Death... and me

Cassia had done this recruitment many, many times. She obviously paid a lot of attention to the numbers as it went forward. "22539 doesn't fit. Shouldn't there be another extra four? There's supposed to be 22543 people that haven't arrived in the Soul Eater Sect instead."

It was then that the reason why the subordinate seemed to have a conflicted expression came. "Those four...seemed to have exited the barrier and are heading back to our Huring Sacred Land at this very moment. They... opened a hole in the seal."

Cassia's expression finally changed after that. She immediately grabbed the guy and asked with a cold voice, "What did you say? How come no one told me that before?"

The subordinate then explained with a scared expression, "It's because we were only collecting the information about their positions. We weren't looking at each one of them individually as there were just too many of them. The only ones we paid close attention to were the groups far ahead in the Soul Eater Sect."

He continued, "However, a few hours ago, we noticed that four cultivators suddenly disappeared. We had to use the tokens they had with them to finally find out where they had gone. We thought that it was some mistake and had some members check it. When they arrived in the place these four used to escape, they saw the sealed barrier repairing itself but had some difficulty in doing it."

Cassia found it ridiculous. "That's impossible! Do you know the level of the seal we used there? Youngsters at their level shouldn't even dream about being able to open a hole in it."

"We thought about it as well," the subordinate clarified. "That's why we took this long to report. We were investigating if they had received help from some high-level cultivator from outside."

Cassia finally let the subordinate go as she had to admit he made sense. "So, who was it? I want the guy or girl in front of me immediately! I'll show them what happens to those who try to intervene in our Sacred Land's recruitment process. Do they think they can get by without us finding out? Ha! I'll skin those four cultivators and their helper alive!"

Unfortunately, the subordinate's expression turned even weirder as he answered, "The fact is... no one helped them. They really used their own abilities to open up a hole and escape."

Cassia felt like a bomb dropped on her head. "You must be kidding!"

"I wish I was," the guy could not help but say. "We already concluded the investigation. There was absolutely no one there to help them."

Cassia pondered in silence for a bit before saying, "Then, they must have brought some item that could do such a job. The problem is that there were no rules about it."

"That's not it either. They truly used their own cultivation to do that. Well, to be more specific, one of them did as the other three just watched."

Cassia found it even harder to believe. However, the subordinate still had to ask. "What should we do in this case? The whole idea of this test was to leave the Yin Death Zone Alive however the participants saw fit. It's just we never thought someone would find a different way than the teleport formation we prepared for them. Should we disqualify them?"

Cassia immediately shook her head in response. "What do you want? To make a joke of our faces? If what you're saying is true, then we have no right to do anything to them. We were the ones to come up with this test, and they managed to accomplish its objective."

For some reason, Cassia's anger disappeared after saying that. "Hey, now that I think about it, isn't it quite interesting? I was hoping for something different to happen, just like it did in the first test with those weird twins. It seems like we have even more interesting people this time around. The Huring Country disciples will feel quite ashamed to see that some other countries were ahead of them. Perhaps this isn't a bad result at all. It goes to show that they aren't invincible."

"By the way, who are the cultivators who succeeded in doing that? Don't let them make it all the way back on their own. Send one of our experts to bring them here straight away as I want to ask them how they opened the barrier. I want those four, especially the one who destroyed the barrier, in front of me in at most one hour." Cassia was quite happy to see that happen.

"This..." However, the subordinate couldn't help but scratch the back of his head after hearing that. "It's exactly those twins who are part of that four-person group. To be more specific, it was the black-haired Dark Element Affinity youngster that opened the barrier."

Cassia was taken aback. "Really?"

"Really!"

Cassia then thought about something. "Alright, bring them here anyway. If they travel to the nearest teleport formation, it will still take them a whole week to arrive. There aren't any active countries near the Yin Death Zone, after all. By the way, are they all from the same country?

"No. The twins and a girl are from the Kamos Kingdom. But the fourth member of their group is from the Apocal Country."

Cassia nodded after that. "Alright, you can go."

As soon as the subordinate left to carry the order, Cassia turned around and clapped her hand. She also used Divine Energy so that the sound would reach all the people watching the second test. "Congratulations! We have our first batch of cultivators out of the Yin Death Zone."

Immediately, the room went into an uproar. After all, everyone was watching the battles that were going on.

"The Huring Country was the furthest group ahead, right?"

"That they were."

"It must be them."

"Or maybe some of the other strong countries."

"Indeed."

However, Cassia raised her hand to make everyone stop talking. "Kamos Kingdom's Rean, Roan, and Milina, and Apocal Country's Julian. May the ones responsible for them come forward."

Fabio and the elders watching Julian felt a chill on their back. 'Sure enough, it had to be them,' they all thought.