Nyx’Sol managed to arrive at the Verdant Reflection Sect Town roughly an hour before sunset. The town was bustling with activity; dozens of younger demons were skimming the wares and arguing with one another. Their attire was not uniform, suggesting that they were not cultivators of the sect.

“Psst.” A shopkeeper waved Sol closer. “You want to buy some neutral-looking cultivator robes? Displaying your clan can lead to people taking offense.”

When he approached, the shopkeeper laid out a few simple cultivator robes in various colors. “I could also quickly change your own robes, stitch some—oh, that is xilix, marvelous—pure cloth over it so it covers your clan symbols.”

Sol was curious but not sure if something like that was truly needed. “Is there a lot of animosity between families?”

The purple-skinned sales demon raised an eyebrow and pointed toward the right. Down the street, Sol could spot some commotion. He even heard some of their shouts faintly: ‘How dare you,’ ‘Your clan could not even do,’ ‘The only thing good about your family is how good your sister looks.’ The ensuing fistfight thereafter was self-explanatory.

“Yes, that would be lovely,” Sol said with an innocent smile.

Within a minute, the skilled salesman had stitched the back of his uniform seamlessly. Sol retrieved a spirit stone from the depths of his bag, awkwardly thinking about how much this was even worth.

“I apologize, but I can only pay with this,” he said, showing a spirit stone of the lowest quality.

The tailor scratched his head. “Yes, we have that problem sometimes. This is far too much for my small service. You should have mentioned it earlier.”

“I apologize,” Sol said sheepishly. So these were worth a lot.

The purple demon looked him up and down. “I do not have enough money on me to exchange this with you. But if you want, can I trade you a temporary storage ring for it? It has a decent capacity and a few months left on it.”

Sol’s mind raced. A storage ring was surely very valuable. Do temporary versions of storage items even exist? Was he getting scammed?

The salesman put a small bag with metal bars on the table. “And some change to even out the trade. What do you say? Then you are all set for tomorrow’s Sect Admission Test.”

Opening the bag, Sol found a mixture of gold and silver bars. The ring was made of simple wood but quite durable. He had the feeling that this trade was still not in his favor. Firstly, because it seemed too good to be true. Secondly, because he simply did not know the value of a spirit stone, a temporary storage ring, or the services of a tailor in the Verdant Reflection Sect Town.

So he just agreed with a smile, packed all his belongings into the temporary storage ring, and carried on, vowing to research the value of spirit stones more closely before using them to pay for anything.

Over the next hour, he was careful not to get involved in any fights and browsed a few shops where the prices were always given in sect points, likely earned by completing missions for the sect.

Nyx’Sol found a tavern, booked a bed for the night, and paid for one of the more expensive meals, the ‘Verdant Lake Special.’ It was just a few silver bars, and he was curious.

It consisted of seafood—pieces cut from very large seafood, to be exact. There was a suction cup the size of his fist, removed from the tentacles of an octopus-like creature. Whatever this creature was, it must have been the size of a building or two, at least.

But that, paired with smaller fish and large mussels grilled and overlaid with a sour liquid Sol had never tasted before, filled his stomach to the brim before he even knew it.

Resting on a comfortable futon atop a mattress, after almost a week of traveling, also felt divine. He spent the rest of his evening flipping the last plucar berry, which had sadly ripened to its far less tasty and sweet variant, back and forth between his hand and the storage ring.

Retrieving items from his storage ring was quite tricky. It required a great deal of concentration to pinpoint the right location inside the storage space and then retrieve it in a fluid motion that did not throw the item through the room but with enough force to ‘lift it out’ of the storage dimension.

It did not require any Qi, like he had assumed. Instead, the ring drained his stamina, likely to replace the energy that Qi provided through other means. He merely retrieved a berry back and forth and found himself quite exhausted after a while. Sol would have to be careful not to retrieve his entire belongings on a whim. He was not sure if he could handle that drain.

Sleep came fast, and faster came the morning still.

Nyx’Sol walked through some shops near the sect plaza, browsing their wares, trying to gain a better understanding of the local economy.

Local cultivator herbs seemed expensive, but compared to some materials, they were downright free. Most shops sold raw resources to cultivators for their professions, but if Sol had to guess, the sect’s internal pricing might be more beneficial than the nearby—

His thought process was violently interrupted by his fellow future cultivators running toward the plaza. It was a bit too early for the admission ceremony, so of course, a fight had broken out.

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Sol shrugged and walked closer as well, arriving early enough for the insults to end and the fight to begin.

A demon with green skin raised his hands in a loose fighting stance toward a much younger individual. His opponent had crimson skin that blended into a lighter shade of brown. This was a child. Yet something about him radiated confidence. No, arrogance. Despite being the smaller of the two, he was looking down on his opponent.

The younger demon casually stripped out of the upper half of his robes, revealing a heavily trained body. Muscles flexed down his chest and arms, and the upper end of a solid six-pack was visible.

“This Rax’Rathos of the Aurelius Vox will take your first strike,” he casually declared to the crowd. His skin then turned a bronze hue, confidently spreading his arms away from himself.

