The Ruins

The three of them stood about 1 kilometer above this incredible sight. What they saw looked like an entire underground city. It could barely be called a ruin as everything was still in pretty good condition. At least all of the buildings were still standing. Most of the buildings seemed to be built out of a smooth white stone. The roofs were made out of dark wood and the roads were paved with this red brick-like stone. It almost looked like this place was lost in time. They also noticed something odd. The reason they could see this place fairly clearly. There were magic lamps that were everywhere in the city lighting it up. The 3 of them stared at this scene from afar for a while before they began to walk down to the city. They also saw trees growing everywhere, but she had no idea

The closer they walked towards this city, the creepier it got. They haven't noticed a single person living here. A city that doesn't have anything broken or destroyed along with lights everywhere that are still active, yet no people are walking around or making any noise. It really felt like they just stepped into a place that was separated by time itself. It didn't take them long to reach the city and it was incredibly beautiful. This place and Lunar Fox City couldn't even be compared. Everything here looked liked it was made by the finest craftsmen. If there were slums or commoners in the city, then you couldn't tell by looking at the buildings. Mira could only guess that there were no slums or commoners, at least that's what it felt like actually being right in front of the buildings here. Mira felt like it would be a great honor to live in a place like this. They walked around this place and saw big buildings, small buildings, some looked private and others looked like they were meant for the public. It looked like there wasn't anything in the buildings when they tried to look in. They kept walking around the city until Mira spoke

"Let's take a look in one of these buildings. It doesn't look like there are any people here and we don't know if these buildings actually have nothing in them." Mira said.

"I agree. It really looks like there is nothing here along with nobody living here. We might as well check the insides of a building." Maria agreed to Mira's proposal.

They walked over to a random building and went to open the door. When they tried to open the building, the door barely moved. Mira looked stunned at this door. She didn't feel like this door was locked, but it was just incredibly heavy. Mira tried to open it again, but this time she put her all into opening the door. She was able to push it open about a centimeter this time. Maria noticed this and was stunned! How heavy did this door weigh?! She's never seen something like this before.

"Help me open this door. We might have to spend some time trying to open it even with all of us trying together." Mira said to both Maria and Vulcan. They both nodded and got ready to open the door.

They all pushed together and were able to open it by about 3 centimeters before they had to stop and rest. They kept pushing and resting for the next 30 minutes before they finally opened the door enough to be able to walk in. They tried to go through the window, but when Mira hit it with her fist, she couldn't even crack it. Plus she ended up hurting her fist. Spending time opening the door was more feasible than trying to break in.

They were finally able to get this door open. They then walked inside and noticed that the place was almost entirely empty. There was furniture to sit on, but that was it. It looked like a house that someone moved out of and took everything with them except for some chairs and table. It was incredibly disappointing. Were all of the buildings like this? Did they have to go around and check every house individually? Suddenly they heard an almost mechanical-like voice from behind.

"Oh?! People are here!" It a said as it frightened Mira and Maria. They immediately took out their weapons and turned to face the door that they opened. They saw an earth-like person standing there until they heard its mechanical voice again.

"No need to be hostile! This place was meant for you two! Well, not you two specifically but it was meant for the younger generation. Come come, let me lead you to the place you're supposed to go as well as answering any questions you may have." It said again.

"Oh! My apologies. I'm the caretaker of this place. As you can see I'm a golem and have some form of intelligence. I mostly keep this place from looking run down. I don't have a name, so you can just call me Caretaker." The caretaker introduced himself.

Mira and Maria looked at each other for a while. They decided to store their weapons and decided to follow this thing. This caretaker was clearly not human and this place was in too good of condition for nobody to be here taking care of things. They also had quite a few questions.

"Very well, Caretaker. We will follow you for now. I'm Mira, this is Maria, and that's Vulcan. I have plenty of questions about this place." Mira said promptly.

"I will answer them to the best of my ability." It said back to her.

"What is this place?" Mira

"This place used to be somewhere the strong would gather to try to invent new technology, study Formations, Inscriptions, Weaponsmithing, Alchemy, and studying more efficient ways to cultivate. You could say this place is somewhere strong scholars gathered to learn, study, and share ideas." The Caretaker answered her.

"If there was such a place, then why does nobody live here now?" Mira asked another question.

"Well, such is the cultivation world. After the word spread of this place, the powers of the world felt threatened by such a place. Fear of their power, greedy for the resources and knowledge here, and angry that this wasn't in their kingdoms. This city here was essentially deemed as an enemy of the world. Even if this city was filled with strong people, they weren't strong enough to take on the world. They went to war. Most people that lived here lost their lives in the war. A lot of people fled to hide somewhere. Only the leaders along with a select few chose to stay. They wanted to create a place that could assist the future younger generations. The leaders worked on creating me, a formation that could create a barrier around this city to prevent the old monsters of the world from gaining the knowledge and resources here, and creating a series of trials that the future generations would have to go through in order to earn the rewards and treasures kept here. The trials also have some other features, but those are a secret for now." The caretaker answered with a detailed explanation.

