The day of the competition finally arrived. Throughout a year of training, Hong Zhou had formed a master-disciple relationship with Yang Sen, and he didn't want anything to happen to him.
"I'm going to run away today," Hong Zhou said while looking at his disciple. "I want you to do the same and wait for me at this location." He handed over a map.
Though Hong Zhou taught Yang Sen cultivation and spells, Yang Sen continually improved upon them, demonstrating his genius.
Now, Hong Zhou would refine the techniques he learned from Yang Sen and pass them back to him, allowing Yang Sen to evolve them further. This endless cycle of improvement would continue.
This process repeated until the four spells and the sword qi technique used for flight consumed little to no true qi, yet were powerful enough to rival cultivators at the late Foundation Establishment realm when used by Yang Sen. However, the same techniques would yield different results when employed by Hong Zhou.
Hong Zhou was confident that Yang Sen would be fine due to his intelligence.
Yang Sen knelt and said, "Master, stay safe. I will continue training in the techniques you taught me. When we meet again, I will show you what an incredible Daoist you have created. I will not disappoint you."
Hong Zhou smiled. "Just make sure not to use your techniques on innocent civilians. You can take your revenge on the demons that destroyed your village, but promise me you will stay at the location marked on the map and wait for me. This food will last you at least a year—please don't die, my disciple."
With a thought, Hong Zhou conjured a sword made of true qi. Yang Sen climbed onto the sword and flew north.
Hong Zhou stood in front of his cave abode and watched as his disciple slowly disappeared into the clouds.
"I'm sure he can handle a peak Foundation Establishment expert with the techniques we created; he will be fine," Hong Zhou murmured, though worry still gnawed at him.
He sighed and continued talking to himself. "My low-grade spirit roots have transformed into a datian that holds so little energy. Thank goodness for Yang Sen. Without him, the five skills I learned would have required so much true qi that I wouldn't be able to use them in combat or escape."
"But now," Hong Zhou grinned, "I'm sure I can take on someone at the second level of the Golden Core. All I have to do is break the lion protection array and collect the inheritance of the Heavenly Emperor. Then I can successfully ascend to the Foundation Establishment realm. I hope the array is still there."
"My goal is to become the strongest in this world, the strongest in existence. All I need is strong will and determination. To become strong, I have to survive and escape this sect."
This world was nothing like the 21st century; there was no technology and no immensely wealthy individuals. There was only one rule: strength. If you had strength, you naturally had all you needed; if you were weak, you would die helplessly.
"Hey, you're Hong Zhou, right? The sect leader is calling for you. Please follow me."
Hong Zhou turned around to see Li Won.
He followed her to the Ancestral Hall, where incense burned before the statue of the sect's founder, and four elderly men were kneeling in reverence. They arrived at the venue for the sect competition and orientation.
There were ten inner disciples at the ninth level of the Foundation Establishment realm, along with one core disciple at the third level of the Golden Core realm, all present to take the test.
The sect leader, Luo Ning, stepped forward to give her speech.
"Three thousand years ago, the Luo Celestial Sect was founded by our ancestors, who set many rules at that time. One of those rules was how inner sect professors were chosen."
She glanced at the fifteen inner disciples and one outer professor. "Today, you all will be sent to the Beast Wandering Secret Realm, where your task is to hunt down five different types level 3 beast and bring back their body in full."
"Just as humans and other species go through bone tempering, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Void Tribulation, and other cultivation stages, beast cultivators have levels ranging from one to ten."
The inner disciples were terrified; the Wandering Beast Mountain was not a place one wished to venture, crawling as it was with all types of demons.
"Sect leader, aren't we supposed to perform the test on the Beast Mountains like we usually do?" a young inner sect disciple asked.
"Hmm, let's just say things have changed," Luo Ning replied ominously, leaving the disciples anxious.
"I'm going to open a teleportation array to the Wandering Mountain. Are you ready?"
"No, please wait! Sect leader, the Wandering Mountain is too far from the sect. How will we return? At this rate, it will take us three years to come back, we just want to become elders we don't want to die!" One of the disciples retorted.
"Are you questioning my authority?". A wave of true qi pushed back the disciples, including Hong Zhou, who was keeping his distance.
What a bitch, I'm sure about it now; these people are trying to kill me; I don't need an astral archive to tell me this one.
Hong Zhou thought.
