onlooker.

"You're right, I bet Clemora and Biane would get 'ascended' to the Central Region," said the onlooker's friend.

"The last disciple, Riku, please come up to the ring," said the elder.

"Yes," said Riku.

Being the last one, Riku was not nervous at all. Although she looked like an innocent angel, her movements could made the shadow weep. Coated with the energies, her 'Mist Edge' danced along with the movement she made.

The elder's eyes were wide open. Usually 'Mist Edge' was only executed when it was time to land a critical hit. (This young girl! Every move of her 'dance' aimed at the surrounding and her art is not diminishing even one bit! Such talent, how could we overlooked it until now!?).

Of course, this dance was not Riku's self taught ability. It was given to her by none other than her greatest master, Ryona.