"Thought Or Telepathy"
"Character Communication"
"Loud Speaking"
"Emphasis 'On' A Word."
Madara: A New Journey
The night has passed and daylight creeps over the horizon when Madara opens his eyes from his meditative position, an eery light escaping his sight as he lets loose a long drawn out-breath of air that cracks through the silence of the room like a loud bang.
At this moment, on the same bed that he is sitting cross-legged on, a low and gentle yawn makes itself known. Looking over to his side reveals Ruby's tiny figure with the covers messily pulled over her while she clenches Madara's waist in a rather awkward contortion.
His eyes narrow slightly. The vivid memories of how that cultivator personally killed this girl's family flash in his mind, the face he sees now, and the face he saw as she saw her family die. In some small way, he can't help but feel sympathy. "It's time to wake up." He places his hand on the girl's head and moves her hair back.
"Father..." She says this in a daze as her eyes open slowly.
A sigh enters her ears and it seems to sobber her up a little as the hand moves from the top of her head down to her shoulder before retracting away. "Get up and go eat." He finishes those words as he gets up from the bed.
The now fully awake Ruby jumps out of the bed at the strick tone while keeping an elegant demeanor as she respectfully bows to him and leaves the room. Madara shakes his head wryly. "Children, I just don't feel comfortable around them."
Misaki had gone out shopping early in the morning to make breakfast for everyone, the first meal in a new place is like a tradition and so she went all out and made her favorite dish, long before anyone was even awake she began cooking in a kitchen so large she had no idea what to do with all the space.
It didn't take long for the smell to quickly fill the entire house until the current time when everyone had thoroughly salivated in anticipation. The dining room quickly filled up with hungry mouths which increases Misaki's smile. Even Madara discreetly sits down at the dining table.
As the meal is set in front of everyone, Misaki puts a jug in front of Madara. He raises his eyebrow and breaks the seal on top, he takes a smell and smiles. "When was the last time I had wine..." He can't recall, it is likely decades ago. He takes a sip from the small jug and sets it down.
Now that Madara isn't so hungry, he eats with a grace that is much more befitting of his appearance. He doesn't so much share a huge passion for food or alcohol as some, they're just things that trigger the senses via chemical signals in the brain to make someone feel a certain emotion.
But so is his love for battle, his love for the battle is notable high, after a good battle, it dwarfs the joy he can get from eating or having sex a thousandfold, in many ways, one could call him the ultimate battle fiend so much so that it takes the enjoyment away from what other things in comparison.
The last true life or death battle he had was with Hashirama in the valley of the end, nothing can describe the sensation he got standing in front of Hashirama after he just subdued the Nine-Tails, and he battled him to a standstill from that point on.
His eyes drift off as he reminisces of that battle. The others notice his grey gaze. "What are you thinking about? Is it my alluring beauty?!" Hatsune asks mischievously as both Kaba and Hiroi roll their eyes.
"No, I'm thinking about an old friend." His eyes sharpen up as he continues. "But these are just the passing thoughts of an old man."
"You don't look very old, like mid-thirty maybe?" Kaba ponders.
Madara shakes his head and gets up. "Shall we leave now?"
Kaba reveals a look of remembrance. "Oh yeah, that's right!" He looks to Hiroi who is finishing his meal. "Brother! Today we step into the world of the immortal!" He says this in a comical fashion with the shining eyes of a 5-year-old doing anything for the first time.
Hiroi stands up with excitement but also slight embarrassment at the way his older brother phrased it.
Suddenly, Mika jumps up in response to the random burst of events going on. "Where are you going?! Can I come!"
Kaba laughs loudly before padding his little sister's head mockingly. "We are going to look for a way to heal Ryuu and see what it takes to join a sect so we can make a living and grow stronger, me and Hiroi that is, you can't come."
"But that isn't fair, why can't I come?" Mika whines as she sits back down with a downtrodden expression. Misaki sits at the end of the table, she looks at her daughters and then at Kaba as she thinks about something.
Kaba also pauses for a second. "Well, it's just not what I want for you, I want you to be happy and live lightheartedly. It's also incredibly hard to get into a sect of any kind, so we aren't even sure if we qualify, plus today is just us taking a look around."
