Over the next few months, I dispersed the meridian I had formed during the Earth Peak Trial and followed a Profound-Rank technique focused on variable meridian diameter to form two new ones. I wanted to experiment with the benefits and drawbacks such a design would have.
During this time, I also studied how to transform some basic earth qi techniques into disposable formations that any of my classmates would be able to throw out and activate. The goal was to learn to design things that could let any of them easily pass through the early levels of any Trial.
At the course’s nine-month mark, we had a martial competition against one of the regular Master-level classes. They had all advanced to Martial Master 5 or 6 while we were languishing at only 2 or 3. This gave them confidence that they could easily overcome us, but as soon as the fighting began, the value of our elite training showed itself.
LiTing, our weakest fighter, was able to easily crush her opponent. The boy tried to use qi to shield himself from her attacks, but his barriers were so rough and flimsy that they could barely slow her punches of concentrated energy.
She could have won with a single hit, but she took time to experiment on the poor kid.
The rest of our opponents fell just as quickly, and we were each rewarded with a Rank 2 library token for helping teach that class about the difference in strength that comes from rigorous training.
While the others went to grab skills that would help them in their Trials, YuLong gave his token to me. I used both his and mine to purchase entry into the Rank 2 fire libraries for both martial and cultivation techniques. While I exited the building with only one technique of each type in my hands, I had a smile on my face and all the knowledge in both libraries safely stored away.
I spent the following three months dedicated to creating several different simple disposable formations around the fire techniques I had acquired. When it was time for our second Trial, I gave YuLong a large backpack filled with formation stones. He and I were both aiming to take on the Fire Peak, and I had prepared many contingencies for what we might face there.
The others were entering the Water, Metal, and Dark Trials. I couldn’t help them this time, but I would try to do so in the future.
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YuLong’s reason for challenging the Fire Peak was simply that he had gotten as much as he could expect to get from the Earth Peak for now and needed to work on a second affinity. Since he was studying talismans, I expected he would want to raise his lightning affinity, but he said it didn’t matter. He would be able to get further with help from my formations, so he gave me his token and decided to go wherever I did.
I expected the Fire Peak Trial to at least resemble the one from the Earth Peak, but I was sorely mistaken. The elder at its entrance told us that we would appear in a long corridor, and we would only need to walk to the end of it to pass through to the next stage. Going back the way we came would allow us to exit the Trial.
Upon entering, I appeared in an old lava tube. Light emanated from the cave walls, giving the place a hazy reddish cast. No ‘test’ immediately presented itself. Before beginning my trek forward, I turned on energy vision and saw the situation more clearly.
Starting a meter in front of me, the lava tube was chock full of fire qi. If I stepped forward, I might not be burned alive, but I wouldn’t have a very pleasant time of it.
Among the formations I had prepared was a heat shield that I could use as protection in this kind of environment, but for this first stage, I was able to easily bull my way through by relying on my peak six-star affinity.
Once I reached the end of the tunnel, a glowing white formation appeared on the ground, but before I could step on it, I was bombarded with fire essence.
I didn’t cultivate it. I couldn’t have even if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to. I was here to raise my fire affinity as high as I could so that I would have as many chances to permanently advance my earth affinity as possible.
The following four stages maintained this setup. The only additions were small crevices with a few fire-based herbs growing in them. These were the ingredients necessary for concocting basic Rank 2 Fire Resistance Pills.
I could have used such pills to help me progress, but instead, I relied on a Heat Shield Formation. In normal use, this wouldn’t be considered a ‘disposable formation’ at all, but if the fire qi and temperature started to rise, the formation would activate in overdrive mode, protecting me while burning itself out.
In the sixth through tenth stages, creatures that looked like human adults made out of solid flame started to appear. The only goal was to get to the end of the lava tube, so if I had been capable of executing a fire-based movement technique, I should have been able to simply run past them.
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As an earth cultivator, I did have movement techniques that could help me in this kind of situation, but I preferred not to use them. There was no earth qi in this Trial, so any of it that I spent was not coming back, and I might need it in later stages.
Instead, I dealt with these elementals the same way I had dealt with the fire construct during my final fight as a Disciple. I used basic Qi Gathering Formations to trap them in place long enough for me to run past.
On the first few stages where I faced off against them, this wasn’t much of a problem since I had carried several such formations into the Trial with me. However, the number I could carry was ultimately limited. Starting on the ninth stage, I had to forcibly take control of the environmental fire qi and use it to carve formations into the rock walls. This was difficult and time-consuming, but it was the only way I could think of to save my precious resources.
