Mazir finally saw the person who shouted. It was a young man, at most twenty two years old who looked very angry.His face was handsome but currently it only showed angriness.

It seems the two cultivators had a story behind each other.

The art the cultivator just used created a huge ruin in several buildings. Mazir barely escaped without a wound. The other cultivator who was barely older and at the eighth layer smirked before thrusting a weapon forward.

Suddenly the ground shook and the earth rose forming spikes which attacked the young man who attacked with the blue dragon yet again. The battle shook the ground, the surrounding mortals were running but the couldn’t dodge at all and most of them died.

Mazir felt an anger rushing into his mind. There was no need to kill mortals, yet they did it like it was nothing?!

The only thing which held him back was that the two cultivators were far stronger than him , and even if he tried to kill them, he’d just die doing and contributing almost nothing to the battle between the two.

“Just let them be. Compared to some people who use blood sacrifices from mortals to upgrade their cultivation, they are pretty nice in comparison.” Azrael inside of him said with a low voice.

Mazir could only gnash his teeth at his low abilities to do anything.

…

Soon two days passed and Mazir cultivated like a madman. The accident made him cultivate for days without stopping.

“Boy,  did you forget what I told you?” Azrael said.

“Forget what?” Mazir replied.

“Did you forget that I told you I’d give you a Void Art for you to train? It’s the second time I tell you.” Azrael answered.

Mazir’s eyes shone as he remembered that,’How could I forget such an important thing?!’ Azrael sighed and waved his hand and suddenly informations flew inside his mind.

[Shattering Void Body]

[Soaring Void Finger]

[Void Piercing Sword Style]

These three arts flowed inside of him.

[Shattering Void Body]

* This Art allows the user to strengthen his body to high levels, unlike tempering arts, it merely strengthens one’s body.

* This Art has five stages : Early Stage, Middle Stage, Advanced Stage, Truth Stage and Soaring Stage

[Soaring Void Finger]

* Unlike other Finger Arts, it’s power is insane. While most prefer swords, if one doesn’t have a sword they can use their own fingers like a sword.

* If trained to a high level, one’s finger will be capable of enduring even piercing metals!

* It has  nine layers

[Void Piercing Sword Style]

* It is said that if trained to high level it can pierce a mountain easily.

* It has nine moves from which only six can be used in the mortal realm.

* If the sword it’s used with is not good it may break

WARNING - while using it you may get hurt

Mazir smiled and couldn’t help but thank his master.

“Thank you master, but I doubt this is all the Void Arts have, right?” He asked his master who shook his head.

“Yes there are many others, but the current you is merely a Novice Realm cultivator you can’t even use the basic Arts of the Void Arts, oh I forgot to give you a Cultivation Art.” He waved his hand and another art entered his mind.

[Nine Hell Void Gates]

* The Legendary Void Art  capable of helping one  cultivate faster.

* Unlike Other Cultivation Arts it’s way faster

* It has Nine Gates and each Gate makes your cultivation speed faster

* Can be used until the Immortal Realm

* Each Gate when opened causes immense pain capable of killing a person, BE CAREFUL!

Mazir paled when he read the last line, it sounded so painful urgh…

“ Each one of them are rare in the mortal realm and I doubt that people below the high realm can learn such Elemental Arts, so you can be considered very lucky, Mazir.” Azrael said with a grin in his face.

He was indeed happy but when he looked at these Arts he couldn’t help but think they were indeed hard to cultivate.

In fact he wasn’t wrong as rarely had people succeeded in cultivating the mysterious Void Arts. Nobody knew who created them. However nobody could deny that everybody who managed to cultivate them to high levels were great Emperors Of the heavens.

After another month Mazir was close to the fifth layer and was pretty close to understanding the Void Arts Azrael gave to him. He was walking down the streets and looking around for any possible conflict.

Due to the small battles between the two clans the city was pretty unstable and soon most people would probably move out of the city for a small amount of time. The Clans would probably start the war in the next 3 to 5 years. The climax was coming.

“The Spirit River Sect! “ Suddenly several people shouted.

Spirit River Sect

One of the strongest Sects of the Blue Wind Region.

An Outer Elder Candidate was capable of wiping the Dragon Fang City easily. Because each disciple was at least of the fourth layer of the Novice Realm, and to become an inner disciple you had to be in the ninth layer of the Novice Realm, for Core Disciple at the fourth layer of the Elemental  Foundation and Outer Elder Candidate’s were at least at the first layer of the Elemental Foundation!

However most Outer Elder Candidate’s were at the fourth or fifth layer of the Elemental Foundation Realm. While Inner Elder Candidate’s were at least at the first layer of the Master of Element Realm!

Not to mention the Patriarch was rumored to have entered the Middle Realms! Thus the power of the Spirit River Sect was insane!

Not even the King dared to talk badly of them!

If one could enter the sect, they’d rise from a ant to a eagle in a single second.Just by that one would know how powerful the Spirit River Sect was.

Mazir licked his lips and thought,”If I could enter this sect I could rise and leave this city forever!” That was an objective of his, leave this small city.

He looked at the  cultivators who the people were pointing at. All of them had a cultivation of the sixth layer and higher,yet the all were capable of shattering the Dragon Fang City together. The strongest of them was a Elemental Foundation Cultivator.

The strongest of them suddenly walked forward and shouted,”We are going to accept disciples for the next two days here. Those who want to join us must at least have a Spiritual Root of the 3rd grade!”

3rd grade?

That was way too high of a wish.

Mazir had never tested his Spiritual Roots but he bet it was third grade.

Spiritual Roots decided your total talent. They had a total of nine grades.

Spiritual Roots were located close to the dantian,  most cultivators had a first or second grade spiritual roots. Fourth grade Spiritual Roots were considered average and fifth grade was  considered talent with sixth grade being prodigy.

Slowly many people started to get closer to the man. They were hoping that their children could become cultivators who would soar in the skies.

The cultivator frowned almost each time.

“Fail.”

“Fail,just first grade Spiritual Root trash!”

“Hmmm good third grade go.”

“Tch second grade?”

There were few of the 3rd grade Spiritual Root in the entire city, close to ten or twenty. That wasn’t few but compared to the other cities it was indeed lacking a bit. However even a single one had the potential to enter the Elemental Foundation Realm.

Mazir muttered,” Should I go and test myself there? What do you think about that Master? Should I ?”

His master smiled,” If you were part of a sect it would benefit you a lot, it seems the Spirit River Sect isn’t weak too, it wouldn’t do anything bad to join it.” Mazir actually understood that if he joined the Spirit River Sect he wouldn’t have anything to lose.

He sucked a breath of fresh air and slowly moved forward. When the cultivator looked at him, he could see a calm face, which was a little bit creepy.

The cultivator said, “ Move closer.” Mazir moved forward allowing the cultivator to test his spiritual root.

Suddenly he opened his eyes wide!

“Heavens he has a sixth grade Spiritual Root!” He shouted from shock. His entire body paled and he shivered like he had his entire blood sucked out of him.

Mazir played the innocent person nicely,”Is everything okay mister?” He said while making a cute face.

“Ye- Yes…” The cultivator’s face started to look like the face of a pervert.

“Why is your face looking so strange?” Mazir said slowly with a calm face.

“Eh?” Only then did the cultivator notice his strange face and regained control over his excitement. “I’m sorry. My name is Soa,  I hope we can be friends.” It was weird seeing a young man trying to be friends with a young boy like Mazir.

“ *Cough* *Cough* What’s your name junior brother?” Soa said slowly.”My name is Mazir.”

“Alright then Junior Brother Mazir, you can come here two days later and I’ll take you to the Spirit River Sect together with your fellow other junior brother. There you can register as a Spirit River Sect member.” Soa said.

Mazir nodded before Soa gave him a small talisman,”Junior Brother Mazir, this is a Protective Talisman capable of withstanding five attacks from an Elemental Foundation Cultivator, with this I hope you can be safe.” He said with a wink, Mazir thanked him and quickly left.

*Wink* *Wink*

Mazir felt amazing,’So this is how you feel when you gain a chance to become stronger? It feels amazing indeed’ However to his master,Azrael The Spirit River Sect was a small ant which he at his peak was capable of wiping five times with just a *Wink*.

“Master, I feel like I’m nearing the fifth layer, besides that I feel like I’m also very close to the first layer of the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique. Should I  use the two days to cultivate both of them?” Mazir asked,his master nodded.

“Yes, especially if you feel you are very close to the first layer of the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique, if you reach the first layer you will get a huge boost in power and possibly fight people of the seventh layer.” Azrael said.

Mazir’s hopes of reaching the first layer however, were very low. He had been training this technique for four years and he knew how hard it was to even cultivate a bit of it. It was like trying to slowly crack a stone with one’s fingers. It was hard and slow. Even the most patient people would go crazy.

Azrael also knew this, but he couldn’t help but give him some motivation, he himself knew how powerful this technique was, as it had saved him dozens of times from dangerous situations. If not for that boost of power,he’d already died dozens of times!

But Mazir suddenly remembered something, “ Master how is it possible I have a sixth grade Spiritual Root?” Azrael sighed,” I changed your grade because if he know it’s true level then he’d go crazy!”

