Number 702 was in shock as he continued to monitor the changes happening within himself.
He thought, 'I wonder what would happen if I try to make contact with that broken sword. Would it try to kill me...?'
Number 702 gulped as he tried to move the sword out of his heart.
But unfortunately, it was to no avail.
No matter how much he tried to contact the sword, it refused to respond or budge from his prompts.
He was extremely inexperienced in the matters of cultivation, but Number 702 wasn't stupid.
What he went through before he was forced into the Cult Of The Heavenly Demon had caused his mind to mature a few years ahead of his current age.
So he knew that he should keep his mouth shut about this, even if the blade in his heart ends up killing him.
'At least that would be better than dying to the greed of others. Just like...'
Number 702 stopped himself as the memories of the past flooded his mind.
"Tch."
This wasn't the time for that. He shook his head rapidly in an effort to push those memories to the corner of his mind.
There were currently more important things to focus on.
Like getting some sleep so he would be ready for tomorrow's training.
'I'll figure out whats going on with this broken sword later. For now...'
Number 702 closed his eyes and fell into an extremely deep sleep, the likes of which had never happened before.
That's when a certain dream started to occur.
In this dream, Number 702 saw a figure floating alone in a world of darkness.
The figure was haggard looking and his skin was pale white, almost to the point of being grey. There was an almost dead look in his red eyes that tried to pierce through the strands of his flowing white hair.
Number 702 could see that he was clearly waiting for something.
In a few moments, several enormous figures, the likes of which Number 702 couldn't even fathom, appeared in the void, each of them covered in blindly bright light.
After a short exchange of words, the scene suddenly erupted in a ferocious battle!
As Number 702 watched on, for some reason, he could not take his eyes off of the man with white hair. He wielded his pitch black sword with such power and ruthlessness that it was awe-inspiring.
"Watch...and learn, Wu Han. This is how a King should fight."
This mysterious voice assasiled the mind of Number 702, whose real name was Wu Han.
He shuddered at it's words but there was a growing part of him that wanted to be just like the man fighting those powerful beings that could destroy the stars with the slightest thought.
His sword took their heads off with incredible power and swiftness.
'How could one man be so powerful...'
Wu Han watched in wonder as the battle came to an end, resulting in the enormous beings retreating.
Suddenly, the battle skipped back to the moment it was about to begin, and again, Wu Han felt like he could not take his eyes off of the man's movements.
This process continued over and over again for what seemed to be an eternity.
And all Wu Han could do was stand there and imprint those moves onto his mind.
As time went on...
"Ahh!"
Wu Han suddenly sprang up from his bed with a shout.
"Did I miss morning training?"
Wu Han felt like he had been asleep so long that time had rapidly passed by.
And if he missed morning training...
Gulp!
Wu Han could imagine the faces of the instructors when they would come to find him.
But, when Wu Han heard the voices and footsteps going past his door, his worries were quickly dispelled. From the looks of it, they were just going out to morning training.
He had woken up just in time.
"Sigh..."
Wu Han picked up his shirt from yesterday to put it on, but unfortunately, it was still wet. Even his pants still feel soaked.
What made it worse was that these were his only pieces of clothing. Now that they were out of comission, he had nothing else to wear.
As he was racking his brain, trying to figure out what to do, black goo suddenly burst out of his skin and wrapped around his body.
"What the!"
Before he could even do anything, it formed a black sleeveless Gi over him, complete with a belt that had red dragons on the ends of it, black bandages around his forearms and martial arts shoes.
These events continued to shock him one after the other.
"Number 702!"
Wu Hans door was suddenly thrown open as a young girl wearing yellow clothing appeared. She looked frail, but she still carried a bit of an aura to her.
She was Number 405, a member of the cave with much higher talent than Wu Han. He could faintly remember that when he had passed out before, she was the only one who was worried about him, even though she could get into trouble for doing so.
Wu Han quickly composed himself and responded with an awkward smile, "405, i was just about to leave."
