Looking at the rock in front of him, Raze couldn't see any visible markings. His Qi didn't affect where he had hit like the others, so at that point, he thought he had already failed.
It didn't matter to him though; one person getting through into the Lethal Bite Clan was enough. They could just carry on as they were doing, and Raze could help the investigation in other ways.
Which was why it had come as a surprise to him when he had heard the words pass. "I passed?" Raze asked with a raised eyebrow.
Noticing that the clan members were looking at something from behind the rock, he was ready to go take a peek, but before he could, one of the clan members stopped him.
"You have successfully passed, so please go ahead and join the others before the explanation is over, otherwise the leader will get disappointed."
It wasn't too much of a big deal, so Raze went off and joined the others. The head assessor was a little shocked to see someone else come and join, but he had already had several surprises, so he just kept his anger in and explained the last few details.
Back at the rock, one of the clan members moved over and started to inspect the rock more.
"How can something like this occur, were both of the rocks we gathered damaged in some way?"
"If you ask me, I think both of the rocks were in good condition," Bargo finally got out of his seat and moved over to also have a closer look at the rock.
"The first one, the way it was smashed, it was as if it had been hit by a mass amount. Did you see the way it shattered? That means that the attack was almost purely a physical one and didn't use Qi," Bargo explained.
"A physical attack that can destroy a boulder, then are they at the middle stage?"
After each stage, one's body would improve tremendously regardless of Qi, due to the impurities that would come out of one's body. Longer lifespan, greater strength, greater speed. This was even the case at the lower levels.
To destroy a whole rock, they could only assume this is the case.
"There are some clan techniques that focus on strengthening the outside of the body in different ways," Bargo explained. "It is possible that they are from one of these clans. Even in our factions, there are hidden sects and clans that decide to hide themselves away from the troubles of factions.
"We see them enter the world once in a while. What I'm more interested in though, was the person that had just passed."
Bargo moved to take a look at the other side, and as he expected, there was no marking from the fist that was used.
"I'm not even sure if that person themselves knew what they had just done. The Qi was so finely condensed that it shot out through the rock, allowing next to none of it to be absorbed and then exploding upon the exit.
"The Qi, to be condensed to that level, I'm not sure it's even something that I can do," Bargo stated. "To do this, one's Qi control has to be at an extremely high level, and the strangest thing is… I can tell that young man isn't a middle stage warrior."
The details of the event had been explained to all of the participants, and Raze had only gotten the tail end of the rules of the assessment.
It didn't matter since it was fairly simple. Each one of them would just fight against an official clan member, and the member would determine whether or not they had passed.
"I will go first," Anna volunteered herself.
She stepped into the center of the sand, and when she had done so, the head assessor looked back at the rest of the clan members, looking for someone to step up, but no one seemed keen to.
They were a bit worried about what might happen to their bodies.
"Come on, how can you call yourselves clan members of a top-ranking clan!" The assessor shouted at them. "We know that the rock was damaged. You just need to display your skills."
Eventually, after hearing those words, one of the clan members went forward, drawing out a sword.
"I will take her on," the man said, taking a fighting stance.
Anna then went ahead and from the rack toward the back, she also pulled out a sword as well.
The fight was about to start, and Raze couldn't help feeling nervous himself.
'Wait a moment, if she is all about completing the task, right now she's going to think to pass, she needs to win, and to do that, she might just go ahead and kill the guy!' Raze thought.
With this thought in his head, Raze thought it might be best if he interfered with the fight with a little of his wind magic, just in case things got out of hand.
The fight had begun, and the Lethal Bite Clan member started to swing his sword about. He was using his Qi and using techniques that were known to the clan.
In response to this, Anna swung her sword as well, and was matching the hits, deflecting each of them as they came towards her.
From the outside view, it all looked a bit strange because although she was deflecting each hit, it looked sloppy in the way, as if she was being overwhelmed.
Then finally, the clan member got in close and used a fist technique. He twisted it through the air, and the hit had narrowly missed her head as she moved out of the way.
'I wonder, although she isn't showing them up, will they pass her just on these aspects.'
It was at that point though, after the punch was thrown, that things completely changed around. The sword techniques that were continued to be used, she was now stopping them completely, but it wasn't just that; the clan members started to notice something else as well.
"Is she… using the same techniques... but how is that possible? She wasn't doing this before, and she's not a member of the Lethal Bite Clan."
For the member taking part in the assessment, it was as if he was fighting against a mirror. At that point, she then started to ready her fist, and it was in the same position as the clan member had done before.
Images flashed through his head as he saw the fist of what had happened to the rock, and before it was thrown out, he panicked.
"Pass… you pass, you are an official member of the Lethal Bite Clan," the Clan member said.
"What!" The head assessor slammed his foot into the ground. He couldn't believe it. To him, who was watching, sure, it looked like the woman was getting into her stride, but she wasn't overwhelming the other person.
He was hoping that the Clan member would kick it up a notch and show them the Lethal Bite Clan's strength, but instead, he had claimed it as a pass.
"The position is just for a guard, and not for an official member," the Clan member stated. "So, I have assessed that it is enough for a pass."
These words allowed him to get away, as the assessor couldn't say much.
"Fine, then go ahead with the next fight."
One of the other wanderers who had passed stepped forward, while Anna had come back to where the others were, and now they were watching the next fight take place.
"I thought you were going to completely overwhelm and beat him," Raze commented.
"If I did that, there is a chance that they could just deny me due to jealousy. I could read the looks on their faces. Analyzing their facial reactions, the head assessor seems to want to fail us at any chance he can get.
"So I thought it was best not to give them a reason to, and displaying their own skills against them was the best option."
Anna was simply amazing. Raze, even himself, wouldn't be able to just copy skills after seeing them. He would have to at least study them in detail.
But out of that sentence, there was something that stuck out.
"You can analyze facial expressions?" He asked. "So you know what they are feeling."
"That is correct, I can confirm with 98 percent certainty at times how one is feeling, and I can also tell if someone is lying," Anna said, looking straight at Raze.