Ruby finishes her food and listens in closely, her eyes drifting towards Madara. "I also want to go." She says this in a passing whisper but one filled with determination, but Madara's eyes lock with hers for a brief moment and after the words leave her mouth. A small closed grin appears.
Madara clears his throat and says in a dead toned manner. "I don't care who comes and who doesn't, however, and this goes for all of you..." He pauses as his gaze goes to Kaba and Hiroi. "A path that pursues power, of any kind, attracts human degeneracy."
"You should be prepared to face all kinds of tribulations and a life of suffering and anguish. You should prepare to see all you love die before your very eyes and be expected to have the will to continue afterward, that is, if you don't die along the way."
He chuckles once as his gaze travels. "I've been on this planet for over a hundred years." A wave of cold fills the air at that news. "In that lifetime, the number of people I've killed that wanted to take my life is far too many to count. It isn't hard to imagine how different it could have been if I lived, a normal life."
"But now it is too late, a path has already set and already experienced all the pain, and so the only path forward is towards the next tribulation. This is the path you are so eager to choose, remember that before you decide, it is not a path of golden bricks filled with glory, but a muddy path stained in blood and tears."
After finishing his little speech, he leaves the building, the others stay, a pondering and thoughtful expression on each of them, none more so than Ruby.
The only person to follow him after a few minutes is Kaba, who at this moment is thinking that he can handle it no matter how painful, but what could a farmboy know about despair?
On this day, the streets are mildly packed, no more so then the day before, with such a large city, the number of people to even create this much traffic collectively over this large of an area is easily a billion. Madara and Kaba have no problem moving through the crowd, neither of them knows exactly the destination.
The only unifying thing in their search is the desire to learn more about the requirements to enter a sect. Madara searches feverishly through the thoughts of the people in the crowd but these are the thoughts of spoiled and rich mortals with little worries.
Kaba asks around but also learns that these people really know nothing about the city they live in. Madara suddenly takes a sharp turn, if he cannot learn from the people themselves then he has no choice but to go directly to a sect. "I know where to go."
Last night he managed to detect a majority of the cultivators in the city, many of them are grouped up in various areas, this would point to a reason, and he is heading to one of the most populated areas, one with one of those stronger intents he managed to detect.
The two travel in silence for an hour before Kaba says. "Is what you said true? Have you really lived that long?"
Madara only nods without looking at him, his mind seems elsewhere. Kaba looks down for a second, the conversation from earlier echoing in his mind. "Do you think I should become a cultivator?" This blows into Madara's ears as he continues walking.
"Your mother is more suited to be a cultivator then you. You haven't shown the qualities that would make a good cultivator." When he says this Kaba deflates and pauses in the road for a minute before catching up to his disappearing figure. "If you take what I say to heart, you certainly won't amount to much as a cultivator."
He finishes with a cold snort and they both enter and open area devoid of people. The clearing is a perfect circle with a diameter of four miles, two miles ahead is a massive structure protected by a trench that when one peers down into they'd feel their soul being pulled from their body.
A tower that dwarfs the hundred-foot walls is raised thousands of feet high. The top of the tower is formed in a manner that resembles a black crescent moon symbol.
The sun shines from behind the crest creating a crescent moon shadow over a portion of the city. This structure is already dozens of times larger than a normal city.
After taking it in for a moment the both of them walk to the bridge that seems to be the only way to cross the trench. Once they cross the bridge they come to a massive gate and on the outside of that a simple wooden stand with an elderly man under a cherry blossom tree.
The old man immediately recognizes their presence. "Outsiders, can I help you?" His voice contains a bit of presence that on the outside seems small but when the voice reaches Kaba, it causes him to shake and nearly pass out, but he manages to grab his knees before doing so.
Madara walks right up to the small wooden stand and stares down at the elderly man. That same man gauges him and thinks. "This fellow is strange, he didn't even flinch at my divine sense but I can't feel any cultivation from him, there is this strange aura around him. Not simple!"
