Long Tian kowtows in front of General Kwan-Ti, for he had failed in killing Yan Tu.

"I have no excuses! He was unarmed and I was not, yet I failed to kill him!"

Kwan-Ti looked amused by Long Tian's overreacting attitude. He reminded Kwan-Ti of Long Long with his quickness to admit fault when he failed even the most trivial tasks. The four-armed general walked over to the kowtowed Long Tian and gave him a pat on the back.

"Haha! My boy! We said to punish him. We never stated that he must be killed, but if he did die during the tribulation, then it was his own fault! Stand up, you did very well."

"Yes."

Long Tian got up on his feet but still looked down at the floor. Ashamed. Despite wielding a guandao, which has a long reach. He was still unable to severely injure Yan Tu, who was fighting barehanded!

"Yan Tu is a prodigy in insight laws and unarmed combat. He fought against countless weapons users and beasts with just his mind, body, and soul. There is nothing to be ashamed of. He had several generations of experiences."

Long Tian understood this and nodded. "En."

"Follow me, it'll be a while until you get your next assignment."

Kwan-Ti waves his hand and the large doors swung open allowing him and Long Tian to pass through. As they walk down the hallway, Kwan-Ti said, "That battle shook the entire world and into the other realms. It was quite a fierce, but short battle."

"En."

"The battle is now the talk of the lower realms. Others may doubt that the Heavens are now personally punishing cultivators, but they cannot deny that the battle happened. Nonetheless, cultivators from all realms will be warier before they decide to break through to what they call the Ascension stage."

Most tribulations come in the form of bolts of lightning that will strike the offending cultivator. These lightning are no ordinary lightning. They are capable of shattering every single protective treasure and insight law. There is no way a cultivator could avoid damage but at the same time, it is not effective in deterring brave cultivators.

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A cultivator may die from the tribulation, but it is in a sense mere lightning. For a cultivator, all they have to do is to prepare for the lightning strike and endure the pain and suffering from it. It may be sudden, but it is predictable. For a cultivator that has stepped into the Ascension stage and beyond, a lightning strike from the Heavens may be frightening, but the tribulation will be quite simple.

Cultivators at the Ascension stage will not be easily deterred. Many of them had lived through generations and survived terrifying situations. It is also these cultivators that do the most damage to the Fate seals that locked away the cruel, old gods. The Heavens cannot spare anybody to suppress those cultivators, for they are fighting multiple fronts against the Devil race. To make it worse, the Fate seals constantly need repairs and requires a lot of manpower.

However, Long Tian is an expectation. He is the sole survivor of the human Long clan, and his ancestor did the Heavens a huge favor by fighting against the old regime. Heaven is indebted to Long Tian's ancestor, therefore they decided to bestow divinity upon Long Tian and have him suppress the cultivators underneath the Heavens. It's killing two birds with one stone.

"General Kwan-Ti, why do you think cultivators challenge Heaven's Will?"

"Hm, why do you think mortals strive to become cultivators? To become immortals?"

"They want power and fear death."

"Yes. Some of them do it solely for power and immortality, but it stems from something. Can you guess?"

"No, I'm afraid I do not have the slightest clue."

"To defend, and to protect. While many races are powerful, they cannot compete against wild beasts and monsters that were born powerful. As such, mortals strive to survive against those threats. They cultivate to survive, to build a world for themselves and their loved ones. This was very much true back in the old days where numerous beasts and monsters roamed across all realms."

Kwan-Ti's view of the immortals causes Long Tian to open his mind a bit. He was too narrow on the subject and often despise them for being power hungry. It seems that at its core, cultivators were only trying to survive and protect their families. Though that certainly can't be said for all of them and he's still bitter about being killed by one.

"I... Never thought of it that way."

"Just like humans, there are good ones, bad ones, and those in between. You simply have to meet the right one, just like your ancestor."

"En!"

Kwan-Ti grins, "Another reason why we tolerate cultivators is because they reminded us of ourselves."

"Eh? Really?"

"Indeed, we rebelled against the Heavens once! The old regime ran by those old monsters. The rebellious attitude we had back then was nothing compared to all the cultivators combined. To oppose a greater force despite being weak, it's what the cultivators are and what we once were. That is why we tolerate the mortals cultivating to this day."

"I had no idea... Who are these old monsters? I heard about them from Gatekeeper Ji-Ching, but he didn't really say much about them."

Kwan-Ti made a grim expression as if he was having a horrific flashback.

"No one truly remembered where those old monsters came from. They existed before we did and all of our ancestors. Many believed that they were birthed when chaos ended and the universe came to being. Their personality is unpredictable; they destroyed realms and let them reform before corrupting them, then destroying them again. They even fought among themselves when they had a common enemy. If it weren't for their infightings, we wouldn't have won and sealed them away. There is simply no word to properly describe them, but chaotic."

"..."

"We're here, our new training ground."

The duo was on a balcony with two stairs that lead downwards. The balcony oversees a very large room with various puppets, weapons, and platforms. Golden lights shined overhead, and a cool breeze could be felt despite the room having no windows or openings for the wind to come through.

"Prepare yourself, for this is the basic training of all Heavenly soldiers!"