novelraw Chapter 987: Testing Their Tolerance
Chapter 987: Testing Their Tolerance
The moment the talisman was activated, a loud sound was heard.
BOOM!
Blood exploded.
The stronger disciple lost half her body.
The crowd screamed.
Han Yu forced the disciple to laugh wildly.
"You think talent means everything!?"
"You all deserve death!"
An elder descended immediately.
The disciple exploded into blood mist under a palm strike.
Han Yu had already left.
Another death.
Another promising seed removed.
He kept going.
Not constantly, but carefully and methodically. Sometimes he waited until victory was declared. Sometimes he struck during battle. Once he even used a disciple to suddenly turn and attack the overseeing elder after killing the opponent.
That one shocked everyone.
The disciple never reached the elder.
He died halfway there.
Yet the fact he even attempted it caused uproar.
"What is happening!?"
"Are they insane!?"
"Did someone poison them?"
"Why are people suddenly acting like this?"
Whispers spread.
Outer disciples became nervous.
The elders frowned increasingly.
Meanwhile Han Yu continued.
One talented disciple after another disappeared.
Rising stars.
Promising seeds.
People with potential.
People the sect valued.
They died.
And when the first day finally ended, the tally appeared: One hundred and six deaths.
The entire tournament grounds became silent.
Even Han Yu raised his brows slightly.
It exceeded even his estimate.
Normally five to ten percent died through the entire assessment. Today alone nearly twenty percent of participants had died.
The elders looked ugly.
Peak heads gathered.
Discussions started immediately.
Something felt wrong.
The deaths were scattered across every ring.
Every district.
No single elder.
No single arena.
No common factor.
Some disciples whispered nervously.
"Everyone is desperate this time..."
"Too desperate..."
"No..."
"This feels strange..."
The sect reacted quickly.
The Blood Sect had survived hundreds of thousands of years. Their intelligence network moved immediately and every offending disciple was investigated.
Backgrounds.
Associates.
Enemies.
Recent purchases.
Cultivation methods.
Poison usage.
Everything.
Some indeed had problems.
Old grudges.
Jealousy.
Disputes.
But most looked completely ordinary.
No shared connection existed.
No clues.
Day two began.
Han Yu watched and he barely acted.
Only a few deaths happened.
Two percent.
People relaxed slightly.
Perhaps everyone had simply become more cautious.
Day three arrived.
Deaths rose again.
Six percent.
Still acceptable.
Still within normal ranges.
The elders remained wary but continued.
Then came day four.
Han Yu struck again.
Hard.
He moved between rings like a ghost.
Possessing.
Killing.
Leaving.
Talented disciples fell one after another. Some died from sudden betrayal. Others died through hidden methods. A few were directly executed after victory.
By sunset... Another hundred promising disciples were dead.
This time panic spread openly.
The overseeing elders finally admitted it, something was happening. And emergency investigations began.
Poison Hall joined.
Curse Peak joined.
Soul specialists joined.
Formation Masters joined.
Bodies were dissected.
Meridians checked.
Soul remnants analyzed.
Everything.
Nothing.
No poison.
No curse.
No foreign influence.
No charm.
No trace.
The Blood Sect knew many ways to make disciples violent.
Blood frenzy pills.
Madness poisons.
Possession curses.
Emotion manipulation.
They checked all of them yet nothing matched. Several disciples indeed carried enhancement pills. Temporary blood arts. Strength boosting methods.
But all of that was normal, all expected.
The corpses themselves showed nothing.
Han Yu watched all this from his pavilion.
He almost laughed.
Of course they found nothing.
They were searching bodies.
The killer had never remained inside.
Days passed.
The assessment continued.
The death count climbed steadily.
Outer disciples kept falling.
And when week one ended and half the Outer Court division had completed their matches, the statistics finally arrived.
Twenty two percent dead.
Silence filled the elders’ meeting hall.
Even ancient records failed to show such losses.
Peak heads looked grim.
The atmosphere within the sect changed.
Fear spread.
Outer disciples stopped celebrating victories, people watched opponents suspiciously. Friends avoided each other and some refused to eat together. Some checked their food repeatedly while others bought talismans.
Protective charms.
Healing pills.
The Narcissus Mirrors exploded with gossip.
"Did you hear?"
"They say someone is controlling disciples!"
"No way."
"Then explain the deaths!"
"My mirror says there might be hidden curses!"
"My mirror says it could be ancient resentment!"
Han Yu almost laughed hearing that.
The mirrors were helping spread chaos on their own now.
Meanwhile...
The elders gathered and even High Elders joined the discussions.
Emergency measures were proposed.
Increase surveillance.
Add soul inspections.
Monitor disciples before entering arenas.
Place additional healers nearby.
Everyone agreed something had to change.
The question was simple.
What?
The Blood Sect had never faced this.
Not once.
And now...
Every elder had to face reality.
Twenty two percent.
Not through war.
Not through invasion.
Not through catastrophe.
Through their own disciples.
Within the tournament itself.
Han Yu sat alone in his pavilion watching the crimson sky outside.
The tournament grounds remained active below.
Screams.
Cheers.
Blood.
The usual sounds of the Blood Sect.
Yet now fear existed too.
He looked toward the arenas again.
His expression remained calm.
Inside however...
He smiled.
They were finally feeling it.
The first crack.
And he had barely begun.
The Outer Court division finally came to an end after several more days.
The last fights finished beneath skies stained red by the Bleeding Moon while elders announced the surviving disciples and rankings. Normally this would have been a time of celebration.
Victors would receive rewards, promising disciples would gain attention, and elders would begin competing over which disciples to recruit. This time none of that happened. Instead, the tournament grounds felt heavy.
No cheers.
No excitement.
Only silence and suspicion.
Far too many disciples had died.
And worse, almost all of them had been talented.
The losses hurt.
The elders felt it more than anyone.
Some among the dead had been people they intended to recruit personally after the assessment. Others had already been placed on observation lists years ago. Future Inner Court members. Future Core Disciples. Potential elders.
All gone.
Several elders looked as though their hearts were bleeding.
For some, it truly was.
A handful of the dead disciples had been their descendants.
Children.
Grandchildren.
Family branches they had raised personally.