Child of Destiny



...…

As the old man continuously released the pressure pressing on every student, his gaze was constantly sweeping at everyone as he took note of their performances.

He was occasionally nodding his head in satisfaction as he looked at certain individuals, particularly the top-ranked students. But he was also seeing a couple of good seedings at the lower end of the rankings. He found those students that caught his eye were those students at the bottom ranking but had a solid foundation.

In his eyes, these students were more worth investing in since the ones that were ranked at the top were already strong and talented enough to be ahead of the others.

Not long after, the gap between the students started to appear. The students with lesser foundations were slowly getting exhausted and collapsing one after another. This continued until they were only half of the class remained standing.

It was only at that moment that the old man retrieved the pressure that he had before slightly nodding his head. "That is much more than I have expected."

Shin and the rest of the students who remained standing were finally able to relax their muscles and started collapsing on the ground one after another. Arthur even let himself fall on his butt while breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath.

The others were not in a better position either as they were in a similar or worse situation. Jillian and Molton looked like they were about to die as their chest continuously went up and down due to hard breathing.

Lorraine and Alice were in slightly better shape but they were not far from the twins lying beside them. And surprisingly, Cloe was doing pretty fine as she was only too exhausted to move her body. Her breathing was heavy but not as bad as the others. Though, she could feel that she would not be able to move a muscle for an hour or two, which was worse than the rest.

Leonard and Shin were slightly better than them which indicated how strong their bodies were and how large their stamina was. They could at least make a few more rounds of sparring matches as long as it did not involve using their Internal Qi and Mental Energy respectively.

Arthur should be as strong and as tough as them, but since he was standing at the forefront of the group during their formation, he was the first to receive the tide of pressure that the scary old man was releasing. He was protecting the others, who were standing behind him, so it was pretty natural for him to be in his current state.

The old man observed the students for a few moments before finally introducing himself. "I will be the training master that will supervise your physical training and exercises for the upcoming years."

"As long s you stay and continue to study in the academy, under the special program, I will be your Training Master."

"You can call me Old Man Lin, just like the rest of the students that are training under me. I am just a retired old man, who is treating training a couple of students as a hobby."

Hearing the latter words of the old man, Arthur could not help but click his tongue while silently refuting. "Retired old man my *ss. You are clearly an old monster that is disguised as a regular instructor in the academy."

"Are you obsessed with those fantasy novels or something?" he muttered with a mocking tone.

His voice might be too quiet that his words could only be heard by himself. But unfortunately, the old man possessed sharp senses that could not be measured by ordinary means.

The old man did not do anything but Arthur felt something falling from the sky and fell exactly on his stomach, making his arms and feet instinctively bounced off the ground. It created a comical sight that made Shin and the others laugh at him.

The old man ignored Arthur and continued. "What took place just now is just a form of test that I personally created just for you."

"The first part is to test your reaction speed and insight when faced in front of an unexpected situation. It is also to see whether your senses are sharp enough to clearly pinpoint where the threat was coming from."

He swept his gaze at everyone as he continued. "I've already noted down the names of the students who performed well during this part."

"Ah! Before I forget. There is only one who managed to see through the illusion that I've created and manage to find the source of killing intent," he added before turning to a certain direction and nodding.

The students were somewhat able to move their bodies at this point in time. They forced their heads to turn their heads and look at the location of the person that Old Man Lin was looking at.

In a corner, Ezio Williams was sitting casually on the ground while receiving the gazes directed at him.

Old Man Lin nodded his head and commented. "Should I say that it is to be expected of a young assassin trained by that 'place'? You are too familiar with the 'aura of death' and able to find the real threat among everyone else."

"Continue training hard and sharpen your blade. Then you will be able to see what is at the end of the road in the Path of Assassination," he added before continuing. "You scored the highest in the first part of the exam. You will be receiving fifty extra merit points for that."

After that, he turned his head toward another direction where Jean Camus and his group were located. He directed his gaze at Thomas Brook, another talented young assassin within the class, before saying. "Your blade is sharp but it did not contain conviction. You possessed a weapon but did not have a cause. You have a deadly dagger but don't understand its purpose."

"I must say, I am pretty much disappointed. I don't know what is confusing you, but if you continued to be distracted that way, you will be surpassed by others and left in the dust."

