《Mortal aspiring immortality》


 Conscription

    Year 1052 of the Kun calendar.


    It is called as such since the Kun family took power from the Jiang Sect. Both were always competing to get the power but in their last clash, the whole clan was destroyed. Leaving a single young boy that was thrown down a raging river.


    His name is Jiang tubei, He is 9 years old. He is the sole survivor that got taken under care from a kind uncle. He showed him how to farm, hunt, fight, practically everything that Jiang knows is because of this Uncle Han.


    They live in a small village where fishing is the primary source of income. The people that farm are in charge of feeding the village. The more Jiang grew up, the less fish there was and the soil grew dry. The harvests were sparse and there was almost not enough food to nourish everyone.


    It has been 9 years since Jiang fell from the river, he has learned to love this village. He has not forgotten what happened to his parents. But he does not know what he can do to avenge them.


    Bringing him out of his thoughts, his uncle Asks


    ''''Jiang can you please head to the river and get water for our soup?''''


    ''''Yes uncle, I am heading there right now!''''


    Jiang brings 2 wooden bucket and walks for around 5 minutes, gathers water and stops to enjoy the scenery, it has always calmed him down when he felt frustrated. Taking the time to look at nature always helped him maintain his cool.


    As he is about to head back he sees his best friend since he came here, Cho Meng. He always likes to compete in various competitions, it can vary from who can run the fastest to who can eat the most fruits in 5 minutes. Every time without exception, he wins.


    ''''Hey Jiang, how are you doing? Doing another chore for your old man?''''


    ''''oh hey Cho, I''m doing good, yeah otherwise he won''t let me hear the end of it!''


    They both look at each other and then start laughing together, they both bid their farewell and leave.


    After about 10 minutes of relaxation Jiang heads back to the village to see his uncle talking with what looks like a soldier. He heads closer to them and hears them talk.


    ''''What? You can just take people to fight for you! We barely have enough hands to manage the land we have!'''' says his uncle


    ''''This is not up for debate. The emperor has ordered that we bring him as many young men as we can.''''


    ''''But-''''


    ''''No but. Bring them here now or there will be consequences. This is a direct order from this emperor, would you really dare disobey?''''


    ''''No sir...'''' looking dejected, Uncle looks up to see Jiang right in front of him trying to give him signals but the soldier turns around and sees him.


    ''''This would do a fine recruit! I won''t leave unless I have 2 more. Consider this my generosity.''''


    Seeing no one moving, the soldier gives the signal to the others to start looking. They break doors if no one opens them, move everything around. Creating disorder. after a while you can see 6 soldiers bringing back 4 young men.


    ''''Found them captain. One was hiding near the docks and the others tried to run as soon as they saw us.''''


    as Jiang looks at who got captured he sees his best friend and three more of their age.


    ''''Alright, thank you Mei, Looks like some of you will stay here today! We will decide this very easily, There will be two fights to determine who will stay here. Since this young man here *Points at Jiang* Got found first, he will join us.''''


    As Jiang looks at them, He can tell that none of them are worse than the others in terms of physique. One was short, another had big eyebrows and the other one had a big scar on his face. Of course, the last one was his best friend.


    ''''To determine who will stay here and who will leave, the person to lose can decide! This is going to be a sword fight, of course, since we don''t want to kill you guys they will be wooden swords. Okay you two *Points at Cho and the short one* you will fight first.''''


    ''''Why is the person to lose the one to decide? Shouldn''t it be the winner?'''' asks Uncle han


    ''''We believe that the person to win is the one with the most potential, That is a fact. If that person doesn''t have any will to actually fight, we won''t like it. So we give the chance to the loser, if he wants to stay, he can, but if he wants to change his future, we will also allow him to do so.''''If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    This was bad, He knew that his best friend had never fought before. They always liked to parkour and do physical activities, but it never included sword fights! He hoped he would make it. He didn''t want hist best friend to be forced to enroll.


    as they both head to the Captain to get their sword you can see the soldiers forming a circle readying to watch a good show. as they both head to one side of the circle, the Captain says


    ''''There is two ways to win. you either push them out of the circle, or you make them declare defeat. No one will interfere. Know when to give up. Start!''''


    Cho looks a lot insecure about whether or not he should fight him, but the short one doesn''t hesitate. He starts running towards his best friend, they were only a couple of feet apart, so he quickly made up the distance. he swings the sword overhead directly towards his neck.


    He barely manages to move out of the way, he still manages to get hit on his arm. Before he can retaliate the young man has already made another move, swinging his sword right on his waist, not wasting any time. As he tries to get his footing back the hit comes and he falls to the ground, the short one not wasting any time and hitting, again and again.


    ''''STOP you win!''''


    The young man doesn''t seem to hear him, a Sergeant had to step in and stop him.


    ''''Well, seems like we got our loser. What do you want to do?'''' Asks the Captain.


    ''''Ugh.. I will ... Join. I never want to feel that powerless again.'''' says Cho.


    ''''Okay and you young man? The choice is yours.''''


    ''''I won''t. I have my mother to take care of, she''s sick she needs me.''''


    ''''Whatever, Alright both of you, on the stage take the swords.''''


    They both head to the circle and the fight is pretty close, they manage to exchange more then 15 blows before one of them gets hurt. The young man with the big eyebrows is the one to emerge victorious, to the surprise of everyone, they both join.


    ''''Okay everyone pack things up we''re going. You four, follow me.''''


    as they head to a carriage the captain talks while walking


    ''''You might be wondering why we need you guys. It may sound weird, the fight is pretty close and you may have never felt the war with *them* and that is intentional. We are here to protect the people from the horde.''''


    ''''The horde? What is that?'''' Jiang asks.


    ''''I said too much. just follow us for now. we will accommodate you when we head there, give you food, proper training and cultivation methods.''''


    ''''Do you offer multiple types of cultivations?'''' asks Zou Gao, the scarred one.


    ''''You will see.''''


    Entering the carriage, they can already see around ten men around their age waiting in silence. They all sat near each other since they were familiar with each other.


    After three days of travel, they finally arrive at their destination. A military training camp near the border. They can hear the sound of training from hundreds of meters away. While they were travelling, Jiang talked with the others and learned their names, Zou Gao was already introduced earlier, the one with thick eyebrows is named Sun Hei.


    He has learned that Zou had a brother in the army, hence why he knew a thing or two. The only reason Sun won was because he was the blacksmith''s apprentice and was a lot stronger than his peers.


    ''''Hello Captain Kun Hao, bringing new recruits I see?'''' Asked one of the two guards next to the entrance.


    ''''Yes, I have promising ones'''' He responds handing them his identification plate.


    ''''That''s good news! Go on right ahead, good day to you.''''


    Walking inside Jiang and the others can see some buildings that looks like big semi-cylinder shapes.


    ''''Those are the barracks, you will mostly sleep there, you will all share rooms with 3 other members, everything will be arranged by the secretary. Up ahead is the headquarters, you cannot head inside unless you have a permission to go in.''''


    They see a building two blocks high rectangular shaped, that looked ancient.


    ''''You will mostly eat here, there is enough place to accommodate more than twice the numbers we have. You guys have mostly seen what you need to see for now. Stay right here, I will get the secretary that will arrange the clothing and resting place.''''


    As they were waiting, they could hear people training, turning around, they could see all kinds of ways to go about their training. There were some people using bows, others were using swords, sabers, there was even clubs and Warhammers. It opened their views, thinking it stopped at swords and bows.


    Bringing them out of their stupor, they hear someone speaking to them.


    ''''Ah, I see you guys are looking at how they''re training! Do not worry, we will let you have the chance to choose what kind of path you want to take, we have a variety of choices. My name is Kun Luo and I will bring you get some new clothes. Follow me.''''


    As they follow the secretary, they can see that they are going right next to the headquarters.


    ''''This is the armory, we keep the ordinary clothes, armors and all the weapons you could need. If you make enough contributions, that is.''''


    ''''Hello secretary, are those the new recruits?'''' Guo tang asked, the shopkeeper,


    ''''Yes, bring out classic recruit equipment please.''''


    ''''A moment''''


    Before they can wait longer than five minutes they can see him come out of behind the back store with enough equipment for everyone.


    as they all get a piece of equipment, they see the shopkeeper and the secretary just looking at each other.


    ''''All right let''s go everyone I will bring you to your dorms. I have already arranged the rooms; I made it so you would stick with the people you knew for most of you.''''


    heading towards the barracks, they see some people sparring between themselves.


    ''''You will all fight next week. there is a recruit competition every month to see who made the most progress, since it is next week you guys will most likely not participate. You will get your weapons and cultivation methods to train first and foremost.''''


    Inside, the secretary tells them to get sleep as soon as they are inside, the next day will be packed.


    the first room the secretary called out 4 names that Jiang didn''t know. the other room, it was the turn of Jiang and his group.


    ''''I didn''t expect this, this is kind of scary, have you heard about that ''''Horde'''' thing? I hope this isn''t too bad.'''' says Jiang.


    ''''Yeah, even my brother didn''t say anything about that, I wonder why.'''' Zou Gao responds.


    ''''We should stick together. We don''t know what we''re going up against, it would be unwise to go with people we don''t know.''''


    ''''Yeah, I agree'''' says Cho Meng


    The others also agree with him.


    ''''Good night, good luck tomorrow.'''' says Sun Hei.


    They all respond in affirmation.

 Cultivation manual

    Jiang and his roommates get woken up early by a military siren signaling the wake-up time. Them not being used to it got taken by surprise, slowly making their beds and making their way to outside the room, they can see that almost everyone is already there, they are not the lasts but almost.


    As a sergeant steps in, everyone can hear the last one to arrive, clearly being late. the sergeant does not look pleased.


    ''''RECRUIT. what is your name?''''


    ''''Han Gou sir. so sorry sir it wo-''''


    ''''STOP. since it is your first time, I will not punish you, let it not happen again.''''


    ''''Yes sir, thank you sir.''''


    ''''We will head to the Manual Pavillion. You will have the chance to choose one, you can always use another one later down the road if you do not like it, just know that some special Manuals will require that you start from scratch.''''


    As they head outside, they can already see the soldiers readying themselves up for training.


    ''''The planning goes as follows, mandatory training in the morning and in the afternoon, you have classes in between, of course you will eat midday and evening. the evening is free, you can discuss with everyone or focus on your cultivation. Just know that if you fall behind, no one will be able to save you on the battlefield. Slacking off means being weaker and less strength to defend yourselves.''''


    Inside the pavilion they can see 3-4 clerks serving customers.


    ''''You have an hour recruits, make your choice fast!''''


    Jiang heads forward to look at what was up for offer on the counters, there was a brief introduction of each one. There were all kinds of choices, there was those focused-on defense, offense, auxiliary ones such as aiding in health regeneration. there were some that had multiple of them. but less impacting.


    ''''Hello you, have you made your choice?'''' said a female clerk.


    Looking up, Jiang sees a young maiden around his age that looked pretty, he had never seen one that beautiful before. Not like he had a lot of choices to compare in his village and in the time he was younger.


    ''''Yes, I want a scripture that allows for everything to be equal, defense, offense, healing.''''


    ''''Ah yes! Most people use offensive or defensive ones, it''s rare to see someone like you! We have three choices, each have their own advantages and disadvantages. You have one that focuses a bit more on offense, another one on defense, and the last one focuses on healing faster.''''


    ''''Give me the first one, this sounds more like what I''d like.''''


    ''''There you go!''''


    Once Jiang looks at the scripture, he sees the name, ''''Phoenix''s Myriad Offensive Arts''''. The introduction is as follows.


    *The person cultivating this manual will learn to harness and use qi in the way of a phoenix. The phoenix is strong in offensive abilities, it has a strong healing capability, his defense is also extremely high compared to other manuals. This is an extremely hard cultivation method to master. try at your own risk.*


    ''''Wow this sounds extremely strong!'''' Jiang thinks.


    After reading the first couple of paragraphs, his friend joins him.


    ''''Hey Jiang! What did you choose? I took the ''Ultimate dragon defense'' I will be invincible with this technique! Hahaha''''


    ''''I took this one'''' He shows him the manual and then they talk for about 45 minutes until suddenly they hear people fighting.


    ''''Give it back! This is mine!'''' They see Han Gou and three people surrounding him, holding what looks like his cultivation manual. Jiang heads closer with Cho Meng.


