The day arrived and it was a breezy sunny morning. The drill sounds of the army could be casually heard as Master Fu Rah along with Luo and Hua were walking towards the registration counter to enter the common area of the Royal Library.
As they reached the gates, they saw that there was very tight security outside the gates. Everyone standing there was a peak True Foundation realm cultivator. The receptionist receiving everyone's badges and registering them for entry into the library and explaining the rules of the event to them was someone in the Core formation realm.
When master Fu Rah and Luo, Hua arrived, they walked towards the receptionist and Fu Rah handed over the tokens depicting the region and the place in the Summer competition over to the receptionist.
"Ah, Miss Fu Rah, rare to see the sect master herself escorting the kids. Was everyone else busy?", Receptionist Gi Doh said while noting down details for Luo and Hua. Anyway, everyone from the Qing province is waiting over at that corner, Gi Doh pointed out. I saw the Heavenly Dragon sect's master Pu Kuh there as well. You may head on over there.
Luo made a face but Master Fu Rah saw it and admonished him to behave properly as they approached master Pu Kuh. He was a tank of a man, heavily set, wearing a red shirt and a robe embroidered in gold. Standing beside him was Xiao Wu, his nose up in the air looking down at everyone else except for the other's who also got the first prize in the Summer competition held in other regions.
He was dressed slightly less ostentatiously, with a red undershirt and black pants and a belt with a buckle that was a dragon head. He saw Luo and Hua coming towards them along with Master Fu Rah. He was annoyed at seeing Luo but that was soon replaced by sleazy thoughts about the beautiful master Fu Rah and her somewhat plunging neckline.
"Master Pu Kuh, it has been a while. I assume everything is well with you. Also, please restrain your disciple from flooding this place with his drool." Master Fu Rah smugly said. Luo and Hua snickered at this behind her back.
"Ah…Ah yes. Pu Kuh greets sect master Fu Rah." he then turned towards Xiao Wu who was still staring and knocked him on the head a little. He then asked "Ohhh, are these Luo LianHao and Hua Geming that I have heard about? I heard that their performance was pretty good. But I have been training Xiao Wu, so how about a wager here sect master Fu Rah? "
"Ohh, we're not been here long and you immediately want to make a bet? Alright, part of the reason I came was to brag about these two anyway so how can I back down from a bet? Tell me what you want to bet and we will shake on it."
Luo and Hua felt a little bit proud and stood a bit taller.
"Nothing too grand, Master Fu Rah, just that you personally come and perform the Blossom and the Mount Tai technique for our disciples for one session. What do you say, not too much to ask right?"
"Hmph, your sect master treats our sect as if we are just an auxiliary one.And yet here you are asking me to perform something that your disciples would not come across unless they paid hefty sums of money for it."
"Ahh, I am sorry that sect master Fu Rah feels like that. But still, how about the bet. You can state your conditions as well."
"Hmm…let me think." She looked over at Hua and Luo and then her eyes wandered to the sword at Hua's back. It was just a normal sword, not something that was an heirloom or something special. She then smirked and said to Pu Kuh "Alright, you are on. My condition is that we get a treasure sword from you. The one that all of your inner disciples get, forged by your famous blacksmith, yes that's the one I want. Dare to accept the terms?"
Pu Kuh slipped and showed an irritated look for just a small instant but then his face reverted to practiced nonchalance. "Yes, that should be a fair ask sect master Fu Rah. Hearing you play that technique, it would definitely be equivalent to this price."
Xiao Wu had broken out of his reverie and looked over at Luo and said "hmph, just because you are wearing nice clothes, it doesn't mean that you are now equal to us. Know your limits, your trash."
Luo smiled disarmingly and said "Well, if it isn't our little prince Xiao Wu, who still thinks that everything in the world revolves around him and his tiny little …..ego. You can trash talk or do whatever that you want, but we both know that you can't bully me anymore. If you dare to, why don't you try doing something like you used to back then? Huh?"
Xiao Wu was red with anger but master Pu Kuh was looking at him and also he didn't think he could just drop Luo to the ground and kick him like he used to back in the day. He said "Hmph…I won't waste my time with you now. But mark my words, I will be the one to break your new found strength and I will do it soon enough."