Mazir couldn’t clearly understand what Azrael meant but what he understood was that his Spiritual

Root Grade was clearly higher than what the cultivator who tested it thought! Mazir couldn’t help but reveal a small smile.

“I wonder what the cultivator called Soa would think if I told him what my master just said, he’d probably go crazy thinking about my true grade.” He chuckled just thinking about the strange expression Soa made earlier.

If another person saw that expression they’d probably laugh at that person thinking he had gone senile or crazy while at a young age.

Chapter 8

Two Days later -

Mazir was finally entered the fifth layer of the Novice Realm. That meant he had surpassed the minimum layer to enter the Spirit River Sect and could have a little more confidence inside the sect.

However there was no progress in the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique. That made him lose a bit of confidence, however he quickly recovered from it.

“I’m lost a bit of confidence each day I cultivate that technique, why did you even have me cultivate it?” Mazir complained.

“ I already told you I also took a long time before I was even able to reach the first layer, but you have comprehended it better than me.”Azrael said and added,” So you have a higher chance than me.”

Honestly just saying that was embarrassing for Azrael. He was always called a genius but a random boy in a random place had clearly surpassed his speed of cultivating this technique which led to him being embarrassed.

Mazir was speechless as he looked at the sun,” The time for me to go to the Spirit River Sect is very close, I must hurry a bit.” He muttered to himself and grabbed a small bag of holdings. He then left his hut and went towards the city.

The city was in a huge peaceful situation because of the Spirit River Sect, nobody wanted to offend them. If they did, their clan would be wiped out completely. Nobody wanted that to happen to their families.

“ Senior Brother Soa. “ Mazir called the familiar looking cultivator. Soa looked at him and smiled happily,” So you finally came! I have been waiting for you for hours!” He said with a kind of restless face.

“We can finally go.” Soa said and waved his hand to another cultivator who nodded,seemingly understanding what Soa meant by that. The cultivator looked around and shouted at his friends, “Let’s go.”

Suddenly from the ground rose a huge bird which held every cultivator on it’s back. “That’s a Giant Purple Eagle.” Soa told Mazir who nodded.

“They are fast so they are usually used for stuff like going out. They are fast and soft.” Soa added as he touched the eagle.Slowly the eagle reached the clouds and started to get faster and faster and  Mazir could tell that the cultivation of this eagle wasn’t low at all, it was at the peak of the Elemental Foundation Realm!

Mazir gasped for air when he learned of it’s true realm! Only this eagle could easily crush the entire Dragon Fang City without any problem! That was why Soa was so carefree inside the city, it was because he didn’t care at all!

This eagle could easily help him become an overlord of an entire small territory of several cities! Not to mention he himself was an Elemental Foundation Realm Cultivator, he was only twenty years old at that too!

“Senior Brother Soa, can you explain the Spirit River Sect a little bit to me?” Mazir said.

Soa looked at him and started to talk.

“It’s actually pretty simple, There are Outer,Inner and Core Disciples. If one wishes they can become Outer Elders and Inner Elders if they meet the requirements. However it’s not easy to rise a rank. You must  complete at least two missions each year, unless you are in a deep cultivating situation.”

He took a long breath and continued.

“Besides that you have to also join the Disciple Exam where you’ll be tested whenever you can join the test or not, your cultivation level is at the fifth layer so you can be accepted easily, however be careful.” Soa said slowly.

“It will take nearly three days to reach the Spirit River Sect from here. The Giant Purple Eagle can go very fast but the distance between this city and the sect is very huge ,after all our sect controls over 500 cities like the Dragon Fang City.”

Mazir gasped in surprise! Over 500 cities with over 100.000 people living inside?! Wasn’t the total over 50 Million people?!

If just ten people from each city had the potential to become a cultivator and part of the Spirit River Sect that meant more than 5 million potential disciples?!

Soa laughed, he knew what Mazir was thinking inside his head, but it wasn’t that easy. “ It’s rare for a city to have 10 potential disciples, usually they have 5 at most. “ That still meant 2,5 M disciples. That still is a huge amount of people.

Even if just half of them reached the Elemental Foundation Realm they’d be an unstoppable force!

Soa had a bitter expression in his face.” Our Spirit River Sect has over ten million disciples but we have never reached first place in the Phoenix And Dragon Ranking.”

Phoenix And Dragon Ranking.

One of the three True Rankings of the young generation in the entire continent. The weakest was the Phoenix and Dragon Ranking. There were a hundred positions inside the rankings. The Spirit River Sect only grabbed the twentieth place!

However inside the Empire The Spirit River Sect was ranked third! The second and first sect  were tied in the 19th place.

That could tell that the Spirit River Sect didn’t have bad talents,it was just that they were way too rare!

The Spirit River Sect had always hovered in the middle of top ten and twenty. It once reached the 14th position, the talents who represented it were given reward of precious rarity! However the Devil Fire Sect which was at the 19th position at that time assassinated their precious young master killing him.

Since then the Spirit River Sect had decayed slowly.  No potential talent had appeared since decades ago. Soon they even fell behind the Devil Fire Sect.

“You should go and get friendly with people from your city.” Soa said pointing at the ten people he’d gotten from the Dragon Fang City. Most of them had third grade Spiritual Root, but one of them had a Fourth Grade Spiritual Root.

Soa was very happy. In just a trip he had gotten a fourth grade spiritual root cultivator and a sixth grade spiritual root cultivator, his luck could be said to be heaven defying!

The best talent the Spirit River Sect currently had was a fifth grade Spiritual Root with a high class one.

Spiritual Roots besides grade’s had classes who could decide whenever that person was more talented even if both people were at the same grade.

There were six classes : Low,Normal,Middle,High,Peak and Top Class. Azrael manipulated Mazir’s spiritual root’s class to High class Sixth Grade Spiritual Root, thus it was no wonder that Soa was so excited.

Mazir nodded and moved to the ten others.

“You are Mazir right?” One of them said. His voice was cheerful, judging by his clothes Mazir could guess he was a commoner.

“How do you know my name?” Mazir asked a bit suspicious.

“Oops, that’s because a star in a night! My name is Ling” The boy said. His appearance was pretty common besides his charming blue eyes and dark hair.

Mazir looked at the boy. He was only at the first layer of cultivating, it seems he hadn’t cultivated at all before. But  what the Spirit River Sect valued more than layer of cultivating was Spiritual Roots, so they could easily accept him even if he didn’t meet the requirement given by the Sect.

However, Ling’s spiritual root wasn’t simply at the third grade, it had reached the fourth grade! That was the main reason why he was accepted.

They talked a bit more and Mazir sat cross-legged, there was nothing else to do but cultivate. He maybe could strengthen his fifth layer.

This way two days passed quickly. Mazir became good friends with Ling and the other people from the Dragon Fang City, none of them were from clans but from common families,  another one was just like him, a slave.

The strongest of these friends of his was a boy named Yian who had a top class Third Grade Spiritual Root, he was twelve and was part of a huge rich family who still wasn’t a clan, thus Yian was their hope.

He was at the third layer. Which also meant that he had the limit age to join the sect. However most people were also twelve, Mazir himself was almost eleven, however he was two layers higher than Yian.

It must be understood that the difference between two layers is not small. If a third layer Cultivator could break a rock the size of a door, then a fifth layer cultivator could break a rock the size of  ten doors with a palm.

However Mazir was even stronger. He could break a rock the size of fifteen doors with a single palm.

“ These boys aren’t bad for such a small world.” Azrael said with one eye closed. Mazir couldn’t help but cough at those words.

It was rare for his master to talk good about somebody, and it was so sudden so he felt strange. “What?!” Azrael felt offended.

Honestly he was quite a positive person, but when he looked at the potential possessed by these children’s he could only sigh. Comparing these people with the other people where he lived was impossible. These children were just way too bad, but they were good as their willpower was strong.

Chapter 9

Here they were.

The Spirit River Sect

Just like it’s name suggested the Sect who was filled with hundreds to thousands of buildings was divided in two from a river which was here since the creation of the sect. It’s said that in the middle of the river you can find spirits.

It is said that the reason the Sect was built here was because the River had denser Qi thus allowing them to cultivate faster than usual. That gave birth to a lot of jealousy between the other sects of the empire.

It’s founder was a prodigy who had a sixth grade top grade Spiritual Root and reached the peak of the fourth realm in less than two hundred years, which was considered a good achievement compared to others.

It’s rumored that before he died of unknown causes he reached the fifth realm, but of course they were only pure rumors that exploded for a few months to a year, but they were still alive to this day.

However if they were true, that meant that the founder had the ability to make even the Emperor bow before him! It must be known that the one person who controls the kings is the Emperor! Only the Ancestor is higher than him!

He even had the power to create a kingdom! That power was fearsome indeed.

And Mazir was here. When he looked at the mountains behind the river and buildings he gasped in shock. The scene was too beautiful.

No wonder The Spirit River Sect was famous for it’s beauty. He could look at it for hours and not get bored of the view. The flying birds just made it even better. It was just too magnificent, he couldn’t help but rub his eyes, making sure that he was not dreaming.

“This is indeed a beautiful scene.” Mazir said with awe visible in his eyes. Soa who was next to him couldn’t help but laugh loudly.

