webnovel

19-22

Chapter 19 Becoming An Inhaler

After returning to his room, Will was onto the next treasure.

 

Clothes.

 

His current outfit actually looked like part of a zombie Halloween costume. He put his rings back where they belonged and looked at the clothes he'd gotten.

 

It seemed to be split 40/40/20 between girl clothes, boy clothes, and unisex looking clothes. Because God forbid anyone just ask.

 

He had actually noticed that. No one knew his gender, and no one asked. He didn't really know why.

 

Not that it mattered. He didn't really care.

 

After he took off the bad clothes, he perused through the ring for something that was similar. The closest thing he found was a brown outfit that was a lot nicer. It was in the unisex category. It would do.

 

He slipped it on for now. He'd definitely need to take a bath at some point, as well, but he was busy right now.

 

He went into his ring and pulled out the plastic looking thing. It looked like someone had broken one of those little plastic buckets kids play with in the sand and took one of the pieces. It was white, vaguely triangular, and the top seemed to curve slightly forward.

 

He looked at it closely. It felt like a spiritual material. But he didn't know much else. The sign at the junk room hadn't had much info either. He put it back in his ring.

 

He took out the fire. The one that never went out. He opened the box's lid and inhaled it.

 

It felt like it was getting easier the more he did it somehow. But more importantly, the fire.

 

He understood it now. It was just like it said on the sign. It was a fire that did nothing but emit light. And you could only get rid of it until it was the size it was now, and then you couldn't get rid of it anymore.

 

He put it in dantian four, the empty one. He felt a lot of nothing. That was about what he'd expected from the fire that does nothing. It would probably be good to mix with something later, though. Not the life mixture. He took it out and put it in the extraordinary meridian running down his back.

 

He looked at the rings on his right hand. He had too many. All empty. But they were supernatural items, so he wouldn't just toss them. But he was pretty sure they might explode if he put them in his storage ring. There had to be a reason they were left behind, right?

 

So he needed to use them somehow. He felt like he had an idea how. He took off all of them, then set four aside. He'd give those to Li Rencai. He'd probably want them.

 

He moved another ring away from the rest. He focused, and inhaled. His plan worked. He managed to inhale… space. Or something like that. It seemed like the intricate structure holding together the storage space in a storage ring didn't work as well when it was forcefully removed from the ring. Shocker.

 

He observed it. It looked like a liquid that was bigger on the inside. The distance through it was more than the distance around it. It was pretty cool honestly. He put it in the fourth dantian. He felt spacious. It wasn't a very nice feeling, honestly.

 

He took it out and put it on his spiritual roots. The next one he took, he'd get in a better state.

 

He moved over another ring and inhaled. It seemed like he'd inhaled the link between the ring and the storage space with it. Could he connect this to something else?

 

He took out the plastic thing, brought it to his mouth and tried to exhale the link onto it.

 

It didn't stick. He inhaled it back up as he put the plastic thing away, then slapped it on his spiritual roots.

 

He brought over another. He inhaled. It looked like you could probably store a single banana in the thing he inhaled. But you could probably store it, and that was improvement. He slapped it on his spiritual roots.

 

He inhaled another one. This time, it was mostly intact. He put it on his spiritual roots and grabbed another.

 

He inhaled. It was almost completely intact. Spiritual roots. He grabbed another.

 

He inhaled. It was completely intact but was a bit scuffed up. Spiritual roots. He grabbed another.

 

He inhaled. It was in perfect shape. It went on his spiritual roots, he had a plan.

 

He had ten left. He brought one over and inhaled.

 

He examined the parts of it. It seemed to be composed of the link, the 'space', and some energy that maintains it.

 

The space wasn't really just space, it was the dimensional pocket that allowed the storage ring to function. The maintainer worked as a kind of filling to keep it from collapsing.

 

His plan was to create a big link to get that marble into his dantian. He would send five rings worth of maintainer to the links, and five rings worth to the spaces.

 

He put his plan into action. He inhaled the nine other rings and made the big link. The spaces went into the empty dantian, because having that many dimensional pockets floating around inside him couldn't be safe.

 

He brought out the marble. He was pretty sure he knew how to use the big link. He just had to do what he did with a storage ring, right?

 

He opened the box it was in, and did it.

 

It worked. He tore down the link and put it in the dantian with the spaces.

 

Then he observed the middle dantian. He noticed that the mouse qi wasn't doing anything. He took it out and slapped it on his spiritual roots.

 

He picked up and put on the rings he'd saved as gifts as he observed the dantian. It had just started up its chaosifying.

 

One of the main reasons he'd wanted to get it in his dantian was because of its limitations. It was able to make spiritual energy chaotic, and the chaotic spiritual energy would come back while still chaotic and get sent out even more chaotic. But it didn't repeat endlessly. The more chaotic, the higher the chance of it going further away, out of range of the marble. Even if someone made a one-way spiritual energy barrier like his dantian was right now, it would be broken by the chaotic spiritual energy eventually.

 

But he didn't have that issue. He got to have it bounce around and keep hitting the marble repeatedly, getting more and more chaotic.

 

It also made his auto-cultivation better, since he had another thing that sucked in spiritual energy, though less so than the array. Because of that, he wasn't disappointed that the spiritual energy being chaotic didn't seem to be doing anything.

 

He also felt like he might be making another really dangerous thing. What his dantian walls could survive were a lot more than what everything else could. Like infinitely more, it was absolute.

 

Which meant he had no way of knowing what would happen if this stuff left his dantian. Which meant he might have gained a second end-of-the-world scenario!

 

Apparently he was a collector now. How fun. Well, it couldn't get out, so it was fine. He also had some insane intimidation factor now, as well. Though, he wasn't really hoping for that.

 

But the spiritual energy saga was done. Now it was time for Will to learn the sword. Or something like that. He was playing with the sword intent slab.

 

He brought it out in a spot where it would fit. The room was big, so it wasn't too hard to find one. Then, he deactivated the barrier, following the instructions that were written on its pedestal.

 

He looked at the remnant sword intent. His Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor let him understand it.

 

The swordsman was certainly mad. It wasn't like the fun, cool, mad that they called cool people, either. It wasn't the mad or crazy or insane that people were so often called. Heck, people would say "he's crazy!" because they refused to cut off their arms when some young master told them to. This was nothing like that. This wasn't even like those killers who lick their blade while giggling because they're addicted to killing.

 

This was a man suffering from hallucinations and manic episodes. He was just actually fully insane. His sword ability was not because of his madness, not in tandem with his madness, but in spite of his madness. It was clearly profound in some ways, but in so many others it just felt like ramblings in the form of an intent. It was somewhat interesting how he could learn all of this from just a remnant sword intent. It would probably be really useful against an actual swordsman one day.

 

The things he learned from it were interesting. But he couldn't make use of the knowledge. He didn't really have the will for sword intent. He didn't even have the will to sit still for a few minutes.

 

He moved closer and inhaled. He looked at the remnant sword intent he'd just inhaled. It seemed the word 'remnant' really did mean something in this case. It was like the outline of sword intent without any of the sharpness or material. To compare it to a real sword, it would be like a bunch of white fog in the outline of a sword. It was honestly pretty interesting. But it wasn't useful. He put it in the extraordinary meridian opposite the fire one.

 

He moved on and took out the mirror. It was a mirror with a handle, with the structure made out of metal. The mirror was cracked, though still held in the frame. He held it in his hand. He didn't feel much difference. He hadn't cultivated manually recently, so he put it down and cultivated for a few seconds. It was faster than it used to be, but he'd put a bunch of qi on it so that made sense. It wasn't that much faster, though. It seemed spiritual energy worked better for that kind of thing.

 

He picked up the mirror and tried it again. There appeared to be no difference. It seemed like this was something for people who actually cultivated, unlike him who just inhaled. It was disappointing, but it would be useful if he ever tried actually cultivating at some point.

 

He put the mirror away and took out the mask next. He was curious what it would make him look like. He was two hims that were the same person but also looked different in life. He might end up looking like a mix between the two or something. He put the mask on.

