Qualified

Star Blossom Alp, Cloud Stair

The tens of hundreds of contestants were ferociously racing towards the crimson summit of the Immortal Weapon atop the white clad stairs. The pain they felt in every corner of each of their cells couldn't be fathomed by a mortal. Some had painful expressions painted on their face, some had annoyed expressions whilst others were stoic and unimpressed by this much pain.

As they went up the stairs, you could see all manner of innate techniques; a young violet dressed maiden was inside a rhinoceros formation diagram and as the beast galloped, tremors could be felt miles and miles away. Not too far from her was a bald yet very handsome monk, he was simply performing consecutive one-leg jumps and with each hop, he would pass a lot of contestants — even Bolin couldn't discern what kind of attribute he was using, he was truly one of a kind.

Another dazzling participant was one of the two young masters of the arrogant folks that Bolin and his group had encountered during the puppet trial. He was enveloped by the diagram of a Thunder Dragon, he was right inside the dragon's belly, as it cruised upwards flying with immense speed. Yet next to him were two similarly fast individuals, a duo consisting of a sword wielder and sabre wielder.

The sword ascendant was akin to the flying immortals in myths, he stood upright on his sword with his hand clasped behind his back, blue blossom petals were mystically manifested in his trails. The sabre ascendant was none other than Kang Tian and he was the immaculate embodiment of fierce, there were none of that refine elegance with him; covered with sabre qi he simply ran but each of his step were desperately firm as if he was prepared to unsheathe his sabre to steal a life at any moment.

Ji Bolin as always was using his amped up Heavenly Eagle innate technique, Ji Yuan was sunk into shadows as it rushed to the top, Ji Meiling was using a peculiar footstep technique that allowed her move at a stable and ethereal rhythm as she climbed, Xi Wenling was atop an azure cloud and at first glance thunder, wind and water attribute could be sensed, Shi Bai had transformed and was running full throttle, Di Yan was riding a fiery five-coloured cloud as he surfed up the stairs and lastly Gu Qingge was riding a flute diagram just how a witch would ride a broom.

The difference between all these high profile contestants and the others were becoming more and more apparent — a solid 1300 to 1500 contestants had taken the lead. Suddenly when this leading group hit the third way mark from the peak, the trial entered its second phase.

"Your batch is way more astounding than any of those from the previous Millennium. Let's make things more difficult then." the authoritarian voice of the Marquis echoed out.

As the sound of the Redcloud Marquis' voice faded, all of a sudden a strong wind arose as the skies changed colour. An overwhelming sense of destructive pressure enveloped this entire space. Gravity was increased many folds abruptly.

From the air, an incomparably terrifying large moon appeared, standing in the void above the mountain. This moon shimmered with divine light and was 30,000 metres large, containing boundless might. Obviously one would think that the moon would appear inconsequential compared to the mountain but no, the moon gave off a sense of surrealism that it was way larger. The oppressive force was simultaneously directed towards the many contestants like a hammer smashing down from the heavens.

"What?" The crowd felt their hearts shaking, there was actually an extraordinary ordeal added to the already incomparably difficult trial ?

Many ascendants inclined their heads as they were forcefully slowed down. Ji Bolin entered his demonified state as his expanded body shimmered with boundless baleful runic light as he slammed into the stairs heavily, the impact causing parts of the heavenly eagle diagram to crack as it eventually shattered into pieces.

"Is this the Marquis Immortal King domain or a simple immortal art? Terrifying, so many people died with a single thought of his." A voice boomed throughout Bolin's mind, warring against the pain. As the sound of his inner voice faded, Ji Bolin activated two of his astral souls to the maximum as they blessed him with endless strength. A few silhouettes appeared alongside him within the boundaries of the white clad stairs.

They all shone with an incomparable baleful light, it was so dazzling that one wasn't able to look at him directly. Also, the might that exuded from him caused people to feel a sense of surrealism.

"Demon and Surrealism attribute?" someone mumbled. This young man was actually using these two attributes to grant himself shocking speed. He was so fast that it left those blinding after image

Ji Bolin's surreal avatars were miles apart from each other, where was the real one, at the forefront? Nobody knew exactly. He wasn't the only one to step up his game. For instance, the bald monk recited some ocular chant and immediately shone with resplendent golden runic light and was then able to continue to hop nonchalantly up towards the red summit.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" This was Bolin, the monk and Shi Bai as they stepped out, loud shockwaves by-product of their staunch steps, towering into the skies.

Rumbling sounds thundered out continuously as more and more contestants expanded their consumption of astral energy to offset the pressure with their various peculiar means. Any one of them that did not possess flawless foundation were the first to suffer. Under the endless gravitational force they would run out of astral energy and be crushed to death, transformed into red mist — RED CLOUDS.

