Disclaimer:
Mr. Snail, don't be Mad that I changed your story a bit to my liking, if I didn't do that, they might as well read yours.
Previous:
Finally, the gate opens, and the people rush in, mostly flying in, as are we. Once inside, we took our battle formation and waited for what was about to happen.
13 The selection.
Years of preparations, years of study and manipulation, yeah I admit I manipulated a lot these years, it all comes to this moment, The Selection. I must get in one of those Sects to get rid of the Sage Emperor. To improve my chances I have to be selected into the Divine Feather Sect like Nie Li in the Second Timeline. That way I can profit from what little I can remember from the story.
What manipulation you ask? For starters, we color-dressed the Teams, ours is bright red while the others have more pastel tints. The Divine Feathers Sect has the first pick of the litter, and as this is based on a Chinese story, they love the color Red, we plan to outdo the others just a tic more, and perform just a bit better than the other teams. Not that it was hard to perform better, we do that anyway, but, as this was too important, as we explained it to the teams, they understood.
Suddenly white disks appeared below our feet, when we looked around, everyone got them and raised us all to the same height. It was a bit sobering to see how many Legend Ranked, and Demi-Gods there are in the Nether Realm. About twenty thousand of them! Count more than a hundred thousand Black Gold Ranks with them, this is a serious threat to Glory City.
Anyway, Six Giant figures appeared in the sky above us, Six meters tall or eighteen feet, with huge black wings on their back. One of them spoke up, "Welcome to the Selection, on orders from our Master, the Lord of the Nether Realm, there will be a pre-selection to prevent unnecessary deaths like it happened in previous Selections. You may be grateful for his mercy."
Another Servant waved his hand and Thousands of sparks flew to each one of us and hoovered before us, it formed into a ball of water with fine threads running through it. I recognized the water spheres from the third book of Emperor Kong Ming's Coffin, The Sphere of Reverse Images was it called. I thanked whatever Deity put those three books in that Coffin, up to now they presented us with all the solutions to the problems we are about to face.
The Servant called out, "The test is for you to expand the Sphere by injecting Soul Force or Law Energy into the threads without damaging the Sphere. If you succeed in expanding the Sphere with one foot, you pass, damage the Sphere and you will be ported outside and live another day. The Test starts NOW!
We sat down on the white disk and connected our minds, all the Teams did the same, we recognized the Test and took our time to begin. Knowing the test does not mean it is an easy one, a lot of us had a hard time with it and needed a calm mind. A lot of spheres were already popping around us proving that this is a hard task for most if not all Black Gold Rankers.
Once we calmed our minds, we started to inject Law Energy into the Threads and expanded the Spheres, slowly The spheres began to grow, we took our time nurturing the threads to get a maximum result. Ten minutes later, the first one, me, got it over one foot, soon followed by the girls and the other teams. We waited for the most to get ported out before we made our move.
We had to make a big impression, so the teams kept feeding the Spheres to expand wider, while we took a risk and merged the Spheres into one big one. That will get us the attention of the Sects for sure, the other teams started to show off too by rotating the Spheres in a circle, by then their Spheres were six feet across, ours was a massive twenty feet in diameter.
On my sign, we popped them together. With this, we showed our knowledge and control over our Soul Force and Law energy, two important qualities to speed our cultivation up. Better Insight of Soul Force and Law Energy will give us the upper hand at confrontations, and get the attention of the Elders.
Our action drew a lot of attention from the other candidates, most were happy to get it over one foot and soured up when they spotted us. We came in with the Black Gold Rankers, who almost all were ejected out of the Selection area, leaving us wide open to get a good look at us.
The big Servants looked approvingly at us, "Those are good seeds," said one of them, "Way better than last time. The red group is the most impressive of them. It is unusual to have so many groups, their body constitution is better than the others. I am curious how far they will get with it."
"We will find that out at the next test." said another one, "we give the last ones a few minutes more and move on to the next test."