Sol immediately upgraded his perception of the younger demon. If he had enough control to activate a body technique—which his bronze skin seemed to indicate as a defensive one—then he was already solidly in the first step of body cultivation, at least.

His opponent already had a furious look on his face and charged him immediately. He put all his body weight behind a palm strike that impacted Rax’Rathos’s face.

Sol could see the skin bend when it impacted. Clearly, the technique did not have the power of the first level of cultivation behind it—Skin Tempering.

Nonetheless, some of the force seemed to have been lost. Quick successive strikes impacted the green-skinned demon in vital areas. A kick to the lower leg and knee brought his opponent low. Rax’Rathos was merciless—an uppercut to the chin, a hook to the side of the chin. Despite the size difference, the fight was over.

“I am Rax’Rathos! Know the name!” He took a victorious lap around the fallen body with arms outstretched, as if waiting for a challenger.

Nyx’Sol estimated the younger demon to be at most 14 years old. Despite that fact, he had the clear glow of awakening in his eyes. He might not have advanced to the first step of body cultivation yet, but he would surely do so in due time—a natural-born genius.

Then the orb, positioned in the middle of the sect plaza, started to glow. The admission had begun.

As Sol walked away from the fight toward the plaza, even he drew some stares. Smaller groups sticking together clearly whispered about his Grace of Undying.

It was irritating to be stared at, like he was something special. His only talent had been to die early. Part of him wanted to yell at them when they whispered in hushed voices, gesturing at their cheeks.

So he stood stoically in the crowd and waited for his turn. The orb displayed a name: Rax’Ounoth. A clumsy girl with light red, almost pink, skin approached and laid her hand on the orb. Her name disappeared, and the number ‘17’ appeared.

A score for innate talent, measuring whatever factor the sect was looking for. As long as your score was above ten and you had awakened, you were granted access as an outer disciple. Sol was optimistic that he would at least score that well. He had to. Sol clenched his right fist. The spirit bond had faded into invisibility, hiding itself.

He would do well and take care of the child that was left for him. Eleven was enough. As long as he passed.

‘7.’ A young blue demon was laughed out of the plaza, not qualifying.

It took quite a while for the orb to select a new name, so Sol started listening to his surroundings. Worries, optimism, hope—a lot of different sentiments were going around. Then, Rax’Rathos and his friends shoved their way through the crowd to stand at the front. Soon, they stood next to Nyx’Sol.

“Branch family trash should just hide instead of challenging me,” Rathos complained. “If he had at least been from the Aurelius Vox, I would understand. Our branch family is better than other main families. Is that not right, Nox’Rictus?”

‘22.’ A young demon girl with a white facemask had passed.

The purple demon in question replied, “No one compares to you, young master.” He bowed.

“Of course not. I am a genius. Awakened at just twelve years old, and I still had to wait another year to gain permission from my family to join the Verdant Reflection Sect.”

‘19.’ A lanky demon with bright blue skin raised his fist victoriously.

A nearby red-skinned demon raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying you are better than us?” He stepped closer, puffing up his chest. “I could take you on any day.”

Rax’Rathos glared at him. “We will see about that. I will make sure you regret the day you ever met me.” Then he arrogantly disregarded his adversary entirely. He was beneath his attention.

‘34’ and ‘14.’ A pair of identical-looking demons passed.

The gesture had not been missed by the nearby demons, all giving their own little warnings to the younger demon. But he confidently endured them.

‘27.’ A dark-skinned Nyx had passed as well, somehow giving some courage to Sol.

Meanwhile, Rax’Rathos stood there, in a sea of insults, just staring down his adversaries, finally pointing upward at the floating rocks and shouting at them with a booming voice.

“Do not presume that one such as I will be trapped up there with the likes of you.” He laughed. “No! It is you who are bound to these walls with me!”

Nyx’Sol stepped into the circle Rax’Rathos had formed for himself. “Little guy,” he said to gain his attention.

The younger demon flipped around with a hissed, “How dare you?” before realizing that Sol was pointing toward the plaza. “Your turn.”

Irritated, the younger demon stared at Sol’s face. Sol could feel his eyes darting to the Grace of Undying on his cheek before stepping past him. “We are going to solve this afterwards,” he growled.

Sol really admired his confidence. It must be delightful to not fear your own failure. He watched the young genius step toward the stone, flipping it from his name to ‘81.’

Loud talking replaced the quiet that the moment had created in a heartbeat.

“I would not wish to follow up on that.”

“This guy is insane, and he is so young!”

“81? Really?”

Nyx’Sol watched with dread as the younger demon approached, keeping his eyes locked on him the whole time. Then the orb showed ‘Nyx’Sol.’

Sol remembered the memory he had unlocked. With a deep breath in, he walked out, no longer needing to fake his confidence. He was calm and collected.

The prior score had created a lot of anticipation, and you could hear a needle drop in the crowd.

Only Rax’Rathos did not care. “Go ahead! Show us who you are!” he shouted with a mad laugh. “No running away afterwards!”

Nyx looked back at him briefly. What natural confidence he had. Incredible.

Then he faced the orb and pressed his right hand onto it.

It flickered. And then it lost all light and cracked with a thunderous noise through the middle, shattering the backside and throwing fragments across the plaza.