Tainted will

Three days later.

swish! sword light flashed, severing the hell Wolf's head from its healthy body. The sweet smell of blood permeated the atmosphere.

"These tier 1 hell Wolf's are no match for me, I can escape from a low grade tier 2 beast, as for above that i don't have much confidence in surviving." Bai Ming sheathed his sword, in front him lay dozens of wolf corpses were scattered.

"I have already absorbed the materials which I had collected last time, but I was only able to form 1/4 of the second crescent. It's reasonable, those people were either mortals or level 1 bone forging realm cultivators, except for that old man who was a 9th layer expert. if I possessed few elemental realm corpses I can easily complete the 2nd crescent, But right now I lack the strength to collect materials. I have to reach the elemental realm quickly."

"Then there is that academy end exam competition this month end... Su Ming has already advanced to elemental realm a week back. As for those high grade talents their progress should be similar to mine. The prize this time is really alluring. Especially the prize for the 1st place, but my chances of wining are a little low."

Each year in the academy there are two examinations. The first is the mid-term exam, with different contents each year. The second is the year end exam, and the contents never change, being arena fights. And after the arena fight Bai Ming would no longer be a academy student, he could officially take missions from the village.

But this year's academy exam is a bit different, because it's been three years since the last inter clan competition, and once every three years there would be an inter clan competition. Only those below 15years of age can participate in this competition, basically this year's batch of cultivators. But by no means is this competition insignificant.

As for prizes of the competition, the top 5 will get to spend 10 days in the clans martial scripture hall, unlike the academy's scripture hall, it contains mid grade techniques. Normally if a person wants to enter the clans scripture hall they would either need to exchange large amounts of spirit stones or contribution points. Most elemental realm experts would probably only enter the scripture hall a 6-7 times in their life, so most of the elemental realm experts would probably only know one mid grade technique, but during large scale beast tides it is much easier to earn points and they would have a better chance of entering the scripture hall, this was merely an act of encouragement for the clan members to fight with everything they had.

But most of the bone forging realm experts would never step foot in the clans scripture hall, they didn't have the abilities to earn such huge numbers of spirit stones or contribution points, that old man who had previously fought Bai Ming was originally a elemental realm expert but during a beast tide he suffered injury making his cultivation drop, otherwise the possibility of him learning a mid grade technique was slim to none.

As for the person who gets 1st place, they would not only get to spend 15 days inside the scripture hall, they will even be allowed to stay twelve days in the clans spirit pool. Spirit pool was the place where the awakening ceremony was held, the spiritual energy in the pool was very thick. Cultivating in a place like that, a person's cultivation base can skyrocket. But, the elders of the clan had their own considerations when they set these prizes.

If Bai Ming can cultivate in a place like that, with his talent it would greatly benefit him, And with Bai Ming's personality he definitely would not give up such a golden opportunity. The greed in his heart was ablaze.

After collecting the loot, Bai Ming moved towards the hidden cave. For the past couple of days he would daily spend about an hour in the cave teaching the primeval star mantra, Only when these children comprehend it, would they be able to begin cultivating.

The situation in the cave was completely in Bai Ming's control. When Bai Ming tortured little Zi he had considered many things, firstly he had to make little Zi to have an obsession for revenge. Which he succeeded, little Zi was unlike before he held an absurd amount of hatred towards Bai Ming, and after Bai Ming's carefull manipulation Zi Feng understood that, for him to get his revenge he needed to get stronger, but to get stronger he could only yield to Bai Ming. Of course he knew that following Bai Ming's methods he could only get so far and not defeat Bai Ming, but he didn't have any other choice to begin with, he could only endure. One had to say, this Zi Feng was truly a fierce character. Even after suffering so much, he maintained his psyche that in itself is a praise worthy.

As for how Bai Ming made the other children submit was because of his acting skills, after Bai Ming had knocked out little Zi, he didn't immediately bring out his mothers corpse from his storage bag, instead he first questioned those children asking them about litte Zi's parents whereabouts, but these children were all from different villages how could they know, next he moved towards Zi feng and grabbed his head with one of his hands and acted as if he was undergoing excruciating pain, after that he left the cave and when he returned he was holding zi feng's dead mother and in front of all the children he began to cook her.

​ Bai Ming's actions carried deep meaning, whether it was him asking the children zi feng's parents whereabouts or acting to undergo suffering showed that he wasn't lying about not killing little Zi's parents. But what did this mean for the other children, their parents where also alive, this was huge relief for them, And secondly Bai Ming never made any of the children suffer without reason, he only tortured zi feng because he was disobedient. This made the children think that if they were to listen to Bai Ming they would not get tortured, as for why they would not kill themselves in the absence of Bai Ming was because firstly, they were afraid of dying, secondly if they die there is a high chance that Bai Ming would also kill their parents. Of course Bai Ming had his own reasons as to why he didn't take the rough route with them.

Bai Ming entered the cave silently, he carefully observed the children. All of the children were facing the wall and busy studying. Bai Ming had written the primeval star mantra on the wall.

"All of you come here" Bai Ming spoke, his tone cold.

All of the children heard this and came running toward Bai Ming, few of the children looked at Bai Ming in fear, two of them just looked at their own toes unable to see Bai Ming in the eye, As for our little Zi, his eyes we're dull, his face expressionless as he started at Bai Ming in the eye.

"Sit down, I will check each of your progress. If your progress is not up to my standard, hmph. You will not get any food for atleast 4-5 days" Bai Ming glanced at the children coldly, most of the children avoided his gaze. Only Zi feng stared back at him emotionlessly.

After checking their progress, he was satisfied but he still made the person with least progress suffer.

"These children are progressing smoothly, especially this brat Zi, he has completely comprehend the art in three days. Now that zi feng can help others, I will only come to check on them once or twice a week until the final exam, it's too much of a waste of my precious time to come here daily." Bai Ming thought quietly.

As for giving these children spirit stones to cultivate faster that would be the height of idiocy when he himself lacked resources.