In an unknown chaotic space where piecing energy flow randomly, a mammoth being that dwarfs even the tallest mountains sat on a decadent throne was resting his head on his arm reading a book. He had a crown made of many massive gems that could buy any empire over and over again.
A much smaller humanoid being approached this intimidating figure and waited politely. Only after a few hours did the majestic being looked up from his book, prompting him to speak. In a loud and clear voice he reported, “Supreme Heavenly Sovereign of all deities. It has been reported that a tear in space has occurred in the lower plane. Luckily it happened on our territory.”
“Oh? When was this?” The imperial gigantic being asked as he materialized an equally gigantic mirror beside him. Multiple shinny dots of various colors showed up on the mirror. There were nine red dots that shined brighter than the rest.
“Your majesty, this was reported by Goddess Ying exactly six hours and thirty two minutes ago. She would like to know if two immortals has engaged in combat and if another immortal has appeared from our land.” The messenger replied quickly.
“Hmm… if that little girl says so then it must be so except it wasn’t caused by an immortal. There’s still only nine in our territory in the lower plane and none are close to that location. The strongest one around is only level 60, the treaty he has with us is some lowly skill that could not possibly have such power. Oh well, it must have been a human that sacrificed his own life to execute a lethal move. You may go now.” The colossal being didn’t bother looking at the messenger and went back to reading his book.
The messenger didn’t dare ask more and left on cue. The heavy question that weighed on his mind disappeared. Previously he was wondering if another being in the lower plane stepped into the realm of immortality with the power to oppose deities had appeared.
Back in the throne room the imperial huge being muttered to himself, “Dimensional Destruction and Time Dilation. His first two contracts with us is already so deadly. An interesting kid similar to The Abnormally that appeared eons ago has appeared. Just when I thought the region I own has the least potential with a measly nine immortals haha. I better keep this to myself for now, it’s not like we can interfere anyhow. If he’s unfortunate, he might never achieve immortality.”
As Ryu stepped inside the door made of pure lights, he found himself inside an endless and boundless white space. A small change could be felt within his body, he now had the cultivation of level 10. Previously when he entered the mountain to reach the temple, he couldn’t emit any Qi at all.
“What is this place?” Ryu asked himself as he wondered around. For someone who could see the underlying Qi in any objects he was surprised, the moment he walked through the door he was in this endless plane of whiteness. Even as he turned around, the door was gone. There were small threads of Qi under the ground that seemed to stretch forever.
“Could this be some sort of time and space manipulation?” Ryu said with wide eyes. Although he had established two specializations in those areas, he almost died from one use of them. This place was definitely larger than the area inside the temple but how is that possible? Was he taken to another dimension? Also he couldn’t explain it but he felt as if time was not moving at its proper pace in here as well. He looked down at the Infinity Tome and saw it floating right beside his feet, only the upper half the tome was above ground.
Slowly a faceless being with just a pair of lips on his face and has similar height and build as him appeared a few meters away. This being was grey and seemed to have a cultivation of level 10 as well. The air around them tremored and transformed. Suddenly they were in a tropical forest with the sun shining above them and a small clean pond on the side. This kind of reminded Ryu of the Forbidden Forest except the air was more humid. The nature around them seemed very real and even contained Qi like living plants. Maybe they are real Ryu thought to himself.
“Hi there?” Ryu said in an attempt to communicate to the grey being. He was utterly ignored. The grey being just sat down and lifted one hand forward.
The ground shook once more and two tables slowly rose up in front of them. On the tables were various instruments made of wood with simplistic designs. The grey being that sat in front of the table and selected a flute. With an elegant movement, the flute was at its lips.
Ryu grew up in a poor environment, he obviously never had time or money to learn any instruments. He doesn’t know the basics of music at all. The grey being started playing the flute, the melody were soothing and had a slow beat.
“Is this a musical test? What should I do?” Ryu said with a bit of worry as soon as he heard the music. He can’t play along or copy it at all.