 

He looked like himself. Exactly like he had right before he put it on. Well, he hadn't expected much. He took it off and put it back in his ring.

 

He was bored, now. The rest of the stuff he had wasn't really that interesting. So he wanted to do something else. But what would he do?

 

He decided to head to the person who'd given him the last quest. The old man.

 

After a bit of walking, he was at the alleyway store. The door creaked as he walked inside.

 

"Really? Can you not just leave me alone, brat?"

 

"I need something to do."

 

"Can't you go play with your brat friends?"

 

"Don't have any."

 

"Then go make some. Now go."

 

Will had an idea. Maybe he could join a sect. That would be something to do. If nothing else, at least the admission test could be fun.

 

"Do you know of any sects I could join?"

 

The old man looked at Will like he was an idiot.

 

"Aren't you pretty much a baby? Why would anyone sect recruit a baby?"

 

Will was a bit annoyed.

 

"Do they have an age requiwement, usuawwy?"

 

The man looked thoughtful for a moment.

 

"Now that I'm thinking of it, they usually don't do they? I don't think babies trying to join is a common enough issue to make rules over."

 

Will saw a bit of hope.

 

"So whewe would I go to join a sect?"

 

The old man thought about it in his head, trying to think of any sects that would be doing admissions soon. He could only think of one.

 

"I think the Brightrose Sect might be having admission tests around this time?"

 

Will was excited.

 

"Where are they?"

 

The old man begrudgingly opened his chest and pulled out a large map.

 

"Right here."

 

He pointed his finger at a spot labeled 'Brightrose Sect'. Then he pointed at another spot on the map, this one unmarked.

 

"This is where we are now."

 

He rolled up the map and held it out to Will.

 

"Here, the admission tests should be starting in a day or two. If you weren't lying about finishing the delivery, then you should be able to make it."

 

The old man seemed satisfied about something.

 

"But that's only if you leave soon enough. So you best get out of my store and get going now."

 

Will touched the map without taking it, copying it, then smiled brightly.

 

"Thanks owd man!"

 

He ran out the door and back to Li Rencai's house to share the news. He asked a maid for directions and found Li Rencai and his family in some sort of living room or something. Will wasn't sure. He looked at everyone and began his announcement.

 

"I'm going to join a sect!"

 

Li Rencai spoke.

 

"Is there any particular reason you've decided to do so now?"

 

"Bowedom."

 

He remembered the storage rings he had left for everyone.

 

"Oh, by the way, there are fouw stowage wings in my room. They're a gift for aww of you."

 

Everyone was a bit surprised. It was only when they remembered the sheer quantity of rings the kid usually wore that they calmed down a bit. Will told them all how to use them, then continued.

 

"The sect's name is Bwightwose Sect, I don't know much about them other than the admission test being soon."

 

Xu Lanhua spoke.

 

"Are you sure you're ready? You don't need to leave if you don't want to."

 

Will smiled.

 

"I know. And I'll be suwe to come back and visit fwom time to time."

 

She seemed satisfied with the answer, so Will said "Bye!" and ran off.

 

He had an admission test to catch.

 

He headed over to his snake. It seemed like the destination was about a day away at full speed.

 

"~We're going to a new place this time. It's that way.~"

 

He pointed in the direction they were heading. It was somewhat opposite the direction to Dragon Flame City.

 

"~Full speed again?~"

 

Will nodded.

 

"~It's really far, so we won't be able to make it in time if we don't go full speed.~"

 

"~We're on a time limit for this one?~"

 

"~Yep. And it'll probably take a day even at full speed.~"

 

"~Alright then. You ready to set off?~"

 

Will nodded.

 

"~Of course.~"

 

And with that, the snake set off.

Chapter 20 Two Year Old Who Is Not Lost And Did Not Run Away From Home

Will was on the road again. Except without the road part, because why would a snake need a road? They were going in as close to a straight line as possible, though not a totally straight line since they needed to avoid obstacles.

 

It had been an hour since they set off when Sarah started talking to him.

 

<<So, what's with the whole sect thing? Is it really just boredom?>>

 

<Yeah, mostly. There's some other reasons, like possible benefits or whatever, but it's mostly just boredom.>

 

<<I expected as much. Do you think they'll let in?>>

 

<How would I know? Shouldn't you tell me? barely even know what a sect is.>

 

She thought about it. It was a hard question. Most two year olds don't try to join a sect. They're either being taught martial arts to prepare for cultivation in a clan or family or whatever, or they're just doing two year old things. Even for orphans, they wouldn't try to join a sect.

 

It was a pretty common thing for orphanages in certain places to kick out young children because they couldn't afford caring for them or needed to make space. But that was usually, like, five year olds. Two years old was too young for pretty much any orphanage to kick out.

 

Not to mention the admission tests. They weren't exactly child's play. Even though the age requirements they had were usually on maximum age, that didn't mean they would just go easy on the participants. Though participants usually wouldn't die, there were still real risks involved.

 

In conclusion, she couldn't be sure.

 

<<I don't know. It's not something that usually comes up.>>

 

<Alright then. Even if they don't let me, I'm sure I'll find something else to do instead, right?>

 

<<Yeah. >>

 

A bit after their conversation ended, Will realized how tired he was. He'd been up for a while now, so it wasn't really shocking. But he was also riding a snake at a cool bajillion miles per hour. And he'd prefer not to fall off.

 

Thinking about it further, couldn't he just half sleep? Leave some consciousness mapping and holding on properly, and let the rest sleep. He decided to go with that. He split his consciousness, and half slept for the rest of the ride.

 

They arrived at the destination at noon the next day. The trip had taken about a full day.

 

Will half-woke up, which, since he was half-sleeping, was actually a full-wake up even though it only contained half the waking up of a normal wake up overall. In other words, he was fully awake now.

 

He was debating what to do with the snake. Normally he'd leave it hidden, but this was a sect, and wouldn't being able to tame a giant snake be a desirable trait in a sect disciple? But then again, he didn't want to stand out too much.

 

He wanted to hit that perfect main character level of standing out, where he'd have as many things happening to him as possible. Not so much that everyone was scared of him, but not so little as to go unnoticed. In that context, giant snake was almost certainly a nono. So he had to leave it around here somewhere.

 

There was a forest here, so the snake would be able to hide, but it might also get attacked by the sect's cultivators. Hmm, would he have to send it away, then?

 

But how would he contact it again later? Wait, he had a contract with it. Couldn't he communicate with it like he did with Sarah? Through some mental link? He gave it a shot.

 

<~Hey, snake, can you hear me?~>

 

"~Yeah?~"

 

It worked, but the snake was just hissing out loud instead of telepathically.

 

<~Can you try transmitting through the link I'm speaking now?~>

 

<<~Like this?~>>

 

It was speaking telepathically now, so everything was in order.

 

<~I'm gonna walk the rest of way from here. This place will probably have cultivators around it a lot, so it's best for you to head off somewhere else now. I'll call through link if I need your help.~>

 

<<~Alright.~ >>

 

Will hopped off and started walking. He was heading for a small town just outside of the sect. The sect appeared to be an area surrounded by the largest wall Will had ever seen. It was made out of a pinkish white marble-like material, and he couldn't even tell how tall it was. It was massive, though, probably a mile tall at least. He doubted it was just that, but he'd never seen how long a mile looked standing upright, so he couldn't tell.

 

The town was surrounded by a much smaller grey stone brick wall. The gate at the front was particularly large, with an equally large road leading to the sect's gate in a straight line. The town inside seemed pretty well-off. It seemed to be especially bustling currently, which was a good sign. It being like this meant there was a good chance the admission test wasn't over yet.

 

The guards at the gate just gave him a friendly nod as he walked past into the town. He supposed vetting entry wasn't that big of a deal when they were right outside a sect. Anyone who caused trouble in the town would probably just be shot with a laser beam or whatever cultivators did to attack people.

 

It wasn't hard to find information on the admission test. This was because there were flyers put up pretty much everywhere.

