A few days following his spar, Li Duyi continued with his normal activities of working out, visiting the mission hall, reading in the library, and finally retiring to bed. This cycle goes on, but today will be different. He had not anticipated a horn sounding. The guard shouted at the top of his lungs, loud enough for everyone in the village to hear.
" BEAST TIDE INCOMING! Get ready for your weapons, women, children, and elderly. Go to the evacuation bunker. Men, ready your weapons and fight. " The guard captain who's at the frontline shouted at them. The cultivation of the guard captain is at Body Tempering Realm 2nd layer, which is not enough for such a beast tide.
While the people at the inner ring didn't help at all, as they ran away to their secret passage. Even the cultivators didn't care and ran away, leaving their belongings such as silver coins, clothes, and cultivation books.
Li Duyi looked at the panic-stricken villagers running for their lives while the brave ones pick what they can use to fight off the beast. Some kids even pick stones to throw at some beasts, and their parents stop them.
" Looks like Lin Fan is supposed to survive this beast tide, given the golden particle surrounding him, but it doesn't matter now. He will die and all of them do, if Lin Fan still has the golden particles, he might survive and take revenge on the beasts, and then the cliche follows, adventure, fighting arrogant young masters, and such. " Li Duyi said before running towards the inner ring amidst the chaos.
Upon arriving there, not even a single soul can be seen, as if there is no one living in the inner ring for a long time. It was desolate, things scattered around. All doors were open, and Li Duyi saw this as an opportunity and checked all the things inside. He kept looking for something he wanted, cultivation books. Minutes of finding, Li Duyi already found 10+ cultivation books and some martial arts books.
He continued looking while screams can be heard at the outer ring, but he didn't care and continued his search for cultivation books or anything he can find that can provide him immense strength in the long run. He even picks a sword that isn't light or heavy for him, just the right weight. Hours later, the screams stop at the outer ring, and Lu Duyi finally finishes his findings. He found 100+ cultivation books and thousands of martial arts books.
He put all the books on the table of one of the houses of the inner ring and skimmed through all of it. From the books he read, one thing is common, they all needed someone's help to break through the meridian awakening realm. But who's Li Duyi? The greatest genius to ever exist, the one who opened a new era full of discoveries and opportunities. He is a jack of all trades, master of all. Such a thing can't stop him from ever achieving what he wants.
" Despite having one thing in common, the books have it's use, and that's all that matters. From what I read, the cultivators use the qi in their dantain to help the mortal open the blockage of their meridian but the thing that is detrimental to the future cultivation is that the qi of the cultivators has already been tainted, and helping the mortal through such method would limit their future in cultivating. That means I must find a way for me to control the qi in the surrounding but it should be easy " Li Duyi said, reading through all of the books while writing the things that could benefit his future cultivation technique.
" Thank you for letting me stay here and rest in peace, Hua Villagers." Li Duyi bowed towards the outer ring before running somewhere. You must be asking yourself, why didn't he save them? Well, it's not his obligation to save people, and he is too weak to stop such a disaster. Plus, fate is a cruel and beautiful thing that can happen, depending on their destiny.
Even if they are good to him, it's just the way it is, and with how he lived from his previous life, he knows when he can and can not intervene in destiny. If he does such a thing, he will probably get into trouble more often. With how the cliche plot works, there's a high chance he will get into such a cliche plot.
Thus, he decided against saving the villagers. Li Duyi, with a map in his hand, continued his journey toward the nearest village, Peng Village.
It took him a few days to reach Peng Village but when he arrived at the location, the Peng Village has a bustling street, as if there is an occasion and there is one, one of the most powerful and prestigious sects of the East-West region, One Sword Sect.
Li Duyi, who doesn't know much about the world, asked someone nearby.
" Excuse me, Senior Brother. Can you tell me what the commotion is all about?" Li Duyi asked, still with his usual apathetic face.
The man who got asked was a little surprised before his eyes lit up and excitedly told Li Duyi everything and like everything, from the foundation of the sect to its glory.
" Sure, the most powerful and prestigious sect around this land visited the Peng village and you must know, One Sword Sect has a deep foundation that has cultivated many immortals and if you'll get accepted by them, you can do whatever you like as their backing. One Sword Sect is powerful enough that even one of their inner disciple can level the village into oblivion with little difficulty. That's how powerful they are. "
"Right, you must be new here and don't know much about such deep information, but let me tell you, I have a brother who's an immortal, and from what he said to me. One Sword Sect has multiple mountains and floating mountains, One Sword Sect disciples can be categorized into 3, the outer disciple, are the disciple who recently joined the sect with the exception of some inhuman geniuses. The inner disciple, they are the disciple who has lived for more than 100 years inside the sect, and they have one of the best treatment as disciples: "
" Third, Core Disciple or True Disciple, they are like a heaven-defying genius who was given the best of the best disciple treatment that my brother, who's an outer disciple was jealous of. From what I heard, they are given their abodes, servants, and more. The materials they've got are at least at the Earth Stage, and from what I knew, the stages of materials are yellow, human, earth, and heaven. These are the stages that I know "
The man said and as if he still wants to continue, Li Duyi, who heard enough, stops him and waves him goodbye before joining a long queue.
