"Oh, one more thing. You are not allowed to use your own weapon in this test." Elder Tantai added, and she pointed to the weapon rack not far in the distance and continued, "Use one of those."
"Are there any questions?"
One of the disciples there raised his hand and said, "We can use any technique we want, right?"
Elder Tantai nodded, "That's right."
Sometime later, after the questions, Elder Tantai said, "If you wish to challenge the training puppet, step forward."
A few seconds after Elder Tantai's words, a disciple at the peak Spirit Apprentice stepped forward and spoke loudly, "I will go first!"
He then went to pick up a spear from the weapon rack before coming back and approaching the training puppet.
The disciple stood a few steps in front of the training puppet and took a moment to prepare himself.
After taking a long and deep breath, the disciple raised his spear.
Once the spear was raised perfectly parallel to the ground, the disciple held his breath for a second before thrusting it forward.
Boom!
The training puppet was sent flying backward, but it slowed down very quickly and stopped five meters away from its original spot.
The disciple waited for the evaluation nervously, and a few seconds later the training puppet turned from silver to green, then dark green, before finally settling at yellow.
"You passed." Elder Tantai said.
"Yes!" The disciple shouted in excitement before returning the spear in the weapons rack.
A few minutes later, another disciple stood before the training puppet that had returned to its original spot with a different weapon in his hand— a sword.
"Haaaa…. Ha!"
The disciple slashed the sword in his hand, creating a powerful strike that made the training puppet fall to its knees.
Once it stood up again, the colors began changing.
Light green… dark green… light yellow…
"You passed." Elder Tantai said once the color stopped at light yellow.
The next disciple went, but he didn't pick up a weapon and stood before the training puppet with his bare fists.
"Mountain Shattering Fist Strike!"
The disciple threw a punch with immense force at the training puppet, sending it flying many meters away.
After falling down a dozen meters away, the training puppet got back up and slowly walked back to its original spot while changing colors as it walked.
Dark green… light yellow… dark yellow…
"Not bad." Elder Tantai nodded her head when she saw this, and she continued, "You pass."
"Thank you, Elder." The disciple bowed to her before standing with the other two who had passed before him.
The disciples continued to challenge the training puppet one by one, and in less than an hour, over half of the disciples used their turn.
"Light yellow— pass."
"Light yellow— pass."
"Dark green— fail."
"Dark green— fail."
"Light Yellow— pass."
Out of the thirty-something disciples that challenged the training puppet, only two-thirds of them had managed to pass the test by scoring a yellow color. However, nobody there has managed to make the training puppet turn red.
A few more tries later, a disciple with a first-level Spirit Warrior cultivation base has finally managed to hit the training puppet hard enough for it to turn light red.
"Heavens! What a powerful martial skill! I could feel the impact even from here! I don't even dare to imagine what it must feel like to get struck by such a powerful blow!"
The disciples were shocked by this young man who was wielding a greatsword in his hands.
"I recognize that martial skill! It's the 'Relentless Force', an Earth-rank martial skill!"
"No wonder why it was so powerful! To think he'd trained an Earth-rank technique to such a high level! What astounding talents and display!"
Elder Tantai clapped afterward, and she spoke in a praising voice, "Great! It's been a while since a disciple has managed to hit a red color during the examination. In fact, the last time someone managed to hit red was almost a year ago."
"Thank you, Elder, for your praises!"
Sometime later, once everyone else went, it was only Yuan who hadn't gone.
"That's Disciple Yuan who defeated the Mad Tiger. What color do you think he'll achieve?" The disciples immediately started mumbling to each other while Yuan went to the weapons rack to pick his weapon.
"Who knows, really. During his match with the Mad Tiger, he didn't lift even a finger and used some mysterious technique to take down the Mad Tiger."
"I have a feeling he'll hit a dark yellow, maybe even light red."
"I think it'll only be light yellow."
A few moments later, Yuan returned to the training puppet with a sword in his hand, and the other disciples stopped talking to watch with intensive gazes.
'Hmm… What technique should I use?' Yuan thought to himself.
While the Heaven Splitting Sword Strike is his most powerful technique available, he didn't want to destroy this place. As for his next strongest sword technique, Demon Sealing Technique, it was out of the question since he has never used it before. Therefore, he could only use the Bloody Sword Strike, his most used technique.
After taking an offensive stance, Yuan took a deep breath.
Once he released his breath, the sword in his hand began glowing bright red, and Yuan swung the sword with all of his might.
Boom!
Yuan's aura exploded with a tyrannical feeling, and a red arc of light appeared in the air as the sword connected with the training puppet's neck.
Cling!
To Yuan's surprise, the blade to the sword in his hand exploded into many pieces after Yuan struck the training puppet.
However, that was not the only thing to break during his strike, as the training puppet's head was cleanly sliced off from its body like it had been executed.
"WHAT?!" Elder Tantai shouted in a shocked voice when she saw this, as this is her first time seeing someone destroy a training puppet in such a manner.
As for the other disciples, their eyes were wide as saucers with their jaws dropped to the ground, looking like they'd just witnessed something impossible.