The moment he entered the formation, Tyler expected the heavy pressure that Shen had mentioned, but to his surprise, it never came.
Curious, he spread his divine sense to get a feel for his surroundings and he could immediately sense that the Qi was indeed a lot more concentrated than before.
He could also distinctly perceive the underground formation channels as well as those extending about thirty meters into the skies.
There appeared to be an uninterrupted stream of Qi descending from the heavens and entering the earth. The energy would then be fortified, elevated, and subsequently directed back into the heavens from the sides of the mountain path, repeating this cycle as it descended further a few meters upwards the path.
He didn't comprehend the mechanisms behind the energy enhancement, but he could unmistakably sense its impact.
With his curiosity satisfied, he continued on.
2 steps, 3 steps, 4 steps. Still nothing significant.
The pressure that had caused some of the youths to slow down was merely tickling Tyler’s skin. While he could clearly feel that the concentration of Qi in the atmosphere was significantly higher than before, he did not feel the oppressive weight of the mountain yet.
As the candidates ascended, the pressure began to intensify. The three youths with the highest levels of cultivation started to feel the strain after roughly 350 meters.
From there, the threshold decreased in line with their cultivation levels: 290 meters, 160 meters, 100 meters, etc.. etc. and the lowest of the other 12 candidates managed 58 meters before really slowing down.
Tyler, on the other hand, seemed to struggle when he reached the 40th meter, eliciting silent amusement from the youths ahead of him. The notion of a 9th-level Combat test success appeared to be a fluke in their minds.
Unbeknownst to all the observers, including Lo Shen, Tyler had not stopped because of an inability to proceed. Instead, he was studying the effect of the formation, inwardly beaming with joy as he felt the condensing Qi around him.
After several minutes of immobility, an elder moved to extract Tyler from the trial, assuming that the man was too proud to admit defeat after completing the combat test flawlessly.
At that moment, Lo Shen intervened. He had a hunch that something unusual was unfolding with Tyler and declared, "There is no time limit for this test. Unless Tyler voluntarily quits, no one shall remove him. If this person wants to die facing this trial, then let him."
A few elders considered protesting, but just as they opened their mouths, Tyler's body moved and he started to circulate his cultivation method and he exploded with energy. A vortex of Qi rapidly funneled towards his body, startling everyone who was watching.
The elders, disappointed by Tyler's previous poor performance, were astounded by the spectacle unfolding before them. There was no mistaking it, this person was cultivating using the Mountain Ascension formation!
The elders who were observing went from pitying the man to being unable to formulate words. Anyone who possessed enough guts to attempt this had to be confident in their abilities!
This trial was proving to be anything but ordinary, and Tyler, anything but a typical cultivator.
As Tyler focused on climbing the first 20 meters, he hadn't really felt anything other than the increase in ambient Qi. From that point forward, he began to sense that the formation was applying a slight pressure on his skin, akin to a tenth of his weight resting on his shoulders.
Intrigued by this phenomenon, Tyler slowed down until he reached the 40 meter mark, where the increase in weight became drastically heavier.
At that point, he stopped entirely, desiring to understand the mechanisms at play within this formation a bit better. Minutes ticked by as he felt the varied energies intermingling, and turned his attention to his soul space to observe the effects of the Qi pressure there.
To his surprise, his soul space was dramatically altered. The skies, which were usually calm with a total of 333 clouds, were enveloped in thick, ominous darkness.
Wind battered his spiritual form, becoming more intense each time he took another step up the mountain. The moment he had taken a step past the forty meter mark, heavenly lightning was added to the storm, lashing across the space and creating a pressure that felt akin to going against the very mountain he stood on.
Tyler knew that these weather manifestations weren't real, but symbolic representation his mind and soul used to understand the world. But given that his inner world was, in a sense, real, he knew that there was certainly more at play here that he didn’t understand yet.
Faced with the pressure of the storm, Tyler decided to execute the movements of the Thundering Winds to manipulate the weather event.
Almost instantly, the winds began to evade him and congregate in a vortex around him, joining him in this dance. The lightning, having found their focal point, relentlessly assailed Tyler.
