The man who was standing besides Bing Qing Yang grabbed the boy, and from his palms he released a silver light.
His technique was odd, as every beam 'connected' with the body it looked and sounded like a hammer
hitting a weapon, however his peculiar healing technique worked
"His wounds have stabilized...
Huff, what a relief.
What would happen if the first Cultivator that I oversee that has successfully created an
aperture were to die...It gives me chills just to think about it."
The man muttered to himself, then he turned his head to Bing Qing Yang.
"Ehem.
Don't worry about the condition about him, he won't die any time soon, besides I already called
a talented doctor who will treat his wounds soon.
In any case, I hope you're ready.
Soon you'll begin your trial too."
...
Bing Qing Yang glanced at his unconscious brother, there were a mix of too many emotions.
First he felt somewhat happy that he had succeeded, but he also felt fearful.
If his brother with his bullshit talent had been reduced to such a level, what about him?
What would happen to him?
"Oh, well.
I at least must give it a shot, if at some point I become unconscious or what not, that guard will have to ensure my safety, thus is quite unlikely that something will happen to me." He muttered those words to give himself some self-reassurance.
Then, he shifted his gaze to the altar that had automatically replaced the Heavenly Stone with another.
"I have a lot of ideas or knowledge that doesn't exist on this world, from novels to science books, I could create a godlike warmachine such as a mecha, a supercomputer or even the internet!
Fuck it, who am I fooling with this?
I want a System!
The ultimate Golden Finger that will grant me exactly what I need on my journey that expands and expands endlessly, an ability that can grant me all the others!
Resources, pocket dimensions, knowledge and power.
Being the motto phrase 'You want it, you got it.'
So why should I hesitate?"
He began to walk slowly towards it while muttering.
"Strongest Ultimate System, God-like Alchemist System, Sign in System, System of the System of Systems..." Truthfully, he didn't care much about what kind of System he received.
After all, regardless of what he got the System would be born on base of his will and beliefs, it wouldn't be a bullshit System that gives you a mission with a deadline of a week whose penalty of failing is death.
Because he had already a clear grasp of what he wanted, the Heavenly Stone quickly morphed turning into a celeste stone that matched with the colors of his hair and eyes.
The Heavenly Stone also began to change drastically, it looked odd to say the least.
It looked like an image like a video from an old pc with a shitty monitor that was constantly refreshing, popping in and out of reality and pixelated.
A blue thread was shoot at his brain, Bing Qing Yang absorbed the flux of knowledge with ease, after all, his soul was hundreds of times stronger than average for a reason.
Even before he fully absorbed the knowledge he raised his hand at with ease turned the blue light on his forehead into an sphere.
This was the power of a Soul or Cognitive Cultivator that could replace the will of a material and change it to his own.
There were some differences between this method and the one of a puppeteer, for example even though a Soul Cultivator could infuse a 'will' into a solid object, they'd move on the slightest, only something with a neurological body or with the ability to react and move could be manipulated, whilst a puppet could technically turn anything on its puppet, like a sun or Destiny.
...When that 'idea' came to him, another needle was shoot, then there was a pulse on his heart.
There was a pulse on his brain, he couldn't recall 'something', something that he knew was vital.
This strange feeling extended towards his whole body, he knew that there was something strange.
Why didn't he recall the memories of his last moments on earth?
Why didn't he recall the first few weeks of his birth?
Why is that after reincarnating he became 'smarter', his mind became far more sharper and he was able to learn more quickly?
His soul couldn't have been possible a hundred times stronger back on earth that's for sure!
All those doubts emerged on his heart, however there was a purple shadow appearing behind him.
He touched his forehead lightly, he blinked in and out.
"Huh?
I already reached this step?" Bing Qing Yang lowered his gaze, glancing as there was now a paste blue sapphire that seemed on the verge of breaking, however it was held together by some thin golden strings.
"Why does it has this form?
Why my 'aperture', seems that is about to break?
Did anyone interfered on the process?" He thought, but quickly discarded this idea, even if they had top-notch methods, the understanding they'd require regarding Tribulations would be too thorough it would have to be an Immortal, an outstanding one.
Many white strings were shoot towards his body, slashing, cutting, messely weaving his skin
Bing Qing Yang smiled while gritting his teeth in pain.
His water abilities were relatively weak, due to his lack of Cultivation Realm he still couldn't get them outside his body easily, most paths were like that, only a few exceptions such as Soul path were exempt of this.
Only those with Bloodline Abilities could bypass this weakness.
