Four years have passed, the group gathered around a clearing in the forest. "You will not beat me this time Sikun!" Morog shouted as they walked up to each other and took their respective battle stances. They pounced and exchanged blow after blow. Boom. Boom. Boom. They landed on the floor again panting slightly as the charged, this time the clash taking place on the ground, Sikun evaded Morogs attacks and slammed him with his fist. Boom. Morogs body was quite sturdy and could take a lot of punishment even though he was two realms lower than Sikun he still put up quite a fight with his defence alone.
After a few more exchanges Morog was lying on the floor covered in dirt and sweat, he couldn't keep up with Sikun's pace any more and gave up. "You are lucky this time. I will get you next time," he said between pants. Sikun smiled "There will be no next time tomorrow is the day. Val, how is your cultivation going? How about you and I give it a couple of rounds? I need to see how far I have come." Valkorai stood up with a smile on her face, Pokin and Morog gave up trying to spar with her as she always won but, Sikun never gave up. Last time he gave Valkorai a pretty good challenge, and she was looking forward to it again. "You can not beat me as you are now. What is your cultivation?" Valkorai already knew all their cultivations Sikun was at the 9th level of the body refinement realm and Pokin and Morog were at the 7th level. "Peak of the body refinement real just like you, I feel like I will break through soon."
"Ok, let's fight. When I win, you are buying me some food."
"And when I win you will buy me some food." Valkorai dropped from her branch right into a fighting stance as she tied her purple hair back. Sikun chuckled and prepared to fight. They stared at each other. Boom. In a blink, their fists already smashed into each other.
Valkorai was flung back as Sikun followed up with a flurry of blows. All of them missed as Valkorai dodged with her hands behind her back. 'He is getting better.' Valkorai waited until her moment, Sikun had gotten better at covering his openings. Valkorai ducked a punch and circled behind him and sent flying with a kick. Before he hit anything, Sikun flipped around and regained his footing only to charge back into the battle.
This time Sikun's attacks became more fierce and he forced Valkorai to start blocking instead of dodging and soon the actually ended up exchanging attacks. Sikun baited Val into a punch, grabbed her arm and threw her into a tree. "you have gotten better." she said as she stood up brushing her hair to aside. "Let's end this I am getting hungry and I need to look after my little brother today." In her left hand, she hid some dirt and charged right back in. She threw the dirt in his face and pinned him to the ground "There is no such thing as playing dirty in a fight. I win."
That next day they gathered at the base of the mountain near to the city. Valkorai walked up to a table with a man in all white. The man grabbed Valkorai's hand and noted a few things down "Name and element." he ordered. Valkorai smirk as she secretly read what he wrote 'Female, 14, peak body refinement. "Valkorai, fire." She said as she pulled her hand free from his grasp. She heard a chuckle from behind "Look at this poor scum, get out of my way. My name is Kareen and my element is light." She said as she placed her hand in the man's hand. He wrote down what she said "Valkorai your number is 999 and Kareen your number is 1000." he said dejectedly, he looked up and saw the line to his table he growing and sighed.
After a while, she found the others "Guys what numbers are you guys, I am 999."
"I am 898 and Morog is 989 and Sikun is 333," Pokin said as they walked over to the side. "I have some good news, last night I broke through" he continued while grinning. Valkorai watched the competition and wondered 'What tests are coming? How will this turn out?' A light appeared above them as a group of people slowly descended. A young man in yellow robes walked out looking at the crowd of fourteen-year-olds. "Today is the day where you will be tested. If the 1200 of you here today, pass you shall be accepted into this sect. There are 3 tests and not every single one of you shall be tested 3 times."
When he said this, people started thinking 'what does he mean? How many times will we be tested? Will someone pass without being tested? Wilsomeonene be tested 3 times?' "Before every test 400 numbers will be chosen at random, these 400 will be the ones to undergo this test and the 800 that have not been called will pass. The 400 who fail have failed and those who pass have passed. You will be lucky not to be called upon at all. Luck is tangible, you need luck to succeed, you need luck to find a powerful artefact or resource, and if you are called up all three times you are unlucky. Chance is a huge part of cultivation if you never take a risk and if you are never lucky you will never succeed."
Soon Morog, Pokin and Valkorai were called up and they walked over to the light behind the yellow-robed man and entered. When Valkorai walked out and into a long dark corridor, so dark that she couldn't see her own hands when she looks down. She sighed and walked down the corridor. Sou. An arrow flew straight at head. Dodging it was simple but more arrows were sent flying at her. Then she felt something approaching her.
It hid in the darkness and attacked Valkorai. She lifted her hands and grabbed the spear that was rocketing at her head. It tried pulling the spear free and she held on like a vice. While they were in this stalemate she spread out her senses to feel what it was. Her opponent was a construct at the level of peak body refinement. She grinned as she felt its core spinning and she could hear the power it was supplying. She followed a pulse of power that travelled to its leg. Before it could kick her she used the split second it lost balanced and threw it into the wall. She raised the spear up and drove it through the core.
