In the endless and ever-expanding realities, there was a world where people harness the energy of heaven and earth to strengthen their body, spirit, and soul. This world wasn’t unique or anything and was similar to how many other worlds functioned. On this tiny planet, there was a man in search of treasure in a certain ruin. This man was accompanied by a team of 10, gathered for this operation, exploring an area full of mountains and rocky terrains.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” said a woman with a cute face and a petite curvy body, named Xi Yanxi.

“According to the map we obtained in the auction, this place should contain an entrance that could be hidden nearby,” said the giant of a man who was holding a map, named Roy. “Now it is up to you guys to find the entrance; I have done my job.”

Addressing the servant he had purchased for this specific reason, the man who was also the leader of the exploration team, Shin Akatsuki, wearing a black robe with golden phoenix embroideries ordered, “Ryan, go search and find out the entrance. If you find it in one day, I will reward you with a golden spirit coin. If you take more than a week, be ready for your death. Don’t try to escape, for I will give you a painful death if you do so.”

“Yes, as you wish, master,” Ryan replied with a fearful tone and skimmed away to search for the entrance with his special talent, [treasure seeker].

As Ryan tried to search for the entrance in the nearby rocky areas, he thought, ‘Oh, today I am going to strike it rich. A single golden spirit coin can last me for decades. I will live the life of a king using it.’ Dreaming about all the riches and pleasures he would enjoy; he got a signal from a place he was looking towards. When he approached, his talent was buzzing very fast.

“Master, I found it!” he exclaimed, bringing his master's and his two companions' attention toward him.  He pointed at the place, which had a huge rock. “Here it is, I am pretty sure about it. We just need to remove the rock, and we'll find the entrance behind it.”

As Shin neared the place, he swept his divine sense over the rock and found that he could not see through it. So, he used a single palm strike, but the result was anything but simple. A huge palm appeared and broke the entire rock, as big as a mountain, into pieces. As the dust settled, the entrance to the ruin was visible for all to see.

“Good job,” said Shin, while he tossed a translucent golden coin toward Ryan. Ryan happily received it and exclaimed in joy. “Thank you, master.”

“Now let's enter and find out what this ruin has to offer,” said Xi Yanxi.

“Wait, you don’t know what kind of treasure this place holds or what kind of ruin this is. What kind of crappy preparation did you do before coming here? Isn't it basic to find out the danger that we'll face here?” exclaimed Roy with surprise and anger. “Aren't we just courting death if this ruin has something far beyond our cultivation level?”

“You don’t need to worry about that. Shin here knows what was written on the backside of the map, and he said that this ruin wouldn’t be too dangerous,” replied Xi Yanxi.

“What? Where did you learn to read the language written on the map? I tried everywhere but was not able to read it.” exclaimed Roy displaying a hint of frustration. But soon this turned into curiosity as he continued, “And what exactly was written on the map, Shin?”

“The language is called ‘xamaphic urhadio.’ It was an ancient runic language lost eons ago, utilized in the beginning eras of our world but has been lost since,” Shin replied. “Do you remember that I said that I once used to be in a sect that primarily practiced dual cultivation?”

“Yes, I do. But that was a long time ago, how is that related to this.” replied Roy.  

“You never told me about it. Oh, is that why you are so good in the bed. I thought you were a natural,” replied Xi Yanxi coquettishly.

“Oh, shut it, Xi Yanxi. We know you are a slut; why do you have to announce it to our servants too?” said Roy.

“What did you call me? I dare you say that to me again,” replied Xi Yanxi angrily. “It's not like you are not a playboy. How many innocent girls have you tricked into sleeping with you?”

“At least I have standards, not like you who would do it with anyone,” grinned Roy. “Anyway, who am I to complain? All three of us are quite the same in our way of doing such things.”

“Hey, don’t bring me into this. I haven’t done anything with her or anyone for that matter, for more than half a century now,” grumbled Shin. “Anyway, where was I? Yeah, as I told you, I was in a dual cultivation sect, where my sect master, who was a beautiful woman, was interested in learning the history of the world. She would go and sleep with anyone who would help her in her ambition and she collected a lot of text from old languages.”

“My own ambitions were similar to hers and therefore we hit it off quite well when we met face to face. At that time, she shared with me all her discoveries, and in one of those texts, we found this language with some of its translations. With the help of that, we were able to put together the language. Never thought that it would be useful one day,” sighed Shin as he recalled some of the older and despair inducing memories which he soon shrugged off.