Luo Ning declared, "Array of Ten Thousand Miles." A shining talisman she was holding illuminated the reddish nature of her True Qi, and a circle appeared in front of the disciples, teleporting them to the Beast Wandering Mountain.
The air ripped apart not with a sound, but a sickening tear, and they were there. Not gently placed, but violently thrust onto the jagged, obsidian ground. The stench hit them first – a cloying mix of decay and something metallic, something like old blood.
Towering above, skeletal peaks clawed at a bruised, purple sky. These weren't ordinary mountains; their craggy surfaces resembled colossal, petrified beasts, their hollowed-out eye sockets dark and menacing. Strewn across the volcanic scree were bones – femurs the size of tree trunks, ribs forming macabre archways, and skulls large enough to house small carriages. Crimson stains, thick and viscous, painted the rocks in horrifying patterns, leading to unseen hollows and shadowed ravines. A guttural wind howled through the skeletal peaks, a mournful dirge that promised only pain and death. The disciples stumbled, their initial shock giving way to a primal terror that choked their breath and turned their legs to lead. This was a descent into a nightmare.
"Ahhhhhh".
"What am I going to do!".
"Haaaa….. I'm too young to die".
"Are those bones?"
""Look over there. Did a sky dragon die there?"
The disciples started shivering in fear and murmuring among themselves. Li Won glanced at them and shouted in frustration, "Quiet down!"
Silence fell over the group. "Why are you all inner disciples if you're this scared of monsters with no intelligence? You're all one in a million! You have rare bloodlines; not everyone awakens with a bloodline, but you all have bloodlines of gods or heavenly beasts. Let's charge forward, and we will come out alive! What do you say?"
"She's right!"
"Let's stick together, and we will survive!"
Unlike the outer sect, where anyone can become an elder as long as they break through to the Foundation Establishment realm, disciples who reach the Golden Core cultivation stage are called core disciples. Li Won was a core disciple, and all 14 disciples present respected her.
"What should we do with that professor?" one of the disciples asked.
"He's basically the weakest. We can't carry him along; he'll just be a burden!" another disciple protested.
Li Won cast a quick glance at Hong Zhou and lost herself in thought. That's Hong Zhou, the guy I met in the library a year ago. Why not teach him a lesson? I'll make him beg if he wants to follow us; that way, I can pay him back for the humiliation I felt a year ago.
A sinister smile crossed her face. "Hey, Hong Zhou, if you—"
Hong Zhou cut her off. "I'm not interested. You can go wherever you want, but you better leave this place soon, or all of you will die without a doubt."
He created a flying sword and took off into the air.
"What?!"
How is that possible? He created a flying sword using true qi, something only those in the Foundation Establishment realm can do, yet he is still in the Bone-Tempering realm. Is he hiding his cultivation? I feel like his cultivation has doubled from the ninth level to fifteen levels, but that's impossible, Li Won thought.
"Excuse me, Miss Li Won, I'm Xichen, and I think I sense the true qi of a powerful beast approaching."
Rooooooooar.
"Run away!"
It was a level 4 colossal bear, standing 9 meters tall—a baby by their standards.
The young cultivators quickly scattered in fear.
Meanwhile, Hong Zhou had been flying for three hours straight, desperate to escape with his life. "Am I getting out of here? I don't even know if I'll survive long enough to escape this place."
He suddenly stopped as the smell of blood began to dissipate. "Let's see if the Astral Archives can create a note about this place; maybe I can get a map to find my way out."
He squatted down to the ground. Just as before, he was compelled to close his eyes. A new book appeared in the Astral Archives titled "Beast Wandering Mountain."
He turned to the next page
Hong Zhou opened his eyes and took a deep breath. "Should I go out, or should I follow the second map?"
"Let's go inside and check it out. I bet it's going to be something good since it's from a person from my world." He created a flying sword and zoomed deeper into the mountains.
"This is the place, but demons are everywhere," he thought.
Hong Zhou moved his hand in a circular formation while standing mid-air on his flying sword. "Yin and Yang, Dragon's Fire!" Suddenly, a Yin-Yang symbol formed, and an illusionary dragon flew down to where the demons were, exploding upon impact.
Boom!
The explosion was so loud that the disciples far from Hong Zhou could feel the shockwave.
" I have never used it before, to think it will be this powerful after countless modifications".
Now it's time to see what that Japanese guy was working on, I'm a little excited.