As a result of Tyler’s ascension, the storm in his soul space intensified with every step.
Reality was that his actual cultivation was far from being low for this trial or the previous one. It was just that the people’s techniques and old monster’s divine sense could only detect his acupoints radiating Qi and couldn’t penetrate into his inner world.
If Tyler was to guess, he would be around the 9th or 10th level at most just in terms of Qi quantity, but its quality would shatter that norm.
Over the past few months, he had developed a hypothesis along with Lin Jian. His accumulated Qi resided within his inner world, not within his body and meridians like everyone else.
When he used it, it flowed directly through his acupoints, akin to multiple faucets being turned on simultaneously. This was probably why every single attack he produced seemed to possess much higher power than people could detect.
This also somewhat explained why he consumed so much more Qi than most people to achieve a single breakthrough. At least that’s what Annie and the Sword King had told him.
They both told him that his efficiency at absorbing Qi seemed… rather poor. But after talking with Lin Jian, they came to this conclusion.
It seemed like it was almost the exact opposite than having really poor efficiency as his inner world could contain a lot more Qi than any normal cultivator could and on top of it his acupoints were condensing his Qi to a shocking amount every time he cultivated.
An example of this would be that he had an entire bag of Silver Condensates inside his inner world and could literally use them from within, bypassing external absorption all together and doing so wouldn't externally reflect on his cultivation level.
So they simply came to the conclusion that his cultivation path was simply different from others due to his circumstances and that was fine as it would ultimately benefit the Sword King as acquiring that knowledge alone was worth more than most could afford.
Since starting to cultivate a few months back, he had opened a total of 73 acupoints with 260 to go but considering the potency of his attacks, his inner world contained an extremely pure form of Qi and that would only get better and better with time.
However, in the grand scheme of things, regardless of how others perceived his cultivation level, it was inconsequential, for strength was the ultimate arbiter.
Back in the real world, the observers, excluding Lo Shen, were stunned by the sight.
The vortex of Qi seemed to slowly be absorbed by the man as he stepped forward, half a meter at the time.
Step by step he ascended the mountain once more as all the youths that were in front of him gasped at the sudden change in the surrounding Qi. To them, it felt as if the formation’s power was weakening only to serve as a helper to this person below them.
Arriving at the 100 meter mark, Tyler looked like a walking hurricane as Qi whistled around him constantly battling the formation around him that tried to squash him to the ground.
At that moment, inside Tyler’s soul space, blue lightning streaked across the skies for the first time and descended on him, causing a shock to spread through his body and soul.
The vortex was momentarily obliterated, the ensuing lightning discharged a power that seemed to shake the heavens. The accompanying thunder blast was so potent that it forcefully disrupted Tyler’s movements, causing him to reel back and spew out blood.
The pain was intense, but a gleaming smile found its way to Tyler's face.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
This lightning bore a force strong enough to penetrate his skin and muscles and temper his organs directly!
Like a predator hungrily pursuing its prey, Tyler quickly marshaled his physical and mental strength, concentrating all his energy into the absorption of this new power into his body, directing all of it directly to his heart.
The sight of Tyler coughing up blood almost triggered an impulsive rescue reaction from Lo Shen, but a timely mental message from the Sword King himself intervened. “Restrain yourself and watch closely. It will soon make sense. Ah and feel free to use as many Spirit Crystals as needed, my treat.”
Without awaiting further instructions, Lo Shen commanded to increase the supply of Spirit Crystals to the formation.
Tyler had a purse full of Silver Condensates in his inner world and he realized that now would be a perfect time to use those items and use them in conjunction with the heavenly lightning to temper his organs.
He didn’t care that he was essentially wasting hundreds of spirit coins worth of materials. If he didn’t seize this opportunity right here and now, he’d only feel worse for not seizing the moment.
His method was distinct and completely different from directly consuming the energies within Silver Condensate as he was incorporating it with a “natural” phenomenon.
Ok well, it was natural inside his inner world. In reality he was using the formation’s power for his own to forcefully penetrate his flesh and use that to temper his organs.
Facing the violent lightning storm, Tyler's spirit refused to buckle. His mind retreated to the familiar dark recesses that he often sought during physically strenuous challenges, and with an ironclad determination, he kept his gaze trained forward and started to mimic the movements of the Thundering Winds method once more.