    ''''Why would we give it back? You can''t even do something so simple as to be up in time. You almost cost us an hour of training.'''' The taller of the trio says.


    ''''Yeah, you deserve this. Consider yourself lucky we don''t beat you up!'''' The fat one responds.


    Seeing no one stepping forward Jiang and Cho go forward to stop them.


    ''''You should better stop now, give him back his manual. We aren''t in school here. How about a three versus three instead of a one versus one? You still want to?''''


    ''''Pfft, you act all good now but let''s see how it is out here. here''s your manual.'''' Throwing it in a trash before leaving.


    ''''Haha good one!'''' The other one responds.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.Watching them leave Jiang heads to the trash can and takes out the manual to hand to it Han.


    ''''Are you Han Gou? If you don''t want them to mess with you again just come with us, it would be a pleasure.'''' Cho meng nodding his head along.


    ''''Yeah, I am, thank you guys for helping me. they are my roommates, I was unlucky enough to be the only man old enough in my village hence why I have no one here to help me. I don''t know when they would''ve stopped otherwise!'''' Han says visibly shaken at the thought it could''ve went further.


    ''''Hey, don''t worry, I had no reason to let him do that to you. Let''s hope it won''t be hard to deal with them''''


    Before they can continue the conversation the sergeant comes back in.


    ''''I hope everyone has their manuals! Since it is your first day, there won''t be training in the morning, you have some time to try your techniques and familiarize yourselves with it. in an hour head to the teaching building. Classes will officially start for you guys.''''


    Jiang, Han and Cho all head back to their dorms to try out their cultivation methods.


    In Jiang''s scripture it is said that he has to sit cross-legged while breathing in a certain pattern, after about 30 minutes he manages to catch how it works. He starts feeling around a little outside, he feels what they describe in the book as QI, he tries to absorb some, it is surprisingly smooth.''''


    In the book it is said that a normal person can take up to a day or two to absorb it inside. It took Jiang around 10 minutes. He is solely focusing on gathering some of it as much as he can but before he knows it, time is up and the alarm resounds for classes.


    ''''Hey Jiang, have you managed to gather some? It was kind of hard, but I think I got the hang of it!'''' Cho Meng says enthusiastically.


    ''''I did, it felt weird to absorb Qi, it felt like hot water was going inside me. It was kind of unpleasant!''''


    Jiang knew this was normal, he also knew he was on the right path towards his goal. He will avenge his sister, He loved her a lot.


    When the war started, it happened in an instant, he couldn''t even do anything before his parents threw him in the river, before falling he could catch a glimpse of his parents trying to throw his sister too. He didn''t know the outcome but he knew she couldn''t have survived.


    Bringing him out of his stupor his friend tells him that they have to go to their frist class before they are too late. It is named "World''s affairs". It is mainly focused on the wars and the sects around the world.


    Through this class they found out that there were thousand of rank 1 sects, hundreds of rank 2 sects and just six rank 3 sects. Those sects were renowned for their strength.


    There were countless clans of various ranks. the most famous ones were the; Jiang, Kun, Han, Lao, Guo and Zhang clans. Everyone knew one of them fell, the Jiang clan is no more.


    Then the teacher talks about the war that''s happening right now.


    ''''So, after everything we talked about, it is now time to talk about the war we''re fighting right now.''''


    ''''You might think we are fighting another clan but no. We are currently fighting an evil sect. We can''t destroy them completely, whatever happens they always come back.''''


    ''''The best we can do is destroy them as much as possible. We are currently fighting a necromancer sect. They rely solely on raising bodies of dead animals/Humans. The stronger they are the more they can control and the stronger they can become.''''


    ''''Your goal in this war is stopping the small fries, the ones that escaped the net. If you don''t stop them they will make it to the villages and cities. We will lose a lot of civilians.''''


    ''''It is imperative that you stop them and don''t allow any of them to pass. Do not worry, we will take care of the stronger ones.''''


    ''''Every time you fight you will accumulate military merits. You may use them for cultivation resources or time in an array formation. We will talk more about that in the next class.''''


    After this class they went on to the next class ''''Cultivation & Breathing theory.''''


    This class went on to talk about breathing exercises, that if you did a breathing exercise wrong and accumulating Qi like that, could allow for backlash. The positions were flexible, more like a guide, you had to place yourself how comfortable you were.


    To accelerate Qi gain you either had to pay to go to an array formation that could let you have more Qi in your area or use sprit stones. Both were a viable option but array formations were faster.


    After this class, Jiang and his people went in the cafeteria. It was time to eat.it looked like a pudge with bits of meat in it. It didn''t really look appetizing.


    ''''Woah it looks almost like what I ate back home!'''' Cho says enthusiastically devouring his meal.


    ''''Yeah...home. Hope they''re okay over there.''''


    ''''You know them, nothing can stop uncle from working hard!''''


    After eating three-four mouthfuls of the pudge, he feels energy flowing in his belly, realizing it was probably the meat, he speedily and the rest of his meal and focused on moving the Qi in his dantian.


    Unfortunately for him, there was a lot of waste during this process. After finishing to extract this essence, he looks at the progress he made and realizes this was almost the same as him cultivating in the morning.


    This downed on him that there were a lot more than just spirit stones to accelerate Qi gains that they didn''t talk about!


    ''''Have you felt Cho? This felt weird, I didn''t expect food to be a way to gain Qi! This brings a new level to eating and liking food! Did you like it?''''


    ''''I did! Now that I know cooking is a choice I have to become a cook in a new life!'''' He says looking happily at the food.


    ''''Come on let''s go we gotta head to our new class before we''re too late.'''' Says Sun Hei.


    Heading to the next class, it is named "Martial Arts Theory."


    This class went on to talk about every kinds of ways to fight, how to find a weakness and how to protect your weaknesses. it then went on how each martial arts had a "soul". An essence of some sort.


    It then went on to describe most weapons for the recruits to think about choosing.


    There were a lot of choices, Jiang wasn''t really sure what kind he wanted.


    The last class wasn''t really a class but more a practice class. This class was named "Martial Arts Practice".


    Shocking, Jiang thought.


    After the theory it was now time to take a weapon and try to feel it and see how you would feel using it. each class was focused on a new weapon until you found one you liked.


    the first one was focused on fists. Practicing martial arts move and hitting bags the way the professor asked to do. Correcting the recruits that made mistakes.


    Once the classes were gone it was time for training. Everyone would take a weapon to use and they would then fight another classmate of theirs.


    ''''Okay everyone, since this is your first spar, let me tell you how it works. Everyone will get one partner for the fight. The fight will not stop until someone gives up. You may be beaten up if you don''t give up fast enough.''''


    ''''Do not give up for we will stop the fight before it''s too late. Just know, the pain from fixing you up will be extremely painful.''''

 Training

    Jiang looks around, he sees around 500 men of his age, most look uncertain of how to proceed, wether by being violent or merciful.


    While Jiang looked at his friends, he saw they were mostly unaffected, knowing they would have to be merciless to get stronger.


    ''''Alright, we will form groups of two. everyone come pick a number in here, they are marked 1-250 twice, so everyone will find a partner easily.''''


    Everyone took their turns to pick one out, it took around 15 minutes since there was a lot of people. Jiang got the number 29.


    ''''Once you have your number, go to the designated training zone. your number will be on it, there is only 50 zones, so the lowest numbers go first.''''


    Heading there, he sees one of the trio that bullied Han Gou earlier that day, the fatter one of the bunch. He really hoped they could "spar" together. they were on the first one, as the first two bring out their weapons. One uses a Warhammer and the other, surprisingly, nothing but his fists.


    Once the fight starts the one with his fists rushes forward trying to lunch an assault. As soon as he got close enough the other one stroke horizontally when the other one couldn''t dodge.


    The man had quick reflexes, before the strike could land he dropped down on his knees, barely escaping the hit. Taking a chance he punches directly at the knee, intending on bending it backwards.


    The other one was over extended because of his strike, not expecting him to dodge like that. He falls to the ground and then gets pummelled mercilessly trying to defend himself as best as he could. He had no choice but to give up.


    ''''I give up! You win!''''


    The other one stopped and started walking back to where he came from. The one that was on the ground gets back up and smiles sinisterly, not caring about the fact he gave up. Throwing a strike of his own directly towards the head of the other guy.


    Before the strike could even land, a teacher steps forward and stops him effortlessly.


    ''''We can accept a lot of things, trying to injure someone voluntarily after giving up, we do not. For your indiscretion, I will remove 10 military merit points. It may not sound like a lot but this just lost you two spirit stones.''''


    He stands angrily, holding back his anger and getting back in the crowd.


    And then fights began, people used all kinds of weapon, the only ones that weren''t allowed in this kind of training were bows, for obvious disadvantages. They had special kinds of training. Some opted for sticks, others sabers and most used swords.


    The instructor had to act a couple of times to stop a student from heavily injuring another. The instructor even said that one of the guys could''ve killed his sparring partner if the strike landed.


    Everyone felt a bit shaken knowing they were only sparring, some took more seriously then others, all Jiang could do is watch everyone and learn how to fight from them.


    After waiting for what felt like forever, it was finally Jiang''s turn. Unfortunately, he wasn''t up agains''t that fatty. He was standing in front of a young man who took a sword as his choice.


    Jiang not really knowing what kind of weapon he should choose, he decided to go with a sword too.


    They both bowed at each other, showing respect most didn''t have. Then the fight started, Jiang was carefully weighing what to do when his adversary ran straight towards him.


    He knew he would have to do something so he stroke diagonally up to down, hoping to slow him down. Having no choice but to block, the man surprisingly managed to deflect the strike slightly to his arm instead of his neck.


    Managing the pain, the man gave a similar strike, Jiang barely side steps avoiding the sword. Responding with a move of his own he tries to move forward but he doesn''t give him a chance. Pinning him from all angles, having no choice but to passively defend, Jiang looks for a way out.


    After blocking seven strikes, the man makes a slight mistake, bringing his arm a little too far ahead of him, deciding to trade injury for injury, Jiang throws his arm at the blade hoping to deflect it. While doing that he strikes horizontally from right to left.


    He barely manages to deflect the strike, but his arm is now numb and useless for the fight. Luckily, the young man couldn''t defend again''t his strike and got hit heavily in his side. Right under his rib cage.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Taking the opportunity, Jiang strikes again, this time on his knee. Hoping to make him fall down. The opponent barely manages to move his leg. Jiang seeing an opportunity to make him fall down, sweeps his leg at the leg who''s holding all the weight of the young man.


    It works! The man falls down, Jiang hits the arm where the sword is to make him lose grip. Then, he goes to strike again on his torso.


    ''''STOP, I''ll get you next time.'''' He says sullenly.


    They both head back in the circle to watch the other matches, having learned a thing or two about this win, he engraves it as his first victory agains''t his peers. Hoping to transcend them and become better than them all.


    The second to last fight is the fatty. He took a stick, and the opponent, took a sword.


    Jiang, being kind of naive, thought that the fatty would easily win, since he could intimidate others without being afraid of retribution.


    The reality was otherwise, the silky looking man was more ferocious then he looked. he stroke at an angle where the fatty defended awkwardly before striking again from an angle he couldn''t defend agains''t. It took 4 moves and the fatty was on the ground getting beaten up.


    It didn''t take long for him to give up. After 5 minutes all the fights were over. the instructors told everyone to head back to their dorms, they had to be ready at sunrise.


    Talking with his friends, he finds out through them a couple of things.


    ''''Me and Zou won our fights pretty easily, our opponents didn''t know how to fight at all, it was child''s play!'''' Cho Meng says enthusiastic as ever.


    ''''My fight was hard, I had to let myself be hit to get the win.'''' Jiang said gloomily.


    ''''You''re lucky, I got completely swooped, the guy clearly knew how to fight from somewhere.'''' Responds Sun Hei sadly.


    ''''It''s fine, we will all learn techniques and beat them up when we get experience! it was our first time, we got this.'''' Jiang manages to say, bringing back positivity in his mind.


    ''''Let''s go cultivate a bit before sleeping, if we want to better protect ourselves it is a must.''''


    Jiang refreshes himself in the bathroom before starting to cultivate, cultivating the body is also cultivating the mind.


    He sits crosslegged, as indicated in his Manual, focusing his breathing to fall in the pattern. Slowly but surely, he starts cultivating, he starts digesting his gains from today. The knowledge he has learnt and the fights he has seen/experienced.


