Death... and me

"Alright, next!" Rean called out with a smile as a disciple fell to the ground. All the elders who wanted to fight Rean already did so before the first day was even over. After that, the disciples fought between themselves to see who would come up next. Fortunately, by the time Rean finished with someone, the next one was ready to go to the arena.

Well, the next one couldn't help but make Rean feel a little surprised. He knew that girl since she was one of the very first people to be recruited to the sect, a kid called Ophilia. She was one of the kids that Luan found in the city where the first recruitment happened. By now, she was already seven years old. It's just that with the sect's cultivation environment, her cultivation at the Initial Stage of Foundation Establishment had already increased to the Initial Stage of Core Formation. It wasn't that bad since she was a kid, but nothing that impressive either. Hage also went an entire realm up in the same time while his cultivation was much higher, after all.

"That's weird. How come the others let you come up to the arena, Ophilia? You shouldn't have the strength to do that," Rean could not help but ask.

Rean then looked around and could see several unsatisfied expressions. Only then did he understand and laugh out loud. "Hahaha! While you were all fighting to see who would come to the arena, this kid slipped here while you held each other back."

"That's not funny!" Someone immediately complained.

"Yeah, look at me! I'm all injured, and I still haven't got a chance to fight you, Sect Master." Another one wasn't happy either.

"You should tell her to come down!"

"Yeah, this isn't fair."

"She simply used the fact no one would pay attention to a kid to get there."

Rean shrugged his shoulders, saying, "How someone got into the arena doesn't matter. All I said was that you had to decide for yourselves. Since she got here, she's obviously worth taking this test."

Rean then looked at the girl, who held a wooden sword, just like himself. "Don't you have an iron sword or something better, Ophilia? Uncle Rean won't mind if you use them against me."

Ophilia quickly shook her head with a determined expression. "That's not fair to uncle Rean. Ophilia will never take advantage of others. Uncle Rean is also restraining his own cultivation in order to be on equal terms with the disciples."

Rean just smiled and didn't complain. In any case, he would talk to Hage later about her personality. As mentioned before, the sect wasn't a place for goody-two-shoes. She had to take any advantage when it was presented. That's why Rean and Roan also recruited a lot of cunning people. "Alright, then. However, do you understand why I'm fighting in the arena against everyone?"

Ophilia nodded, saying, "To help everyone understand sword intent."

"That's correct," Rean agreed with her. "Since it seems like you understand, I won't wait anymore. Uncle Rean will reduce his cultivation to match yours now, and then we'll start. If you have been following Archdevil Roan's training schedule, you should be able to exchange a few good moves with me."

Rean's cultivation was then restrained in output to match Ophilia. After that, he pointed his wooden sword at her and summoned his sword intent before attacking. Well, although he was attacking, he wasn't putting much strength behind it. After all, sword intent alone would already be very dangerous if not controlled well.

Just like Roan's sword, Rean's sword also changed into an ethereal form of sorts. It's just that it was a lot fainter since he was holding back as much as he could to not injure Ophilia too much.

However, just as his sword was about to connect with Ophilia's, the little girl's eyes lit up as her own wooden sword shone with the same energy as Rean's. Her wooden sword's ethereal form was even fainter than Rean's, not reaching even a tenth of Rean's power. Not to mention that Rean could see it flickering. Plus, that was already considering that Rean was holding back everything he could. Nevertheless, one thing was sure...

'Sword intent!'

Rean was shocked to see Ophilia's sword showing the power of sword intent... or a kind of it. 'No, this is just the first step. She can't understand it very well, so her sword is flickering between sword intent form and its own normal form.'

Rean was deeply moved to see a kid understanding sword intent. Ophilia didn't have any special talent at all. Yellow Color Talent, Water Element Affinity with just five small orbs lit, and slightly above average cultivation speed. But even with that, she was the first one in the entire sect other than the twins to start understanding sword intent. 'This is fine. Once you reach this level of sword intent, there's no holding back anymore. The hardest hurdle is to reach this first stage, which Roan called the Sword Intent Seed.'

Roan had explained to everyone in the main field before. When trying to understand weapon intent, the first step is to give birth to its seed. A kind of initial power that will grow into the real deal. According to Roan, there were several levels of Sword Intent, and he believed himself to be at the third level, the same as Rean. What Ophilia had just touched upon was the Sword Intent Seed.

The second stage of sword intent or any other weapon intent was called Stable Ethereality. That was the level Rean was using at the moment since he couldn't reduce his sword intent's power to the seed level anymore.

Then, the third level of sword intent was the Call of the Weapons. It was the level Roan used in his fight against Luan. It could influence all the other swords in the vicinity and even take some of their powers to oneself. It could even make it difficult for the opponent to control their own weapon if it was the same type.

*Clang!*

Rean and Ophilia's sword collided before Ophilia's sword was forced to the ground. Nevertheless, the girl refused to let it go until...

*Tud*

Rean used one finger to knock Ophilia's forehead.

*Ouch!*

Only then did Ophilia let her wooden sword go.