Madara had purposely allowed the divine sense to bypass his God-Armor and read the elderly man's thoughts to see what his reaction would be. Not surprisingly the man can't detect his cultivation, because he doesn't have one, but he did detect some strange aura, whether this is the infection, he doesn't know.
His attitude does a one-eighty as he clasps his hands and follows the customs of the cultivation world when meeting a senior. "Junior greets Senior, I seek information on the requirements to join a sect in this Glacier Fate City?"
The elderly man ponders for a moment, his mind holds various ideas about this strange man in front of him, the more he tries to feel out that strange aura the more he feels like his cultivation is simply not enough to grasp it even the slightest bit.
The man lets out a thoughtful and scanty murmur. "Mmm, I'm not too sure if I'm the senior here..."
He quickly continues. "You must be new to this place, most sects are closed from outside admission and send out invitations to the gifted of their branch sects." Even before he finishes, Madara's fake smile turns into a cold gaze. "But there is an event that happens every month that allows outsiders to enter!"
The elderly man says this quickly after spotting that gaze, although hard to notice, his heart skipped a beat and sweat had already formed on his forehead. "The event tests rogue cultivators and mortals for exceptional talents and various sects of the alliance choose individuals, it happens three weeks from now."
"Many thanks, Senior!" Madara turns to leave but stops and turns around with a mock look of embarrassment as he clasps his hands again. "Senior, do you happen to know of any sects or people who specialize in healing?"
This change of demeanor surprises Kaba, the Madara in front of him is acting completely different from the one he knows, almost deceptively so.
The elderly man's eyes widen ever so slightly. "As I thought, he's injured in some way. If I'm not mistaken what I'm feeling is some sort of death aura. What kind of cultivation did he have to make my hair stand up like this..."
He quickly responds as he drifts out of his thoughts. "Not many cultivators are bothering to heal outside of their own sect and high-quality pills are only traded between cultivators, generally."
Stroking his white beard, greed fills eyes. The elderly man thinks to himself. "If his cultivation is high and he joins our crescent-moon sect then it does me well to be owed a favor."
After that, he confidently says. "This old man is pretty knowledgeable in alchemy, perhaps I can help you see what kind of pill you need to cure yourself?" The man extends his arm forward and opens up his palm.
"I'll have to bother Senior then." Moving his wrist in the man's extended hand, Madara holds no ill intentions, despite passing thoughts of devouring this man's soul, which would be unwise, or extracting it with the Rinnegan to search his memories, in either case, he didn't fancy doing that in the open.
The elderly man inspects Madara's body on a deeper level and a gasp almost escapes him. "My lord, what caused this?" As he searches more he cannot find anything, only the heavily established death aura and the feeling if he continues it will latch onto him and destroy his vitality in an instant.
After sucking in a breath of cold air, the elderly man reveals what he discovered. "You, I don't know how you're alive! You shouldn't be alive, I don't know of anything that can save you! It's only a matter of time before whatever method you are using fails you, at that point, you will die without a doubt!"
Madara didn't say anything more as he removes his hand from the old man's and leaves. Kaba follows him back across the bridge in silence and this continues until they reach back home. "Three weeks, what to do?" This thought echoes in the back of Madara and Kaba's mind, for different reasons.
In three week's time, Kaba has to prepare not only himself, but Hiroi to enter this event and somehow do well enough to get selected by the alliance and Madara is debating whether he should wait or just directly confront the higher-ups of this city and take the less subtle approach to find a cure.
Too risky! Although he has his doubts on the strength of cultivators, that sword and that armor he took earlier are not simple by any means, the ability to cut space-time or bypass it in some way, and likewise the ability to resist that blade with the armor are both levels of power nearing his ballpark.
Even if he meets several or so around his level, he's confident in his ability to combat and even win, but any more then that appear and work well together, he may lose that battle even without his current impairment, although unless the enemy is hundreds of times stronger, Madara will still take them to the grave.
With the risk assessed, Madara decides to wait and enter from the ground up and be a cultivator. After returning home, Kaba immediately tells Hiroi and the rest the news, the mood takes a turn for the worse when they hear about what the old man had said about Madara.