His resolve, visible in his defiant eyes, brought even some nearby cultivators to a pause.
He continued to move forward.
Within the confines of Tyler's mind, a relentless stream of thoughts continuously looped as he pressed on through the pain of tempering his heart.
Who gives a fuck if your legs are screaming in agony?
Who gives a fuck if your organs feel like burning charcoal?
Who gives a fuck if you're on the brink of collapsing from over-exhaustion?
KEEP!
FUCKING!
MOVING!
Every time the cultivation method was undone due to the lightning strikes, he executed once more.
Undeterred, he pursued his climb, one painstaking step after another, with a prodigious amount of Qi being funneled into his body from both outside and inside.
Unknown by the onlookers, this was the only method Tyler had found to temper his organs. The escalating pressure from the surrounding Qi was forcing his pores to open naturally, leading to some internal damage.
However, the incessant stream of Qi from within also worked swiftly to mend the inflicted harm and to increase his cultivation.
As he drew closer to the 400 meter mark, his cultivation progressed steadily as his heart was being pummeled with Qi.
This sudden advancement, however, hit a roadblock the moment his foot touched the 400 meter mark. The blue lightning that had been relentlessly assaulting him abruptly made way for a significantly more potent yellow lightning. This abrupt shift caused him to drop to his knees instantly, rendered immobile.
The descending Qi in this layer of the formation had skyrocketed compared to the previous, making it almost impossible for him to make even the slightest movement.
Caught in a state of immobility, Tyler steeled himself into a lotus position, determinedly immersing himself into deep cultivation. Blood seeped from his nostrils as he weathered the storm, stubbornly invoking the cultivation method once more in an attempt to seize the relentless lightning assaulting his body.
By this juncture, all the other young participants had either successfully completed their test or admitted defeat, now observing Tyler's remarkable feat with wide-eyed astonishment.
They acknowledged that they could never have ascended so high with only a 6th level of cultivation.
Some even expressed discontent with their own performance, having halted their ascent at the merest inkling of discomfort when they saw the man bleeding from every orifice.
The cost incurred by the Sword Sect at this point caused some of the elders to grimace at the heavy loss. Nonetheless, they were bound by the sect's orders to continue supplying the formation with crystals.
With the increased Qi density on this layer of the formation as well as being supported by the Silver Condensates, Tyler's heart reached completion within a mere hour.
Thump
His heart beat instantly became extremely loud and he felt as if his veins were filled with fiery energies!
The moment he had finally tempered the organ, he experienced a significant weight lifted from his shoulders accompanied with a significant increase in Qi constantly flowing through his veins.
This phenomenon, known as "forming the Heart of a Dragon" among pre-shattering cultivators, owed its name to ancient fantasy tales and had retained the moniker through the ages.
As a result of being infused with the world's energies, one's heart transformed into a perpetual Qi source, continuously pumping fire-affinity Qi into their veins. This led to a substantial increase in their Qi recovery rate and to be much more attuned to the essence of fire laws.
With his newly tempered organ, Tyler felt the pressure be instantly alleviated as if he had stepped back down to the 200 meter mark and to his disappointment, the Qi couldn’t penetrate through his skin anymore unless he forced it open himself.
He also realized that the entire stash of Silver Condensates had been depleted, severing his supply of both inner and outer Qi. As a result, the intense yellow lightning within his inner world no longer caused as much pain.
All of this to say that he couldn’t temper his organs anymore. But it made sense, his skin was now being fed extremely dense fire Qi, rebuffing the formation’s influence.
But he had accomplished his objective here: he had advanced his cultivation.
At that moment, a pleasant surprise arrived as Tyler’s calm mind focused on the outside once more. Spreading his Divine Sense, he noted that he could clearly feel everything within 500 meters now.
His recent breakthrough had really done a number on his divine sense on top of increasing his power.
Recognizing that there was nothing more to gain in his current situation, Tyler stood up and adopted a different approach to finish this ascent.
Inside his inner world, he channeled his entire cultivation into his acupoints, emulating the principles of the Iron Fist technique.
