Naked Sword Art

The way the Inner court exam was designed, each part of the exam had its own concealed place for testing. They wanted the testing areas to be completely isolated from the outside world so that the disciples wouldn't get distracted. However, between each of their tests there was a gap where elders, inner court disciples, and core court disciples could see and track the progress of the disciples doing the exam. Most people only stayed to see who was in the lead. Others were there to cheer for their family clansmen and friends.

"Should we send someone in to go check on them?" one elder suggested.

"Only a few hours has passed, you need to be patient," another elder responded.

The Inner Court Exam was timed, so the outer court disciples taking the exam needed to finish it before the time ran out. That's why many people were feeling anxious even though only a short amount of time had gone by.

...

Meanwhile underground, Xiao Fang had been cultivating his [ Illusory Body ] method for several hours till he finally made a breakthrough to the 9th stage of the [ Illusory Body ] Spirit Foundation realm.

This was the highest he could reach with the incomplete method. Now if he wanted to proceed further with this cultivation method he would need to pass the exam and start practicing the complete method instead.

After hunting more tiered beasts to make the pendant shine bright red again, Xiao Fang eventually walked towards the exit at the end of the cave.

...

On the women's side, Xiao Hei was also on her way out, but she was discretely tailing behind 2 other girls. The two girls were Bai Fan and Li Xiang.

Since she could only use [ Stealth ] for a short period of time and would have to wait for a few seconds before using it again, she used it reservingly.

The three of them had reached the end of the cave then saw a tunnel going back up to the surface. Just when they were able to see the light at the end of the cave, they started to hear faint sounds coming from the end of the tunnel.

"Do you hear that?" Li Xiang asked.

"I do. Unlike the entrance exam, there will be people following our progress," Bai Fan replied.

"Wait. People will be seeing us?"

Li Xiang began fixing her hair and dusting off her ripped and tattered clothes. After spending the entire day hunting tiered beasts she was tired and dirty.

Although Bai Fan was in even more of a mess, she didn't bother cleaning herself off. She didn't seem to care all that much about her appearance, but in truth she didn't need to. Even when she was looking like this, she was still the prettiest girl in the outer court.

"Ah wait, I can't go out there looking like this. Just give me a moment," Li Xiang said in a bit of panic.

Bai Fan sighed, but still agreed to wait for her.

After a few minutes they heard someone quickly coming up the zigzagging tunnel. The moment she turned the corner, Bai Fan and Li Xiang finally saw who it was.

"Sister Zhao."

"It seems that you completed the first part of the exam before me. I'm impressed, Bai Fan," Zhao Pan replied.

"I can't accept your compliment. Unlike you, I had a bit of help."

While Bai Fan acknowledged Zhao Pan's demon level talent, she was still a whole year younger than her. If Bai Fan had an extra year to train, she was confident she would've been able to beat Zhao Pan. What Bai Fan didn't know was that Zhao Pan didn't spend all of her time body cultivating like Bai Fan did with her spirit cultivation, she was also quite talented in her spirit cultivation as well.

Zhao Pan looked over Bai Fan's shoulder and saw Li Xiang combing her hair. Li Xiang was an incredibly beautiful girl, but she could be a bit shy and insecure about her appearance in front of a large crowd. She had emerald green eyes, light brown hair, and stood around 165cm tall.

"That's enough, Li Xiang. You look fine," Bai Fan said impatiently before walking out of the cave.

Li Xiang pouted then put her little jade comb away before following her out.

Zhao Pan was a bit amused. She waited a few seconds then walked out as well.

As soon as Bai Fan stepped out of the cave she was greeted by cheers, claps, and whistles. The inner court and core court disciples all knew who she was because her mother was a Supreme Elder.

After giving the elder her red pendant, the elder told her to walk up to the stage and introduce herself before continuing to the next part of the exam.

Bai Fan nodded then walked up the stage before looking out to the crowd.

"My name is Bai Fan, and I'm a first-year."

Bai Fan turned to proceed to the next stage of the exam, but then the crowd all started asking her one question,

"Are you a body or spirit cultivator?"

Bai Fan wasn't expecting to be asked that question so she was a bit surprised by it.

"I'm a Spirit Cultivator."

Suddenly the crowd exploded into cheers once again, but this time there was a noticeable difference between the body and spirit cultivators in the crowd.

Next up was Li Xiang.

Before Li Xiang could even say anything, several people within the crowd started cheering like crazy.

They weren't just cheering, clapping, and whistling, they were also blowing horns, banging drums, and waving white makeshift flags with the character 'Li' written on it. These disciples were all the Li family clansmen or the subsidiary family clansmen under the Li family clan.

Since Li Xiang was the only daughter of the Li family clan's Patriarch, they all felt like they were sending their praise directly to the Patriarch himself.

