The Long siblings walked into an inn as a man and the host were in a deep conversation. “Boss, how much for a night.” Long Zhou asked in after taking in. The host looked at Long Zhou and the lifted a single skinny finger, as he went back to his conversation. This frustrated Long Zhou ‘one bronze? One silver? One gold? Be more specific you dumbass.’ He looked to his side as he saw a bunch of people rolling dice. He smiled as he got an idea. “Hey boys why don’t you let me in on this?” he asked as he walked in. “I’ll bet my sword for 10 gold.” He said as he placed it on the table. “Who dares play me in a game of cards?” he said as he sat down.
One of the men looked at him and laughed “Ok boy. I’ll play. 10 gold then.” He said as he drew cards. After a couple of minutes Long Zhou won 10 times. “It seems you are unlucky. I have enough money. Goodbye.” He said as he walked off with the money to the host. “Boss, one room for the night please.” He said as he dropped a gold coin on the table. The host with out looking at he threw him a key and note with a number while he continued to converse with the man in front of him.
The sun rose as the Long siblings dashed through the streets and arrived at a snow-white tower. There was a crowed that was gathered around some tables. Long Zhou and Long Gaoya pushed there way through the crowed and go to the table and registered themselves. Time passed as they sat to the side. They had been given numbers, for what reason Long Zhou did not know but he felt like this test was not going to be like other tests that he went through. ‘Since they were mortal there would be a lot less fights to the death but something dumb like a test that will give everyone a fair shoot.’ He had the number 99 and Gaoya had the number 98
When the sun hung in the middle of the sky did the doors to the tower opened. The crowed of around 2 thousand people rushed in as the Long siblings walked calmly in. The tower felt like another world as its size was way bigger than what you could tell form the outside. They filed into and auditorium as three men were standing on the stage. They all had auras of people in the early stages of the Rinzana realm. They were definitely elders, Long Zhou thought to himself. When the last people entered a man with a white bearded stepped forward and started to give a speech in which he tried to motivate the crowed. The children fell in love with it buy Long Zhou felt apathetic.
“The exam is simple, there are 3 stages, in which I will call up 700 of you randomly. You will take the test and if you pass then you move onto the next stage and if you fail you will be escorted out. Then everyone who passed or was not called up will go to the next stage. Some of you will be called out once, twice and if you are unlucky you will be called up all three times. There is a guarantee that if you pass two tests you are automatically accepted into the sect. Some of you will be lucky and not get called on at all. You may think this is unfair, but it is what is fairness. Some people will be born into families that are richer and they will have a lot of help in the cultivation. Some will find inheritances of ancient experts or find treasures that will make anyone jealous. Some will make bonds with experts and get many free passes. This is all luck, and luck is part of your talent. Nobody cares if you are the most talented person in existence, we can make talents with our resources. Luck is what all cultivators need and if you are not lucky enough to not get tested then you have no right to complain.”
Long Zhou found himself nodding along with the old man as he agreed with him wholeheartedly. Long Zhou himself had benefited from all these things weather in this or his last life. “Now I am going to start calling those for the first stage of the exam. 3, 18, 30…99…1999.” When Long Zhou heard his number, he walked towards the stage. It quickly got very cramped as the last person stepped onto the stage, they all disappeared with a flash of light. “The first stage, you will hunt and be hunted. You shall fight to the death with each other. Do not be afraid of death, you will not die but reappear back inside of the tower. One second out hear is an hour in there. We will see how long you all last. Give it your all. Good luck.”
Long Zhou looked around and all he saw was a vast expanse of desert that stretched further than the eye could see. He could smell blood and hear screams of people and animals in the distance, he stretched his arms out wide as he breathed in the atmosphere. “Feels like back in the old days.” The heat would have many people dizzy by now, but Long Zhou basked in it. He picked a direction and walked towards it. He came across a person using a massive stone as shade and quickly dispatched him.
After a couple hundred meters Long Zhou came across another boy, he was at the 5
th
level of the body refinement realm, one over Long Zhou. He seemed to notice Long Zhou at the same time and dashed towards him. They clashed with swords drawn, looking at each other dead in the eyes. The boy had black hair and scar around his right eye. They boy gave strong killing intent that would have scared Long Zhou to death if he was an ordinary boy. The boy was also far from ordinary, if Long Zhou were not Zaatox in his past life he would have died right there.
