Horrible Assessment

"Evil Cultivators."

This was a strange term, at least to Long Chen, who had never heard of it before. However, Long Chen could keenly sense that those caves on the cliff all possessed a very strange, evil Aura that made people feel extremely uncomfortable.

Looking at the people present, most of whom also had expressions of confusion, he knew this was likely a secret.

Long Chen glanced at Tang Waner and found her face remained calm; it seemed she had long known what an "Evil Cultivator" was.

"The Evil Cultivators I speak of are not the demons and monsters from myths as you might imagine, but rather practitioners of evil cultivation.

The content of your upcoming assessment is to defeat these practitioners and cut off their heads; that will count as passing," Elder Tufang said to the crowd, enunciating every word.

The people present couldn't help but gasp, looking toward the stone wall one after another.

"That's right. In each of the caves before you, there will be an Evil Cultivator. We call them Evil Cultivators.

Their Cultivation Techniques are completely different from ours—sinister, vicious, and exceptionally fierce. They are even more berserk than Demonic Beasts. It is not too late for you to choose to give up now, so think carefully," Tufang said.

The whole place fell silent. Now, only a little over a thousand examinees remained, but what Elder Tufang said was truly terrifying, making everyone's hearts tremble.

"What a joke! We're already here, and we are all Geniuses; how could we be scared off by such words? Hmph, if you don't dare, let me, Li Changfeng, take the lead."

A man stepped out from the crowd with an arrogant expression, holding a long sword in his hand. His blood and Qi were surging; he was an expert.

"Have you thought it through? This is not a normal assessment, but a battle of life and death. If you are even slightly careless, you will lose your life," Tufang said.

"Rest assured, Elder, this Disciple understands," the man said.

Tufang sighed, feeling somewhat helpless. Why did it have to start this way every year? Was this fate?

"If you want to take the lead, then come. Choose the corresponding cave based on your own strength. If you feel you cannot win, immediately exit the cave to save your life," Tufang warned in a deep voice, speaking to everyone at the same time.

Long Chen was slightly stunned. He looked at the stone pillars in front of the Elders. At this moment, the pillars were emitting a faint light that illuminated the entire cliff. Could this light have something strange about it?

"Many thanks for your concern, Elder; this Disciple will go now."

The man smiled with extreme confidence, looked back at the crowd, and sneered, "I am a subordinate of Big Brother Lei Qianshang. Big Brother Lei's heroic spirit covers the heavens; he is absolutely the best faction to pledge allegiance to.

No more nonsense. Honor is my life. I will not be polite; I will take the lead for everyone, but this honor belongs to my most respected Big Brother Lei Qianshang."

After saying this, the man smiled arrogantly and rushed straight towards the cliff.

Long Chen was dumbfounded. This was allowed? The advertisement was too obvious, wasn't it? Lei Qianshang, in the crowd, couldn't help but nod with satisfaction. With such a sensible subordinate, why worry about not achieving great things?

"I wonder which level he will challenge."

"Seeing him brag so loudly, he should be challenging the Inner Disciple level, right?"

"Probably. Otherwise, wouldn't he just be talking nonsense and slapping his own face?"

Just as people were guessing which cave he would choose, the man had already run to the front of the cliff, where there was a high platform about ten zhang in circumference.

The man stood on the high platform, and an Elder asked, "Which cave do you want to go to?"

"The one at the very bottom, on the far right," the man answered immediately without thinking.

As soon as the man finished speaking, there was a chorus of boos from below. According to the rules of the cultivation world, the upper is honored and the lower is lowly; the left is honored and the right is lowly. Therefore, the one at the very bottom on the far right was the worst one, and inevitably the easiest one.

He had acted like a peerless expert before, but ended up choosing the easiest one. Everyone suddenly realized:

"This bastard is too shameless. Not only did he pick up a huge bargain, but he also showed off; he is truly shameless."

As long as they weren't idiots, everyone knew this guy was definitely a shrewd one, striking first to gain the advantage.

"Looking at how shameless this guy is, he's just like you. Could he be your long-lost brother?" Tang Waner couldn't help but laugh softly.

Long Chen wasn't angry either; he shook his head and said, "I don't have such a short-lived brother. Judging by his features, I'm afraid he's about to turn over a new leaf and be reborn…"

"Ah!"

Just as Long Chen was speaking, a scream came from inside the cave. The man had barely stepped into the cave when he let out a scream and flew out of the cave, trailing a large spray of blood.

After seeing this, Long Chen frowned slightly, took a step forward, and blocked Tang Waner's view with his body.

At this moment, the whole scene erupted in gasps, and quite a few people immediately started vomiting. It turned out that the man had been torn into two pieces, a bloody mess, extremely gory and terrifying, and had long since lost his life.

Just a moment ago he was full of life, and in an instant, he became a dead man, killed in the most cruel way. Everyone was dumbfounded.

"Long Chen, move aside. I have to face it sooner or later; it's better to face it sooner." Tang Waner looked at the figure blocking her view, her heart warming; she knew Long Chen was taking care of her.

Long Chen nodded. She was right. How could one walk the path of cultivation without encountering the dead? If she couldn't even pass this hurdle, what was there to talk about regarding cultivation?

However, to let a woman like a Heavenly Immortal face such a cruel scene was truly unbearable, but Long Chen still slowly moved his body away.