On the bright side, at least they know how to one goes about joining a sect, but that brings the question up again, who is going to participate in the event? Kaba and Hiroi are sure to go, but Kaba doesn't want Mika or Hatsune to go. As for Ruby, he doesn't really care either way.
And Madara's words still echo in each of their minds, is the cultivation world so brutal as he says? They don't know, how could they, they've never left their home so to speak and the malice of humanity is boundless.
Whatever they end up deciding is no business of Madara, he gave them the warning, it will be up to them whether they take it to-heart or discover that it is the truth down the road through their own experiences, only then will they perhaps regret it, but by then it will be too late.
The first week starts to pass, for the first few days, life is uneventful: going on walks to explore the city or playing in the case of the children, eating meals together, and falling asleep in comfortable beds. On the fifth day, Misaki finds a job as a cook for a high-class restaurant, Hatsune becomes a hostess at that same restaurant.
Although they still have plenty of gold from Madara, Misaki told everyone that it's not good to rely on that for much longer and simply put it away for reserve in case anything happens to start living life with the pay from the restaurant.
Into the second week, Kaba, Hiroi, Ruby, and Mika, all decide - some halfheartedly or without thought - to train for the event, but they have no idea how to cultivate. Kaba and Hiroi have already been training since day one, mainly physical stuff because that's all they know.
At this point, Madara has already disappeared for a few days at a time before coming back briefly for a meal and leaving again for days.
The diary from their father doesn't contain any cultivation techniques, at least, not anything for a beginner. But it's then that Ruby joins them to announce her decision along with Mika. Unlike the former two, Ruby actually has a cultivation technique passed down in her family.
Following that, on the second day of the second week, true cultivation begins. During one day of cultivation, Ruby one day asks to read the dairy that Kaba always holds onto and she is stunned at what she finds, particularly the sentence that read as follows:
"Absorb spiritual energy, spiritual energy refines the vessel, core creation from density, core shatters to form nascent soul, how does one perceive the heavens?"
Ruby understands a little bit about the absorbing spiritual energy, it's exactly the first step of cultivation in her family technique. Then that would mean that the others are the next steps in cultivation. The last part seems strange, perceive the heavens? Is that really a part of cultivation?
There are also some helpful notes on how to better absorb the spiritual energy that Ruby shares with the rest. Mika enjoys cultivating so much that she starts dragging Hatsune and mother here to try to cultivate as well after they get off work.
After the first week of cultivation is over and the time passes into the third and final week until the event, not many of them are making progress expect Ruby, Hatsune, and Hiroi who have managed to absorb spiritual energy and reach the first layer of Qi Condensation.
Although it may not sound like a lot, no mortal without teachings of a cultivator and many pills has reached that level in recorded history of cultivation in that period of time, in fact even with the pills and a teacher, many years are required.
Even though Misaki, Kaba, and Mika haven't reached that level yet, by absorbing spiritual energy they also feel stronger and healthier. During the last week, they finally breakthrough into Qi Condensation, while Ruby breaks through into Layer two of Qi Condensation to which everyone celebrates.
On the last day, Madara gets up from his position on a tree as he looks at the retreating group of cultivators in this secluded wooded area that they've been going to for the past three weeks. He disappears from his spot with a thought. "Gathering spiritual energy from the entire city is my last favor."
Madara hasn't stayed sedentary during these past few weeks, he stole the cultivation from that cultivator's body with his ability that he decides to name "Allheaven Abyss". Abyss for the ability to absorb anything, seemingly infinitely, and for its wide and growing range of uses with the grandiose term like Allheaven.
He used the remaining spiritual stones and the spiritual energy he gathered from the city with Allheaven Abyss to break into the 15th layer of Qi Condensation.
He also took some of that spiritual energy and absorbed it into his soul only to discover that absorbing it causes no backlash from the infection, only larger sources of energy can create a backlash, a continuous smaller stream goes ignored it appears.
All is not without issue though, reaching the Foundation Establishment level has been exceedingly difficult and it feels like the infection is reacting to his attempt to breakthrough by destroying his body with impurities as more and more black tar-like substance leaks from his body in crystal form and flows within his blood vessels.
