13 Self-Preservation Instincts
Raden was stuck in a bottleneck.
'Why can't I-?'
It was a bottleneck that many cultivators faced, the first proper one. To enter Qi Manifestation you had to make your Qi subject to your Soul...And it should have been easier for Raden with his powerful Soul but apparently, it wasn't.
It was already morning.
'I can't do anything. It seems I'll have to face the Ki Tower with this cultivation...I wanted to show off. I truly wanted to.'
Then sudden enlightenment struck him!
'I have a bottleneck because of...my lack of talent in Qi Cultivation...'
'That's a pretty depressing enlightenment. Who said that they're all positive?'
'The solution lies in 'Temper the Body, Devour the Qi'...Painful.'
**********
He was in front of the Tower.
It was a massive pagoda high 30-40 meters. It was divided into five floors: Green, Yellow, Red, Earth and Peak. Each floor you managed to pass would grant you a level up.
There was a big crowd of people around the Tower and that spot was, because of that, really profitable for merchants that placed all different types of stalls: from herbs to weapons, from food to books. Something was in common, still.
'Astoundingly high prices!'
He saw signs that had 4,5 or even 6 digits in it!
For example, a High-Rank Earth Sword was sold at 110.000 gold coins!
'Ahhh, I should focus on more important things!'
He finally became first in the queue.
"I want to take the exam." He asked at a guard that gave tickets for the permission to enter the Tower.
"Which rank are you?"
"Unranked Disciple."
He suddenly replaced his respectful tone with a curt one.
"It is 33 gold coins."
"Ugh..." So much money! All his month savings were gone!
'The Soul Tempering pill...if I had that I'd be rich'
Raden watched how much did pill cost, and he found that high-grade rank one pills were sold at 10.000 per each.
"Please, be fast people are waiting for me."
"Here it is." Raden gave him all his money.
"Hmph! The next, please!"
'Why is he-Ohh...I understand'
Guards were paid in base on their earnings and since lower-level disciple have to pay less for examinations they would not spend time in formalities.
'Is this made on purpose? The payment system of the guards seems to oppress the weak and please the powerful...Well, this is the cultivation world...'
'Ohh...another queue! So beautiful!'
...
'Finally'
He entered the gate and found himself in the darkest of the dark.
Then a pain, similar to that that you'd prove burning yourself, arose in every part of his body.
'Is this teleportation?'
And then five minutes passed in the burning pain.
'I-it doesn't seem like it.'
And then another five minutes.
'Is this the trial?' 'I actually hope it is: if this is only a starter, or even worse a simple teleportation, I don't want to see what's next.'
And another five minutes. The pain was getting more and more intense.
Raden wanted to scream but had to refrain from doing so to avoid suspicion from Jin Liang.
'I hate this-'
And then it abruptly ended.
"Phiuuu"
'Where am I?'
He watched around and found himself immersed in green plains.
'No instruction at all?'
Raden had no prior information since there was a ban that prohibited to say what's inside the Ki Tower, so he found himself clueless.
'Is this to test my proactivity or what?'
'Ahh, I guess I should explore quite a bit.'
**********
The sun was setting on the horizon. It was evening!
He did explore. And found nothing: no life, no water, no food, not even a damn terrain deformation!
He was on the verge of the exasperation.
"Hey Jin kid, do you think the grass is edible?"
"You should try..." He said sadistically.
Raden took some grass and when he was putting them in his mouth...
ROAR!
A beast!
A bear, in fact. It was charging toward them.
'So the trial starts now' Raden grinned.
He attacked it head-on. To then be sent flying.
'Wha-It has at least a Half-Stage 2 Body!'
Raden couldn't simply match, exhausted from the thirst and hunger.
He got himself up, and the bear charged again.
He dodged. And dodged. And dodged.
But then he understood, he couldn't continue like that! Him, depleted from thirst and hunger against a bear, who would wear off first?
He started studying the movements of the bear and...
The bear charged!
This time he prepared himself: he knew the state of his body and the one of his opponent! When the bear was nearing him he used his Qi to power his legs and jumped right. The bear never charged on the right, that was because of his scarred eye: he couldn't see properly there!
The momentum he obtained charging couldn't be simply dissipated in a second, so Raden slashed with his sword. It sliced through the bear's flesh and the next moment it laid dead on the ground.
'Ahhh, beautiful!'
'Should I eat it?'
ROAR! ROAR!
'Ahhh, awful!'
Two bears emerged from nothing.
The first one charged him but the other stayed behind. Raden dodged, only to be charged by the other.
'Holy cow!'
He feinted a frontal attack to then slide under the bear. The bear responded by letting himself falling to the ground.
'Wha-'
Raden twisted his hand to incline his sword upward.
SWOOSH
It wasn't enough to kill him off.
'Well, thanks, beautiful soul for that reaction speed!'
The other bear charged again.
'Left!'
He moved behind the wounded bear, slow because of it. It turned around trying to bite him. And met a blade straight on his right eye.
SLASH
Raden prevented him from falling.
FUUM
The other bear didn't stop its charge seeing where did Raden go, but instead charged with all his might. He wanted to kill him using the weight of the other bear!
Raden stepped back.
When the two bears hit each other the alive one found himself on the ground.
"TRUE PUNCH!"
And again.
"TRUE PUNCH!"
And again.
And again.
And again.
...
The two beasts were dead! Raden retrieved his sword from the first dead beast. It was half-immersed in the ground and half in the bear's flesh.
Raden found, eating the grass, that the ground was quite tough, so he used the sword to slice it and connect it to the bear.
So that whoever was charging would found himself not only against the bear weight but even that of the ground! It was a move that needed speed if he wasn't able to do those move in time he would find himself dead!
'Uhh...'
ROAR! ROAR!
Two bears emerged from the nothingness of that place.
'Is this really an endurance test?'
Raden with a bloodied weapon prepared himself for the upcoming attack.
'I wish that I wasn't so in rush to complete this trial if I die here...Well, there could be a reincarnation since I was able to transmigrate...so it isn't soo bad. If I retain my memories'
'Is that really something for Unranked Disciples?!? I'm pretty sure that I'm one of the strongest of them but...'
'No, no the guard must have given me the wrong ticket...'
But his face didn't let transpire anything heroic.
'Ok...What I'm doing to preserve my over-confidence is becoming more and more absurd. But I won't stop.'
