"What in the name of heavens just happened?! Am I imagining things or did he just decapitate the special training puppet that even Spirit Warriors cannot destroy?!"
One of the disciples there mumbled in a dazed voice as he stared at the silver head that had rolled a few meters away after being detached from its body.
Meanwhile, the training puppet that Yuan had decapitated continued to function, turning colors.
Light green, dark green, light yellow, dark yellow, light red, dark red… black!
To everybody's surprise, the special training puppet had suddenly turned black— a color they didn't know existed, much less seen before!
Yuan looked at the broken sword in his grasp with a dazed expression on his face. He didn't expect the sword to break so easily; it felt like he'd smashed a rock with an egg. However, to his surprise, he'd still managed to decapitate the training puppet.
Of course, it was the spiritual energy released from the sword that had sliced the training puppet's head cleanly off its body, as the sword was destroyed the moment it touched the puppet's tough body due to the immense force behind it.
Sometime later, once she snapped out of her daze, Elder Tantai approached the training puppet to examine its damage with a perplexed look on her face, seemingly trying to figure out what the heck just happened.
She then looked at Yuan's broken sword.
"I don't recognize the technique you'd just used. What rank is it?" she then asked him.
"Earth-rank," he calmly responded.
"..."
Elder Tantai questioned her own existence after learning that Yuan had managed to decapitate a special training puppet with an Earth-rank technique while she can't even damage it with a technique of the same rank and a cultivation base of 7th level Spirit Warrior.
"A-Anyway… you passed…" Elder Tantai said after a moment of silence.
Even if she can't comprehend what just happened, she couldn't deny what was right before her eyes.
Fortunately for her, Yuan was the last person to take the test, or she would've needed to find another special training puppet, which would have delayed the examination for at least two to three hours since nobody could've expected an Outer Court disciple destroying a special training puppet that even Core Disciples cannot destroy.
"As expected of the one who defeated the Mad Tiger without lifting a finger… If he'd lifted his finger, perhaps that match would've ended up as a deathmatch…"
The disciples there wholeheartedly believed that Wu Laohu had lucked out when Yuan decided to let him survive.
Sometime later, Elder Tantai gathered the disciples again and said, "There are twenty-four of you left, and we will be heading to the final test where you must defeat a magical beast before you become an Inner Court disciple. If you have any questions, ask away."
One of the disciples immediately raised his hand and asked, "What kind of magical beasts will we be fighting?"
Elder Tantai then responded in a calm voice, "It's a powerful magical beast that is mostly found within the Jade Forest— the Jade Frog."
"The Jade Frog?!" The disciples expressed shock upon hearing this name.
Jade Frogs are incredibly hard to deal with since they have a large body and tough skin, and they like to jump around. A single mistake could lead to their bodies getting flattened.
Meanwhile, Yuan tilted his head after hearing this familiar name.
'Jade Frog? Isn't this the first monster that I have fought in this game? The one that nearly gave me a heart attack because I thought it'd turned Xiao Hua's body into meat paste?' Yuan remembered his encounter with the Jade Frog as though it was just yesterday, as that was his first combat experience in this world.
"Who would like to go first?" Elder Tantai asked the disciples after answering all of their questions.
"I'd like to go first." An eager voice immediately responded.
The disciples turned to look at the voice, and to their surprise, Yuan had volunteered to go first.
"S-Sure, go ahead." Elder Tantai said, and she continued, "One of the gates at the end will open once the test begins, and you will have fifteen minutes to defeat the Jade Frog or it's an automatic loss. And just like the previous test, you can only use the equipment provided to you."
Yuan nodded his head before heading to the weapons rack to pick up another weapon.
This time, he chose a dagger, surprising the Elder Tantai and the other disciples with his choice.
"Why's he using the dagger? I thought for sure he was going to use the sword again!"
"Is he trying to show off or something? This test is entirely different compared to the previous two tests. You need a lot of experience and knowledge to fight a magical beast, especially the Jade Frog that's well known for killing inexperienced Cultivators who are not used to their attack patterns."
"Who knows. He's done nothing but surprise since the beginning. Maybe he'll do the same for this time as well."
Sometime later, once Yuan was standing in the middle of the field with the other disciples standing all the way in the back, Elder Tantai shouted, "Release the magical beast!"
The metal gates immediately opened, and the ground began shaking as a Jade Frog made its appearance by hopping out of the entrance.
The disciples swallowed nervously when they saw the Jade Frog and its intimidating appearance.
Meanwhile, Yuan stared at the round magical beast with a nostalgic feeling.
BOOM!
The Jade Frog stopped moving after it landed a few meters away from Yuan, and it proceeded to stare at Yuan and the others there as though it was analyzing them and their situation.
In this stillness and silence, a movement was suddenly made, but it was not by the Jade Frog.
Instead, it was Yuan who moved first, as he'd suddenly tossed his dagger into the air.
A vicious light flickered in his eyes, and right as the dagger in the air reached its highest point and prepared to fall down, it suddenly stopped moving and hovered in the air for a split second before shooting itself at the Jade Frog like a shooting star.