The mannequin's movements were extremely unsettling. At a glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The more you observed it, however, the stranger its movements became. They were exceedingly smooth. They were the movements of a well-oiled machine. When the mannequin reached a certain point, it immediately jumped at Yang Xuan. Yang Xuan could not react in time. The mannequin struck him, and he slammed into the wall behind him a split-second later. The walls were undamaged, but Yang Xuan fell to the ground. Powerful as he may be, he had not even attempted to defend himself. Sprawled out on the ground, he cried in pain. The mannequin ran towards him.

Yang Xuan frantically attempted to stand. He couldn't budge. Realizing he was panicking, he tried to calm himself down. He remembered what his master had taught him about utilizing Qi. He coated his body in his Qi, and immediately he was able to regain his strength and stand. Much calmer now, he directed his Qi to his eyes. The mannequin's movements appeared to slow down. He could do this, Yang Xuan assured himself. He had practiced. No longer was he a trash with no potential. Yang Xuan was far more powerful than this mannequin.

As the mannequin approached, he directed all of his Qi to his right fist. The mannequin leaped at him once again, but this time he was prepared. His fist went straight for the mannequin's torso. Only, he had not held back. The mannequin shattered.

[Enemy defeated. You have gained 10SP for defeating a first-stage Qi Gathering Realm enemy. You now have 169SP.]

Yang Xuan had won. Yet, the fight had been much closer than it should've been. He had let himself be distracted by the enemy, and he was caught with his guard down. Yang Xuan's body was not strong; his Qi was. He should've coated himself in Qi from the beginning. Yang Xuan would surely reflect on this.

Yang Xuan had passed the trial

The sect examiners had been fairly shocked after Yang Xuan shattered the mannequin. Apparently, it was supposed to deactivate after taking a certain amount of damage. It was not a problem, though, as there were plenty of spares. It seemed these mannequins were not very difficult to make. After winning the fight, he was given an outer disciple uniform and told to wait until the trials were completed.

A total of five cultivators passed the trial, including Yang Xuan. Dressed in sect uniforms, they were all directed to a certain senior disciple to show them the ropes. Yang Xuan examined the others. They were all at least double his age. The eldest was about twenty-years-old. The younger ones seemed quite haughty, while the eldest just seemed glad to have passed. It was probably not his first time taking the test.

“My name is Zheng Yuan,” the inner disciple began, “I am an inner disciple of Crimson Bear Sect, and I will introduce you to the Crimson Bear Sect's rules.” Zheng Yuan seemed quite calm compared to most of the cultivators Yang Xuan had met before. At least, until the two of the younger cultivators started whispering to each other.

“You dare speak among yourselves in my presence!?” Zheng Yuan immediately exerted an immense spiritual pressure on the two. The ground fractured as they were forced to their knees. “Normally, outer disciples take care of this, yet I have decided to grace you with my presence. You better show gratitude. You will speak only when I permit you to speak. Do you understand?” The two barely managed to force out a “yes” through their grimaces.

Cultivators were all the same.

After that incident, no one dared to do anything that had the slightest chance of being interpreted as insolence in front of Zheng Yuan. He showed them around the sect, and then took them to the outer disciple quarters. It was just one large room with many, many bunk beds. There were quite a few outer disciples here. It made sense, given that this was the only sect in a fairly major city. After all, cultivator weren't that rare. Approximately one in five people had the potential to be cultivators. Good cultivators, however, were much, much rarer. With his System, Yang Xuan had the potential to be a very good cultivator.

Refocusing on his goal at the Crimson Bear Sect, Yang Xuan looked into the forest the sect controlled. He had heard it was filled with savage beasts. After asking around a bit, he discovered it was called the Blood Lotus forest. Outer disciples could venture into it, so long as they had completed their monthly tasks. They had had a certain amount of tasks they needed to complete every month. Most of these tasks were simple manual labor. If they didn't complete them, however, their pay would be docked. If they didn't complete them for a few months consecutively, it was possible that they would even be expelled from the sect.

Savage beasts were mostly normal animals that had absorbed a large amount of Qi. This Qi crystallized inside their bodies, forming a spirit crystal. These spirit crystals had a variety of uses, the primary one being a source of pure Qi for quicker cultivation, and were the primary way a sect generated income. Disciples were required to turn in any spirit crystals and herbs they gathered to the sect. The sect would, of course, compensate them for it, if a little cheaply. The main reason cultivators joined sects was because almost all shops were forced into exclusivity deals by local sects. No one would buy or sell any spirit crystals or cultivation herbs to or from independent cultivators unless they were prepared to face the wrath of the local sects. Governments could not interfere because most sects were affiliated with larger, more powerful sects, and a war with them would cause much more harm than good even if they managed to win. The sects had complete monopolies on everything cultivation-related. In most cases, the governments simply partnered with the sects to benefit themselves. Of course, in spite of this, there remained a few cultivators which attempted to go independent. In those cases, they would simply be slaughtered like animals if they angered the sect in any way. Unless you were an extremely powerful cultivator, you were forced to join a sect if you planned on utilizing your cultivation.

This state of affairs angered Yang Xuan very much, but he knew he was far too weak to challenge it. For now, at least.