 

As far as he could tell, there was no minimum age restriction, only a maximum age one. The test seemed to consist of three trials, though there wasn't any info about what they were.

 

On the day of the testing, participants were allowed to stay in the waiting area until it started. They seemed to be providing free food and drink there, as well as some other stuff. It also seemed like today was the day of testing. It seemed like all he had to do was head over to the people at the sect entrance to sign up, so Will headed over.

 

He arrived quickly, though not as fast as he could've since he was still trying that footwork switching thing he'd been working on. It was still a bit slower than just using Wind Dance, though it wouldn't be for long.

 

To the right of the sect's gate were two women standing underneath a three walled canopy. Judging by the sign hanging there, they seemed to be the ones he had to talk to.

 

The woman on the right seemed like a serious woman in her mid-thirties. But even though she looked serious, she was smiling slightly. Will got the impression that she cared deeply about the sect, and took her role very seriously, but because she cared about the sect so much she was happy about new disciples coming. Or he was just making stuff up. It's not like he knew her. She could be an unserious woman who wasn't very expressive who was happy because she was a sadist excited for all the test participants to struggle. He hoped it was the former, but he couldn't be sure. It's not like he was good at reading people.

 

The woman on the left seemed like a laid-back, serene kind of person. She looked like she'd be very kind, but a bit clumsy. Though Will had no way of knowing if that was actually the case. She gave off the feeling of a big sister, or maybe a young aunt. She seemed to be in her thirties or so if Will had to guess, though she may be in the hundreds considering that this was a sect. She was smiling brightly.

 

Her eyes looked to be pretty much completely closed, as well. Will wasn't sure how she could see like that, but the way she moved her head to face him gave him the impression that she could.

 

"Are you lost, little one?"

 

Her voice was soft and airy as she crouched down to speak to him. She seemed to be showing genuine concern for him.

 

Will, however, was not a lost child.

 

"No. I'm here fow the test."

 

The serious woman spoke.

 

"If you're not lost, then I'd suggest you head back. The admission test isn't something to be taken lightly."

 

"I'm not taking it wightly. I know the wisks and want to participate."

 

The serene woman looked a bit worried now.

 

"Do your loved ones know that you came here?"

 

Will thought about it. Loved ones. He didn't have those. He was an orphan, and he didn't love any of his parents when he wasn't. The closest thing he had to family was Sarah. Well, in that case, Sarah certainly knew he was here, so his answer was yes? Whatever.

 

"They'we dead. I'm an orphan."

 

The woman looked a bit sad as she looked at him with pity.

 

"I'm sorry to hear that. But even without your parents, are there not still people who care for you?"

 

Will felt the woman was good at dealing with kids. He felt that her words would surely resonate with a young orphan who ran away from their orphanage in secret. But Will wasn't that. He did have a few people who cared about him, though, at least. He nodded.

 

"A few."

 

The woman smiled at him with a hint of sadness.

 

"Then I'm sure they must be worried sick right now, wouldn't you agree?"

 

Will shook his head.

 

"No."

 

The woman showed a look of confusion. Then she seemed to understand something and spoke.

 

"Did you tell them that you planned to come here?"

 

Will nodded.

 

"Yes."

 

"Then did they give you permission to take the admission test?"

 

"I don't need permission fwom them."

 

"If you left without permission, don't you think they'd be worried?"

 

Will was tired of this now.

 

"I didn't 'weave without permission', I just weft. They aren't my cawetakers, they're just some peopwe I hewped."

 

He remembered Sarah. The wording of the questions had made him only think of the Li family.

 

"And a sword! Thewe's also my sword. She cawes about me. I think."

 

He wasn't actually sure about that.

 

<You care about me, right?>

 

<<Yeah? Did you think I hated or something?>>

 

<No. I just wasn't sure.>

 

"She does!"

 

The kind lady he was talking to was looking utterly baffled by this point.

 

"Your… sword?"

 

Will remembered about that now. Talking swords weren't actually common occurrences. He was planning to hide that. Well, it was too late for that now, and it's not like it mattered much anyway.

 

"Yeah. Talking sword."

 

He held up Sarah for them to see. She was in her sheath right now. Sarah took that as her cue to talk.

 

"Hey."

 

Both of the women were clearly shocked. Will decided to make use of this opportunity.

 

"I have a talking sword, so wet me take the test okay? I can handwe it."

 

Seeing the women didn't seem sure yet, Sarah came in with another assist.

 

"It's not a lie. They can handle it."

 

The women weren't as shocked the second time, and calmed down quickly. The women looked each other in the eyes for a moment. Then the serene woman who had been crouching stood up. The serious woman started speaking, grabbing a scroll from a table behind her and pulling a quill from her storage ring as she did.

 

"Alright, kid. Can I get your name?"

 

Will hesitated for a moment. He'd never been asked for his name like that. Thinking further, he was pretty sure fae weren't a xianxia thing, right? And the wording of the question would technically just mean he'd be giving permission for the attempt to gain his name, since it was "get" instead of "have". So he told the woman his name.

 

"I'm Will."

 

She went to write it down, then froze, turning to Will.

 

"How is that spelled?"

 

They wouldn't know what he was talking about if he started saying English letters, would they?

 

"Hewe, I'll show you."

 

He unsheathed Sarah and wrote his name in the dirt, underlining it so they didn't write it upside-down, and resheathed her again. Both women looked confused at the name, but they both shrugged it off, with the serious one writing it on the scroll. Once she was done, she put the scroll and quill back where they came from and spoke again.

 

"You can head in. A disciple will guide you to the waiting area once you enter."

 

Will smiled brightly.

 

"Okay! Thanks!"

 

He skipped off to the gate and stepped through.

 

The change was immediate. The spiritual energy here was incredibly thick. It also felt a bit… calmer? He got the feeling it wouldn't give people qi deviation like standing over his arrays would.

 

The calm spiritual energy reminded him of his dantian full of very not calm spiritual energy. He checked in on it to see the progress.

 

The spiritual energy looked to be constantly moving around at a ridiculous speed. It still wasn't having any effects, though. He brought his attention back to the task at hand.

 

He noticed someone coming towards him. It was a teenage girl. She looked down at him as she arrived.

 

"Are you… uh… a test participant?"

 

She seemed unsure, which was understandable since she was probably expecting to guide someone who wasn't a baby.

 

"Yes."

 

With the confirmation, the awkwardness was replaced with a cheery smile.

 

"Alright! Then follow me!"

 

Will nodded and followed the girl. It wasn't for long, as the location they were heading towards was pretty close to the gate. It was barely a two minute walk.

 

The waiting area was a huge building even larger than Li Rencai's house. Especially the height. That was a lot higher than Li Rencai's house. Will was led down a hallway until he arrived at a big room, with a bunch of food on a huge table in the center. There was even a bunch of women on a stage playing music, though not anything good. At least not to Will. It sounded like something that would play as background music at a lake area. Only with more erhus and zithers and whatever else they were playing up there. He only knew those two. Not as in he only recognized those two out of the instruments he saw on the stage, but as in he knew those were names of instruments. He didn't have a clue what they looked or sounded like.

 

The guide pointed around telling him where and what everything was before leaving Will to his own devices.

 

His own devices included eating. He ate a bit of everything and was full for the first time in a long time. After eating, his next stop was the bathroom.

 

Not to use it or anything. He just needed a place to stab himself.

 

He went down the huge hallway off the left side of the banquet hall, took the first right he saw, and walked down that huge hallway. At the end of the huge hallway was another huge hallway heading off to the right. Along the right side of this hallway were at least a hundred evenly spaced doors. This was where the bathrooms were.

 

Opening the door to an unoccupied bathroom, Will found himself in yet another hallway. Though not a huge one this time. There were three doors other than the entrance.

 

After locking the entrance door behind him, Will headed to the door on the right wall. This door led to the changing rooms. Inside the room, Will was greeted by an open area to change in with racks and closets and a large mirror on the left wall. On the back wall were five stalls with curtains to change in, with a mirror on the back wall, a closet on the left wall, and a rack on the right wall in each. On the back wall to the left of those were five stalls with doors with a closet on the back wall, a mirror on the left wall, and a rack opposite the closet in each. All the closets were full of clothes, while the racks had none. The room made Will annoyed so he left.