    As he falls into a trance, his friends wake him up just in time for the wake up call, not having slept at all, he hoped he would be able to stay awake the whole day.


    Looking at his gains, he is shocked to find that it has already accumulated to around 40%! this is more than four times what he had the day before.


    It paid to practice the whole night! He thinks proudly.


    Sadly, as the day advanced and the classes went on, he realized what a terrible idea it was to stay awake. Hence at lunch time he had an idea. *Why not try to use the energy of the food to energize myself?*


    So, after eating, trying his new idea, he didn''t really know how to do it. He first tried to bring it to the head but it didn''t really work. So he then tried to bring it towards his arms but he also didn''t feel it.


    As a last effort he tried to cycle it in his body, unfortunately he didn''t really have enough Qi left to try his whole body so he did a small cycle in his chest. Surprisingly it was more refreshing then he thought. He hoped it would allow him to stay awake long enough to deal with the training coming up.


    subsequently, his first class was okay, he had enough energy to deal through it, going to his last one thought, he knew it would be hard. This time they practiced the sword.


    ''''Everyone knows what a sword is and what is the purpose of the sword but do you know what it is best at?''''


    ''''Killing, sir?''''


    ''''Well.. Yes, but it was not what I was asking. Everyone knows a sword is a tool to kill, but no everyone knows how to utilize it properly.''''


    ''''You have to communicate with it, resonate with it. It isn''t alive yet has a soul. Treat it as if it was your family member. Better even, treat it as if it was another member of your body,''''


    ''''As long as you can communicate with it and learn how to use it, you will understand that it does not kill. It is merely a tool, lacking any emotions or purpose. We give it purpose, We nourish it with our selves. Allowing it to learn about life.''''


    ''''I hope some of you understand, if at the very least one of you manages to comprehend this, you will have a bright future. That is, if you live long enough.''''


    So the class went on, the instructor correcting mistakes people would make, making sure everyone makes proper movements. After about 15 minutes, the teacher went on to stop everyone. To show them more moves before allowing everyone to continue to implement them.


    Afterwards, Jiang was exhausted. He knew he wouldn''t be able to fight properly in his sparring. He hoped he would have an easy time so he wouldn''t be beaten up too badly. Reality had other plans. He took the number 26. He knew soon enough that it was the same as the leader of the bullies.


    Jiang knew he had to try his best to beat him up. To show him that bullying others wasn''t a good thing, not here, not outside.


    Jiang took a sword, he started to take a liking to using those weapons. As for the bully, he went on to take a saber. They both went on to the other side of the arena.


    Tension was heavy, they all looked in anticipation, hoping that bully wouldn''t win.


    ''''I hope you''re ready to get beaten up. I waited long enough to have my revenge. Stepping up for that dead man was a bad idea.''''


    ''''Oh come on, you know for sure you need a spanking. We need to remind you of who your daddy is'''' Jiang looks at him with a smirk


    ''''You-'''' He looks furiously at Jiang staring daggers in his eyes.


    ''''What? It''s going to be your first time? I''m flattered.'''' Saying coquettishly Jiang.


    Some people couldn''t hold on anymore and let out small chuckles. Others had smiles on their faces. Those that weren''t laughing were worried about Jiang, they knew that tall man was good with sabers.


    ''''You will pay for this.'''' then he suddenly lashes out with his saber, without any warning. Jiang side-steps steadily while slashing at the upcoming stab.


    He manages to deviate the trajectory just enough for him to go closer and punch him in the face. He couldn''t react in time and took 3 steps backwards before stopping. Looking up fiercely, he went mad and slashed without stopping.


    Jiang had to act fast and barely managed to dodge or block the strikes. Waiting for him to exhaust himself yet, Jiang forgot he himself was also extremely tired. In a missed step, the saber stroke right on his rib cage.


    Jiang was even sure he heard a crack.


    Before the bully could attack again he lunched a surprise attack, a quick stab to the belly. Him, not expecting to get attacked doesn''t manage to dodge in time. He gets hit directly on his navel.


    Before he can catch his breath, Jiang strikes again directly on his clavicle. He manages to hit him and then he fell on the ground, unconscious. Jiang looks at him triumphant.


    ''''If you ever try to attack people or to bully others, watch out because I will always be watching. Even when you least expect it.''''


    Going back towards the outer circle, Jiang acts as good as he can.Only managing to stay up and standing.


    Jiang knew he couldn''t do that again. Not having slept almost cost him to lose a lot of experience.


    Back in his dorms he slumped directly on his bed, almost going to bed right away. Unfortunately his friends came in and talked to him.


    ''''Jiang I heard you beat that kid up? That''s amazing! Thank you!'''' Han Gou says, not caring in the world that this wasn''t his room.


    ''''I told you I would be there for you didn''t I?'''' Jiang responds lazily.


    ''''You sure did! How did yo-''''


    ''''Okay okay, you will talk to him some other time let him rest now.'''' Comes his best friend at just the right time, basically throwing the poor guy outside.


    ''''Good job with that, honestly, he deserved it.'''' Looking at his friend proudly.


    ''''Jiang? Are you still awake?''''


    ''''ZZzzzzzz''''


    ''''Better let him sleep...''''

 Breaking through

    Waking up the next day just in time for the meet up, Jiang finally has had enough sleep.


    Feeling refreshed, he feels ready for a new day. They all head outside for their morning training.


    ''''Hello everyone, since this is your first morning training, let me tell you how it works. I will show you moves and you will have to do as many as possible.''''


    ''''They will vary from push-ups to squats. I will go row to row for each exercise and fix your posture if need be. We will start with stretching, this is important.''''


    They then proceed to stretch every muscle group for a total of 15 minutes until the instructor tells everyone to get ready to do squats.


    This goes on for a full hour, where they do every exercises for every muscle groups. They do squats, push-ups, sit-ups, pull ups and even some running.


    Since most people didn''t really train before, or weren''t Qi gatherers, they could only do the best they could.


    The ones that lived in small villages working in farms or forges did the best. They could do a lot more of each exercises compared to their peers. Jiang was among them, having farmed most of his youth.


    Most youths realized that training was beneficial for growth. It gave the body a wake up call to begin strengthening itself.


    The training helped the youths to understand how their bodies worked in an efficient way. It showed them their limits.


    After training, they went to eat before starting classes again. Jiang realized that there was no Qi in his food this time around. This was probably a lunch time thing only.


    They then went on their classes. The first one went in more details over certain sects, the most prominent ones. They told them which sect specialized in what and what kind of people you would expect to find there.


    In the "World''s affairs" they learned more about what types of beast existed and what kind of monsters there could possibly be. How strong each type could potentially be.


    Through the "Breathing class" they talked about how to breakthrough from being a mortal to beginning on the first stage of Qi gathering.


    ''''So, once you have accumulated as much Qi as possible in your dantian, you may try to breakthrough as soon as possible or wait to get in an array formation for more chances of success.''''


    ''''Once you make up your mind and sit down to begin your breakthrough. You have to bring your whole focus on this. The more focus you have, the better. You will need to force all of your Qi to shoot at the barrier holding it back. It will break the shackle of the dantian and allow Qi to move in your body.''''


    ''''Until you do that step, whatever way you may try to move it in your body, you will not be able to bring it back.''''


    Jiang knew this was true, he had tried yesterday and he did manage to move it in his body. The only thing was that he couldn''t keep control over it for long. If he didn''t bring it where he wanted and back fast enough he would lose it.


    ''''I believe that everyone here has a chance to make it high. You just have to push through and never stop. Believe in yourself and believe in the Heavens.''''


    This class talked more about what would happen during a breakthrough, ways to augment your success chances. After this they went to eat and as Jiang thought, there was indeed Qi in this food again.


    Not wasting any time, he devours his food and directly focuses on gathering as much of it towards his dantian. He managed to bring more than last time, he was a little bit over half full.


    The rest of the day went similarly, he learned more about weapons and how to use them, they focused on the axes this time around. In practice they found ways to use the same weapon.


    The sparring session went as last time, he took a number, went towards his arena and waited for his match to start. This time around he fought against someone who was using a rod.


    They both gave it their all using all the ways they had learnt so far. Jiang was on the winning side, as he was about to strike him on his head, the man was faster and completely ignored the strike. He gave him a strike of his own with his rod directly on his jaw. Jiang fell down and lost.


    He tried to get himself up to fight again but the other youth didn''t give him a chance. Admitting defeat, Jiang thanks his opponent for showing him his weaknesses and heads back in the circle to learn more about ways people fight.


    So he then went in his dorm again to cultivate again, hoping to get to "Qi gathering I" as soon as possible. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Before he could start, one of his roommates, Sun Hei, asks him if he would like to play a cards game two days from now. Seeing no reason to refuse, Jiang accepts.


    Now bringing his full attention back to his cultivation, it doesn''t take long for him to immerse himself again. Having learnt from his last mistake, he knew not to stay too long.


    He went on for about two hours before heading to his bed, doing his routine. He took the time to sense how close he was. He was almost at three quarters of the way. He knew it wouldn''t be long for him to make it.


    Before dozing off to sleep he took some time to digest the knowledge he has learnt from his classes and the trainings.


    Hence the following day was the same, he trained in the morning. He was sore from the day before but training in the morning helps with removing the soreness.


    He then learnt more about the world, he took time to understand the informations in the "breathing class". He then went and digested the food he got.


    The theory and practice class were the same, the only difference is this time they focused on the rods.


    Heading to the sparring, he was ready to test the new moves he learnt. He took his number, stood where his arena was and waited for his turn.


    He didn''t have to wait long this time, his number was 9. He went on the arena and took out a sword, as he looked up, he realizes that it is Zou Gao!


    ''''Oh, didn''t expect it to be you! I''m gonna beat you up so bad'''' Zou looks at Jiang playfully.


    ''''Only if I let you'''' He winks and readies himself.


    Zou took a saber, relying more on the agility given. They both took their time to assess the other and focus to see who would be the one to make the first move.


    They didn''t have to wait long for Zou to make his move and step forward. Slashing down to up, hoping to destabilize Jiang. Seeing this move, Jiang uses his sword to slash at the weapon on the side, making it miss him from a small margin.


    Taking the advantage of Zou being over-extended, he takes a step on the right and slashes right to left, hoping to make him lose the ability to use an arm in that fight.


    What he didn''t expect was for Zou to let him do that. Instead, Zou took the blow head on and used that chance to slash back with his weapon right on his clavicle.


    Jiang had to make a split decision. He chose to kick Zou''s leg, making him lose balance. The strike instead of landing on his clavicle ended up on his shoulder.


    It hurt but he took the opportunity to strike at his head, Zou couldn''t defend on time and the instructor stopped the blow. Bringing the fight to a halt.


    ''''Are you okay?'''' Jiang says extending his hand to help him up.


    ''''I will be, it''s more my ego that took a hit.''''


    they both laugh and head back in the circle, talking about the next fights and what they would do in that situation.


    Jiang found it more interesting to talk about the fights with someone instead of just watching and thinking on his own. Others could think of moves that worked better or slightly worse. In any case this allowed for an interesting dynamic, allowing both to learn a lot.


    As soon as the spars were over, Jiang headed straight to his dorms. He waited for everyone to settle down before he himself sat down to cultivate. He was already very close to being able to breakthrough.


    He was kind of excited, he knew it wouldn''t be long. it took him more time than usual to empty his mind. once he did, he found out that he could absorb a bit more than usual. He didn''t know why but he welcomed the change.


    Again, after about two hours he looked at his progress and realized that he was at about a tenth left before he could finally breakthrough. He was ecstatic, he did his routine and hopped on the bed.


    ----


    Jiang wakes up in his room, he realizes that he is back in his old room back in the village. As he tries to comprehend what happens, he hears screams. He heads outside as soon as he hears them. He is shocked to find out there were humanoid beasts destroying and killing everyone in the city.


    He hears another scream and he turns around to find his uncle being stabbed by one. Jiang screams and take a sword he found on a corpse to head to that beast.


    Unfortunately for him, that beast is to fast for him. It holds him up by his throat and speaks an unintelligible language.


    He sees the sword going towards his chest and he screams.


    ----


    ''''NOOOO...'''' He wakes up, drenched in sweat.


    Everyone wakes up because of him, alarmed. They are all thinking that they were late!


    ''''Oh god Jiang you scared us! What''s wrong with you?'''' Sun Hei says, annoyed.


