Hudson rubbed his hands over his eyes and re-read the short brief of information on S.E.C.T. There was a lot to unpack, and while it didn’t really answer any questions about Chiang-sensei or why he, Hudson Appleseed, was specifically in this trial, it did provide a little bit more context.
If the basic elements were true, then the conspiracy theorists had all been on to something. There really was a shadowy cabal of global elites pulling the strings of world governments. It just wasn’t for their own benefit, not precisely; it was also for the benefit of people from beyond their own world. Otherworlders. Aliens? The so-called “immortals of legend” refer to themselves as Disciples.
Disciples of who, or what, it didn’t say.
The text was clearly propaganda, and thinly veiled at that. Hudson sighed. These alien Disciples had apparently discovered Earth – using similar rift-opening capabilities as they had seen this afternoon – and then decided to basically threaten the existing cultivators on Earth into providing them with resources. Maybe it was less a shake-down and more a series of trades and taxes. The cultivators of Earth had supposedly received more advanced cultivation techniques from their new Patrons.
The focus on resources at least made sense to Hudson. Many of Earth’s conflicts had been fought over resources. Maybe the planet Earth had the cultivator equivalent of oil, ripe for the taking. Or some other resource that was scarce in other dimensions.
And if these Disciples from Grothkyll could get resources from Earth, without working for it themselves, why wouldn’t they ask S.E.C.T. for them?
There was still more to glean from even this little bit of information about S.E.C.T., but Hudson was tired of thinking about the big picture when he wanted more information that would help him in his specific situation. Knowing that aliens from another dimension were supporting a shadow cabal that controlled the Earth’s governments in exchange for resources was … interesting? but not very relevant for his current predicament.
Hudson closed out of the S.E.C.T. Primer and opened up the other piece of free info available: Trial Overview.
The Trial Overview was even shorter and to the point than the S.E.C.T. Primer had been. Cultivators were apparently not interested in reading long tracts of text.
It briefly covered all of the things Hudson already knew: the three rules (survive, listen to instructions, don’t hurt other participants), challenges, resource gathering, visualization, and trial merit rewards. The daily challenges could vary significantly in form, but were always a competition among the participants. There were additional standard activities that the Director could require of participants that included physical fitness training, martial forms training, and qigong training.
The overview didn’t explain qigong training, but it sounded similar to the visualization training, in that it was individual training, and the participants were rewarded based on a successful number of completions. Physical fitness training was rewarded on speed to complete the exercises, and martial forms training on defeating opponents.
Towards the end of the overview, Hudson found the new information he had been looking for.
In their esteemed beneficence, the Disciples have allocated multiple trials to the S.E.C.T. cultivators of Earth for the development of hidden talents and young prodigies. This First Trial is focused on ensuring a solid foundation in all of the pillars of power, including bodily fitness, martial prowess, cultivation technique, visualization ability, qigong technique, courageous thought, and leadership.
The First Trial can be opened at any time, given sufficient allocation of resources (100 kg of low-grade maseki) and the inclusion of no more and no less than a full war-party of 34 participants (1 captain, 1 lieutenant, 8 squad leaders, and 24 squad members).
Strength leads to strength. All trial rewards are based upon a participant’s own results, but the success or failure of the trial itself is the same for all participants.
To succeed in the First Trial, all Sigil Challenges must be opened and completed by at least one participant. Multiple Sigils may be earned by the same participant. Multiple participants may earn the same Sigil.
Sigil Challenges require resources in the form of low-grade maseki. The Trial Director will open stabilized rifts to tier 0 or tier 1 worlds for resource-gathering by participants.
The First Trial will end in failure if not completed within 360 Earth-standard days. The First Trial will end immediately in failure if more than 50% of participants perish. The First Trial will end immediately in failure if the total inventory of low-grade maseki falls below 100 kg. (Current inventory level: 890.4 kg).
Finally, Hudson could see a path out of this nightmare. He might not even have to do much, either, except go along for the ride. Although if he kept helping out with mining resources in the rift worlds, he could help the whole process move along faster. He did not want to stay here for 360 days, that’s for sure.
It was interesting to see that the Trial was positioned as a favor from the Disciples to the Earth S.E.C.T. to help them train their young cultivators. Although apparently dying wasn’t too terrible a thing, if 50%. or 17, of the total participants could be killed and the trial still be considered a success. The strength of the few – in body, cultivation, visualization, and the other foundational skills mentioned, like qigong and leadership – was more important than the well-being of the many. There were limits, however; strength concentrated in a few individuals was fine, so long as that strength was effective. Personal strength that resulted in the deaths of many was not strength, but a weakness.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Hudson had a strong suspicion now about the cheater group. There were ten of them, and counting out the positions listed in the text – captain, lieutenant, and squad leader – there were ten leadership positions. Challenges rewarded the top ten. If he had to guess, the rewards were focused at the top to give the ones who were successful more opportunities to become stronger.
