Over a thousand youths were gathered in the Blazing Valor sect courtyard, and Lord Feng stood before them with a smile on his face.
These were a thousand of his best disciples, cultivators that he had trained from childhood, and today they stood before him as proud confident high tiered cultivation gurus.
One reason why the Blazing Valor sect was so powerful, was definitely because the average cultivation speed of each disciple under them was four stages each four years, and one stage a year.
Compared to monsters like Xin or Minxia who advanced stages like crazy in a few weeks, it was laughable. But compared to all the other cultivators in all the other sects, this cultivation speed was simply unfathomable.
A normal cultivator cultivated one stage in seven years, a good one could manage six years, and a 'genius' could advance in five years, but at the Blazing Valor sect, even the weakest were geniuses.
This was the reason why Lord Feng could boldly stand before them as he made his announcement.
"Good day to you all, esteemed disciples of our revered Blazing Valor sect. I am proud to see the results of your hard work paying off so nicely..."
He scanned each of the disciples one by one, looking each them in the eye.
Some would flinch and avoid his piercing gaze, and some would hold their ground and stare at him back, respectfully, of course.
"...Some of you who were at the peak stage of the Rank 6, have made it to the Rank 7, and those of you who were previously at the peak of the Rank 5 have successfully entered the realms of the Rank 6.
It is very impressive.
But an impressive cultivation speed is not going to keep you alive where you are going to!
The Imperial Sky Emperor's Trial is a harrowing test of resolve, cunning, and strength.
You will see horrors that no human eyes should witness, and you will face threats from every direction.
Friends will become foes, beasts that you won't even see in nightmares will stare you in the eye, and you will learn what kinds of terrible things people would have to do in order to live just a minute longer.
You are going to a place where death isn't just certified, it's guaranteed and its assured.
But the end result, is to survive and come out victorious.
My daughter, Xin, has finally broken into the early Rank 2 section of the second stage of the lower mortal tier and she shall lead us to victory!"
"Master!...'
One male disciple called out.
He was a well built muscular man with a greying goatee.
At his age, he should have been promoted to one of the teachers by now, but he had hit his bottleneck at the peak of the Rank 9 first stage.
"... I believe, that 'Senior' sister Xin is unfit to lead our great valor clan to victory. She has merely broken through this very morning, and I have been at the peak of the first stage for almost thirty years now. I am well in tune with my abilities, and she is not.
I declare... a duel."
Liu Xin Xiaoping wrinkled his forehead in thought as what the man had said was actually true.
Xin had only made her breakthrough this very morning, and had no idea on how to use her new abilities.
A duel in the Blazing Valor sect only ended when one side was dead, and he did not want to lose his only daughter because of his greed.
Turning to face Xin, he asked.
"Do you wish to duel to the death, or forfeit?"
Deep within himself, he wished that she would stand down and forfeit the role, but it turned out that her own greed would be the death of her.
Why did she have to be so much like him?
The jade beauty lowered the pretty pink hand fan covering her face, and smiled.
"I wish to duel, father."
***
The words had been said, hadn't they?
Xin had agreed to duel, and duel she would have to.
The man and Xin faced each other in the centre of a large circle which the other disciples had created.
The man smiled darkly, and then cupped his hands in a low bow.
"Forgive me, 'Senior' sister Xin. But I, Disciple Wu, will take your life today. I hope you are reborn into a good family."
Xin chuckled lightly and then made a bow of her own.
"Thank you, Wu brother. But I am not going to be dying anytime soon."
And then the battle had begun.
"Sāi burst."
"Phoenix Terror."
The two of them shouted out at the sane time as they dashed at each other in lightening speed.
Xin was much faster, such that before the ball of golden sāi could manifest in his hand, the beautiful jian was already in her palms and was halfway to cleaving his head open.
However, the junior disciple quickly noticed it and jumped back a few metres, allowing the blade to crush the stone floor where he had stood a split second after.
'That was close.'
He located Xin pulling her stuck jian out of the floor and decided that it was his chance.
Swiftly, the small ball of golden sāi flew out of his hand with speed that far surpassed that of a bullet.
Unfortunately, his opponent happened to be the only person on the continent with a sāi perception spreading two kilometers around her.
Xin's aura perception ability was still rather high as she was using it to track Shen down for... reasons best known to her.
The sāi ball travelled like lightening, but she had sensed it almost as quickly as he had thrown it.
The sāi burst technique was essentially creating a energy grenade of sorts that exploded once it came in contact with flesh, and almost always caused a chi disruption by invading the Body it touches, but Xin was now at a higher tier.
She flattened her palms and let the ball roll past her palm, on top of her arm, and past her neck, then she flung it back with even more force than Wu had ever imagined and let out a slight grin.
"I bet you didn't expect me to be able to harness this power so quickly, did you?"