Qing Shan stared in disbelief at the figure in front of him. Unlike all of its predecessors, this figure was distinctly human. Its gender was male, and it also had clear facial features. The figure looked to be in its mid-teens age wise, and it had a slim body. While not overtly large, the figure's musculature seemed to boast a sort of might that was quietly stirring, preparing to be unleashed. Looking at the face, Qing Shan saw boy-like features, but it had eyes that made the figure seem like it was aged beyond its years.
Qing Shan knew this figure well, as he had seen it in his reflection on the water every day. It was clearly a copy of himself. He noticed that the copy was perfect, even down to his worn trousers and loose robe. Qing Shan grimly noticed that his copy also had his Staff, and he would bet that the copy knew how to use it and all of his other skills just as well as he did.
Qing Shan raised his Staff into his normal ready position, and watched in agitated amusement as his copy did the same.
Qing Shan and his copy clashed, trading multiple blows with the same technique that had allowed him to beat all of his prior challengers. Fortunately, Qing Shan soon found out that his copy was not exactly a complete copy of his entire self and skillset. The one thing that was not completely copied was Qing Shan's speed of thought. After finding this weakness, Qing Shan managed to defeat his copy in only ten minutes.
Surprisingly, Qing Shan had learned something from his last battle. He found out the difference between himself with his insane speed of thought, and himself with just a good fighting style. The difference was very eye-opening, and Qing Shan would most definitely be able to use this realization to help him grow stronger.
Qing Shan saw his next opponent appear and became startled, but he was confident because of his last battle.
The figure that appeared in front of Qing Shan was again himself, but something seemed different. If he had to guess, Qing Shan would say that the figure was older, and definitely had more fighting experience. This information was gathered not only from the way that the figure looked, but also from its aura, posture, etc…
Seeing that this battle would be harder than he thought, Qing Shan decided not to take out his staff. He just felt that he had not completely mastered the Staff yet, and knew that he was stronger with only his fists.
Once Qing Shan was prepared, he noticed that his copy had taken out its staff and jabbed it into the ground. It then leant on its Staff, looking as though it could not care less about being here. It was clearly waiting for Qing Shan to make the first move.
Qing Shan refused to advance, slowly circling his older copy like a bird does its prey. Unfortunately, this figure was definitely not simple prey.
Qing Shan suddenly darted forward, moving like the wind and weaving around his older copy and sending a two-fingered jab at his double's neck. Qing Shan did not even see the figure move, and thought that he was about to get it a solid first hit.
Qing Shan struck, stumbling forward when his attack hit only air. He then felt a sharp blow to his neck, and realized that his older copy had somehow moved behind him and jabbed him, his jab much stronger that Qing Shan's had been. It was almost as if he had moved all of his Qi to his fingers instead of a Minor Meridian…
Sadly, Qing Shan had no time to ponder over this as he fell limply to the ground, unconscious.
After ten minutes passed, Qing Shan came to, dread filling him as he saw his older double gazing at him mockingly.
Qing Shan fought eight more times with his double before he was mentally informed by that gibberish sound that his failure to win this final match would result in failure.
Qing Shan was down to desperate measures. Although he did not want to lose his claim on any sort of reward, Qing Shan was supremely clear on the fact that he had less than a miniscule chance of victory.
When his older double appeared for what would most likely be the last time, Qing Shan did something he had not dome before. He talked.
"How about this time you don't use your Staff. That would make this different for both of us huh? Maybe not as boring."
Qing Shan did not know if his copy understood him, so he was definitely flabbergasted when his double actually hooked its Staff to its back before letting go.
Unfortunately, it turned out that like Qing Shan, His double was actually stronger without the Staff than with it.
Qing Shan was defeated.
'I guess I am not getting any treasure… Well, at least I know how I want to progress some of my skills in the future.'
Once the ten minutes passed, Qing Shan found himself back in the spot where he had started, the room with large crystals. This time, there was no corpse in the middle of the room, and altogether its looked much cleaner.
Suddenly, Qing Shan heard gibberish once more, and his brain translated.
"Test of Strength complete. Calculating trial Difficulty… Trial Start!"
'Wait… That was not the real trial?'
"…"
Qing Shan just stood speechless as he found himself in a new room. Although Qing Shan could only see one wall in front of him, his intuition and the paths on each other side of him told him that he was in a maze.
Qing Shan turned around, looking down the pathways to his left and right, and the one directly in front of him. Qing Shan had been given absolutely no clues so far, so he just began to walk, finding another path when he hit a dead end. Almost an hour in, and about thirty dead-ends later, Qing Shan found the first beast. Looking closer, Qing Shan noticed that the beast was actually his first copy, the one that he had managed to kill with his superior speed of thought.
'Don't tell me…'
A thought passed through Qing Shan's mind.
'What if this figure is populating the maze? Does this mean that my older copy could also be here?'
