Trial Of Strength

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

Qing Fang's red eyes flashed as they started across the wide plains, searching for any kind of change now that the trial of strength had begun. His eyes narrowed as the empty plains were all that filled his vision, his ears twitching as they listened closely. However, the artificial world was strangely and scarily silent.

The remnant consciousness had long vanished into the winds with a vast and soundless explosion of bright golden runes, and Qing Fang was left alone in this artificial world. It had exposed part of its true nature and had left a bad impression on Qing Fang.

The grass seemed so lifeless even though it was the fullest shade of green. And the sky seemed so empty even though it was the nicest shade of blue. This world was far from reality.

'The remnant consciousness said that he would be surprised if I passed the trial of strength with anything less than the highest grade. I suppose I can only see what he meant.' Qing Fang said as he constantly turned his body and looked around him.

The huge grass plain was extremely large, being maybe a hundred kilometres in either direction. However, the sheet emptiness of the artificial world didn't hinder Qing Fang's vision and he could see over the entire place from where he stood.

As he moved his body over the grass when he turned, Qing Fang could feel the blades bend somewhat stiffly, showing the engineering of the grass was somewhat imperfect. Just as the soil felt like brittle clumps of sand and the air had a salty taste to it. The pressure of the wind was abnormal and Qing Fang could barely fill his lungs from its sparsity.

Da Shi Fu Wen had tried to imitate the real world, but he obviously had a long way to go, regardless of how many centuries he spent on creating this place. Qing Fang was still in wonder at the power it must have taken, though the imperfections became exceedingly glaring.

This place was so far from real it was almost scary. As if he was trapped in a fake world, and the lack of depth and detail made one feel suffocated. It did indeed make Qing Fang more appreciative of the sheer profundity the real world held, and also made him realise the difficulty of maybe wanting to create an artificial world such as this one.

However, at this moment, Qing Fang was thrust from his thoughts and turned his head to look into the distance. Upon the horizon, maybe a kilometer from him, he noticed a silhouette of gold walking towards him slowly.

The figure was made from clearly swirling runes, however, it seemed to just be a shadow of a figure. It was faceless and void of detail, a mere outline of a human being in the form of golden runes.

Qing Fang had no reaction as he saw the puppet appear before him. It seemed that this was the basis for the trial of strength; to defeat runic puppets formed by the remnant consciousness. It seemed simple enough, however, Qing Fang could tell there was more to it. Simply killing a simple puppet didn't suit such a grand trial meant to test one's strength, did it?

The runic puppet's movements were not mechanic in the slightest as it suddenly burst into a sprint, dextrously spreading its feet along the fake grass and approaching with fast speed. Qing Fang could feel it looking at him with a conscious gaze, knowing that he was its enemy.

'This speed really is too slow. I now understand why the remnant consciousness said what it said.' Qing Fang thought as he calmly stared at the runic puppet that was approaching at its fastest speeds. It could cross a kilometer in twenty seconds, however, that speed was nothing compared to Qing Fang.

It was a speed that a lower Stage 3 cultivator could exhibit.

Knowing this, Qing Fang could tell that the trial based its strength from his real cultivation, which was lower Stage 3. And while Qing Fang's body had natural suppression that was equivalent to higher Stage 3, the trial did not take this into account and thought of it as "outside strength" compared to the cultivation level.

Qing Fang merely watched as the runic puppet appeared close to him before dating sideways and circling him with skill. A straight handleless knife made from the same substance of the puppet appeared in its hands before it threw it with great speed directly at Qing Fang's neck!

'This trial is truly horrendously difficult. The battle strength that the runic puppet is showing is extremely high! If my body was lower Stage 3 as my cultivation is, I might only be able to fight two puppets to a standstill. Fighting a single puppet, it would be a close victory.' Qing Fang thought with shock as the golden knife headed straight towards his neck before shattering upon contact!

The strength of the knife was also lower Stage 3 and could simply not even damage Qing Fang's skin nor even cut one of his hairs. The runic puppet, however, seemed impartial to this and formed many more knives that he threw at Qing Fang in succession as he circled him!

The Achilles tendon, the knee caps, the groin, the shoulders, the neck and lastly: the eyes! The runic puppet targeted every single one of these places with deadly accuracy and would dart backwards whenever Qing Fang looked directly at it!

