After the hundredth evaluation mark, Yang Qing decided to take a short fifteen-minute break to have his meal while also transmitting his voice to explain the rules and regulations of the evaluation procedure to the organizations that had just arrived.

Prince Wenyan was more reserved in his interaction with Yang Qing unlike before when he was calling Yang Qing, brother Yang Qing. The discovery of Yang Qing being a palace realm cultivator had an impact on how he saw and related with Yang Qing, even without meaning to.

In the southern continent, one could be considered a true cultivator once they stepped into the palace realm, anything below that was generally considered just a stronger ant, with the exception of monstrous geniuses in that realm.

Yang Qing noticed the reserved attitude the prince had with him but there was nothing much he could do to make him at ease as before. Any move or suggestion he made would be taken as an order by prince Wenyan.

He chose to let things be and move at their own pace.

The fifteen minutes break flew by. Yang Qing requested Captain Bu Zhe to let in the next organization after he had taken his last bite.

Two men walked in at Captain Bu Zhe's guidance. One of the men was a gaunt middle-aged man built like a bear. He had wild-looking black hair with a ferocious glint in his eyes. He didn't seem like the type to care about his appearance since he had sleeveless robes that seemed like they had been torn at the shoulders.

Beside him was a thin, pale-looking young man with short hair that covered his eyes.

The contrasting look made both of them stand out.

"Nu Bing of the Wild roar sect presents my disciple Su Liwei for evaluation," said the bear-like man as his voice boomed in the building hall.

Even though he was just in the tenth stage of the qi refinement realm, his momentum and aura were enough to rival someone who had just stepped into the foundation establishment realm.

"Disciple Su Liwei presents himself to the Order for evaluation and willingly adheres to all protocols and regulations attached to it, including the penalties," Su Liwei said.

His voice matched his build perfectly. It was soft, low, and had a solitary coldness to it like a lake in the middle of a cold, misty, and silent night.

Yang Qing nodded back as he invited Su Liwei over to have his test.

Su Liwei cupped his fist and slowly approached Yang Qing. Even till this moment, his head was slightly lowered with his hair covering his eyes. It was only when he came in front of the foundation white haze crystal did he finally look up.He nodded with a polite smile to Yang Qing then proceeded to place his palms over the crystal. However, with a blinding speed that shouldn't be seen in a first-stage foundation establishment cultivator, he removed a small red pearl from his sleeves with one hand and a rotten wood with the other hand.

The red pearl had a resplendent red glow to it that matched the shining brilliance of a ruby while the rotten rectangular wood had worm-like black symbols on it that wriggled almost as if they were alive. The movement of those black symbols became more intense the moment the glow from the red pearl fell on them.

The youth still maintained cold silence as he violently charged toward Yang Qing.

The energy that exploded from him during his charge was that of a fifth-stage core formation expert. As he made his move, his eyes finally revealed themselves. His iris matched his sclera and was pure white like it had been fashioned out of marble while his pupils were wriggling black worms like the ones on the wood he had in his right hand.

Prince Wenyan and Captain Bu Zhe were caught off guard by the sudden change of events that they froze in their reaction.

Yang Qing was the only one who remained undaunted as he rested his face on one of his hands looking coldly at the running youth.

The gaunt sect master he had come with crumbled into red dust that flowed into the red pearl whose color turned darker with an intense dark red glow.

"I've been wondering when you'd make your move, you filthy remnant of the dark helminth ghosts," Yang Qing said as he flashed and appeared in front of Su Liwei.

Su Liwei flinched only slightly at Yang Qing's sudden appearance but his reaction didn't stop as he plunged the rotten wood into his stomach and clenched his hand that had the red pearl into a fist which he swung at Yang Qing.

Within a few milliseconds, his entire look had transformed from his sudden actions. His upper robes got burned with a black flame that was produced from the rotten wood. The flames burned the rotten wood into ash and then jumped onto his torso.