Li Xiang smiled brightly. She was almost embarrassed to be receiving so much praise like this.

With a soft voice she delightfully introduced herself to the crowd.

"My name is Li Xiang, and I'm a first-year spirit cultivator."

The crowd was explosive, even the elders were in shock. It was extremely rare for both the 1st and 2nd placed disciples to be in their first year.

Li Xiang walked over to Bai Fan.

"Looks like you're quite popular. They cheered twice as loud for you than they did for me."

"Ah, too embarrassing," Li Xiang smiled as she scratched the back of her head.

Bai Fan looked back at the cave exit. She was surprised to hear that she was the first to finish the first test. 

'Was I really just imagining the girl with the red pendant?' she thought. She tried to think of reasons why the mysterious girl would hide her talents from the public, but was unable to think of anything.

"What are you looking at?" Li Xiang interrupted Bai Fan's train of thought.

"It's nothing," Bai Fan said as she turned around to continue the exam. 

"Oh, keeping secrets with me now. I promise I won't tell anyone."

"I told you it was nothing."

"Please?"

"Get lost."

...

While the disciples were waiting for the next person to arrive, they talked amongst themselves.

Within that crowd were a few core court disciples, one of which was named Li Qin.

Li Qin wore a thin white robe that swayed in the air with just the slightest breeze. Her black hair flowed down her back resembling a beautiful ink painting of a waterfall on a white canvas.

Her aura was so profound her presence felt almost illusionary, and her gaze was so deep it always seemed as if she was contemplating the world.

Li Qui was none other than the number one genius from the Li family clan, but amongst her peers in the core court, her talent was only slightly above average.

...

"Congratulations, Li Qin. Li Xiang seems to be even more remarkable than you," a fellow core court disciple said.

Li Qin didn't even bother looking at her when she replied, "Mn, she's talented."

"Is that all you can say? I thought you'd be happy to see someone from the Li clan do well on the exam."

"Many geniuses fail due to being over-praised. It's better to wait and see than to be disappointed by the failure you contributed to create."

"The failure I contributed to create?" The other core court disciple didn't understand what Li Qin was saying.

In the time that they were talking, Zhao Pan had already introduced herself and was on her way to the next test.

When Zhao Pan said that she was a body cultivator the body cultivators in the crowd got up off their seats and started cheering louder than ever.

There weren't many body cultivators in the inner and core courts, so to see one in the top 3 was a big deal to them.

...

Xiao Hei understood the gist of things so after a bit of time passed she finally walked out of the cave then walked up to the stage.

"My name is Fei Lin, and I'm a first year body cultivator."

The elders and body cultivators in the crowd started going crazy with joy. It really seemed like this year was the beginning of a golden era for the sect.

"I've never seen the inner court disciples so excited before," one elder said.

"Can you blame them? Something like this isn't an usual occurrence," another elder replied.

.

.

.

As time went by, the crowd slowly became smaller and smaller. Many of the spectators started heading over to the next waiting area because they didn't want to miss seeing Bai Fan or Li Xiang finish the next test.

Several minutes later, the crowd had all moved to the next waiting area, but it was around that time that Xiao Fang walked out of the darkness of the cave. 

After stepping out into the light, he was immediately stopped by two elders. One elder took his shining red pendant while the other elder curiously waved her hand in front of his face.

Xiao Fang then pretended to dodge her hand.

"So you can see even with blindfolds on, very interesting," the elder said.

Xiao Fang nodded once.

"Interesting boy." The elder said as she watched him walk away.

The elder assumed Xiao Fang wasn't really blind and was able to see though his blindfold. In the cultivation world, there were many interesting things like that, so she didn't think much of it. The other elder on the other hand seemed totally flabbergasted.

"What are you so shocked about? You don't actually think he's blind, do you?"

"His robes..."

"Hm? What about his robes?"

"Didn't you see it?"

"Stop beating around the bush. What the hell are you talking about?"

"Didn't he just come out of the 2nd level of the Ancestral Training Ground? How are his robes still so clean? There isn't even a scratch on him."

The other elder finally understood what she was talking about, but she couldn't believe it. She looked back at Xiao Fang on the stage with wide eyes. His robes really were clean. 

"How did he…"

Xiao Fang didn't seem as if he had just came out of a life threatening forest, he looked like he just finished taking a stroll through a harmless garden. If that wasn't amazing enough, Xiao Fang was also alone. 

Facing the remaining disciples in the stands, Xiao Fang introduced himself.

"My name is Long Wang, and I'm a first-year disciple."

Since he was a man, no one cared to ask whether he was a spirit or body cultivator.

"First-year? Is he really a first year?" The elders couldn't believe what they were hearing.

If he was a 9th or 10th-year disciple, then it would've been more believable that he could come out the first test unharmed, but 1st-year? It was simply too unbelievable.