It simply fought with the battle intelligence of a thousand years and the Law fragment manipulation of similar skill!

However, the gap between the two was simply too large. It was similar to the most skillful swordsman encountering an enemy that only used the disparity in strength to fight, lacking any skill.

Qing Fang, who had knives of gold continuously smashing into pieces against his skin, suddenly lifted one of his huge legs and violently smashed it down towards the floor with unimaginable strength! Instantly, the ground depressed and made strange waves before it burst into pieces with webbed cracks!

Qing Fang made sure to control his strength and only smashed an area with a radius of one hundred meters. Otherwise, he could've destroyed several kilometers of this place with a mere press of his foot!

The webbed cracks spread across the earth in a mere instant and enveloped the runic puppet, its feet stepping into the cracks and breaking like flesh and bones would! The runic puppet lay down and tried to pull its broken leg from the cracks in the ground, however, it was no use.

It suddenly looked up ahead and saw a huge fist enlarging in its vision! The thing could not even react with its poor speed and had its head cleanly blown off by Qing Fang's fist!

Qing Fang couldn't help but be taken aback as the feeling of crushing the runic puppet's head felt exactly like crushing flesh and blood. It seemed as though these puppets were very carefully handcrafted for the trial of strength, shown by how the puppets could even break "bones" when the puppet stepped into the crack.

As soon as the runic puppet had its head smashed, something alike to blood flew everywhere and coated Qing Fang's fist in liquid gold. He stared at it before it suddenly evaporated along with the dead body of the puppet. Up until its death, its movements were extremely similar to a human and Qing Fang could tell that the creator of the trial wanted the combat to be as realistic as possible.

The webbed cracks in the earth remained and only the runic puppet disappeared with its death. Qing Fang took a step back and looked around as he waited for something to happen. However, he had a feeling that the trial of strength wasn't over yet.

And he was right as the voice of the remnant consciousness bellowed from the skies, however, its body didn't appear.

"You have completed the first level of the trial of strength, giving you a comprehensive evaluation of a bare pass. You can, however, choose to continue the trial with a higher difficulty to achieve a higher evaluation. Remember: a higher evaluation results in higher rewards from the inheritance upon your success.

Do you want to continue?" The words almost sounded pre-recorded as they were spoken bluntly. Qing Fang could tell from the tone of the remnant consciousness that it must have said these exact words hundreds of times.

"Yes. Skip to the highest difficulty that grants the highest evaluation please." Qing Fang shouted up at the sky concisely and politely.

"As you wish. Tenth level of the trial of strength will initiate in one minute. Good luck." The voice then faded away into nothingness, leaving Qing Fang looking up at the empty blue sky.

Qing Fang turned from the sky and looked around the artificial world. And then, with a twitch of the bone mantle behind his head, the huge wings extended majestically. A wingspan of nearly forty meters made Qing Fang appear to be an absolute giant as he suddenly burst from the ground with an explosion of dust!

This time, he didn't hold back and an area with a diameter of tens of kilometres was turned into scorched earth! The grassy soil crumbled and turned into webbed cracks that expanded at a horrifying rate, covering nearly all of the artificial world!

The entire place was turned into a crushed battlefield of cracked earth! Large mounds of earth fell from the edge of the world and into the blue abyss that stretched downwards for eternity and turned into golden runes as it fell!

Qing Fang only let his wings carry him through the strange and imperfect winds in the artificial world, looking down on the devastation he had caused with satisfaction. He did not create such mayhem just for enjoyment, but in preparation of the tenth level. He had seen how effective destroying the earth was against the runic puppet who swiftly died afterwards and wanted to use the same tactics.

The reason for this was because of the remnant consciousness' words. Since it was sure that the trial was no challenge to Qing Fang, then he could accurately guess that the further levels didn't increase the quality of the runic puppets, but the quantity.

If the inheritor wasn't such a freak of nature, then it would be a good system. After all, normal people could be able to fight above realms, but they were still susceptible to attacks on their own level. So, increasing the number of puppets of their cultivation realm was a good way to determine their battle strength without making the test itself strength-orientated. A Stage 2 could get a distinction if his battle strength was high enough, regardless of his cultivation.

