Zachary then went to the kitchen and brought some food. After eating his fill, he returned to the hill that was behind the Welkin Sect, hurried into the system, and continued his cultivation. Although for the time being, the main quest could not be completed, it was worth experiencing the cultivation quest mode.
"Mimi, help me start the cultivation quest mode." Zachary was now adept at operating and using the Treasure-hunting System.
"Start the cultivation quest mode. Please be ready to enter the simulation training scene."
As Mimi's voice resounded in Zachary's mind, the beautiful landscape around him immediately transformed into a very real training ground. The simulated enclosure was surrounded by several majestic and extraordinary statues that had been sculpted in a variety of martial postures. Moreover, they were so real and lifelike that they made the entire ground resemble a real battlefield.
"The cultivation quest mode's difficulty level is divided into normal, hard, challenging, and command. The more difficult it is to complete, the higher will be the number of points gained. Points obtained from completing the quest can be exchanged for the corresponding pills. More points are required to acquire the pills of premium stage. The task is random. And please note that you cannot give up the task once you have accepted it. You won't be able to receive a new one until you have completed the previous one," Mimi said.
"With my current strength, I will only be able to complete quests of normal difficulty!" As Zachary knew himself, he chose a quest that was the easiest—that of normal difficulty.
"Choose normal difficulty... The system is randomly selecting quests...
You have successfully got the quest. You must knock down a wooden stake a thousand times and it must be completed within six hours. If you fail to do so, you will have to restart again!"
As Mimi told Zachary about the content of the quest, a humanoid stake appeared in front of him.
"I need to knock down a stake a thousand times within six hours? Is this quest trying to kill me? If this level is called normal difficulty, won't opting for the challenging difficulty be the end of me?" Zachary was extremely shocked after he heard what Mimi had said.
"The countdown has started!" Unfortunately, Mimi ignored Zachary's complaint and started the countdown the very next moment she had finished saying what she had to say.
In order to start his quest, Zachary took off his shirt, which revealed his lean upper body. Then, after taking a few deep breaths, he began to aim at the stake, shaking his fist and starting the knockout quest. Even though the stake looked ordinary, it could not be knocked down easily.
Six hours later, Zachary, whose face revealed how angry he was because he had not been able to succeed at the assigned quest, lay exhausted in front of the wooden stake.
"Time is up. You knocked down the humanoid stake five hundred and one times, which means that you have failed this quest. Would you like to start again immediately?" Mimi asked.
"No, just wait for a while. This quest is ridiculous," Zachary spat. "Give me a four-hour break." Having asked for a time-out, he immediately stood in the headstand position, which started infusing new energy into him and enabling him to restore his strength, at once.
Soon, Zachary discovered that after that extreme training, the martial energy circle in his body seemed to flow more smoothly than it did earlier. He could also feel some other subtle changes occurring in his body.
Four hours later, Zachary took up the challenge again, but sadly, he was only a hundred knocks better than he had been the last time.
"I refuse to believe that I am incapable of completing the quest..." Zachary seemed unwilling to quit. Therefore, after another four more hours of rest, he continued the cultivation quest challenge.
There he was, starting the task, failing to achieve the target in the given time, resting and starting all over again. After several such cycles, twenty-four hours had passed.
"Nine hundred and ninety... Time is up..."
"Damn it, I missed it by ten... Can we round off this result?" Zachary pleaded.
Just then, the system suddenly sounded an alarm that someone was coming to the treehouse.
As soon as he hear
d the alarm, Zachary quit the system. Moments later, a Welkin Sect's disciple entered the treehouse, and told him to go to the Heavenly Martial Hall to attend the official disciples' initiation ceremony.
"Finally, I've granted your wish of becoming a formal disciple of the Welkin Sect," Zachary said and sighed, after the disciple left. After all, he had already helped this body's original owner hold his head high, hadn't he? He had also completed his wish to become a formal disciple of Welkin Sect. Moreover, in his opinion, he had nothing to do with the blood feud of this body's original owner. He had a lofty ambition and a still greater goal to achieve—he aspired to become a leader in this alien world.
On arriving at the square in front of the Heavenly Martial Hall, Zachary saw that there was already teeming with people. Most of the Welkin Sect's disciples had gathered there, including those who were at the Foundation Establishment.
At the square, Zachary joined the other disciples who were at the Foundation Establishment and had passed the a formal disciple recruitment test. Then, after Lewis, the Welkin Sect's leader, had spouted a lot of nonsense, Zachary received the a robe from him, which was an identity of the Welkin Sect's formal disciple. As he received the robe and became the Welkin Sect's formal disciple, he could feel the envy of the disciples at the Foundation Establishment.
"Two months from now, the Welkin Sect will be holding the selection for the Celestial College. This time, we only have one place, so I hope all the participants will give their best. Besides, Bruce and Elva are eligible to enter the Celestial College directly, because they have triple martial speed," Lewis said and then looked around at the disciples of Welkin Sect.
All the disciples present became jealous and started commenting on what Lewis had announced. The reason why the discussion among them was so heated was that in the last three years, only Bruce Mo and Elva had reached the Heaven Level out of all the Welkin Sect's disciples. Also, they were the only two disciples who had triple martial speed in the Welkin Sect within recent fifty years. Moreover, among all the disciples that the Welkin Sect had sent to the Celestial College before, almost none of them had achieved any level of significance; therefore, no one knew about them. The main reason for their failure was that they did not have outstanding martial speed. Now that Lewis had Bruce Mo and Elva, he was hopeful that they would succeed.
"I don't know when I can enter that Celestial College. Of course, it is impossible for me to enter it with my current strength, and now it seems that I have to work harder than ever before..." Zachary knew clearly that he was just getting started, and still had a long way to go.
Back in the treehouse, Zachary entered the system instantaneously, and waited to receive the reward for having completed the quest.
"Congratulations for completing your first main quest. You get a manual on Crushing Skill as your reward," Mimi said joyfully as soon as he entered the system.
"The Crushing Skill is a martial art at the first-grade of Mortal Level."
After that, a beam of light went straight between Zachary's eyebrows, feeding the contents of the manual on Crushing Skill into his mind. When he cursorily read its contents, a smile appeared on his face immediately. He discovered that the Crushing Skill was indeed powerful. It was really a rather good martial art for Zachary to learn at that time.
"With the Crushing Skill, passing the cultivation quest should not be a problem for me right now," Zachary smiled. At once, he began to practice the Crushing Skill. Once had he become familiar with its power, he immediately entered the system and challenged the cultivation quest again.
Just as what Zachary had thought, he could knock down a stake easily with the Crushing Skill.
"Congratulations for finishing your cultivation quest. Because you have completed this quest in an hour, in addition to the original reward, you'll be rewarded with an extra pill, which is a first-grade green energy-replenishing pill," Mimi said.
"It's really nice that I get a pill as extra reward!" Zachary smiled with delight. Then he quit the system after he had received the rewards.