Only a few thousand were left after the first test. When the last one was ported out, a Servant called out, "You passed the first test, and are qualified for the next one, good luck."
Xxxxx
With a wave of his hand, we were ported away. We arrived at the eighth layer of the Nine-Layered Deathlands. The ground was scorching hot and littered with Black Flames, quickly we took our battle positions when we saw chained Demon Beasts all around, a lot of them high-ranked ones.
A booming voice drew our attention, this time it was one with Golden Wings, it must be the Master's pet, "Welcome to the second test, although you will not die in this test, getting crippled for life is easy here. Your task is to cultivate in that tower, the Black Infernal Tower, for ten days. To pass the test, you have to reach the Anatta Mental State, bonus points are given when you reach the higher floors, which will increase the difficulty."
Gold Wing looked around and continued, "The Demon Beasts inside the Black Infernal Tower are chained down, but the Energy they will release adds to the Supreme Black Flames. Do not take this lightly. You will be judged on your performance. The Test starts NOW!"
We let the impatient ones rush forward while we made our way to the Tower, I reminded everyone, "Remember, show our Teamwork, there are enough single geniuses here, we will stand out with our Teamwork. Try to avoid using your bracers to fight the pressure, use them to subdue the Demon Beasts, they will notice that, use your battle positions to reduce it. We will move up in groups until the pressure is too much. Good luck to us all."
The impatient ones that rushed to the tower got their asses burned. As they went closer to the Tower, the heat increased substantially, a lot of them were not prepared for that and burned until they got ported outside. That was what Gold Wing meant with Crippling wounds, the rush slowed down to a stop when they noticed the first victims getting nasty burns and disappearing.
We used the energy we subtracted from the Black Flames to create an isolating film around our bodies. Normally that was impossible to keep up with the limited energy in our bodies, but we learned to use and refine external energies, and those Black Flames provided plenty. Slowly we followed the crowd, bypassing the ones that could not stand the heat, by the time we entered the first floor of the Tower, the candidates shrunk down to less than a thousand.
The first floor was packed, most of the Cultivators had painful looks on their faces and desperately trying to get used to the heat. We were fine, even without the isolation barrier we would be. The quality of our body and mind could resist more than the others, under jealous looks we went up the stairs to the second floor.
We spread out into our Cultivation array and took a break to get used to the pressure and adjust to the Black Flames. I commented, "These Black Flames can be used to burn impurities away in your body, we don't need to do that, we are on a level that it isn't beneficial for us anymore, we can use the flame energy to purify our Soul Realm and cultivate our Soul Connection. We take an hour and move up to the third floor after that."
Xxxxx
One after another people moved to the third floor, from the two hundred on the second floor, about 10% made it to the third floor, we were the last ones that moved up, but the third floor gave us a surprise though, a big, very big Demon Beast was chained down in the middle from the room. Ah! I remember! It is a Celestial Qilin, a perfect match for… Du Ze, yes, it was a perfect fit for Du Ze. The other cultivators moved a floor higher, the Qilin made too much noise to concentrate on cultivating.
I called out, "How about we kill this one? That Demon spirit is a perfect match for Du Ze."
"You pathetic children," it mocked us, "What can you weaklings do against me? Do you think some puny Legend Rankers can hurt me? The most you filthy humans can do is tickle me, I used to kill hundreds of thousands of your kind, you are nothing more than bugs to me."
I shrugged, "And yet we are walking free and you are chained up. Battle Formations! I want to find out if we can damage this loudmouth. Exchange your Earth Demon Spirit and Water Demon Spirit with a Lightning one on your Bracers."
That was the last feature I made on those bracers before I let them refine it into Soul Weapons, we can change the type of Demon Spirits. We can not use water or Earth to fight, lightning however… after gearing up, our teams spread out in a perfect heptagon. Once seated, we linked with our team and activated our bracers.
Three huge Demon Spirits appeared on each team, "Avoid the chains," I called out, "attack his weak spots, let's see how long he calls it tickling."