And that was exactly what this trial did: test strength, not cultivation.

Qing Fang's guess was confirmed as after one minute of soaring above the ground, hundreds of figures started to appear on the ground. They were not stronger than the previous runic puppet, but their numbers must near a thousand.

Considering that Qing Fang judged the battle strength of one puppet to be ridiculously high, a thousand puppets would be impossible if it was an actual lower Stage 3 undergoing the trial of strength. Qing Fang himself knew that if the puppets were tuned to his physical strength, he would not even be able to pass the second level of this trial.

His natural suppression truly saved him here. However, if achieving a distinction in this trial was so difficult, then in another trial where Qing Fang wasn't remarkable, he was fearful he might fail. It was no surprise that even after a thousand years and possibly hundreds of thousands of past inheritors, no one had passed all five trials.

The difficulty was simply inhuman. Da Shi Fu Wen really set his expectations high and would settle for no less than a son of heaven, it seemed.

Qing Fang was cast from his thoughts when tens of thousands of golden knives suddenly filled the sky beneath him and gravitated towards his body with deadly precision! However, he naturally did not care if they even hit him and the sound of glass shattering filled his ears and flakes of gold surrounded his body as every golden knife was destroyed upon contact!

'Hmm, since these puppets are lower Stage 3, then they might be enemies that I can actually fight against with my Law fragments. It has been too long since I've been able to use them in a battle due to the strength of this freakish body being too far ahead!' Qing Fang suddenly thought with a light laugh.

It was most definitely true that most of a cultivator's power was held in their Law fragments and not their body. Qing Fang could fight evenly with cultivator's of his body's strength only because the quality of humans in the cage of beasts really was too low.

If he met a well-trained cultivator of the Qing Clan who was well-versed in Law fragment manipulation and the Qing Clan's unarmed combat style while also possessing defensive and attacking treasures as all high-level Qing cultivators did; then, even with his bloodline power, he would only be able to fight a middle Stage 5 evenly. Whereas, he could fight peak Stage 5 humans here in the cage of beasts.

The Qing Clan were specialists in unarmed combat specifically and cultivated the art like second nature. The trademark weaponry was metallic gauntlets and boots that could defend against even a greatsword directly! Other Clans would specialise in different weapon arts and ingrain in into their lifestyle, and the Qing Clan's was unarmed combat.

Qing Fang was a bit hopeful as he could finally use his Blood Laws in a fight where they could actually show their strength, and he was really quite eager to use them!

Suddenly folding his wings behind him, Qing Fang's forward momentum transformed into a freedive of terrifying speed due to his massive weight of nearly seven tons! The runic puppets, a thousand of them, saw him suddenly fall and moved away from the area of impact like tiny golden ants!

Qing Fang fell through the sky like a meteor, and from a distance it seemed like a tiny body was merely falling to the ground to its death. However, when that body made contact with the ground, a terrifying impact engulfed earth and shook the artificial world to its ends!

A torrent of broken earth that had been turned to dust spiralled into the air with dreadful speed, as if it had been sucked into the air by a vacuum! The ground that was already splintered and cracked suddenly trembled as a wave of dirt flew outwards with thunderous trembles!

Over a hundred of the runic puppets were instantly buried underneath hundreds of tons of dirt, crushing their lower Stage 3 bodies into golden liquid reminiscent of blood! Qing Fang stood tall on the battlefield that had turned barren for hundreds of meters around him!

However, it was not barren for long as waves upon waves of runic puppets suddenly flooded towards him from every direction. They seemed incredibly coordinated as they held a line as they ran, with puppets constantly slinging longer-ranged attacks that would immobilise anybody other than Qing Fang!

Qing Fang wanted to use his Laws and not his body so he made sure to measure the strength of his physical attacks and limit them to lower Stage 3. He could not take any damage from these weak puppets, so he could afford to have a little fun.

And as hundreds of puppets were crossing the distance to approach him, Qing Fang suddenly clicked his fingers beautifully. And with it, a large pool of blood was suddenly conjured beneath Qing Fang's feet and surged outwards, creating a large lake of blood that covered the battlefield!