Only time will tell if he can cultivate further with this infection, but either way, his current cultivation should suffice in the upcoming immortal selection event and allow higher-level cultivators to see his cultivation, this will stop them from thinking he is hiding his cultivation.
Madara didn't return back that night for dinner, he hasn't shown himself in the last couple days. Ruby is slightly downtrodden about his lack of appearance, in fact, all of them are rather disappointed at this moment.
Kaba and Hiroi wanted to ask him to train them and Ruby and Mika wanted to sleep next to him, Hatsune and Misaki also wanted to sleep next to him, but for a completely different reason, but since the first night, Madara has not slept in that house even once.
Of course, Madara doesn't actually need sleep, oftentimes he spends his nights high up in the sky as he watches the stars in the distant sky. Without the moon and the light pollution, the night sky lights up like a blazing sea of microorganisms that produce their own bioluminescence.
Seeing the stars brings a sense of peace and acceptance to his mind. When faced with insurmountable challenges and being confused in who you are and what your purpose and path in life are, taking the time to see the world around you to see how large and endless the possibilities ahead are can be a powerful feeling.
Some may feel further intimidated by this, but for Madara, who possesses a drive and willpower not many have, it only further pushes him forward. That same drive Madara is feeling on this morning is also beings felt by the others, the drive to move forward and accomplish something that their past self could not.
The night's sky disappears with the arrival of the even more blazing sun that scatters its rays across the atmosphere and the day of the event that they trained for three weeks for has finally arrived! The vitality in the air is bursting as everyone rushes out of bed, eats, and heads out to the competition.
Madara meets them halfway and they travel together. As they get closer the streets become denser and more festive as fireworks shoots of into the sky desire it being day and drinks and food are being served at every few feet.
Mixed within these crowded streets are caravans that split the streets with their presence, powerful figures that are clearly cultivators make a way for the decorative carriages as they also head towards the event.
For this city, the cultivator selection ceremony is an opportunity for the main sects to distinguish themselves by having their branch sects participate and competing against not only rogue cultivators but also other main sects in the alliance.
Of course, the true goal is to gain those with exceptional talent and thus directly boosting their power and status among the alliance, however, although sects can announce that they want someone, if multiple offers are given, then that cultivator can choose between the sects.
Not that much competition happened outside of the larger sects that dared to offend each other, the smaller sects often times had the pick up the scraps that no one wants because they simply aren't exceptional.
Madara already notices these struggles as clear as day, as soon as he spread out his intent that one day, he could feel the tensions in the air, although this so-called alliance is one unit against the outside, the infighting is fierce.
It doesn't take long before they reach the admission area, one entrance goes towards a large building, and the other heads up a long ascending path that is distinctly void of anyone but thousands of cultivators, the cultivators that can be seen higher up, seem to be struggling to walk up the endless path.
Madara only takes a glance before he tells the others. "This is clearly the first test, one path is for spectators to continue ahead to later challenges and the other is some sort of test to weed out the week." He walks forward towards the first challenge and places his foot within the boundary.
A smile creeps upon his face. "It's some sort of gravity amplification." He takes another step to confirm a suspicion. "Each step you take will further amplify the pressure you face, although it's practically unnoticeable at this stage, the further you go, the stronger it gets struggle. Walk steadily and conserve strength."
After sharing some helpful tips, he continues up the path at a steady pace along with the many other cultivators that steadily grow in number the farther he ventures. The others catch up to him quickly, Ruby being the first one to stand by his side.
"This isn't very difficult!" Hiroi walks past Madara and Ruby.
Hatsune shakes her head. "Don't get cocky, we can't even see the end."
Kaba is the one with the least talent among them, but he is walking with the most care and conserving his energy the best as he says. "This is only the first step, so we must make it, even if we have to crawl."
Each step they take gradually increases the gravity they face, along with the elevated angle it's clear that this is an endurance test that mortals simply can't complete. Once an hour passes they come to an area of less elevation with people sitting down and cultivating to rejuvenate.
A few of the youths look at their group before snorting and returning to cultivating as if the outside world doesn't exist. A few of them consider stopping, Kaba takes a seat and cultivates, and Madara continues on. Ruby chooses to follow Madara. The rest decide to sit down to cultivate.