Half an hour later, the receptionist closed his counter for registrations and silently beckoned them to start and enter the Royal library through its main gate.
Before he let each of them inside he would remind them that he could see and hear everything that was going on and if he heard or saw anything that looked like malpractice or bullying, he would just go in and drag them out of the Library and they would be banned for life, from entering it.
Luo and Hua bowed to master Fu Rah and then entered the library. So did the other entrants, one by one. As soon as they entered they could feel a suffocating pressure and it seemed to permeate and crush their soul with an intense pressure as well.
Luo and Hua immediately activated their 36 walls of soul technique and so did the others who had comprehended it in the summer competition and then cultivated it for using it at this opportunity. It seemed that everyone had thought of the same thing.
But nobody there had completely perceived the technique like Luo and Hua had. They smoothly sailed forward, not even bothering to look at the books in the first level.
Out of the 12 participants from the 4 provinces, all of them had advanced to the 5th level without much problems. Half of them had settled at the 5th floor as they understood by the change in pressure between each level that they had hit their limits.
Xiao Wu was sweating and stealing glances at Luo and Hua who seemed to be unfazed by the crushing pressure to his soul. He wondered how they were coping so well and thought 'I had been given the chance to comprehend the 36 walls of soul as it is a technique from the Heavenly Dragon sect. I have comprehended it till the 25th wall already and yet I think I am about to hit my limits. Yet , how are they so unfazed. How are they coping?"
The rest of the6 participants advanced to the 6tth layer. After a short break Luo and Hua nodded and got up to ascend to the 7th level, just like Master Fu Lin had predicted. Another participant had also gotten up and ready to move onto the next level. She was a girl, but with a stocky build and hard toned muscles. She was wearing a sleeveless red robe tied together with a simple black belt. The length of her arms were covered in scars and her skin looked really tough.
Luo wondered which sect she was from. Xiao Wu was panting and he sat down to recover when Luo, Hua and the girl started walking towards the 7th level. He had to recuperate his Qi and he knew that this was as far as he could go with his current comprehension of the 36 walls of Soul. 'Does this mean that their comprehension of Soul techniques is higher than mine? How can I be beaten by someone like Luo?'
The trio arrived at the 7th level and the girl calmly sat down and started doing breathing exercises to recuperate her Qi. Luo looked at Hua and said "I will be going up to the higher level. What about you?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
Luo and Hua moved on to the 8th level where they sat down for a few hours to recuperate and try to acclimatize to the pressure they were feeling.
Meanwhile, Gi Doh was broadcasting their progress for all of the masters who accompanied them to see.
As soon as Luo and Hua had advanced to the 7th floor leaving Xiao Wu behind at the 6th, Fu Rah squealed excitedly but immediately regained her composure and looked at Pu Kuh and said smugly, 'Well, Well, Well. I suppose you understand what the power of my new disciples is. I believe you owe me the sword we talked about."
Pu Kuh nodded but this time he did not have a nonchalant expression.
Fu Rah thought that it was amazing that Luo and Hua were even able to advance to the 8th level and thought that they would have hit their limits by now. 'Good progress boys. You have made me proud. But it is time for you to stop and pick a cultivation manual.'
After a few hours had passed, the participants, now fully recuperated, started to peruse the cultivation manuals except for Luo and Hua who were still meditating. A couple of hours later, they finally stirred and then started to walk towards the highest level of the library, the 9th level.
Fu Rah, Pu Kuh and even Gi Doh were shocked. Gi Doh said out loud "I haven't seen anyone go past the 7th layer in the last couple of decades. That itself is rare. I have only seen one person go to the highest level of the library when still in the Qi condensation realm. It is an exceptional feat as to reach the highest level you need to have comprehended a soul cultivation technique to its peak in that realm and that is very very rare. The highest level houses the techniques and cultivation artefacts that were created by old monsters or items that no one could ever fathom in hopes that whoever picks any one item up there will have the strength in the future to support the empire as a whole."
Fu Rah asked him "Who was that master Gi Doh?"
"The current emperor of our kingdom, the Yellow sea confederation, Liu Tianyi"