Seeing this, the runic puppets wanted to avoid stepping on the blood, but they realised it was hopeless. And as the first puppet charged onto the lake of blood, small spherical bullets of blood suddenly darted towards it from all sides!

However, the puppet conjured a shield of gold around himself that cleanly blocked all of the bullets. As soon as it felt the bullets did not persist, it pulled down the shield so it could move forward once again.

However, as soon as it did that, it realised that there was an attack already mobilised before it and only a moment away! A huge thorn of blood amalgamated from the lake beneath its feet and thrust forward right as the shield was pulled down, impaling the runic puppet right afterwards!

'That's what happens when you sacrifice your vision for defence: you die.' Qing Fang thought as he killed tens of runic puppets at the same time with the exact same method!

However, he could only managed tens at most due to his low cultivation and dozens slipped through the cracks and continued to rush at him!

A group of runic puppets appeared on his left side and Qing Fang decided to use the Qing Clan's unarmed fighting style to take care of them. His attainment in the art was only that of a quasi-grandmaster, however, since the art was so profound, it was a huge skill. Compared to his Law fragment manipulation attainment, it was a class higher even!

Qing Fang moved toward the puppets and they separated and tried to encircle him and fight him all at once. However, Qing Fang sent a hard kick towards one of the puppets that required both arms to block the force and kicked his body sideways into a chop that was already descending, cleaving his body in twine!

Stepping over the body, Qing Fang fled the encirclement but did not turn to the others behind him and fled to more enemies that were rushing to his front! Qing Fang never stood in the same place for more than a moment, and if he couldn't kill an enemy quickly, he would flee to face another!

Qing Fang used lower Stage 3 strength coupled with the Qing fighting art and his lower Stage 3 Law fragments to fight hundreds of enemies at once! However, as the runic puppets were really too strong in battle power and intelligence, Qing Fang took innumerable hits from all directions. If it wasn't for his skin that the puppets simply couldn't penetrate, there was no question he would've died after only ten seconds!

With every enemy, he took ten hits in exchange for delivering only one as the puppets truly outclassed him. However, the reality was cruel and the puppets' fists could not leave even a bruise while Qing Fang's fists would injure with every hit.

Familiarising himself with his fighting techniques and Law fragment manipulation, Qing Fang abused his invulnerability to train himself as he killed the runic puppets!

While he was still human, he was praised by his superiors for his fighting ability that was definitely above his cultivation. His Law manipulation attainment firmly rested at master-level, which Stage 4 cultivators usually achieved. And his attainment in the Qing fighting art was quasi-grandmaster-level, something Stage 5s would attain after years of training!

That was to say that his attainments were definitely superior to what was expected of his current Stage 3 cultivation. However, if Qing Fang neglected training in his battle arts, he would fall behind his peers and have strength without any technique to back it up. However, advancing in the Qing fighting art was much harder now that he was no longer a part of the Clan...

Qing Fang possessed the techniques for the Qing fighting arts up until quasi-grandmaster level, however, he would never see the grandmaster-level techniques for the foreseeable future since his expulsion from the Clan. Law fragment manipulation was different as it depended on the individual's skill and independent training, however, fighting arts were different. They were forged after thousands of years and were not something some random lucky cultivator could create on his own.

Qing Fang had to find a way to get those techniques for the Qing fighting art, or he would have to switch completely. Otherwise, his skill would just stagnate...

And after thirty minutes of continuous fighting, Qing Fang killed all of the hundreds of runic puppets! It was relatively one-sided as they took damage from him, while they couldn't deal it back at all. However, Qing Fang limited his speed and strength to make killing them much harder for himself, the same difficulty a real lower Stage 3 cultivator would experience.

And as the last runic puppet was eventually beaten to death, all the crushed and mangled bodies, as well as the golden blood that covered Qing Fang's entire body, evaporated into nothingness.

"Congratulations for passing the tenth level of the trial of strength. Your comprehensive evaluation has been placed at the highest level: passing with distinction." The remnant consciousness' bored voice came from the sky as Qing Fang straightened his back to stand tall.

"Please allow the world to repair itself before the second trial, the trial of intelligence, begins." The voice spoke from the sky, enlightening Qing Fang to the second trial.

The trial of intelligence.

*3,589/3,000 words*