As the elders gathered, they waited?around?for more disciples to e?around.?Then, once enough people had gathered and the allocated time had arrived, they began the assembly.
"Everyone, pay attention. We shall now begin the tests,"?the Elder at the front spoke.
"Rank 6341 - Dawnblade,"?they called.
"Rank 6340 - Tai GuiDao."
"Rank 6339 - Jiang Boquan."
Alex was the very first person to be tested, along with the other two. He was a little surprised at how fast?his name was called.
There was no speech, no introduction. It was straight to business.
Alex flew up to the group of elders high above the valley. The elders took his nameplate, confirmed who he was, and gave him a small vial with poison in it.
Alex shook his head.?"I would like to request the Nine-petaled Ice flower poison,"?he said.
The elder serving the poison looked at him weirdly.?"It says here that you joined the sect half a year ago. The Nine-petaled Ice flower poison will be much too potent for you. Are you sure?"
"Yes."
The elder said nothing more. He?wasn't?there to look after a disciple and care for?them,?just?do as they asked. If they wanted to die, he would let them.
He brought out the poison and handed it to Alex.?"Drink this. If you survive, someone will e to give you this poison again at a later time randomly to make sure you?haven't?cheated."
Alex nodded and downed the poison in one gulp.
He felt his inside?cool?to the point where he could feel cold burns, but his body burned hot and immediately moved to destroy the poison.
Alex slowed down his healing significantly as it happened, showing that he struggled with the poison for a good few seconds. Because he slowed down the fight against the poison,?Alex's?body began growing beads of water on his skin as water in the air condensed around him.
He finally let his body heal the poison while keeping the beads of water on him. It made him appear as though he?worked?hard to fight the poison.
Alex took a deep breath in the end and nodded to himself.?"Thank?you?elder,"?he said and walked away. With that, he knew?should?rank somewhere in the 4600 at the highest and 4800 at the lowest.
Tai Guidao walked up to Alex, seemingly in?some?pain,?but hanging in there.?"Brother Dawnblade, how did you survive that poison? It should have been?very strong,"?the man said.
"It was?very strong,"?Alex said.?"But I?haven't?slacked in cultivating this physique at all. Maybe I also?happen to?align well with the?physique's?requirement?so?it is easier for me to learn."
"Is that so??You're?quite lucky,"?the man said.?"At least, I have started being somewhat resistant to poison. I?won't?get expelled now."
Alex shared the same sentiment with Tai Guidao.
The two of them stayed back and watched as more and more disciples were called to the sky and fed poison. There was no sound-blocking formation, so everyone could hear when someone else requested some different poison.
Alex saw that most of the Saint realm cultivators of the sectwere rankedat the end, with most of them barely surviving any poisonsat all. However, since they had cultivated the physique longer than Alex and the others, they could survive better poisons still.
Alex wasquitesurprised by that.
He did not thinkthat thephysique would allow a Saint realm cultivator to survive an Immortal poison, even if itwaslow ranked. Even hisownbody would somewhat struggle against Immortal poison when he was in the Saint realm.
Thattrulymade him wonder if he was missing out on something by not practicing this physique.However, thinking about it, thereweren'tmany poisons that this physique could stopevenin the Immortalrealmuntil one cultivated it for along,long time, which was certainly a waste of time for Alex.
He would befinewith his body for now.
The assemblywent on for a whilewiththe Saints flying up, taking their poison, and leaving.Afterwhat felt likehalf a day, it was finally the turn for more Immortals to take poison.
Starting at 4000, the poison they took became stronger and stronger, with each person wanting to one-up the other one. They tookstrongerand stronger poison, ones which Alex wascertainhe could surviveeasily,but stillwouldn'twant to drink soeasily.
The poison got stronger and stronger and stronger until someone asked for more than they could handle.
The man grabbed his throat, choking as the poison affected him more than his physique could fight it. He floundered in the air, trying to get to something, anything.
The mandidn'tpull out any anti-poison pills to eat. How could one be so stupid asto not carry one?
However, Alexdidn'tblame the person right away.It could be thathis spirit hadbeen hurtandhewasn'tthinking right.
"Someone should feed him a pillright?"Tai Guidao asked from the side, with an awkward lookon his face.
Alex looked at the elders."They… should,shouldn'tthey?"he thought.It was indeed in the rules thata disciplewasn'tto help another disciple who was dying of poison, but thatdidn'tmention the elderswouldn'thelp that person.
Only, as Alex and Tai Guidao watched, everyone in the sect stood still, unmoving, as the man succumbed to the poison and died. He fell from the sky in the middle of the valley, next to a group of students who only watched his lifeless body and did nothing.
An elder flew from the side and took away the deaddisciple'sbody. Once they were gone, the other elderssimplycalled out the next set of names and continued the assembly.
"What in the hell was that?"Tai Guidao asked himself softly."Aren'tcultivators in sects supposed to have more camaraderie?Weren'tthey supposed to help each other live, grow, and prosper? They always made it seem like being a rogue cultivator was bad, but this is just…what the fuck even is this?"
"They said they would not help if we were dying to poison when they first accepted me to the sect,"Alex said."It appears that was no exaggeration. They would rather let a disciple die than save him just because he overestimated hisbody'scapability to defend against poison."
"It is so fucked up,"Tai Guidao said."Brother Dawnblade, if we want to survive, we should never try to overreach how much we can handle, okay? We shouldjusttake the minimum poison and enjoy our time in the sect."
Alex slowly nodded and said nothing.
Another person died from poison around ranking 400, but everything after that wentexactlyas one would expect. There were some upsets in the rankings, but they were nearlynot importantenough to make Alex care.
Once the final person withstood a poison that no other had dared take before him, the Poison Assembly was finally over.
"Your rankings will be updated tomorrow,"one of the elders said."For now, you are all dismissed."
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