    ''''Please don''t scream again.'''' He heads back to sleep.


    ''''I''m sorry everyone, it was a bad dream. It won''t happen again.''''


    Cho Meng looks at him sympathetically. He wondered what kind of dream could make him scream like that.


    Jiang, after calming himself down, makes his resolve more firm. He had to get stronger to be able to protect his uncle. No one could hurt him.


    It took some time for him to fall asleep again. He didn''t wish to make that dream again. Luckily, it did not happen. He got ready for his morning training.


    As usual the day didn''t change much, the classes went on as usual, nothing really new to talk about. He learned more about the devil sects. There were all kinds; Ones that used blood, others used bodies, rare ones even used the souls of their victims.


    The rest of the classes were normal, most people were asking all kinds of question relating breaking through, the faster ones were already ready. the martial classes went on to talk about war hammers. It was a heavy kind of mace. only the strongest ones could use this.


    After classes the sparring was not interesting, Jiang took his number and was the first to go, his opponent didn''t take a weapon and was clearly inexperience. After 3 exchanges he managed to hit him directly on his head, ending the fight.


    Everyone head back to bed and Jiang prepares himself properly. He knew tonight would be his chance to breakthrough. Collecting himself, he enters his cultivation stage pretty fast. He focuses on amassing the missing Qi first before trying to breakthrough.


    Around an hour after he started, he finally brings his final bits of Qi in his dantian. He is finally ready to breakthrough.


    he heads outside, there were restrictions to walk outside after around 11 p.m. but it was still in around an hour. He heads to a quiet place in the arenas, he found out that almost no one came there at night.


    Surprisingly, when he came, there was already more then 10 person there. Without wasting time he took a spot that was relatively far from everyone and calmed himself down. He followed a rythm, when he was calm enough, he focused himself on his dantian.


    He tried to manipulate all of it, it was hard but after a bit he got the twist. Once he was ready, he started pressuring the invisible barrier holding his Qi. Hoping to bend it to allow entry, he followed the exact procedure the professors talked about.


    As soon as it was about to break, a warning rang out in his mind. Not wasting any time, he reduced the pressure gradually, to allow the dantian to relax a bit.


    He didn''t know why it did that but he believed his body wouldn''t misguide him. If it wasn''t good for him then he should listen. Instead, he followed how his body felt. He took his Qi and pressured the barrier, making sure it wouldn''t break right away.


    He used his Qi to "eat" at the barrier, slowly digesting it and mending it in his Qi. Making it his nourishment for his breakthrough.


    What he didn''t realize was that this was not normal at all.


    No one would do that because it was too dangerous. Everyone that had tried failed because they couldn''t use all their focus to breakthrough and eat at the barrier at the same time. they could only break it so that it allowed entry in the mana veins and the body,


    Sweat started producing on his forehead, it was becoming increasingly hard to keep up with his breakthrough. He knew that this was a point of no return, since he started it had to end.


    After what felt like forever, the barrier finally got eaten completely, allowing for an extremely smooth passage to his mana veins. Normally, someone who would breakthrough, would aways keep a bit of the barrier stuck on the sides of their mana veins.


    This was considered the "norm," he was the first one to succeed in this camp. Once the mana flowed through his whole body, he could feel himself being invigorated. He felt stronger than he ever felt before.


    He stood up and looked around to see that some people were still persisting in their breakthrough, he walked silently back to his dorm. Opening the door he realizes that Cho Meng and Zou Gao are missing. Slightly confused, he believes they went to breakthrough, only he didn''t see them at the arenas.


    He headed back to sleep, ready for a new day.

 Gone?

    Waking up the next day, Jiang feels himself and he is happy to know that he is now starting to feel his Qi in his body. The Qi didn''t really go far because he hadn''t adapted the mana veins and Meridians for that yet.


    The teacher explained that this was the whole Qi gathering stage. The person that adapted the body with Qi the fastest would be allowed to go to the next stage quicker. It was called; "Bone transformation realm" he looked forward to it.


    As they get ready to go to training, Jiang sees that only Zou came back. Slightly confused, he heads towards Zou.


    ''''Hey Zou where did you guys go yesterday?''''


    ''''I went near a corner of the base, I figured there was too many people in the arenas. I don''t know about your friend though. Do you think he''s okay?'''' He asked worringly.


    ''''Let''s believe he is, yes. He wouldn''t do something stupid, it''s not like him.''''


    At the training spot, the instructor looks around and sees that 80% of the recruits broke through.


    '''' I see most of you have broken through! You should find out that you can gather more strength now. I would like to congratulate you on your first step to becoming strong.''''


    ''''It is not because you have gotten stronger that you deserve a break. Let me be clear. from today onwards, the bar will go up for all of you.''''


    ''''Yes, all of you, even the ones that didn''t break through. You should not slack off otherwise you will find it hard to follow.''''


    After a long speech about how breaking through changes things for them, they finally start their training. The ones that hadn''t broken through found it hard to follow but it was still manageable.


    They then went on to classes, the classes went on as usual. They learned that in the Qi gathering stage, they had to adapt their mana veins and Meridians. They already knew that but they didn''t know how.


    ''''When you try to adapt your mana veins, you will find it hard to move your Qi in them. This is normal, you will have to take your time and figure out the speed your body can take.


    Going too fast may put too much stress in it.''''


    ''''It is important that you put stress on it, only, don''t break them. When you put enough stress on it, it allows the veins to expand slowly.''''


    ''''As you get better about controlling your Qi, you will then need to move your Qi to one of your Meridians. There is not a meridian better than the other. Choose which one you want on your own.''''


    Having new understanding, he was eager to try.


    The next class talked more about the evil sects. It talked about who lead them. Everyone knew that the sects had a protector since they didn''t disappear.


    The thing is, no one knew when or where that protector would appear. Every time he would appear, carnage would follow.


    They then went non to eat. He sat with his roommates as usual.


    ''''Hey Sun, have you seen Cho Meng yet?''''


    ''''No I haven''t, I did hear a student was sent in isolation though.''


    ''''Huh, okay, thank you.''''


    He finished eating and took some time to guide the Qi, this time, it was very smooth, there minimal losses. A neat upgrade since last time.


    That was that effect of breaking through.


    Since he had a bit of time, he went outside towards the "Isolation center." As he heads inside the building, he sees around 5 doors and a man sleeping on his desk.


    ''''Hello? Sir, wake up.'''' He tries to ask silently without startling the man.


    The man sleeps soundly so Jiang taps loudly in his hand. He startles awake, confused he looks around only to see a young man in front of him.


    ''''What? Didn''t you see I was sleeping? Go back to your classes.'''' He says irritably.


    ''''I''m sorry sir. I heard a student was sent there, yesterday my friend went missing. I was hoping to know if it was him.''''


    ''''Why would I even tell you that? *Sigh* You know what? I don''t care, I''m not paid enough for this.''''If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ''''The only person that came in here was sent yesterday. He''s surnamed Li.''''


    ''''What? Are you sure there''s no one else?''''


    ''''Look kid, I know my job better then you.'''' Looking down again to make sure he didn''t forget anything.


    ''''Alright then, thank you sir.''''


    Heading outside, he sees two guards walking and talking together. Without wanting to, he hears a bit of their conversation.


    ''''Man I hate doing that. He never stops asking, he always says it''s the last one. It disgusts me.''''


    ''''I know but we aren''t paid to question, now stop it before someone hears us.''''


    Slightly confused, Jiang decides to follow them. He sees them going towards a building that is apart of the others, standing alone. When they enter, he heads closer, making sure no one sees him.


    At the door, he realizes that there is a pad. He goes around to see if there are any windows, luckily there was an open one.


    Looking inside, he sees someone getting herbs ready.


    Looking around some more, he finally sees some men in the distance in a cell. Confused he tries to focus on them and he realizes that one of them is still conscious.


    He thinks of an idea that could potentially work to save that man.


    He heads back to the cafeteria to ask for help from his roommates, Han Gou overhears him and says he can also help.


    He then goes back next to the entrance of the building, waiting for then to start the plan. Soon after, Zou starts running around, screaming.


    ''''HELP, I NEED HELP PLEASE''''


    It goes on for round 30 seconds before the door opens, the guards go out and they ask him to calm down.


    ''''What''s wrong kid? What happened?''''


    ''''My friend got beaten up and his pulse is extremely faint, please help me!'''' He goes on his knees bowing.


    ''''Okay quickly lead us to him.''''


    They all start running towards the destination, meanwhile, Jiang manages to slip inside unnoticed. He sees some hospital looking bed, and some corpses on it.


    He goes unnoticed table to table, hoping to not make noise, he manages to get to the cell. Unluckily for him, the door was locked.


    Looking around, he sees the keys right next to the cell. He guessed the door was locked only for the inside people, not caring about the keys being lost or not.


    He goes to take them and manages to make them fall. Surprisingly, he catches it just in time to avoid most of the noises.


    The man, slightly startled, starts walking towards where the noise is, until he hears.


    ''''HELP''''


    His friends saving him just in time. The man goes outside to sees what''s going on. Jiang then takes the time he has got to find the correct key to open the door.


    Inside, he tries to wake the guy and after having to slap him he wakes up groggily.


    ''''Who are you? Where am I?'''' He asked startled.


    ''''I don''t know, looks like laboratory. Let''s get outside before we start questioning this.'''' trying to hurry him along.


    ''''Okay you''re right'''' He stands up, ready to run.


    They both proceed to go towards the door carefully, waiting for the man to go back inside. Sure enough, after what felt like an eternity the man comes back inside. Not daring to even breath, they wait for him to walk towards the back.


    As soon as he is far enough, they both dash towards the door. To their dismay, both guards are standing there.


    ''''RUN'''' Jiang screams throwing a punch at one of the guard. The guard reacts extremely fast, throwing one of his own. both palms meet and his fist gets ground to a pulp.


    Not wasting any time, Jiang throws a kick on the guards leg, having him caught off guard. The guard barely manages to kick with his leg.


    It hurt Jiang a lot but allowed him to get propulsed backwards, towards the street. Taking the innitiative to make a run for it, he barely manages to ignore the pain in his leg and arms.


    Luckily for him, it achieved it''s purpose. Buying him just enough time and with the bounce he got from that hit they barely manage to go back to a more crowded place.


    After about 10 minutes of hiding themselves and playing it smooth, they manage to head to the designated point.


    ''''Man what happened to you? Is that the guy?'''' Sun Hei asks startled.


    ''''I was trying to find a quiet place to breakthrough. That''s when I found those two guards holding someone in their arms and bringing him to that place.''''


    ''''I didn''t want to investigate further, I tried to leave quietly but one of them saw me. They chased me and knocked me out.''''


    ''''You''re lucky we found you! Who knew what would''ve happened!''''


    They all sigh in unison, happy to know they saved someone.


    They then end up going to their classes early, since they trusted their professor more.


    ''''You''re all early, why is that?''''


    ''''Yes sir we are, we need to talk in private please.''''


    The professor proceeds to close the door and place a small noise reduction device. He then tells them to proceed.


    They tell them what happened to Zhang tao and what they saw. He tells them not to worry and that he is going to take care of it.


    As the bell rings and everyone enters class, he proceeds to go on as if nothing happened. They went on the advanced theory, talking about more rare things such as "Qi Blasts" and "Qi Infusion." Qi Blast was easy to understand in name, hard to practice.


    It was to condense Qi in your arm and then release it in one shot. Qi infusion was about bringing Qi into your weapon to make it more sharp and durable.


    After that was practice, they couldn''t to Qi blasts because they didn''t develop their meridians yet. They could only try Qi infusion slightly, knowing it wouldn''t stay for long.


    Once both were done there was a fifteen minute break before the sparring. As instructors got on the side, they went on to tell everybody that it was suspended for today.


    There was a lockdown and they had to go back to their dorms right away.


    ''''Jiang Tubei, Zhang Tao. Please stay here.''''


    As they waited they could see the guards that were on lineup earlier being lined up.


    ''''Could you both please tell me which guards went into that building please?'''' The director asked directly.


    They both do as told, the moment they do, they see the guards start running. Before they can even move a single step, they are stopped by an invisible force.


    ''''Did you really think you could escape? You both have done terrible things. How could you? You had chances to go up in grade this year.'''' He asked, slightly mad.


    ''''You didn''t give us enough, we needed more resources to cultivate. This was barely enough for us to raise our realm once every half a year. He provided us with a quick and efficient way to get it.''''


