"Of course, by hunting down the beasts." Ye Tian Yun shrugged and answered matter-of-factly.
However, his words were no less than shocking news to the disciples around him.
"Did I hear it correctly?"
"Is hunting down more than four hundred beasts in six hours even possible?"
"Even after Elder Mu confirmed his points, I still can't help but think that this is all a hoax, a bluff by Fang Chen."
"This many beasts got to be the most number of Qi Stealing Moles ever hunted in an Inner Court Entrance Exam on the Seventh Peak, if not in the whole Gracious Sword Sect."
"I think this guy most probably cheated. He may have already had Qi Stealing Mole's beast cores before even participating in the Hunt."
"Don't be ridiculous. Don't you know why this stage takes at least six hours? It is so that if someone brings in old beast cores to cheat, he would be caught as soon as he takes out his beast cores. After about six hours, the beast cores lose the special luster that is present over them though they don't lose much accumulated Qi inside them."
"Then, do you want to say that he really hunted down this many Qi Stealing Moles?"
"Do you think we even have a choice not to believe him?"
While the disciples were clamoring, the Elders were also discussing among themselves, they knew that the beast cores Ye Tian Yun had brought were indeed recently acquired, and he was not cheating at all.
"But Elders, how could he get so many? Did he steal from other participants?" Yuan Shuchun felt something was wrong in this situation and didn't stop herself from questioning the current situation.
"Young Miss, these are indeed legit. We can only put them under his name. And I don't think it's something to question about. All his achievements are merit for our Seventh Peak. Let's first understand the situation of other participants too instead of nitpicking over this." Elder Wu replied.
He didn't care about who won or who hunted most. What he wanted was the result and emergence of new talents. And both of his desires were coming to fruition after seeing Fang Chen's results.
Elder Lai Chang also nodded and said, "Yes, let's first assess the whole Stage Two. And we also need to see if Fang Chang has the capability of keeping his points safe."
…
Soon, the other participants also began to arrive. They were coming out, going to the stage, submitting their beast cores, and then standing aside in a group while waiting for other participants to submit their cores.
The Elders were busy tallying the points and slowly arranging the Pre Rankings. Every time a disciple arrived, they would announce his points to the other disciples.
"Shan Jin, 79 beast cores."
"Xiang Peng, 122 beast cores."
"Qin Shunyuan, 102 beast cores."
"Tao Shun, 62 beast cores."
…
The participants didn't know their rankings but were observing the crowd's reaction to understand the situation. They were trying to gauge their and other participant's performance. However, what they found weird was even after some disciple's acquiring near two hundred beast cores, there wasn't much commotion in the crowd.
After about half of the participants had come out, a new commotion started when a disciple came out of the entrance. He had an arrogant expression over his face as if he was the center of the world and was doing a favor by participating in the event.
"Look, isn't that Ling Yun?"
"Finally, the big stars are coming out. How many points do you think he had gained?"
"No less than three hundred, maybe even more than four hundred."
"I would kill to see Ling Yun's expression when he comes to know about Fang Chen's points. Let's see if he can still maintain his arrogant ex[ression."
While the disciples discussed, Ling Yun arrived near the stage and handed over his beast cores, still with the smug expression.
Elder Mu raised one of his eyebrows as he counted the beast cores and said, "Ling Yun, 342 beast cores."
Ling Yun smiled arrogantly; however, his expression turned weird when he didn't hear the expected reaction from the crowd of disciples behind him.
The cheering and exclaiming of his peers that he wanted to hear never came, making him feel as if there was something wrong with the situation. With the same weird expression and scrunched eyebrows, he moved and stood among the group of participant disciples.
Even in the participant's section, the atmosphere was quite weird. Since they didn't know what was happening, and seeing the unenthusiastic reaction of the crowd, they had a hunch that they missed something big when they were inside the underground area of Spiritual Medicine Mountain for Stage Two.
After Ling Yun, slowly more and more disciples started to come out, the reaction of the crowd to their entrance was mostly based on their reputation, with the loudest being for Hou Xing.
Hou Xing was one of the immense emerging talents of the Seventh Peak, and the fact that he entered the Gracious Sword Peak just a few months ago solidified his reputation even more.
As soon as he came, he was able to defeat and contend against older disciples, and his cultivation speed was the main aspect that gave him such fame.
Cultivating from the 3rd Level of Qi Refining Realm to the 7th Level of Qi Refining Realm in mere five months made him a sensation. When many thought he was just cultivating through Pills and herbs and his cultivation was unstable, he defeated many older Outer Court Disciples, thus marking his place in the Outer Court and becoming the Number One Outer Court Disciple based on his fame alone.
However, the reason why he was a crowd favorite was not just his cultivation, but his nature too. He never appeared arrogant or looked down on anyone. His behavior was a stark contrast to that of Ling Yun. Though there was indeed one person, he wanted to beat very badly.
Moving towards the stage, Hou Xing felt confident with his performance in his heart and was thinking about how he was about to surprise everyone present with his points. He came to the stage and handed over his beast cores.
Elder Mu counted and was a bit surprised as he said out loud, "Hou Xing, 391 beast cores."
This time even the crowd cheered, though not as much as Hou Xing was expecting, He was surprised, and when he saw Ling Yun frowning, he felt even weird since only a few disciples could surpass him. However, looking at Ling Yun's expression, he clearly knew he had won against him.
Feeling the situation a bit weird, he also went and stood among the participants.
Slowly, more and more disciples came out of the underground cave paths.
Finally, Elder Lai Chang stood up and said, "We have come to the end of Stage Two. Soon, the Pre Rankings will be displayed, and we will begin with Stage Three."
Just as he turned around, a voice came from the crowd, "Elders, Senior Brother Kang Bai hasn't come out yet!"
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A/n: If you find any typos or errors, do comment on them, I will edit them in the morning.
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