As his consciousness returned, he found himself in a courtyard facing a stage where a shadow figure stood.
As he looked around, he saw that he was surrounded by other shadow figures, all looking the exact same as him.
"All those who are here killed the opponent they faced, an opponent at the same level as them and nearly unrivaled in the same realm." the figure on the stage spoke.
Feng Zhiming was surprised, that grotesque creature certainly didn't seem that powerful, maybe it was due to the fact that it wasn't able to use its demonic phenomenon that it was so weak.
"There will be further instructions when everyone arrives, until then have patience."
As Feng Zhiming looked around he noticed that even his own body was a shadow figure in this place, he could not access anything that he had on himself, not even his storage ring.
"Quite the predicament, isn't it."
Another shadow figured approached him as it spoke.
Feng Zhiming wasn't worried about fighting here, he felt like as a shadow figure there was no way to physically harm the other party.
"Please elaborate."
"Well you know, to be ripped from your home and loving family being forced to come here."
The voice was distinctly feminine but that was all that Feng Zhiming was able to discern, there was no way to figure out the figure's strength, appearance, age or anything else.
"Hah, please hold an honest conversation fellow cultivator this is a gathering of degenerates, we have no family."
Feng Zhiming chuckled as he responded, it was interesting to see a shadow figure that may or may not resemble that grotesque monster pretend to be concerned about its family.
The figure froze for a moment before replying.
"Apologies, my efforts were a little too transparent."
"Forget it, I don't mind some conversation before I die."
He truly had no idea what was going on, this expert could clearly snap all of them out of existence yet was playing some sort of game. It genuinely irritated him that he could be removed from his existence so easily, was the one hundred years he spent living considered nothing in the eyes of this being.
The figure giggled before speaking again.
"Don't you think this anonymity is funny, one of us may even be a Dao Lord while the other could be a Body Refiner, and we may never know."
The shadow looked at him intensely for a moment after saying that, Feng Zhiming didn't have a discernible reaction.
"Stop trying to gauge my reaction to discern my cultivation level, it's a boring game." he was clearly becoming annoyed at these amateur attempts to gain an advantage.
"I-"
"We've already beat someone at the peak of our respective realms, it means no one who appears within this courtyard is going to be easy to fool."
It was true, especially of cultivators of the demonic path as they had no choice but to be as cunning as possible, due to the fact that they were the minority and often had to hide from the public eye.
"THIS ONE IS HUANG FANG!" A shadow boldly announced at the opposite end of the courtyard.
Feng Zhiming and the figure talking to him stared at each other awkwardly for a second.
"There are always outliers, I guess."
"Indeed."
As more and more people began to appear, the number began to approach 100.
"This seems oddly similar to a game I used to play."
The shadowy figure began to speak slowly.
"I gathered the most poisonous creatures I could find and stuffed them into a jar."
Feng Zhiming had a sudden realization.
"The sharpest blade in the one that not only cuts all stones, but also one that can cut all blades."
"Well spoken, I'll remember this."
"Likewise, Mrs.Poison."
They fell into silence for a moment.
"serpentess."
"Crow."
They both shook hands and seemed to have come to some sort of mutual understanding.
Feng Zhiming had called her a Serpentess due to her comments about poison, but the fact that she called him a crow showcased her monstrous intuition, after all, that was a nickname he had earned after roaming the cultivation world for 100 years.
"She must have some sort of intuition based technique, it's highly unlikely she can discern my nickname through a few sentences." he thought internally.
"Since we're both waiting anyway, how about you tell me about your opponent."
"I faced off against an ugly creature."
Feng Zhiming physically cringed while describing the thing.
"That's much more interesting than mine I had a boring demonic cultivator human, he tried to absorb my blood essence which is like the most basic uninteresting technique ever, I killed him with methods I will not reveal." she spoke while shrugging her shoulders.
Feng Zhiming had heard of that technique it was also demonic in nature, he had suspected in before, but now he knew for sure that this was some sort of demonic gathering.
As they finished up their conversation, the one hundredth shadow appeared in the courtyard.
The moment the one hundredth shadow appeared, a terrifying aura started to descend from the sky.
This was the type of pressure that a peasant may face when speaking to a king, a presence that weighed even on the heart.
As Feng Zhiming struggled to look up, he saw a similar shadow figure, but it was burning with red flames as it descended.
Chaos overtook the courtyard as some shadows began to panic.
"Silence." The figure spoke quietly and quickly the courtyard devolved into a place void of noise.
"There are a 100 of you in this courtyard, by the end of this only one will remain along with 99 corpses."
"One hundred other corpses if I add you to the pile." Feng Zhiming thought to himself silently, as rage began to creep up in the back of his mind.