That started a lightning barrage, six Demon Spirits that merged into one pack a big punch, two of them in each team made fourteen Demon Spirits that hurled lightning at the Qilin. Two handled the Demon Spirits, the others provided the energy supply and sound isolation. That Beast made a lot of noise, so much that some of the Cultivators came back down to see what we were doing. Slack jawed they watched us attacking the Qilin without mercy.
Well, we proved a point, the Qilin did not die laughing, so I can assume it didn't tickle, twenty minutes of non-stop Lightning fried his ass. We had some trouble removing the Demon Spirit, but in the end, Du Ze refined his Second Demon Spirit. I think Nie Li tricked that Beast into forming a soul contract, but I did not see the point in that, after all, it admitted that it killed hundreds of thousands of humans, so we killed it. No mercy. Too bad we could not use its blood, the lightning boiled it into something useless.
We kept our bracers to this configuration for the Beasts in this tower and stored our Bracers. "We move to the Fourth floor, this floor smells like burned meat," said Ziyun.
Xxxxx
Our action drew the attention of Seven people, the ones that selected the Sect disciples. They stood around a viewing mirror and witnessed how a small group of Legend Rankers killed a Demon Beast that is five Ranks higher, almost six Ranks. That should have not been possible in such a short time.
One of them cleared his throat, "We have some good Seeds this time, I hope you can give some face and remember our agreement to let me select the first one, you all know our Divine Feathers Sect needs talented Disciples."
A beautiful woman nodded, "As we agreed upon, we are all from this world there is no need to be formal. You have the first choice."
"That brings me into an awkward situation," said the first man, "As you can see they move as a team, they even wear different colors to show it to us, no doubt they did this to let us keep them together. For that, I want that Red Team, there are only five of them, but they are the leaders."
"That is troubling," said the woman, "We only accept women in our Sect, and these seem to be in a relationship with the male in their team. More than that, I sense that all of them have cultivated their body to a high grade. I suspect they Dual Cultivate, although I never heard of Group Cultivation of that type. The Males that have multiple partners usually drain their females, these have the same level as the male."
The first male commented, "They are not from the Nether Realm, I should have heard of them if they were, I bet they are from the Tiny World, there are still some hidden settlements in that world."
The third spoke up, "This is only the first day, let's wait and decide on the last day. We need to see when they reach Anatta Mental State, although I suspect they will have no problem with it, their bodies are exceptional."
"They are well versed in Arrays, the Heptagon formation was perfect, they adjusted the formation to compensate the teams with lower members," commented a fourth, "And their linked soul Weapons are priceless. I would not mind taking the two smallest Teams."
"I feel that I come out as the loser this year," huffed the woman, "Then you have to allow me to pick all the girls that don't have a team."
"I agree to keep the teams together," said the fifth male, "Do not forget we can send the smallest teams to our subsidiary Sects, I am for the Heavenly Note Sect to have the first six picks from the single females. There are good Seeds among them too."
Xxxxx
The second day we moved to the fifth floor, our formation reversed some of the pressure, and we refined the Black Flames to reduce the heat. Some of the smarter females positioned themselves close to us to profit from our formation, we let them, a friendly face in the Sect is priceless, and it was a small effort to expand the anti-gravitation field. The males were too proud to do that though, they kept on suffering on the fourth floor.
The result was seven teams from Glory City, four piggyback females, one girl who did not need us, and three males on the fifth floor. The rest could not stand the heat and pressure. I started to guide our teams on how to get the Anatta Mental State. We paused our digestive system and connected our minds. The rest of the time we sunk into deep meditation, all our functions like refining the Black flames or keeping the gravitation field up, were done subconsciously, like breathing.
Red Team, us, reached Anatta Mental State first on the fourth day, Green, with Du Ze was second on the beginning of the fifth day. Yellow, Blue, and Indigo followed on the fifth. Black and White, the two smallest were last at the beginning of the seventh Day. We cultivated until we reached a barrier, the breach to the next Rank, the Heavenly Fate Realm, the starting level for the Sects in the Draconic Ruins Realm, yeah, I found out that was its real name.