This allowed him to create a solid layer of Qi that enveloped his entire body, providing a protective shield against the ongoing assault from the formation.
Utilizing his connection to the winds, they responded accordingly.
Once again, he appeared as a walking maelstrom of slicing winds as he effortlessly ascended to the top of the Mountain Ascension Trial. Not focusing on absorbing the energies and simply to rebuff them was a lot more simple.
"That was fun," he declared, beaming a wide smile at Lo Shen.
The surrounding elders and youths were astounded by the spectacle they had just witnessed, unsure of what had happened exactly.
Shen, having some insights into Tyler’s cultivation, simply answered with a laugh. ”I hope you’re satisfied with your gains. This just cost us quite a penny.”
At that time, Tyler felt a few divine senses heading his way for the first time ever.
From his inner world he could spot a few old figures making their way near the surface of the sphere containing it and since he really hated people poking their noses where it didn’t belong, he paused.
Turning to Shen Tyler said, “Give me a second.”
Then, his soul avatar stepped out of his inner world and into the void of the surrounding space after gathering every sword cloud he could into a singular weapon and he slashed horizontally towards the oncoming three old men using principals from One Finger, One Sword.
Like a rippling wave of invisible soul power, the old men's divine senses were all obliterated and forced back, causing them to suffer massive backlash.
Across the mountain, three Soul Shattering cultivators spat out blood, suffering significant injuries from having their divine senses destroyed.
Following that, the laughter of the Sword King echoed across the Eternal Palace. His divine sense, too, had been influenced by the strike, but he simply redirected it and took a good look at Tyler.
Surprised by the sudden increase in strength within his divine sense, he was happy. Tyler wouldn’t need his intervention to push away prying eyes anymore.
Tyler, sensing the familiar aura pushing away his sword strike, looked up and smiled as he let the divine sense probe his body without resistance.
Seeing how the second trial was now over, Tyler, along with the other 11 contenders, were escorted to the outer sect's assembly ground a few hundred meters away.
Along the way, each of the young aspirants in Tyler's cohort regarded him with a mix of awe and disbelief, deeply impressed by his astonishing achievement. They quickly understood that Tyler had used this opportunity to force a breakthrough rather than just trying to pass the trial, something none of them would have dared to try.
Now, with Tyler's enhanced divine sense and improved cultivation, he conducted some experiments on their way to the third test.
To his surprise, he felt absolutely no strain when maintaining his divine sense spread out in a radius of approximately 50 meters around him. Anything past that, he’d be on a timer until a splitting headache occurred.
In everybody’s mind, Tyler was at least at the 9th or 10th level seeing as he completed the Mountain Ascension Trial and since his breakthrough, their detection techniques were really throwing them for a loop as it seemed like Tyler’s cultivation had… disappeared?
None of them realized it but every time they used their techniques, something akin to divine sense would probe the other person’s body to detect Qi density. With Tyler’s new and improved capacities however, he could effortlessly divert their techniques however he wanted.
So, naturally, he’d just make it like everyone’s technique missed. This was almost exactly how a Soul Shattering cultivator shrouded themselves from detection and no one but Shen even understood why this was happening.
Arriving at the outer sect’s testing grounds Tyler took in the sights.
In front of him stood around 60 youths arranged in 6 distinctive formations, scattered about on each side of a large octagon, leaving two sides empty where he and the other youths stood.
Each side of the octagon had large bold lettering inscribed into the floor indicating each of the subjects in which the outer sect members could be challenged.
At the back of the testing grounds, an extremely high cliff towered over them and at the top, a few old men were staring down below. Naturally, no one could see them other than Tyler with his divine sense and the sea formation experts with their enhanced bodies and eyesight.
Having already explained the four tests in the admission process Lo Shen addressed the group.
“In front of you are all of the outer sects' younger disciples ranging from level 9 to 19. You must challenge one in a subject of your choice.”
However, what happened next was something no one had foreseen and something Shen had feared.
A shout rang out from the crowd - a youth from the combat group had issued a challenge!
"I challenge Tyler Reed to a formal duel!" The youth, a level 13 cultivator, was none other than Lo Xin!