Soon enough.
Ke Jie, roused awake, washed and dressed, kept Fang Zheng company over a free breakfast the man had brought along, tidied his appearance briefly, and only then made his way down to the main hall's ground floor.
The moment they reached the ground floor, they were met by a run of greetings, each different in reaction and each with its own flavour.
"Welcome to Team B of the Joint Combat Division, newborn Blade Wielder Ke Jie. I'm Cheng Fang. Code name 'Inkstone'."
"Hello there! Ke Jie, I'm so glad you could join us. I'm Wu Yuan, code name 'Yellow Rose'."
"A newcomer. Interesting. I am called Annie, and my code name is... 'Fairy Tale'."
The three members of Team B, Joint Combat Division, stood in a line before the counter in order of how long they had been on the team, longest to shortest.
While Uncle Zhou, wearing the smile of a doting father, formed a faction of his own, arms folded, leaning alone against a pillar to one side.
"The newborn Blade Wielder Ke Jie greets his seniors. I hope you'll all guide me well from here on."
Ke Jie bowed politely, straightened up, and wore a courteous smile.
There was not a trace of timidity in those black eyes, only the frank confidence of the Blade King's son.
As he made his greetings, he was also using his own eyes to study the Blade Wielders and Sword Maidens in front of him closely.
First, standing furthest left, Cheng Fang: in looks an utterly unremarkable dark-haired young man, wearing a jet-black long robe, his expression as bland as water.
Then, in the middle, Wu Yuan: platinum-blonde hair and amber eyes, and with that grey-white clerical robe and a girl's brimming smile, she gave off a holy beauty that soothed body and soul.
And last, furthest right, Annie: barely over one metre forty, her whole person hidden beneath a broad black cloak, so that all one could see were two small hands holding a pure black old tome and, under the hood, a coldly expressionless childish face, those deep sea-blue eyes carrying a curiosity and a doubt she did not put into words.
With that, Ke Jie had formed a basic impression of these three teammates.
Just then.
Damn, what about the Director's and the Presiding Justice's conditions?
Recalling what he had overlooked, Zhou Tianhao's expression changed, and he pulled his weathered face straight and put in a reminder:
"Ahem. I forgot to tell you all, Ke Jie hasn't formally joined the team yet. At the least, by the requirements of the Director and of the Presiding Justice of the Judgment Hall, he has to defeat any one member of Team B with me as witness before he can receive his own identity insignia and hold a code name. Only then does he count as formally joined."
He had been too pleased for a moment there, and had uncharacteristically forgotten this piece of official business from above.
At which.
Everyone reacted in their own way.
"I've never heard of a requirement like that. Are we sure this isn't just making things hard for Ke Jie?" Fang Zheng protested on his behalf.
"Since it is the Director's and the Presiding Justice's requirement, we carry it out." Cheng Fang did not turn a hair.
"Mm... then which of us is to be Ke Jie's opponent for this trial?" Wu Yuan thought a moment and put her finger straight on the heart of the problem.
"......" Annie said nothing, only stared at Ke Jie without moving.
What they thought did not matter. What mattered most was what Ke Jie himself thought, and what he chose.
In this moment.
His gaze level, Ke Jie had a faint guess at the reason behind this seemingly unreasonable demand.
First, the Presiding Justice Feng Rui was certain to have doubts about his awakening and killing a Quasi-Demon Tier Blade Demon in return, and would look for a way to test whether he really had the ability to do such a thing.
Second, the Director of the Demon-Purging Bureau had once been a follower of his father. That he would set a trial together with Feng Rui to make sure the Blade King's son could protect himself was hardly strange.
With his thinking straightened out, he naturally had a clear idea of how to respond.
"Seniors, forgive my presumption. Might you tell me the realms of your cultivation?"
Ke Jie asked it with a serious face.
The words had barely left him.
Before Fang Zheng or the others could speak.
