His qi was depleted fully as rebuilding one's defenses from scratch while the qi inside is slowed down to an almost still condition was hard, but doing so after being knocked down by the pressure and the fact that he had to break his own technique was even harder. Still, the benefits for today's training were enormous and so Wu Guang's mood was in total contrast to what one could expect from a wrung-out and battered cultivator.
He had gained enough experience with the 'Flaming Armor' to understand the real working of the technique and so could guarantee that the following activation will go as planned. He also reached the maximum level of the room and resisted it for over six hours almost completing his main objective of tempering and training, while as a small bonus completing one of the conditions required for the 4th-day training with a Soul-realm cultivator. And at last but not least, the fact that he attained the 1st level of the Qi sense in under one day was to say the truth an enormous bonus.
He did not expect to do it so quickly and the idea of trying to train it using the pressure came to him at the spur of the moment, as before he always trained the qi sense by a different method. Actually, the latter was a method that he had perfected and even taught. It was basically to sense the qi spent by your own technique - killing two birds with one stone by not only training the sense but also the techniques one was practicing.
Tonight Wu Guang would take part in a challenge intended for people training their senses and so he started moving towards the place where the challenge would take place. As he walked he slowly recuperated qi naturally and after eating in the strangely half-empty cafeteria of the Sect, he found a place to recuperate it fully by meditation and breathing.
The night before he had already notified everyone that he would not come to the residence and so after recuperating he continued his previous direction and reached the tower where the test for inner disciples-in-waiting had taken place. From what he was told the small underground dungeons used for the tests normally served for a lot of different challenges and their difficulty was adjusted accordingly.
The challenge had 20 people taking part on and before he only had seen seven doors and he wondered how they would be assigned, but his worries turned out to be mistaken.
When he entered the room that occupied most of the tower's first floor he saw that at least half of the participants had already arrived. Quickly scanning the people present and after confirming that there was no one he knew, Wu Guang silently nodded as in greeting and walked towards a free part of the wall, where he reclined unto it and started waiting.
Thankfully the sect practically enforced punctuality so a few minutes before midnight when the challenge would start, all the other participants had arrived, and with the last of them crossing the door, an elder who would supervise the challenge appeared.
The supervising elder turned out to be an inner elder not affiliated with any palace or hall and so Wu Guang concluded that the challenge was just a simple event to test the disciples that reached the 4th Spirit realm. And indeed being motivated with the 200 contribution points prize, the disciples would indeed try their best.
Another point that confirmed Wu Guang's assumption of this challenge being a disguised test was the instructions and options explained by the elder. The first part was easy but actually arouse far more questions than gave out answers as it literally gave three different challenges.
Or in the elder own words
"The three doors starting from the right are the easiest and will let you complete it safely and reach the end without any problems if you have trained your main senses.The three doors from the left are a bit harder and several traps can lightly wound you or block the way forward, still, if you have trained at least three senses to the first level, you should be able to reach the end. And the central door is the hardest of all and will require not only having all the basic senses trained to the 1st level but also having at least a slight amount of qi sense. Luck will also be needed as the traps are extremely dangerous and can lead to serious wounds"
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As this was heard, everyone except Wu Guang tried to ask the elder about why there are three ways and how would the prize be given if there were some easier than others. Seemingly this was expected by the elder as his answer covered all these questions and even some that were not asked yet
"The doors are only accessible if you are within their required sense range, so you can not enter the harder ones if your senses are not trained enough. As for entering the doors to the right, you can do so without any requirement. The challenge is intended to be training, so if you are ready to ignore the benefits of such, feel free to go through the easiest path. Now for the reward, it can be gained by reaching the end under a designated time. This time is different for every set of doors and higher difficulty doors will have the advantage in ranking. Basically, if a person completes the easy challenge and another one the medium difficulty one, the latter would get the prize. If there are several people from the same difficulty that complete the challenge and there are no higher-level finalists, then the best time will serve for the prize assignment"
From Wu Guang's perspective, this seemed to be fairly just and as there were no further questions asked, he judged that the other thought so as well.
After some silence during which the elder waited for any questions and not receiving any, the elder ordered everyone to decide which door they will go through. For Wu Guang, there was only one option and so he did not need to think about it, but as the others started discussing he decided to come near the elder and ask something that had bothered him.
"Elder, may I ask?" After receiving an affirmative nod in response, Wu Guang continued
"There are only seven doors, do we will take turns to enter? Or it will be entered by everyone at the same time?"
"Everyone will go at the same time, and I cannot say anything else as it's part of the challenge"
"I see, thank you" Wu Guang thanked the elder, but internally he thought that most probably there would be traps or blockers during the way and so most probably only one of who entered a door would be able to progress until the end.
After the elder had considered that enough time had passed for everyone to decide which challenge they would take on, he ordered everyone to move towards the door they will enter. He also added that there were no issues of how many people entered the same door, so they could choose any door of the difficulty they would take on.
Unexpectedly Wu Guang was the only one who decided to go through the central door. He was also a bit surprised by the fact that 11 people would be taking the medium difficulty one. After all, if so many contenders were sure of their senses, why not risk it and gain real benefits from such training?
The elder did not ask anything about their decision as he had already explained about what would await them, and so proceeded to announce that the times. They would be 2, 4, and 6 hours respectively for the easy, medium, and high difficulties.
Without giving anyone time to ask or say anything he indicated that the time count has started and they should enter their doors right away.