Madara and Ruby continue down the path for an hour, at this point, the others have also continued down the path but have lost sight of each other. It is only the two of them, their figures like a father and daughter to the other cultivators around them, many find it bizarre to bring a child along.
At first, Ruby was timid, but during these three weeks, her true personality started to show. She spent the majority of her time with Mika and has developed a close relationship with most of the family, all but Madara, who she hasn't interacted with at all.
So when she saw him going to continue when the others stopped, how could she let herself fall behind? Despite being young, she also has higher cultivation than the others and more talent and didn't even feel tired an hour ago, but it is starting to get difficult as sweat drips down her forehead.
She looks over at Madara to see him not struggling at all, as if this is just a lazy walk that one takes in the morning. This continues for hours, the path seems endless and the pressure has grown to a point of collapse, cultivators are spiraled out as they walk by, some are even crawling with bloody hands and knees.
Ruby is not far off. She breaths heavily, but no matter how strong the pressure and how dizzy the world seems, she never lets her knees touch the ground. Madara slows down his pace a little and his figure still matches that of someone not even feeling the pressure. He rests a hand on her small shoulder.
Ruby feels spiritual energy pour into her body as they walk the final few steps to another rest area. She's shocked to find that her cultivation is showing signs of breaking to the 3rd layer! This girl has a talent that dwarfs the other. Madara admires talent and determination, they are key to becoming strong.
When Ruby snaps out of her stupor she looks up to Madara and says. "Thank you...Father" She says the last word in a way no one can hear, but Madara did. After that, she takes a look at the surrounding cultivators in various degrees of strain, some barely alive, others not even sweating yet. "Should we wait for the others?"
Madara says in return. "You have potential, more so than the others, I don't know if they'll even make it here. Let's wait and see."
Another hour and Hiroi arrives, followed by Hatsune, Mika, and Misaki. The only on that hasn't made it is Kaba but it doesn't take long before he crawls up right behind them and collapses, breathing harder than ever before. "I want to die!" He says with a groan.
Mika, unfortunately, couldn't keep up halfway and Kaba had to carry her until she could continue, thus the reason he is in such a sorry state. "My poor boy has it rough, doesn't he?" Misaki pats Kaba on the back and laughs as he sits up to cultivate.
Madara waves his hands at them and energy fills all their body at an accelerated rate before leaving to head further. A thousand steps later and the end is only ten feet away leading to a closed gate, but the resistance is three times stronger here than everywhere else combined.
Corpses scatter the area, nearly collapsed from the pressure, some dead, some still barely alive. He walks right through the ten feet area and opens the gate with a touch of his finger, finishing the first test. The others had remained at the last platform to cultivate, whether they make it or not is up to resolve.
The next area is a large square with a massive fountain in the center with around twenty thousand cultivators sitting all around. The gate slams shut behind him so the next group is tested properly while also alerting the cultivators of a new arrival.
Thousands of eyes gather to him and a powerful pressure appears to push against him. In a way, this is its own test, but this pressure is like a blow of wind trying to extinguish the stars in the night sky. His hair moves without any actual wind, his eyes mercilessly scan the cultivators, sending shivers down their spines.
He takes a step and every cultivator feels that he just stepped on their heartbeat, then another step and another heartbeat passes. He walks to the fountain and sits down. Some of the cultivators look grey-skinned after he sits down with a look of terror etched firmly on their visage.
In the next four hours, many other people come through the gate, including Madara's group who quickly join him to avoid the gazes that quickly disappear when they see them sitting next to the man that scared many of them.
As the gate closes for the final time, a thousand-foot carriage being carried by a large mystical horse-like creature that gallops in the air and descends around the fountain and stops at the side. A loud voice echoes from within but is not seen. "To those that made it this far, congratulations...for not being worthless!"
The cuts into everyone's hearts as they dare not say a word in anger. "After entering that gate you've all been transferred to the Glacier Fate Sect." This shocks everyone, not a single person felt themselves being transferred, the clouds in the sky still looks the same.
