A few moments into the past, before Long Zedong's tragic tale—

"Disciples of the various sects and clans of the central continent who have gathered to prove themselves today, ready yourselves for the first selection trial! This trial will test your strength, agility, and perseverance."

Jianyu stood quietly as he stared at the Head of the Discipline Hall, Elder Jiang, speaking. Jianyu had previously come to know about this particular elder while looking through the information regarding the Mo Suyin's family... or rather her relatives.

'Why is he hosting the trials?' His thoughts were just as bland as the words he usually spoke, caused by his over-reliance of the untethered heart mantra.

"In the hidden realm, survival will be the key to your success. The strong ones are those who survive. All of you shall battle with each other in a free-for-all until only 66 of you are left!"

'His words lack embellishments, he doesn't even describe the rules suitably...' His thoughts continued, still just as disrespectful towards Elder Jiang.

Just then, Elder Jiang raised his hand, and the nine floating platforms began to lower. While the others were taken by this spectacle, Jianyu climbed atop the central platform in a single leap, placing himself at an appropriate location for his next move.

"Well then, prepare yourselves!" With Elder Jiang's declaration, the platforms rose and drew closer to form an interconnected structure.

After a moment of pause, Elder Jiang continued, "May the Trial of Soaring Chains commence!"

The array formations of the Cloud Soar Arena activated with that, and an aura began to weigh upon Jianyu.

'Stagnation of ambient qi, isolation, detection, and anti-interference...' He remarked internally at the Cloud Soar arena's array formation as he unsheathed the Stony black sword by his side. 'Nothing out of the ordinary...'

Holding the hilt of the blade in a reverse grip, he held it in front of him with its tip pointed towards the ground.

The black blade then fell to the ground and effortlessly lodged itself into the floating platform. "Hu..." Letting out a light breath, he shifted his grip, holding onto his sword firmly... and twisted it.

In that moment, his sword aura traveled through the ground, forming web-like cracks throughout the arena. 'No one has noticed yet...'

The young disciples gathered in the Cloud Soar arena were still too wary of each other to have noticed the faint cracks.

Finally, he channeled dark flames from his 'Inner-world core' and let it flow through the array formed by the cracks. While calling it an array might be wrong, as it's a rather simple creation, the cracks, for the most part, were simple pathways for these flames to flow through with some bare minimum embellishments.

Basic runes for channeling the flames and discharging them... However, the flames themselves were not that simple. These flames had been created as a result of the creation of his inner-world and its grand volcano that spewed flames emitting the essence of death. Moreover, these flames were further strengthened by the absorption of the stellar flames.

Forged by the Dao fragments of death and his innate affinity for flames, Jianyu named these embers 'Spirit Rending Blaze.'

As these flames were emitted from the array, it attacked the life force of those it comes in contact with. However, at certain points, the array formation was 'faulty,' a deliberate design to make it so that the flames would 'accidentally' leak out and 'accidentally' remove any annoyances for Jianyu's plans.

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And while such actions couldn't completely remove other's suspicions of Jianyu, however, as the heir to the Xin family there was no need for him to clarify himself to others.

All that he needed was an "excuse", a well woven lie or perhaps even a lame one might work for that was all that was needed for him to be proven 'innocent'.

'As expected, she's still unharmed...' Jianyu noted as he looked towards Xiao Xiang, who simply stood unfazed by his failure. 'Even though I was ready to sacrifice Xin Guang in the process to justify my blunder of creating a faulty array...'

Since Xin Guang was standing near Xiao Xiang he had unfortunately been involved in this "attack" towards Xiao Xiang. However, he surprisingly survived and while he was injured quite a bit, he instead of being afraid seemed rather taken by the 'Spirit Rending Blaze.'

Jianyu's eyes narrowed, 'What a monster...' Those were Jianyu's genuine thoughts towards Xiao Xiang.

However, soon he noticed something strange, 'Why hasn't Elder Jiang declared th—'

He hurriedly turned his gaze to his side as he sensed the cause of this situation, 'That boy!' It was one of the targets he had chosen to remove as he suspected him to have heightened perception or intuition.

'How did he?' Jianyu frowned as he stared at this deviation in his plans, 'Hm?'

Just then, the rather plain looking boy, who seemed a few years older than him, noticed Jianyu and looked at him. However, before Jianyu could do anything, the boy dashed away from him, his silhouette now hidden behind the other disciples. However, Jianyu, who could sense the life force of the boy, could tell that he had dashed towards one of the core formation disciples.

However, it was a feint, as midway through his dash, the boy's life force changed his trajectory and tackled an unsuspecting opponent...

"That's it!" Elder Jiang roared, slight dissatisfaction apparent in his tone of voice, "The Primary trials have now been concluded! All disciples are to rest for an incense worth of time before the beginning of the second trial!"

...

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...

The second trial was also something within Jianyu's expectations— a simple series of duels.

"As fate and luck in itself is a talent, you all shall be randomly arranged an opponent for the next trial, a series of duels." Elder Jiang's mood seemed to be a bit grumpy, most likely due to the stunt pulled off by Jianyu in the first trial.

But despite that, the trial proceeded quite smoothly without any issues as disciples continued to draw lots... This trial, however, was something Jianyu was most uncertain about.

While he could remove obstacles in the first round, he couldn't do much if his targets simply weren't able to enter the hidden realm. Originally, he had planned to get rid of Xin Guang to make it so that there were a total of 65 qualifiers, and then he could simply exclude himself from this trial so as to avoid facing his target outside the hidden realm.

In the off chance that he happened to face his target here, then, whether he won or lost, it would ultimately be a loss.

Moreover, there was an annoyance named Long Zedong as well...

However, despite Jianyu's worries, Long Zedong simply forfeited the duel without a moment of pause and passed a smile towards him, 'Does he wish to make me owe one to him? Interesting...'

While Jianyu was having delusions of his own, the trials passed without many issues and now it was finally time... for him to enter the hidden realm!

...

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...

Hours later,

Inside the Hidden realm,

the once damp, bluish moss-covered stony walls of the cavernous expanse had undergone an ominous transformation. A fluid, liquidy shadow now enveloped everything within sight, giving rise to misshapen ashen branches that protruded menacingly from the shadows.

"████ ████!" Certain words echoed through the hidden realm, the monstrous being's words akin to the roaring thunders, yet remarkably decipherable in their eerie clarity. It called out a name and struck terror into the very core of the bearer of said name.

Confronting this abomination, an unfamiliar sense of 'fear' gripped him with newfound intensity.