“So, you did get something useful from your experience in that sect. Yet, all I have seen you complain how you didn’t like that sect.” Roy voiced his thoughts.

“I never said I hate that place. I just don’t agree with their lifestyle of having intimate affairs without any emotions attached. Each and every person is just thinking about their own cultivation and therefore dual cultivate with just about everyone without an inch of shame or guilt within themselves.” Shin replied with a look of disgust in his eyes.

“It’s not like we are any different. We kill others for our own cultivation without much of a guilt.” Roy argued back stating his opinion.

“Dual cultivating and killing are two different things, Roy. You can’t logically compare them with the same standards. But I agree that we are no different than them when some mortals would look at us. Yet, I can’t help but feel that I shouldn’t cross some lines no matter what. After all, if we don’t have a moral code that we would stay on then we are nothing but mindless beast.” Shin remarked with a serious look on his face.

“Well, I would agree with Shin on this one Roy. Even though we kill people, yet even we have some boundaries we won't cross.” Xi Yanxi articulated with a solemn smile, “And even I don’t like those from the dual cultivation sects as they judge people based on their purity. Thankfully you didn’t take after them, Shin.”

“That’s because I stayed with them for only about a year and it was during the time I had just started cultivating. I swiftly left that place after understanding the depravity that takes place there.” Shin then said with a sad smile, “From then on, I only had such relations with women whom I came to care for during my life. And although I had my heartbreaks as some left me, some died along the way and some I chose to cut ties with, I still don’t regret anything.” 

“Aww, does that mean you care for me too. That’s so lovely.” Xi Yanxi smiled captivatingly as she stared into Shin’s eyes, though there was a touch of sadness in her eyes.

Cough! Cough!

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Roy who was feeling like a third wheel in this situation suddenly cracked his throat and said, “Anyway, lets return to the topic at hand. Exactly what was written on the map that made you so confident about this place?”

“Well, it said that the ruin is of the trial type, where we will face different trials individually, and these trials will be based on our cultivation level, so we don’t have to fear any danger beyond our cultivation levels,” admitted Shin. “Through this entrance, we will enter into a separate realm where these trials will be held. If we pass these trials, we will be rewarded; if not, we will be teleported outside with our memories erased. So basically, no danger other than forgetting about this place. I am also sure that we would have to take an oath to never talk about this place.”

“So, no danger. See, I told you that Shin will never lead us astray,” Xi Yanxi said with a smug.

“I never doubted Shin. I only doubted you, Xi Yanxi,” reminded Roy. “I have been friends with Shin for more than 500 years, and in that time, I trust him with my life.”

“Hmph,” snorted Xi Yanxi.

“So, this is why this place has never been discovered. Anyone who came here has their memories erased or has been given strict oaths. Wonderful, now let’s enter this ruin and gain the best rewards there are,” said Roy enthusiastically. With anticipation, he ordered the servants, “Enter the cave, pass the trials, and give the reward to us, and we would give you at least 1 celestial spirit coin minimum no matter the reward. If the reward is good, we will give you even more accordingly.”

Both Shin and Xi Yanxi ordered the same to their servants. The servants, including Ryan, entered the cave, and they immediately vanished. Seeing this, the companions were not surprised, as Shin had previously explained about this happening.

“Good luck out there.” Roy waved his hands while he entered the cave and consequently vanished.

“Thank you for telling us about this. We know you could’ve found this place alone but still brought us here. I also know that you are planning to leave the world and ascend to the next world. And this being our last trip together, I wanted to thank you for everything.” Xi Yanxi walked towards Shin, spread her arms out and wrapped it around his neck and kissed him deeply expressing her love and sadness.

After a little while, Xi Yanxi parted from the kiss and looked deep into Shin’s purple eyes, “You know, even though we never solidified our relationship into something that really matters, I loved every single day I spent with you. We started out as rivals and friends, and we are still acting as friends, even though you and I had many intimate moments. That was because we both knew that with your talent you would one day ascend and I with my mediocre talent would be stuck here forever.”

“Still promise me one thing Shin. Promise me that you wouldn’t be saddened by our parting but instead use it as a fuel to achieve your dreams. Do not look back but keep moving forward, ok.” Xi Yanxi smiled. “I would be more than happy to be your driving force for your achievements in the future. So, promise me Shin.”

Shin looked at the breathtaking woman in front of him and recalled all their memories together.  From how they had met, the time they had spent together to the time where he temporarily parted with her about a century ago to focus on his breakthrough. They are all beautiful memories and he wished to spend even more time with her, but he knew that was not possible.

