Why were Zhou Ye's surroundings changing?
Something triggered a memory of Tang Xuan to take place.
After all, Tang Xuan had only given him the most basic memories, the life that he lived as a mortal and before his Immortal Ascension.
If he gave the memory as an Immortal travelling through the Nine Realms, the Aether, The Vast Lands, Endless Seas, God-Planets and others, it would destroy Zhou Ye's mind and soul.
Tang Xuan came from the Ninth Immortal Realm, where no True Sovereign had yet to be made.
With there not being enough resources, he travelled through the other Eight Realms, he saw real and True Sovereigns there.
When he was ready, he decided to go through the tribulation to become the True Sovereign of the Ninth Realm, however, he was actually rejected, the Everlasting Sovereign appeared from nowhere when Tang Xuan travelled the other Realms and became a True Sovereign.
Tang Xuan attempted to, however, defeat the Tribulation and failed, reducing him to a Pseudo Sovereign, but still incredibly powerful.
The Tribulation was so intense, that if a normal Immortal came to see it for a fraction of a second, their soul would instantly disperse.
Much less, Zhou Ye's Soul, there was no way that he could show such memories.....
Zhou Ye found himself in different clothes, he could feel an immense energy surging off him.
He was at the Peak of Spirit Refinement, he looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years of age.
He was simply standing and looking at a river, suddenly a middle-aged man with a short beard and the endless space of stars in his eyes looked to him and said, "Xuan, follow me, I wish to show you, your Junior Apprentice Sister"
The middle-aged man was none other than Tang Xuan's Master.
Zhou Ye then began to follow his "Master", as he did, he came to a stop and saw "his" Junior Apprentice Sister.
It was a young girl, she was at the Late Stage of Spirit Refinement and was capable of shaming a flower.
She said to Zhou Ye, "Hello Elder Apprentice Brother!".
Zhou Ye then replied, "Hello Junior Apprentice Sister".
All of a sudden, reality then returned, the young girl disappeared, and she was replaced with Ven An.
Zhou Ye looked to Ven An, but then quickly ran away.
He felt as if his heart was burning, he felt as if there was something happening within him.
Was it love at first sight for Ven An? Or was it love generated from memories of Tang Xuan's Junior Sister.
Ven An looked to Zhou Ye, she felt as if he was someone she saw before.
This was the effect of karmic bonds, it was the bonds which preserved even through death.
Unless one was able to sever the karmic bonds, shatter one's soul line or solve them, they would follow one's life for an eternity.
Zhou Ye had a karmic bond with Ven An, it wasn't an ordinary one, clearly, something happened after they met which caused a major event.
Zhou Ye then ran away, Ven An was confused, why had such a thing happened?
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The other tests were now beginning, an uncommon, but not a rare question was currently lingering through the minds of all the youths.
This was a question asked every year, however it was purposely not explained at the very beginning.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
This question was....... Why did the Physique test decide which Sect they went to?
It was simple, it was because before the Emergence Stage, the Spirit-Soul, Essence and the Mind-Heart, they were all virtually impossible to use.
Only when one reached the Emergent stage could they sense their own Spirit-Soul, use the power of Essence or expound on their Mind-Heart.
It was called Soul Emergence for a reason....
The Soul was Emerging or in Tang Xuan's terms, appearing.
In the Spirit Foundation Stage, the body would become refined more and more, it would continue to do so until one reached a bottleneck.
That bottleneck was, of course, the Soul Emergence Barrier.
Some incredible individuals or known as Spirit Lords were those that refined their bodies to the point that even Soul Energy could penetrate it.
Spirit Magnates were those that were Pseudo Emergents that failed their final step would have Soul Energy, however, it wouldn't even come close to penetrating the bodies of a Spirit Lord.
If a Spirit Lord somehow despite being at the same power of a new Emergent was to fail that last step due to any reason, they wouldn't be called a Spirit Magnate, but rather a Spirit King.
This Spirit King (Or Queen) would have a body refined by Soul Energy, they would give up cultivation on the Qi Sense, and would go on the physical sense.