She quickly walked up to him, grabbed his wrist and started dragging him outside.
"Don't be late, 702. You know the instructors are going to be paying attention to you. Are you feeling better?"
Wu Han freed his arm from her grips and nodded.
"I feel great. Let's go get training over with."
She smiled as she nodded her head and the two headed out to the field with everyone else.
Or so it seemed.
"GET UP! ALL STUDENTS ASSEMBLE, I REPEAT, ASSEMBLE!!!"
That's when they heard the drums being beat from inside the conference halls.
The two looked at each other and immediately raced into the hall, wondering what could be happening now.
When the two arrived, the instructors wete standing on the stage made of rock above them, looking down on everyone else coming in.
A few minutes later, when people stopped coming in, the instructor in the middle of the stage clasped his hands behind his back and said, "Looks like you're all here. I hope you've all had a nice rest."
With a snap of his fingers, he continued, "We will increase the intensity of your training starting from today."
At those words, another instructor appeared with a dark brown sack and threw it on the ground, causing the floor to fissure.
Some metal objects then rolled out of the bag.
"Each of these metal bracers weigh 7.5kg. Each of you will come forward and take these...4 per person. Starting today, you will live with these bracers on your arms and legs.
Most of the kids shuddered or shed a few tears when they heard this. They knew it was going to be rough.
Wu Han was a little bit surprised, but fear could not grip his heart. After what he experienced in his dream the night before, things like this couldn't shake him anymore.
"All of you hurry up and come get your bracers! I will give you four hours, climb the mountain and retrieve a flag. Those who fail shall not have breakfast."
[Cult Of Heavenly Demon, Shiwan Mountain Range]
Wu Han raced up the mountain with incredible speed, maneuvering through the shrubbery with great nimbleness.
"I thought these bracers would be heavier..."
Wu Han barely spent any stamina at all to get up the mountain and grab a flag.
It was all too easy.
'Both that shattered blade and this black liquid thing are responsible for this. I wonder what they can really do.'
As Wu Han raced down the mountain ,passing his shocked peers, one of them suddenly appeared from behind a tree, blocking his path.
"Number 702 huh? Damn weakling. Drop the flag and go. Trash like you doesn't belong in this cult."
Wu Han clenched his fists as he heard this guy's words.
He had seen this guy around before. One of many notorious bullies within the cave. He wasn't particularly special in any capacity, he just liked preying on those he thought weaker than himself.
Wu Han, still lacking understanding of what he was becoming, wanted to avoid the fight and tried to go around the larger child.
There was a certain timidness that was instilled within him when he was younger. He was not one to quickly cause a fight.
Unfortunately, the kid already made up his mind to take the flag from him.
"So you're trying to run away, huh? Give me that damn flag!"
The child charged at him with gritted teeth and clenched fists.
Wu Han was sure that if he wanted to run away, the child couldn't stop him. But there something stopping him from doing so.
A feeling, coming from deep within his soul that wasn't going to allow him to leave this battle.
"Tch."
Wu Han clenched the flag pole in his fists and slashed it across the neck of the child with incredible speed as he approached him.
TWACKK!!
If Wu Han could see what he just did, he would immediately see the familiarities between himself and the man he saw in his dreams.
"AGHHHH!"
The child was sent flying through the bushes and stopped about 100 meters away.
There was no movement or sound after that intial scream he made.
Wu Han shuddered to think about the fact he had might have just killed someone. He didn't mean to, his strength was just out of his estimation.
'Since when have I been so strong...'
Wu Han wanted to go check on him, but his heart would not allow him to. He was sure that the child would have put him in a similar position if he could after taking the flag from him.
"Hopefully, you're still alive so you could learn from this lesson."
With those parting words left in the wind, Wu Han hardened his heart and made his way down the mountain.
Unbeknownst to him though, an instructor had seen the entire ordeal from a hidden corner.
"Number 702, he's changed. If he was using a blade instead of a pole, Number 215 would've been beheaded on the spot...'He' needs to know about this change."