Time continued to pass as Shen Long continued to cultivate diligently for the next few days. Typically, he would follow his newly established routine: jogging, cultivating, sleeping and repeat. However, today was slightly different as Daoist Fireblade had organized a special event for Shen Long.
Despite his rapid progress in all areas, Shen Long still lacked proper, actual combat experience. The best way, undoubtedly, to improve in one's combat ability was real fighting. In life-and-death situations, one would learn and improve the quickest as one would be forced to muster every bit of their strength. However, this method was the most dangerous as it could easily result in serious injuries, or even death.
After Shen Long's morning jog, Shen Long headed to the perimeters of Daoist Fireblade's palace, a place he had never been. Since Daoist Fireblade hadn't explained to him about the event, Shen Long was completely clueless. Upon arriving at the "Statue of Goddess Lina" that Daoist Fireblade instructed him to, he just stood there and started daydreaming.
Roughly fifteen minutes later, Daoist Fireblade had arrived with two unfamiliar faces. Unlike normal cultivators, they were dressed like an ancient hunter. Wearing a camouflaged jacket with semi-rips on them, their faces were filled with deep scars. Their eyes seemed extremely threatening, and they emitted intense killing intent as they walked around.
Even more uncommon, Shen Long couldn't feel their cultivation bases at all. There wasn't a single strand of Qi in their body, but they certainly felt intimidating and powerful. However, Shen Long wasn't terrified at all. With his Master standing around, there was no way that the two could hurt him. Also, Shen Long felt that he could fence them off with his own cultivation base as a Demigod Cultivator.
Well, Shen Long was wrong in his judgement. Those two hunters could definitely beat Shen Long. In terms of combat prowess, the duo was only slightly weaker than the two Guardians. However, Shen Long was right about their Qi. They weren't normal cultivators, so they didn't cultivate Qi at all. Instead, they focused on using spiritual power and magic.
However, those two hunters weren't Undead. In fact, they were actually beasts who had submitted to Daoist Fireblade a long time ago. Since some beasts were able to transform their bodies, they chose to take the form of a human, to appear more amiable and less threatening. Beasts, just like the Undead Race, cultivated Spiritual energy, and beasts, in particular, were also granted with unique, innate skills.
The two beasts were now Daoist Fireblade's followers. With Daoist Fireblade's guidance and his continuous supply of material, they were able to continue advancing in terms of cultivation. Beasts, just like mortals, could cultivate to become Immortals; however, the process was much more difficult for them.
Although beasts could ascend to Immortals through the path of spiritual energy, it was an arduous process. Of course, they could also advance through the comprehension of the Daos, but it was rarely seen. This was because the majority of the beasts had lower intelligence, compared to humans. However, their innate abilities made up for their flaws.
The two followers, in terms of human cultivations standards, were in Peak-Demigod stage, but they could match up to normal Celestial Immortals due to their domineering abilities. Shen Long would definitely completely destroyed by these two if they were to fight. Shen Long was extremely wrong, and it was lucky that he had matured recently.
If it was the old Shen Long, it wouldn't be surprising if he decided to walk up and taunt them. Even if Daoist Fireblade was present, Shen Long was more than likely to be injured. It was Shen Long's fortune that he (finally) grew up.
"Shen Long, you ready to go? Let's go to the "special" place that I've organised for you. As long as you follow us closely, you shouldn't be in any danger. Actually, since this is a trial, try to keep up with us. We won't travel at our maximum speed, but we won't slow down for you neither. Don't try to deliberately not catch up to skip this trial, or else you will receive a very "pleasant" punishment after. Off we go!" Daoist Fireblade said in a serious tone, and it was quite threatening.
Shen Long couldn't help but be fully focused and serious. He was well aware of how "pleasant" the punishment was, and he would definitely not allow himself to be in such a situation. Combining his Qi with his footwork, Shen Long was barely able to catch up with the trio. However, it was extremely exhausting as it required Shen Long to constantly exerting and materializing Qi.
The concept of using his Qi to aid his movement was similar to a modern-day car. Instead of using petrol or fuel, Shen Long was using his Qi as thrust to propel himself forward (and upward). With some clever tricks to minimize the air resistance that Shen Long had to face, Shen Long could manage to catch up with the trio, even with his Early-Mid Demigod cultivation base.
After a while, they had finally arrived at their destination. In front of them stood an enormous cubed building, and it seemed extremely mysterious. Despite its regular shape, the patterns on its wall made Shen Long feel slightly uncomfortable. There were stripes, which resembled some prison bars; it was also doodled with ancient characters.
Examining carefully, the characters actually looked like beasts and monsters. They looked suspiciously similar to ancient Chinese writings - Oracle Bone Script. Despite not focusing in Chinese-History class, he could still identify some characters as the ancient Chinese language. Towards their meanings, however, Shen Long didn't have a single clue.
Without a choice, Shen Long was forced to enter the building. After entering the main entrance, there was another door, and there seemed to be infinite doors in this cube-shaped building. However, the atmosphere felt more and more mysterious, and the killing intent increased exponentially as he went deeper into the building.
Even with Daoist Fireblade and his two followers leading, Shen Long was still completely terrified. He noticed even more patterns on the doors, and he slowly realised that they were actual patterns of seals. Shen Long seemed to have noticed something, which had made his heartbeat raise even more.
"If there are seals marks on the door, does that mean that there are actually freaking monsters behind these doors!? The killing intent is getting stronger as well... Don't tell me that there are thousands of doors here, just to prevent this mysterious aura from spreading!? And the seals... are to prevent the monsters inside from coming out!?"
Shen Long was absolutely spot on. The doors acted as seals, to prevent anything inside to be in contact with the outside world. Although the beasts weren't able to exit, Daoist Fireblade didn't want the mysterious killing intent to spread, to terrify normal disciples. Hence, he had created 108,000 doors in order to make sure that no beasts could escape, and the dense killing intent was completely sealed.
This, however, was only the start for Shen Long. He still had no idea what "pleasant surprise" his Master had organized him.
The "Hundred Beast Trial" now started! ^^