*Step* *Step* *Step*
Shu He had been walking through the hall for what seemed like nearly half an hour now, all that accompanied him was the sounds of his footsteps on the stone slabs beneath him echoing out, at first he thought that everything was fine, normal, yet the longer it went on he found everything incredibly odd.
'Something's wrong, I can't pinpoint the feeling though….'
He used his sight on the hallway in an attempt to figure something out, yet nothing seemed abnormal, the flow of qi in the rocks around him was gentle and without disturbance, he extended his vision as far as he could down the tunnel, yet he couldn't find anything.
'Am I just paranoid?' He bit his lip for a second to make sure he could feel the pain, he could.
In the end he just kept on walking, looking around as he went, unfortunately the thick stone walls here restricted his sight, the denser the solid object his sight needs to pass through the lower the overall range of his sight, this was something he tested well, so he was restricted to the hallways he was in and any other near.
He observed everything, each stone slab, each bright stone torch, each scratch or scuffle on the rocks, he tried to remember everything as he went past.
'Huh?' He realised something as he observed the rocks ahead, there was an illusion in place that wasn't there before, or at least he hadn't noticed, with his sight he could see through it clearly, it was the entrance he had come from, now hidden behind a fake rockface.
"Uwah!" As he was looking at it, a boy passed through the barrier entering the rocky tunnel.
Short black hair, brown eyes and dressed in gaudy clothes, Wei Yu fell on his back as he had tried to lean on the rock that was an illusion, he jumped up quickly with eyes like a deer in headlights.
"What? Where am i?!" His head shot around the area looking for someone before his eyes locked on to Shu He who stared at him slightly dumbfounded.
"You there! Is this where the sect exam is taking place?" He asked impolitely.
"Uh… yeah… it's over there" Shu He didn't want to bother speaking to this young man so he pointed down the long tunnel that he had entered originally.
"Great!" Wei Yu shouted in glee as he heartfully tread along the path without a word of thanks.
'I wonder if he'll make it…' Shu He couldn't help but wonder.
He then stepped on over to where the entrance was and faced the exact direction he had entered the passage facing.
'Interesting'
He was surprised, he was expecting a sect exam to be all about cultivation and such techniques, but to think they'd use such a trick from the start, where he was standing he couldn't see the second hallway that he had came from, the positioning of the entrance, the angle of hallways and the placing of lighting hid it within the shadows, unless you knew about it or were overly observant you wouldn't realise it was there! Especially if you just assumed it was a normal hallway taking you to the exam, in a way this was a test in itself.
'As for how I thought it was going up but ended up going down, I read about something similar in my previous life, by steadily manipulating the incline in a long ,curved passageway, it's easy to confuse the senses of someone walking it, I assume similar logic was in play here!'
"How cheeky" Shu He smirked slightly.
'If it's like this, the exit is probably hidden in a similar manner'.
With this new mindset, he set off down the tunnel once more with his eyes searching every nook and cranny, he also perked his ears up as he walked steadily, quieting his footsteps as he went to reduce the noise.
He wasn't sure how far Wei Yu had headed ahead, but he couldn't hear his joyful steps anymore which relieved Shu He in a way.
After about ten minutes he stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brows, cupping his hands on his ears.
'Wind?'
It was incredibly quiet, so much so that it was easily drowned out by the footsteps and the laboured breathing of anyone treading ceaselessly.
He moved forward a few meters and then back trying to see if it got louder or quieter, then he used his enhanced senses to extend his hearing up and down the hallway until he managed to find where it was coming from, it was an unsuspecting slabbed wall that looked like the thousands of other's that he had passed along the way.
He frowned and activated his sight, trying to focus it on the tiny gap that was whistling wind in the tunnel, unfortunately he hadn't reached the skill to do such a thing, and just trying to penetrate the wall like normal with his sight gave the same result as the others- nothing, it was too thick.
'Is this the exit?' He put his hand on the stone, but nothing happened, his token didn't react this time; clearly that wasn't the answer.
No matter what he looked at, it seemed to be entirely the same as all the other walls around him.
'Maybe it isn't… no it's a clear lead, maybe there's a mechanism to open it?' He assumed the answer in his head, he couldn't see any obvious illusions or qi manipulation around him, so a mechanical solution was likely.