On any case, whilst bleeding his Qi turned denser, he infused his flowing blood with his aura, the golden strings began to melt, but not before injecting a foreign substance on his body.
Bing Qing Yang fell on the ground, his body was trembling.
"Tribulations often reflect the mind of the Cultivator, their paths, their ambitions and their fears....
My emotions were targeted this time, so most likely is targeting my fear.
So why strings, have I had a bad experience with a puppeteer? Maybe I don't feel on control of my life? It is because of my father? Or someone else?"
Humans may be terrible on recalling about events, but are very precise on recalling 'emotions', even if something is forgotten isn't erased, the feelings on a form or another still remain.
This is a flaw of partial forms of mental manipulation, they have to create memory gaps and fake memories which fill some spots, they can even add some sort of cognitive dissonance, but that destroys their prey's capability of critical thinking.
That may be fine on most cases but not for someone who tries to awaken an aperture.
Bing Qing Yang glanced at his surrounds, there was a black, corroding mist, that was beginning to corrupt his flesh and was even affecting his soul.
Instinctively he feel the urge to jump out and escape.
He used a simple technique which consisted on adding a 'chain' between his body and soul, his body may not be able to fly but his soul could, thus he forcefully dragged his own body up.
Coincidentally that was the same idea of a blue hand, that forcefully began to drag him down by relying on some golden strings.
Bing Qing Yang tried to resist but his pupils shrank as he saw the dark mist begin to expand and grow, slowly raising in altitude.
He was forced to make a choice, should he go down and be devoured by the dark mist, or follow the puppeteer?
Before he could make a decision a midnight blue dagger stabbed his soul's chain, splitting his body and soul.
The body was dragged down, and slowly vanished into the darkness.
Now that there wasn't the burden of carrying a body, the soul was far lighter, however it was also more easily attracted by those golden strings.
Finally, multiple purple sparkles of flames began to be shoot and collide with the soul as it was forcefully moved.
Bing Qing Yang's soul on the heat of the moment, decided to target the golden strings.
That was quite reckless, generally a puppeteer had a powerful soul that allowed them to bend the will of others, but that was the only one he could make.
He injected enough of his soul essence to temporarily 'stun' the golden strings and remove their firm grasp, then at lighting speed he rushed towards his 'body.'
Whilst he moved, he noticed with pure joy that even now his body was still holding its ground against the dark mist.
"I have never been so grateful that I decided to inject lingering 'wills' inside my body, without those reflexes my body would have collapsed long ago."
He returned to his body and then he activated another technique, his blood vessels contracted, he concentrated a lot of his boiling blood on a same spot and threw a beam from his fingernails, what was his target?
The mist, of course.
During his years of study about chemicals he found a few creative ways to create explosives, but he had a method that stood above all.
By relying on his mutated blood-plasma, fused with a drop of soul essence, a bit of an exotic Qi, oxygen, and the old reliable hydrogen that he threw from all the flasks he had arranged before arriving to this location the explosion was set off.
Before his body was hit, he infused his sweat with his Qi and protected his face and neck with his arms.
Despite that, his body was still wounded severely, his blood was spilled and condensed into a red fog, that once again reacted with the hydrogen and exploded once more.
The air expanded and contracted creating powerful wind waves, this air was ignited once more after blood was spilled, if the circumstances hadn't forced him, Bing Qing Yang wouldn't have dared to use his most devilish technique.
His circumstances turned even more dangerous as a blurry purple shadow with grayish-blue wings revealed itself, the golden strings appeared from above and below the ground, whilst the purple flames burned his flesh.
The only saving grace from all of this was that his aperture sapphire had already rearranged itself, the golden strings had been removed, instead some random dark-blue lines had appeared on its, otherwise crystal clear form.
He lacked just one step.
Bing Qing Yang glanced at the horizon, he glanced at the purple shadow with its grayish-blue wings that was in front of him.
He knew that to pass this Tribulation he needed to destroy that shadow.
After realizing this, with his remaining strength, despite being dragged by the golden strings from the two sides, he moved towards it.
It was so hard at this point that he practically had to crawl towards him, however he had been successful.
After reaching the shadow, he simply took a bit of his dry blood, he injected some of his Qi and created a powerful flame, with this light he vanished the shadow.
Finally, he had completed the Tribulation and his aperture was successfully formed, so he gave in to the exhaustion.
...
From afar the guard that was watching at him closely, remained still on the spot, confusion was revealed on his expression.
"Two brothers...
Two apertures...
What are the odds of this?
Are they, by any coincidence the sons of an Immortal?" He muttered.