It hummed to a stop as Valkorai felt more constructs closing in. She smiled as she charged in taking advantage of their robotic movement to efficiently destroy them.
Soon she walked into a massive hall with a number floating above. '300, Looking around that is the number of people who are here. The second phase of this test is going to take place when the rest of the people arrive.' She looked around and could not find either Pokin or Morog. When the number hit 390 they walked into the hallway. Valkorai could tell the struggled, their clothes were in tatters and they were panting heavily. They made their way to her "What's going on here? Is the test over?"
"No. It is just beginningig. When it starts just stick with me. I will make sure you pass." Valkorai replied looking at them up and down. 'Even if they look in a bad state their wounds are nothing but scarches. They will live. But whatever the test is they will not be able to handle it.'
Soon the number hit 400, "This will test the level you have refined your body at. The longer you last the more points you will earn. Each minute will give you 10 points and you will need at least 100 points to pass. Good luck." the voice of the yellow-robed man said as the number was replaced with a timer. The moment is started counting the gravity and temperature of the room slowly started to increase. Valkorai noticed immediately 'The temperature change will not affect me at all and the gravity will only be an inconvenience. The real thing I will have to deal with is how much I want to stand out. If I stand out too much I will become a target of jealous noble parents, but if I do not stand out too much we will become a target of everyone else in the sect. I need a background, dealing with wave after wave of fodder who think they are better than me will get stale fast. I shall win this test, and deal with the parents later.'
Valkorai looked around and started to see many people around the 5th level of the body refinement realm red-faced. Only a minute had passed. 'It seems like these people will fail before the 10-minute mark. Pokin will fall around the 12th minute and Morog at the 11th. I wonder what other purposes these points serve. There are around 50 people who are at the peak of the body refinement realm if they used this pressure to cultivate they would instantly brake through to the next level.'
Zoon. People started to disappear left and right, Valkorai saw a person pass out and before they hit the floor the disappeared. They clearly failed, Valkorai pitied them. Call it fate, genetics, talent or whatever this was their only chance to be guided in cultivation if they failed this they would be bound to normal lives. 3 minutes are passed and the gravity started to slowly affect Valkorai, she started putting some effort into standing straight while all the other people were using their knees as support. "If you cannot handle the stress standing up sit. There are chairs here for a reason," she whispered to Pokin and Morog but they just smiled at her. They clearly did not want to be seen as needing help to pass this test so Valkorai left them to their fates. She knew they would pass but if they were to be called up again the chances of them passing would be slim.
8 minutes had passed and the room was looking empty many of the people left were sitting on chairs or using their knees to support themselves. The person with the lowest cultivation was at the peak of the 6th level of the body refinement realm. He was no his hands and knees sweating and crying blood. 'His resolve is strong. I should help him out, he could be useful later on.' Valkorai thought as she walked up to him. She pulled a chair to the boy and said: "Sit." She helped him up and sat him on the chair. The pressure seemed to lessen on him as he gave Valkorai a thankful look. Morog and Pokin were both kneeling but had denied all of Valkorai's attempts to help them, this was a matter of pride for them. It did not really matter with the cultivation techniques that she provided for them they would sore to the top of this country with ease and with a little help become untouchable figures on this continent.
10 minutes passed and the number of people left in the room was only 100. The boy was still sitting on the chair and he looked at Valkorai "how much longer?" he mouthed. She smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder "You passed, now get some rest. If you need help just come looking for me. I am Valkorai." and with that, the boy passed out and was teleported out of the room. She walked over to Pokin and Morog, they were on their hands and knees staring at a small puddle of their own blood "Give up, you guys might still be called up. You passed but you do not need to come first." she said to them and as if they were waiting for her to say that they fell down and disappeared. Many people had given up after passing, after all, they could still be called up for the next test and they might need to endure something like this for a second or even a third time. It was better to get some rest as soon as possible.
15 minutes in the room only had 10 people in it all sitting on chairs. Valkorai under a lot of pressure stared at the other 9 people. They all piqued her curiosity. One of these 10 was the rich girl that insulted her when she was registering Kareen. Valkorai smiled while looking at her. "What are you looking at peasant?" she said to Valkorai through gritted teeth. "Oh just your final moments in this test." Valkorai replied as she got up of her chair and walked over to Kareen. "Byeeeee." she said as she toppled over her chair causing Kareen to fall on the ground with a thunk, knocking her out cold. Kareen disappeared as Valkorai crossed her legs while examining her nails. That took a lot of energy out of her, but her appearing to look fine did a lot of damage to the others mental.