Jiang Mang and Xiao Lu were separated after hearing that voice. Jiang Mang was anxious about his fettered friend but remained calm as this is a life and death ordeal. The voice appeared again after a minute to inform that the first trial of combat would begin.
In front of Jiang Mang there appeared a puppet with a cultivation base at the peak of the foundation stage. It initiated the attack by swinging its fists towards Jiang Mang who avoided the attack while still playing a tune with the leaf. Jiang Mang was able to perceive the puppet's movements and prowess through his inner vision and thus was able to avoid all of its attacks. The puppet was only capable of physical attacks like beasts but was stronger and faster than all the beast that the boy had faced.
After a couple of minutes, Jiang Mang counter-attacked with a dagger coated with his death qi. This resulted in an explosion but the puppet was unharmed after being blasted away. Jiang Mang was shocked by the result and returned to their previous routine of cat and mouse. He was sure that he couldn't defeat the puppet with hand to hand combat and now that his hidden weapons were unable to damage the puppet all his ideas were up. He continued avoiding while occasionally counterattacking but not one attack was effective.
The battle was already going on for an hour and Jiang Mang was getting exhausted. He determined that he would lose after another half an hour and needed to finish this battle or he would die. After a couple of minutes, he suddenly threw another coated dagger which blew the puppet away but this time he followed his attack up with a barrage of attacks while using Flower's hand. He hoped that the barrage would internally damage the puppet as this was his only hope.
He repeated the same pattern again and again and this lasted until Jiang Mang was out of qi while the puppet was still scratch-free. Jiang Mang had lost all hope and was preparing for his death when the puppet suddenly stopped moving. Immediately that voice appeared to declare Jiang Mang the winner while also giving him recuperation time. Jiang Mang was astonished but happy about the outcome as his strategy paid off at the last moment.
The next trial started after Jiang Mang recovered all of his qi. This was the body trial in which Jiang Mang's potential and talent would be tested. The voice had only said that he had to last until the end to clear the trial which confused Jiang Mang. Jiang Mang was transported to another room in which he was unable to move. It was eerily quiet and Jiang Mang couldn't see what was happening as he was unable to play music.
He suddenly felt his body slowly heat up as if he was being cooked. He was able to handle the heat in the beginning. Unfortunately, the heat kept rising until Jiang Mang began screaming from the pain. He felt that he was being tortured and wanted it all to end. The pain eventually reached the point that he wanted to die but no one relieved him of the heat and pain. He had long lost his sense of time but he knew that he shouldn't give up even if death could relieve him.
That last thought was what managed to help the boy persevere through the fire torture which ended after an hour but this was only the beginning of the body trial as Jiang Mang would be subjected to all five elements to test his bodily potential. The next torture was having to experience an increase in gravity until all his bones were broken. After that came the torture of a thousand cuts in which he almost died of blood loss. The following torture was slowly being frozen alive which tested his will of survival and the last was experiencing being sucked of vitality as nutrition for a plant.
Jiang Mang survived all tortures by a single hair, his determination to live never faltered even though his body was mutilated and broken beyond human comprehension. A boy at the age of 11 years old survived the most grueling five elements torture not through potential but through sheer determination. The voice appeared again after the trial was completed and healed Jiang Mang back to full health as if nothing happened. It also improved Jiang Mang's talent in cultivation while it healed the boy, but Jiang Mang was mentally scarred from this torture for the rest of his life, which will change the boy's perception of life and death.
Jiang Mang commenced the third trial after awakening from his unconscious state after the torture. The third trial was about the soul, the trial taker had to remain aware through a series of illusions to complete the third trial. This should be Jiang Mang's strongest point as he specialized in illusions himself.
He was pulled into an illusion where he became an ordinary villager who became a slave after his whole village was murdered. He led an entire lifetime inside the illusion where he experienced all sides of mortal life but he never forgot that he was inside an illusion. He was then pulled through 12 other illusions. Every illusion tested one of the six desires or seven emotions but Jiang Mang stayed aware and true to himself through which he cleared the trial of the soul.
He was allowed to rest by the unknown voice before starting the trial of heart, but he was unable to stay calm as he was worried about Xiao Lu being able to survive the trials. He eventually calmed down before starting the trial of heart. This time the voice didn't appear and the boy only felt himself appear in an unknown place. He felt a knife appear in his hands and heard a devilish voice telling him the following: " You have to become strong little boy, you have to sever all mundane ties if you want to achieve immortality. You will be able to inherit all my power and techniques if you kill all your friends and family. They rest here in front of you. I have gathered all of them in front of you and you only have to kill them one by one with the knife in your hand."