    ''''Oh..? By killing random students? Or is it by experimenting on them? It doesn''t matter anymore, we will do a soul search and we will find out the truth.''''


    ''''Don''t you think so.''''Before the director can stop them they both collapse on the ground.


    ''''Ugh, if only I could''ve stopped them on time.''''


    ''''Luckily you both found out about it. I will give you a hundred military reward each. An hour in an array formation and 5 spirit stones.''''


    ''''Thank you sir! We are happy to be of help.'''' they both say.


    ''''Sir, may I ask who they were?''''


    ''''Well, you deserve that much. That man in the building was a spy experimenting on a poison. They tried to make a poison lethal enough to kill someone in a matter of seconds.''''


    ''''They didn''t want to kill us but to end this year''s recruitment. Luckily for us you found it. Evil cultivators can be anywhere, hidden in plain sight.''''


    ''''As you saw, even people that aren''t evil can be corrupted. You will find out more on the battlefield.''''


    ''''Also, let me fix you up. this must hurt a lot. You have an extremely high pain tolerance. That''s a good thing.''''


    As Jiang expects him to give him a pill or a medicinal herb, the director brings his palm on his back and sends energy through his Qi veins.


    Expanding them while repairing the damaged tissues and bones. ''''This is another gift of mine'''' Jiang hears in his head.


    He realizes that this wasn''t a common thing to do. Then he went on to heal Zhang Tao. They both look at each other with big eyes and a smile.


    ''''Alright you both head on to your dorms, the lockdown will be removed tomorrow morning. Everything will then begin as usual.''''


    They both nod and bow to the director before walking back to the dorms. Inside, their roommates ask them what happened and they tell them. Omitting the part about the rewards.


    He didn''t want his friends to be jealous. They told them about the merit points and that''s it.


    After about an hour of discussion, Sun suddenly says.


    ''''I guess we''re gonna play cards another time. You need to recuperate.''''


    They all agree and head to bed, Jiang as usual prefers not to waste time. He goes back to cultivate and finds out that his Qi veins had expanded by about 50%. This was a huge upgrade.


    He thanked the director in his mind and went on to cultivate, it didn''t take long for him to accumulate enough Qi to try to activate a meridian.


    He decided to wait tomorrow, to be in full shape

 Recruit tournament

    Waking up the next day, he looks hopefully towards where Cho Meng''s bed is. Unfortunately, he is still not back.


    He heads up for training as usual. Since they get used to the new training the instructor now adds a training for the Qi.


    Using their Qi they are learning to strengthen their mana veins.


    After that they head to the world''s affair class. Having nothing more to teach them but political conflict between sects and clans it went without saying that it was boring.


    In the next class they talked about activating a meridian. You had to slowly push against the boundary of the meridian. Taking time to make sure it wouldn''t be damaged.


    It would last between 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how perfect you wanted it.


    You could always finish it sooner if you had good enough focus. It was basically the same when breaking through the dantian.


    They went on to eat but Jiang skipped to open up his meridian. If he wanted to be of more help he would have to get stronger.


    He sat down in his dorms, ready to begin breaking through his meridian in his neck.


    the anatomy for meridians was basically the same as for joints. There were 2 in each arm, 1 on each shoulder, 2 in each legs 1 on each hip joint and 1 near his neck.


    Each meridian was a step in the "Qi gathering" realm. It wasn''t really a big upgrade in strength but it was a foundation for the future.


    You had to open them all and strengthen them before you could breakthrough to "Bone adaptation."


    Now focused, Jiang takes his Qi and brings it towards his meridian. The same as last time, he starts gnawing at the barrier.


    Luckily, this barrier was much smaller and less thicker then his dantian. It didn''t take as much focus to eat it all. Enhancing his Qi slightly, altering it in a way he didn''t understand yet.


    He had succesfully broken through his meridian since it was the neck, it directly allowed him to be called "Qi gathering II." this was only a formality.


    As you went higher in the realm it only meant you could channel your Qi at more places.


    Now having opened up this barrier, the Qi flowed fluently from his dantian to his neck, allowing for a small cycle. only barely changing his healing ability near his neck and chest.


    He then takes some time to fully acclimate his meridian, since it wasn''t full before it need time to adapt.


    Realizing he still has time to eat, He goes back to the cafeteria. There was only a handful left here since it was almost time for class.


    He heads to the lady serving the food and asks for a plate. She gives him one, it''s cold and doesn''t look appetizing at all but it would do.


    After eating he didn''t have time to transform that energy. He had to let his body work to get the maximum on it''s own.


    Joining the martial theory class, the instructor talked about something else. The tournament.


    ''''Today is going to be special, since tomorrow is the tournament, I will give you information on how it will proceed.''''


    ''''Us and 3 other camps are going to join each other at another camp much bigger. Once there, everyone will be attributed an arena, they will fight once their names are called.''''


    ''''This tournament will decide your future. there is a total of 3500 recruits in this tournament. If you end up in the place 2501-3500, you get nothing. 1501-2500 you get an hour in an array formation. 1001-1500 you get a Qi strengthening pill. 101-1000 you also gain your own personal weapon. 11-100 you get a specialized weapon made just for you. top 4-10 you get access to all that and 10 Qi strengthening pills.''''The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ''''Third place gets 12 hours of array formation, 20 Qi strengthening pill, a weapon of higher quality then the others below him, a chance to become a squad leader in your camp.''''


    ''''Second place gets a day of array formation, 20 Qi strengthening pills, a choice to learn a secondary job, such as cook, pill master, forger, etc. and assured to become squad leader.''''


    ''''First place will get the best treatment, he gets 3 days of array formation, 40 Qi strengthening pills. He also gets a choice to get a secondary job and a personally crafter weapon of his choice by a grandmaster blacksmith. The first place will additionally have a chance to fight for a place in a mystic realm filled with treasures.''''


    ''''I know this is a lot to take in all at once, but this should make you strive to get stronger. Otherwise, you might think this competition is worth nothing.''''


    At the end of his speech, the instructor told them they could take the time of his practice period to try moves against him. He would give one chance to everyone while lowering his realm to theirs.


    He then went on to give instructions to everyone without fail. Jiang being next, he readies his body and mind.


    He steps forward, waiting for the signal to go on. Soon after, he gets it.


    Launching himself forward, he goes for a swift attack, directly on the opponent''s leg. This would be an awkward move to block for most people.


    It would open up his upper body but he was ready to risk it to gain a consequent advantage.


    Before he can land his strike, the leg moves slightly to avoid it, now completely open. Knowing he had to move, he dashed backwards as fast as possible. Only getting slashed on his chest slightly.


    ''''You have to remember that your opponent may have more control over their bodies than you do. Against soldiers with actual experience you would''ve been killed without fail every time.''''


    He then tried a couple more moves, he was lacking in creativity. This was the last comment his instructor said. They then went on with the rest of the recruits.


    It took the rest of the time for practice until it was time for the spar, which again, they would give tips on how to get better.


    Unfortunately for his opponent, he was paired with Jiang. Hence a swift exchange followed which didn''t take long.


    He used his sword to fake a strike downwards while side stepping on the right. The young man, completely fooled, was not expecting a strike coming from his right side. After three moves the man was down.


    35 minutes after it was finally over, Jiang went back to his dorms and decided that he would focus completely to allow himself to "Breakthrough" Again.


    He couldn''t use the array or the spirit stones because it wasn''t registered yet, it would take a couple of days.


    Falling into a trance, he accumulates his Qi again, having opened a meridian, his Qi absorption speed was slightly faster.


    It took him around an hour to get enough Qi. Once he did, he pushed it towards his right hip joint. He did the exact same thing he did with his neck meridian.


    After 30 minutes, he had finally managed to eat at the barrier completely, transforming his Qi ever so slightly again. This was extremely faint but Jiang felt it.


    Once Jiang was done he headed to bed. He didn''t know what happened to his friend but he vowed to find out.


    Waking up the next day, he heads outside his dorms, instructors are already making them follow everyone else towards the exit.


    After reaching the yard, the director flies over.


    ''''Hello everyone, I hope you are all ready! This will most likely change your future. We will go through some warp formations, there''s 5 we need to pass through.''''


    ''''Since most people here haven''t used one before, we''re going to wait 30 minutes between each teleportation. We will arrive in time for the competition.''''


    The array formation wasn''t big enough for everyone, they had to go through a hundred at a time. The teleportation looked instantaneous.


    He was on the second batch to go inside, he thought it would be child''s play.


    He was wrong.


    It felt like an hour passed before he got outside of the spatial warp. He felt his insides churn, he had only one thought and it was to vomit. He managed to hold it in.


    Looking around though, most of them knelt on the ground vomiting, Zou and Sun being no exception. Han fared better but his complexion was as pale as Jiang.


    It clearly wasn''t the first time for the staff, looking around he could see that there were already people clearing the place up.


    They then managed to go on the side to wait for everyone else. It took around 20 minutes for everyone to arrive, not because it wasn''t fast but because most couldn''t hold themselves back from vomiting.


    After arriving, it was already time for the first batch to go again. Once they were in, Jiang went up. This time everyone felt better and anticipated what would happen.


    Most managed to hold it in, the director already said not to use Qi in the space warp to not cause deviation in the trajectory.


    They went on the side and it repeated 4 more times before finally arriving at their destination. It was a big bustling camp with loads of people.


    There were men and woman too, they were all their ages! The camp was in a mountain pass, the scenery looked beautiful with a waterfall on one side of the mountain pass.


    This felt like a magic place. Settling down, they patiently stood on the side to wait for the rest of the camp. It didn''t take too long this time since everyone got used to it.


    There wasn''t any one else that got sick on the way.


    They followed the Director, slowly making their way forward. It took a lot of time to register everyone, individually it didn''t. That was because they already had jade slip with the faces of everyone participating on it.


    They only had to find the face they were looking at and the person could go in. They only had to give their name and cultivation stage.


    Jiang looked around to see who his competitors would be. There was a board registering the names and stages near the entrance. He went over to take a look and saw that most of them were at the second stage, some at the third.


    He even saw someone at the fourth stage! This was a qualitative change. It meant the person manage to unlock the meridian of a member of his body fully.


    He knew this tournament wouldn''t be easy but he would try his best. This was a turning point in his life. He couldn''t miss it.


    They headed towards the stage, there were lots of seats around it. They found theirs and sat down, waiting for the hosts to start. The director left to go talk and arrange the rest with the others.


    It took around 30 minutes for everyone to sit down. Once this was the case someone went in the middle of the stands.


    He started talking and magically everyone could hear him even if he was more than 400 feet away from him.


    ''''Hello everyone and welcome to the hudrendth tournament. This year is going to be slightly different. Everyone will be thrown in a small world, teleported randomly, you will have a week to stay inside. If you are in mortal danger, the small world will bring you out itself.''''


    ''''There will be treasures that you can get if you have enough. They are randomly placed throughout this world. finding one is the key to win. there are only a thousand treasures. If you don''t have one after a week, you will lose this competition.''''


    ''''Rankings will then be determined according to how well you did inside. Did you eliminate a lot of people? Did you find treasures but get thrown out? Rankings will be fair and square.''''


    ''''Without further ado, everyone please get to the center near me please.''''


    It doesn''t take long for everyone to get there. Once they are, the man says good luck to everyone and that''s the last thing Jiang sees before seeing a forest around him.

 Competition world (1)

    He sees around him a forest with different coloured flora, some trees had black wood, some had white leaves. There were also flowers of different colours around.


    In front of him are a variety of weapons laid out on the floor, they weren''t the practice one but they had actual steel. Deciding to take a sword, magically the other weapons disappear. He swings it around to feel the weight and realizes that it is quite light.


    Having figured out where he was, he starts heading in a random direction. There was no need to care about the direction since it would rely on luck.


    After walking for a bit, he hears leaves rustle, he looks around, now on high alert. He hears it another time, turning in time, he sees a small shadow.


    He doesn''t know what that is, but he readies his weapon, to strike if needed. He hears a rustle again but before he can swing, he gets scratched on his leg.


    He now sees the menace, a small, mutated rabbit. He was shocked to find that rabbit was a Qi gathering II beast. It was only a small rabbit, but it would already be a challenge.


    Beasts had a different way of growing stronger, relying solely on killing and absorbing the energy of the loser''s body. Beasts in the Qi gathering were stronger than normal cultivators. They didn''t need to adapt their mana veins or not. It was already adapted.


