Bary heard that and was ecstatic. As long as Krune himself is willing to try, the rest can be taken care of.
"As you probably guess, only the best-ranked cultivators of the Martial Gathering will be sent to the Divine Path Sect entrance exam. In this case, it is the first ten places. Don't think this is too much! There is a lot of big powers in our world. Each one of them has between three and five slots for the Martial Gathering. In the end, the martial gathering will have at least a few hundred competing for those ten slots. It is very hard to get there!"
Krune nodded. That's to be expected. If it were that easy to enter the Divine Path Sect, there would be no need for sending the best ten, just send everyone and get over with it.
"The Martial Gathering happens every ten years, and the Divine Path Sect entrance exam, the same. So, not only us but, in general, all planets have their competitions around three to six months before the entrance exam. That is because only those below the age of forty can participate. So to avoid having people becoming above the age necessary after joining the trip, we all make the gatherings around the same time."
Krune then thought about one thing.
"What about Shinja, then? She is already at the Core Formation Realm. Does it mean she can't participate in the Divine Path Sect entrance anymore?"
Shinja was happy Krune had asked that. She also wished to know the answer to that question, but Bary simply smiled.
"You saw with your own eyes how hard it is for a cultivator to enter the Core Formation Realm. Here, in our Makui Planet, simply put, a lot of people die during the process. But the real reason is that they simply wait until they are close to the end of their life span as Foundation Establishment cultivators to try the breakthrough. For that reason, cultivators like Shinja, who are below the age of forty and are already in the Core Formation Realm, are extremely rare. So there is no need for her to participate in a martial gathering. If she wants, she can try the Divine Path Sect entrance exam when the time comes."
Krune understood the situation. Indeed, Core Formation is very dangerous. It's no wonder the majority is over forty, with over a hundred years of life ahead of then. Then, why should they try something this dangerous? Krune, of course, didn't have this option.
"Our planet indeed has quite a lot of Core Formation Stage cultivators. But believe it or not, not even a hundred are below the age of forty. But we have thousands above it, and, between those below forty years old, not a lot wish to try the Divine Path Sect test due to its difficult. I will be impressed if we get even twenty of those below forty to come to try the entrance exam."
Krune couldn't help but ask:
"Then, why are there so many people wishing to try it in the Foundation Establishment?"
As soon as Krune made this question, he understood the reason. In fact, it could be said that it was a very idiotic question. So he immediately corrected himself.
"Forget it, no need to answer! If I'm not wrong, those who join the Divine Path Sect will have a much easier time to enter the Core Formation Realm. Simply put, it will be much safer."
Bary smiled and nodded. That was right. With the techniques and skills available for the Divine Path Sect, breaking through the Core Formation Stage can be considered very safe, totally different from the situation in Makui Planet.
Bary then explained a few more things and was just about to leave when Ao suddenly asked:
"Would there be a problem if I took part in the selection as well?"
Krune looked at him surprised but didn't say anything. Bary heard the question and answered straight away.
"Any Three Stars Mercenary can try their luck in the selection. So yes, you can!"
After Bary left, Krune talked a little with everyone and went back to his house to finish practicing the Eye Seal Technique. Shinja, otherwise, went back to her own to finish stabilizing her cultivation and get used to the Core Formation Realm power.
Yusa and Ao were walking together when she decided to ask:
"Are you sure you want to go? It's not like we have Krune's Rainbow Core or Shinja's Pure Yin Body, you know?"
Ao nodded.
"We don't. But we do have the Spiritual Energy Meridians."
Ao looked up to the sky and then said:
"Have you noticed? So far, we have basically relied on Krune when things go south. I don't want to keep it like that. Instead, I want to forge my own path, as well. The Divine Path Sect entrance exam is a good opportunity to prove that everything I got from Krune was not in vain. I refuse to keep being a burden."
Yusa was taken aback with that statement. She has always been very easygoing, so she had never thought about it. Only now Ao brought this issue up, she noticed he was right.
"Besides, I believe Krune will definitely pass the Divine Path Sect Exam, so he will eventually leave. What are you planning to do after that? Watch him and Shinja flying far away while you stay behind to be a big tycoon on a small planet!"
Ao took a deep breath and continued:
"Don't underestimate the Spiritual Energy Meridians. I'm sure I can do much more than I could have ever hoped for, only with this. I refuse to believe that once I open my own, I won't have the capability to fight against the geniuses of our world. I might not reach Krune or Shinja's power. But I will definitely try to do so! Think about it carefully. Is staying behind really what you want?"