“This is just the main sect, there are way more to the sect than what you see currently, now let’s go the Elders are waiting for us.” Soa said as he ordered the Eagle to go where he pointed.

Mazir could see two mysterious humans there, were they the elders his Senior Brother spoke of?

They were at the sixth and seventh layer of the Elemental Foundation Realm. So they should be Outer Elders.

“That is Elder Jan and Elder Ying. Both of them are from the Main Sect and have come here to send us to the Examination.” Soa said as the Eagle reached the Elders and slowly stopped flying,allowing them to step down.

All of them greeted the elders respectfully by bowing.

“Good, you had a nice batch of disciples, your master will be pleased with you, I’ll give him a few good words about you and he might even award a Elemental Advancement Pill to you.” Elder Ying said with a smile. Soa couldn’t hide his delight as he immediately thanked Elder Ying.

Elder Jan sighed as he looked at his friend, he really was shameless. “Well, your senior brother probably told you that there will be an Examination before you actually become an official disciple.”

The children all raised their heads and nodded.

“Good, then before we continue I must tell you a few must know things about this examination.”

He took a breath, letting the children focus on him and continued.

“ There will be be just one stage in the Examination, however don’t think it will be easy to pass through it. “

Elder Ying also looked at his fellow elder and snorted.

“Enough with that annoying information. Geez, aren’t you already tired of repeating it a thousand times already? Let me explain it in a few words.”

“You just have to go out there and do your best, simple. “

“...”

Mazir and the others were speechless. ‘Simple your father!’

If they actually did everything so easily, would they even be capable of passing through the examination?

However Elder Jan already knew that Elder Ying would talk so he ignored him and continued:

“ Just ignore him, he is just bored and came with me. Anyway that stage will be set up in a huge forest we, the elder created for the young generation. You will be all given a token. That token will store your contributions. If you kill a Beast you gain 1 point. If the Beast is a Second Grade Beast then it’s five points, Third Grade is ten points and so on.”

Beasts were separated into several grades, from one to nine.

First grade were one to the the third layer, second grade were fourth to the sixth layer and third grade were seventh to the ninth layer. Beyond these grades, were several other rankings of beasts which they didn’t need to know.

“ Hmph, this sounds way too easy!” Azrael snorted.

“However, to go to the location we must use a Teleportation Array.”

Mazir gasped for air, shock filling his lungs.

Array’s were extremely rare. They just like beasts were separated into nine layers. However it was much rarer to find a third grade Array Master than a Beast of the third grade! That made Array Master’s very fearsome!

Never would he have thought that the tiny Spirit River Sect would have an Array, not to mention use it like some junk!

However Mazir was also overestimating the abilities of the Spirit River Sect. In fact the distance between the location they were supposed to go to and here wasn’t that big, around 50 li (25 km).

Real Teleportation Array’s allowed a person to teleport to 200 li(100 km). That was only true for the first layer, if one was a second or third layer Array Master then they’d easily make a Teleportation Array which can teleport one up to 1000 li’s away! (500 km)

“Then let’s move, The Teleportation Array is not that far away.” Said Elder Jan as he waved his hand allowing the Eagle to go away. They’d have to walk the way up to the Teleportation Array.

Obviously, The Teleportation Array was protected by dozens of guards of the Elemental Foundation Realm. One of them was even strong enough to be an Elder Candidate. However the other children like Ling and Yian couldn’t even see through the cultivation of the weaker cultivators let alone the main guard.

Elder Jan talked a bit with the main guard and then nodded and looked at them. He waved his hand meaning that they could enter the Teleportation Array, without any delay they quickly followed Elder Jan.

____________________________________________

Passing through The Teleportation Array, Mazir could feel a strange emotion. It was like the Array was calling for him. However due to the teleportation not even lasting a second, there was no time for Mazir to learn what this emotion was.

‘Why does my heart ache so much?’

Mazir bit his lips as he passed through the Array to land on earth.

“Welcome To The Official Disciple Examination - Spirit River Sect “

In a huge paper which despite the strong wind didn’t move wrote. ‘Amazing’ Mazir said with amazement visible in his eyes.

When he looked forward he discovered an amazing scene. Thousands of Disciples who came here from different places were actually standing next to each other. He couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

Their cultivation varied, some were at the fourth layer and some were at the third layer, however the most shocking was that most of them were twelve to eleven! One was even younger than Mazir, ten years old.

That boy’s cultivation level, however was at the third layer!

‘Rich clans.’

Mazir sighed. If only he could spend herbs and materials like the rich clans, then he’d long have been in the sixth or even the seventh layer. However he was simply too poor to actually buy even the most basic pill.

“Surprised? Those people aren’t even a quarter of the total disciples being accepted from many cities.” Elder Jan and Elder Ying had a smug face as they looked at the astonished faces of the children.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Honestly while Mazir was quite surprised, compared to him they all were lacking a bit. Even the most powerful of those people was a layer behind him and was older than him by months. He was already at the mid fifth layer. He had successfully managed to advance a bit in their journey to here.

However Elder Jan had already heard of Mazir being a sixth grade talent way before they actually came here, he could barely hide his shock and excitement in front of the disciples. However due to several problems they still couldn’t discuss with the other elders about this.

‘I’m not sure If I should just directly accept him as a disciple of the sect or not… No I shouldn’t do that. He needs experience. We must not allow him to turn arrogant.’

Elder Jan was in deep thoughts as he looked at Mazir, he was studying him deeply.

‘In terms of appearance he indeed is quite handsome if one looks closely, his face is calm like a wave. His Cultivation is not low at all for his age, the question is, who taught him how to cultivate?’

Honestly most commoners who were able to cultivate either cultivated a low rank Cultivation Technique or meet a mysterious old cultivator who wanted to pass his techniques before dying. However, Elder Jan knew how to find out what kind of Cultivation Art or Technique they used if it was a low or mid rank.

High Rank Cultivation Techniques were rare and only the top disciples or elders could actually cultivate them. Even the Spirit River Sect only had Five High Rank Cultivation Techniques to give to their people.

“Come With me. “ Elder Jan muttered and waved his hand.

They slowly moved forward.

“Welcome To The Examination.” A voice rang out everywhere, no corner could escape from the voice.

Everybody looked at the source of the voice. It was a middle aged man. A long black beard with black hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black robe and had a warm smile in his face.

“ I am The Vice Patriarch of The Sect.” He added after seeing everybody give him their attention.

“My name is Belial. I have come here to inform all of you that you will be randomly teleported inside a part of the Forest. Besides that you have to take a Token from here, besides that you all will start with 0 Points. You will be stuck inside the forest for five days before you will be teleported out, besides that if you are in danger just call out loudly,”Help,I  surrender” You will be teleported back to here.”

Chapter 10 -

Everybody’s hair stood straight. The excitement couldn’t be hidden as they all roared and cheered loudly.

“Well I must also inform you boys and girls than you only have a hour’s worth of time before you are teleported, so use it wisely,,,”Belial said and chuckled, with a wave of his hand disappeared.

Mazir looked seriously at the disappearing Belial and sighed.

‘I can’t do much in a hour but I’ll try to prepare a few pills for me’

He said as he waved his hand and several pills appeared, entering his storage bag.He had bought them with his entire savings.

….

Soon an hour passed. Just like Belial said they were randomly teleported inside the forest. Mazir could sense than inside 100 meters there was no danger of any beast being strong than him.First, he created a small home for him.

The trees were close to twenty to thirty meters tall and it was pretty hard to spy or try to explore on other people which you couldn’t even find.

He touched a tree and nodded. Suddenly  a steel sword appeared in his sword and he suddenly swung it forward, however it barely damaged the Tree.

‘Those trees are not normal trees, I can feel Qi moving inside of them’

“They are not normal trees indeed. They use Qi to grow up leading to a strong body. However if you use your full strength such a tree will easily fall to your power” Azrael said slowly.

Mazir was astonished and said,” If I find a way to absorb their Qi then I’d advance a lot! “ However that was just his wish. Even the pills he had were some junk pills some Alchemist had made.

“ Actually it’s not impossible. But you need to unlock the first gate of the Nine Hell Void Gates. You aren’t that far away from it.” Azrael said with a sigh.

Mazir sighed. He was cultivating five Arts in the same time, it wasn’t easy, he didn’t have much advancement in the Finger Art, but his Void Sword Art had a nice improvement. Besides that his body-Defense Technique had also advanced a little.

This was starting to be a disadvantage for him as he didn’t have any technique to rely on when fighting somebody. If his enemies noticed this, they’d use it against him and soon he’d lose or be forced to retreat.

He could only sigh and start cultivating. He would start hunting tomorrow. Looking at his Token which he was hiding inside his medallion which had changed shape to a ring he smiled, nobody would guess that his Token was hidden inside.

He sat cross-legged. He was going to train the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique.

Honestly to advance in this technique you had to endure terrifying amount of pain. You had to endure the hot yang power of the sun and the cold yin power of the moon. It was impossible to balance the two.

Men were more suited to hot yang power, however some techniques also required cold yin power. Due to this Mazir had a hard time containing both powers in his dantian.Not to mention it was hard to get both powers.

During the day the hot yang power was way stronger, during the night the cold yin power was way stronger. He just couldn’t find a balance between the two. If he were to create a balancing power then it would work fine ,but he just couldn’t!

