The man in the illusory formation nodded.
The illusory formation then showed a spacious room with several paintings turned against their views. Those paintings were positioned in different places. Some were close, others were really far away. It was evident that the room had a space manipulation formation controlling its size, just like a pocket dimension.
"Very well! As a Divine Sense focused sect, our focus is on the soul of the participant. First, we are going to test your perception through the Divine Sense, and its range according to your cultivation. As you all know, Divine Sense permits the user to see everything around them. The sect wants to know how perceptive to the details you are and from how far you can see those details. Also, as you all know, the closer you are to something, the easier it is to see the object. We are going to use a few paintings, specially prepared for this test. The objective is to find on the paintings the things we are asking you."
After finishing the explanation of the first test, the illusory formation changed again. It's showing a standard room now. The only thing inside was a shining sphere in the center, but something was odd about that sphere: it showed some ripples every few seconds, and they couldn't see through its effects.
"On the second test, that sphere will test the endurance of the soul. Your souls will receive a Divine Sense attack according to the level of your cultivation. The first attacks won't do much damage, so you don't need to be afraid of suddenly dying or having your soul injured. But, please, be careful! There are several levels for this test. After you resist ten attacks, the level of the test will increase. This test has a total of ten levels. So, if you notice that you can't resist anymore, take your hand out of the sphere immediately. Don't try to insist! Injuries to the soul are very difficult to heal. It's not worth losing your future potential for short term results."
The illusory formation came back to normal, and only the man was appearing again. He looked at Krune and the others outside and said:
"For now, you only need to know about those two tests! If you pass the tests, you will be recognized as part of the Mohie Sect and will gain the right to participate in the next tests to receive the legacy of our sect. Those tests are involved with the Divine Sense attack, the Defence, and some other special uses. For example, to be able to see through formations that try to keep the Divine Sense out, and some others. You don't need to care about those for now. So what's your decision?"
Krune pondered a bit and asked him first:
"In general, how long do those tests take? If we fail, can we try again?"
"The tests themselves shouldn't take long. There is also no limit for the number of times you want to try either. In fact, you are quite lucky! In the past, every cultivator could only take the test once a year, because we had too many contestants, and it used a lot of resources. But now there are only the four of you here, and I doubt you have told anyone else to come to this place either! Even if you had, they would have to pass the first test outside; otherwise, they won't even be able to come here to start with."
Krune's curiosity was picked here!
"That's right! Why is the illusion formations test outside made in a city of commoners? Also, have there been any commoners living there in the past at all?"
The man in the illusory formation heard that and gave a quick laugh.
"Smart! Indeed, that was a city made for normal people to live in, not cultivators. But just as you have guessed, there have never been common people living there. I will give you four a hint: what do you think about common people? Or, in the case of this guy inside the illusory formation, what do you think about common beasts?"
Krune and the others were taken aback. What do they think about ordinary people and beasts? They pondered a bit, and it was Ao who thought about an answer first.
"Both ordinary people and ordinary beasts! Without them, there are no cultivators, except for a very few exceptions. No one is born a cultivator! We were all ordinary people or beast in the past. So the common people city outside is just for us to remember from where we all came… I guess."
Krune translated Ao words to the man, and the answer made the man in the illusory formation very happy.
"Exactly, it's a pity we can't make a proper first test anymore. Otherwise, our friend here, in human form, would have been sent to a different place to understand he was once an ordinary beast. Probably a forest, I think."
Krune, on the other hand, didn't care. Most of his time in Katiu Forest was spent fleeing from both humans and demon beast cultivators, and he didn't feel like he wanted to remember that to start with.
"Very well, I will talk to my friends first and start preparing. When we are ready, we will come back here."
Krune was just about to leave the illusory formation when he remembered one thing.
"Oh right, why is it called Mohie Sect?"
The man just laughed a little and said.
"Nothing much! It's just that the founder of the sect was called Mohie. His full name was Mohie Zarks. He was the one who gave the sect its name at the start. According to what I know, he founded the sect alone, so he just made things simple and put his name there, that's all. Pretty boring, right? Even the higher-ups thought it to be like that back then."
The man just laughed after that.
"Are, or were you a descendant of these Mohie Zarks guys?"
The man shook his head.
"As far as I know, he didn't leave behind any descendant. Of course, my position in the sect was shallow, so I might not have been told about possible descendants. My name before I left a sliver of my will in this formation was Hase Hasik. A pretty common name from where I came from."
Krune nodded and then stepped out of the formation. As soon as he left, the formation deactivated, and the man disappeared. Krune looked at everyone and then said:
"I shouldn't have too much of a problem to pass the first two tests with the power of my Divine Sense and soul, but I don't think it will be that much more difficult for you guys either."
Shinja and the others nodded. They know very well how ridiculous Krune's Divine Sense is, and it's not something one should have at his level of cultivation.
"How did you train your soul to this extent? Perhaps we can do the same before taking the test."
Krune shook his head.