This was much harder and much less rewarding, but this was the only way.
In fact, there was once a woman that was stuck at Spirit King due to a kind act of saving another before herself.
For dozens of years, she saw herself become older and older, however one day, she had a strange breakthrough, nobody truly knew what happened.
But her power suddenly increased, her physical body had a sturdiness which was said to be comparable to the Seventh Yun Star Patriarch of his fortieth year when he went to the outskirts of the Dreaded Earth Lands.
The Dreaded Earth Lands was a strange place, many claimed to have once been there, many thought to have been in there, but the Empire only counted for one to have truly entered the Dreaded Earth Lands when they passed into the Dreaded Region.
This was where all the Beast Tribes existed, only the Fourteenth Generation Emperor at the height of his power before his ascension to Enlightenment was said to have been there.
As for others, they could claim they went inside, however, the Empire wouldn't say they did.
Even Ye Yin's Grandfather could claim such a thing, whilst the Empire wouldn't support it, they wouldn't deny it.
Noone however dared to enter the Dreaded Region as the Beasts lived there and Beasts... Had an incredible Innate strength advantage.
This Innate strength advantage was what allowed them to contest against humans of higher stages.
Beast's Innate strength was dependent on their bloodline. Through this, the beasts were ranked as, Ordinary Beasts, Antique Beasts, Variation Beasts, Primordial Beasts and even onto God Beasts.
The further one went down, the greater Innate strength was one born with.
Humans were no different, they had bloodlines themselves, however, they would mostly be incredibly weak.
Humans couldn't even achieve much with physical strength after a certain level as the norm was that Qi Cultivation was the far easier and quicker way.
This was definitely true, yet why was the Physique test that decided the Sect then?
Because.... The Fifteenth Generation Zhenren Emperor once made a decree as it would be so!
In the history of the entire Zhenren Empire, only the Fifteenth Generation Emperor was deemed by the masses to be crazy, he kicked out the entire Council, spat on the faces of the Holy Assembly Master and Infernal Court Judge and even took his own daughter as a wife.
During the time he did all this, his Father the Fourteenth Emperor was retired, and still alive!
The Fifteenth Generation Emperor found his lives being even as Emperor overshadowed, so he did crazy things to get attention, however, he was also the first Physical and Qi Cultivating Emperor.
Because of this, when his father disappeared and was said to have become Enlightened, he was a Fourth Transition Cultivator, however as practised both Physical and Qi Cultivation, his strength was even greater than a normal Fifth Transition Cultivator.
But he was actually a genius of both, his strength was therefore equivalent to a Sixth Transition Cultivator, through his life, he did crazy things.
He destroyed a Kingdom by "accident", made strange policies such as the Physique Test deciding the Sects, that people would have to drink water from separate springs of where they bathed, created a strange circular object which seemed to block certain objects, created a curved sword which was somehow useful in cavalry and then went on to introducing other eccentric ideas.
(His Ideas, are more strange to them, then they are to us, I'll make more examples later)
Many people had ideas of changing the test which chose the Sect, however many did have to agree that many that did take the tests, wouldn't be at the Emergence Stage and therefore not be able to sense the other three.
Because of this, many actually praised him and called his ideas revolutionary and incredible.
Before they did all four tests to check, the results of the Tests other than the Physique tests yielded very little information which would determine if they were worthy or not to join a specific Sect.
The Fifteenth Emperor hypothesised that it would be better to start on the Physique test as it allowed for more people to join Sects and it was based more on the individuals own strength.
The Mind-Heart, Spirit-Soul and Essence were mostly from birth, however, the Physique whilst also from birth could be improved drastically from birth by its own individual.
Whilst others would have to wait for an Age or Cultivation Stage to improve the Mind-Heart, Spirit-Soul and Essence, the Physique could be improved by simply training and hard work.
Also, how many people even entered the Emergence Stage? Most were stuck in the Spirit Foundation and unable to sense the Mind-Heart, Spirit Soul or Essence very well, it was quite obvious that the Physique Test was a far better indicator.