After a minute of worrying Ryu started to feel dizzy, it’s as if he had been spinning around many times. Then his body started to heat up, it’s as if he’s inside a large furnace.
“The music is creating this nausea!” Ryu said in surprise. “Am I supposed to combat it?”
Ryu quickly picked up a harp and started plucking its strings, the beat was erratic and did not sound pleasant at all. It slowed down the nauseating feelings that were invading Ryu slightly.
The grey being slowly put down the flute and picked up a violin and its bow. As the violin bow slid across the violin’s strings, a bone chilling cold swept through Ryu’s body. What was happening? Ryu dropped his harp and reached from the drums.
“Focus!” Ryu told himself as he squinted his eyes to see the invisible danger of the violin sounds. He quickly noticed that the grey being is injecting the majority of its Qi into the violin and the sound that came out carried part of the Qi. The sound waves that came at Ryu were not simple ripples, they formed complicated patterns that shocked Ryu. Every time an unnatural looking sound wave hit him, he felt much weaker and colder.
Timing his drum strikes to counter the harmful sound waves, Ryu quickly encountered another problem. His current cultivation base was at level 10, he was losing his Qi too fast! Judging by the Qi spent by the two, Ryu was roughly twice as inefficient as his opponent.
“This won’t work, I’ll run out of Qi way sooner than him. Once that happens I’ll lose for sure.” Ryu said with disdain. He actually had access to his second reservoir which was also restricted to level 10 at the moment but he’s afraid he’ll be disqualified if he uses it. The main problem is that the grey being is also extremely efficient at gathering its Qi from nature, thus replenishing its Qi at a rate that’s no less than Ryu’s. Suddenly his drum sticks snapped, the nauseating feeling made him lose control of his power.
Throwing the broken drum sticks down on the ground, Ryu sat in a meditative pose and tried to block the incoming Qi with his Qi own while recuperating his stamina. Using his profound cultivating technique, he quickly circulated the Qi from the nature around him.
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Previously he thought of materializing earth or ice to cover his ears but it’s not the sound that enters his ears that’s harmful, it’s the vibrations from the sound waves. Even if he formed a stone armor around himself, which he doesn’t have enough Qi to do so, the vibrations will be merely slowed down.
It was an all or nothing gamble. The incoming sound waves hit him like a tidal wave, attempting to make him lose consciousness. Ryu erected a minimal Qi defense and spent the rest of Qi gathering and refining more Qi. He was attempting to level up during the exam!
After ten minutes of meditation while taking on the sound abuses, Ryu was on the verge of collapsing when he broke through to level 11. Instantly his Qi became a bit stronger, denser and higher in quality. His defense strengthened immediately and the nauseating effects became less severe. The grey being noticed the chance immediately and the table in front of him sank downwards into the ground. A moment later a dark grand piano slowly emerged along with a chair. The grey being instantly started playing the piano.
This time the pressure against Ryu intensified, it’s as if gravity was increased threefold all the sudden. The music played had a much faster rhythm, if Ryu didn’t know better he would’ve guessed that two songs were played at once. The hot and chilling aspect of the music also came back at the same time on top of the increased gravity.
Gritting his teeth, Ryu maintained his meditative pose. He knew that he had a better chance to break through to the next level than to break through his opponent’s music. After thirty minutes Ryu quickly broke through to level 12. It was with great effort though, one could see that he’s completely drenched in sweat and his veins looked like it’s just about to pop out. However, with two levels between them now Ryu no longer felt as pressured. The effects were lessening on him.
The grey being attempted to rotate the songs and at one even illusions were formed but Ryu sat there cultivating, ignoring all that’s going on. After a full day, Ryu broke through to level 19 at a skyrocketing speed. Having cultivated through this before, he had only become even more efficient at this. Also he didn’t have to level up two reservoirs like before either.
