The young monk was struck with disbelief as he heard those words come from Tyr’s mouth.

With a gaped maw, he stepped back instinctively in surprise. At that moment, he felt his back rub against something solid.

He quickly turned, noticing a figure behind him.

“Oh! H-Head Elder!” The young monk threw his head down and bowed at a 90-degree angle without hesitation.

“Hohoho.” Lao Heshang chuckled, walking past the young monk.

“You may go now, Jab,” the elder monk said in a calm tone.

The young monk nodded fervently before hastily turning and jogging away.

Before leaving the garden, however, he looked back over his shoulder.

‘As many petals as his eyes can see? For some reason… I don’t think he’s lying.’ He felt chills run up his spine.

The elder monk slowly walked across the wooden bridge, standing above Tyr, who had just finished his food balls.

After absorbing the two S-grade pills into his ring, Tyr also stood up.

“So… do you believe you have the capacity to finish the evaluation exam?” Lao Heshang asked, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. His eyes were gracefully squinted.

Tyr burped. “Yep…”

For a moment, there was silence. Tyr broke it by saying, “By the way, have you been spying on me this entire time?”

More silence ensued before Tyr continued.

“Come to think of it, when I did my first cultivation, you abruptly appeared. And even now, you appear as if you have been beside me the entire time.”

The elder smiled. “I will let you believe that for now. Eventually, you will learn of my tactics.”

Tyr furrowed his brows slightly.

‘Hmm… he is 5x my power level. It’s likely he has immense teleportation abilities.’

“Young man… it seems you have failed to understand humility, however. Letting go of your ego, and learning from those who are stronger than you.”

Tyr didn’t wince in his reply: “Yeah… I gave up most of those words you told me early on. What were they again? Remove my doubt, don’t be arrogant, and learn from those stronger than me. I repeated them so many times in my head that I still have a slight headache. In the end, I realized that apart from realizing my doubt, the other two were useless.”

The monk tilted his head slightly. “How so? Without them, no other scout has been able to pass my exam, I’ll have you know. Do not think that you are above them…”

Your next journey awaits at mvl

Tyr smirked.

‘This geezer doesn’t seem to understand that I passed his exam long ago…’

“How so? It’s simple. I was willing to give up my ego and not be arrogant in order to pass this exam, being as I am weaker than you. However, I failed with that approach.”

“You failed? Maybe you didn’t try long enough to figure it out.”

“I don’t want to waste time. Why choose that route when it’s inferior to a more efficient one?”

“Oh? You are saying you have found an even greater technique in passing this exam than the one I have provided?”

“Without a doubt. And when it comes to learning from those stronger than myself… you probably meant to take your own riddle-like words and decode them to find some hidden meaning and use that to learn how to balance these petals. That would take far too long. I’d rather use common sense and pure numerical statistics than play that fairy crap.”

The monk sighed. “Young man… your arrogance has blinded you.”

Tyr raised an eyebrow. “Then can a blind man not pass this exam?”

The monk lowered his brows, seeming to get more serious.

“Peace is what one owes another human being in this realm. Ahimsa… the art of not harming another, is what all beings thrive upon. In that way, we live and breathe through each other—forever learning to craft ourselves anew with blocks of society helping to propel us even further.”

Tyr’s expression also became more serious, realizing that the monk was getting slightly hostile with his tone.

“Why are you lecturing me about peace all of a sudden?”

“Because it ties into arrogance. Only the most arrogant deem it is in their right to decide whether or not they shall give peace and forgiveness to another. Who’s to say one has that right? It is not up to you but up to the highest powers.”

Tyr’s tone remained low. “What are you trying to say?”

“That merchant you mercilessly slaughtered here in cold blood… did you think it would not hold major consequences, young man?” Lao Heshang finally said it, his tone deep, like an angry parent scolding their child.

He continued: “This is a monastery… why did you think it was okay for you to murder another human being?”

At that moment, an intense Aura energy seeped from the monk. It quickly surrounded Tyr, making the air around him seem as thick as water and ten times as heavy.

He felt his shoulders want to droop, his knees wanting to cave in, and his heart begin to beat louder. A feeling of doom came over him in mere seconds.

For a moment, his mind went blank. He couldn’t think, and his eyes were darting all across his vision.

His body began to shake, his thoughts becoming blurred concepts of nothingness.

‘Full Golden Body,’ he thought to himself reluctantly, since he didn’t want to seem like he was threatening the monk.

Instantly, all of his fear and delusion were wiped away, and his mind was fresh and clear again.

In that moment, a dozen thoughts traveled through his brain as his eyes widened with realization.

“Wait a minute… it all makes sense now,” Tyr said, as though figuring out a puzzle of sorts.

“If arrogance has to deal with peace, then it seems all of this was planned from the very beginning. Very cunning.” He stared the monk in the eyes.

Tyr continued: “From the very first day, where you told me about arrogance… you were speaking of that decisive moment where I had the choice to save the merchant’s life or not. You knew the entire time. In fact… you set it up. All of it was a test, not just the petals… The day you told me of the importance of cultivation techniques, you had a double meaning which wanted me to go and seek out these techniques—leading me directly to that merchant’s popular shop.”

The monk squinted his eyes as Tyr continued.

“The first real test happened at that moment, where I was tested to see whether I would be greedy enough to want all of those techniques and play into the merchant’s game. I failed that test, taking all of his cultivation techniques. Naturally, that merchant would attempt to hunt me, but in his dying moments, he gave me a chance to save his life and forgive him. That must have been my second true test, which I also failed, according to you.”

Tyr smirked. “Quite an elusive plan you had… and to think… a righteous monk like you would use another human being’s life as a pawn in your grand exam.”

“He was not a real human.”

‘I gained EXP from him… you’re lying, old man,’ Tyr thought but remained silent.

“However… you are right in your hypothesis. From the very beginning, you were tested. Your morals, balance, greed, and more. All of them played a part. This exam has three parts, two of which you have miserably failed. The last and final part is the petal balancing act… and even if you pass that one with flying colors, you will gain a score of 33%. A failing overall grade.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep