Ch.9 The Mind Phase Continues and A/N's

(A/N---> I sincerely apologize for the late updates. Actually, my vacation just ended, and I fell ill recently. I was too tired to write a new chapter and couldn't find time to write this novel. And sadly, this kind of thing will happen often; I may not be able to update even a single chapter a week. But I will try my very best to at least upload a chapter or two a week, and I want you guys to know that I have no intention of dropping this novel, so you don't have to worry about that. I will continue writing even on my last breath because I like doing it and there is nothing that can stop me. I ask that the few who read this novel please be patient with me. Also, the trial is about to end very soon, so I may finish it by tomorrow in around 4 or 5 chapters. (As it's my rest day today, I have all the time in the world.)

Feng Jiang saw the memory in front of him shatter and collapse like glass and turn into sand before suddenly seeing the screen that shows up at the end of trials right in front of him.

[Congratulations, Feng Jiang, You have passed this trial. The trial observer has deemed you fit to receive the rewards of clearing the god-level stage instead of the hell-level stage. For context, each and every trial that you face is divided into 5 stages: normal, hard, insane, hell, and god. The trial of spirit that you faced was a god-level stage. The current mind stage is set to hell-level by the observer, but due to his intervention, you are to receive the reward for the god-level stage instead....Your reward has been decided; you're indeed a heaven-blessed individual; you have received, law power, God of Space-Time, The next trial begins; prepare yourself. Feng Jiang]

Feng Jiang was baffled, he had never heard of anyone comprehending the law of time except for his grandfather, a legendary individual who was said to have reached an even higher realm than his parents and had ascended to the realm above after passing his calamity tribulation. There were basically no records of anyone except him achieving comprehension of the law of time in his parents records. Feng Jiang had always looked up to his grandfather.

Feng Jiang saw his surroundings change; the memory that had turned into sand started to float and form a sandstorm. Feng Jiang put his arms around his face to avoid inhaling the sand. When he felt the storm die down, he opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by an endless desert of sand.

Feng Jiang knew that this trial was unlike anything he had ever read about and decided to go along with it. His first objective was to find his way back to any kind of civilization. After walking for days without food and water, his body had become frail, and his complexion made him look like a walking corpse. He was as pale as a piece of paper and extremely dehydrated making him look as thin as a stick.

Feng Jiang finally found a source of light except for the sun in his peripheral vision. Feng Jiang gathered his strength and ran towards the light source, disregarding his fatigue. After running for a few hours, he finally arrived in an old urban city that seemed desolate except for a few traders and the giant pillar in the middle of the city. He saw a giant crystal floating on the pillar, spinning and giving out light.

Feng Jiang hurried to the closest trading wagon and asked for a glass of water. The trader was an old man who seemed to be in his 60s; he was willing to help the young boy in front of him, free of charge. Feng Jiang was very grateful to the old man, but he had no money, so he couldn't repay him. So, Feng Jiang decided that he might as well help the old man set up his shop. Feng Jiang was aware that this was all fake and that this was meant to be a trial, but he had no idea what the trial was, so he decided to do whatever he wished, and the trial would have to appear in front of him regardless of what he does.

Feng Jiang spent the rest of the day helping the man trade with the other wandering merchants with his vast experience in commerce. Feng Jiang slept in the cart next to the old man, waiting for the trial to officially start or to give him a hint at the very least. The days went by, and finally, after a week or so, the old man decided to go to the next city. Feng Jiang followed the man along.

After a month of nothing happening, All Feng Jiang did was travel city to city with the old man, fed up he decided to leave the old man for a minute and go into the nearby woods and shout at the top of his lungs, "Come out orb, tell me, is this trial meant for me to experience the life of a mortal, because I have already done that? Why are you repeating something you have already done? This doesn't phase me; at most, I will live as a mortal for a hundred years before dying.

Feng Jiang didn't receive any response. But he noticed slight fluctuations in his surroundings.

When Feng Jiang went back to his and the old man's campsite, he found that everything was exactly the same as how he left it. This continued on for another month before finally something happened: he found himself in the middle of a robbery. He was in the body of a weak, young child and was not capable of unleashing his tremendous soul power. All Feng Jiang could do was utilize his small stature to dodge and weave attacks. Feng Jiang saw the old man, who was currently holding a sword and fighting off five bandits by himself, look towards him and mouth 'Run. Feng Jiang didn't want to run like a coward; his ego wouldn't let him leave without doing something.

But he didn't wish to die either; maybe this was part of the trial. What if he died before completing the actual trial? Wouldn't he have failed the trial then? For a split second, Feng Jiang's ego overpowered this rational part of his mind. He found a dagger next to a dead bandit whose corpse was near him. Feng Jiang picked up the dagger and used his experience as an assassin in his past lives to disappear in the shadows of the trees and completely hide his presence. He waited for the right moment to move.

Right when one of the bandits made a slip up, Feng Jiang moved like a snake and wrapped himself around him and strangled him to death. Before the others even comprehended their partner's death, Feng Jiang picked up a knife and threw it in the direction of one of the bandits; the knife hit his jugular vein, killing the bandit instantly. While this was happening, the old man got the jump on one of the dumbfounded bandits and ended his life. Feng Jiang found a bow and arrow next to one of the dead bandits corpses, hurriedly nocked the arrow, and shot the bandit that was about to hit the old man from behind. There were only 3 bandits left now. Feng Jiang next found a broken sword and aimed it right at the heart of the bandit that was rushing towards him.

Feng Jiang slid between the legs of the bandit, sweeping the bandit's leg off of the ground, and impaled him with the broken sword using the affect of gravity and momentum.

The remaining 2 bandits rushed towards Feng Jiang, now feeling gleeful, as they saw that Feng Jiang was now empty-handed, with no weapon to be seen nearby either. Right when the bandits reached Feng Jiang, he pulled out a dagger from his back that he had previously taken off of the ground at the beginning of his counterattack. He used the dagger as a throwing weapon and impaled the atrium of the incoming idiot who decided to rush in headfirst, then he used his corpse as a meat shield to conceal his body from the second bandit's vision.

While the bandits rushed headfirst towards Feng Jiang, the old man had caught his breath and rushed towards Feng Jiang to help him. By the time he reached there, he saw a massacre. Feng Jiang was sitting on the dead bodies of both the bandits and many other corpses lying around, all killed with unprecedented accuracy that would require decades of experience in the way of killing. Feng Jiang didn't have a drop of blood on him, meaning he killed them in the cleanest and fastest way possible. The old man was shook; he never thought the innocent boy that he fostered for months was actually such a ruthless killer.

Feng Jiang had no experience with actually killing someone; these could be said to be his first kills. In all his lives, he had only seen blood and murder from memories; he had never killed anyone himself. Right then, a blinding light shimmered into existence as if a god were descending, and Feng Jiang found himself face to face with the orb. His surroundings shattered, and he was back in the domain of emptiness. Feng Jiang looked at the orb and said,

"That's it, wasn't the trial too easy? I do not believe that a trial that is meant to groom the next Dao ancestor would be this easy."

The orb replied in the same androgynous deep voice as always, "Not every trial is as hard as the previous trials were. The trial was set to god level and was made intentionally hard by me. That's why you received rewards that you shouldn't have; those powers surpass this universe, and that wasn't meant to happen; the trial compensated you by giving you those powers. As for this trial, it was set to hell mode, with no intentional sabotage from me or the guardians spirits of the trials; as for why they didn't intervene, there are only two reasons for that: either it's because you're ordinary, which means they can't bother making it hard for you, or you're extraordinary, which means they don't wish to crush your spirit by making things hard for a once-in-a-generation genius such as you.

Feng Jiang understood it to a degree. Now he just waited for the reward, and it didn't take long.

[Congratulations, Feng Jiang, You have passed this trial, the trial of courage. This trial was meant to test your capabilities in sustaining the ego that every cultivator should have and the courage to not be a coward; only a genius with arrogance surpassing heaven is worthy of reaching the peak. This trial also tested your patience and ability to learn from past mistakes and experiences. You used the knowledge that you had acquired in your past lives to combat people who were far stronger than you. Despite being in a weaker body, you displayed courage that not every person has. The trial guardian has decided to gift you an extra ability: the active skill, 'Blessing of the War God, and the passive skill, '1 above all'. (1)]

Feng Jiang was interested in all the abilities that he had gained so far and was looking forward to gaining more. He said to the orb "Let's continue". 

[The next trial continues, The Trial of Seven Emotions.]

(A/N---> Like i said in the beginning sorry for the late updates, and my bad schedule, and you guys may think i am rushing but this was the original plan, and this is how i planned the trial to go since the beginning, i wanted the trial of the spirit to be the hardest, then mind and the body. It was supposed to get faster and easier for our MC, because he is becoming stronger with each trial, if he hadn't passed the spirit trial perfectly he wouldn't have been able to complete the mind trial so easily. 

1---> Due to a readers suggestion i have decided to make a chapter dedicated to explaining the powers that the MC gains from these trials, after the trial is over, originally i was planning to explain it along the journey suddenly, but i guess that's too cliche, and would be like plot armour that shows up right when the MC needs it the most. So for those who read, don't hesitate to provide ideas in the comments. 

Bye.)

(New A/N---> To those who read this atrocity before I proof read it and edited it, I am so sry, this chapter turned out horrendously but I have edited the vast majority of the mistakes I made and fixed most of the errors, such as grammatical mistakes, sentence segmentations, and overuse and repitition of words. Hope you stick with me.)