Instead of overwhelming the grey being whose still at level 10 with his Qi, Ryu studied the incoming sound waves in detail. He was nine levels ahead of his opponent, it was very hard for him to be defeated at this point. Ryu noticed the sound patterns were not static, there were barely any repeats. By injecting your Qi into sound you are able to strengthen the sound waves to make them durable enough to form symbols.
Clap! Ryu took off his shoes and started slapping them against the wooden table that held the instruments. The sound waves from this clap carried a hint of his Qi which quickly disrupted the incoming sound waves just before it could make a complicated symbol.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Ryu kept slapping his shoes in his own rhythm that completely counters the other beat. Slowly and carefully, Ryu started to form a pattern identical to his opponent’s. He couldn’t replicate the complicated symbols that formed but the attack routes were the same. The symbols Ryu formed were simple triangular arrows. In an instant the grey being succumbed to Ryu’s musical assault and dissipated.
Tremors could be felt again and Ryu found himself in the middle of a kilometer long suspension bridge. Beneath the bridge was never ending darkness, it was instant death for anyone who falls. Ryu looked behind him and noticed at one end was the white door identical to the one that brought him into the trials.
At the opposite end was a podium with a large silver crystal lying on top of it. The Qi it radiated was so powerful and bright, Ryu had never seen anything like it. He could feel it from half a kilometer away, the Qi was so fine that it’s piecing through Ryu through his pores. Thankfully the Qi is pure and had no ill-intentions or else Ryu would have been ripped apart without time to resist. In fact Ryu was a bit comprehensive towards it, this much raw Qi could detonate and destroy half a province by his estimate.
Whoosh! A terrible gust of wind came out of nowhere that nearly knocked Ryu off the bridge, he quickly grabbed on something. However, he could barely hang on. His cultivation still remained at level 19. Good thing the bridge was durable or else Ryu’s desperate grip to hang on would’ve crushed ordinary metal and wood to pieces.
Roar! An ear-piecing screech came out and a large black lizard-like beast with two enormous wings descended. It had a tail with countless grey spikes and at the tip there was a huge blue flame that’s the size of Ryu himself. The beast had obsidian colored scales that looked indestructible. The muscles flexing under the scales made them ripple. Each breath it took had streaks of dominating blue flames coming out of its mouth which contained perfectly aligned sharp teeth that could slice through metal, forget human flesh. It landed gracefully without much sound beside the podium, which was pretty amazing for this ferocious looking beast.
“This is… a dragon?” Ryu said in amazement, he had never seen a dragon but he could recognize from the pictures he seen from books. There were considered the top of the food chain. These intelligent beasts or divine beings if you will, are unimaginably powerful that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a single mature dragon could devastate if not wipe out an empire. From what Ryu read before from Alexis’s memory crystals, even Alexis himself was scared of dragons and wouldn’t dare to approach. Currently only the country of Britannica and the Magic Continent are rumored to have tamed a dragon each.
The dragon tribe had been a dominant force in the world before, this was so long back in history that no one could be sure. Even though the world hasn’t seen their might as long as one could remember, no one would brave enough to brazenly look for one. That’s because dragons are divine beasts that reached immortality, fighting a whole tribe of immortal beasts would be suicide.
Ryu also remembered reading a fairy tale story that started in the past, the founder of the Lin Empire was rumored to have slayed a young dragon and gained earth-shattering powers that allowed him to start his own empire. By drinking the dragon’s blood and eating its heart, the Lin’s Empire’s founder’s body could transform into that of a dragon as well! There are some martial art that requires you to drink the blood of certain beast to gain their characteristics to practice certain skills more proficiently. However, not everyone is willing since it comes at great risk.
A sword materialized a feet in front of Ryu. This sword was ordinary in every single way, it barely contained any Qi and could hardly be considered as a rank 1 sword. Even a random Qi blade produced by Ryu in his normal state is many times stronger.
“You got to be kidding me” Ryu said in disbelief as he deduced what’s going on. “I have to defeat that dragon with this sword?”