CHAPTER 124 **Narrowing the field**

They watched and waited, starting to get impatient…

Sahara finally took a deep breath in and out, then said, “You have just tried to blitz an attack through one area, but you find that the enemy are different people who seem to have different methods to defend. They made you have to travel back and rethink your strategy…But, even with your losses, their strength is lesser than yours…”

Sahara let out a breath and couldn’t help but sigh to a war on Earth.

Aussies rock!

…Yet…This world had cultivation and…Let’s just see…

A person asked what ‘blitz’ had meant, so Sahara gave out a short, simple explanation for them, but otherwise, the crowd was looking at her in a bit of confusion and even getting closer, just so they could hear her better.

Repeating what she had stated, trying to make it as easily understood as possible, they still looked somewhat confused…

She wasn’t too sure if this will go down too well, but she wanted to know not only military strength of these people but strategic…The next words that she wanted to hear, in some kind of answer, was about why they wanted that particular area…Or something like that…

That was what she wanted!

Was that going to happen though? Not only do they have to get to the point of thinking but also have to understand what she was saying!

She had forgotten that she wasn’t the best with words…Or people…

This isn’t going to work…Is it…

Sahara rethought about what she had just said and saw that it…Wasn’t really a question…

Her instincts weren’t playing too much of a part here, but it felt like the voice that calls her ‘Master’ had no problem with what she just said in front of hundreds of people…

Ah well, let’s just see how it goes…

“Kill them all, don’t just pass them!” One finally yelled.

Sahara pointed at him and then said, “You may leave!”

That person opened their mouth in astonishment, still not attempting to leave.

Sahara kept her finger out and then continued, “If you don’t leave, the next time I do fish, you aren’t getting any! And yes, I know who you are, ‘wannabe’, a noble that wanted a shitload for nothing!”

Many turned their heads towards him, or Sahara, and she didn’t turn her head to anything else being said, “I will not listen to anyone, until he is gone! Now leave!”

“This is ridiculous! How is my answer wrong!? Why should I leave!? You’re just a woman!” The man who was starting to lose his face said. He knew this woman wasn’t good with names, so instead, she’d given him…What does ‘wannabe’ even mean!?

The man refused to move, and Sahara refused to continue until he was gone! An entire half an hour went by, and someone finally started saying, “Just go, don’t waste our time!”

After that was said, someone even stood up and tried to get the stubborn prick to move himself.

After another five minutes, three other people took the other person away and then came back and Sahara was finally able to move on.

She didn’t have to think too much upon why she had told him to leave, this place here was for ‘thinkers’, not for people shouting out the first thing that popped into their heads or trying to get attention! If he thought about his answer more, perhaps he should of said how he was going to kill them all…But no, since it was a direct answer like that, she had no use for the man here!

The atmosphere had started in a strange way, now it was worse. Some of them couldn’t believe that they were there trying to impress a woman! They looked around at a few others and nodded to each other, folding their arms up and refusing to be a part of this!

Standing in front of them, Sahara started to feel tired, so she sat down, hearing insults to her gender.

Releasing her cultivation base, everyone finally understood that they had crossed her line and started to beg to let them off!

It wasn’t like they changed their minds, just, now they wouldn’t speak them out…

There were at least five ranks between them, and the power is definitely different, making them pay attention. Using one’s cultivation base upon another wasn’t really well looked upon, as it was like a declaration of using cultivation as power and if used upon the royal people, you could even get beheaded for it…The royal lineage was there to keep peace and order with the people, using people as the foundation. The Ministers were to be there beside the emperor, but also beside the people…The difference of using cultivation to announce power, instead of the royal lineage, was that cultivation is more forced upon and does not even mean it could be for the people.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

A long time ago, cultivation bases were released a lot more often, but the people releasing their cultivation bases were not at all leaders or looking after the people, and since then it was down casted and even a law was then put in place, to have it never to be used against the royals.

But…Sahara’s idea of keeping order, was to have everyone understand where a line was. She wasn’t going to hurt them, so this was the best way to get them to remember that she was here for a decent reason. But…She didn’t know too much about what happens if someone does this in reverse to her, as she had always been relatively good with her cultivation and was never repressed by it by someone else. What happens is, it’s like a force pushing down on your cultivation base, but since your dantian is inside your body, your body feels the pressure as well, as the spiritual essence flowing through the meridians, feels the force.

It’s a strange concept, but if you think of it as nature, and how animals fight to find out who is the strongest…It makes one feel the same when this is done to you. Sahara’s cultivation base makes others want to bow down, not because they want to, but their dantian can feel the authority and rule from the force. So, to a certain extent, a dantian can have their own master…

The majority of people there knew how unyielding Sahara was, even though this unfair method was used, but also knew that she wasn’t cruel. She may have blocked cultivation bases, but there were reasons behind it. She also had spent a great deal of effort into doing what she could for all of them and many of them had a lot of respect for her…It was just hard to always show it…

But quite a few of them had no respect for her at all, already having talked about regaining back their Haven, prior to this ‘test’.

…Sahara let herself relax and looked at the crowd unhappily, “Hands!”