 

The door on the left side of the hallway led to a shower and bathroom room. It had five showers out in the open on the right wall, five showers in alcoves on the left wall, five showers in alcoves with curtains next to those ones, five showers rooms with doors on the right side across from the curtained alcoves, five full bathroom stalls with a shower included on the back wall, and five full bathrooms with a shower included with full coverage doors to the left of the stalls. Of course, there were also racks and closets on the wall the door was on and in the bathrooms. Will left, once again annoyed.

 

The door on the back of the hallway led out into a locker room. There were about a hundred lockers lined up on the right wall. Opening a few, it seemed like every single one had different clothes in it, and every single one had an empty space to put more clothes in it. The center of the room had even more lockers, two lines just a bit shorter than the right wall placed back to back with each other. Every ten or so meters, there was a gap so that someone could cross to the other side of the locker wall. The left wall had a mirror spanning the whole thing. There was a door on the back wall. Will used his footwork to head to it.

 

Opening the door, Will found another annoying room. It looked like a hot spring. Except more fancy. It had a big pool in the center, with a waterfall at the back of it. There were also four doors on the side walls. The ones on the left had blue door frames, while the ones on the right had pink ones. Each side had a regular sized door up against the wall he entered through, and a large gate-like doorway in the middle. He opened up the small door on the left side and looked inside. It was another hot spring identical to the middle room. The right side was exactly the same.

 

Looking around, he found a way to change the temperature of the water, as well as add bubbles or jets. All three rooms had the same thing. After that, he found a way to open the gate or remove the wall entirely. There was also a way to link multiple pools into one long one. This could be done with the wall still up as well so there would be a gap under the wall full of water. All the settings for the pool, including temperature, could also be different for multiple pools even if they were connected. The temperature wouldn't spill over to the other pool, either.

 

And all of those settings could be locked, in each side room, so that only people in that room could connect it with the others or adjust the walls or the gate or whatnot.

 

The whole place was sickeningly opulent. Who would even make something like this? And the whole thing was repeated over and over down the whole hallway. How could anyone afford this!? And why would they make it even if they could!?

 

Whatever. It didn't matter. He was here to stab himself. He stored his outfit in his storage ring, then pulled out the knife.

 

He stabbed himself four times as quickly as he could, then took a healing pill. Once he healed, he did it again. He now had nine dantians. It also meant the numbers he gave the old ones changed. He put the knife back in his ring and moved to get dressed again. Then he realized. He could take a shower. He went back to the shower room, hopped into an alcove and washed up. It was a bit of a challenge considering he couldn't let go of a sword, but he made it work.

 

After drying off he went to the changing room. He was somehow able to find clothes that fit him. It was a bit surprising. He grabbed an outfit that looked pretty similar to what he was wearing before and some underwear and got dressed.

 

He really felt better than ever now. He was clean, full, not thirsty, and had more dantians than any human should ever have. He headed back to the banquet hall with a bright happy smile.

Chapter 21 Emotional Stairs

Will entered the banquet hall. He was pretty sure the test would be soon. It was really exciting.

 

But he was responsible, and just because he was excited didn't mean he would make mistakes. He mentally checked over everything to make sure he wasn't missing anything. As he thought about it, he remembered his dantians. Not just the amount he'd increased them to, but what was in them. And the one that was auto-cultivating. They would probably notice that, wouldn't they?

 

Could he make it stop doing that? He could just stop letting the spiritual energy in, but that would just make it bunch up around the dantian, not stop it from coming towards him. Could he stop the suction, maybe?

 

He tried to shut out the suction. It took a bit of fnaggling, but he managed to get it working after a few tries. Hopefully they wouldn't investigate him if there wasn't anything outwardly suspicious like that.

 

He had some suspicious stuff in his storage rings, but he wasn't sure they'd check that, and if they did he could probably explain it away pretty easily. The only thing left was Sarah.

 

The women from earlier hadn't asked, but he couldn't be sure there wouldn't be a repeat of the Dragon Flame Clan incident.

 

<Sarah, if they ask about you, try to not make everyone scared of me again, okay?>

 

<<Alright, I'll see what I can do.>>

 

<Thanks. >

 

Now he had pretty much all his bases covered. All that was left was to wait. Which was the worst, but whatever. He decided to look around at his competition. Or not competition. He didn't know whether they were competing or just taking the test at the same time or what.

 

While he was definitely the youngest, he wasn't the only one who looked way too young to be here. If he was going by his age in the other world, then there were definitely a good few under it.

 

He didn't see anyone who looked old in the crowd. Actually, some definitely looked somewhat old, but they didn't look like they were old. He got the impression they just looked older than they were.

 

Most people seemed to be female, or at least looked like they were. But there was still a lot of variation in the crowd. There was one girl barely taller than he was carrying a sword bigger than a grown adult, a regular-sized teenage girl carrying an axe the same size as the other girl's sword, there was even some woman holding an orb. Was that her weapon? He wondered whether it was some spellcasting thing or if she just hucked it at people.

 

There were actually multiple people with orbs. Not many, but more than just her. The orbs all looked slightly different from each other, so maybe some were for spellcasting and some for hucking. He couldn't say.

 

He also noticed some people that didn't look quite human. Like, one guy had rocks on his face. Some seemed like the results of practicing a technique, but others seemed like they were some kind of mutation. Bloodlines maybe? There were also some that he was pretty sure just weren't human. Like one girl who was covered in blue scales and had webbed fingers. Maybe a fish-person? Sea-person? Something like that. He also saw a few people with animal ears, as well.

 

Of course, them not being humans was just conjecture. He didn't know how they classified humanity here. Nor did he know much about the people in question other than what they looked like.

 

There weren't many of them, but it was interesting to see the variation. It also made him a bit less worried about his dantians being seen. He knew what he had going on was way weirder than any of these people, obviously, but the diversity on display at least meant he probably wouldn't get the witch treatment over it.

 

It also made him a bit worried.

 

Will honestly wasn't particularly strong right now. Even with those kidnappers he killed, he only won because he kept using tricks. When they had been fighting fair and square, he had barely damaged them. And if Sarah had been right back then, they were only beginner qi gathering. That meant he was capable of beating eight early qi gathering, as long as none of them had any idea what the fuck was going on. In other words, all it took was a slightly above beginner qi gathering cultivator who took him at all seriously and he'd be done for. He'd gotten stronger since then, sure, but it wasn't by leaps and bounds. At most he'd be about three times as strong, which was a decent bit, sure, but not nearly enough to make him not suck.

 

If any of these trials was about combat, he'd probably be done for. Though there were probably some types of combat trials that he could handle.

 

He turned his attention back to the outside world as he heard someone yelling something. Listening closer, they seemed to be doing something before the trials started.

 

Apparently, the Brightrose Sect cared a lot about fairness in this test. Particularly in regards to wealth. Any items stored in a test-taker's storage ring was not to be taken out during the trials. Only things placed in the ring during the trials could be taken out during the trials. To make sure this rule was followed, they were doing something to the rings that would let them know when someone broke the rule and how. They were also offering temporary storage rings to anyone who didn't have a storage ring already.

 

Of course, the rules for weapons were a bit different. They were basically taking the weapons and temporarily sealing them so that they all were about equivalent. As for weapons that were too weak, they were temporarily reinforcing them. So whether someone had a high-rank spirit sword or a rusty dagger, neither would have much advantage. They also had a whole bunch of weapons to borrow, as well.

 

Clothing and armor would also be sealed, and there was a bunch available to borrow. The exception was if they had an effect integral to the owner's fighting style, in which case it would be dealt with on a case by case basis.

 

As for trinkets and whatnot, if they weren't an integral part of the owner's fighting style, they were to be stored. Except for life-saving treasures. They were also giving one to test-takers for the duration of the test in case something went wrong.

