So they had a decision to make. On one side was failing the test and being eliminated, while on the other side was subjecting themselves to a very painful process.
This decision should have been very easy for them. After all, short-term pain is objectively better than being eliminated. But the sight of their peers writhing on the ground in agony and screaming in pain made the short-term pain appear too much to bear.
There was no blood to be seen thanks to the effort of the healer who stopped the bleeding, but the agony was plain to see. The visible agony even made them feel second-hand pain, so they were reluctant to step forward to experience the first-hand pain.
But no matter what they thought, everyone became inclined to go through the pain just because Slav stepped forward to have his limbs cut a little at a time.
The fact that Slav was willing to subject himself to so much pain was impactful because Slav was already the best in terms of cultivation. So there was no need for Slav to worry about being eliminated.
Despite the lack of danger, Slav still allowed his limbs to be cut. If Slav was willing to go through the painful process, then they had no right to be picky.
Loki also went through the training. He went before Slav, but his decision to suffer didn't elicit much response from his peers because he was unremarkable.
Despite how powerful his mind already was and despite all the pain he had gone through in his life, this process was still very painful. He roared in pain and cried until his face was full of snort just like everyone else.
The only silver lining was that Slav also cried. In fact, Slav cried worse than everyone else. His pain made Loki amused, which made his suffering a little bit more tolerable.
Slav even cried for his mother. He clutched his amputated arm as he cried out, saying, "My mummy."
The poor boy gave up very early in the dismemberment. Part of the reason for giving up early was the pain. The other part was the embarrassment of calling for his mummy.
He quickly asked for his arm to be healed. Then he ran out of the class as if his house was on fire and he needed to put out the fire.
As Loki watched him go, he thought to himself with some amusement, "He is just a boy after all. He has also been sheltered all of his life and has never experienced pain. So one shouldn't expect much pain tolerance from him."
Slav's current behavior seems so weak in comparison to that of his father and two elder brothers. But when Loki thought about what had happened yesterday and how Tommy had ripped him off, he became solemn and stopped underestimating Slav.
He said to himself, "If everyone in the sect went through this initiation program, it would explain why they are nonchalant about human life. After all, if they can do something so inhumane to themselves, there is no reason to hold back from doing it to others."
"In fact, they will be more willing to subject others to anything that will benefit them and make them more powerful, just so that someone more powerful won't subject them to something more painful."
"If Slav can withstand this process, then it is to be expected that he will become a predator like his father and elder brothers. I might not be able to contend with Slav in terms of background and connections, but there is no way that I can let him beat me in terms of tolerance to pain."
He snorted to himself and said, "If such a thing can happen and if a rich young master can even beat me in pain tolerance, then my years of suffering as a slave must have been in vain."
He was in pain like everyone else, but he was perhaps the only one who still had the presence of mind to scheme and worry about how others were doing.
For the rest of the class, the pain was just too much to think about anything else. The pain was all they could think about. Only he could become distracted with schemes. This is something that sets him apart from others.
Muni noticed his occasional absentmindedness, so his eyes gleamed and he muttered to himself, saying, "Interesting."
For the rest of the month, Muni did terrible things to them. He practically treated them as a slab of cheap meat because not only did he cut them, but he didn't care how he cut them at all.
His only concern was to keep them alive. As for anything else, that was for the initiates to worry about.
For the second month of initiation, all Muni did was torture them. He went from cutting their limbs to skinning them. Then he switched to sticking needles into their body.
The needles were called fire ant needles. This is because they secrete a potent toxin that causes a pain so severe that a single needle is capable of making the subject feel as if they are being bitten by fire ants all over their body.
He cut their limbs in the first week of the second month. Then he skinned them and tortured them with fire ant needles in the second and third weeks, respectively. For the fourth week, he lashed them with his whip into a bloody mess.
Muni didn't care much for the first three means of torturing them. But he quite liked whipping them. This was clear by the looks of disappointment when anyone quit.
He didn't care if someone refused to undergo more skinning. But his face would turn into an ugly scowl whenever someone refused to let him continue to beat them.
He took great pleasure in watching their skin explode under the ministrations of his whip, so he performed the act with a little too much enthusiasm. The repercussion of this was that the whipping was too painful, so many people quit.