    The only reason they were in the ''''Qi gathering'''' realm was because in the same realm, cultivators had a chance to win. It was more incline to the beast, but a well-prepared cultivator could win.


    Since this beast knew how to utilize Qi, it could use it to make his strikes deeper. Luckily for Jiang, this beast was quite young. It probably thought Jiang was easy prey.


    Feeling the scratch, Jiang turns to face his opponent. Ready to deal with him once and for all.


    The beast lunches itself from side to side, trying to distract him. Jiang managed to follow the whole time, waiting for the beast to be close enough. The beast suddenly jumps forward, trying to scratch him again on his leg. Jiang was ready, he acted as if he was taken by surprise, at the last moment, he thrusts his sword forward, directly in the chest of the mutated rabbit. He swiftly removes his sword from the chest and remove the last bit of life it had. Making sure it didn''t need to suffer any more.


    After this fight he takes the time to get the beast core. It was a good way to get better equipment. Using other beast''s things like claws, skin, beast cores, etc.


    Since he didn''t really know if he could hide everything, that''s the only thing he brought with him. Beast cores were usually about the size of a thumb. they were easy to hide. They were always complementary compared to the material used. It could add an additional aspect that some materials couldn''t.


    Now having figured that beasts were more dangerous than he thought, he decides to proceed with caution. Walking slowly and making sure to hear everything around him, he walks for about 2 hours, without seeing anything.


    He decides to take a small break, he goes in a tree, and starts to meditate. After about 20 minutes, he gets down and starts walking again.


    After some time he finally hears sounds from a distance, deciding to have a look he heads there.


    As he approaches he sees 5 men fighting together, 3 versus 2. Both men surprisingly hold themselves up pretty good. They are in a clearing with blue flowers, a stark contrast seeing that blood was being spilled.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    He notices that the strength of the trio is around 2nd to 3rd Qi gathering while the duo are both 4th realm. He knew that it was only a question of time before the duo would easily win.


    He makes sure no one sees him, he looks around and sees a gemstone on the ground, surrounded by bluebell flowers. "That has to be mine, wouldn''t need to worry about walking with a giant sword" He thinks.


    This was also a big part of the problem. They didn''t really know what was considered a treasure for them, it could be anything. He figured that a gemstone in plain sight was an easy way to identify one.


    After making sure no one else sees him, he decides to go around them, to be closer to the gem, it would be easier to snatch and run.


    Before he manages to get there he accidentally makes a noise by pressing his foot on dead leaves. They all stop fighting and look to where the sound came from. Thinking he could hide he dashes to the closest tree.


    They see a shadow running around. ''''HEY, WE SAW YOU GET OUT HERE.'''' One of them screams, being careful not to be backstabbed by the other side.


    ''''ARGH'''' Everyone turning around, Jiang looking over the tree. They see one of the trio get bitten by one of the bluebell flower. Jiang knew he could hide and wait here peacefully now.


    Meanwhile they all start getting bitten, the duo starts running towards the gemstone but the trio stops them, since none of them could get it, they decide to attack the flowers, hoping to get respite from the weird plant.


    Unfortunately for them, the plants seem to move on their own, getting closer to them. Knowing none of them could get the gemstone, they force each other to leave. They knew they would have to fight as soon as they got out.


    Before they manage to get out, a bigger bluebell bits one of them and he falls down. Before they could even help him get up he gets bitten by all the other flowers. His friends decided they couldn''t save him so they left.


    The man then disappears a few seconds later, having being bitten in the neck on his artery, there wasn''t a lot left he could do. He got transported out where he could get medical attention.


    Having figured that getting this gem wouldn''t be easy, he tries to think of a plan but since he was alone he didn''t really know what he could do. He decides that he would let someone else try their luck with this one.


    He goes around to see what''s happening with that fight, it doesn''t take long to see the duo, not seeing the other two, he decides to hide quickly. Looking at them again he feels something weird is going on.


    Even after 30 seconds, they didn''t move the slightest. He decides to make his way around in a big circle to see their faces. As soon as he sees them he feels his heartbeat quicken. Only their eyes could move, the rest were completely stuck.


    He realized that some of the flowers must''ve had a venom in it. He goes forward to them, looks around their clothes and bags to make sure they didn''t have anything he could use.


    He finds 3 beast cores of the same level he had, some medicinal herbs and their weapons. After dealing with that, he manages to spot one of them barely move his arm an inch. deciding to see the effect he waits a bit longer, while faking he left.


    After about 10 minutes, the one on the right manages to bring his arms down and he managed to bring a foot forward. Knowing he didn''t have a lot of time, He went ahead and used his sword to hit them on the head.


    They both get taken out of the stage as soon as the sword is about to hit. Having dealt with two potential opponents, he decides to go the closest tree he can from the gemstone.


    He is about 20 meters away from the gem, he knew he could potentially dash and get it. It would be a close call because he would need to go on a tree as soon as possible.


    Having made up his mind, he sighs and then rush forward, cutting the flowers in front of him. He manages to cut some of them while running but he still gets bitten a couple of times. near the gem was a 1 meter zone free of them, then he would have to run again.


    He finally manages to get to the gemstone, bending down to pick it up, it doesn''t budge. He tries again but it still doesn''t move. Then, all of a sudden the ground shakes around him. he decides to run off without the gem.


    He manages to get two feet before the ground shakes again and he falls down. He gets lifted high on what looked like a giant earth crab. That''s when he realized this gem never was a treasure but more of a lure.


    He sees the pincers extending and going towards him. Without wasting anytime, he goes for one side of them and slides off just before it gets to him. He barely avoids it before he starts running again.


    He then manages to get to the arm of the pincer, he goes to jump off but he realizes too late the he is too far off the ground. Having no choice he brings out his sword and holds it in front of him. Hoping to break the fall.


    Luckily, with the momentum of the beast moving and his jump, he manages to land on the side of the big tree with his sword stuck in the trunk. He removes the sword using his whole strength and starts falling down. Without being able to catch himself up, he falls down directly on the floor.


    He knew he couldn''t stop now, getting up he tried to run as best as he can but being too hurt. He can only limp forward rapidly. Luckily for him, the beast didn''t seem to see or care about him, it went back to his hiding spot. Waiting for a new prey.


    All of that seemed to be happening in the span of a minute or two but it happened in under a minute.


    He barely managed to climb a tree before his body started to solidify. Knowing he didn''t have a lot of time, he managed to bring himself comfortably on a branch, deciding to rest there for now.


    After about an hour, he manages to move normally again. Seeing it was kind of late, Jiang decides to stay there for the night, going a bit higher to hide from beasts. He then sits in a semi-comfortable posture to meditate.


    He tries to enter a half state of cultivation to try and open another meridian in his other hip joint, trying to keep a balance. It takes him a long time to gnaw at the barrier since he couldn''t fully concentrate on it. In the end he managed to open it perfectly, without any hindrance.


    Now he had three meridian opened. One on his neck and both of his hip joints. It allowed him more flexibility in his movements now. Since both hip joints were open the energy transferred could allow him for more movements.

 Competition world (2)

    Now, having regained mobility, he readies himself to head back out there. He was on that tree for too long, if there were beasts nearby they could easily sense him.


    He gets back down from there, almost tripping, his legs numb from the amount of time he took being stuck in that position. He decide to move for about 15 minutes and head back to sleep for an hour, repeating the process the whole night. He manages to cultivate a bit before falling asleep. He didn''t have enough time to try another breakthrough.


    He wondered how his friends were doing, he hadn''t seen a single person that was from the same camp as him.


    He continued to walk forward, finding some herbs, having no real clue as to which were useful or not, he took the ones he thought could be worth something. He didn''t have anyone to tell him about herbs, only following what the duo did.


    After going towards yet another one, he suddenly hear the air whistle, not thinking more, he lunches forward. Barely evading a strike he turns around to see someone at the 5th Qi gathering.


    Clearly surprised, the man looks at Jiang.


    ''''Huh, I didn''t expect you to do that. Try to take that one!'''' He sneered while throwing a knife from his hidden sleeve.


    Jiang not being ready for that barely manages to bring his sword up to meet the knife, before he can lower his weapon he sees the young man almost next to him.


    He blames himself for losing his attention on him, he manages to strike towards him before gets to close.


    ''''Do you think you stand a chance? You''re not the first one I remove. You. Will. Be. Removed.''''


    He states between each strikes.


    They are both in a deadlock, both being careful at what the other can do.


    *SNAP* a branch breaks, both not thinking someone could be near, the man looks while Jiang takes this chance to deal a blow directly towards his spleen. The man wasn''t prepared and gets transported out before the hit lands.


    He turns around ready to strike again, that''s when he sees two men at the 3rd realm. He didn''t even have a chance to say anything before one of them started to lunch an attack. They both used swords.


    They started fighting and Jiang started taking light injuries, cuts on his arms or on his chest. They weren''t serious but it drained him of his energy. The only thing keeping him from losing was their lack of trust towards each other, and the lack of synergy.


    He manages to make a couple of strikes, until one of them suddenly overextends, revealing a big flaw that Jiang didn''t hesitate to take. What he didn''t know was it was a trap.


    He was about to strike down towards the one that overextended when he sees the other one going for swift strike. He switches target, aiming at the other one. Being unprepared, the man barely manages to put up a defense before tumbling a couple of meters.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Taking this chance Jiang lunches a kick at the other guy, slashing right after. He goes to deal another blow but the other one comes back. They both lunches their swords at Jiang at the same time. He manages to use his arm to throw one of the weapons off course while tanking the hit on his arm. He used his sword with his right hand anyway, it would heal.


    He uses this opportunity to lunch a strike towards the man on his right, it "Lands" and the guy gets transported out. Jiang doesn''t give a chance to escape to the other one. He goes right after him and after a couple more exchanges he deals with him.


    He got ready to run at any given sign of aggressivity.


    ''''Great moves! You gave me goosebumps, I didn''t expect you to sacrifice your arm like that.'''' He says his fighting spirit clearly ignited.


    Turning around in a fighting stance, Jiang recognizes this person. It was one of the few at the 4th, now also being at the 5th. Jiang knew that if they were to fight, he wouldn''t be able to last long.


    His arm was now useless and he barely had any Qi left. He couldn''t deal with another fight.


    ''''Hey, I''m just trying to give myself the best chance to get stronger. Why aren''t you attacking?''''


    ''''Hey respect for that. Simple, you aren''t a challenge to me and I know I''ll be in the thousand.''''


    ''''Look I like your fighting style, I''ll give you two hours to heal as much as possible, take it or leave it.'''' Looking a bit smug, clearly not caring about what Jiang would choose, he sits down and begins to cultivate.


    ''''Sure, I''m not a challenge now, you''ll see on the stage!'''' He responds also wanting to fight.


    He also sits down and begin to draw Qi from the environment while using the one in his body to stop the bleeding and start the healing process. It wouldn''t allow him to recuperate but it would at the very least stop the bleeding.


    After the two hours are up, the man gets up.


    ''''Time''s up, don''t disappoint me.'''' He then leaves before Jiang can respond.


    Jiang then proceeds to a tree and jumps as high as he can. He hides there and starts cultivating. Seeing everyone getting closer and closer to "Bone strengthening," He knew he didn''t have a lot of time before he wouldn''t be a match for anyone.


    He proceeds to open another one in his right leg. It takes him some time to get enough Qi. Soon as he got some he started the breakthrough. It takes him around the same amount of times as the other ones. He eats the whole barrier and the Qi changes yet again.


    He wondered what kind of effect it had on the Qi, it didn''t reflect for now. He could officially be considered in the "3rd Qi gathering" realm now. After advancing he looked at his arm, Fortunately the meridians weren''t hurt. It would heal in time.


    He had to leave his arm hanging on the side, having nothing to wrap it around for now. It hurt a lot to keep it like that but it was the price to pay. After walking for a while, he finds a big clearing. He knew heading out in the clearing was a bad idea, staying in the forest was better.


    At least until he healed.


    He continued to walk around trying to find a treasure. Luckily for him, he didn''t have to wait for long. He found a saber that looked a lot better and sharper than the sword he used. He decided to take it with him, using it only if needed.


    After about three more minutes of walking, he hears some movement. Staying silent and approaching slowly, he finally sees something that makes him slightly relieved. One of his friends, Zou Gao, is there! Bad news is, there''s 3 people surrounding him.