Still, the elementals themselves weren’t much of a problem. What was worse was that they caused the heat in the corridor to soar. As I ran through the lava tube, I had to rely on both my Heat Shield Formation as well as pushing the excess fire qi away with my affinities.
When I reached the end of the tenth corridor, I was drenched in sweat and exhausted. It had taken me several hours to reach this point. I was behind the pace I had wanted to set, but I still had to take a moment in the peace at the end of a stage to collapse to the ground and rest.
As I did, essence flooded into my body, and I felt something snap. Fire energy welled up within me.
I looked at the dense fire qi further down the corridor and waved my hand. I was able to control it effortlessly. My fire affinity had improved to low five-star.
When Instructor Yuan was calculating the time it would take me to get enough essence for a mid five-star affinity, she made one important mistake. She considered it my ‘secondary’ affinity and based her numbers on earth being my ‘primary.’ While I had indeed spent the last few years focused on earth and formations, it didn’t compare to my centuries with fire and alchemy.
While I had avoided alchemy in the academy to both fit in and not be railroaded down that path, I didn’t have such concerns within the Trial. The instructor’s comments after my first visit convinced me that few people knew what happened inside. Those that would know were concerning because they would be people with both martial and political power, but I wanted them to know more about my capabilities. It might open more doors.
In the eleventh stage, herbs of every element started to appear. There was also a crude rock outcropping at the entrance to each stage that could serve as a rudimentary alchemy cauldron.
These Trial stages were puzzles with countless answers, some intended, some not. If a person were weak in one area, they would be able to solve the stage through other means.
My knowledge of Master-level alchemy was not perfect. The System had given clear evidence of how much more I had to learn. However, I knew far more than the designers of this Trial had anticipated.
I still didn’t want to expend my personal qi until I had to, but such a thing was unnecessary anyway. There was a bonfire of qi around me, and with my new and improved fire affinity, it was easy to control it enough to concoct a few slapdash pills. Their efficacy wasn’t anything impressive, but they were cleansed of impurities, so they were good enough.
Relying only on various hastily made concoctions, I was able to easily rise from the eleventh to the twenty-sixth stage in a little over twelve hours. I wasn’t sure exactly how much time I had left, but it was between four and five hours.
At the twenty-sixth stage, the size of the lava tube expanded. The atmospheric fire qi intensified, and it was excited into a state where it was putting off overwhelming levels of heat.
Even just doing simple alchemy at the beginning of the stage was difficult because the excessive environmental qi wanted to corrupt anything I tried to create. I had to modify a Qi Gathering Formation to form its normal qi barrier, but instead of pulling energy from outside and making the qi inside denser, it pulled qi from inside and expelled it out.
This let me work, and I concocted every pill I expected to need through to the thirtieth stage.
Instead of being able to just run through these tunnels, I was beset by large wolves that looked like hellhounds and had to defend myself. I couldn’t easily trap them, so I was finally forced to use my earth qi to fight them. I wasn’t worried about finishing them off, though. I only spent as much energy as needed to knock them aside so that I could continue rushing further down the corridor.
When I reached the end of stage thirty, I had no desire or time to continue further. I just slumped to the ground to rest as the final minutes of my timer ticked away.
Essence filled me, and for the second time that day, I felt a snap as fire welled up within my body and my affinity reached mid five-star.
When it did, a voice echoed out from every wall of the lava tube.
“You have reached the maximum potential of the Master-level Trial of the Fire Peak. You may continue forward to test yourself, but you will receive no more benefits from this Trial. As you have passed the thirtieth stage on your first attempt, you will be rewarded based upon the manner in which you did so.”
A small dark iron alchemy cauldron appeared in front of me. It was elegantly designed with several flowing images of mythical beasts on every surface. At a glance, I could see that they were composed of several miniature formations, but I couldn’t easily work out their purpose.
As I examined it, the voice spoke up once more.
“This is a restricted item. You are not allowed to remove it from the lands of the Nine Rivers Sect. If you do so, you will be killed.” The voice paused briefly to let the message sink in before continuing. “Seek out new challenges at the other peaks to test yourself.”
I wanted to take the cauldron and hide it away in my soul space so that no one would see it, but doing so would have been a grave mistake if I was being watched. I picked it up and carried it out of the Trial openly.
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Outside, Shi YuLong was waiting for me.
“Why do you always take so long?” he asked in an annoyed tone. “I was out of there after only a few hours. How the hell can you spend so long inside when you can’t even cultivate? You need to learn to admit defeat and just leave early like I did.”
As he talked, I noticed the left eye of the elder guarding the Trial’s entrance twitch in annoyance, but he didn’t say anything.
YuLong seemed oblivious to the cauldron I was holding, so I slipped it into my storage bag without comment. After that, we returned to the Academy.