After saying that, Ao parted ways with Yusa. He is very close to finishing his last pseudo energy meridians. There is no doubt he will have them opened by the time the selection starts.
Yusa, on the other hand, was lost. She always thought it would be fine, as long as she got her own place in the Makui Planet. But everyone else seems to have much bigger aspirations. A sense of alarm started to grow in her heart. She looked in the direction Ao left and went back to do her own things.
Back at Krune's place, he was again training his Eye Seal Technique, although it had 'seal' in the name. In fact, it only 'sealed' the color of his eyes. The power stayed there still, much to Krune's delight; it only took him a few more days to finish grasping the technique entirely.
'With this, I can now focus back on my plans. I've already finished looking into all the studied materials of the Formations Guild. So I should go back there and try some practical training.'
Krune didn't waste time and went back to the Formations Guild straight away. Then he got a few items used to construct low-level formations. He is pretty confident in being able to build higher-level ones without mistake. But it's always better to be safe. So he got to try low-level ones first.
The guild had a few rooms reserved, especially for new recruits to try out their low-level formations. It had enough space to build almost any low-level formation, and give the recruit enough privacy to work out.
After spreading his Divine Sense far enough to cover the room he was using, he started to set up a simple cloud formation. This one is basically used for making it rain. It interacts with the water element by condensing them into clouds. It's a very simple one and used by a lot of alchemists to water their herb gardens.
Thanks to the All-Encompassing Soul Technique, it was really easy to ascertain the points where the water element would converge. His high sensitivity to the elements, due to the Spiritual Energy Meridians, he was able to pinpoint the best locations in the room where the water element would flow the best. Krune was really immersed in the feeling of creating the formation. He found it to be very amusing, and, for this reason, he didn't notice. But this simple cloud formation of his had already achieved the Three Stars level. It only wasn't a Four Stars because the materials used were of low quality. One must remember that every single Star is a great change in the prowess of the formation. After finishing the setup, Krune activated it.
Karen is one of the employees of the Formations Guild and a One-Star Formation Master herself. She was responsible for keeping the low-level test rooms in good condition for the new recruits to try out their formations. She didn't like danger. The guild's payment was enough for her cultivation, and there was still enough to buy some materials for herself to practice her formations.
Today she was doing the same as always. She got the information that one of the rooms which one of the new recruits was using got vacant. It means she has to go there and check if the formations of the room itself are still in good shape. Failed formations might cause damage to the environment, or even explode due to the wrong set up of spiritual energy. So the formations of the rooms themselves always had to be ready for anything. She was just passing by the door of one of the rooms being used at the moment, when suddenly, she noticed there was water coming from the gaps of the door, puzzling her much.
'Weird, the formation of the room should have sealed the room completely. How come there is water coming from the gaps?'
It was that moment she thought about something.
'I see, the formation of this room probably was damaged by someone else before the new guy entered the room.'
She couldn't help but sigh.
'Unfortunately, I will have to ask him to stop for now and change rooms. I hate stopping people who are working hard in the middle of their work, but those are the rules.'
She then decided to open the formation sealing the room.
Little did Karen know. But the formation protecting the room was working perfectly fine. It's just that inside the room she was going to open, Krune was fighting…
It looked like the room had welcomed the apocalypse, fighting against a raging sea and a storm that thundered nonstop above his head. His body was being tossed everywhere. He could barely keep his head out of the water. Krune was already crying inside.
"WhY Did iT tURn ouT LIKE THiiiiIIIiIiIIs?!"
At first, everything was okay. Krune's formation made a lot of rain fall down, but that was it. It was then Krune noticed that wasn't the limit of his new Cloud Formation. He decided to test how good the formation he built with the help of the Soul Technique and his Meridians was. So… he fed it a 'few' of his Rank Four High-Quality Spirit Stones, terrible idea though.
Outside, Karen was in front of the door. And as soon as she had undone the formation protecting the room, the door exploded. A tsunami of water swept her, and everyone close to it. Poor Karen! She was even worse, the door hit her face head-on. In just a few seconds, the entire hall was underwater. Finally, the low-level formation couldn't hold the flow of spiritual energy anymore and broke apart. The storm in the training room disappeared, and the water started to go down.
Finally, when everyone got a hold of themselves, they looked in the direction of the room from where the water came. In the place where once there was a door, Krune came out completely soaked. He looked at the disaster that had become the hall and felt like dying right there and then.
"Cough, Cough. As expected of a formation provided by the Formations Guild, this cloud formation prowess is quite good."
This was an excellent start for someone who gave up the low-key life.