However the Marquis was not an evildoer by any means despite his ruthlessness so if any contestant stopped or went down the stairs, he would silently teleport them out. They would forever mist the opportunities of ascending the mountain but they would be alive. A select few would even make a comeback in the future after being awakened by this setback while others would not, indeed different fates from the same incident.

None of the geniuses noticed but the Marquis was also helping them. Many had rushed to increase their cultivation base as they prepared for his final test, Ji Bolin and his group was the prime example of such a phenomenon. The immeasurable force acting on them forced everybody to exert their astral energy to its limits, any imperfection would be immediately noticed by them and hopefully corrected.

As these little monsters went up the force would appropriately increase too. Everything was proportional to the contestant cultivation base yet if they had too much of an easy time the force would also increase. This also helped the Redcloud Marquis to notice those with greater potential as he could witness how deep and solid their foundation was.

𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀

At the level of the summit, seated within a forest of red blossoms, an immortal palace hung suspended a few inches off the ground. Inside the palace a banquet was of order. The experts of the banquet could clearly see what was happening below.

Below them, there were a total of less than 1,400 contestants rushing up the mountain, each one trying more desperately than the last. The distances between them were decreasing at a growing pace, it wouldn't be long before they would arrive.

This trial tested the participants' will and foundation depth. Although the basis and foundation of a stellar martial cultivator were affinity and perception strength, the northern region was a harsh place. Here strength was first and foremost, only those who capitalised on their perception to build strength could be accepted as geniuses. This was why people in the Northern Region rarely had this segment as a test despite that they took affinity very seriously in the immortal realms. If one's foundation wasn't outstanding enough, how could there be any strength; why still talk about cultivation?

"Not bad, there's a few who ascended up to more than two thirds of the peak already. With such a solid foundation and strength, they should be able to barge into the 6th or 7th astral heavenly layers and connect with an appropriate constellation." In the banquet, an expert smiled and nodded.

"Not bad indeed. There's still more trying to ascend faster, there will definitely be people who will make a desperate final rush and steal the show. This time around, for this selection recruitment event, there are many talented geniuses from particle worlds who specially came to the immortal realms. Maybe, even I will be able to find a disciple I like here!" This middle aged man who spoke was clad in armour. His entire body had a tyrannical battle aura to it and that pair of eyes that were currently flickering with smiles, were extremely terrifying.

This person was so old that many forgot his name, an immortal king who roamed the immortal realms for thousands of millennials with the title War King. His strength was mighty, surpassing those on the same tier as him, he even had a small group of powerful immortal kings under his command. He fought under the banner of the Darknorth Immortal Dynasty numerous times for appropriate remuneration, against the forces of other supreme existences. It was unknown how much blood was on his hands.

"War King, you actually want to recruit disciples as well? Most likely you will be throwing those poor guys into doing the many missions of your War Tavern as training right?" An elegant scholarly-like character clad in Red laughed. This person appeared extremely young, around twenty to thirty years of age. He exuded a clean and neat aura, those who didn't know him would definitely have thought that he's just a little brat who just started on the pathway of cultivation.

But in fact, this Red-robed person who had a refined and scholarly look had already cultivated over 7,000 years. But given his cultivation base level, 7,000 years was already considered extremely young for him to reach such a level.

This person was named Yi Dong, the Red Cloud Marquis.

He had an even more transcendent might than the War King; because of the short period of time he had cultivated for, there was once a troop of immortal king experts who wanted to bully him and seize his treasures. Those thirteen immortal king tiered experts try to surround Redcloud yet they were all annihilated by him. There was also another much more grandiose story where a few hundred years after he stepped into the peak immortal king level, he slaughtered an entire immortal clan because they practised a despicable immortal art that used the virginity of young maidens. The ending was that the ancient immortal emperor who ruled this clan was killed after a fearsome battle that shook heaven and earth. This battle constituted his fame and imposingness which then resulted in him being appointed as the Redcloud Marquis.

Although the immortal emperor was only freshly promoted to that height, the feat of killing him was simply too extraordinary. Yi Dong's combat prowess was simply too astonishing. In the end, his potential is simply one of a kind. Under the Darknorth Immortal Emperor, he is one if not the strongest immortal king.

There were many who feared the War King for good reason, but Redcloud wasnt one of them. He who even dared to fight an emperor and succeeded at killing the immortal emperor how could he too not be feared throughout the region?

This was the reason why the War King tolerated his teasing.

"They are about to arrive. Let's see who will be qualified!" a beautiful female immortal king spoke with a visible smile on her face.

