Jack had no idea what the benefits of the Artefacts were and if they helped or not. His best bet… It was to trust the old man in front of him and hope for him not to screw Jack over. He said to the old man, “I will have to trust the Offensive and Defensive Artefact to Seniors opinion.”

Hearing this, the old man raised a brow but Jack gave a weak smile, “I have no idea how to look inside the jade slip and secondly…. I have no idea what is good what is not.” Hearing this, the old man let out a deep sigh and floated before Jack. He raised a finger and as a milky white glow appeared on the tip of it, he touched Jack’s forehead.

Suddenly, all sorts of information entered Jack’s head. The [Nether Angel Art], [Phantom Blade Art] and [Ghost King’s Steps]. The three Art’s he had chosen before all appeared in his head. In addition to them, a long list of items appeared in his head as well. It was the Artefact Catalogue. He closed his eyes as he browsed through all the items listed there. After a few moments, he opened his eyes and said, “I choose the Bloody Asura Blade and the Thousand Forms Armour.” Hearing this, the man nodded his head and two white lights appeared next to him. Inside these light bubbles were a pitch black blade and simple black linen clothes.

With this, the man gave Jack a fist sized black Token and said, “The Trial lasts for ten years. For the First month, there will be no Ferocious Beasts. Use this time to advance your cultivation. After the month, the Trial will truly begin and the more Ferocious Breasts you kill, the more Points you will gather.” The man then took a deep breath as he gave his last bit of explanation, “The final score will be determined by your total accumulated points. So, don’t be afraid to exchange your points towards items or Arts that you need. Once you manage to step on the path of cultivation, send a bit of Qi into the Token to brand it and you will understand how everything works then. For now, I suggest you find a place to cultivate your [Nether Angel Art].”

With this, the man turned around and disappeared. Jack finally regained control over his body and the first thing he did was fall on his ass. With a deep breath he looked up in a daze, trying to process everything that had just happened. Although, he had put up a strong front for some reason, now that the old man was gone, he couldn’t help but fall into a daze.

He had a hard time coming to terms that this was all real. He looked at the blade in front of him and gulped hard as he grasped it and felt the heaviness in his hands. The feeling, the weight of the blade…. It was all too real to be a dream. He looked up into the sky with cloudy eyes and murmured, “What the hell….” As one last test, he slowly unsheathed the blade and after a moment of hesitation, he ran his index finger across the sharp end of the blade. A second after cutting himself, he withdrew his hand and looked at the blood trickling out of the cut. He let out a hollow laugh and said, “Seems like this is not a dream….”

With that, he had made it certain that this was real and not a dream. This meant that he truly had been thrown into a Trial between Immortals. However, a tinge of excitement burned in him as he thought back to how he had now also obtained the means to become an Immortal himself. Although, he had no idea how this World worked, he would give his best to survive and win in the end. With this new found determination and resolve, he stood up and looked around for a place to cultivate. It didn’t take him long to find an enormous tree.

It took him nearly half an hour to climb so high that he was completely hidden from sight. After sitting in a small crack inside the tree trunk, he closed his eyes and with a deep breath, he looked over all of the information regarding the [Nether Angel Art]. Doing as instructed in the Art, he started trying to accomplish the first step: Sense the Qi outside. As he was trying to find the feeling of Qi in the outside, the hall with the gigantic sphere in the middle were looking at the various people on the sphere. One of the men commented, “This Shi Fang seems to have a pretty solid foundation for someone his age.”

The other men nodded and another added, “Qing Ling seems to have also progressed her [Azure Phoenix Art] quite well. This time, we have a lot of talented and notable youths taking part in the Trials. However….” As the man said that, everyone’s gazes converged on the image of a blonde haired young man sitting in a tree. The man then said, “That boy is the biggest wild card in my opinion. He has a Top Grade Art to cultivate, however, his Talent, comprehension and abilities are all unknown. This gives him the advantage against the more well known people.”

The other’s also nodded their heads. The more well known a person was, the more was known about their abilities. However, Jack was a complete mystery to even all these people. How far he could go, only time would tell. It was also possible that he had no talent what so ever for cultivating but at the same time, he could have monstrous talent. They were all eager to see who would end up in the top 1000 in ten years. The middle aged man who had been called Chief however had his eyes glued to Jack.