Thus he could only endure and try to balance the two with his own power. This caused his dantians to slowly get injured. However his master didn’t try to even help him. He said, “You must find the answer yourself, otherwise your foundation will be weak!”

Balance...Balance…

It was all Mazir thought that day and night.

He entered deep thoughts as he ventured through his memories

-Master, by the way what can Void do?

-Void? Mhahahaha. While I may seem like I’m overestimating it, Void is stronger than everything else. It keeps balance of the universe separating the Universe from the rest of the Existence.

-Just that?

-Boy, Void can  be used for forging, is hotter than flames! Has a cool colour and is mysterious. Many Artifact or Array Masters use it!

That was it!

How could he forget something that easily! However he still wasn’t happy. He still had no way to use the flames of void! Unless he managed to cultivate his Cultivation Art then he’d still be unable to use void!

Knowing this, he quickly started training it!

However to enter the first gate he had to endure even greater pain! He had only cultivated it once but even so he had to endure immense pain which made him quit the moment he felt the pain. It was too huge.

However for his future cultivation he had to do it!

He gnashed his teeth and endured the huge pain. He just had to unlock the first gate no matter what.  If he didn’t advance now he’d be left behind. No matter how high his level was, if he didn’t know a single damn technique then everybody would laugh at him

‘JUST FUCKING OPEN  DAMN GATE’

He roared as he sent a strong amount of Qi straight into his dantian which took the shape of a gate.

*BOOM* *BOOM*  

The Gate started to crack. ‘I’m close!’ Mazir muttered as he put even  more power in his attacks. His eyes already red, his face pale beyond human abilities.

He was indeed nervous. If he failed this attempt, he didn’t know how to advance further. All his Qi was put inside a damn lucky try. If he failed it was over.

His entire body shook even though he wasn’t moving at all.

His heartbeat rate rose to new levels.

“JUST DAMN OPEN” Mazir’s rage rose to new levels too as he used sheer Qi to open it. The Gate suddenly opened, like it was kicked.

He was panting, he had wasted all his Qi in that try, however it was worth it. He, had succeeded.

No word could describe his current joy.

Smile.

He smiled. Never in his life would he have thought he’d have the wish to smile so much. “I did it! I DID IT!” He muttered slowly.

He took some time but he managed to enter the gate. The inside of the gate was pure blackness. The Gate itself was filled with strange paintings of dragons and people. He decided to walk inside of it. His awareness was carefully checking everything, afraid of missing even the slightest thing.

However his face didn’t have the expression of a serious man, his face had the expression of a happy and smiling man. Was it because he had just advanced in one of his techniques for the first time in forever? He didn’t know.

After a few minutes of walking he reached a hall looking room. The room was huge. Even a hundred Mazir’s wouldn’t fill it completely. However there was a weird statue in the middle of it. It looked like a huge dog with four heads and ten limbs. It was way bigger than Mazir.

However he felt a mysterious aura coming from the statue.

“That is the Second Gate. You must be able to cut the dog in two to advance. “ Azrael said. It took him a few months to unlock the second gate. He was proud of this technique as he scratched his nose with his finger. The dog was quite hard to cut through.

Mazir entered deep thought as he looked at the dog statue without stop. ‘Why do I keep feeling this aura before him’ He muttered something before his awareness returned to his body.

His body had already rested for about ten minutes so it had a bit of Qi to move. His muscles hurt, even the smallest muscle hurt. However his plan to enter the first layer of the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique had failed badly.

He had no Qi to continue any further. ‘It seems I will have to continue tomorrow.’ He thought and took out a Recovery Pill out from his storage bag. Without hesitation he absorbed the pill in one go. He immediately started recovering.

This way the first day ended

Day 2 .

Mazir slowly opened his eyes after eight hours of sleep. Cultivators didn’t need more than three hours of sleep each day. However that didn’t mean that sleep was unneeded. Sleep was a type of relax for cultivators who shed blood each day.

He noticed that his body was back to normal. ‘  I should be capable of entering the first layer now ‘

However Mazir wasn’t in a hurry so he first hunted a few beasts which rose his Contribution Point up to ten, comparable to two second grade beasts.

After the time it took to make tea, Mazir was already ready to enter the first layer of the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique.

He sat cross-legged with a clear mind and objective. He could clearly hear his heartbeat. He slowly reached the point where he started cultivating.

“Let’s START.”

Suddenly the Yang Hot Qi coming from the sun started to become more visible, as if it was being pulled inside of his dantian.Slowly…

It took a liquid form as it entered his dantian. While his dantian was huge in comparison to other dantian’s in a few minutes it was half filled with Hot Yang Qi.

While the other half was filled by Cold Yin Qi. The Two Energies clearly tried to stay as far as possible from each other. At that time Mazir took a breath and suddenly a thin line of black purple flames appeared in his dantian , which separated the two energies.

Finally, balance was found.

Mazir could feel his power dramatically rising. He felt like he could jump straight to the moon in just one jump.

“Now…”

“You can now absorb the Qi from the trees, but it won’t be quick. You also need to rest first, your Void is unstable.” Azrael said interrupting Mazir’s words and thoughts.

“Besides that, Void can absorb things but don’t expect you to be capable of using it a lot, you are far too weak currently.” Azrael added with a sigh.

“ I understand it master. However I still want to do it, it will give my cultivation benefits. “ Mazir said slowly with closed eyes.

“Let’s Try it.”

Chapter 11 -

In the Spirit River Sect there existed a story.

When the 25th Sect Master became the sect master, an old man came to him and said, “ Your Spirit River Sect is going to face a calamity when the 50th Sect Master appears. There will be many young disciples with a rich heart and talent which will try to help the sect, but it will fall.”

Then with his last words people found hope.

“However, If- If your Sect ever find manages to find a boy with black and purple flames...… Cough Cough, Then there will be hope!”

Since then… The Old Man had never appeared…

Was he a Secluded Master? Nobody ever knew.

However just a few days before the Examination, when the 49th Sect Master’s birthday was held, he appeared again.

Those were his words,”The Boy will son appear… He will be accompanied by flames of black and purple… However… Be careful! If you make a wrong move… You will be destroyed!”

Then the old man turned to ashes…

That was the story of the “Old Crazy Man…”

While the new disciples had never heard of him, most Disciples who were accepted long ago had indeed heard of the eccentric man who somehow bypassed the Sect’s defensive Arrays.Such a person was shockingly stronger than any of their Sect Master!

Meanwhile thousands of kilometers away from the Sect, The Examination for the new disciples was being held. Mazir was exploring, by now he had over thirty Contribution Points, half of them were from first grade Beasts while the others from second grade beasts.

Second Grade Beasts were rarely fought by the other cultivators, reason being that most of the newbies here were all at the third or second layer of the Novice Realm. Maybe from all of them Mazir who was at the peak of the mid sixth layer was the only one who could defeat a Second Grade Beast without much of a hassle.

“Master, do you even have any weapons for me? I’m using a worthless steel sword to fight. It can’t even cut an Qi Tree. That’s an embarrassing thing!” Mazir said with a pleading expression while looking at the ring at his finger.

“That… Uhhh” Azrael was speechless. He indeed had a few weapons he could give to Mazir but they were all High Top Rank Weapons that only Immortals and beyond could use. He pondered if he had any weapon his only apprentice could use.

“Oh, Yeah!” He remembered that he had a junk weapon he got when he was very young. He remembered an incident where he was tricked to buying a weapon from an Immortal, that incident made his blood boil from angriness.

“It’s called Thousand Hell. If I remember it properly it is a mid realm level weapon. Even the people at the top of that realm would want to use this sword.” He said as he took out a black and red mixed colour sword. It was half Mazir’s size which was 80cm.

The said boy could feel power emitting from the sword. It was as if the sword was calling him. He quickly grabbed the sword on the handle and waved it around. He could feel the powerful Qi of the sword. “ From now on we are partners! My first actual weapon!” He grinned.

He waved the sword around, however this time it was an actual serious wave with actual power inside of it. The tree was unfortunate as it was immediately cut in two from the slash. “ This sword is way better than my old steel sword! I love it!” He said and started to slash it around like a mad swordsman trying to get used to his  new sword.

“It’s way better! Thank you master! I love you! “ He shouted happily, with a cheerful smile.

‘This boy… IF only he knew how merciless this world was… Sigh.’

Honestly, in the world where cultivators rule, there was no place for emotions. Only those highly ranked sects could act so cheerful. However most cultivators faked their emotions, rarely showing any expression in their faces at all.

“With this Sword I shall cut through the heavens.” *Facepalm*

“Stop acting so arrogantly! At least get a stronger sword!” Shouted Azrael.

“...”

Mazir ignored  his master and suddenly remembered something.

“Wait, I still haven’t advanced an inch in the Void Piercing Sword Style.”

Mazir gasped. The first move of the Void Piercing Sword Style was the “ Void Pierces The Heavens”. He didn’t have much advancement in that move. That made his heart have several holes, slowing his cultivation a little bit.

Honestly he didn’t have much understatement of the technique or the move itself. However he could still see the basics of the style itself, it was very suited to him ,but it was hard for a novice realm cultivator like him to cultivate it.