"Remember that I'm a wisp! A wisp's soul is connected to its core. When I was breaking through the foundation establishment, I wasn't simply breaking my inner core. My soul, which is attached to it, was also suffering greatly. All the time I spent to slowly grind my cores interior had, in the end, tempered my soul, but that was a process of excruciating pain. The problem is that you, humans, don't have a soul inside your dantians! So you didn't pass through the same process as me."
" At the end of the breakthrough, my soul was tempered by the tribulation lightning. Again, because my soul, at that moment, could only exist in my core. Perhaps, in the future, when my cultivation is high enough, I will be able to separate it from my core, but that is something for later. Now I'm using the tribulation lightning that is inside my core to keep this painful process of tempering. But you, guys, don't have anything like that to start with."
Ao looked at Krune and then asked:
"Can't we use your tribulation lightning?"
Krune pondered a bit, but before he could talk, Shinja intervened.
"I don't think it's a good idea! I also passed through the tribulation lightning when I completed my universe foundation. The lightning of the heavenly tribulation is something directed at the person. If Krune's tribulation lightning is still the same one, then it is probably something that only he can use to temper his soul. Chances are that if we try to temper our souls with that, the tribulation lightning will see us as someone who is trying to stop it from fulfilling its job. This will increase its power several times to eliminate the thing that is in its way. Although I can't be sure about that, I believe I'm not wrong."
Yusa and Ao looked at them and asked:
"So, except for Shinja, who already has a Soul Power and Divine Sense stronger than those at her level, we can only try it out with our ordinary ones, right? If it's not possible, we might as well enter straight away since it will make no difference for Ao and me. The things Krune went through were basically coincidences pilled together, and we can't do the same as him."
Krune smiled and then said:
"You don't need to worry too much. Let me ask you: why do you think your control over your own elements increased so much?"
Shinja heard that question, and her eyes lit up. She even smiled a bit. She knew what Krune was trying to say, so she left it for Ao and Yusa to answer.
"It's because of the pointers you gave us! Thanks to that, we could find the flaws in our own skills and improve their usages. That's how our control got much better."
Krune shook his head.
"This is only half right! Remember! To increase the control over the elements, the higher the soul power and Divine Sense, the better your control will be. Explain to me. How can your control over your specialized elements enable you to jump the cultivation levels to fight those at a higher level without your soul power and Divine Sense knowing it?"
"Ah!"
Ao and Yusa were surprised, indeed. Thanks to Krune, they have improved their control over their elements a lot. They can even fight those two stages above in the same realm. As Krunes pointers shouldn't be enough for Yusa and Ao to have such achievement, without a powerful enough soul power and Divine Sense, it shouldn't be possible.
"Are you telling us our soul power and Divine Sense got stronger because we learned how to better control our elements?"
Krune nodded.
"I believe so. The reason you didn't notice it before is that ever since the three of us joined in a team, you have always left long-range Divine Sense detection for me to take care of. First, because you were afraid your own Divine Sense would be detected by the enemy. Second, because you felt that with me here, there was no use in spreading your own Divine Senses to the max distance possible."
Krune looked at Yusa and Ao.
"That is especially so for the two of you. We have been together for much longer than Shinja had. So, the effects should be much more obvious with the two of you, because Shinja had got much better training. Her control over the elements was already good to start with, so her soul benefited from that. Try to expand your Divine Sense to the max and see how far it can go. The inner city doesn't have blockage for Divine Sense like outside, so you shouldn't be hindered here."
Yusa and Ao looked at each other and nodded. They are both at the 5th stage of the Foundation Establishment. Although they can't reach Krune or Shinja's level due to their universe foundation, it shouldn't be that bad. An ordinary Foundation Establishment at the 5th stage should be able to spread their Divine Sense for over 3 kilometers.
But to their surprise, they were able to reach a little more than four kilometers. Obviously, their Divine Sense was on par with ordinary cultivators at the peak of the 6th or even 7th stage cultivators.
Shinja looked at that and nodded.
"It does make sense! My own Divine Sense has always been stronger than normal cultivators at my level. Considering their control over the elements is on par with mine, it goes without saying that they should have stronger Divine Sense and soul power than the others."
Yusa and Ao were ecstatic. They haven't paid attention to it before. Although they obviously can't be compared with someone like Krune, they are definitely much stronger than ordinary cultivators.
"With this, we should be able to see the details in those paintings in the first test much easier!"
Krune then thought about something.
"I told you before that I had been using tribulation lightning to temper my soul. But in the end, I'm basically attacking it, I have an idea that you might be able to use too."
The other three looked at Krune with expectation.
"Isn't the second test an endurance test? The guy in the illusory formation said that your soul will be tested through Divine Sense attacks to test how resilient it is. You might repeat the process as well instead of passing the test. Keep doing it until you feel you have improved enough. Although it shouldn't be as good as a heavenly tribulation, it should be possible."
Everyone's eyes lit up, indeed. Since Krune could temper his soul through constant attacks, they should be able to do the same, and the method seems much safer than this one.
Ao couldn't help but comment happily:
"It doesn't matter what cultivators at our levels have on themselves. With this improvement in Divine Sense and Soul Power, they won't be able to hide anything for us anymore!"
Shinja and Yusa nodded. It would really be very beneficial.