She had her immortal sense out since the very beginning and was carefully assessing a few sprouts. From the look of it about 300 participants would not make it to the selection. The unspoken agreement was that the few immortal kings present would absorb them into their forces. She was one of these scouts. She planned on taking on all non-selected maidens as well as a few astounding young heroes but none of the latter had caught her eyes still.

Women are often more entangled in their emotions than men, she who had reached such height sought to help these young ladies more than their male counterparts. She cannot recall how many of her female disciples fell for the wrong fellow and abandoned the pursuit of the Dao, much of them ended either sacrificing themselves for their lover or losing themselves in their feelings until being left heart broken.

Star Parasol Immortal King was her title and no one knows of her real name. Rumours have it that she abandoned her birth name when her loved ones died or that she is an orphan who grew up nameless. Nobody but her knows for sure what is the truth.

There were also two more peak tier immortal kings present at the banquet and they were conversing with each other about miscellaneous stuff. They weren't particularly interested in the contest and were here more so as not to disrespect Redcloud. The latter did not really care about face but the two didn't want to take any risk.

The old man with dark eyes was called Han, he was the founder of the Han Immortal Clan. They practised some uncanny immortal arts which many involved curses and hexes using causality laws. His people as well as him were very difficult individuals to deal with despite being quite weak at the start of their cultivation journey. Anyone would be much better off not engaging with them in a conflict. According to the legend, in his youth Han tossed a coin to decide which path to take while adventuring deep within some forbidden area and this led him to obtain the scriptures that are the foundation of his success.

The old woman with platinum grey hair and a single-leafed lotus mark on her forehead is Witch Ling. She unlike the others "doesn't have a force" under her command but rather several disciples who are always out adventuring in the immortal realms. She effectively has nine true disciples which she taught personally and an army of named disciples who receive their preaching either from her once in a century or by her disciples. Each of her nine pupils are infamous immortal kings and powerful ones at that.

Unknown to anyone she actually has a saint grade immortal foundation and practises a very weird avatar cultivation technique that requires her to cultivate several avatars who can only have one astral soul each. Furthermore, the avatar can only be bred after achieving immortal king level. Then when each avatar reaches the peak of the immortal king realm then they will be fused together with her original bodies and she will be able to break through.

Imagine how difficult it must have been to reach the realm of an immortal king with a single astral soul of the 5th heavenly layer, most would think of this feat as impossible. It took her dozens of millennials to reach the standard of being able to condense the avatars, and now the several avatars of her are out replicating this feat.

A simple gathering of 5 peak immortal kings has enough legends to write the plot for countless stories. How hard has it been for these five to reach that realm? How hard is it for them to continue going forward as most of their friends and family cannot keep up? Only their hardened hearts know.

"They are about to arrive so let's go into the last phase then. Redcloud, you are really ruthless. You have always valued character more than strength. I am curious to see who will retreat and who will not!" the giggling of the Star Parasol Immortal King amused the rest of them.

𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀

The exact 1,303 contestants left saw the summit. None of their resolutions could be questioned. They were truly admirable.

Those at the forefront had wide grins all over their faces while those at the back despaired, some even prepared to use some self-harming means to boost their own strength and speed for a final desperate rush.

When suddenly some froze, some retreated and others continued forward with faces filled with despair. Everybody fell into either one of these three categories, no exception. Even the talented Ji Bolin who usually had the demeanour of an unfettered immortal felt genuine gut-wrenching fear all the way down to the deepest part of his soul.

"I am going to die." These were the words in the minds of those who continued to rush; they were the ruthless ones, decisive people that were willing to die to achieve their goals — Ji Bolin, Kang Tian, Di Yan, the monk were part of this group.

"I cannot move forward but I will not retreat." These were the words in the mind of those that froze; an interesting bunch, too prideful to retreat but not strong willed enough to continue — Xi Wenling, Ji Menling, Shi Bai, the rhinoceros maiden were part of this group.

"Death. Flee." These were the words in the mind of those that retreated instantaneously; the down-to-earth ones, decisive people that know there is no shame in retreating in the face of certain death — Ji Yuan, Gu Qingge, the Thousand Blossom swordsman, the Thunder Dragon Young Noble were part of this group.

There is no telling who was right or wrong in their choice but as the first group arrived at the summit, one thing was very clear. They obtained their spots for the selection.

As soon as these ones set foot in the red blossom forest, the formless malicious intent dissipated. Those who were frozen or fleeing came back to their senses, some faster than others. Using all of their last means, some were qualified others not.

Of the group of 8 Sky Pill heaven chosen, only 4 made it to the selected 1,000; their rankings were 4, 9, 13 and 909 respectively.