He tried to use Void while using his sword, however it badly failed. His balance of power was indeed bad, just like his master told him a few hours ago. However he never gave up and now has having some improvements in regards of that.

Just as Mazir was cultivating, he suddenly heart many voices.

“Senior Brother are you there is a treasure nearby here?” An unsure voice rang out.

“Of course I am ,your senior brother has never lied to do you has he?” His senior brother said with a bored sigh. Both of them were less than twelve years old but the younger one was at the third layer while the older one at the fourth layer.

“Even if there isn’t a treasure, your senior brother sensed a huge Qi materialize here a few hours ago.” The older boy said with confidence.

“Anyway, it it close? I’m getting tired, I want to eat something.” The younger boy said with a sigh.

“I can feel that we are very close, don’t complain boy. Don’t you want to get rich?” The senior boy said and moved more slowly.

“Close…” He muttered.

“We are very close, we might find it soon! I’m so excited! Haha!” the older boy said with an excited grin. They didn’t know that they were getting closer and closer to where Mazir was.

‘Should I kill them or spare them and ask what are they trying to do? They don’t seem to have any weird thought.Hmmmm’ Mazir thought and slowly unsheathed his sword, his eyes having a piercing cold light. He had to choose one of those choices quickly.

“Senior Brother there is a person before us.” The younger boy muttered and pointed at Mazir, he hadn’t seen him until it was too late.

In two moves Mazir made both of them fall into the ground and grabbed any possible weapon from their bodies.” Who are you guys?! Why have you come inside my territory?!” He said.

“Calm down! We are just two weak dude’s trying to find a treasure! We were confused when we felt a string of Qi go past us, so we tried to follow the place the Qi came from. I hope we haven’t offended senior brother!” The older boy immediately said. He could see that Mazir was stronger than him, after all he managed to handicap both of them so easily.

“Weak dudes… I wouldn’t call people with a pretty good cultivation for their age weak… By the way there is no treasure nearby, it was just be having a breakthrough in cultivation, so you just came here for nothing.” Mazir said coldly. “ Now go away.” He said patting their shoulder.

The two paled and joy appeared in their face when they heard his last words. Not wasting even a single moment ,they quickly ran, leaving Mazir dozens of meters away. Soon they were out of his sight. He sighed and returned to cultivating.

“Finally I’m  alone and can cultivate in peace. The next time I shouldn’t let my Qi fly away, or people will notice, just like the two boys from before did.” Mazir sighed with a calm expression in his face. He waved his hand and sat cross-legged.

“After this I should try to raise my contribution points to at least 100. I will be left behind If I don’t even at least try to catch up.” Mazir indeed wasn’t actually trying to raise his contribution points. In the last days he had just cultivated and barely managed to muster 30 Contribution Points.

He sighed…

* Two hours later Mazir was ready to kill a few Beasts.

He ventured deep inside the forest and into the small plain zones inside the forest. Suddenly an evil aura started to pressure him. He felt familiar to this aura, It was an Armored Black Wolf!

Those beasts were covered by a strange armor and were pitch black! Their cultivation was of the second grade!

Not to mention Mazir discovered that it was quite close to reach the third layer which meant it was at the very least at the peak of the fifth layer or even possibly at the sixth layer, which was a huge threat to Mazir! No matter his strength a beast could easily fight cultivation a layer higher than it’s own cultivation realm.

The Armored Black Wolf discovered him immediately. It’s first reaction to him was to raise it’s arm and suddenly swing it towards him. Suddenly a wave of Qi shoot towards Mazir, it was very sharp and he felt that if he tried to stop it, he would be cut in two and die.

Just thinking about it made him anxious. His first reply to the attack was to dodge it. After dodging the attack, which cut through ten trees, he took out his Thousand Hell Sword and swung it forward, it created a wave of Qi, but it was way stronger than the wolf’s one.

“In a battle where we fight each one without any trick there’s no way I will win. I must think of something.” Mazir thought as he looked around. He couldn’t think of anything and sighed sending random waves of Qi everywhere.

The Armored Black Wolf had no idea what this boy was trying and only thought he was just sending random waves of Qi, which was right in a way.

“RAWWWR!” The Armored Black Wolf roared and opened it’s head, and a huge massive ball of Qi shot towards Mazir with an incredible speed. He had no chance of dodging it!

Mazir could only sigh and use the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique and Void to block the attack, but even so it wouldn’t be easy, as he was a layer lower than the Armored Black Wolf who was 100% at the sixth layer or close to it.

The damage would be low if he used all his power to defend. However it would still exist. He was not sure if he could actually be capable of fighting if he took it head on. This attack contained nearly half of the Armored Black Wolf’s Qi.

*BOOM*

Chapter 12

He would’ve never thought that he had underestimated the Armored Black Wolf. It was at the peak of the sixth layer!

His attack cracked Mazir’s bones in several places. However he gnashed his teeth and swung his Thousand Hell Sword with his entire full power. The Qi gathered was enough to destroy dozens of houses! He had used most of his Qi in that attack.

*BOOM*

The Armored Black Wolf didn’t have enough time to even react as it was hit by the sword’s Qi. It let a cry of pain out as some type of tear looking liquid came out of it’s eyes. It indeed was heavily injured by that attack. It flew away almost a hundred meters.

Mazir panted as he coughed blood.

‘I used most of my Qi there… I must recover quickly… I have an idea… Let’s absorb the Qi Tree.’

Mazir thought an excellent idea as he started to madly absorb Qi from the Qi Trees with Void supported the link between his dantian and the Qi Trees, nothing could stop or block the link, thus he could safely absorb their Qi.

While he indeed recovered his lost Qi, his broken bones would take time to heal, but thankfully he had a Bone Recovery Pill which helped him to quickly heal his broken bones, if not for that he might even had failed the exam. The Armored Black Wolf count as 10 points even though it was second rank beast, thus Mazir now had 40 points.

After a few hours, while he didn’t actually recover, he could still defeat beasts and raise his contribution points slowly.

At the end of the day he reached over 100 contribution points. However his wounds didn’t make it any easier for him . It was very hard to kill beasts of the second grade so he usually hunted only first grade beasts, which took a while to gather even 10 contribution points because each was only one point.

Soon the second day ended. With that the third day followed. Mazir had reached over 200 contribution points. He wasn’t sure about if that number was enough ,but he couldn’t kill more beasts for the moment, it would get more suspicion on him.

“This is so troublesome, why did they say it was going to be five days long … I want this to end already!” Mazir sighed.

“Mazir… I think wasting time here wasn’t for nothing, I can feel a strong treasure emitting Qi from far away. I looked it up and I found out it was a huge mountain with a huge stick on top of it, it looks like a key.” Azrael said slowly.

“Could it be that there is a tomb here?” Mazir said, it was so random that Azrael facepalmed himself.” Who knows? Just follow my Qi and you will find it.” He was strong so even the strongest person inside the Spirit River Sect wouldn’t be capable of finding his Qi.

After a few tens of minutes Mazir reached the mountain which reached heights of 3000M to even 5000M in some places. He couldn’t help but gasp with amazement. The wind which was blocked by the mountain returned to the lower places, thus few trees grew close to the mountains.

“Amazing. If I wasn’t a fifth layer cultivator I’d already have been thrown away by those strong winds.” Mazir looked with amazement as the wind cut through the ground. Azrael inside of him laughed, “These aren’t normal winds, from where I come we call them Spatial Wind. They can cut through the ground easily, but it seems they have lost the ability to cut through space.” He said with regret.

Mazir gasped in shock, Spatial Winds? Cut through the space? Lost that ability? Even so these winds were way stronger than Mazir, even the weaker ones posed a huge threat to his survival, if he wasn’t careful he might easily die!

“Try a step inside, if you can endure it, go further.” Azrael inside of him said with a small laugh. He wasn’t expecting much from his apprentice in this try. Mazir looked at his ring once and slowly took a step inside, while his leg was filled with small cuts, if he used Sun and Moon Tempering he’d easily be capable of going through it, usually the technique was hidden deep inside his skin, but if he wanted it could show itself to the world.

“It hurts, but I can endure this amount of pain.” Mazir nodded to himself, compared to training his techniques, this pain was almost nothing! With that thought he moved his other leg inside the part where the wind was strong and several other cuts appeared in both of his legs.

“Urgh.” He gnashed his teeth and moved inside a few more steps. Now his entire body was covered in cuts. He finally allowed the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique to move forward for a few minutes, and it would no longer protect his muscles but his skin and entire body from physical attacks.

Suddenly most of the blood dried off and he moved easily.  However sometimes a few parts of his body were cut a bit, however they were quickly stopped by the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique. “Is this treasure worth it?” Mazir said to his master who nodded, “ I can feel that the treasure is a peak low realm treasure which can be useful to you.” Azrael said slowly.

“Okay, I hope it’s worth it or I will be very sad.” He said with a low voice and moved forward with a very low speed. Azrael wasn’t wrong, indeed the treasure was worth it, even if he lost a few months of his life! For weak cultivators like him it was strong.

As he moved deeper and deeper, he felt the pressure and the wind increase in power. He started to sweat and even the Sun and Moon Tempering technique wasn’t helping a lot, but it was still enough to help him a bit, he also held by sheer willpower.