 

Overall, Will approved of the whole thing. It gave him a good feeling about the sect's character and morality. Like he wouldn't be forced into a random duel and then have his gaping sword wounds treated with regular bandages and nothing else.

 

But more than morality, it showed that the people in charge of this sect weren't stupid idiots. If one person goes in with a sword that kills everything, and another person goes in with a rusty kitchen knife, the time it takes them to beat something is mostly just indicative equipment and that's it. There's no way to accurately measure much of anything like that. And yet Will got the feeling a lot of sects probably did it like that.

 

But it seemed like not everyone felt the same as Will about the policy. Particularly the rich people who had expensive stuff were all very upset about it. One guy in an outfit lined in gold with a clearly expensive sword was absolutely furious. So furious he was screaming at his maid about it.

 

Of course, there were some more reasonable complaints too. People who made their own equipment themselves, people who weren't rich who got their super powerful sword by making it through a challenging inheritance site, along with many others. The majority of people stayed quiet about it, of course, whether because they didn't care or simply didn't dare to voice their complaints.

 

Will was obviously not an exception to the rules. Though he was a special case.

 

The people in charge of doing all the sealing and giving out stuff and whatnot were stationed at a spot next to the entrance hallway. Currently, one of those people was walking towards him.

 

The person in question was a cheerful looking woman with short hair. She had short hair, a slight tan, and was wearing what looked like a two piece workout outfit, with her midriff exposed. Will felt she was the spitting image of a tomboy in a manga. She reached him pretty quickly. Everyone around had turned their attention to the scene by now. Will hadn't really been the center of attention like the center of attention like this before. It was pretty cool.

 

"Heya! You're the one with the talking sword, right?"

 

Her voice was full of energy. It was honestly a bit impressive how enthusiastic she was. Will nodded.

 

"Yes."

 

The woman seemed even cheerier somehow.

 

"Great! Come with me and I'll get you sorted!"

 

Will followed the woman to a little setup next to the spot where the others were stationed. Once they arrived, she turned around and started talking.

 

"Okay! Could you tell me the name of your sword, please?"

 

"Sarah."

 

The woman thought for a bit, then turned to the side and pulled out a book from a shelf there. She flipped through it for a while before closing it and putting it back. She looked at Will, seeming a little stumped.

 

"Alright, I don't have anything about a sword named Sai Re, so I'm gonna need to ask some stuff to figure out how to handle this."

 

She pulled out a thin book from the same shelf as the last one. She opened it up to the first page before turning back to Will.

 

"First of all, can you call it back to you at will?"

 

"Umm, I don't know. I can't wet go of it to check. It's stuck to my hand."

 

The woman looked at him with a face full of confusion and doubt.

 

"Huh? It's stuck to your hand? What dp you mean?"

 

Will held his hand out, palm down. He opened his hand, Sarah's handle not moving an inch. He tried pulling it with his other hand to really drive home his point.

 

"Have you tried telling it to stop sticking to your hand, maybe?"

 

He already knew that wouldn't work. Even if it did, there was still the whole constant stream of storm qi thing. Still, he'd try it for demonstration purposes, at least. He looked at Sarah in his still outstretched hand and spoke.

 

"Stop sticking to my hand, pwease."

 

Sarah obviously couldn't do that, but she understood the situation well enough to respond.

 

"I can't."

 

The woman was a bit excited about hearing a talking sword, but it was quickly overshadowed by how stumped she was. She decided to just move on.

 

"I assume you can communicate telepathically with your sword?"

 

Will nodded.

 

"Yes."

 

"Okay, so, don't do that in the trials."

 

Will nodded. He'd already expected this from what he'd heard earlier. He probably had a better excuse for not having it sealed since Sarah was inseparable from his body, but he wasn't going to complain or anything. It would be a bit lonely, but he'd be fine. The woman smiled, glad she didn't have to deal with a bunch of complaining and arguing.

 

"Great! Thank you! Then next could you tell me about what your sword can do?"

 

Will thought about it. What could Sarah do? She could do that beam thing they used against the Sick Freak, but he couldn't do that on command since he wasn't a real swordsman. She probably had other abilities too, right?

 

<Hey, Sarah, what <em>can you do?>

 

<<I can do a lot of things.>>

 

"She can do a wot of things."

 

The woman looked like she was expecting more.

 

"Like what?"

 

"She shot a beam one time. She can dull her bwade. She can cut weally well. She can teach martial arts… She can call herself a genius…"

 

The woman seemed a bit confused about the last part, but decided to just ignore it.

 

"Okay! Could you unsheath your sword and put it on the table here, please?"

 

There was a step-stool next to the table, so Will was able to do as she asked, while the woman grabbed something from the shelf. She turned back to him and spoke again.

 

"Okay, so, I'm gonna be putting on the seal, alright?"

 

She handed him the thing she grabbed. It seemed like a little slip of paper with some symbols on it. From what he could understand through his Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor, he could tell that it was probably used to unseal his sword.

 

"The seal will go away on its own in time, but yu can use this to remove it as well. The people running the test will know if the seal comes off, though, so only do it in an emergency."

 

After she spoke, she grabbed another slip from the shelf and put it on the flat of Sarah's blade. It stuck to it like a sticker before fading away.

 

"Oh, and they'll also know if you communicate telepathically as well. They won't know what was said, though. Just that it happened."

 

Will nodded. The woman spoke once again.

 

"Next is storage rings. This will notify them if you bring out anything that wasn't stored during the test. They won't be able to see into your ring. Can I see the hand your storage ring is on?"

 

Will complied and held up his other hand. The woman didn't seem surprised that he had two rings. She placed two fingers on one of the rings, closed her eyes for a few moments, before opening them again, then did the same with the other ring. Once she was done she took a trinket out of her storage ring and handed it to Will.

 

"This is a life-saving treasure. It will block one fatal attack before breaking. You'll have to return it at the end of the test. Unless you use it, of course, but there shouldn't be any situations where you'll need to use it."

 

Will suddenly realized something. This wasn't that useful with his Instant Death Immunity. Well, fatal didn't mean it killed instantly, so it wasn't totally useless.

 

"Alright! You're all set, then! Good luck in the trials!"

 

Will smiled and wandered off. After a few moments he realized something.

 

The hole in his hand was closing up. There was no storm qi coming through. That really worked? Wasn't this supposed to be capable of killing immortals? How was it being sealed like this?

 

He got his answer in the form of pain. The storm qi came back. Well, he'd expected as much.

 

The real issue is whether they'd know and disqualify him or something. The rest of the seal seemed fine as far as he could tell, so he wasn't sure. He decided to leave it be and deal with it if it came up.

 

He decided to look at his rings too, while he was on the topic of looking at things. They felt a bit different, actually. Like he could tell what was okay to bring out and what wasn't. He was curious how they did that.

 

He'd done pretty much all he could as far as entertainment was concerned, so he decided to just play on his phone until the test started.

 

It didn't take long. Before he'd even run out of Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy, the preparations were complete, and everyone was brought out to the place where the test was taking place.

 

It was a pretty short walk. Probably because it would be annoying to drag a bunch of mortals and qi gatherers to somewhere far away. The place where they were taken appeared to be a big staircase. It led up and up until it finally reached an entrance on the side of a big mountain. But it didn't stop there. The entrance it connected to had another staircase leading up in the opposite direction. After a few moments, the person leading them clapped her hands and spoke.

 

"Welcome to the first trial. All you have to do is climb this staircase behind me to make it to the location of the next trial. Once you get there, you can either wait there until the trial is finished, or turn around and try the second staircase for extra points. Your score will be determined based on how fast you got to the second trial and how high you climbed. Good luck!"

 

She stepped to the side, allowing everyone to begin climbing.

 

The staircase was incredibly wide, so everyone was able to go at about the same time. Will considered his plan. Should he just run up the stairs? That seemed about right.

 

Will decided to go for pure Wind Dance this time. This wasn't the time for practice. This was the time for results.

 

He was definitely one of the faster ones in the trial. Not the fastest, there were a lot of people ahead of him, but there were even more behind him.