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Suddenly, his face changed as he stood up and looked at the screen in complete and utter astonishment. When one of the men followed his gaze and saw Jack, he also stood up in shock. He muttered, “How is that possible…. He only has had the Art for only an hour, how was he able to successfully cultivate it already….”

Following the murmur, all of the gazes in the room turned to Jack. On the screen, they saw a blonde haired boy sitting cross legged with a blank face. Around him, small black flames the size of a nail were flickering in and out of existence. Everyone in the room exchanged a glance with one another and then their eyes converged on the middle aged man they had called Chief. The man looked at the screen and then said with a steely expression, “Realm Spirit, keep a close eye on him. He is a valuable and a rare seedling.” “Yes, sir!”

The voice of the old man who Jack had gotten all the Arts from echoed out in the room. The man then turned towards the other people in the room and said, “This news must no leak out! This Art has been buried in history for over a 100 billion years. At long last, there has been someone that can take up the mantle of Nether Angel Warden.” Hearing this, the men’s faces turned serious. They were slightly dazed when they thought back to the various illustrious achievements of the “Nether Angel Warden”. He was without a doubt the strongest in all of the Three Realms in his time. However, one day, he just disappeared.

His Life Slip shattered and no one managed to find his body. Until this day, no one knows what happened to the man. However, one thing is certain, since the time the Three Realms came into existence, he can be considered as one of the strongest people the Three Realms have ever given birth to. Through the years, countless people have tried cultivating the [Nether Angel Art] however, no one has succeeded thus far. Jack has been the first person in 100 billion years, to successfully take the first steps in cultivating the Art.

This in itself was a heaven shaking news. Given enough time, he might even be able to grow into the next Nether Angel Warden.

***

On top of the tree, Jack had no idea that he had managed to shock the movers and shakers of the Three Realms to their core. His mind was completely blank as he sat there. His mind was engulfed in a weird feeling. With every movement he made with the Qi, he frowned even harder, as it just didn’t feel right. The problem wasn’t with Jack or the Qi in the surroundings but rather the Art itself. He had no idea how he knew this but this Art was never meant to be cultivated. If you followed the instructions of the Art, you would never be able to cultivate it. However, as Jack followed his gut feeling and adjusted the movement of the Qi to what he felt was right, he made tremendous progress.

Just when he completed the first cycling and refining of Qi, black flames appeared around him. New information entered his head, rather, more precisely, the [Nether Angel Art]’s description and teachings changed. Everything from the refining cycles to the description of the Art itself. As Jack looked over the new description of the Art, he fell into deep thought. The first three sentences were; “Only those that are fated will have made it this far. This Art is incomplete and is outside the norm. Unlike all of the other Arts, it lacks the fixed pattern of cultivating, this Art is something only those that have the ability to create their own Art can cultivate.”

These three sentences were what made Jack fall into deep contemplation. He felt like he had been cheated. He was promised a completed Art, however, from what he learned now, he needed to create his own Art to cultivate. He had no idea how cultivating worked, much less creating his own Art for cultivating.

However, if there was one saving grace, it was the mysterious gut feeling that allowed him to cultivate it in the first place. After refining the first thread of Qi, he could be counted as having stepped onto the path of cultivation. However, his mind was still caught up on the fact that this Art had been cyphered like this. After familiarizing himself with the new description and refining methods. He let out a deep sigh. He laid his head back against the tree and closed his eyes. He was thoroughly exhausted. Too many things had happened today and even though he only tried cultivating on a whim, he had never expected it to work.

He could feel the thread of Qi moving around inside his meridians. This new sensation of Qi flowing inside him was weird but for some reason, it was also comforting. With exhaustion washing over his body, before he knew it, he had managed to fall asleep. He didn’t care if anyone else found him or if a wild animal killed him, he just wanted sleep. What he didn’t notice was that the moment he fell asleep, a small figure that looked identical to him appeared on top of his head. With closed eyes, it sucked in the Qi in the surroundings and channelled it all into Jack according to the new method of refining. Jack only felt his body become warm and then lighter.

Then a tinge of pain and then his body felt lighter, more durable and stronger than ever before. Even the hunger and thirst he had had before had disappeared. With a smile on his face, he fell into deeper and deeper slumber. The white little figure however, kept gathering the Qi and channelling it all into Jack.

Not long passed before popping sound rang out and Jack’s body was covered in a black grimy substance.