And so why include your own people from S.E.C.T. in the trial if all or most of the rewards were concentrated amongst the top ten? Why not seed ten of your hand-picked “young prodigies” and fill out the rest with the gullible, the desperate, or the unwanted?
Strength leads to strength, indeed.
Hudson sat back and tried to process the new information as well as the last few days. For good or bad, he was now on the path of cultivation – the path of progression, of cultivating personal strength.
He didn’t care about the other-world Disciples, the S.E.C.T.’s shadow government or any of that conspiracy stuff. It hurt his head to think about. He also didn’t need to be the strongest; at least he didn’t feel compelled to cultivate and cultivate until he was the strongest cultivator and an Immortal, whatever that meant.
Perhaps it was his lack of ambition or laid-back nature, but personal strength for its own sake wasn’t meaningful to him. But it was meaningful if it kept other people from taking advantage of him.
The most meaningful thing to Hudson was being at peace with himself. He had always struggled with anger, and rage, and always been taught that his feelings were wrong. That he had to control those feelings so that they would not hurt himself, or others.
He was tired of feeling angry, but he was even more tired of being angered. Why did he struggle with anger and rage? Because of other people. Because they took from him. Belittled him, mocked him, and pushed him around. Because they kidnapped him, threw him in an alien trial, and didn’t care if he survived.
He didn’t want to be in this trial; he hadn’t asked to learn a cultivation technique. He didn’t want to be the strongest cultivator and live forever as a Taoist Immortal, serving the alien Disciples of Grothkyll or even surpassing them. But he did want to be left alone, and if this trial could help him grow in his own personal strength, then he could use that.
The largest changes often start out small. A single pebble can start a rockslide; a snowflake can launch an avalanche; a neutron can set off a nuclear chain reaction. Hudson had had a minor realization, one that would have far-reaching consequences for his future.
To be at peace with himself, he needed the strength to go to war with all that stood in his way.
…
MEANWHILE
…
“The Elder Elenor Chiang, Grand Outer Protector of the First Defense,” a clear voice echoed across the hall, announcing her arrival.
Elenor (a.k.a. Chiang-sensei to an unwilling trial participant by the name of Hudson Appleseed) gazed in distaste at the assembled elite of S.E.C.T. and their hangers-on. She hated these people, and she hated these celebratory functions, even if she knew of their usefulness and importance.
A new class, the future of S.E.C.T., had been sent into the rift of the First Trial.
The start of the trial was cause for celebration, and the sponsoring house, the Adams, had spared no expense in decorating their family seat of power, a ducal estate set in a picaresque English countryside, for the party. Their young prodigy, expected to turn the fortunes of the declining family around, had started his cultivation journey, and it was destined to be a bright one.
Normally, Elenor did not attend these functions. Normally, she did everything in her power to avoid her fellow members of S.E.C.T. – except, of course, when there was a fight to be had. Rift mines overrun with monsters? She was the first to arrive, and was always welcomed.
And she was welcomed because she had played no favorites among the houses, and was powerful. Maybe not the strongest, especially against her fellow humans, but against the silverine hives, the jade wasps, the other innumerable horrors on these other worlds, and ultimately the silicates, the Disciples’ own enemy? She had no peer, outside of the ranks of the Disciples themselves.
S.E.C.T. was very insular. It had to be, to remain secret; although cultivation-bound oaths administered by the Grand Inner Protector also played a significant role in keeping the existence of the governing cabal hidden from the unknowing masses of earth. Elenor had long given up on the internal, grasping politics of each house within S.E.C.T., and had forged her own path. A path where she stayed out of the politics of S.E.C.T. and the earth governments; a path forged by her own fists, where she earned her own place of respect.
But it wasn’t enough. Not for what she really wanted… and that bitter truth was one that had taken Elenor a good chunk of her 132 year-long life to accept. Her title? The Grand Outer Protector of the First Defense? Fancy, gold-plated hand-cuffs. An empty title with no authority, and no means to change the status quo.
She let go of her bitter ruminations and got down to business. Looking out over the crowd milling about the ballroom, it was not difficult to find the host of the party, surrounded as he was by sycophants and well-wishers.
“Oh hello, George! It’s been so long… Congratulations on your great-grandson’s debut trial!” Elenor said with a candy-sweet smile. “You must be so proud to finally have an heir worthy of your name.”
George Adams, the patriarch of his clan, was a tall, powerfully built man with neatly trimmed, pure white hair. While cultivation often extended a practitioner's lifespan well beyond the human norm, the tell-tale signs of aging were still there in the wrinkles at his temples and the dark spots on his hands.
“Elenor. A rare honor to see you this evening; I do hope this celebration for my great-grandson is not keeping you from your responsibilities,” he replied politely, ignoring her implied jabs and the failures of his sons and grandchildren.
“Oh, not at all, not at all,” she said. “I have some level of interest in this trial class, as well.” She met his eyes and smiled a predatory smile.
“Would you care to make a friendly wager?”