When these thoughts passed through Qing Shan's mind, he shivered, suddenly feeling uneasy. Qing Shan jumped forward, attacking his copy. Because Qing Shan could see the fight like it was in slow-motion, he managed to beat his copy in less time than the time before.
Right after Qing Shan killed his copy its body decomposed, somehow healing Qing Shan back to perfect health.
'Oh, so that's how it is…'
Qing Shan suddenly realized that this trial was much more about fighting than advancing through the gates. If he had to guess, there was probably some sort of limitation keeping Qing Shan from exiting the maze before he destroyed X amount of copies. While it only took little greater than minimal effort to kill one of his Copies, time would definitely stack up; Qing Shan did not want to stay in the maze any longer than he had to.
Unfortunately, Qing Shan seemed to have attracted attention from his last fight. Three Copies walked in from different paths, and started staring down Qing Shan, trying to make him feel fear.
Suddenly, another copy joined the group, except that this one came in through the wall. Yes, you read that right, the wall. The wall started to suck inwards, looking like someone was holding a mini black-hole on the other side of it. Suddenly, the wall's figure snapped back into shape, and a fourth copy appeared.
This had facial expressions, unlike the others that Qing Shan had seen. It looked at Qing Shan with a mild look of surprise, and a good amount of humor.
"Hoho, So you guys are playing with the trialgoer…"
'It can talk!'
Qing Shan was still stunned by this development, and barely managed to break out of his stupor to see the weird copy leaving, waving backwards.
"Bye now! Trialgoer, if you beat theses bozos, you have to promise to fight me later!"
With that wonderful goodbye, Qing Shan found himself feeling even worse about his situation.
Once the copy that was obviously superior to the three in front of Qing Shan left, something strange happened once more. Unlike what Qing Shan was expecting, two of the copies backed away, and one stepped forward, standing in a position ready to attack.
Qing Shan suddenly understood why he had only been fighting one-on-one in the Trial of Strength. It appeared that this whole trial was centered around strength against one enemy.
After this realization, Qing Shan showed a grim smile.
Less than twenty minutes later, Qing Shan continued through the maze, his body fully restored and energized.
Qing Shan continued walking aimlessly through the maze, killing the copies that came at him. He had only had one situation where he had to face more than one copy immediately after another after that first time, and that one old had two enemies.
Walking aimlessly, Qing Shan was now kind of bored. While he was fighting copy after copy, Qing Shan had gotten used to facing his own style. He could now defeat his own copy in just over two minutes.
'I wonder where that talking copy went? I bet it is stronger than the rest of these copies…'
Just as Qing Shan was thinking about fighting the talking copy for the umpteenth time, Qing Shan walked into a large room.
The edges of the room where lined with fire, and the pathway behind Qing Shan also burned bright. Qing Shan smirked, knowing that this fire was most likely equivalent to a small pinch when compared to the aura of the Primal Fire. Worst come to worst, he could just escape through the fire.
In the middle of the room, standing arrogantly, was Qing Shan's talking copy.
"Welcome! You have arrived at the first of three checkpoints in this Trial Maze! Now, all you have to do before you advance is defeat me!"
Qing Shan watched as his talking copy burst into laughter, clapping his hands. It did not escape Qing Shan that every time the copy clapped his hands, over a dozen normal copies would appear at the edges of the room. Once the border of the room was completely walled off by copies, the talking copy stopped laughing.
"Unfortunately, before you fight me, you will have to defeat all of them first."
Qing Shan whipped around, staring dumbfoundedly at all the copies that appeared in the room.
'I have to fight all of them? I thought that they were just to keep me from leaving! If there is not one thousand, there is at least half that!'
Qing Shan watched, his jaw still unhinged, as the normal copy closest to him stepped forward. Qing Shan noticed in the corner of his eye that the talking copy had jumped away, landing protected in a crowd of normal copies.
Qing Shan faced his copy, the first of hundreds, and darted forward, using his full ability to move fluidly around the copy's counterattacks. Qing Shan put away his staff and jumped up, axe-kicking his opponent's weapon out of its hands before running forward and meeting it head on. After facing many copies like this already, Qing Shan knew exactly what this copy would do next.
And he was right.
The copy stepped backwards and pushed against the ground with one foot, sending a spinning kick at Qing Shan's face. Qing Shan grabbed the copy as it went by, amplified the strength on his arms, and smashed the copy against the ground before stomping through its back and crushing its heart.
Qing Shan continued facing the copies one-by-one, and had already killed five before he was even injured. The injury was actually a string thrust from the Staff that had hit Qing Shan right over his lung, causing some internal bleeding and Qing Shan spitting out some blood.
However, after the fight was over, when Qing Shan was facing his next opponent, he noticed that the injury was not healing. In fact, the only kind if reward Qing Shan got for killing the copy was a little energy, to keep his able to fight.
'…Well that is not good…'