As Li Feng practiced his techniques and cultivated using his Spirit gathering formation, soon the time for the quarterly evaluation arrived. All the disciples who needed to go through this evaluation were informed about it through their disciple tokens.
For this evaluation, Li Feng needed to visit the large training ground of the technique hall. Normally Foundation Establishment Realm elders were responsible for this evaluation but with the duel around the corner, this time a golden core realm elder would be present during the evaluation as an overseer.
This was actually an exciting news for the disciples. With the presence of the golden core realm elder, their was a chance that if the elder found any of the disciple to be worthy, they could join the inner court early and could even be taken in as a personal disciple of the elder.
In the Blood Sea sect, both golden core and foundation establishment realm cultivators shared the same title of elder. But the difference between their actual status was like day and night. Foundation establishment realm cultivator were still considered to be a disciple of the sect and did not have much authority. Only if they managed to reach the golden core realm, they would be able to gain the authority associated with the elder title.
As for the reason why foundation establishment realm weaklings were even getting the title of elder, the reason for this dated back to the founding of the Blood Sea sect. At the beginning, when the founder of the Blood Sea sect established the sect, he was only in the foundation establishment realm. He had discovered the powerful Malevolent Blood Art and he established this sect with that cultivation technique as the core.
During that time, he had written down some founding rules. One of the rule was anyone with cultivation level above the foundation establishment realm would get the title of elder. This rule was created by the founder to make his Qi gathering relam disciples more enthusiastic about cultivation.
But now that the Blood Sea sect had grown and the foundation establishment realm was not the peak of the sect strength anymore, this rule had became outdated. But changing a rule made the founder himself was not something that could be easily done. So still now, Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators were getting the title of elder in the sect. But they were not given any authority related to the title, so the title was practically useless.
...
Li Feng went to the training ground of the technique hall alone and did not bring Yue with him. That was because there would be a golden core realm cultivator here and bringing Yue would be extremely dangerous.
After reaching the training ground, Li Feng saw that quite a few disciples were present here. Not all the outer sect disciples would be evaluated at the same day, so only a portion of them were called here on that day. But still the number was very high. The mine incident had not really affected the lowest echelon of the sect in any meaningful way.
Li Feng did not attract any attention as one of the youngest cultivator present here. He silently started waiting for the evaluation to begin while standing in a corner. While doing that he was also listening to what the disciples were discussing about.
Some of their conversation did attracted his attention. They speculating about which true elder might come to evaluate them. Depending on the mood and the temperament of the elder, this evaluation might turn out to either be very easy or very hard.
Li Feng also learnt that in an evaluation that happened two days ago, an elder named "Poison Blood" came to oversee it. 70 percent of the disciples failed the evaluation that day and were killed by that elder. The blood essence of those disciples were given to his personal disciples of various realms. This was a frightening news for the disciples present here and at the same time they were also jealous that his personal disciples were able to enjoy so much blood essence without doing anything.
While hearing those discussion, Li Feng did not feel bored at all during waiting. Then suddenly a powerful pressure appeared in the training ground and immediately all the disciples stopped chattering. Then suddenly a geyser of blood erupted from the ground and took the shape of an old man. The blood that came out looked like black sludge and was extremely disgusting. By this Li Feng was able to recognise the elder who would be overseeing the evaluation on this day. It was none other than elder "Filthy Blood".
While advancing to the golden core realm, cultivators practicing the Malevolent Blood Art could pratice a secret technique to add special feature to their blood. By adding those special features, one would have a higher combat strength after reaching the golden core realm. So most of the golden core elders had practiced that technique. And the feature this Filthy Blood elder had added to his blood was related to corruption and corrosion. That was why his blood was like that.
In the conversation of the disciples, the name of this elder had came up a few times. His reputation among the disciples was not too good or too bad. He was actually one of the stronger elder with a high authority and he had no interest in anyone who was weaker than him.
That was both a good thing and a bad thing. As he was not interested in any of the disciples, he did not kill them wantonly. But at the same time, if his mood was bad, he could also just casually kill a few disciples without any reason. So he was like a double edge sword.
After elder Filthy Blood, seven foundation establishment realm disciples also appeared one after another. Those disciples were the one who would be doing the actual evaluation and elder Filthy Blood was here to oversee everything from a higher position.
All those foundation establishment realm cultivator were giving off quite a frightening aura that made the outer sect disciples to shiver in fear. Their lives were in those foundation establishment realm elders' hands. Specially for the disciples whose cultivation speed was subpar. If the foundation establishment realm elders wanted, they could fail them even if they were slightly above the passing line.
With a tense and fearful atmosphere feeling the place, the evaluation finally started.