11 The second trial

Li Zhu and the rest of the people who had passed stood there for another half-hour, on Trials peak, waiting for any others who may have succeeded.

Hua Shu, being the genius of the Hua Clan, did not disappoint, as she managed to succeed about a quarter of an hour after Li Zhu.

As she came out of the forest, her eyes were dim, and she looked gloomy, with her head down low and her steps short and slow.

Li Zhu realized that she must have had a bad experience in the illusion, since it was after all a pretty brutal test of willpower.

The worse a person's fears were, the more the illusion could use this against them, meaning that the difficulty of the test varied according to who took it.

He himself, if not for the memory of his late master, would probably have failed the test, since his childhood was quite traumatic, and it had implanted a fear of weakness into him, something which was hard to shake off.

Hua Shu had probably also been scarred in one way or another, though Li Zhu did not ask any questions, since he realized it was a sensitive topic.

As she walked beside him, they both avoided talking, rather opting to just stand and wait for the trial to end, which would be in a quarter of an hour.

Everyone that returned from the forest looked somber, as though they just had a bad day, yet they were also excited, realizing they were one step closer to joining the Flaming Saber sect, one of the three great sects of the kingdom.

The trial quickly ended, and the results were shown: out of two thousand four hundred people only one hundred and twenty two passed, while the rest of the contestants were pulled out of the forest by the elders.

Everyone who was pulled out had a crazed look on their faces, some due to the Illusions having given them the experience of their most longed desires to which they desperately wanted to go back to and the opposite for those who had been suddenly whisked away from their most repressed fears.

And absolutely all were also frustrated about failing the trial. That said, they also realized that if they had not been saved they would have gone insane.

Seeing the trial end, the fourth elder, who had been silently cultivating, flew into the air, and announced, "To everyone who did not pass, do not worry, your future is not set yet. Overcome this challenge, and become a powerful figure in the continent." he then indicated to the guards to escort these people out of the sect.

Turning around, he spoke again, "For those who passed, congratulations, you are now halfway into the sect! Now comes the second and final trial, which will test your fighting prowess."

He did not even pause, before already starting to explain,

"The next trial will be held in the Kill Illusions tower, which is divided into twenty-five floors. The first floor contains one illusion at the average strength of your cultivation base. Do not be tricked by the term illusion, you will be essentially fighting a human cultivator. Once you beat the illusion in the first floor, you will gain two points and move onto the next floor, where there will be three illusions. Each floor gets progressively harder, with every floor after the fourth having illusions higher than your cultivation base."

Hearing the elder's words, Li Zhu looked surprised, as he realized, 'some great formation master must have had an influence on the Flaming Saber sect, otherwise trials such as the Illusion forest and this tower would not be possible in such a small kingdom.' As he thought of this, Li Zhu grew curios, since he knew that an expert of this level must have been at the top of the continent.

While Li Zhu was immersed in his thoughts, the fourth elder continued his explanation of the trial, "Before the trial starts each person will receive one point for each cultivation stages they have reached. For example, someone at the fifth stage qi gathering realm will receive five points before the trial, since the sect does value strength. This makes it harder for people with lower cultivation to pass the trial, as they will have to pass more floors than someone higher than them, though it is still easier than if everyone had to fight each other. One person at a time can enter the tower, so form a line. The trial will start now." Finishing his explanation, the elder flew towards a tall, stone tower, which was on Trials Peak.

'The trial is surprisingly fair, since people with lower cultivation base like me can still prove their talent, without having to fight against higher cultivation opponents.' thought Li Zhu, impressed yet again at the way the Flaming Saber Sect recruited talents.

The fourth elder, reaching the tower, turned around to look at the crowd, before asking with a mischievous smile, "Now who's going to go first?"

Most people stayed quiet, since the trial was still too new to them, yet one young man, hoping to impress with his courage, stood up, yelling, "I, Da Hung, will go first, and finally pass this recruitment exam!"

On his face was a confident smile, as he walked towards the fourth elder, near the tower.

Seeing the young man step forward, the bald elder nodded, clearly satisfied with his courage. He walked towards Da Hung, before grabbing his arm, to test his cultivation base.

"Sixth stage qi gathering realm, not bad. You can now enter the tower" as he said that, the wooden door on the first floor of the tower sprung open, as though ready to accept a challenger.

Da Hung, inhaling deeply, ran into the floor, ready for the coming fight.

The people outside could not watch what happened inside, though, which led to everyone awkwardly waiting for Da Hung to finish his trial.

In the meantime, Li Zhu thought about his chances of passing the trial. When he had checked his cultivation this morning, it was at the second stage of the qi gathering realm, probably having been raised by whatever had healed his injuries.

Although he had learned no fighting techniques, he was still highly trained in combat, meaning even with just his fists he could counter people of higher cultivation, if they had not yet begun a fighting path. This was not a problem, though, as according to his understanding of the tower, he would probably be matched against illusions who also only used fists.

Although his starting points were lower than most, Li Zhu was still pretty confident that he could pass more floors than the rest of the people here, allowing him to barely pass the trial.

As he finished his thoughts, the door to the tower suddenly reopened, and a bloody Da Hung could be seen, limping out.

Although he was in a bad state, there was still undeniable excitement in his eyes, as though he had struck gold.

Seeing this, the fourth elder exclaimed, realized he had forgotten to explain one part of the trial, "Oh, kids, each floor you pass, you will also gain a small reward, which gets increasingly better the higher you go. Da Hung here probably passed the first and second floor, so he received some treasures"

Excited murmurs rang out from the crowd, as they realized this trial was not without its reward. And from the sight of Da Hung, the treasure given was not small.

Only Li Zhu frowned, as the second part of the elder's words registered. 'The elder said that Da Hung only passed the second floor, yet he is so heavily injured... this will be no easy fight.'

Everyone was now impatient to enter the tower, as people instantly lined up to wait for their turn.

It did not take long for each person to complete their trial, as most of them only passed the first or second floor, though with a hundred people time added up, so hours passed.

No one really knew how many floors people reached, though the time they spent in the tower and the looks on their faces as they exited spoke a lot to their achievements.

Finally, after about four hours, it was Li Zhu's turn, and he slowly walked into the tower, vigilant.

As he entered the first floor, the door instantly closed behind him, while the torches on the walls were lit up, illuminating the large hall.

In the center of it all, stood a man, though his face was blurry, as though it had been erased. Behind him was a chest, which Li Zhu immediately identified as a spatial treasure, probably containing the reward for this floor.

"I guess I need to beat this illusion to pass the floor, so..." as he mumbled, Li ZHu got into a fighting stance.

As though he knew his intentions, the blurry faced man lifted his head, before also getting into a stance, with his arms up high to defend his head.

Li Zhu looked excited, as he looked forward to the fight ahead of him, 'Here I go, it's about time I crush this trial, and enter the Flaming Saber Sect once and for all!'

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