He faced difficulties each time he moved a step deeper. He felt like his current strength wasn’t enough to go to the peak, but then this is weird, why put a weapon there if you don’t want to let disciples get it? He didn’t understand the reason why.

He gnashed his teeth again and moved forward, this time more cuts showed up, he was fifteen meters inside but he had to climb a thousand meters to grab the key which was at the smallest mountain of all of the mountains there.

However even so, Mazir felt like his chances of reaching the peak of the mountain were less than 10%. Even fifteen meters inside he felt like he was in huge trouble, let alone climbing another 985 meters. That was way too dangerous.

“You must endure the pain! These winds can’t kill you! They are too weak compared to the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique,they will never cut deeper than a few cm inside your body!” Azrael shouted and looked forward.

“I’m trying Master but it isn’t easy, even though the winds are not strong enough to kill me, they are enough strong to cause wounds everywhere, even small wounds can cause huge wounds to appear, if I’m not careful  enough I might end up dead!” Mazir said with a sigh. He was really calculating every possible scenario right now.

After a few minutes, he was already 100 meters inside, however his entire body was filled with cuts, from his legs to his head! He looked like a zombie! Actually if not for his breathing or lively eyes, he’d already be mistaken for a zombie already!

Thankfully nobody else was close to here or they’d already have ran away after seeing Mazir’s creepy looking face. However he himself didn’t feel much pain, the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique made the pain disappear if it was weak.

This way Mazir’s attention was all on the mountain before him. He had climbed 1/10 of it but the road was still long. Especially  higher, because the winds were more violent and could push him back straight to the beginning, from where he came.

“Ugh, I feel tired, it’s taking a lot of power to move a single step forward, I feel like just lying here and not moving at all…” Said Mazir slowly, his eyes had already started to transform to a red color,which only added creepiness to his appearance.

“Don’t worry, even if you lose a leg or two it’s worth it(actually it’s not worth it at all, but who cares?)” Azrael said with a worried tone. “ I’ll try but I don’t feel like I can go past the 3th hundred meters mark. It’s just too tiring.” Mazir said while panting, his entire face looked like the one of a tired boy.

“I have an idea!” He took out the ring from his finger and put it forward. Somehow the winds started to weaken, allowing Mazir to move forward without the previous difficulties. He no longer was being cut everywhere in his body.

“Nice idea boy. I would’ve never thought of using the ring as a counter pressure to the winds.” Azrael said to Mazir who felt proud. Just like before, Azrael rarely talked good about a person, thus each time he heard his master talking good about a person, he felt stunned.

Soon he managed to go up to 500 meters up,he was half way done. But he would’ve never expected that the mountain would suddenly start to crack.’Eh?” Mazir was surprised,Azrael was calm,” It seems the key has been on top of the mountain for too long, there will not be too much time before the mountain is destroyed. It has absorbed way too much of the key’s Qi.”

It seems that even a huge mountain was not capable of holding the immense amout of Qi the key had! That meant that this treasure wasn’t weak 100%.

“We must hurry or the mountain will be destroyed before we even reach the peak of it.” Mazir nodded and climbed even faster. Now that the wind had little effect he could easily climb a few meters in tens of seconds.

*Whoosh*

The wind had started to get stronger, even thought he had the ring, it had a certain space limitation, he still wasn’t strong enough to use it over his entire body, thus sometimes the wind hit a few parts of his body, he recieved many wounds from that.

Not to mention his Qi was starting to get exhausted from the over use. His dantian, while had huge reserves of Qi, couldn’t hold enough of it to last for hours. It must be told that even Qi, if used in a huge area wouldn’t last even a minute if you didn’t have enough reserves. His dantian had already exhausted it’s reserves, since he was using it for almost ten hours.

Chapter 13 -

Mazir climbed over 900 meters, in less than two hours. However he still was far away from the peak, and the mountain was still cracking everywhere. His Qi had already depleted and he was climbing in sheer willpower, his entire body was covered in blood.

Because he was unable to give the ring Qi it had stopped protecting him from the winds, thus he was already covered in blood. If one didn’t look carefully, they might even not realize that the creature covered in blood was a human!

“Pain…” Mazir said slowly… His entire body hurt. His bones had yet to heal completely, thus the small cuts had finally entered deep inside the skin, after thousands of cuts. However the Sun and Moon Tempering Technique had upgraded his bones.

They were almost as strong as metals. Thus the small winds couldn’t even leave a scratch on them, however the bigger and stronger winds sometimes left a small cut, but it was almost not visible so most of the time he wasn’t directly injured in his bones.

However Mazir could only grit his teeth and move forward. He was very close to his objective, just a few dozens of meters away, after that he could have another weapon which would help him. However how could fate be so nice to him?

He did just one mistake in climbing the mountain and was sent straight to the ground! Falling from 900 M it was crazy!

Mazir felt like his life was going to end.

One minute passed, he wondered if it actually took that much time to fall. His previously closed eyes slowly opened, he didn’t see white or black. He saw the sky. He, was alive. Tears started to fall out of his eyes. He had never been so close to death.

“I’d never have thought that one day I would be so close to death that I would have peed my pants! Shit!” Mazir noticed “it” rather quickly and was embarrassed beyond help as he hit his forehead in his fastest speed. Even Azrael laughed when he noticed it.

Honestly he couldn’t be blamed too much. He was so near death, that for a moment- no for a minute he thought he was already dead!

However he had luckily made a breakthrough in his technique Shattering Void Body, entering the middle stage(layer?).

If not for that he would probably have died, the breakthrough made the winds push down, decreasing the chances to die, by creating a soft place of wind, that was the only reason why Mazir didn’t end up dead, meaning he was very lucky.

“Oh god, I felt like I died a thousand times in a single second there…” Mazir sighed and touched his body, trying to be sure that this wasn’t a dream but reality, and he indeed was alive and not dead, he sighed in relief.

Honestly for a moment he thought his entire five years of life in cultivation were sent to hell, wasted for nothing. Thankfully he was still alive…

Thinking about that he let yet another sigh and started to climb yet again, this time double the speed than before. He was truly trying to hurry up, he didn’t think there was much time before the mountain cracked to nothing. By that time the key would be somewhere in the ruins, and it would months and maybe a year’s worth of job to actually find it.

He didn’t have that  much free time! Just thinking about it made Mazir’s blood hot and he climbed even faster. He had already climbed fifty meters in less than two minutes!

“Come on legs! He yelled and didn’t even bother to rest a single second. His eyes became red in a moment as veins appeared in his forehead and entire body, he speed up like crazy, and in just three minutes reached one hundred meters!

That was incredibly fast!

However Mazir felt like this would only increase his amount of wounds, but he had to! Soon he reached two hundred meters, just four minutes had passed, his legs were bleeding from the immense pressure in them. The winds had started to cut even his hair.

“Argh, I must be even faster, I don’t think I have even ten minutes left!” Mazir’s eyes bleed as he speed up even more, his speed was crazy for a fifth layer cultivator, simply crazy! 400 meters in five minutes, while climbing that is!

His fingers had also started to bleed, and exhaustion covered his body, however he still didn’t rest. Five minutes passed, he now was 700 meters up, he was indeed exhausted, not to mention the wind which continued to cut him in several places!

“Just a little bit more and I will finally reach the peak… Just a little bit more...A bit more…” Mazir repeated “ A Bit more” without stop, to take his mind off everything else, he was only thinking about the peak of the mountain, yet he forgot a thing.

“Why was he risking his life for a lower real peak weapon?” Nobody knew the answer to that, however Mazir felt like if he managed to get the weapon, he’d finally know the answer if he was a coward or not, was he a brave man or not.

“Be careful!” Azrael shouted as he saw he a ruge rock come down the mountain. Mazir gasped in shock as he jumped left trying to dodge it, however he lost balance and almost fell a hundred meters down, his hands and fingers bleed even more.

“Crap!” Mazir said as the rock went past him. He was really scared that this time he would actually die. “That was so close…” He muttered slowly clenching his teeth and climbed yet again, he had 5 minutes and 400 meters to climb(remember he fell 100 meters down)

Honestly if he was in his peak form ,he might be capable of reaching such distance in a short time, but he was very injured from the Spatial Wind, excessive climbing and the sudden rock appearance.

“ I know what I can do!” Mazir muttered to himself, suddenly a huge amount of black purple flames poured out from his legs, after a few minutes, it was already as big as a 200M mountain. “EXPLODE!” Mazir roared as the flames exploded and made a “Boom” sound.

The explosion boosted Mazir’s speed, and in less than two seconds he was already almost at the peak of the mountain, he just had to climb 50M more, however the winds here were even stronger, and he was instantly attacked.

“I underestimate the power of the mountain’s wind, however I no longer have enough Qi to protect myself, I just exhausted it yet again with that big chunk of Void I just used to come straight here…” Mazir spat blood and said to himself.

The big ball of black purple flames was Void, however that was all the reserves Mazir had gathered since two days ago. Today was the third day, so technically it’s one day, but it was almost the fourth day, the sun had already disappeared from sight and the moon had appeared.

“Wait the moon! I can absorb Cold Yin Qi to suppress the Winds!” His idea was to freeze the winds so they were unable to hurt him, however that was almost impossible, as wind couldn’t be easily frozen, the temperature must be very low!