And Shin accepted this with a slight heavy heart even though he had ensured that he would not become extremely attached to her. He looked into her eyes, “I promise Xi’er, I promise.”

Xi Yanxi gave her signature charming smile as she stopped hugging Shin and walked towards the entrance of the ruin, “Oh, Roy also knows about your departure but he is way too awkward at goodbyes, so he left it to me,” said Xi Yanxi tearfully while entering the ruin and she vanished but not before voicing out her last words, “Goodbye Shin, and may you achieve all your ambitions.”

Looking at the now empty entrances, where Xi Yanxi had just entered, Shin murmured, “So they both knew, huh? I had been a fool to think they didn’t know about my breakthrough. I finally entered the pinnacle of this world after all these years of hard work, but this is so sorrowful,” sighed Shin.

“I too hate goodbyes, so I was thinking I could ascend without saying anything after this exploration, but well, now that plan of mine was an utter waste of time.” Shin took a moment to sort out his feeling and then put a smile on his face as he entered the cave while muttering, “All things aside, I am the pinnacle of this world now; let's see if this place could entertain me for a bit.” And he also vanished. Shin didn’t know at that time, but in the near future, he would come to regret his words.

…

Shin opened his eyes to examine where he was and when he looked around he noticed that the area he was teleported was devoid of all colors other than white. He was currently in the center of a square room, which was made entirely of white. He could neither hear nor see any other person beside himself in this room. Suddenly he heard a voice in his mind and consequently he noticed a translucent blue screen floating in front of him with the same words that he had just heard in his mind.

[ Trial 1 - Ambition And Code of Conduct ]

Shin was rather surprised by the screen in front of him, as he had never heard or seen anything like this in his entire life. He felt that the place that he was teleported into and the ruin that he was exploring was more mysterious than he had previously assumed.

Shin contemplated about it and concluded that something this enigmatic could not be made by anything of the world he resided in, but only of something of a higher world. This made him excited for what was to come and what kind of rewards he would be able to earn from this place. As he was lost in thought, the voice in his head continued.

[ The first trial is very simple. The candidate ‘Shin Akatsuki’ would have to mention his ambitions and list out one thing that he would never do to achieve his goals. He would be judged based on the content of the ambition and the boundaries he sets for himself in order to achieve those set goals. ]

[ The candidate can, of course, lie, but he will be negatively judged for that. Then he will be asked to answer some questions about certain scenarios. The judging method will not be given to the candidate. The result of this trial has a direct effect on the kind of reward you will receive at the end.]

Shin contemplated the words and concluded that answering honestly would be the key to pass this round. It was clear to him that lying was not a good choice because of the fact that the voice clearly said that there will be negative marking for any deceptions. Shin thus also concluded that the trial had some sort of an ability to detect lies.

Additionally, it's not like his ambitions and his dreams are secretive. Probably most, if not every one of the people that he has interacted with in his life knows what he desires the most. So there is no problem in being honest there. However, the question about his moral code is something that could be used against him in the future,

So, Shin deliberated about it a little and he arrived at an answer that would not cause any backlash in the future. He then voiced out, “My ultimate goal is to obtain knowledge of all things. And since I love the process of exploring and researching to get ahold of this knowledge, I would hate it if you stuff knowledge into my brain as a form of reward or something. The one thing I would never do in order to achieve my goal is sacrificing someone I come to care about, be it a friend or a lover. Of course, unless I find out they are betraying my trust.”

[ Answer the following questions

1) If you ever cross the boundaries that you have set for yourself, not just the boundary that you have mentioned, but also the others that you have not. What will you do then?

2) Imagine a situation where you reach the absolute pinnacle and you find no methods to advance. What will you do?

3) You mentioned that you would hate it if one were to stuff knowledge into your brain, so imagine a situation that there was a trial ahead where you would be sent out to a place about which you have no knowledge of and there is information available about this place that can be transferred to you into your mind, would you reject such information?

4) What is your greatest fear and your greatest regret?

5) Imagine a situation where you lose all your current abilities and powers but you gain something in return for that. How would you feel? ]

Shin thought about all the questions and he determined that only the fourth question and that too only the fear part was somewhat problematic, at least for Roy and Xi Yanxi and their servants who were also taking the test as it could be used against them in the future.  Though he was not sure that the others were even facing similar trials or something else entirely.

Anyway, Shin didn't see a situation that this could be actually used against him because of the type of fear he has. His fear was based on a possible situation related to himself and not any external factor.