Dyon silently stood before Olaf, his features serene. It was almost as though he was spectating rather than participating.
In truth, this fight was useless to those of Soul Rending Peak. Considering there were two core disciple spots, fighting it out between them was a bit excessive.
After wasting more than an entire day watching inferior talents fight, the disciples of Soul Rending Peak were beginning to feel an itch they very much wanted to scratch.
Oddly enough, despite knowing that Dyon and Olaf would be two new core disciples of their sect, even the outer disciples hadn’t shown any true respect to them. Of course, Dyon noted this down. It seemed claiming a spot through assessments didn’t cement your position in the sect.
However, Dyon didn’t mind. After all, this made sense.
The assessments took place relatively often, every two years, in fact. At this pace, wouldn’t the sect be overrun with core disciples? What kind of respectable sect had so many core disciples?
It wasn’t that the number was particularly important, per se. But, these things needed to be put in context.
Core disciples received the most resources and guidance a sect had to give. On top of that, they were also seen as the future pillars of the sect and they were all meant to be talents only seen once in a century, if not once in a millennium. At the very least, this had to be true in the context of the 98th quadrant.
If Soul Rending Peak really accepted one core disciple every two years, over its long history, it would have tens of thousands of core disciples by now. The idea of having so many talents was absolutely ridiculous and made little to no sense.
The truth of the matter was that had it not been for the rule change, now including a spar before acceptance, there wouldn’t be any disciples here to watch this farce at all. Unfortunately, they were the ones chosen to take on this thankless task.
As for how Soul Rending Peak cut down on its number of accepted disciples, Dyon didn’t know. But, that hardly mattered to him. With his personality, would he really think that there was something these core disciples could do that he couldn’t?
Seeing Dyon distracted by his thoughts like this, even going so far as to scan his surroundings as though he wasn’t about to fight a tough battle, it was no surprise that Donari’s elder brother was pissed. However, this entire time, he hadn’t shown a single change of expression.
After being suppressed by his own younger brother for so many years, would he really allow some Jafari family member to do the same?
Before Donari’s birth, Olaf was the most talented member of the Caedes family in centuries. As one might expect with that kind of talent, over the 40 or so years between his birth and Donari’s, he lived a pampered life. Constantly protected by his father, loved by his family elders, and all but guaranteed to inherit the family in the future.
However, that was when his father took a concubine. Not only did he refuse to tell the family about her origins, he treated her as though she was more his first wife than his true wife was!
Being the son of the first lady of the Caedes family, this left Olaf wallowing in hatred. He couldn’t understand the actions of his father, yet he could only wait for the day that this concubine would give birth…
That entire time, he comforted himself by saying there was no way this new sibling of his would become more important to the family than him. After all, he was so talented, what were the odds? As long as this child was born mediocre, his father would snap out of it and start loving him again.
However, for the first time in Olaf’s life, he faced the reality of not having everything in his control… No longer did his noble status mean much of anything in the face of a younger brother who exceeded him in all things.
Soon after, all of the attention, praise and filial piety Olaf had received completely transferred to his younger brother. And maybe the worst part? That very same younger brother through it all away, yet the family still hadn’t given up on him yet!
This was Olaf’s chance. To defeat a man his younger brother acknowledged as his better, wouldn’t that be the ultimate slap to his family’s face? Wouldn’t he finally be able to show them all just how wrong they were?
“I’ve waited for a moment like this for a long time.” Olaf sneered, releasing a dense black fog that warped the vision of everyone witnessing the scene.
Suddenly, the fog thinned, covering the entire arena in a translucent grey. It was clear that this was the lauded peak heaven technique. Even saints felt their senses being manipulated under its effects.
It suddenly felt as though up was down and down was up. As though left was right and right was left. And that was just for the audience! None of them could imagine what it felt like for Dyon!
However, immediately after that, something even more shocking occurred.
A crackling sound echoed from Olaf’s body as though something was releasing. A moment after, an eruption of dense saint energy blasted out from his body, increasing the effectiveness of the technique to another level.
Those with weaker cultivation immediately passed out from dizziness, unable to stop the feeling of their heads imploding from the inside out.
It was only at that moment that everyone understood they had underestimated Olaf’s talent… He had already stepped into sainthood as a third-grade expert!