He took a long breath and his eyes expressed a cold look, with one move of his fingers, the moon unleashed a huge amount of Cold Yin Qi, it was so much that even Mazir was slightly affected, however his plan wasn’t working properly, as the winds were still moving.

His hands slightly froze, however the next second, the ice disappeared, he was using the Hot Yang Qi too. While there was less Yang Qi in space right now, it was enough to at least extinguish a little bit of ice, thus he was safe for the moment.

Soon he was just a few meters away from the peak of the mountain, however the mountain was almost ready to explode. However Mazir still held hope that he could reach the peak just a few seconds before the mountain exploded.

“Move! Legs MOVE!” He roared as he slapped his legs and made a final jump, his fingers barely held on the ground of the peak, if not for that he’d already have fallen 1000 meters down, and probably died, actually he would’ve died.

“So close… For a moment I thought I failed…” Mazir panted as he jumped straight into the top of the mountain where the large key looking stick was. He had about 7 seconds  before the mountain  exploded according to his estimations.

He didn’t waste any time as he immediately dashed forward. 6.

5.

It took two seconds to reach the tallest point of the mountain. However he had no idea what to do now. He tried forcefully pulling it out, however he miserably failed, he only had 4 seconds left…

“TRY SENDING QI INSIDE OF IT!” Azrael said with an alarmed tone, Mazir did what his master said and immediately poured Qi inside of the key, however it wasn’t working,”IT’s taking too MUCH TIME!” Mazir was anxious.

3.

“COME ON DAMMIT WORK!”

2.

His heart beat faster than ever, he felt his eyes almost come out as he spat blood, which fell straight into the key.

1.

It  Was Over…

Or was it?...

Chapter 14

Somewhere inside the Spirit River Sect

“What a good boy, his name is Mazir if I remember right, right Mars?” The voice of a man rang out. The man looked like he was in his thirties, with black hair and blue eyes.

He had a short beard and a calm voice. He was wearing a grey robe which had long sleeves. His cultivation was certainly stronger than Jian!

“Hmph, it doesn’t matter how talented or good he is, if he can’t even be first in such a simple exam. Even if his talent is even better than the first Sect Master’s, he still is a boy who reeks of his mother’s milk! I don’t look at talent, I look at results!” the said man, Mars snorted. Unlike the middle aged man, he looked like a young man in his twenties.

He had a cold look in his face, however he was very handsome, his icy face only added points to it. He had long black hair and brown eyes. His skin was white and soft, some girls would even be jealous of that skin! He was wearing a red dragon robe.

“Cold as always, aren’t you? *sigh* Your master won’t be happy if you still act like this you know, he expected more from you. I promised him I would protect you until you grew strong enough to become the Sect Master, but it seems it will take a long time…” The middle aged man said.

“That’s none of your business, Martial Uncle Kira. Even if you are stronger than me, I’m sure than in less than five years I will surpass you!” Mars said with a slightly angry tone.

“Yeah,yeah. However right now, can you defeat me? Even in the Sect Ranking you are only fourth! If you continue like this you will fall to become fifth! Don’t let your negative emotions control you! Otherwise… Let alone surpassing me, you won’t even enter the third realm!”

Hearing the last words Mars growled, “ That’s none of your business! I’m telling you again! I might be just at the eighth layer of the Elemental Foundation Realm, but I’m just seventeen! Tell me Martial Uncle, how old are the third or second rank disciples? They both are close to twenty years old!”

Kira shook a little bit, however he only sighed as a regretful look entered his eyes, “ I didn’t want to do this so early but… MARS, do you have an idea why they are at the Master Of Element Realm  and you aren’t? It’s not because of age!”

Mars moved a step behind, his Martial Uncle had never exploded like this before him, he was always calm and kind.

“It’s because they understand that if they want to advance in cultivation they must sacrifice something! But look at you! What do you do all day?! Visit the damn brothels all day and only cultivate one to three hours a day! If you cultivated all day you would already have entered the third realm you FOOL!” He unleashed a fury of Qi which made it hard for Mars to even breath.

“...What have I done…”

The Examination Forest.

Mazir’s vision was blurry and he could barely see anything. “Urgh… The last thing I remember is that the key shone and the mountain exploded.” He said to himself while he slowly got up, his vision was returning to normal.

His recovery was faster than that of an average cultivator, thus he was quickly able to see that he was very close to the ruins of the mountain, in fact it seemed that he had barely escaped being crushed by the huge remains of the mountain.

However, that  didn’t mean that he escaped without a single wound, his entire body hurt, while the huge rocks had softened the impact, it had also raised the physical wounds. “Ugh, it hurts like hell,at least I’m still alive…” He muttered slowly, judging by the time, it was almost the end of the fourth day.

“Great, I missed a day.” However he noticed something almost immediately,” Heavens my Contribution points have reached 2000!” He shouted in surprise! The reason why it was that much was because the system counted the mountain who destroyed, which killed many beasts as his.

“How did this happen?! Is it because of the mountain?! Poor beasts...They all got crushed.” Mazir sighed in sadness for the dead beasts, they didn’t even know what killed them, and now they are points for him, so sad.

“Uhh my but hurts like crazy.” He rubbed his but while his stomach growled. He was hungry. “ I must search for any nearby beast, my reserves have been all crushed by the mountain, I even lost my bag which contained most of my pills, ugh…” Mazir sighed and rubbed his forehead, he was having a headache about food.

“Anyway, I didn’t have that much pills so it doesn’t matter that much, but I don’t have food left, and the bodies of the dead beasts have been long since crushed to nothing, I must go hunt beasts in the forest.” Mazir said with a sigh.

He waved his hand and suddenly the Thousand Hell sword appeared, he jumped on it and it suddenly shook and started to fly away, Swords could also be used as Flying Swords which were used for moving. Mazir loved flying like that, but he couldn’t use it before, as only fifth layer cultivators could slightly fly with it, seventh layer cultivators had it easier.

However he who could use Void and had a rather unique Tempering Technique he could easily use it for tens of minutes.

He flew around until he found a Black Lion, which was very rare. They could cultivate up to the third layer, however to the current Mazir who was at the fifth layer of the Novice realm, it couldn’t be considered a real threat.

He flew straight towards the Black Lion and pierced it’s body with the sword, while he jumped just a second before it. The Black Lion let a cry of pain before falling down, the sword had pierced his entire stomach and went through it, not many beasts could survive such wounds, and the Black Lion wasn’t one of those beasts.

Mazir enjoyed eating the delicious meat of the Black Lion, however he never noticed that with each bite, a part of the meat would disappear, Azrael sneakingly took a few pieces of meat each time, however even he could get hungry!

He hadn’t actually eaten in such a long time that even the meat of a weak beast made him enjoy the meat for hours.

“Delicious…” He said with a sigh.

_-___-_-______-__-_---___--___--________--------_____------_____-----__________------_______----

Fifth Day.

Mazir was training his sword style, which sadly didn’t have much progress, besides him being able to pour a small amount of Qi inside his sword,  that made his sword stronger and faster, however he didn’t think he could pour a lot of Qi inside it, there was a chance it could break.

He wiped the sweat out of his forehead and sighed, “ I don’t think I must do much to be  number one in this Examination, if I believe besides being accepted as a disciple you would also get a reward, hopefully it’s a good one.”

“Your master thinks that unless the people responsible for this examination are blind, they will certainly choose you as number one. Don’t even worry about such a simple thing.” Azrael looked at his apprentice and said with a confident voice.

“I hope you are right Master, but I won’t be sure unless I see my name written at the first rank. Well not like it’s important, even second or third place will be enough.” Mazir said with a slight smile visible on his face. He quickly changed his clothes and then ate some meat.

He could feel he was nearing the sixth layer, as he was almost at the late fifth layer, and soon he would enter it and only the peak remained before he could enter the sixth layer.

However he didn’t want to rush, his foundation had yet to reach the apex of the possible growth it could reach. He estimated that he yet had to even complete 10% of his foundation’s possible growth! That was a very small number compared to the 100% he was going for.

However it would take a long time before he could reach that percent, however he had a long way until he reached the ninth layer let alone the tenth layer( last layer).

“Hmm… I haven’t actually tried to test my limits, what about I try killing another beast to test it’s limits.” Mazir licked his lips as he thought about eating the delicious meat of the Armored Black Wolf again, he really wanted to taste more of that meat.

____________________________________

After a few hours, Mazir was enjoying eating the meat of a Armored Black Wolf which clearly was weaker than the Armored Black Wolf he fought two days ago, it was at the early fifth layer, and a second grade beast, which wasn’t a big deal for him to deal with.

“So delicious… I feel like that even if I ate a thousand pieces of Armored Black Wolfs I would still eat their meat without vomiting!” Mazir said while patting his stomach, which had grown a little bit. The meat he ate from beasts also helped him create a more solid foundation, which was one of the main reasons he ate a lot of meat each day.

He let a satisfied growl out before slowly rising to his feet. His eyes immediately got sharp as he said with a calm tone,” Fellow Daoist, why are you hiding there?” He smiled as he looked at the bushes next to a huge tree.

