While the disciples outside were arguing over who will be the Number One Disciple of Seventh peak, the Elders and Yuan Shuchun came out of the Observation Room.
Seeing them finally made the clamouring disciples quite.
Now, as the end of Stage 2 approached, the anticipation among the students also rose.
This time many new disciples had also participated along with the older disciples, and most of them had passed Stage One, which was quite surprising since it had only been five months since they entered the sect.
Gracious Sword Sect organised the Inner Court Entrance Hunt every three years, and the participation was also massive, even in the weakest of all peaks, the Seventh Peak.
The final stage, Stage Three, was mainly an elimination type of battle between all Stage Two Disciples who will come out from the underground cave path of Spiritual Medicine Mountain. Then once the Pre Rankings are decided, the qualified will fight between each other for points which will then finalize the Number One Disciple of the Outer Court of Seventh Peak.
…
Some time after the Elders and Yuan Shuchun had come out, and everyone heard a loud whistle. No one knew where and how it from, but they knew the whistle was a sign, the sign of the end of Stage Two.
Now, all participants had to slowly come out of the Cave Paths and submit their Qi Stealing Mole beast cores, the number of Beast Cores they have will finalize their Pre Rankings.
The whistle was heard all over the Seventh Peak and had alerted all the disciples. They knew what it meant, and they became excited to know the results of Stage Two.
Soon, the disciples who had not participated in the Hunt or had returned to their cultivation abodes after failing in Stage One returned to the Underground Hall of the Seventh Peak.
"Who do you think that girl is with the elders?" a disciple asked his friends in low voices as if he were afraid of elders hearing his words.
"Maybe daughter of one of the elders? I have never seen her around" One of his friend beside him shrugged and replied.
"You two, do you really want to get in trouble over nothing?" An older Outer Court disciple hissed at them and said, "Look at her robes! Can't you see she is a Core Disciple of our sect!"
"Core Disciple!? So young?" The others around him couldn't help but be startled at his word.
"Yes. She is a Core Disciple. And a very talented one too. You may have seen her for the first time, but you have definitely heard of her." The older disciples continue as like this was a fact.
"Oh? We might have heard of her? Senior Brother, do you mind telling us the name then? The disciple who had started this discussion asked.
"She is Yuan Shuchun." the older disciple replied, "Do you need any more introduction?"
"THE Yuan Shuchun?" Others around were once more shocked at the disciple's claim.
The older disciple's expression turned a bit smug as he said, "Yes, there is only one Yuan Shuchun among the Core Disciples. And she is the most talen—"
"Look, someone is out!" Before the older disciple could finish his words, someone shouted, which attracted everyone's attention towards the Entrances of Spiritual Medicine Mountain.
They saw a brown robbed Outer Court Disciple come out the leftmost entrance, walking towards the Elders podium, most probably to submit his beast cores gained after killing the Qi Stealing Mole.
However, what surprised the others was not him coming out but rather his condition. His robes were clean as if freshly woven, and he seemed more like a person who just had a bath, not like someone who came out of an underground battle event, hunting low tier beasts who were always covered with dust and dirt.
"Did this guy really went in for a hot spring bath, changed his clothes, combed his hair and come out?"
"If this guy really did go for that, I won't be surprised."
"Who is he? He seems familiar."
"Who could it be if not Fang Chen. That arrogant trash."
"Well, I wouldn't call him a trash anymore now that he has defeated Du Xiu two months ago and even passed the Stage One."
"But since when did this guy became such a low profile? If it were earlier, even if he wouldn't have passed the Stage One, he would have definitely made the whole peak know that he was participating in the Hunt while also offending almost half of the people here."
"Who knows, maybe he hit his head or something. How many beast cores do you think he has gained?"
"No more than fifty. Even if Fang Chen defeated Du Xiu, but this event needs more than just cultivation. And looking at his condition, I even doubt if he even killed a single Qi Stealing Mole and just sat at the other side of the entrance for the last six hours."
While the disciples were busy commenting on him, Ye Tian Yun came near the Elder's stage and said, "Disciple Fang Chen greets the elders."
"Good, Fang Chen. How did the Hunt go?" Elder Lai Chang asked him, trying to finish his part with some formalities.
"It was an easy round, Elder. I managed to hunt some Qi Stealing Moles."
"Oh, good to hear that. How many did you get?"
"No less than four hundred eighty-two."
"What?" Even Elder Mu who knew of his 'real' cultivation was surprised at the vast number and couldn't help but be startled at Ye Tian Yun's answer.
"Show us." Elder Wu, who thought this disciple in front of him was blabbering too much nonsense, directly asked for proof.
"Here." Ye Tian Yun didn't hesitate and took out a pretty big bag, full of beast cores, and handed it over to the elders.
Elder Mu came over, spread out his senses through Qi over the bag, and said, "They really are a total of four hundred eighty-two low tier Qi Stealing Mole beast cores. How did you get so many?"