With a mental conversation between me and the girls, we decided to push through to the Heavenly Fate Realm and let the other teams observe and try to follow us. We changed our Array, with us in the middle and the six teams in a Hexagon around us, we connected, with eachother.
I was roughly aware of what to do to break through to the Heavenly Fate Realm, I knew it was possible, the Demon Lord did it here in the Second Timeline, so it has to be possible for us too. We are already at the Demi-God level, it was just one more step. What I remember from the story is that we have to make a Fate Soul with Heavenly Energy, an Energy that is available here with the Black Flames.
I got an idea, we never tried to do this, but now I concentrated, found, and released my Soul Form, behind my back appeared a big red Phoenix with its wings spread wide open. Soon, Ziyun followed with her Ice Phoenix, Ning'er with her Lightning Storm Dragon, Lanruo her Winged Snake, and Xin her Ground Bear.
Then I pushed through the barrier and created my first Fate Soul, I felt the energy from the Black Flames rush into me and stabilized my new Cultivation Realm. Once that was done I shared my insights with my girls. Ning'er was the first to break through, closely followed by Ziyun, Lanruo got it when Ning'er and Ziyun added their insights to mine and broke through her barrier too. Xin was the last one to get it right.
The Teams were observing us closely, and started to release their Soul Form, under the slack-jawed attention of the witnesses, everyone got their Soul Form out, a never-before-seen spectacle, as it was rare to get a Soul Form in your life.
With us as the Center of the Array, we mentally connected with the Teams and shared our experience of breaking through. Du Ze was the first to get it right, and started a cascade of break troughs, at the end of the day, everyone reached the Heavenly Fate Realm. The Piggybacks profited from it too, being a close witness of our breakthroughs they got some important insights that will help them to do the same.
Xxxxx
At the viewing Mirror, the Sect ambassadors were speechless, when the Nether Lord came to his senses he spoke up, "Those are rare Seeds indeed. The talents they showed us are at the Genius level, especially the boy from the Red group, he is clearly the driving force of them all. Judging by their looks they are very young too. We can say that this year's selection is exceptional. It has been centuries ago that so many were qualified to move to our Sects.
The woman complained, "Why do they need a man in their group? My Heavenly Node Sect is missing out on great talents that way."
One of the others pointed out, "Not necessary, Ling, do you see those four girls that were leaching onto those groups? They are a step away from getting their Fate Souls, just by observing and feeling those breakthroughs. Even that fifth Girl is close to breaking through. Ah, do you see? They found their Soul Form. You have to admit that they are talented too, aren't they?"
Slowly Ling nodded, while she studied the five girls, "I agree, they have talent, just from observing getting insights is proof of it. They will do fine in our Sect." she grinned at the others and commented, "That will make sorting them into your Sects interesting, isn't it? Seven Groups for five Sects is hard to divide."
The Ambassador from the Divine Feathers Sect shrugged, "We can send the two smallest groups to our subsidiary Sects, no doubt an Elder will be willing to be their Master, if not, we will take them to the Main Sect. There are still two days to go, we have time to discuss how we will divide the groups."
Xxxxx
I felt something off on the higher floors. If memory served me right, there was a Ghost on the next or the Seventh floor with the Legacy of Emperor Kong Ming, hoping to find a suitable body to possess. I am glad I skipped that bag of troubles, that Stone Tablet in the Abyss Prison Realm imprints part of the Legacy in the ones that activate that tablet, and they have to fight each other to get the full Legacy.
So, I better avoid that Ghost. The problem we have now is a lack of Black Flames, with thirty-seven Heavenly Fate Realms, we sucked the Fifth Floor empty of those Black Flames. With a look at everyone, we moved to the Sixth Floor, our piggybacks followed, of course, they even expanded by one. Under the jealous looks of the Males, we went upstairs.