He could feel the aura of a dangerous person, most likely a very strong person close to his level, maybe he was at the peak of the fourth layer just about to enter the fifth layer, however Mazir estimated that the person was close to the maximum allowed age to enter the Examination.

“Your senses are quite trained if you could sense me, Fellow Daoist.” He heard a small laughter, just like he suspected most likely the person speaking was very close to being twelve years old, but he was also close to the fifth layer.

“Who are you?” Mazir sneered as he looked at the bushes, soon the boy appeared. His face was indeed handsome, which showed that he was probably from a rich clan, his hair was black and long while his eyes were blue.

“Take it easy, my name is …

Chapter 15

“My name is… Hmmm I wonder?” The boy smiled and laughed, however suddenly a sharp blade went past him, missing his hair by an inch,” Listen, I don’t have time to joke, TALK.” Mazir shouted slowly with a vein visible in his forehead.

“Okay, okay I was only joking anyway. My name is Chen.” Chen said with a kind smile, however that smile couldn’t fool Mazir who snorted.

“Great, what do you want from me?” Mazir didn’t reveal his name but said coldly, his eyes not leaving Chen.                                        

“Calm down, calm down… Meh… Mazir right? You are from the Dragon Fang City, a small city which hasn’t produced any nice talent in the last 300 years, you were part of the Yale Clan, being a slave to them, due to some method you managed to escape their slave mark and now is here, at the Spirit River Sect Examination. How weird…” Chen said with a calm face.

Mazir’s eyes grew even colder,” Who are you? How do you know such information… It seems I might have to kill you.” He said, his hand nearing the sheath of the Thousand Hell Sword, which showed an excited shine, clearly it was ready to fight Chen.

“Calm down, I’m here to tell you that my master told me to tell you that ‘You weren’t supposed to get that treasure’” Chen smiled.

By that treasure he was speaking of the stick he had gotten from the mountain. Until today, Mazir had yet to find enough time to try finding out what it was, however if a person came here and told him that, it meant somebody was spying on him.

“Is that all? Good now go, I Don’t have time to deal with every person I come across here.” Mazir said. His hand however, didn’t move from the sheath at all, it was clear that he didn’t believe the bullshit said by Chen, and he couldn’t actually expect him to believe an unknown boy’s words.

“Oh, also, I hope you enjoy first place in the Disciple Rankings for Beginners, even if you won’t reach that place in the Lower Rankings..” Chen let a small smile out before going away. The Sect had their own ranks, which was separated into three  smaller ranks : The Soaring Phoenix Ranking(weakest), Horned Dragon Ranking and the strongest ranking the Nine Heavens Rankings.

New disciples however, would be sent to a smaller ranking called the Earth Ranking which were made for the weaker disciples, those of the first to the early layers of the second ranks, The Novice Realm Cultivators were usually called servants.

Mazir would probably rank in the top 10000 if he became a disciple, which was almost 100% sure, however the top 10000 wasn’t something to brag of, as if he entered the sixth layer he could enter top 5000.

Mazir smiled and took out the stick key which was over two meters from his ring which could also serve as a Space Ring, which were rare even in the Spirit River Sect, only most important disciples and elders could have them.

He observed it from each side, however he couldn’t see anything special on it, it was as if it was really a normal stick key.

“Hmmm. is it really just a stick key? I just feel like I’m forgetting something…” Mazir muttered to himself while massaging his temple.

“Urgh…” In his annoying moments he used every method possible to see if the Stick Key would react. However there was no reaction. Despite his angriness he tried a last thing, he tried pouring Qi inside of the Stick Key.

After ten minutes the Stick Key had no reaction, however it was sucking his Qi dry.

“This...THIS DAMN SUCKER!” Mazir yelled with anger. His Qi was already half sucked dry, if this continued like this he wouldn’t have any Qi left to use for days, for cultivators that was a dangerous situation, and Mazir already had Qi reserves bigger than normal cultivators of the same level, if not for that, he might have been dead by now.

“God, when will this end? I only have a quarter of my Qi reserves left… If this continues I will really be sucked dry!” Mazir said, Azrael smirked,” It seems it isn’t as simple as I thought, It actually should be a middle realm weapon.”

“Master, can’t you help me with it?!” Mazir let a cry out, he was complaining at his master. Said master snorted,” If you can’t even control such a treasure, why the hell are you even my disciple? Huh?”

“COME ON.” Mazir growled slowly as he grabbed the Stick Key, pouring all his Qi inside of it in a violent thrust, he wanted to see if it could actually endure all of his Qi in one go. If this didn’t work, well… He would just die! Nothing more!

The Stick Key suddenly shook before freezing, it made no further move, as if it was full. “You finally stop huh?” Mazir said with anger. He almost slapped the Stick Key, but remembering that it was just a stick, it wouldn’t feel more pain that he would.

Suddenly it started to shine and released a white light which engulfed the entire free space where Mazir was currently. His eyes burned and he quickly covered them, the light was too strong and his eyes couldn’t immediately adapt.

“This is…” Mazir gasped in shock.

The Key had accepted him as it’s master! That was simply shocking. Rarely did a Weapon accept one as a master, it meant that it had accepted defeat and was ready to have a total surrender! That made Mazir very happy.

Suddenly seemingly endless waves of Qi started to spread out from the Key, Mazir was scared that it would make other people notice it, which would let to dozens of people gathering here, which, even if he wasn’t afraid of them, didn’t mean he could fight them.

Mazir could feel that the waves reached even a kilometer away, which was a dangerous distance, especially at the end of the fifth day! Such attention was not needed. He gnashed his teeth and waved his hand, he was trying to see if he could order the Key to stop.

However, the key wasn’t showing any sign of stopping,”Try commanding it with your thought.” Azrael sighed from inside the ring, Mazir was startled before nodding, letting a simple thought out,’STOP’. The key shook before it stopped releasing waves of endless Qi.

“Thanks Master, if not for you I might have died… Urgh I may actually still die, hopefully the waves never reach any person.” Mazir prayed deep in his heart. If any of those waves actually hit a person, it would be dangerous for him to fight the person.

Because he might call other people, which would result in a huge battle which each side might win, there was no sure ending. Mazir might lose, or the other person might lose.

“So close… Anyway let’s see what this key is.” He looked at the key and found a shocking change! It was no longer a key, it looked just like a bow! That was a shocking change! He couldn’t help but feel like coughing blood.

This bow didn’t look any different from an usual bow. The bowstring was made from a strange material which felt really soft when pulling, but when he tried to cut it, he failed miserably. The grip was also made from a soft material, which made it comfortable, while the rest of the bow was made from a strange type of wood, which he didn’t know.

However Mazir had never used a Bow before and he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to use it, after all he had the Thousand Hell Sword, and for him that was enough. “You can use both of them you know, the bow for assassination or sneak attacks while the sword for close range attacks.” Azrael said, Mazir nodded and thought the same.

“That’s not actually a bad idea.” Mazir smiled and touched the bow softly, he could feel a small connection to it, as if it belonged to him naturally. He spent the next hour trying to fix his aim. The bow used Qi instead of actual arrows, however it was hard for Mazir to create Qi arrows, as he had little Qi left.

However his aim could be considered terrible, however Azrael had different thoughts than Mazir.

‘This boy… His natural talent for the bow and sword is truly large, I doubt there is a person with a higher talent that him for the bow or sword…’ Azrael thought deep inside his heart. He smiled at the sight of Mazir sleeping peacefully after a day’s worth of training.

With this the Fifth Day was over.

Or was it actually over?

Unknown Place.

“Are you sure that boy is the one, Master?” A black robed boy said, shockingly that boy was Chen!

“The Heavenly Yin Yang Bow must find it’s own master. Now that a person has gotten it, it means it has accepted him as it’s master. I won’t try to take it from him even if it our Sect’s third most precious treasure. I’m not that evil.” A man said, he looked like he was in his thirties.

His eyes were very calm, showing a sense of maturity. Despite the bad weather and strong winds his black hair didn’t move at all and neither did his long sleeves robe.

“Besides, we aren’t in a good position either. Our Spirit River Sect is being attacked by several sects, although they are merely small fights soon it might give birth to a huge war which might even bring the entire Empire chaos. Hopefully I’m actually wrong…” The man said with a sigh. Despite his appearance, he was one of the strongest Inner Elders, Sandan.

He and many other Inner Elders were over 200 years old or up to 500 years old, while the oldest Inner Elder was over 900 years old and his cultivation was very strong, even the Sect Master had to give lots of respect to that Elder.

While many Elders didn’t actually care about the situation outside the sect, most of the elders knew that a danger was starting to engulf the Spirit River Sect, and it might even give the sect it’s ending after hundreds of years of existence.

“Master, I kind of agree with you. But I’m sure even if we tried to take it from him, I doubt we would succeed. His cultivation is stronger than mine, and he is even younger than me. I’m not even sure if I could defeat him even if I used all my secret tricks.” Chen said with a sigh.

“That’s because he has a Sixth Grade Spiritual Grade, do you think even you who until now had the third highest Spiritual Root could fight him in terms of talent?” Sandan smiled at his foolish little apprentice who was slightly confused at him but nodded at his master.

“Our Spirit River Sect will Rise or Fall, just like the mysterious old man said… The question is,”Which one?””