 

But the challenge obviously wasn't just to climb a regular staircase. That would be too easy. There was cultivator nonsense at play.

 

As Will went up the staircase, he noticed that gravity was increasing. It wasn't by much, but it was certainly happening. But that wasn't nearly as big of a deal as what happened on the fiftieth step.

 

As he stepped onto the fiftieth step, he suddenly found himself in a different place. It seemed like a treasure room. Expensive looking weapons lined the walls. Gold and gems and jewelry lay in piles on the ground. He could smell an herbal scent that he somehow knew was the smell of powerful pills.

 

He couldn't quite remember how he got here. He assumed it was through the door behind him, but his memory was too blurry to be sure.

 

Where was this? And why was it such a mess? Whoever owned this place really made him mad. All this expensive stuff and it was just left on the floor. And why were there powerful pills just left out in the open? Where was the pill container? They'd go bad! Did the owner of this room not care?

 

It irked him to no end. He was furious. He turned around and left. He was going to find whoever owned this place and he was going to make them fix it.

 

Once he exited the room, he was back. Back on the stairs. It was an illusion. That made a lot of sense. He was still a bit mad, though. It took him reminding himself that it wasn't real a few times to calm his anger.

 

He continued running up the stairs again as he calmed himself down. There were less people in front of him now. A good few of the people who used to be ahead were still stuck in the illusion.

 

But it wasn't all good. When he was in the illusion, he hadn't been able to control the storm qi. Which meant if he stayed in an illusion too long…

 

Wasn't this really bad? He still had the life-saving treasure, but he couldn't be sure it would help. At least it seemed like time moved differently in the illusion than in reality.

 

Even though he left almost immediately, he was still in there for at least a few seconds. Even just walking to the door took a second or two. After all this time dealing with it, he had a pretty good grasp on how much damage the storm qi dealt. And the damage he'd sustained was not nearly a few seconds worth.

 

He really should've just told them when the seal broke. They would've been able to at least block it for this trial if they tried really hard, right? But it was too late for that. He'd definitely make sure they did it for the next trial if there were more illusions like this there.

 

But it was too late now. He was pretty sure he'd be woken up from the illusion if his hand got ripped apart anyway, so it should be fine.

 

He continued running until he reached the hundredth step.

 

Will found himself in a nice room. It wasn't opulent to the point of annoyance, just nice. There was a beautiful bed off to the side, big enough for three people to lay on at once. And in the room were three men.

 

They looked like the capture targets that the protagonist ignored in that one manga he read. The insufferable ones. He hadn't actually finished that manga yet. He'd have to go back to it when he improved his Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar. But that was beside the point.

 

They were all looking at him. One of them started talking and Will immediately left. He wanted no part in this. He found himself back on the stairs.

 

He wrote down the name of the manga he was thinking of earlier in a document and embedded it as he continued running. He hadn't gained as big of a lead as he had with the last challenge this time. It also seemed like most of the people still in the illusion behind him were men, oddly enough. Was the illusion different for them?

 

It didn't matter, he just needed to keep running. The gravity was actually starting to get pretty noticeable now. Thinking about it, wouldn't it be better to mix in Cloud Steps? The lightness effect it had would probably be good for this.

 

He tried it, and it worked incredibly well. He was actually starting to catch up now. It didn't take him long to hit the next illusion step.

 

He found himself in a nice room once again. There were three ladies this time. They seemed pretty nice.

 

But he felt something weird. There was an inexplicable fear in the back of his mind. It was the kind of scared stress that comes from being on a time limit. Whenever he thought about staying, that fear grew a tiny bit stronger.

 

He didn't really want to stay, anyway, so he decided to listen to it and go. It was better to be safe than sorry, and there was no point taking that risk for no reason. He turned around and left.

 

He found himself back on the steps again. He felt like he had this in the bag now. It also felt like he was cheating a bit. He felt a bit bad about that. But he put it aside. He had steps to climb.

 

The majority of the people stuck on this one were women. A lot of the men who left it also had a weird look on their faces.

 

He reached the two hundredth step quickly, the gravity barely an inconvenience.

 

Will found himself at a park. His big brother and little brother were with him, and his parents were watching them play in the sandpit.

 

His big brother was showing them how to build sandcastles, and Will and his little brother were watching with rapt attention. His parents would chuckle from time to time at how focused they were. Something felt wrong.

 

He'd been here before. This was that day. Any minute now, it would happen. The girl in blue going down the slide. The frog jumping through the grass. The cloud that covered the tree in shade.

 

And then he'd feel that again. The pain. The sand on his cheek as he fell forward. The cough that made all the pain hundreds of times worse.

 

The ambulance would come and take him to the hospital. He'd hear his father arguing with the nurse from the other side of the door. The pain would lessen the slightest bit, and he'd fall asleep immediately.

 

He remembered waking up to his family in the hospital room, all of them worried sick about him. He remembered the way he tried to play it off so they wouldn't be. He remembered the pity in his parents' eyes. He remembered the way they looked back at him as they left.

 

He remembered the texts they sent the next day. He remembered the visit the day after that. He remembered the fifth visit. The last visit.

 

He remembered that last get well soon text in the family group chat. He remembered the texts he sent after.

 

He remembered being forgotten. One year after he entered the hospital, his family had forgotten he existed.

 

He remembered worrying about them. Worrying that they got hurt or died.

 

He remembered that damn post. A selfie at a theme park. One month after the last text.

 

"Out at the theme park with the whole family."

 

He remembered laughing. A laugh he forced to stay a laugh. A laugh he refused to let become a cry. He wouldn't cry over people like that. They didn't deserve it.

 

It was funny. He thought he'd forgotten their faces. But their faces were the clearest things in this park. Even clearer than the sandcastle and the girl and the frog and the grass and the cloud and the tree that he remembered oh so vividly.

 

A part of him wanted to change this fate. Change the way this day plays out. But he knew. Both in his heart and through reason.

 

Changing things was the one thing he'd never be able to do.

 

And then he remembered. He could change things. He had the points to prove it. But he couldn't change what happened that day.

 

It was time to move on. It was time to stop lying to himself.

 

It was time to stop forcing himself to forget. It was time to stop pretending he never loved them.

 

Tears flowed from his eyes. He whispered their names to himself one last time.

 

"I miss you."

 

And he woke up.

 

He was back. Back at these steps. It was time to keep going. He wiped his tears and ran. There was only a little more to go. There were only a few people ahead of him now.

 

He reached the two hundred fiftieth step. The second-to-last step.

 

Will woke up in his hospital bed. It seemed to be nighttime, still. He knew it wasn't real.

 

Everything he'd been through since he woke up in the hut that day felt blurry, like a dream. He remembered going to sleep "yesterday". But he already knew.

 

He was dead in this world. He couldn't go back.

 

He'd never have to go through that pain again. And he couldn't go back to that life again.

 

For good and for bad, it was gone. And that was okay.

 

He had a new world, now. He had a new family. One that wouldn't forget him. Even if that family was a talking sword, even if he'd only know her for a short while, she was the best family he ever had.

 

And he had friends. Xu Lanhua, Li Yingran, Li Rencai, even Duodibunu Lili somewhat. He had the giant snake as well.

 

And he was making a difference here. He'd saved people.

 

He woke up, and stepped up onto the stone floor. He'd made it. And he was in third place, too.

 

He looked at the plastic looking thing he'd taken from the Dragon Flame Clan in his ring. It really looked just like the bucket they were using to make sandcastles that day.

 

No wonder it felt so nostalgic.

Chapter 22 From Heaven's Chosen To Young Master, This Toddler Stands Above Them All

Will had a decision to make. He could either try his luck on the bonus stairs, or he could stay here and wait. The bonus stairs would put his life at constant risk, while staying here might be boring.

 

What he really wanted to do was get the life-threatening danger sealed up and then go up the bonus stairs, but there was no one around to talk to about that at the moment.

 

Honestly, there wasn't really much of a choice here. He was going for the bonus stairs. He was one of the first people up here, so he'd probably have to wait for a long time, and he really did not want to do that.

