Those instructors didn't turn back.
Instead, the new ones stepped forward.
"Congratulations on surviving through the first round of testing. You are allowed now to count yourselves as people of the Shou Clan. However," Killing intent billowed at them like a storm in the hall, "You will now be entering the final round of testing."
Feng Wuqing watched the children blubbering at the sudden threat.
They would not die, for the instructors would not allow it.
However, they would likely never wish such a fate on anyone else.
—
Everyone in the clan was bustling around, unable to contain themselves as the next campaign would begin in but a matter of days.
Yet, one fateful morning, words which descended upon them cleared the crisp morning air like a baleful wind.
A dragon landed atop the central building of the Shou clan, the Great Hall, "The Bird Demons are all dead."
These words caused everyone to stop.
"They were slaughtered in a single night."
—
In the fogged world, hearing those words spoken by his mother, Shou Xin couldn't help but feel dismayed.
"However," She continued speaking, her eyes quivering, "I have no evidence of any crimes and thus cannot take you away. But be warned, son."
His look did not change, he understood what she was doing.
He did not want to take her into consideration, nor try to understand her emotions, yet he knew there were things that needed to be done.
And so, the Ten Thousand Soul Pearl returned to within his body, it's essence already intertwined with his own, he could not get rid of it.
Instead, he had no choice but to absorb it.
He passed her, deeper into the Fallen Sword Mound.
"...I am your mother, and I will always love you." Her words tickled his soul as she left in a puff of smoke, the power of the Heavenly Court fluctuating slightly.
He grimaced.
The deeper he went into the Fallen Sword Mound, the more powerful the sharp aura became.
Apparitions appeared before him, attacking him with his same strength, yet it was nothing in comparison to when his mother had been there controlling them.
He did not want to leave into the outer world without first being strong enough to defend himself.
He did not want to leave into the outer world and be a burden to everyone he met.
He did not want to leave into the outer world, some sort of a crippled man.
He had enough of being on the taking end, and refused to be so anymore.
His Primordial Tyrant Law resonated with him, and his mind began to submerge.
"I will not lose."
Even as a mortal, with the level of Sword Intent he carried, he could easily move around them, yet, due to the fact that his Sword Intent was suppressed in order to restrain the Ten Thousand Soul Pearl, he was given no other choice.
"My Intent is weak."
He knew that in comparison to before, his Sword Intent was weak now, the weak chain in the link between his soul, mind and body.
An imbalance.
He looked to forward.
"Sword Heart." He could feel it in his very soul.
In order to achieve it, he would need to put everything else aside.
To submerge oneself solely in the sword.
To become the sword.
Relying strictly on his instincts he cut forward into the long line of challengers at his every step.
With each swing, his mind submerged further and further though there was no end in sight.
With each swing, he became closer to the blade in his hand his movements lost their uselessness.
With each swing, the sun set and the moon rose.
With each swing, a day passed and a night blinked by.
With each swing, there was nothing.
There was only the blade.
What felt like hundreds of years passed by excruciatingly.
His mind shattered, and unknown amounts of time would pass before he could recollect himself again.
The loneliness was something no one could truly understand.
Yet in the end, as he felt his mind completely submerge into the sword he held in his hands, it was not like the dive where he could not breath, but rather as though he were breaking the surface of the water.
As though the world had reversed in his eyes and everything had changed.
Huffing away, his entire body carved up like a blade which had been hammered ceaselessly, his eyes shone with a decisive light, "I am just at the starting line."
His heart beat.
Sword aura flowered.
The Ten Thousand Soul Pearl began to struggle ferociously for the first time in the unknown amount of time that had passed.
Yet.
It was silenced.
Tyrannical Sword Heart.
Primordial Tyrant Law.
Primeval Tyrant Physique.
Tenki Shi Sword Style.
These four coalesced within his body
A harmony had been reached.
His power began to rise steadily.
The calm flame around him, his aura, grew and grew until the fog around him began to melt and be pushed backwards!
The Primordial Mist Tyrant stepped forth from the depths of his Inner Sea.
Wielding Fukkatsu, the Dragon Blade, it gathered every ounce of power and struck the Ten Thousand Soul Pearl!
BOOM!
Once! The pearl cracked and countless souls leaked out, but were devoured by that sonorous harmony within his body!
BOOM!
Twice! The pearl began to spiderweb, and thousands of souls leaked out! Yet, they were all sent in a single direction!
BOOM!
Thrice! The pearl shattered into dust! The Ten Thousand Souls rampaged within his body, yet, using the Primordial Mist Tyrant and the harmony, he lured them out of his Inner Sea and towards the cauldron!
TING!
The parade of Ten Thousand Souls slammed into it, causing it to directly shattered under the pressure coming from within, and without!
The sea of Qi which had been held down for the last few years within the Law Realm, directly spilled over!
Pfft!
Blood sprayed from his orifices, yet he held his ground, and gathering the immense tidal wave of energy, directly challenged it!
The first meridian!
In his mind, four hundred and fifty meridians appeared like pillars holding up the very sky!
His body pulsed, and they were revealed!
Taking the immense force of the destroyed cauldron and the Ten Thousand Soul Parade, he brute force destroyed the clogging material, that Great Path's Qi, which blocked the meridians of mortals.
A final test for those beneath the Great Path's control, the mortals who sought to go higher!
Yet, the Great Path's Qi in the face of the onslaught of Ten Thousand Souls and the full strength of the harmony within his body could not withstand the attack!
One meridian lead into another, and another after that!
It was not until the eleventh meridian, which stood like a giant piercing even the heavens, that he was forced to stop!
The hold of the Great Path grew stronger by leaps and bounds.
It would not easily allow anyone to rise above and truly become Unchained.
Yet, he had already awakened them.
Those ten meridians allowed Qi to circulate through the body far more easily, and produced Qi as well as being able to refine it.
Infusing his meridians with the Golden Flame and Tribulation Lightning, they were strengthened by a horrifying margin.
Those Ten Thousand Souls now drained, were directly released back into reincarnation.
His Inner Sea saw a great transformation.