The group of people who were left, about seven-hundred and fifty people, all came in closer to the woman.

  “My name is Anisa. I will be your proctor for the entrance exam.” Anisa’s short, vibrant red hair waved in the wind as she spoke. “All of you will follow me to the testing site and we’ll see what you’re made of.”

  She’s not shouting, so how am I hearing her so easily? It’s like she’s standing right next to me.

  Will sighed to himself. Something else he didn’t understand about this world. He resolved to ask Alea about it later.

  Without another word Anisa took off at a jog to her right, into the forest. Will and Alea hung back, waiting for the group to pass before taking up the rear.

  Neither one needed to say it, but this entire experience so far had been a surprise, and playing it cautiously was never a bad idea. They seemed to have the same thought and fell in behind the last of the large group together.

  They had spent enough time together now where they both were able to read the general intent of the other through looks and body language. Not to a massive degree, but it was a bond of teamwork that was definitely starting to bloom and show results.

  The trip was a short one. Will half expected Anisa to pull what Master Amos had when he had first met him and make them run a massive distance to where they were going. After a half hour of running later they came upon a small building that was a few hundred feet away from the wall; a wall that did indeed seem to stretch into forever. There were two doors visible to the group, one to Anisa’s right and the other to her left.

  “You will each enter this building by the door on my right one at a time. No one is to enter until the previous cultivator has left. Upon entering, the entrance exam will begin. The rules are simple. Defeat your opponent. If you fail and survive, you are dismissed and you are free to go. Although the offer of employment that was given to the others will also be extended to you. Head back to the main gate and wait for instructions if that is the path you choose. To those of you who succeed,” she paused, everyone gathered holding their breath at getting to hear the prize offered should they win. “Information will be provided after.” The air went out of the entire group. “Fight well.”

  With that Anisa turned and walked through the door to her left.

  The entire group stayed silent and still as the proctor left. Her comment about survival and her overwhelming strength as a cultivator had left them all unsettled.

  The spell broke as a hulking man walked up first from the group. The man was huge. Will was reminded of the analogy of being bigger than the broad side of a barn as he looked at him.

  The man walked over and stepped confidently through the door. It was at this point that Will realized that this..was going to take a while. A long while.

  “Something I don’t get.” He whispered to Alea. “I thought people of all different kinds of tiers apply for membership into this sect.”

  “And?” Alea responded, not knowing where he was going with this.

  “Well, Anisa was pressuring all of us at the same time and it seemed like everyone was effected pretty equally. So were all the applicants in the Spirit realm like us?”

  “Ohh. Yea I can see how that could be confusing. So you know how some people have almost no talent with their aura?” She looked pointedly at Will. His eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

  “Yes.” He said tersely.

  “Well some people specialize in it. It seemed like everyone was affected equally because she was applying pressure individually to each person. Each at a different level of strength based on their realm. I’m sure we were all feeling the same level of pressure relative to each other. But the actual force exerted on us probably depended on which realm we’re in. Heck maybe even where in each realm we’re in. But I don’t know if she’s that skilled.” Will was flabbergasted. Could someone really possess such crazy control and power? “I’m guessing of course, but I’d put money on me being right.”

  Will was daunted at first, who wouldn’t be? But after the initial shock he became invigorated and inspired. He wanted that kind of power.

  He knew they were going to be here for a while, and since he had just meditated this morning, he decided to train his sensory skill some more. He had a specific goal in mind, and like a dog with a bone, he didn’t want to stop training until he at least got the smallest hang of it.

  He would have cultivated, but Amos had warned him early in his training to avoid doing it around people he didn’t know and trust. When he had asked why, Amos had taken a while to answer. Almost as if he was trying to come to an important decision.

  “You’d find out sooner or later so you might as well know now. When you cultivate you draw in a large amount of Qi from a not insignificant area around you. This could alarm people who notice and bring you unwanted attention. And until you’re strong enough for that not to matter, better to stay as inconspicuous as possible.”

  Will wasn’t sure what a normal amount of Qi to draw in or a normal area that is affected when you cultivated was. But he trusted his master, so he didn’t do it.

  Instead, Will walked a perimeter around the back half of the crowd with his eyes open and did his best to be able to sense them using his lightning sense. He did this for a week and a half straight as they waited for the crowd to get smaller and their turn to take the exam got closer.

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  “I got it!” Will yelled randomly one afternoon on one of his many horse shoe loops around the outside of the dwindling crowd.

  He realized he was making a spectacle of himself and quickly quieted down as he walked over to Alea. She was sitting against a tree about a hundred feet from everyone else, cultivating.

  She opened her eyes at his approach and immediately got a disgusted look on her face as she saw the stupidly big grin on his face.

  “You figured it out.” She said. Half statement, half accusatorially. He nodded at her. “Ugh I hate you. Get away from me.”

  He started laughing. “Oh come on don’t be like that. You can fly and I can’t remember?” She just rolled her eyes at him. “And besides. I barely figured it out. I can make it work with my eyes open sure. But the clarity is still garbage despite the fact that it should be crystal clear. But a wins a win.”