 

The gravity on the stairs was also pretty good for practice. Whenever he messed up at all he got good realtime feedback through the weight he felt.

 

He did a big u-turn and headed up the bonus steps. It seemed he was the first one on them. The first and second place people seemed to be taking a bit to breathe right now.

 

The bonus steps seemed the same as the regular ones. He ran up them with relative ease. The fiftieth bonus step had an illusion as well, another scene from his past. He escaped it with ease.

 

The next illusion bonus step was similarly easy. This time it was a scene from his two year old self's past, which he could tell was fake because he was thinking like a twelve year old even though he was supposed to be a one year old.

 

The next illusion was pretty interesting, actually. He was in a situation where he had to make a choice between a girl's life and a pill that would help his cultivation. He obviously saved the girl. The pill wouldn't even be useful for him. Pills like that were for normal people. People who couldn't upgrade their cultivation speed for free with just spiritual energy.

 

He continued up the steps. The gravity was actually pretty bad now. It kind of hurt when he messed up the footwork. Even with the footwork, it was still pretty heavy. Only in those moments where he did the footwork really well did it not feel heavy.

 

The next illusion step put him in the role of a young master type of character who had someone bump into them by mistake. Said someone was now begging to be spared. Will spared him. He thought the individual should've bumped into him harder. Maybe with a fist. It was a very weird feeling honestly.

 

His instinctual anger at wealthy people was still there, even though he was supposed to be one. It kind of ruined the immersion.

 

The next illusion step was one where he was a young mistress. Someone had flirted with someone his character had a crush on and was now trying to beg for forgiveness about it. Honestly, it didn't even really feel like he was the character he was supposed to be anymore. It was more like a visual novel at this point.

 

He obviously spared the girl, since he didn't really care about the fictional crush.

 

The next illusion step had him play the role of a disciple given the offer of cultivation resources if he shared sect secrets with an enemy of the sect. He gave them a bunch of gibberish and said it was an encoded message. They said he wouldn't get the reward until they decoded it, he said that was fine, and it ended.

 

The gravity was actually becoming a pretty big issue now. Even when he did the footwork right, it was still really heavy. But he continued on. Mostly because he couldn't use his footwork standing still.

 

If nothing else, being up this high was good for his map at least. Though he couldn't copy what was below the stairs, he could copy a good bit of what was in the distance. It wasn't perfect, since he was far away and couldn't see under trees and stuff, but it was a lot less empty space at least.

 

The next four illusions were about the same. He found himself in a story with a moral choice, he picked the option that wasn't stupid and evil, and it ended. It was honestly a bit repetitive.

 

The gravity was actually getting a bit unbearable, he was actually taking damage from it. The damage was healing up instantly because of the life stuff in his first dantian, so it actually seemed like it was good exercise. He hadn't been making mistakes with his footwork recently either. It was probably because of the pain he felt when he did.

 

Six more illusions and he made it to the thousandth step. The gravity was even worse than before. He seemed to be faring way better than everyone else, though. The closest person to him was around bonus step five hundred, and they acted like they were climbing a mountain with every step. Not to mention the amount of people stuck in the illusions.

 

It made the gravity not feel so bad, honestly. He passed four more illusions before the trial ended. He knew it ended because he found himself back in the mountain. It seemed like he teleported.

 

He was a bit terrified for a bit. The teleportation he'd heard of the most was one where someone got ripped apart and remade somewhere else. Which wasn't really teleportation. That was murder and cloning.

 

But that would be instant death. If that was the case there would be another Will still on the steps, who he'd be a clone of. There were also various other reasons it was implausible, so he calmed down. It must've been some spatial manipulation or something.

 

The same person who had introduced the first trial was here. They were standing between four big boards on the right wall.

 

"Congratulations on passing the first trial. Each of you will be given a card with your scores on it. Behind me are four scoreboards you can use to see how you compare to everyone else. The ones on the right include only the people who took the trial with you today while the ones on the right include people from past tests. Feel free to relax and take a break until the next trial."

 

Two people came out from a door Will hadn't seen earlier and started handing out cards. Will was one of the first to get one.

 

He looked at his card. It was just three points values, so he could really learn anything from them without a reference point. Of course, since he was in the top of the rankings, he didn't even have to go up to the scoreboard to check.

 

He already knew how well he did in this group. Third in time, first in distance. He was there. The all time rankings were a bit of a surprise, though. He didn't seem to be anything special when it came to time. But in distance, he was first. First of all time. It was pretty shocking. It was by a pretty good bit as well. He was at 1,212, while the second best was at 1,009. The third best actually seemed to be the person he'd seen earlier, since their score was 736.

 

He hadn't expected to be so good at this. He wanted to see the look on the second best's face when they found out they were beaten by a little baby. They were probably some big shot too, which made it even funnier.

 

But he had more important manners. He ran up to the person who had been guiding them, surprising himself a bit with his speed. It had improved substantially. Those steps were really good training. He focused on the task and hand and started talking.

 

"Excuse me, the seal you guys put on my sword bwoke and I awmost died from it."

 

The woman was already a bit thrown off by the tiny child blitzing up to her, so she was entirely unprepared for the almost-murder accusation.

 

She stammered for a few seconds, none of her attempts getting close to a suitable first word of a response. She eventually stopped, closed her eyes, breathed, and spoke.

 

"I'll go get someone to fix it."

 

She turned around and walked through the same door the people handing out cards had come out from. After less than a minute, she came back, an old wizened look man rushing out past her. The old man looked down at him through his round old man glasses.

 

"You're the one with the broken seal?"

 

Will nodded.

 

"How?"

 

The old man looked at the sword and noticed something peculiar. The seal was intact on the blade. Usually it should be the blade that got unsealed. How was the handle unsealed? What kind of backwards-ass sword has enough power to break the seal only on the handle?

 

The seal breaking wasn't an unprecedented phenomenon. It usually happened when someone experienced in using a spiritual weapon tried to fire off some special attack through muscle memory. Of course, the seal was strong enough to handle that most of the time, but with some particularly powerful swords, it could end up not being enough. A scenario like this was something they expected when they heard there was someone with a talking sword taking the trial.

 

What wasn't expected was for specifically the part of the seal on the handle to break.

 

Will responded by explaining the situation as best he could without making everyone scared again.

 

"Basicawwy, my sword is cursed. The handwe attacks my hand constantwy."

 

The old man stroked his beard thoughtfully. That would certainly explain how it broke like that.

 

"If you're able to withstand it, then it shouldn't be a problem."

 

Will shook his head.

 

"I can't withstand it without constant attention. If there are any mowe iwwusions, I could die if I don't escape in time."

 

The old man stroked his beard for a second before he froze. Wasn't the first trial full of a whole bunch of illusions? Shouldn't this child be dead in that case?

 

"How did you manage to get through the first trial then?"

 

"I escaped in time."

 

"Alright, then. Let me see your sword for a moment, then. I'll put a better seal on the handle that'll last a bit longer."

 

Will smiled and held up his hand to give the man access to the handle. The old man did some things to it and the storm qi was halted once again. The old man nodded, satisfied with his handiwork, and looked towards Will.

 

"That should about do it for now. I'll come and check up on it after the next trial."

 

"Thank you!"

 

The old man smiled and nodded before heading back through the door he came from.

 

After that was out of the way, it was about time to start the next trial. The guide woman clapped her hands twice to get everyone's attention and started speaking.

 

"We will now be beginning the second trial. Behind me is the entrance to a maze. Your goal will be to traverse said maze and reach the end as quickly as possible. Within the maze, you'll find numerous puzzles and other challenges that you will need to complete, as formations have been set up that will make traversing the maze without doing so nearly impossible. Good luck!"

 

The woman stepped aside, letting everyone enter the big entrance behind her. Will rushed forward with his footwork. He was by far the fastest out of everyone here, though none of them were using movement techniques at the moment. Upon entering the maze, he lost sight of everyone at a speed that definitely appeared to be the work of formations.

