Sure enough, Qian Feng and his master were shortly let out of the room as the doors opened all on their own, revealing stairs too high for Qian Feng to see anything until he climbed them. From what he could see, they spiraled upwards beyond even his enhanced eyesight, meaning it was going to be a long while.

As they set to scaling the steps, Qian Feng thought of something. "Master, how is this assessment formatted?"

"There's a Nomad Duelist assessment here every month. To take it, you must be at or above the Martial Warrior stage. You take it as a group, and only a select few end up passing."

"Okay, but where do Nomads come from, then?" Qian Feng had found it strange that Martial Warriors, who were treated as the top percentile of cultivators in this region, were only the entrance requirement for the Nomad assessment.

"The Nomad organization comes from beyond this region, and has roots unknown to anyone here, even me. It's rumored that their head is at the very least a Martial Sage. Trust me, the influence of Nomads spreads well out of this backwater place."

   Qian Feng continued the conversation, steadily learning more about the organization he was about to join, and steadily growing more excited to become a Nomad Duelist and hopefully challenge himself in the year and seven months he had left in the Iron Fox's training. 

  After around 20 minutes of walking and no change in the amount of light trickling down from the top, the Iron Fox thought of something. 

  "Boy, it's possible that this in itself is a test."

 "Yes, that's what I thought too, but I wanted to see what you would say. So, meet you at the top?"

  "You first."

  Grinning in excitement, Qian Feng unleashed his Force Qi, testing the hardiness of the reddish-orange stairs. They seemed to hold up even under his full force stomps, which meant that Qian Feng didn't need to hold back.

  Fortunately, the stairs were modeled such that they were spiraled upwards in a square shape and left a gap in the center, leading all the way up to the top. If Qian Feng was to make use of his remarkable body, he could exponentially decrease the amount of time it would take to reach the top - and, not to mention, it would certainly be fun enough.

  Qian Feng started out with a relatively simple strategy: grabbing onto one stair above him, and using his superhuman strength and Force Qi, throw himself upwards, enjoying the ascent until his momentum began to decrease, upon which he would repeat the process.

  Soon, though, Qian Feng found that this was not only especially dangerous, but also extremely inefficient - it only took about 130 flights of stairs before Qian Feng began to feel a burn in his arms(he could have healed it instantly with a bit of Life Qi, but regardless, the point remained the same), and yet saw no visible progress. This also used solely the arms, which were naturally weaker than the legs, so the strategy, by the very way it worked, was not as effective as it could be.

  Given the difficulty of this, it was slowly looking more and more like a test, indeed...

  So, Qian Feng began playing a bit more to his strengths. Force Qi gave him incredible strength and stamina, while Earth Qi helped with balance and stability. Life Qi assisted his endurance by giving him near-divine regeneration, and not just from wounds, but from fatigue as well. In other words, Qian Feng would make best use of his affinities by abusing his endless stamina. 

  Qian Feng didn't change much from his last method, instead opting only to fix the largest hole in it - the fact that it relied only upon the arms for movement, a flawed strategy in and of itself.

  So, Qian Feng began to look like a cat(a disturbingly bulky, child-sized one) as he leapt from one stair to another 10 flights above, landing on a stair and healing the fatigue with minute amounts of Life Qi, before leaping again. This strategy was more effective, since instead of just throwing his body weight upwards with his arms, Qian Feng used the more conventional strategy of jumping, and as a result, was able to apply both his arm's muscles and his leg's muscles.

  In this manner, Qian Feng continued for another 30 minutes, and it was starting to weigh on him. Despite his unproportionately-large pool of stamina, Qian Feng was showing signs of exertion, and his Force spirit realm was about 70% full, while his Life spirit realm was at 80%. This may seem like plenty of Qi, but when one had reserves as large as Qian Feng's(his extremely high-grade cultivation techniques gave him incredible Qi capacities), this drain was significant - an ordinary warrior of his level would likely have been drained down to 20% by now.

  But what was Qian Feng to do but continue?

   Several hours later, Qian Feng lay on the floor, exhausted. Even as he slowly got better at his technique, his stamina drained far too quickly, and it was only a matter of time until he ran out completely. 

  Of course, Qian Feng would never make a foolish mistake like keeping going until he had absolutely no Qi left - if, for any reason, he were to find himself in a fight in that condition, the boy would without a doubt be dead. If Qian Feng had any choice, he would always be ready for a fight, and in this case, he did have a choice, so no matter how unlikely, he had to have reserves left just in case.