A few hands shot up, about three to five seconds after she said that, and she pointed to one of them, who said, “Leave it and retreat back home.”

Again, the person didn’t state anything extra and well, that also stated an obvious cowardice in the person who said it…

“Go!” Sahara stated, then pointed at another.

“Why? Why are we going for this place!?” One finally stated, and Sahara smiled and nodded. It was a strange sight to see, as he had asked this question in pure irritation, yet she was so damned happy to hear it!

“Good answer!”

Because she was sitting down, she didn’t look dominating at all, but her beautiful smile did show that she was favorably looking at the person who had answered ‘correctly’, which made them feel a little better…And a little lustful…

They hadn’t seen any kind of battle techniques but had seen her practicing Martial Arts, so they weren’t sure if she could be someone to absolutely fear or not. Although…Seeing a knife, not even being held by hand, carving up a huge fish, does make them feel a bit nervous…Except perhaps when she was smiling…She was almost like a whole different person!

If they knew her past of ending quite a few lives in just a few hours and even going as far as whipping a Prince…They might start to think otherwise on their ‘plans’, but Sahara was not one to let people know of what she had done, in fact, till this day they still don’t know that she was even a Princess, and that Matthew was the Second Prince of Green Haven. As usual, a ‘princess’ is just a title to her, so she had never cared to mention it, yet Matthew had wanted to announce who they were, ever since he had come here. He eventually understood that he should get the people’s respect another way, instead of demanding it because of a title instead…Obviously, the royal lineage hadn’t mattered in the fall of Purple Haven, as the only one remaining heir to the throne was Prince Seth and that was only because he had been hiding…Using a royal title with these ‘scavengers’ might not work at all!

Matthew could only sigh but did admit that it was probably for the best, that they will continue to keep their status as a secret…Even though quite a few people here in Purple Haven had heard him say ‘Princess’ to Sahara a couple of times…

And here, where some people did not want to show any kind of respect to this ‘Princess of Green Haven’, they were somewhat happy that someone had got the ‘right’ answer, even though some of them had no idea why that answer was right or not.

Sahara waited for the others who had gotten the answer ‘wrong’ to go…Well ‘looked’ like she waited, otherwise she was actually trying to come up with another ‘question’.

After they left, she looked out at the others and finally said, “…The one who said the last thing, come and give me your name, you already passed.”

Sahara was slightly pleased to come up with another idea to give her some more time!

She had to admit, that the person who said it should be given this anyway, so she felt even better and desperately tried to think of another idea.

After the man walked up, slapping some people and laughing as he passed them, he gave Sahara his name and walked off proudly.

Finally, it was time, and she was…

“One demands ‘slavery’, another doesn’t and wishes for it to be abolished…”

Hands went up, even though they weren’t sure on what the question was, and Sahara pointed at someone, who said, “I don’t understand!”

…Is that would you would say if it really happened? You can’t just reload to a previous ‘save’ if you ‘don’t understand’!

“Leave!” Sahara said, then pointed at another.

“Slaves, we should have them, aye!” A few cheers were heard at this person’s answer.

Crowd pleaser…

“Leave!”

Honestly, these people thought they were ones that thought of improvements?

Sahara scoffed, a big thing for being strategic is questions and looking beyond the initial idea, obtaining your objective in the best possible way…I want them to think about what the objection is for a start!

But…Do I even know what I’m doing? Pfft, not really! I just don’t want answers that didn’t imply any kind of thought…Right?

“I’m sorry Sahara, but why is this a problem? If one wants slavery and another wants to abolish it, why should that be important to the outcome? Or is it that it has just been brought up as an idea?”

Oh…Someone already knows my plan! Scary…

Why? Why is it important…Why is it a problem? She wanted people to think, think and think some more! It’s just, this person was already thinking too much!

Sahara tried to find the voice, but couldn’t point, “You passed. Come, give me your name.”

I need to get rid of him right now!

…Now she had two bloody names to remember.

Was Steven or Matthew coming soon?

After a few more questions, that only initiated that someone look deeper to find an answer that implied they had thought about the ‘question’, finally, Matthew entered the area! Sahara gave him the names that she had gotten, surprising herself that she had remembered them…But…Now she will most likely forget them again…

“You have an enemy, and your enemy has two enemies.”

Matthew blankly stared at Sahara’s strange words and then looked out at the smaller crowd.

She finally understood what she was doing!

She was just getting rid of the people who thought that they could think strategically. She wanted to narrow the field and find the real people who were good in that prospect! No doubt that quite a few people came, not knowing very much but wanted to try their luck, so this was just an easier way to lessen the numbers…Actually, she had already thought of doing another lot of ‘tests’ while being here now, waiting for people to go or people to think…

So far, she hadn’t put too much effort into her ‘questions’, she just wanted to get the ‘thinkers’ together and the ‘outspoken nonthinkers’ gone.

But since there was so many here, who hadn’t participated in any other test, she was sure that she would need more ‘tests’, to make a clearer idea on what they could do, as in finding out if they could also write or fight…Or anything else…