 

It didn't take long for Will to run into the first puzzle. There was a waterfall in the middle of an open area, with some strange doodads around it and some other strange things on the wall. As much as he'd love to attempt it, he honestly didn't even know where to start.

 

He was also pretty sure he didn't need to.

 

In a move that he was sure disappointed anyone supervising him currently, he ran past the puzzle without sparing it a second glance. He did the same thing when he came across a room with two cages with a statue of a lion and a bird in them respectively. He knew where he was going. He had everything mapped out around him, and he was checking the map at all times.

 

Even when he found himself re-entering the caged statue room from the left side after he'd turned right, he had it all mapped out. His map wasn't limited to euclidean geometry. Mapping out right turns that lead to the left side was the same as mapping out anything else for him.

 

When he saw himself swerving off course when he thought he was going straight ahead, he simply corrected course. It didn't matter what happened, he knew where everything was.

 

He even ran into another person after that, which gave him the impression that it was probably designed so different participants wouldn't meet. He waved at them as he ran along.

 

After that he came to a hallway with a branching side hallway that looked like a dead end. And yet, the movement of the walls at the back relative to his movement gave it away as a hidden left turn, and so he headed down it.

 

He found himself in a parkour room after a bit, where it looked like a bunch of pillars were moving around over a pit of lava. But he could tell that they weren't moving, actually moving, they just seemed like it, since his map showed that they were in the same spot relative to everything else at all times. And he knew the lava wasn't real either, since lava was hot enough to burn someone to death from a lot farther away than this "lava" was from him now. Will jumped across on the pillars, bewildering the person who had been in this room before him who had been looking very scared about the lava pit thing.

 

Will continued like this until the very end. Sometimes he'd loop back around to a place he'd been before in a way that made no sense, sometimes he'd loop around to a place that looked like he'd been there before, but that was slightly off, so he knew he hadn't. There were all sorts of things intended to trip him up and make him lost, and Will got through all of them.

 

In just about thirty minutes, Will was standing outside the exit of the trial. Interestingly enough, the exit didn't actually lead out to the other side of the mountain. It lead out to what looked like a sunken arena of sorts. He could see a bunch of important looking people in a little viewing area on the other side, up above on ground level. He saw the two ladies who had handled his sign-up earlier sitting next to each other up there.

 

They all were looking down at him with an assortment of looks on their faces. A few were confused, some seemed like they were also confused but for different reasons, a few were surprised and turned to a different person to ask if they knew anything. Generally, they were all a bit confused. The old man from earlier was there as well. He was currently in the process of standing up and heading down to meet him.

 

When the old man reached him he looked at him while stroking his beard.

 

"I'm surprised you made it so fast. Did the seal hold up well for you?"

 

Will nodded. And the old man smiled lightly.

 

"I'm glad to hear it. Mind if I take another look before the third trial?"

 

"Go ahead."

 

Will raised his hand up for the old man to do.his thing. After a bit of doing whatever he was doing, he released Will's hand and smiled down at him.

 

"That should last you for this next one. You can go ahead and relax until it starts, alright?"

 

Will smiled and nodded while the man headed back to his seat at the viewing area.

 

Will decided to play on his phone while he waited. It took a while, as his Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar was half empty when it ended.

 

The one who came to announce the next trial was a different woman this time. A woman with pink hair in long twintails jumped down from the viewing area and struck a cutesy pose. She had a cute youthful face and seemed full of energy.

 

"Hi guys! I'm the one running the third trial! This one is about combat!"

 

She did a few punching motions, presumably to enlighten anyone who didn't know what combat was.

 

"You'll all be put in an illusion, where you'll be facing the most challenging foe of all; yourself!"

 

She pointed at the audience, presumably to demonstrate who she meant by "yourself".

 

"The first round you'll be fighting one clone, in the second you'll be fighting two, and you'll keep going until you lose!"

 

She counted with her fingers as she spoke, presumably to make sure everyone knew how much one and two were.

 

"Any damage you take in the illusion won't translate to the real world, so feel free to use anything you have at your disposal!"

 

She spread her arms out, presumably to demonstrate what she meant by "anything".

 

"But don't fret if you're not a big strong fighter! After this, you can head on over to my good friend over here…"

 

She pointed to a lady at the bottom of the steps the old man had walked down to meet Will earlier. The lady gave a friendly wave.

 

"And show off your less deadly skills!"

 

She turned back to fully face the crowd.

 

"Now, are you ready to start?"

 

After everyone headed over and the third trial began. As soon as it started, Will found himself in a black void.

 

Before he could even process what was happening, even with his super fast thinking speed, the clone of him on the other side had exploded.

 

There seemed to be no cooldown between rounds, as it didn't even take an instant for two clones of him to have exploded. In under a fraction of a second since he entered, there were already ten clones exploding in front of him.

 

They didn't even have time to finish exploding. They simply appeared, exploded so fast Will never even got a chance to see them not exploded, and before the exploded bits even moved more than a millimeter away, the next round started and it all repeated.

 

By the time Will could actually process the situation, there were already hundreds of clones dying at a time. By the time there were five hundred, he finally felt like he might know why this was happening.

 

It seemed like these clones had neither his Qi Deviation Immunity, nor his Instant Death Immunity. It was actually quite interesting that they wouldn't have it, considering he still did have it even though this him was an illusion as well.

 

Anyway, since his middle dantian currently had more spiritual energy than could naturally fit inside already, and all of it was in an incredibly chaotic state while bouncing around rapidly, it was no surprise that it would kill someone instantly without the protections he had.

 

By the time he finished this thought, there were now a whole thousand dying at a time. He wasn't really sure what to do at this point. He couldn't even move right now, since every time they died, he'd get sent back to his starting position, and they died at every time.

 

He decided to just wait. He could access his mind space in this illusion, so he had a little while to play on his phone before the Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar ran out.

 

After it did, he was a bit stumped on what to do. He tried reading some of the books he had stolen. Obviously, he read multiple at once. Once he'd finished the three he'd been reading, he went back to his phone for a bit.

 

After his Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar ran out, Will wasn't really sure what to do. Luckily, he didn't have to worry too much, as the illusion ended shortly after.

 

The same energetic twintail lady was there, though the rest of the crowd had thinned out. The lady who was taking people to test non-combat skills was gone, so he assumed they'd probably just left by now.

 

The people who had stayed behind seemed to be just waiting around, talking and relaxing and whatnot. Some would glance at him from time to time. The exception to this was the person from the first trial who'd made third place on the all-time ranking for distance.

 

They were currently crouched down slightly staring at him. Or at least he assumed as much, since they had turned their head off to the right as soon as he looked at them.

 

Now that he looked at them again, it seemed clear they were some heaven's chosen main character type. They seemed like a girl around sixteen give or take, with yellow spiky hair. They were wearing an outfit that looked to be some sort of leather armor. They had good looks, with a bit of roguish charm to them. Will decided he should probably consider how he'd interact with them from now on. There was certainly profit to be made, whether through points or through opportunities he could worm his way into. For now though, he didn't bother with her. He looked at the scoreboards off to the side instead.

 

He certainly didn't do poorly. His score was at the top on both. Doing the math, he had beaten second place by about 3,083,200%. Second place had scored 53, meanwhile, Will had scored 1,634,112.

 

It wasn't surprising, exactly, but… wow.

 

What was more surprising was that second place was the spiky yellow hair girl. She'd also won by a good bit, since the third place on the board was only 11. Considering how most people who took the trial would have to actually fight a bunch of clones, it was pretty impressive.

 

He noticed that the number of people in the viewing area had decreased by now, as well. After a moment, the woman who had been sitting in the fanciest chair in the center of the viewing area flew down to stand in front of Will and the spiky yellow hair girl.

 

She had a somewhat motherly aura to her, and was dressed in clothes that were definitely expensive. Will guessed she was the sect leader. And that she was probably going to take them in as disciples.

 

His guesses were proven right as she spoke.

 

"Hello. I am the sect leader of the Brightrose Sect, and I'd like to invite the both of you to become my disciples."