On the sixth Floor, we spread out into our Cultivation Array, the piggybacks joined us when we did not object to their presence. Now we have seven groups of six Cultivators, one in the Center, us, and six in a Hexagon around us. The Girls pointed out to the Piggybacks where to sit to complete the array.
I told the newcomers, "Prepare yourself for a Mind-Link, Misses, you will benefit from this, maybe even a breakthrough. Above else, try not to obstruct us, or we kick you out. Now is the time to decide, agree, or go a floor below."
The new girl answered, "We ally ourselves with you for the duration of the Selection, we will have no further commitments after the Selection to your group. Is that acceptable?"
Ziyun answered, "It is, now Clear your thoughts and let me make a connection to your mind, then I will pull it in. After that, we will make a connection with the others. Do not shield against or reject the connection, we do not care about your secrets, nor should you care about ours. By now you must have realized you will be selected to move to the Draconic Ruins Realm. Keep our secrets then we will keep yours."
The girl nodded, "My name is Hua Huo, from the Infernal Birds Tribe, I will keep your secrets."
The four others, two of the Human Tribe, one of the Dark Elves and the last one a Fiery Elf agreed to the deal. We connected with everyone and made links to the five newcomers, the two humans were easy to deal with, the bird and elves were hard, it took an hour to get used to three completely different minds. Once we linked, our cultivation soured.
Hua Huo was in our Red Team, steadily I pointed her to key parts to comprehend before she could break through. Hua Huo was bloody talented, an hour later she joined the Heavenly Fate Realm Club. Meh, I might as well guide the other four. That surely will impress the guys upstairs. On the last day, the two elves were the last to break into the Heavenly Fate Realm.
Thanks for the meal! The Black Flames got sucked up by us and turned into Heavenly Energy, we had experience with Heavenly Energy when we were using the Spiritual Stones to level up, sharing that experience among the teams made them improve with giant steps, the five Piggybackers shared in the good fortune.
I avoided a lot of problems compared to Nie Li, he brought that Spiritual Fire God along, one that was hunted for thousands of years, I decided to come back for her when I am stronger. I think he had that egg with him too, that was more trouble than it was worth. Meh, it was good for extra chapters for Mad Snail.
Now that the ten days are about to end, we disconnected from the five Piggybackers. Hua Huo was blushing a nice shade of red, she spent three days browsing through a male's mind and happened to stumble on some memories of me and the girls and got a crash course about the Birds and the Bees, being a bird she knew half already, of course. Witnessing me plowing through Ning'er while she was eating Ziyun out, or Xin riding my face while Xiu was going Cowgirl on my Dong got her educated alright. Especially when she experienced those memories from my point of view.
I saw the blush and commented, "Remember, Miss Hua Huo, keep our secrets and we will keep yours. We learned from each other and benefited a lot, don't you agree?"
The Fiery Elf answered, "We should have done something like that ages ago, it would have helped our understanding between humans and elves a lot more than it now is. Thank you for the experience, I will treasure it for the rest of my life."
The Dark Elf hugged team Black, the one she joined, "Thank you, without your help, I would not get selected, I am in your debt."
The Black Team Leader hugged her back, "No problem, Miss Tang Zuqin, you allowed us a glimpse into your world that taught us a lot. It is the same with you too, Miss Yu Nalran, As you said, we understand your tribe better now. Count us to be your friends."
Xxxxx
When the tenth day was over, we got Teleported into a beautiful garden, all seven teams, the three males and the five girls. For the first time in ten days we could relax, curious, we looked around, the garden was filled with priceless herbs, it made my fingers itch to get some of them, although I doubted I would survive it.
Seven imposing figures, six males and one female, followed by a younger boy approached us. Their power was oozing from them, probably to push our pride down a notch or two. The frontman was the leader of the bunch, I guess he is the Nether Spiritual God and ruler of the Nether realm.
"Well done, all of you, you surpassed our expectations, a hard thing to do, I must say," said the Nether Lord, "Now it is time to tell you which Sect chose you to be their Disciples."