When Arthur reached the ship, he was congratulated by his people, and he congratulated others for their performance too.
His performance in the second test wasn't eye-catching, but it was definitely above the top 1% of the 5.2 million people that will participate in the examination. It is something to be happy about.
Lady Vena said to him, "You did well on the test. I actually didn't expect you to endure for that long. I guess all the trouble you went to trying to run away from home turned out to be a good thing."
He rolled his eyes and said, "I guess I should thank you for beating me up and breaking my limbs."
She thought about it and said, "I wasn't going to say that you should thank me, but if you insist, I guess there's nothing I can do to stop you from thanking me."
He chuckled and said, "You're right. I should thank you, and the best way to do that is to help you train your endurance too. How about I break your limbs too? I won't do it once. I will do it ten times just to show how much I appreciate what you did to me."
She rejected his kindness with a shake of her head and a merciful facial expression as she said, "Forget it. Let it not be said that I did what I did so that I could be rewarded by you. My reward is the pleasure I felt when I broke your legs and you cried. I don't need anything more from you."
Arthur's eye twitched. He gritted his teeth and said, "I knew you were enjoying it."
She laughed and sauntered away smugly.
Over the days that the second test continued, Arthur, his students, his mother, and Tyson were happy. They were full of smiles and were always in a good mood. The same couldn't be said about the true children of the family.
Actually, the true children of the family performed well. They were either in the top 50,000 or close to it. None of them was below the 100,000. This is a good performance, as it means that they have a high chance of getting into a sect.
They should be happy with their performance, and they would have been happy if not for the fact that a bastard of the family is performing better than them and some people who are not even bastards are also performing on par with them.
This situation made them gloomy. Brian especially was in a bad mood. This exalted true son of the Dyson family was always complaining that the second test was unfair. Ironically, this is something that Arthur would agree with him about.
Brian had given up on the test as soon as he saw blood. He didn't mind the physical discomfort to his body. But when the pressure popped his ears and caused them to bleed, he gave up immediately.
That was five minutes into the test. So he had only earned 15 performance points while the best person in the second test had earned 496 points. This underwhelming performance meant that his hope of catching up to Arthur was dashed and crushed mercilessly.
Arthur was blind and deaf, but he didn't care about those things. He only began to worry when his ribs began to shatter because of the pressure.
Brian didn't see Arthur's performance, but he could imagine the sort of pain that Arthur went through and understand that he and Arthur were made of different stuff, both physically and mentally.
He understood that Arthur was built with superior stuff. He didn't like what he understood at all. It put him in a bad mood.
He said to his fellows, "If this was a test based on cultivation, I would have performed better. I would have at least narrowed the gap between me and that bastard."
The lady next to him said, "You have performed better, but so would have Arthur. He might even perform better than you. That is highly likely, so the gap between you and him might have expanded even more."
He glared at the lady. Then he walked away.
The lady shrugged. If she didn't think she had anything to fear from Arthur, then she definitely doesn't give a damn about Brian's feelings.
Be that as it may, she didn't need to antagonize him like that. She is not the only one who thought that Brian was full of shit for what he said, but the others didn't say anything about it because whatever they say would be condemning them too.
After all, they are in the same group with Brian. They too are barely hanging on to the hope that they will get into a sect. Now that they have flopped in the second test, they can only hope that they will do better in the upcoming tests.
After Brian left, the lady turned to the rest of them and said, "We can only hope for better tests in the future and give this one to the poor people. They deserve it. We, on the other hand, have never starved. We have never woken up afraid that today would be the day we starve to death. We have never slept outside in the cold and rain. We have never worked for our money. We have never…"
She was cut off by another guy who said, "Yes, yes. We are privileged, and we are pampered. We can see that. There is no need for you to harp about it for so long."
The man left after saying that. The others left too. They went to train in preparation for the upcoming tests. They wanted to keep their minds sharp and their bodies ready for whatever may come.
They can use the excuse that the second test wasn't fair for them as a way out for their poor performance. But if the next test favors cultivation and they still mess up, then there would be no more excuses for them. This put a lot of pressure on them.