8 The Straw Hat Boy 3

As the time it takes for an incense stick to burn passed by, the Selection Test officially begun. The event started off with a speech from the Outer Court Headmaster, Liu Fei Ge. Liu Fei Ge may not be as strong as the Inner Court Headmaster, but that does not mean that anyone could underestimate him. Rather, he was on par with the other Academy Elders.

"Good day to the young martial cultivators that have come to the Southern Wind Academy to participate in our annual Selection test! The rules for this year will be the same as previous years. The first stage will be the determining factor for whether you will eligible for participating in the next stage. The stage shall be held on the steps that leads us to the Southern Wind Academy!"

For those martial cultivators that have applied into the Academy before, they would understand the difficulty of the first stage. It wasn't just a test of whether you can ascend the 1001 steps into the academy, but a Spiritual pressure test. There were numerous Spiritual Arrays lined up along the steps leading to the academy. With each additional step a person progresses, the stronger the pressure would be. The pressure would vary from person to person as it takes into account the cultivation level too. As such, even if you have a higher cultivation level than others, it would not benefit you at all in the first stage.

"I wish all of you best of luck! Hopefully, there will be more people that complete this test than yesterday! I will see those that make it to the next test later!" As the headmaster had said, yesterdays selection round could be said to be subpar. There weren't as many powerhouses on the first day. Only one 13 year old child had caught the eye of the School Elders. With his wishes spoken, the headmaster disappeared in thin air, heading back to the academy.

With that marked the start of the first test. Many eager youths wanted to go first, while there were others that preferred to watch some go first. There was a time limit of one hour to ascend the steps. If unable to ascend any further, the cultivator could simply shout 'give up' and the by standing seniors would help to relieve them.

There was a steady stream of people heading up the stairs. Wang Li Tian followed along the moving crowd. His eyes had never left Jiang Rou Xuan. After so many years of not seeing each other, he extremely excited to reveal himself to her. As the boy took his first step onto the 1001 steps, he immediately felt a light pressure applied on his head and shoulders. With each additional step, the pressure would increase slightly and so would the discomfort level. This pressure however, was nothing to Wang Li Tian.

Light! So Light! Was there an ant sitting on my shoulder? Li Tian smiled silly. Studying under his master had its perks. One of them was the variety of arrays that was available for him to use. Before Mu Zhi Xuan had brought his disciple and left to find a place of dwelling, Zhi Xuan had left to purchase a large variety of materials using his 1000 gold in his ring. A bit of it went to buying new clothing for Li Tian and himself.

When he had acquired the materials he needed, Zhi Xuan held onto Li Tian and flew out of Prosperity City. Once you had reached the Core Establishment Stage, a cultivator would be able to spread their spiritual energy to the surrounding and effectively travel in the air. Flying was also possible before the Core Establishment Stage if the cultivator had a Wind Spiritual root, allowing them to have an affinity with the wind element.

Zhi Xuan flew for half an incense time before finding a nice spot in Deathwater Mountain. Near the top of the mountain, there was a flat area that could be made into a dwelling ground. Zhi Xuan instructed Li Tian to procure some wooden sticks from the surrounding. He warned the young boy to not go off too far as Deathwater Mountain was the living grounds of Demonic Beasts. Although Zhi Xuan was powerful enough to kill every single demonic beast that came his way, he feared that if Li Tian walked too far away, he wouldn't be able to save him.

Less than half a day passed and Mu Zhi Xuan had finished setting up both arrays. The first was the Invisibility Array that would mask his own and his disciple's aura. It would help prevent other cultivators from finding the location when flying over it. The other was the Mirage Array which created an illusionary image that blended their dwelling with the environment. Those two arrays were the cheapest arrays that Zhi Xuan could set up without selling his priceless treasures. In the Heavenly Realm, Mu Zhi Xuan had another nickname other than Sword Martial God, and that was the Radical Array Master. He was a revolutionary Sword Array Master that had ended thousands of lives of his foes with his formidable array. A simple invisibility and mirage array was nothing for the Array Master. Regardless, those were the only ones that he needed at the moment.

As the months went on, Zhi Xuan would kill nearby Demonic beasts and use their cores to purchase better materials to create better arrays. One was the Spiritual Pressure Array that the current test was using. Rather, the array that the Southern Wind Academy was using was far inferior to his master's.

Wang Li Tian yawned in boredom while ascending the steps stably. At the first four hundred steps, there were many people climbing at the same pace as him. However, they soon dwindled away in the five hundreds. The spiritual pressure was almost ten times what they had experienced at the start of the test. Li Tian looked up to find his target from the very beginning.

Jiang Rou Xuan had not falter one bit and was climbing, unperturbed by the pressure too. He smiled when realising that his best friend was not struggling too. It seems like it is time for me to speed up my ascension, thought Li Tian. Li Tian pulled his straw hat lower to cover his eyes and double tapped his right heel. On that last tap, Li Tian pushed his entire body weight down and leaped upwards. He started to skip steps with every leap, swiftly overtaking many youths that started earlier than him.