The Sect's Preliminary Trial

The sandalwood incense had burned down to little more than a stub when Han Li found himself standing among the gathered disciples of Heavenly Spring Peak. The bronze cauldron in the center of the hall continued to release its thin trail of blue smoke, and though no one dared speak out of turn, those who believed themselves qualified could not keep the flicker of ambition from their eyes.

"Will Brother Han participate?" Silvermoon's voice came through their private link, a casual question that belied her sharp attention.

"Why not? If I do not, I will only draw more attention by abstaining." His reply was calm, almost disinterested—a simple tactical calculation laid bare.

Silvermoon fell silent at that.

The middle-aged cultivator who had been resting with closed eyes opened them as the incense finally burned out. "Those who do not meet the requirements, or who choose not to compete, may now withdraw from the Hall of Heart-Washing."

The majority of the disciples bowed and filed out. In the end, perhaps thirty or forty younger disciples remained—Han Li and the burly man among them—along with a handful of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The middle-aged cultivator swept his gaze across the remaining group and nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Nearly everyone who qualifies has chosen to stay. I am pleased. Even if you are not selected in the end, simply observing the competition and exchanging techniques with fellow disciples from other peaks will benefit your cultivation. Now, your senior apprentice brother will explain the rules of the trial. Elder Yu and I have other matters to attend to."

With that, Elder Xin rose and walked toward the back hall. The gray-robed elder followed without a word.

A young man with a sickly pallor stepped forward, clearing his throat. "Since Peak Master has entrusted this matter to me, I hope all junior disciples will listen carefully. This is a contest between fellow sect members, and there are certain prohibitions to respect." He then proceeded to lay out the restrictions: no excessively lethal techniques, no artifacts designed to kill outright. Violators risked expulsion or, in severe cases, having their cultivation forcibly dispersed.

The explanation took about a quarter of an hour.

When they finally emerged from the hall, the other disciples wore expressions of barely contained excitement as they flew off in various directions. Han Li watched them go, shook his head once, and then took to the air himself.

Back at his cave dwelling, he began his preparations in earnest. The challenge was a delicate one: he needed to secure a place among the twenty-four selected disciples without revealing the true extent of his abilities. The solution was straightforward—he would rely on talismans and a few of the lower-grade magic tools he had not touched in years.

He had more than enough options. The top-grade artifacts he had stripped from the Core Formation cultivators who had died by his hand numbered over a dozen. But attracting attention would defeat the purpose, so he selected only a few with care.

For the competition itself, he would not use all of them. Instead, he began refining a large batch of low- and mid-grade talismans, intending to overwhelm his opponents through sheer volume. That alone would not be enough, however. He also retrieved an old technique manual he had acquired years ago in Yue Country—the Flame Manipulation Art, from the old Daoist priest of Xin Wang Palace.

The technique was of little use to high-level cultivators, but against Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment opponents, its flashy transformations would serve admirably to mask his true capabilities.

He had studied the art briefly when he first obtained it and had drawn considerable insight from it back then. Now, with his late Core Formation cultivation, the technique posed no challenge at all. In just a few days, he had mastered every flame transformation described in the manual and had even surpassed its recorded subtleties.

The days that followed were spent entirely on refining talismans.

It was during this period that his gold and silver Gold Devourer Beetles finally began their mutual consumption. Han Li took a moment to observe the process and felt a quiet stir of satisfaction. He was confident that once this evolution was complete, the beetles would be close to the legendary "devour all things" stage, even if not fully matured.

His Crying Soul Beast, however, continued to be a source of mild concern. The creature was still sound asleep in the spirit beast chamber, showing no sign of awakening. He could sense through the Crying Soul Pearl in his body that the beast was not in danger, but the evolution was taking an unusually long time.

A month passed.

The area below the main peak of the Falling Cloud Sect had grown unusually lively. Cultivators gathered in great numbers, drawn not only by the competition but by the spectacle. Thousands had come to watch. Nearly every disciple without an assigned duty had come to observe.

Even those who did not compete could gain valuable insights from watching others fight. It was an education in itself.

The trial grounds were set on a wide expanse of open land at the foot of the peak. Three massive formations had been erected, each over a hundred zhang wide, with translucent domes of light rising above them to contain the battles and protect the audience. Three late-Foundation Establishment cultivators served as arbiters, ready to intervene if a fight threatened to turn lethal.

The selection had already been underway for three days. Many disciples had already been eliminated.

Heavenly Spring Peak's thirty-odd participants were not a large number. Blazing Cloud Peak, by contrast, had nearly a hundred disciples competing. The disparity was stark.

With four to five hundred participants total, even with three venues running simultaneously, simply completing the first round would take several days. Among these disciples, only three or four had reached Foundation Establishment. They were exempt from the early rounds and would only join the competition at the final stage, where they would face the victorious Qi Condensation disciples. Even if they had not been among the seven directly selected, these few had all succeeded in forming their Foundation before the age of thirty—a testament to their exceptional talent.

Han Li stood quietly among a group of Heavenly Spring Peak disciples, watching a match between a disciple from his own peak and one from White Phoenix Peak.

White Phoenix Peak was something of an anomaly among the Six Artifice Peaks. Both of its peak masters were female Core Formation cultivators, and the majority of its disciples were women. As a result, it had always had fewer disciples than the other peaks. Only a dozen or so young female cultivators had come to compete this time.

The Heavenly Spring Peak disciple currently in the arena was a man named Yuan, whose weathered features made him look older than his twenty-seven or twenty-eight years. Though only an Outer Affairs disciple, he came from a well-known immortal cultivation family in Qi Country. The high-grade magic tool he wielded, a White Gold Halberd, was not without power. He had driven his opponent, a reasonably attractive young woman, back step by step and seemed on the verge of victory.

The Heavenly Spring Peak disciples standing near Han Li were clearly friends of this Yuan. They chatted with visible excitement as they watched.

Then, just as Yuan transformed his halberd into a streak of white light and brought it down with force, the woman opposite him raised an eyebrow and tossed a ball of green light into the air. It blocked the halberd's descent. In the same motion, her form flickered and vanished from sight.

Yuan's expression shifted. He urgently formed hand seals, trying to cast a detection technique to flush her out.

A cloud of red mist erupted behind him and enveloped him completely.

With a dull thud, Yuan collapsed on the spot.

"White Phoenix Peak, Jin Rong, wins." The tall, thin arbiter hovering above the arena announced the result without inflection.

Jin Rong bowed respectfully to the arbiter, then produced a small bottle from her storage pouch and waved it under the unconscious Yuan's nose. He stirred and slowly regained consciousness.

Understanding what had happened, his face flushed crimson as he hurried out of the arena. Jin Rong, wearing a look of quiet triumph, flew out as well. A group of nearby female disciples immediately surrounded her, chattering excitedly, drawing the attention of many male disciples in the area.

"Next match: Heavenly Spring Peak's Han Li versus Blazing Cloud Peak's Xun Tong." The gaunt arbiter's voice carried clearly across the grounds.

Han Li smiled and stepped out from the crowd, walking unhurriedly into the formation.

As he entered, a handsome young man in white robes stepped in from the opposite side. The moment he appeared, a ripple of murmurs passed through the watching crowd.