  Nevertheless, something seemed to be up. He had traveled upwards farther than an ordinary level 9 Martial Warrior with the Wind affinity ever could, but there were no signs of any improvement in the situation. Initially, Qian Feng thought he noticed brightening in the light shining above, but no noticeable changes had surfaced throughout the two hours, and he was confident that if shown pictures of the light before and after his trips, he would not be able to tell the difference - of that, he was now sure.

  So, what did this mean? 

  Well, almost without a doubt, Qian Feng was missing something. Perhaps it was a condition that needed to be fulfilled, or a process that needed to be completed, until Qian Feng progressed outside of the stairway. Whatever it was, Qian Feng doubted that it would be completed through brute force and progressing upwards until he passed out from exhaustion. No, he must be missing something. But what?

  Suddenly, as he was lying down, thinking, Qian Feng noticed something strange.

 Seeing a ray of hope in the never-ending darkness, the boy shot up, focusing on what he noticed: a strange language, one Qian Feng had never seen before, inscribed into the wall. 

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  It was comprised of mystical symbols, each imbued with a meaning and intent that Qian Feng couldn't hope to match at his cultivation level. But outside of that, there was also a strange sense of familiarity they exuded, one that Qian Feng couldn't put his finger on, but simultaneously told him that he had seen these things somewhere before.

  It dawned on him - the arrays in the Cultivation Area!

  But, did that mean that these were inscription symbols?

  Proceeding upwards slowly while examining the symbols, Qian Feng noticed that every 23 symbols, the pattern repeated. But as to what these symbols did, Qian Feng had no idea.

  Unlike the arrays in the Cultivation Area, which were made so that even someone with no knowledge of inscriptions would understand what they did(with enough time and talent), these had no such purpose, meaning that Qian Feng, lacking any background in these symbols, was on his own as to deciphering them. Unless he didn't have to!

  It was unlikely that the Nomad association required knowledge in inscriptions from every single one of their members, let alone the solely combat-oriented Duelist Nomads. What they did require, however, was power! And that only meant that what Qian Feng had to do to break out of this was destroy these symbols.

  The long-gone grin once again appeared on Qian Feng's face - there was little he liked more than good, old-fashioned destruction. Summoning up a guan dao, Qian Feng considered his choices for the offensive skill to use.

  Harmony Blade, Qian Feng's first option, was cheap yet powerful and excelled in the combination of piercing and slicing power. As a result of these factors, it was Qian Feng's most convenient offensive skill, but also the weakest in terms of attack power. It could also be used to strengthen any attack, whether a thrust or smash. This meant it was extremely versatile, and combined with its low Qi cost, was Qian Feng's most commonly-used offensive skill.

  Empyrean Slice, Qian Feng's second option, cost significantly more but had several times more offensive power. As the name might suggest, it focused on slicing capabilities, and was relatively simple. Qian Feng usually saved this as a finishing blow, since it was too expensive to use regularly. Also, Empyrean Slice, unlike Harmony Blade, could only be used to augment the power of a slicing strike, whether vertical or horizontal. In other words, if Qian Feng used Empyrean Slice with a thrust, its effect would be greatly diminished.

  The final skill was one Qian Feng did not take lightly. To use it, Qian Feng had to spend 50% of his Qi, at least in the battlefield where he used it last. By far the most advanced attack skill Qian Feng had learned, Overturning the Seas not only had a difficult Qi component, but most other skills, was its own attack. That was, it did not augment an already-existing attack like a thrust or bash, but the attack was a movement included in the skill, and the skill could not be used without it. Overturning the Seas was an apt name, since the very movement was akin to a dragon flipping its tail and shifting the very seas. It moved in an upwards trajectory, a normally awkward sort of attack, but the movement instead used the direction to gather more and more power as it progressed, reaching body-shattering levels of force by the peak of the movement. This was something Qian Feng would only use in situations where his opponent was completely unable to dodge, as missing would not only cost him half his Qi, but injure him with the recoil of the strike's fearsome power. 

  Happy to avoid Overturning the Seas, Qian Feng prepared an Empyrean Slice, before slashing horizontally and biting into the stone with his conjured guan dao, rending the symbols apart as a result.

  Nothing visibly changed as a result, but Qian Feng could feel the palpable difference in the air.