He looked around the surrounding areas, pushing on slabs with his feet and hands in case one of them to no avail, he searched every nook and cranny within 10 meters of the door in case there was another sleight of hand hiding a button or a lever, but he turned up no results.
He felt a little stumped as he stared around.
'The only things that are here are the stone walls, floors, roof and pillars, the adorning patterns don't seem to hold much meaning, the brightstone lamps…'
He stared at the surrounding lamps, they were brightstones shaped and embedded in a piece of finely crafted jade of myriad shapes lining the halls in a consistent pattern.
'They stand out, but what exactly… the shapes, do they mean something? But I don't think there's a pattern to those, it seems more like they're all unique…'
His brows creased as he stared at a lamp positioned next to the 'door' he was trying to figure out, then his eyes widened spectacularly.
'Could it be?!' He rushed forward, getting a closer look, the more he observed it, the more he felt he was correct!
'The shape of the jade plate behind it is very familiar' He thought as he untied the token from his waist and compared the two, they were almost identical.
He then immediately placed his hand on the brightstone and began to fiddle with it, trying to shift it left and right.
*CLANK*
As he did, the entire stone shifted upwards revealing an indentation in the jade behind it causing him to smile, grab his token and slot it inside.
*GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
As he did, it lit up and the assumed 'passageway' began to shift, not sideways but down, revealing behind it another slab which also began to shift downwards, and another, and another, so on.
After a few tens of seconds, before Shu He was a stone staircase leading straight upwards.
'No wonder I couldn't see through it, it wasn't a door; how impressive!' He felt marvel at seeing this kind of secret passage playing out in front of him.
*Click*
His token popped out of the slot as the brightstone slid back in place, seemingly urging Shu He to move on.
'I better go before it closes!'
And so, he shot into the passage, entering yet another long hallway, only this time it led directly to the room where the exam would be held!
After five minutes of ascension that tired Shu He slightly, he reached an opening full of light, as he stepped out in to the glaring sun he was greeted with a large room that resembled some sort of waiting lobby, there were many seats with people sitting cross legged patiently facing an open wall side of the room, Shu He was quite amazed at the scale of the room crafted with white marble, its style felt reminiscent of roman architecture, but not quite.
"Welcome, the test will begin once the set time has been reached so please remain seated until then, but before that can I please have your name?" A man with a balding head and a small moustache greeted him from the front of the room.
"Ah, my name is Shu He" He replied, bowing in greeting.
Shu He could easily tell this man was part of the sect, and likely the examiner, the white and grey robe he was wearing confirmed it without a doubt, it wasn't just him though, there were a couple more middle aged men standing either side of the room, either to keep guard or watch, Shu He obviously didn't know.
"Ah! The one Chao Shi recommended… I see I see… well then, please take a seat."
Shu He nodded and without wasting any time, he picked a seat that wasn't next to anyone, around the outside and got comfortable, he began to look around sneakily at the people there, unfortunately he didn't recognise a single one.
'Well, that's not surprising'.
Over the past three years, he had been slowly fed some information about the world of cultivation by Bai Shun who visited him in the city now and then, one thing that surprised him was that it was fairly out of the norm for a normal person to enter the world of cultivation, this was because the distribution of cultivation techniques was restricted! You were only allowed to do so if you were an approved instructor or sect approved by the capital Iris, Shu He was a massive exception since he didn't really get taught how to cultivate, people like him were as rare as qilin horns.
Instead, most fresh blood in the cultivation community come from cultivation families or clans, or descendants of older cultivators, and that's most likely who these people were, there were mostly children in his age range but there were a couple of older people.
'It's really good I didn't tell on Bo Lin, he did give me that formula which helped me a tonne, I don't know if he would get in trouble because of that'.
He thought back to the bearded merchant that he had sold his medicine to, he had realised by now that he was, without a doubt, a cultivator himself, Shu He had truly run a stroke of luck by running in to him.
After he got a good look at the surrounding people, he closed his eyes to rest, there should be a few more hours until the exam starts so he couldn't do much else.
However, he couldn't help but feel a bit worried.
The image of a bald head reflected in his mind; he hadn't seen that person here yet.
'He said he'd come himself but…'
Shu He thought of the intricate tricks that he had just passed.
'Will that oaf even make it here?'