Thomas silently nodded his head and began contemplating the words that the old man had said. He fully understood that Old Man Lin was talking about his talent, background, and potential.

Old Man Lin was also telling him that Ezio was slightly behind him but could potentially surpass him if he continued to slump in his previous setback.

The old man nodded his head once again when he saw Thomas' response. He was fully satisfied.

After that, he continued. "As for the second part of the test, it was to test your foundation and measure your stamina."

"I will be designing a unique training regime for each one of you, so I have to fully grasp your potential and have a better understanding of you."

"I must say that the outcome is much better than I am expecting. There are even some who perform very well and become much better than what the papers are saying about them. There are even a couple of students who give me quite a few surprises," Old Man Lin was clearly saying that he was not trusting the data that the academy had provided and wanted to personally see what they were capable of.

"There is even someone who surpassed my expectation."

Given the expression that he was making, it was pretty clear that he was very satisfied with their performances. He was even looking in a certain direction, making the students become a little curious.

And when they cast their gaze toward the direction where he was looking, they realized that he was looking at Shin's group, giving them a certain idea.

That particular group was famous within the academy after a few days. They were also composed of top-ranked students so it would be natural for them to perform better.

But who exactly he was looking at was still a mystery to everybody.

They did not have the time to find out who it was as the old man quickly continued. "As for the one who will take first on this part of the test will be…"

He trailed his words for a couple of moments before continuing unwillingly. "That stupid lizardman over there."

He was clearly talking about Arthur given the direction he was looking at and the brief description that he gave. He also gave Arthur an additional fifty points before proceeding.

He snapped with his fingers and created a sound that seemed to have cleansed the minds of everyone before continuing. "I will be dividing the class into two groups first before we proceed."

"The first group will be the ones who collapse first right before the end of the second part. This group will be focusing on building up their stamina and solidifying their foundations."

"I don't care what you want to say, but you have to follow my arrangements if you want to continue attending my class. And in exchange, I will guarantee a huge benefit that will satisfy all of you."

He then paused for a moment and continued. "The next group will be the ones who remained standing until the end. You will be focusing on the circulation method that I am going to give you."

"It is just a bunch of average circulation methods, so there is nothing to make a fuss about. I will just confirm a couple of things before proceeding to the next step for your personal training regime."

"The first group will be joining the second group when they pass a test that I will be giving them. Otherwise, they have to continue with basic foundation training until I am satisfied."

He then looked at the sky, seemingly measuring the time through the position of the sun before saying. "I will be giving you a whole hour of rest. After that, we will begin our class."

The moment when he said that, the class started looking for a place to rest. The ones who were unable to move were being supported by the people of their group. All of the students that did not belong to any group were strong enough to be included in the second group that Old Man Lin had mentioned, so no one was left alone at the center of the activity field.

In the meantime, Shin and the rest hid under the shade of the nearby tree. They were resting when Old Man Lin suddenly walked toward them, making the group look at him with confused and curious gazes

When he arrived, he stopped in front of Cloe and asked. "Little girl. What is your name."

Cloe hesitated for a moment before answering. "I'm Cloe Cilvana, Sir."

"Hoh! So, you are from a family without any Mentalism or Martial Arts background," commented Old Man Lin before continuing. "Which department have you chosen to join, or which one of them chose you?"

Cloe became even more confused and could not help but turn to Shin out of habit. And when she saw the latter nod his head, she quickly answered. "I am chosen by the Auxiliary and Support Department – and I choose to join them too, Sir."

Hearing that, Old Man Lin suddenly clicked his tongue and commented. "Tsk! That old hag sure is fast."

Hearing those words, the corner of the mouths of the twin suddenly twitched since he was clearly talking about their grandmother. She was the head of the Auxiliary and Support Depart and given the strength of this old man, he could only be talking about her.

"Anyway, you haven't officially joined them, right? I am even guessing that you haven't met that old hag too," Old Man Lin continue to ask, making the group to further frown their brows.

At the same time, Cloe instinctively nodded her head since what the old man said was true.

Old Man Lin nodded in satisfaction after seeing her response before continuing. "That's good, that's good! So, what do you think about being my disciple?"

Then there was silence. A silence that was silent enough to make it somewhat deafening.

The group did not know how to respond.

...