  Excitedly, Qian Feng leaped upwards, his eyes wide open as his body sailed out of the stairs and onto the arena-stage-like field that the stairs lead to, his bliss bleeding through even his experienced, practiced demeanor.

  Qian Feng landed silently while surveying everybody who had arrived before him - that was to say, nobody except his mentor, the Iron Fox, whom he immediately walked over to.

  "Is that why you waited for me to be out of sight? So you wouldn't give away how to escape?"

  "Indeed, but I'm glad you figured it out. It's quite surprising no one has arrived yet, since it's relatively simple to gain the information for how this phase of the assessment works. It doesn't change from year to year, after all. Well, that could mean that we're lucky, in that there are none of those insufferable brats who we can't afford to -"

  "Bow down, subjects, for I am here!"

  An annoyingly loud and high-pitched voice rang out on the barren stage as a medium-sized silhouette popped out of a hole that opened up, breathing noticeably heavily but still having enough air to yell with such volume. "Oh, it's just you two, huh. Well, old man and little brat, why don't you get out of the way. I like where you're sitting."

  Calm and collected, Qian Feng raised an eyebrow.

  "Apologies, sir, but we'll have to decline respectfully. Sir is welcome to sit with us if he likes, though."

  He responded, taking note of the tacit approval in his mentor's eyes upon hearing his response. 

  "What, and stay close to you peasants. Hah, first you dare pass before me, and then you don't scram when this master tells you to? Oh, you'll regret this."

  With that, the blond, narcissistic kid took out his sword, which was of extremely high quality as it gleamed in the sunlight. "One more chance, fools. Get the hell out of the way."

  Qian Feng and the Iron Fox looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. It was one thing to be polite and avoid attempting someone with an obviously-formidable background(Qian Feng didn't need much experience to tell that that sword was something extraordinary, and just the clothing the kid wore was undoubtedly worth a lot), and another thing altogether to forsake a cultivator's dignity for the sake of avoiding trouble.

  Qian Feng, however, wanted to take it into his own hands, and signaled his teacher to stay down as he summoned up a guan dao. Hopefully, the kid wouldn't be too weak, and this would be actually interesting.

  Obsidian Embrace was activated as well as the blond kid held his sword up into the air, red Qi coalescing around it. A Fire affinity cultivator, then.

  Qian Feng flicked a pellet of Earth Qi towards the blond boy, distracting him while stealthily setting up Triggers all around his target. Given the kid's demeanor, it was painfully obvious he had never been in a real fight before, and Qian Feg fully intended to capitalize on that.

  This, of course, caught the blond kid off guard as he brought his sword down onto the pellet, slicing it in half, then stepping forward. "Is that all you g-"

  A Trigger activated, exploding then causing a chain reaction, resulting in the boy being sent flying back and knocked unconscious. This had not been expected by Qian Feng - how was he to know the boy was so weak - and the extent of damage done caused him to grimace. That nice clothing was ripped apart, soft white skin that had clearly never undergone strain revealed in places where the damage was especially severe.

  "Well, at the very least, he doesn't know who we are, right?" Qian Feng asked, testing the waters to see if his teacher was mad.

   "HAHAHA! That was a good fight, boy! Clever of you distracting him and setting traps. I guess you did benefit from that restricted area, huh? Well, don't worry about him, given his power, I don't think his background is too terrifying. The kind-of-rich kids always have something to prove, but those from the truly formidable groups are never that obnoxious. I don't think he'll be waking up anytime soon, either, so you don't have to worry that much about him annoying you during the assessment either."

  Qian Feng sat back down and started cultivating, waiting for the next phase to begin. Thankfully, no other annoying applicants showed up, and soon enough, this section of the assessment was over.

  A woman dressed in plain white clothing appeared in the air above, speaking loudly.

  "I am the examiner for this month's exam, and I'll explain this phase and what's going to happen in the next phase. First off, I suppose you're all curious about how this phase worked.

   Well, there were two ways to pass this test. The first was to continue taking the stairs until you passed out from exhaustion. If you did this, but passed a certain distance in the process, you'd be teleported here. The secod was to destroy the inscriptions on the wall, which would end the mechanism causing an infinite distance upwards. And, that's pretty much it - it's rather simple.

  The next phase is what all of you should be thinking about. There are about 30 of you who passed the test, meaning that there are enough people to move on to the next phase - a tournament. The rules shall be explained shortly after we create the brackets and fight plan."