Cheng Fang, as deputy captain, answered first:
"Apart from Fang Zheng, who is at the Sublimation Realm of the Embryo Tier, we are all at the Sheath Tier. Specifically, Wu Yuan and Annie are at the Sheathed Realm, and I am at the Drawn Realm and have grasped Blade Intent. If you mean to challenge one of us, we will not use the Sheath Tier's second Sword Art or our Intent, only the first Sword Art."
The implication being that they would not lean on the advantage of realm to bully a Blade Wielder at the Embryo Tier who had only just awakened.
At most they would keep some of the advantages that came with a higher tier of themselves: greater staying power, greater resistance to being hit, a higher baseline constitution and relatively richer combat experience.
"Thank you. In that case, the one I intend to challenge is......" A flicker of mischief rose in Ke Jie, and his eyes drifted, seemingly by accident, toward Fang Zheng.
"Don't do this, I don't want to get blown up."
Fang Zheng's face went black as a panda's.
Then, abruptly.
"......Cheng Fang."
Ke Jie brought out a name nobody present had expected.
"???"
For a moment Fang Zheng did not know whether to be relieved or worried.
Relieved to be spared a beating; worried about whether Ke Jie could pass the entrance trial at all.
"This... Ke Jie, why not think it over a bit more?" Wu Yuan weighed her words and signalled with her eyes.
"Newcomer, I would not mind your challenge."
Annie's expression shifted slightly, and she offered it in a solemn voice.
To which.
"No. Let's leave it at that."
Ke Jie shook his head lightly in refusal.
His gaze was steady as it met Cheng Fang's.
He understood perfectly well: only by doing the very best possible in this entrance trial, that is, by beating Cheng Fang, the strongest of Team B on the surface, in a relatively fair contest, could he entirely dispel the doubts of Feng Rui and the Bureau Director, who had set this up from behind.
That way his Blade Wielder identity could become, in the open, a clean "good citizen", which would make his later promotion and his revenge plan easier to unfold.
After a brief silence.
"I respect your choice. Come with me. We'll go to the training grounds." Cheng Fang spoke slowly, and in his eyes there was a hidden measure of appreciation for Ke Jie's nerve and resolve.
After that.
Without hesitation, Cheng Fang led the way, and Ke Jie and the others followed one after another, going through the main hall's rear door straight to the Demon-Purging Bureau's training grounds.
Joining the training grounds to the main hall's rear door was a long narrow cobblestone path that connected the Bureau's back gate with the main hall and divided the grounds into two great zones, left and right.
To either side of the path lay, respectively, a basic practice field made up of a stretch of open bare earth and a number of fixed humanoid targets, and an advanced practice field with varied simulated terrain and mechanical mock enemies distributed through it.
Left or right, each practice field covered close to ten thousand square metres.
For a straightforward sparring match, what Ke Jie and Cheng Fang chose was the simple and direct basic practice field.
Once inside, Ke Jie took up a position at the middle of the field's boundary on the side nearer the main hall, while Cheng Fang stood opposite him, nearly a hundred metres away.
Between them were scattered a good number of fixed humanoid targets at random intervals, serving as buffers and obstacles.
At the point where the cobblestone path joined the main hall's rear door stood the remaining members of Team B, with Uncle Zhou acting as referee and responsible for preventing any accident.
"One minute until the trial begins!"
Zhou Tianhao filled his lungs and shouted it out.
His voice carried the length of the field. Ke Jie and Cheng Fang raised and waved a hand at the same time to signal they had heard, and lowered them together.
At which.
"Blade Spirit, 'Inkstone'. Let us together stain this mortal world with ink, and wash it clean of filth......"
"Hear the wrathful fire of vengeance in my heart, and set that sin alight...... Blade Spirit, 'Wrathblood Frenzy Blade'."
Without prior agreement, the two of them entered their transformed states.
Declaring that Ke Jie's entrance trial, his sparring match with the veteran Blade Wielder Cheng Fang, was about to begin......