After spending over a month in his hut he leaves for the outside. The fortress is very well hidden. By now even if someone where to fly over it there is little to see here. Just some stones and grass.

Food and water weren’t a problem. The only inconvenience was that he couldn’t light a fire. The smoke can be made almost invisible, but who knows what tracking methods are out there.

During this entire time, he trained with the new-found energy. This is probably the qi that the cultivators use.

It is a surprisingly powerful force. Even a weak wooden sword encased by this power can pierce rock.

His entire training was completely noiseless and it also leaked almost no aura. This is all thanks to the inspiration. He even found a way to use this qi outside of his body without it being detectable.

Now he is ready to go scout the surroundings. After scouting most of the land he finds faint traces of people being here. He can’t tell anymore how many and when. There are just a few branches broken in a way that they normally aren’t and there is one fire pit that isn’t hidden well enough after use. That’s all.

His hideouts all around the forest seem untouched. Even the little traps that should indicate if someone entered are still as before.

They also didn’t find the bunnies in the different desolate regions.

After that he starts expanding his search to outside of his valley.

There is no one around anymore.

If that is the case he is truly ready for the second test.

He goes back to the hideout in the white stone area.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

In there is the skeleton with the ring.

He puts on the ring again and the skull comes to live again.

“Welcome martial. You seem to have formed the new star. How many stars did you find?”

“361”

“Splendid. And what kind of star alignment did you form?”

“I formed the twelve zodiac symbols with one star connecting them to the other 144 stars.“

“Also splendid. Did you play around with the qi so far?”

“Only for a month.”

“Show me.”

Lie Mo takes a blade of grass, encases it with hidden qi and stabs a rock with it until it is entirely encased by the rock.

“The use of qi is decent. But where did you learn how to conceal the qi?”

“During the inspiration of the star forming I asked: ‘Why has the tiger such a colorful fur and you never see him coming?’ Then I got inspiration in all kinds of concealment methods.”

“As a independent cultivator concealment is very important. Was this a question that is driving you?”

“No, I don’t have any driving questions. So I just randomly asked one.”

“You are a lucky person. But you should really ask yourself what your goal is. Cultivators can’t grow stronger without a goal.”

Lie Mo stays quiet.

“Your body is decent for a cultivator because you are also a martial. Your cultivation foundation are one of the best out there. At least among the independent cultivators. Your concealment skills are also great. Did you fight any live threatening fights so far?”

“No I haven’t”

“That is not so great. But if you can live in the shadows it shouldn’t be a problem. What you lack most is a cultivation manual. You just have the foundations at the moment. But no skills. Skills can be one of six types: Offensive, defensive, healing, movement, detection and others. Concealment for example is in the category others. I have 3 great manuals 8 good manuals and 73 normal manuals. Sadly most of them are not accessible because of contracts. Only 2 good and 14 normal are available for you. And you can also get my weapon. A sword. This will be my gift for you. But only if you succeed in my second test.”

…

“In the pink pool there is a cultivator. He is the one who created this valley. He sucks out the live energy out here and tries to recover from the injuries I inflicted on him. He should be unconscious. Drain the pool and kill him. And don’t take anything from him. It is most likely either trapped or it has tracking substance on it. So his friends will find you.”

“Will they see who killed him?”

“There are skills like this out there”

“Why didn’t they get him and heal him in their own sect?”

“Who knows? Perhaps because this works and they don’t fear for his live?”

“Is it possible for the pool to be trapped?”

“Yes, of course. Cultivators can trap everything.”

“Okay I will do what I can.”