    He rushes forward silently, swiftly slashing with his sword, one of the other two screams the other one.


    ''''Be careful! Behind you!''''


    Turning around, he only manages to see Jiang already next to him with the sword almost at his face. He couldn''t react in time and got transported out.


    Turning around to deal with another one, Jiang sees Zou using his saber to stab at one of the two. Using this chance, he lunches at the other one, hoping Zou could deal with that one.


    Luckily they both knew how to fight a bit, it didn''t take long before they managed to remove them from the tournament. Glad to have finally found someone they knew, they both do a "Bro hug."


    ''''Man I''m glad to see you!'''' Zou says, extremely happy.


    ''''I sure hope you were, your ass was about to be whooped, hahaha.''''


    ''''hey that''s not true, I would''ve won, it was only a matter of time!'''' He says half-laughing.


    ''''Oh hum I found this, it''s going to be more useful with you than with me, this is probably considered one of those treasures.'''' He hands out the saber to Zou.


    ''''Thank you! I already had a treasure but with this I''ll be a lot stronger! Let me give you mine so I can repay you a bit!'''' Without giving him a chance, he throws out a talisman.


    ''''Alright, where should we head to?'''' Putting that talisman in his storage.


    ''''I found a place where there could be more treasure, let''s go have a look.''''


    Jiang remembers the path he took and goes back to the gemstone, it takes them around half the day to get there. When they get there, Jiang explains what happened to him and what kind of monster is there.


    He knew that even if his friend was there they wouldn''t have a lot of chances, but it was better than none.


    ''''I know that gemstone is probably part of this beast but I feel like it''s something special.''''


    ''''I believe you, let''s hope it actually is if we''re going to distract this thing long enough to cut it off'''' He says nervously.

 Competition world (3)

    Knowing how this beast worked somehow, they both get ready. Jiang gets closer to the gem while Zou gets as far as possible.


    Then Jiang gives the signal, Zou starts hacking at the flowers while staying out of range. The flowers try to hit him but are unable to do it. He proceeds to hack enough to be able to walk forward. He knows the flowers can''t leave the beast. When he comes on top, the flowers rush towards him, he backs off swiftly.


    It works! they both think in unison. Zou proceeds to do this cycle over and over, thinning the flowers slowly. The flowers on the other side closer to Jiang slowly start moving there too. Jiang knows his chance is coming soon.


    After about 10 minutes of this repeated cycle, there''s almost no flowers left close to the gemstone. He starts running forward, removing the last stranding flowers. It doesn''t take long for him to be next to gem stone, he starts smacking at the floor with the sword. He hoped to leave with that peace of dirt since he couldn''t pull it off.


    The sword bounces back barely managing to make a small scratch, barely a centimeter deep. He starts repeating the process while screaming;


    ''''Distract him as much as you can! I''ll do my best to be quick!''''


    ''''Sure, easy as pie!'''' He replies nervously under his breath.


    The monster start moving around with his pincers, Zou starts hacking at one of the arms, he knew he would need to stay close to the beast with those pincers. Jiang meanwhile had to evade one of the pincers while continuously hacking at the ground.


    When he gets about halfway done, the beast starts going erratic, being more careless about the environment. it knew that the human wanted it stone and it wouldn''t allow him. The flowers that once didn''t go near the gem started creeping forward.


    Jiang now had to deal with the pincers while hacking at the flowers. Since he couldn''t allow himself to be bit by them he had to leave the gemstone and remove all the flowers slowly. It was extremely hard and tiring, evading that pincer was extremely taxing on his body.


    He didn''t know how Zou held down there but he knew he wasn''t any better. Dealing with that pincer and the legs of the crab is also a challenge of its own. It takes them a lot more time than anticipated, detroying a whole chunk of the surroundings in the meantime.


    After about an hour of continuous fighting, Jiang manages to get rid of the flowers and the ground holding the gemstone. When he goes to remove the gemstone, the beast goes mad. It starts trashing around and Zou gets sent backwards directly on a nearby tree. He goes directly uncounscious.


    Meanwhile Jiang tries to hold his balance. He tries to think of a way to deal with that beast. The only thing he could think of was to run away. He jumped on a tree and went down, the beasts finds him and starts running at him. He turns around and starts dashing away, using his Qi to reinforce his body. Using the meridians in his hips to allow a faster movement.


    The beast being big couldn''t run fast, the trees slowed it down even more. Jiang slowly brought the crab away. After about 10 minutes of that, he goes in a big circle and goes around to see if his friend was okay.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    It takes him around a third of that time to be back. Coming closer to his friend, he sees him bloodied and unconscious. He tries to shake him awake. He opens his eyes slowly.


    ''''You think you can walk? We gotta get moving quick.'''' He asks, hoping Zou was still in shape to move.


    ''''I think so, where is it?'''' He tries to get up and loses balance.


    ''''It should be far away, I managed to lure it but it could be back. Come on, lemme help you walk.''''


    As if to manifest his words, they hear trees getting destroyed closer and closer. They both knew they didn''t have a lot of time. They started walking away from the noise, as quick as Zou could.


    After an hour of walking and not hearing any sound, they make a temporary camp. Jiang starts studying the stone. Touching it doesn''t feel cold not hot, as if it was body temperature. He starts trying different things with his Qi, wether it accepts it or not. Nothing happens after a couple of attempts. he decides to leave it in his bag for now.


    ''''Man this thing is useless, we did all that for nothing.'''' Zou says, annoyed.


    ''''Probably but it was a good fight, until you got hit, that is.'''' he remarks.


    ''''Right, at least we managed to escape. What now?''''


    ''''Well, we got to move but first you need to stop the bleeding and heal a bit. You don''t look good at all. I''ll take that time to recuperate the Qi I lost.''''


    ''''Good idea, my ribs are hurting like hell.''''


    Jiang stays in guard to make sure nothing would attack Zou while he recuperates. After a while Zou stops and tells him to go ahead. He couldn''t do much more to heal his body unless he had a lot of time.


    Jiang sits down and does the same. He soon realizes that the Gemstone is also absorbing the Qi as he is doing so. He brings it down to try and feel it, the moment he touches it, dense life Qi goes in his body. The arm that was badly damaged started visibly healing, at least 100% faster than before.


    He thinks carefully and decides to share it with Zou. He knew Zou wouldn''t betray him, that last fight proved so.


    ''''Hey Zou, this gemstone isn''t useless! We thought it did nothing but it can help in healing.''''


    ''''Really?! That''s a relief.'''' Looking a bit ecstatic.


    ''''Yeah, do you need it?''''


    ''''Nah, I''m hurt but I can still move my whole body, look at you. Your arm is useless, try to heal it as soon as possible.''''


    They both knew it was late anyway, since it was preferable to hide at night, they went up a tree again. It was better than to stay on the ground. At least you could see them coming before you would get jumped.


    Zou takes the first watch. Jiang decides to enter his meditative state and focuses on healing his arm and trying to breakthrough another meridian. He decides to go on the the meridian that is on his leg.


    It takes him a while to do so. He starts sweating a lot and after a while he has to completely stop. It was starting to be too hard to focus on both, sensing he was losing control, it was the only sensible choice.


    It takes him about 2 hours, his meridian now fully opened. The barrier that once stood there now in his Qi, changing it further. Jiang now understand what''s happening to his Qi. It is slowly augmenting the Quality of it. Making it better than other''s Qi.


    He had managed to get in the fourth realm of the Qi gathering now. It was only a matter of time.


    After that he focuses the rest of his time to heal his arm and to sleep a bit. His arm now able to move again, it wasn''t the highest mobility type but it could slowly go up and down. It was only a matter of time before he recuperates fully.


    Then he gets woken up by Zou, understanding it was his time to watch. The night luckily went without trouble. There were a couple of beasts that passed and even a group of 5 humans.


    Once Zou wakes up, he goes on to meditate too. He was only Qi gathering II and needed to catch up. Since Jiang cultivated too he didn''t mind much. After about the same amount of time Jiang took, Zou manages to bring himself to Qi gathering III.


    They then start marching, the next step was to find Sun Hei and Han Gou. Since they were friends, they didn''t want to leave them behind. They already had their treasures and they hoped they could help them if they needed it.


    Then it began, in daytime they would walk, trying to find them and in the night they would go in trees and cultivate. They have a couple of though fights with beasts and competitors as well. It goes on pretty well and they don''t get hurt.


    After about 3 days, Jiang as finally managed to open 6 meridians. Zou has managed to open 4 of them. This meant that Jiang was in the 6th Qi gathering and Zou was in the 5th.


    Starting from 5th Qi Gathering, people needed to open two meridians to say they were in an upper realm.


    That''s when they find a group of seven person. They tried to run but that''s when someone stopped them. The person shook their head as if to say they shouldn''t try to run.


    Since they didn''t want to waster time, they took out their weapons and started slashing at the person. The person evaded easily, each and every strike. When they managed to outsmart the speed, He blocked it.


    Before they knew it they were encircled.

 Competition world (4)

    ''''Well what do we have here?'''' One of the men says.


    They both turn around to see who it is.


    ''''You?'''' Sightly surprised, Jiang sees it''s that group of bully in their camp.


    ''''Oh I''m gonna have fun dealing with you both. Come on guys, get rid of him.''''


    All of them just start waking forward, the tall bully just staying in the back. Jiang scrutinizes the group, realizing most of them are in the 4th Qi Gathering. They have a some advantage but that one person fighting was still in the vicinity.


    They didn''t know how they would make it out but they had no choice, the path was blocked. Communication wasn''t even a possibility since they would hear them.


    The first one to come forward was a chubby men, he decides to strike before he would. He sent a slash horizontally, without even looking at the other person he kicked on the right of the fatty. the chubby man managed to bring his sword forward defending himself. The other one didn''t manage to block it and got directly hit on his knee, bending it backwards.


    The fatty was shocked to see that happen, taking the opportunity, he stabs at the fatty. The fatty barely manages to bring his sword in an arc blocking the stab. what he didn''t expect was for Jiang to spin using his sword to land a hit on the other man. He couldn''t react in time and was about to be thrown out of the world. Then the person that blocked them comes at the last moment and strikes at the sword.


    He almost lost his grip, barely holding on and feeling his hand a bit numb. Without waiting he throws another slash at that person. He evades easily and lunches a strike of his own, landing it on his leg. All the way to the bone.


    He grimaced in pain and slashed again, he gets hit again on his back. He falters forward where a knee is waiting for him, striking his head. He tumbles to the ground, slightly stunned. He manages to see the sword coming at him and barely move his head in time to save himself.


    He rolls on the ground a couple of time and then he manages to get back up. what awaits him is the same man. Luckily, he knew he was coming and he was prepared. His Qi and been revolved around his leg, ready to strike at any time. Knowing this was his only chance he didn''t waste it.


    He faked using his sword to slash at him, he evaded directly in the way for his knee to hit. With the Qi in the strike, the man got his breath knocked out. Taking the chance he got, he lunches another strike, the fatty finally catches up and hits Jiang on his shoulder. He managed to alter his trajectory and only hit the clavicle.


    Grimacing in pain, the man backs away and makes a run for it.


    ''''Don''t think this is over! I will get you!'''' He screams furiously while running away.


    Something felt weird about that man but he didn''t care, the fatty and that bully were still there. He saw Zou in a bad state, he had managed to bring one out but there was still the bully, the fatty and three more. Luckily one wasn''t really up to fight with his knee.


    He takes that time to deal with the fatty, after about 6 exchanges he manages to land a blow. The fatty lost his grip on his weapon and it was over. Jiang didn''t waste that opportunity and used it to deal with him.


    Now he went to deal with the three men, getting rid of the one with his knee backwards, he had been sitting on the ground the whole time. He had been trying to fix his knee, to no avail. He went forward and dealt with him easily.


    When he turned around, he saw the fight was already over. Confused, he heads to Zou and asks him what happened.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ''''I don''t know, I was fighting them and then all of a sudden arrows came flying directly at them.''''


    ''''It was me.'''' says a young man removing his hood.


    They both turn around, shocked to see Han Gou there!


    ''''Holy, thank you man! You''re a life saver. You''re good with the bow, where''d you learn?''''


    ''''My old man thought me to hunt when I was young. Then at the camp they gave me more practice.''''


    ''''We''re lucky you''re our friend. It would''ve been over for us otherwise!'''' Jiang says happily.


