Degrade from Nobility to a Humble Slave

The fact was that Zen's assessment was extremely accurate.

For the Blooded Test, most people remained on the third layer. Very few disciples braved the fourth or fifth layer. The reasoning was simple, the initiates were not at the higher levels, which meant the beasts were too strong, and those participants would probably lose their lives before earning a single fragment. That was not a place the disciples wanted to be.

After deciding, Zen spent six hours wandering around on the third layer.

During that time, he harvested quite a few fragments.

First, he came across a demon crow that attacked him from the air, leaving Zen no way to avoid its attacks. When he tried attacking the demon crow, it would deliberately put distance between itself and Zen, making Zen raise his brow and shrug his shoulders.

As he scoured his mind for some way to deal with this demon crow, an idea popped into Zen's head. Falling to the ground abruptly, Zen pretended to be dead. He wasn't sure, but, he believed the demon crow was a scavenger that would enjoy feasting on a carcass. The minute the crow saw Zen sprawled on the ground, it believed Zen was dead and swooped down to feast. But, as soon as it was close enough, Zen punched it. The demon crow fell dead from the one punch Zen delivered.

Later, he met up with a tremendous ancient mammoth. Its monstrous frame was intimidating, the power it possessed was more so, and could lead to trouble for Zen. However, Zen wasn't afraid at all and relied on his instincts. Zen dispatched it quickly.

And after that, he met three black wolves...

a sky dragon...

and even a colossal gorilla...

second layer. For Zen, it took a little bit longer to deal with them, because while the beasts were strong,

fragments from his victories and needed only one more to pass the Blooded test.

savage eyes, while it drooled from out the corners

person was pierced by one of the quills, the poison would kill him. Worse yet, its skin was so thick and rough on the beast that it made killing it a formidable

brute force approach to attack Zen not working, it was unable to change how it engaged Zen. Time and time again, it charged Zen but didn't

devised a plan to wait for the creature to drain itself of virtually all its energy then Zen would give it a death blow.

when suddenly he felt the sensation that danger was nearby and cursed under his breath,

didn't have time even to scream. Its eyes echoed its final seconds of life, glazed, wide orbs full

gradually disappearing long blue thread, thinking, 'Wow! That thread is sharp! If I'd been slower, I would've been sliced

the fragment, it's yours," Zen heard a cold voice

came from, Zen saw a young man standing close by. He was casually playing with a delicate looking dagger that had a long bright blue thread that kept coming out of the tip.

Zen. Since it was clear that the young man was there

lift his eyes from his dagger as he played with it, as he responded in a casual tone, "Me? My name is Ryan, and I am part of

flickered briefly in Zen's gaze, as soon as he told Zen his family affiliation. Zen soon understood what this man was here for. Ryan was another son of the Fang Clan like the ones who attacked him without reasons back on the second layer. He met three members on the

Ryan took a handful of purple shards from his pocket and sent them tumbling to the ground. The tinging, pinging as they hit the surface sounded like shattered jade dropping, making a crisp sound as they did. Whatever Ryan's purpose was, the music

ensure passing the Blooded Test, a disciple needed ten pieces. Scattered here were dozens of