" I see, that means if I join a sect such as this one. I will have the opportunity to achieve my goal of creating my cultivation techniques. Weird, why do I feel as if I forgot something, something important such as this information? It's like it is slowly erasing, and the new memories I have are slowly coming back. If my assumption is correct, I must find a way to prevent such events from happening. It will do me no good if I don't remember my past life. " Li Duyi face frowns a little bit before returning to his usual face.
" And to do that, I must first become stronger but my intuition and vision gave me a signal that I should slowly take such steps in getting stronger, I don't know why but I theorize that being steady is more beneficial in a long run and doing a hasty take on cultivation is something that shouldn't be done, " Li Duyi said when suddenly, a voice, loud enough for everyone to hear like as if someone was talking near their ears.
" Welcome, all participants. My name is Elder Mo, I welcome you to our entrance exam to become a member of One Sword Sect. The tests will begin soon, but first, I must tell you what you wanted to know about the test. The first test is testing your battle senses or your instinct. You might be wondering why the first test is about senses, it's because if some of you don't know how to dodge some punches without retaliation, it's humiliating and probably one of the most dangerous factors if we don't have any instincts in any danger. The second test is the test of will, we will test your resilience and your thirst for survival to make sure that you won't falter in any danger that comes in front of you. "
" Third, is your comprehension. Without this, don't expect that you'll have a bright future when cultivating, while it might not seem much but comprehension is one of the things cultivators must have to comprehend the cultivation technique at a higher level. And lastly, your love for swords. As a sword sect, we must showcase our love for a sword, and if you don't have such a thing, no worries as we don't discriminate against such people. Even one of our ancestors is a body cultivator and probably one of the strongest ancestor of all."
"So, you don't have to worry about the last test as long as you pass the first three tests. Now, let the test begin!" With a final statement, Elder Mo ended his speech and the young disciples roar. Li Duyi, who saw this, doesn't care much and registers himself. At the first test, Li Duyi fought with someone whose snotty and fat that Li Duyi's eye twitched before punching the shit out of the kid, making him out of the ring.
The proctor who saw this asked Li Duyi if he wanted to fight another kid, to which he agreed, but even the second kid isn't much. He dodged and single-attacked him, making him faint on the ground.
Li Duyi, who saw this, shook his head and looked at the proctor who shrugged his shoulder as he let Li Duyi pass. Despite Li Duyi passing the test, it doesn't bring him any joy, and like always, had a calm face throughout the whole day. As for the Proctor, he constantly checks every move of Li Duyi and knows that Li Duyi would pass with flying colors.
This makes him hesitate if he should tell Elder Mo, but he decided to wait until the final stage, a stage where Li Duyi would either be placed in a favorable position or the neutral position.
The second test is a breeze for his nigh-immovable will that almost if not all proctors are shocked. The reason for their shock is that Li Duyi's face didn't even change one bit with pressure enough to make an inner disciple kneel to the ground. So, the proctors decided to let Li Duyi continue the tests and see if he has a qualification to be a core disciple.
At the third test, a proctor will give out sword cuts in a stone that ranges from simple to "impossible" level. They must comprehend how many strokes that have been plastered to the stone and with his vision, Li Duyi passes the impossible test that hasn't been achieved by anyone except for the first ancestor of One Sword Sect. With this test, Li Duyi's position has already been set as a core disciple and if he did pass all the tests, he shall be granted the highest seniority the sect could give, Young Sect Master. A future Sect Master that will be nurtured with their best equipment, materials, instructors, and more.
From the 2.5 million competitors, just 10 have cleared the third level, and the final test has now started. The only explanation for this is that, as a result of the proctor's pressure and enthusiasm during the second test, nearly all of the participants with weak wills are eliminated, and they can only serve as, at most, an outer disciple.
The last test is a test of their intimacy with their sword, but Li Duyi, who isn't a fan of swords, failed the test and at best only advanced to core disciple status. Notwithstanding his accomplishments, Elder Mo and the proctors are glad to inform their sect leader of Li Duyi's promotion and see if they can grant him the seniority of a Young Sect Leader.
The awarding came once the examination was completed. While the top 3 receive 10 Qi Gathering Pills, 5 Body Tempering Pills, and a Human Grade Sword, the top 10 are given 5 Qi Gathering Pills and a Yellow Rank that will aid them when they reach the Qi Gathering Realm. Eventually, the winner received a wealth of gifts, including an Earth Grade Sword and 20 Qi Gathering Pills, 10 Body Tempering Pills, and 5 Qi Condensation Pills.