    ''''Have you seen Sun Hei? We''ve been looking for both of you, we hoped you were together.''''


    ''''No I haven''t, he should be okay though. I see you both haven''t lost your time cultivating.'''' He says, slightly stunned. He was still at the 4th Qi Gathering.


    ''''Well, we already had our ticket, so we took our time to get stronger. They should''ve had one for you if you don''t have one.''''


    ''''Yes, thank you. I wasn''t as lucky as you guys.''''


    They started searching around to see if they could find a treasure, unfortunately, there was nothing.


    ''''It must''ve been with that person. He was extremely fast, I almost lost to him.''''


    ''''Good that you didn''t, come on, we should go. We don''t have all day.'''' Zou suddenly says.


    They all agree and they start walking away swiftly. after about 30 minutes of walking, they seat on the ground and start recuperating. Since Han was fine, he stood guard for both of them. It took around an hours for both of them to heal enough for movements to not cause sudden injury.


    Since it was already close to being the end of the 5th day, finding a treasure out in the wild was almost impossible. They were most likely on someone right now. They then walked for a bit before going to cultivate. Jiang took the first watch, Zou the second and Han the last.


    They all went in a meditative state, Jiang and Zou to heal with the stone and Han to cultivate.


    At the start of the 6th day, Han managed to get to 5th Qi cultivation. Since Jiang and Zou concentrated on healing, their bodies were more or less okay. The slash on Jiang''s leg was still big but you didn''t see the bone anymore.


    While Zou had a couple of slices across his body. They weren''t very deep but there were around 12 of them.


    They then walked in a single direction, encountering a couple of groups. They had to fight, luckily those groups were only composed of 3-4 men who were at the 5th-6th realm. They all didn''t have any treasures. Not taking any chances, Jiang decided to give his stone to Han, so that he could present it for a treasure. He hoped it would count.


    At the end of the day they hadn''t found a single treasure. They had to go rest and meditate. Jiang focused on healing again, trying to make his wounds as small as possible while Zou and Han went to cultivate. Zou managed to get to the 6th while Han was one meridian short.


    At the start of the 7th day, an announcement was made.


    ''''Hello everyone, at the end of today, everyone not at the center of this world will be considered to have lost. This is your final challenge to qualify, there will be a light in the sky to guide everyone.''''


    ''''Why would they not warn us about that before hand? That''s weird.''''


    ''''Yeah, I agree but we still have to head there.''''


    Without wasting any time, they all head there slowly, after some time they started seeing some people going there too. Everyone was on guard and no one wanted to attack first. If you had to fight before heading in the middle you would probably get third partied by someone else right after.


    No one wanted to take that bet.


    It took them almost the whole morning and afternoon to get there. The more they walked, the more teams there were. They were all in groups of 4-5 minimum, their group being different, hostile gazes flashed in the eyes of the others.


    ''''We may have to fight'''' whispered Jiang.


    At the end of the forest was a big clearing, they could barely see the other side of the clearing, there were trees all around it. In that clearing were people already fighting with beasts and humans alike.


    Confused, Jiang and his group stayed a little behind everyone else. They crept forward slowly.


    ''''Why would there be beasts here, in that amount?'''' Looking around, they could see around 700 beasts all of rank 5 minimum.


    ''''I don''t know but I believe we may not make it if we don''t help them.''''


    They then went forward, most people didn''t go up to fight. While walking forward, they realized that bodies were on the floor. They were slightly confused, why would this happen? Once someone was in danger they should''ve been brought out.


    They didn''t think more about it, they stayed close to Han while he started his bow. It didn''t take long to take the aggro of some beasts. luckily they were all pretty manageable. Once they killed a couple of them, they saw a shocking scene.


    One of the beasts threw themselves at the human that couldn''t defend again''t it and bit his head completely. All of them stood there unmoving. The people that weren''t fighting took a step back, scared for their lives.


    The heartbeat of Jiang and the other''s accelerated slightly and their breathing huried.


    ''''Come on guys, get yourselves together, we got this. Let''s help them as much as possible.'''' Jiang says, getting his bearings together.


    They then went forward towards a group of two that were suffering at the expanse of 4 beasts. They wouldn''t be able to hold on for long if this went on. They joined in on the fight and saved their lives.


    ''''Thank you!''''


    ''''My pleasure, I know you are scared and tired but we need you to fight. You are in no shape to try and leave, beasts will catch up to you. Fight with us and we''ll protect you.''''


    They both look at each other and one of them agrees while the other, too scared to continue fighting, tries to leave. He managed to get pretty far before a beast emerged from the wood. He asked for help from the nearby teams but they were either too far or didn''t want to care.


    Sadly, this young man didn''t make it. The man thanked his life he didn''t try.


    ''''I''m Xia Jingyi, I''m grateful you warned me.''''


    ''''I''ll be honest, I wasn''t sure it was the case, I didn''t want to take a chance.''''


    They then continued to save people, slowly adapting their group, it got bigger and bigger. After saving another one, they were already at 24, including Jiang and his gang.


    ''''Come on everyone, let''s keep helping''''


    *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*


    Then they felt small heartquakes while the sound kept getting closer, after while they saw trees getting thrown down on the ground. Jiang had a bad feeling.


    As if to tell Jiang he was right, the crab they stole the stone from was the one to emerge from the forest.

 end of first round

    Everyone stared in shock at the monster that came out of the forest. With that beast, came another small horde of beasts. Those were only in the 3rd realm but they still posed a challenge in terms of numbers.


    Some of them didn''t manage to get out of shock in time, getting hit. Luckily, they weren''t alone and people close to them helped them. The new beasts coming in made it a lot harder to defend.


    Some persons started taking action, telling people where to watch out and what to attack. They started closing the weak spots, helping where they could. They managed to reduce injuries and reduce deaths.


    In all wars though, deaths was common. Even though everyone here tried their best to reduce deaths, it still happened.


    The groups that were still hiding all made their choices. Some of them ran away quickly, giving up on their comrades and the ranking. Others decided to risk it all and went to help. The amount of people fighting were around 2000 at the start. It was now reduced to 1750 and still reducing.


    Meanwhile, Jiang and his group went forward to deal with the crab. As soon as the crab went out of the forest it went for them. They didn''t have a choice but to get out of the formation to protect everyone. Their only goal was to distract it for as long as possible.


    The fight was intense, everyone kept on risking their lives. Jiang and company got hit once or twice by the crab. they weren''t injured badly, mostly managing to evade the crab.


    For some reason, beasts stayed far from the crab, scared to get hit. it allowed them to focus solely on the crab. As if to add more pressure, another giant beast showed up. It looked like a bear but a lot more fat than normal.


    Another group went forward, Jiang managed to identify one of them as the one that fled before.


    Since Jiang knew how the crab worked, they tried to deal with it. They all worked in unison, Jiang would go forward and try to hit his eyes while Han would shoot arrows and Zou was focused on distracting it.


    The crab defended itself well until it suddenly screeched. Jiang, taking the chance, lunched a Qi powered strike directly on his belly. sliding forward for better aim. He managed to pass the defense and it allowed him to effectively weaken it.


    It tried to let itself fall on Jiang, he barely managed to roll away. Coming back to deal with it, he soon sees Zou covered in a weird liquid.


    ''''Zou, what did you do? That was perfect.'''' He says smiling.


    ''''I don''t want to talk about it. Let''s just finish this.'''' He says gloomily.


    Han and Jiang both looked at each other, then decided not to ask further. They already had an idea of what happened. They went forward again and after a while the beast fell down.


    Catching their breath, they looked around only to see carnage, there weren''t a lot of beasts left. The fight was pretty much over, they only had to deal with stragglers.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    After 5 minutes of cleaning up the remnants, everyone finally could catch their breaths. They looked around to see their friends and everyone else dead on the floor. it was a shock for them to still be alive, they were happy they made it out.


    When everyone was catching their breaths, they could see the groups of people that didn''t fight. there were around 300 or so that didn''t fight. They were looking at them furiously. If they had joined them to fight the beasts, less of them would''ve died.


    ''''Where have you been! We needed your help!'''' one of the fighter with more energy said.


    ''''Yeah you cost us dearly! How do you intend on making it up to us?!''''


    ''''You should''ve been dead not them! This is unfair.''''


    So everyone kept on screaming at them. Some even went forward to scream at their faces. some of the ones that left looked at the ground, shame on their faces. The others were mad that they were blamed for putting their lives first.


    Tension in the air, one of them took out a sword, ready to strike. Before it could go further, everyone got transported out.


    Some people got scared while others looked around confused. They then realized that they had made it out alive for real and shed tears of joy.


    ''''You are the ones that made it out till the end! I am happy to announce that this group did really well! Normally, a lot more people leave and refused to fight. Though, I have to say, everyone that refused to help in that fight, you are eliminated.''''


    ''''Unless, of course, you have a treasure?'''' He questions.


    Out of all the ones that didn''t fight, there was only one that took out his treasure. Indicating the others didn''t manage to find one or didn''t dare fight for it. He took the treasure and inscribed the name.


    While they started to give their treasures, Jiang managed to find Sun hei. They talked for a bit before they were to hear the announcement.


    ''''Hey Sun! Did you manage to get a treasure?''''


    ''''I did, I was hiding for a good while but then I got found by a group and they took my treasure while I fled. I then went on to fight beasts and others together. I participated in that fight, that was brutal.''''


    ''''Yeah I know, I was dealing with that crab with Zou and Han, it took us a while.''''


    ''''I saw you, I was filling in the gaps and looking around to make sure everyone was safe.''''


    Before they can speak further, the announcer started talking.


    ''''Let me now announce the people that brought treasures to us, that we accepted.''''


    As he proceeded with the names, Jiang''s and Zou''s names appeared. After around another 100 names, Han''s name finally appeared. They were relieved to find out they made it!


    After the count was done, there were still 41 places left for grabs. Jiang got his hopes up that Sun could make it.


    ''''Since we don''t have all of the treasures for a top thousand, we will choose the ones that marked us. There were a lot of good candidates.''''


    He then started calling a couple of names. They were mostly the ones that had taken charge of everyone to reduce panic. This included Sun hei, he hadn''t led a lot of them but he had killed a lot.


    ''''Congratulations to everyone that passed, everyone that managed to find a treasure. You can keep it.''''


    ''''I know most of you must be mad but remember you are recruits being made to go to war. There is no choice but to either fight or die.''''


    ''''To everyone else that did not pass, head to the reception area, your rank will be decided and your reward will be given.''''


    ''''You will all be awarded three days to recuperate. Use them wisely, it starts now. Get back at the same time you did a week ago.''''


    Jiang then went back to his camp director. When they all went back, the head count was slightly under 400, being 324. They had lost over a 176 persons just for this fight. This was a big loss for the camp.


    After the head count, he sighed and brought everyone to their quarters. Everyone had their own rooms, a welcomed change compared to the barracks. Jiang bid farewell to everyone after asking for the stone again. He promised to share it with them so they could heal too.


    He then took about half a day to fully recuperate with the stone''s aid. They wound''s weren''t closed completely but they weren''t a threat to his mobility or his body.


    He shared the gemstone to Zou next who gratefully accepted it. He then went on to cultivate and train. when he wasn''t doing either he was sleeping or eating.


    When he woke up for the day of the competition, he had finally managed to make it to the 9th Qi cultivation realm. He was only shy of one meridian to make it to the peak. The last one was situated on his left arm, the one he didn''t use to wield his sword.


    He was ready to fight for the top 10 now. Or so, he believed. They all went to the arena where the small world was. In it''s place was now 50 arenas, all solely made for them.


    ''''Welcome back everyone, as you can see, there are going to be 50 matches. They will all be played at the same time to save time. In this round of elimination, you will work on cooperating with someone. They are going to be two versus twos. You may choose who you want to be with, if you are with no one, we will assign you one.''''


    Jiang went on to have a discussion with Zou, Han and Sun.


    ''''I believe Han and me is a better choice, you and Sun should work together. The imbalances will be less evident.'''' He says still pondering if that was correct.


    ''''This makes sense, it will allow you a good chance to win, same as us.''''


    After everyone made their choices, the ones that weren''t assigned a partner were swiftly arranged one.


    ''''Now that everyone has found someone, let me tell you how it works. For today, we will decide top 100. Every team will fight 5 times, the ones with the most wins will enter top 100. If there are too many draws in the top 100, the fastest will be the ones to stay.''''