“You are interesting. What is your name? I am Long Zhou.” He introduced himself, ‘this guy would be better as a friend than as an enemy.’ He thought to himself. “You want to be my friend. This Feng does not need any friends. Now Die!” They boy unleashed a barrage of attacks that Long Zhou dodged and parried with ease. After the boy’s first combo he became easy to predict, “Left. Right. Up. Right. Left.” Long Zhou started to call out where he was going to attack them just before the boy struck, making him more angry and easier to predict.
“You should not get angry so easily. Now I can dodge you even easier.” Long Zhou warned but his words was ignored, as the boy got even angrier. Long Zhou sheathed his blade and started to dodge with his hands behind his back. The boy finally changed up his attack pattern and went in with a thrust but at this point it was useless he was so tired from swinging his sword around in this heat. Long Zhou side stepped for the final time, disarming him, and knocking him to his knees. He placed they boy’s sword on his chin and made him look up. “I do not know what happened to you in the past but take this advice. Losing control of your emotions will get you killed. Fighting is more than who is stronger and faster. There is a lot more strategy than one might think at first. If you are fighting a person equal to yourself, you will more likely use strategy to win the fight. And letting your emotions control you is the first thing that everyone will try doing. I will spear you, but now you know what fighting is about. If you take my advice you will be able to kill that person who wronged, you so.” Long Zhou spoke kindly to the boy. After he finished talking to him, he walked off and threw the boys sword to the side.
The more he walked north the hotter it got, slowly Long Zhou became uncomfortable. He took of his shirt as he continued, and he saw a tower in the distance surrounded by black flames.
“That is the perfect spot to cultivate. I am so lucky, maybe I will be able to break through into the spirit refinement realm.” Long Zhou took in a deep breath then he lunged forward into the jaws of the flames. He ran and ran. His cloths burning and soon he arrived at the doors of the tower. He was started to cool himself down with that energy that was leaking from his bone marrow. He opened the doors and the heat that burst through was too much for him to bare for a long time. He closed the doors and sat with his back towards the tower and started cultivating.
He absorbed the heat that the tower gave off as it was much hotter than the flames and used it to boil his blood. The impurities slowly evaporated and was realised out his body as a brownish steam. He broke through 3 times in the space of a week. This tower was indeed mysterious. He then focused on his organs and stared from clearing his sensory organs of impurities. He doubted that people would be able to get here but he was not going to risk that chance. Even cultivating here was a risk of drawing envious eyes but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
After he focused on his muscles then his lungs and heart then the rest of his organs in no order. After another week, Long Zhou had used the tower to brake through to the spirit refinement realm. “Going any further than this is too risky. I should go and end this test.” Long Zhou walked out of the tower and extended his senses, this time it expanded a lot further with a 5km radius. His spirit was already strong, from his past life, and was not able to be refined anymore, all he needed to do was cultivated for a couple of months and he would break through to the qi controller realm.
‘There was a jungle around 5km east from here, a beach 4km north and a mountain 4km west. There are 5 people east, 10 north and 2 wests. I am the only person in the desert that is in the south of this area. Time to clean house, let me start from the north.’ Long Zhou thought as he dashed forward and continued until he found 8 people in a heated group combat, the two others were sitting on the side and Long Zhou decided to deal with them first. He, in a matter of seconds, killed them with out them noticing. He felt the 5 people on the east disappear as a level 3 profound beast’s aura replaced them and, on the west, there was on person. His aura was weak and was going to give out any time now. He looked at the group of now 4 people fighting. ‘I am bored. Not much fun when the strongest is only at the 8
th
level of the body refinement realm’ Long Zhou dashed in and stabbed him in the back. He then ruthlessly killed the other 3. And looked up at the sky as he was shrouded in white light.
Long Zhou was greeted with surprised looks from the elders when he returned to the stage. He paid them no mind as he walked away. He looked around and saw that boy standing in the crowed staring daggers at him. ‘oh, it seems like I made him into an enemy. Ah, this lone wolf types are so annoying to deal with.’ He then walked over to Long Gaoya, as she looked at him differently. “You had time to cultivate in that death scape. Are you crazy? How did you progress so quickly? Why did I not get picked? So unfair.” Long Zhou just looked at her and laughed to himself. He already started to regard her as his real sister.