Seeing that bloody, mangled figure, Tang Waner's delicate body trembled, her face immediately turned as pale as paper, and her stomach felt like it was churning.

Just then, a large hand silently rested on her shoulder, and a gentle Spiritual Qi was transmitted into her body, circulating within her. The urge to vomit was immediately suppressed.

Long Chen had long anticipated this result, so he was prepared to help her with his Spiritual Qi. Vomiting was nothing, but it was a blow to a cultivator's confidence.

"Thank you, I'm fine now."

Tang Waner looked at Long Chen with gratitude. If it weren't for Long Chen's help, she might not have been able to control herself and would have vomited.

Seeing that everyone had a painful expression, even Lei Qianshang and the others had somewhat pale faces—it wasn't that they hadn't seen dead people, but they hadn't seen this way of dying.

"Whew."

Seeing that everyone had seen enough, Long Chen stretched out his hand, and a fireball flew out, landing on the man's corpse. The terrifying high temperature instantly burned the corpse to ashes. Only then did everyone heave a sigh of relief. Facing such a corpse, the pressure was simply too great.

Tufang glanced at Long Chen and nodded, secretly praising him in his heart; Long Chen was indeed sensible and knew how to grasp the situation.

"The reason people are stupid is because they don't know their own stupidity and don't know what awe is."

Tufang looked at the crowd coldly and said gloomily, "Did you listen carefully to the words I instructed earlier? Did you treat my words as farts?"

By the end, Tufang's face was as gloomy as water, sharp light shone from his eyes, and a terrifying pressure radiated out. He was truly angry.

"Are you all idiots? Did I not tell you: This is not a normal assessment, but a battle of life and death. If you are even slightly careless, you will lose your life?

Since you know it concerns your own life and death, why are you still so careless? Before entering the cave, why didn't you release your Aura? Why didn't you take out your weapons? Why weren't you fully on guard?

You didn't even know what your opponent was, yet you just walked in with such swagger? To show off? To appear brave and fearless?

Haha, not bad, very not bad. You have interpreted the word 'idiot' to the fullest. You are all a group of 'Geniuses'."

Tufang looked at them coldly, his face becoming increasingly ugly. He originally thought that with so many Geniuses arriving this time, the branch courtyard could finally rise.

But this batch of Geniuses were indeed Geniuses, but their brains were truly too idiotic. If it weren't for the rules of the branch courtyard, he would have loved to slap a few of them to death.

He had warned them repeatedly to be careful, and had even told them about the horror of Evil Cultivators. Unfortunately, these little guys actually treated his words as dog farts; his lungs were about to explode with anger.

If he didn't knock some sense into them and let them treat the assessment like child's play, and if a few monster-level Geniuses died from carelessness, he would be furious to death.

"Hmph, thinking you're smart. This year's assessment is different from previous years. Don't think that just because you got some information from previous years, you can be fully prepared.

In recent years, the war between the Righteous and the Evil has caused countless Geniuses to fall. The Puppets originally in the caves have all been replaced by Immortal Masters.

The Evil Cultivators in these caves are not living people; they are all corpses, carefully selected to exactly match your current cultivation and combat strength.

Their Souls have been imprisoned by great powers, retaining only their combat consciousness from before they died. Therefore, their only desire is brutal slaughter. If you want to die, go find a place where no one is around to do it; don't die here and disgust people," Tufang scolded, hating that they weren't living up to expectations.

As for the previous man, Tufang couldn't bear to see him die tragically and had deliberately given him a hint. Unfortunately, such a person didn't understand what a piece of advice was at all and didn't take it to heart.

Now, his tragic death had become a negative example, awakening everyone; it could be considered that he died for a cause.

"Alright, I have said everything that needs to be said. The rest depends on how you choose. I'll say it again: it's not too late to quit now," Tufang said, looking at the crowd.

For a moment, the whole place was silent. The person just now was a Peak Blood Condensation expert, and he was instantly killed due to carelessness. This was truly too terrifying.

Especially for these Geniuses who hadn't seen much bloodshed, it was already considered decent that they hadn't been scared out of their wits.

Now everyone was looking at each other, none willing to be the first bird to stick its head out anymore; they all wanted to wait and see.

"Boss, I'll go give it a try."

Suddenly, Guo Ran walked out and said to Long Chen.

Long Chen and Tang Waner were both startled. Both were experts and could clearly sense that Guo Ran's combat strength was not particularly outstanding; at most, it was barely on par with the person from before.

"You must think it through," Long Chen said in a deep voice. This was nothing to joke about.

Guo Ran said with a serious face, "Yeah, I know. This may be the biggest hurdle of my life. No one can help me. Whether I am a Dragon or a snake depends on this one time. I want to gamble."

Guo Ran changed from his usual playful, smiling self to an expression of determination. This was a hurdle where no tricks could be used; he had to face it.

Seeing Long Chen's worried face, Guo Ran smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, Boss. I, Guo Ran, am not that easy to kill. I still have to hang out with you."

"Good brother, keep it up!" Long Chen patted Guo Ran's shoulder firmly. At this moment, Guo Ran looked more like a real man.

He could feel that although Guo Ran was slick on the surface, he had his own pride in his bones. What he decided, others could not change.

Amidst everyone's surprised gazes, Guo Ran stood on the steps.

"Bottom right, second from the bottom."