Madara's eye slightly narrow, even he didn't feel this so-called transfer at the moment. "Is he bluffing or did we actually get transferred somewhere else?" His senses spread out further but not a single thing seems out of place except that his sense can't go past two hundred kilometers.
At this moment, a primordial voice he is familiar with enters his mind. "It's a dimensional gateway, not the world you were just in, but not another world at the same time. Something very powerful is behind it..."
"It connects to a few other small dimensions, and something else, I just don't know where it goes, I can't see..." The voice is pure calculating anxiety with a hint of confusion and fear of one of the few things that this godly being didn't understand.
Madara slightly nods his head as he gets thinking as well. A small amount of excitement enters his heart but quickly disappears as he looks at all the weak people around him.
The man in the carriage clears his throat. "The first passage in the Glacier Tribulation Trial is to walk into the fountain and reach the center. I expect half of you to die." The words of encouragement resound through the group of cultivators to shatter their resolve a little.
Madara sits and waits for someone to start, but no one steps forward, no one wants to be the test subject for the rest. Seeing that this is about to turn into a waiting game, he gets up and walks to the edge of the fountain, all eyes again turn to see what will happen when he enters.
Being this close to the ragging water crashing down from heights unknown causes the sound to drown out the murmurs. He puts his hand into the stream only to grin a second later and effortlessly walk-in in front of everyone.
This fountain - that more resembles a waterfall - is not simple by any means, the water contains poison, and the force of the water crashing down acts as a syringe and forces the poison directly into the body. A suction force also comes from underneath and drains spiritual energy.
However, the poison cannot enter his body, nor can anything be absorbed from Madara with his Allheaven Abyss, the ultimate ability in terms of absorption and the absolute counter to any attempt to absorb. This is no different than a shower and if anyone saw this they'd assume the fountain is safe.
Those that jump in after quickly dispel this false perception as only moments after they enter, muffled screams echo out. Each step is immense pain for any normal person. Skin is peeled away and constantly bombarded. A powerful pressure pushes from behind as well, there is no turning back.
To say that everyone hesitates is an understatement. The breathing of the cultivators grows louder and people start sweating profusely as they glare anxiously at this life and death obstacle.
While those on the outside struggle to work up the courage, Madara has already moved six kilometers into the fountain. Although on the outside the fountain is by all standards huge, no way could it be this large on the inside, some sort of trick is at play.
It's then that another person works up the courage to enter, none other than Ruby. The five of them are certainly scared to enter, Mika is even crying and shaking at the thought, but they are a family and so they are each other's courage. Ruby decides to enter first after telling Mika to watch her do it.
Ruby puts a hand in the water and cringes at the pain, but then feels a hand rest on her shoulder. "we'll go together." Kaba smiles nervously as he builds up the courage to enter with Ruby and everyone else is right behind him as they enter at the same time.
The water feels like being scrubbed down naked by barbed wire, each second in the water is torture on a level none of them have experienced before. They can only clench their teeth and squeeze down on someone's hand, as one wants to give up the other pulls, with this idea, they persevere.
But a single kilometer is all they can travel before they fall down on their knees, struggling to breathe as the water rushes down them and disappears into the ground, only the air pockets that shouldn't exist allow them to breathe.
This is the end, they are all going to die here. "I can't stand anymore, is this even possible?" Kaba asks himself in a panic, this is the first time most of them have faced a life and death crisis.
Deep within the fountain, perhaps millions of kilometers within, Madara stops with a small smile. He has discovered the truth behind this test. "The test isn't about perseverance or resistance, it's about submitting."
The test is designed to force people to give up, the stronger someone struggles the larger the distance they have to travel, for Madara he had to reach millions of kilometers before he reached the end, an end to the water accompanied by a great light. He still hasn't gone through. It's presumably the limit of this test.
For the cultivators outside, this task is simply impossible, you must submit or you will die long before reaching the set distance. "Submitting may effect cultivation in the future, considering how it seems to be mindset passed. If you don't defy, then you box yourself in."
He reaches his hand out into the water and sends something out into the water. "I can defy because I have the power. If I was in the same position as them I wouldn't be able to break this test, but because I"m here, you can't force them to submit!"
Madara: A New Journey