Beneath those flames were the wiggling worm-like glyphs that lurched themselves into Su Liwei's skin like leeches turning his pale skin darker till it resembled charred wood. Su Liwei's entire body turned charred black with small fissures appearing all around him save for his left arm which had the red pearl.

That arm had turned dark red and produced a red mist that congealed behind Su Liwei to form an indistinct figure of a red snake with infinity-shaped pupils.

The transformation had happened almost instantaneously.

"You have grossly overestimated yourself coming here. There's a reason your organization barely survived a week under the Order's onslaught."Before Su Liwei could register Yang Qing's words he felt his vision change. A sharp cold plain was coursing through his body from his back and his left arm was floating above him as it disintegrated like dried clay. Minute red dust reflection floated slowly above the disintegrating arm.

His thoughts and his body's response seemed to be in a lag like time had frozen and everything had been magnified. When he turned his vision downwards, the floor he had been standing on was absent and what was there was a bottomless elephant-sized hole.

He still had trouble registering what just happened. The rotten block of wood he used was a cursed artifact that would grant him the immediate strength of a quasi-palace realm expert while the red pearl was a genuine monarch-grade artifact that had a lethal attack mechanism to both the soul and body. One needed to have atleast a quasi-palace realm strength to activate it, which was why he needed the rotten wood to boost his fifth-stage core formation cultivation base to the quasi-palace realm stage.

Today's attack wasn't just a chance encounter. He had planned everything perfectly for today's attack. Creating a shadow sect, researching the evaluation procedures and the strength of the personnel during the evaluation over the past five years, and sourcing artifacts that had a short activation time and high lethality.

About the only thing that had gone awry for him was the joint evaluation, since conducting the attack within the base of the Wild roar sect had better odds.

But even in his plans, he had accounted for a change of location, and with the support of the two artifacts, his attack was all but guaranteed to succeed since both the Summerfield kingdom and the Order personnel would only be at the core formation realm.

But things went completely different from what he had envisioned. He had a worst-case scenario but the current scene was miles above what he expected.

"What happened? Did…they….lie…to…me…..

Was…i.t…a…t..r..a..p....f..r..o..m…t..h..e….b..e..g..i..n..n..i..n..g?"

He didn't have the strength to talk and his thoughts along with his vision were turning sluggish. He mustered whatever strength he had left, to look upwards.

He still hoped by some chance his attack had succeeded. At this point, he would settle even for a small injury instead of the fatal injury he had expected and hoped for.

All that he managed to see was a white-haired young man standing above him surrounded with a resplendent misty white glow staring indifferently at him with eyes that were in the image of a full moon.

He didn't even have the energy to be shocked. His gaze turned hazy as he surrendered himself to the drowsiness and the beckon of death that was calling him.

…

Su Liwei was not the only one confused about what just happened. Prince Wenyan and Captain Bu Zhe were just as confused despite being witnesses to the whole thing.

Both Prince Wenyan and Captain Bu Zhe had prepared themselves to attack the moment they gained their senses from the sudden attack. However, before they could even make a move, they were frozen where they stood by the pressure Su Liwei released the moment he stabbed the rotten wood into his navel.

The gaze of the red snake with the infinity symbol made them feel like their souls were being wrung of everything they had.

Just as they thought they were on the cusp of death, things took a turn in an instant. A sudden flash of white light appeared and obliterated everything including the pressure and the torment they were under including the silhouette of the red snake that was behind Su Liwei.

Everything had changed too fast for them to even register what just happened. In the time it took to blink an eye, Su Liwei had attacked Yang Qing as he rapidly transformed into a fiendish being with a red snake silhouette behind him, then a moment later he was not there.

All that stood before them was a massive hole in the middle of the hall, Su Liwei floating over the hole, missing a lower body and an arm that was disappearing like burning paper, and standing next to him was someone who resembled Yang Qing except he was pure white in every part of his body with a gentle glow being exuded from his body with an accompanying faint white mist.