About 10 minutes before the test even ended, Ning walked back to the sect's gate outside the forest. There were already many people standing there after finishing their test.
Some had beasts with them, some didn't. "Huh? Did they fail already? Why didn't they stay back in the forest and try a bit longer? There are still 10 minutes left," he said to himself.
He took out a snakeskin from his interdimensional storage and fed it to Night. He went to a corner of the sect grounds and waited for the test to end.
Soon, the remaining 10 minutes passed, and only those who had come by now would be eligible to pass. The examiner from before came to the group of 80 something people and spoke.
"Congratulations to those who managed to tame a beast for themselves. Hopefully, the beast you tamed is good enough to make it into the sect, " he said.
"I will call out your names. Please enter the room when I do so," the man said and called out the first name. A scrawny-looking man with a serious look walked forward.
"Wait! Take your beast out of your beast pouch before entering," the man said.
The scrawny man just nodded and brought out a small child of a mammoth before walking in. People started talking about how great the beast looked and all.
Ning realized that the mammoth-like beast was actually lower ranked than his bird. Soon, more and more people were sent in.
On one particular announcement, a man called Yacius was called. When the man walked out of the group of people, Night jerked up and stared at the man.
"Man. Bad. Man," it said.
"Bad man, Him?" it took a second for Ning to realize what Night meant. "Wait, was he the one who hurt you?" he asked.
"Bad. Man. Hurt. Hungry." That settled it. This Yacius fellow was in fact the one that harmed Night a week ago. "He probably failed last week and is back now to hunt," Ning thought.
As Yacius reached the door, he brought out a gorilla monster. It was still a child, but seeing the gorilla made everyone shocked.
"That's an Iron Gorilla, right?" someone asked.
"Yeah, those are so hard to come by. Especially because they stay attached to their parents. And fighting the parents is a bad idea," another person spoke.
"How do you think he came by a child then?"
Numerous questions rang out from the people in there. Ning didn't know much about Iron Gorilla, but he did know about rankings. And Iron Gorillas were high up in the rankings.
He caressed Night who was resting on his shoulders and said, "Don't worry, you are still much better than him."
More people were called, and finally, it was Ning's turn. As soon as his name was called out, he started walking towards the gate. Just as he was passing through the gate, the Examiner looked at his tamed beast and said, "Woah," in a low voice.
Ning felt unusually happy at that moment. Once he walked inside, he saw a single person with 2 doors behind them. The person squinted as soon as Ning arrived and asked, "Where is your beast?"
Ning was a little confused and simply pointed at Night. Night had at some point just sat down on his shoulders and snuggled up to a ball, such that it was unrecognizable from an actual black rag he was keeping on his shoulders.
"Night, stand up," he said. Suddenly, Night woke up from its slumber and stared around it. As a Night Snatcher, a beast that was used to hunting and living in the night, Night was used to sleeping in the day.
The only reason it was even awake during the day for today was cause it was hungry after not having eaten for a long time.
The person in front of Alex saw the majestic black eagle unfurling its wings and screamed in surprise," A Night Snatcher. How did you find it?" they asked.
"I was looking at a hare when he came by and snatched it in front of me," Ning said.
"That's not what I meant. Night Snatchers as incredibly fast and impossible to be stopped unless one is an entire realm above the beast. How did a Qi Condensation 2nd Realm cultivator like you find it?" the person asked.
"Oh…. Well, that's a secret," Ning said. "Anyway, do I pass or not?" he asked.
"Oh, wait." The person took out a strange metallic plate and threw it on the ground and asked, "Step on it." Ning complied and stepped on the metallic plate without hesitation.
At first, he couldn't figure out what was going on, but eventually, he did. He saw it happen from the side of his right temple. Night was standing right there and a blue glow was coming out of it before entering his own body.
'What the hell is that?' he wondered. Ning looked closely and realized that the blue glow was coming out of the exact same spot where he had put the brand on.
"Alright. I have confirmed that you really did tame the beast and you did it today. Congratulations, you have passed the test. With a beast like Night Snatcher, you pass automatically. Please walk into the room on the left," the person said.
Ning thanked the person and told Night to go back to sleep. He then walked out of the left door and into a hallway that led to another room outback.
Ning entered the room and saw that there were already 4 people in there. According to the examiner, 20 people were supposed to be selected today, and of those, it seemed 5 were guaranteed now.
There were 2 young men and 2 young women. Both the women seemed to have a cold face, while one of the men was in the back staying alone by himself.
The last guy was trying to strike up a conversation with the ladies, who clearly didn't want to talk to them. Ning looked at him and sighed. "Of course, it had to be this guy."