  She rolled her eyes again, this time with more attitude, which just made him laugh again. She went back to cultivating and he sat a foot from her and began meditating.

  He still intended to work on his sensory technique. But now it was just a matter of practice and refining his technique to make the picture his sensory technique granted him more clear. He could do that while he started to work on something new.

  He cleared his mind of all else and let his mind focus entirely on the problem of deciding what to peruse next.

  His problem now was the same as his problem from before. His soul couldn’t handle the kind of power he would need to make the technique he truly wanted to, which would be an ultimate attack. He even knew the science behind it to make it work. He got the idea when he was immersed in that lightning storm. But trying execute it would probably kill him. So definitely and begrudgingly a move he’d have to wait for a higher realm to try and create. He’d have to stick to technique’s that cost low in power but high in skill.

  He thought over what he actually needed. Besides an ultimate attack, being aware of his surroundings was his number one. That’s now been officially solved. After that, he figured a long range transportation technique and a short range one would be best. But he mostly had short range covered. He really doubted there were many people his realm or even the realm above him that were faster than him. But he had a feeling that to get to one technique he’d have to develop the other first. A solid understanding of how to do a short range teleport would probably be necessary to understand how to do a long range one.

  And if a quick class in high school history teaches you anything, it’s how limiting not being able to travel far distances quickly can either seriously limit you or help you immensely. Will had a few ideas of how to make it work and went over each of them in his mind as he meditated.

  Before he knew it however Alea was shaking his shoulder, breaking him out of his meditation.

  He looked around and realized it was night. Alea had a fire going and what looked like a couple of rabbits roasting over the flame.

  “You going to sit there all night to or do you want food?”

  He smiled up at her. “Food. Definitely.” He got up and stretched, his back and chest cracking. “I can’t believe I let time get away from me like that.”

  She looked up from drawing the food out of the fire, handing him one of the cooked animals. “You must of been pretty deep in to of let time go by like that.”

  “Yea, I was trying to come up with an idea for another technique to work on.” Her face went flat and before he realized what she was doing she had thrown a small rock right at his head.

  The next morning saw the last of the applicants enter the building. Most applicants averaged about half an hour in the test. Seven hundred and fifty applicants meant it should have taken two weeks to go through everyone, but some people came back out of the building almost immediately after going in. Whether that meant they failed or passed quickly was anyone’s guess. Every single person that came out of the building had a stoney look on their face so there was no telling which way the test could have gone. And once they came out they immediately left, leaving no time to ask the applicant any questions.

  As everyone feared, a few didn’t come out at all. In those instances Anisa came out and told the waiting cultivators that she was ready for another applicant. She didn’t say anything more, and no one asked. But everyone knew what it meant.

  Finally all who were left was just Will and Alea. The third to last person came out and left like all the rest. Will nodded his head towards the testing building. “You want to go first?”

  She shrugged. “Why not. Let’s get this over with. Seya on the other side bumpkin.”

  “You know I’m still not thrilled with that nickname.”

  She threw her hair over one shoulder and smiled at him. He watched as she walked towards the door, her thick black curly hair bouncing slightly as she walked. She had a hand on the sword at her hip and her walk screamed confidence. She passed quickly through the door and then there was nothing to do but wait once more.

  Will paced back and forth in front of the entrance. On edge and counting down the minutes. It was eerie being in the clearing by himself. Normally he found comfort in solitude and being alone in the woods. But now he didn’t think he had been more stressed in his life. Something about not being able to see Alea as she went through another life or death struggle made it worse for him. So much worse. He couldn’t intercede, he couldn’t do anything. He felt powerless and helpless, nothing to do but trust in his friend.

  Finally Will counted to thirty minutes, but still no Alea. Forty minutes came and went and still nothing. At forty-five minutes, finally, Alea came out of the building.

  Will felt all the air leave his lungs at once and his shoulders felt like he had just shrugged off a mountain.

  Her face looked just as deadpan as all the rest. She paused and looked at him for the briefest moment. She made a motion to walk toward him, her face breaking into an expression he didn’t have the chance to decipher. The second her foot moved toward him instead of the direction she had been going she vanished, his name on her lips.

  He froze in shock and then he felt his anger surge. His Qi raged through him as he rotated it as fast as he ever had before. His clothes began to lightly swirl around him as his power heaved. Not his lightning, his body felt like it was actively swirling the Qi in the air around him, causing the wind and his clothes to stir and move.

  He had never done that before.

  Just then, Anisa came bursting out of the building.

  “Stubborn girl. I swear the youth of this current generation are more and more bull headed and idiotic.” She shook her head and looked square at him. “Calm down pipsqueak. She’s fine. She’ll be punished, but she’s fine. You’re up. Let’s get this over with. I’m tired and my bed is calling my name.”

  She walked back into the door she had went into almost two weeks ago, and he stared at the door everyone else had entered. Some never leaving from.

  He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. The last of the sudden anger leaving him.

  She’s fine Will. Focus up and let’s do this.

  He took another breath and then walked towards the door. He tried to do it as confidently as Alea had, but he knew he probably failed miserably at it.

  He opened the heavy wooden door and walked through.