Mira and Maria could kind of understand them becoming enemies of certain powers of the world. But enemies of the whole world? Either this caretaker was exaggerating, this place was really that incredible, or the people here were just that strong. Mira guessed that becoming an enemy of the world wasn't an easy thing to accomplish. For everyone in the world to want to destroy this place essentially means that there are enough benefits and/or fear to go around. Also, trials? Mira got an inheritance in her past life where there were trials set up for the person that was trying to get the inheritance. But trials from the inheritance were meant to test the strength and compatibility of the person receiving the inheritance. You could have enough strength to pass, but if you had low compatibility with the inheritance then you wouldn't receive it. This seemed different though. The caretaker said future younger generations. These trials are not meant to find someone to have their inheritance. Mira's thoughts got interrupted when Maria decided to speak.

"If this place went to war, then why are there no buildings destroyed?" Maria asked the caretaker.

"That's because I fixed them all!" The caretaker said proudly. Maria nodded and asked something else.

"Why is everything here so freakishly heavy and tough?"

"That was the result of some of the research done here. You could also call them a 'Right of Passage' of sorts. If you could not even smoothly open up these doors, then you weren't even worth a glance. That's what the doors were for and afterward, everything just started being made out of similar material, so now everything is freakishly heavy. Just so you know that just being able to open up the door smoothly requires someone in Core Formation Realm." The caretaker explained this to Maria and even Mira felt quite intrigued.

When they heard that they would only be able to open the doors here smoothly when they hit Core Formation Realm. At first, they thought that this seemed like a bit much. They were able to open it when all 3 of them pushed for 30 minutes. Doesn't this mean that they could defeat a Core Formation Realm? Mira knew that this wasn't the case. This only meant that it would take 30 minutes for them to just move a Core Formation Realm expert enough for them to walk past. They could probably attack this door for days with full strength in the exact same spot for days, maybe even weeks and they would still only be able to scratch it. They started to look at this place in a new light. If all of these houses had a similar door, then didn't that mean that everyone here was at least a Core Formation Realm expert? Insane! No wonder they were the enemy of the world. It's probably because the world is what they needed to deal with a group like this. Even Mira might've been inclined to attack this group with the rest of the world if she was strong enough. Mira usually doesn't like to bother her with things like going to war, but this place was crazy. The minimum requirement just to enter your own house was Core Formation. She couldn't even imagine the strength of the leaders that were here. If this place was allowed to grow, they might've grown into a dominant power of the world that was infinitely more advanced than the other nations, Kingdoms, or Sects. This was a place that could affect the entire world.

"What about these trials that you spoke of? What do they entail? How are they meant to help us?" Maria bombarded the caretaker with questions.

"Ah! Yes, the trials. Let me lead you to where they are located." The caretaker said and started walking off. The trio followed after him and he began explaining.

"The trials are limited to people in the Qi Condensation Realm and Foundation Realm and are set up to have a variety of challenges. They range from solving puzzles to killing large hordes of enemies. The point of the trials is to challenge and push each person to their limit. Whether, physically, mentally, or spiritually, you will be tested and tried for each trial. Most of the trials involve how well you can come up with solutions at any given time. There are a total of 20 stages in the trial and they get progressively more difficult the farther you go in the stages. Each stage is unique and can help one grow. There are also various benefits to completing the stage, but I've been told to not tell you anything regarding the benefits and rewards that the trials have to offer. These things are meant to challenge you and knowing what the reward is might affect your mindset. These trials are meant for one to experience the cultivation world without much danger. Well, there is danger, but it is more controlled. You can die while facing these stages. You aren't forced to complete the trial. I will tell you how you can exit it once we get there, but I will just tell you now that you are able to exit the trial if you feel like you are going to die. The stages will be set to accommodate your current Stage. So for Mira, it will accommodate your Stage 2 Qi Condensation Realm and for Maria, her Stage 3 Qi Condensation Realm. It wouldn't be much of a trial if someone in the lower stages of Qi Condensation had to fight against Peak Foundation Realm experts or Core Formation experts. There is no time limit to the trial itself or the stages you are in. You may wish to exit the Trial in a few days or you can take your time and take years to complete it. I do recommend staying inside the trial for as long as possible though." The caretaker continued explaining as he led them to the area where the Trial is located.

It didn't take them long to reach where the Trial was located. The caretaker led them to a ginormous tree. It was almost 1 kilometer high and was several hundred meters wide, maybe even more. In front of the massive tree was a pedestal that was completely black and stood 1 meter tall. Once the caretaker reached the pedestal, he began to speak to the trio again, but this time he was a bit more serious.