(Guys this is a trial chapter, I'll be changing the POV, from the first person to the third omniscient person. I'll see how you guys react, if it's positive I'm thinking of switching up to third-person permanently. Though the First person helps a lot in expressing the main character's feelings and flesh out his character more, it's really hard to involve the rest of the cultivation world. Soon, I'll be introducing a lot of main characters and First Person takes a lot of time to fully flesh them out. I know because I've done so in a few other stories and they all ended up lacking, but on the Undead Legion i was able to show the feelings of every character and had them all fleshed out to realisme.
I don't want to do the usual tropes but if this is welcomed and well received by the readers, then I'll switch to third permanently. Also, this bit is added after the chapter is published so it's not something you'll pay for.)
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At the Three Legged Raven Sect.
"Elder, isn't the level difficulty too much for that Core Cultivator?" one of the kids next to the mirror said.
"Oh, he challenged Yu Bai and won, I say it's enough for him," the elder replied.
While the group of cultivators was unconvinced, they didn't actually take side with Shen Bao, after all, he was still an outer disciple and was not even a Nascent Soul cultivator, they all knew that the elder wanted to punish Shen Bao and since they had nothing to gain from speaking up for Shen Bao they just quieted down and waited for the inevitable death of the Core Cultivator who had shown more potential than he should have.
The Mirror world was divided into nine sections, for each section cleared the cultivator will prove their mettle and be rewarded by the sect. A few had even reached the sixth where Shen Bao was even allowed exit. And they all knew how difficult it was for a Nascent Soul cultivator, but for a Core Cultivator? Clearing the second floor would already be considered a blessing and a grand achievement.
They all knew that Shen Bao would never come out of that Mirror World, and they weren't going to speak about this, incidents like these happened all over the world, the strong rule and the weak bow their heads.
Yet this Shen Bao had never known of this as it seemed, and now he'll learn and pay with his life for this lesson.
***
Back in the Mirror World, a slightly annoyed Shen Bao stood in front of the bodies of several dead bodies.
"Damn, annoying pricks, I can't kill them with poison so I'll really need to use my sword skills. But no matter, it's a good way to train my skills on living things." Shen Bao grinned as he wiped the blood off his sword.
In front of him lay the three bodies of the mirror world-made cultivators, they had sword cuts across their bodies and necks, as it appeared that Shen Bao was not merciful in his killing.
Within the room, there were three doors, and each door had a different color. They all led to different parts of the mirror world.
Red, Blue, and Black. But since Shen Bao didn't know which door to choose from.
"Eenie Meenie Miney Moe, catch a tiger by the toe, if it hollers, let it go!" Shen Bao said as his finger switched from door to door along with the nursery rhyme and finally ending up on the black door.
"Black it is then," Shen Bao said and walked towards the door.
The door opened up revealing a massive jungle.
Using his Divine Sense, Shen Bao's vision expanded to cover a kilometer of distance around him, and within the jungle, he noticed that the jungle was seething with thousands of demonic creatures, and the moment his Divine Sense has spread towards them, they noticed him too.
"Oh, I've done something unnecessary. Shit," Shen Bao cursed, the moment he thought about pulling his flying treasure sword, he shook the idea away. In these types of scenarios, in these small trial worlds, usually, there will be objects that can monitor the cultivators, and if he were to reveal his heritage, he'll end up in an unfavorable position and probably be caught and interrogated by the Sect.
This was actually a smart deduction on Shen Bao's behalf, as the Elder that had sent him had used the mirror itself to display his trial for all to see.
The disciples outside were all murmuring about how lucky he was to manage and defeat the three cultivators in the second room, but how he was doomed the moment he chose the hardest door. Though they debated that the reward was generous if he was to win, they all knew that he needed to actually clear the Mirror Trial to obtain anything, not to mention how difficult it is to actually survive the Black Door for a Nascent Soul Cultivator, and since now he was only a Core Cultivator, his death had already been signed.
Shen Bao had no knowledge of this, and even if he did, this wouldn't have changed his situation. But thanks to Shen Bao's calmness, he managed to figure out a few methods he can use to get himself away from this monster horde.
"Since I can't fight off all of these creatures without revealing X, Or Y, I might as well not fight at all," Shen Bao muttered as he pulled a few herbs from his holding bag. He didn't have much time as his Divine Sense was constantly updating him on the impending arrival of the monster horde.
He pulled a small cup and began kneading a variety of herbs in it, the herbs were not that precious as the Elder and the Disciples had noticed, and they all laughed at his futile attempt while death was creeping ever so close upon him.
Just as Shen Bao finished making a slave, he began applying it on his robes and body as fast as he could, and all of a sudden, the first few monsters arrived next to Shen Bao, yet, for the life of them, even if he stood right within their midst, none of the monsters even bothered approaching him, as a matter of fact as Shen Bao casually walked between the monsters and moved forward, the monsters took the initiative to move away from him as if he was the dominator of all demonic monsters.
"What the hell is that? What did he do?" one of the disciples asked the elder. And seeing the perplexed look on the elder, the disciple knew that even he didn't know what Shen Bao had done.
As for Shen Bao, this was nothing but the simplest application of Poison. He mixed a strongly scented mixture of poisons together, and when monsters smelled it, they knew that the person who had this scent was not worth eating, challenging or even bother killing, they knew that the moment they'd come in contact with Shen Bao that they'll only receive injuries for no gain. So he was left to move forward on his own.
Though Shen Bao used poison here, this method shouldn't be too revealing of his identity as anyone could do this if they have a recipe, though he could have gotten the same effect using a poison Breath, that would immediately link the persona Xiao Meng that the Three-Legged Sect knows as their disciple, to the Shen Bao who caused a ruckus in their allied sect the Seven Mountain Peaks Sect.
Shen Bao moved casually among the beasts and through the forest, while he regularly applied the salve again once it lost a bit of its potency. And soon, he was at the end of the forest and in front of yet another gate.
"Damn it!" one of the kids said as he handed a few spirit stones to another person.
"What's going on?" one of the disciples asked, "Ah we made a bet, but this is unfair, Shen Bao has no fighting ability how come he managed to clear the Black Door of the death Forest."
"Oh, so someone is taking bets I want to bet a few Spirt Stones, anyone taking?" a kid asked and immediately the whole group of disciples was occupied with scoring some free Spirit Stones. For them the life of Shen Bao was not worth anything but a bet on the side that they could get some extra Spirit Stones, they didn't care if he lived or died, they only cared if he cleared or not. And they were willing to bet against him or with him, and if he either succeeded or failed, many would be angry at him. Unfair shortsightedness, but for them, someone of such a low cultivation level wasn't worth more than to be angry at, and wasn't worth more than a side bet.
Shen Bao entered the next gate and found himself in front of a massive boulder that had thousands, spears, claymores, and many other weapons embedded in it.
"Now, he is definitely dead," one of the disciples said. And from the look of it, many didn't think that Shen Bao will survive.
"Yes, the Weapon Intent Mountain, as long as he has no Weapon Intent, Xiao Meng will definitely succumb here," another disciple said.
"So, are you guys willing to make bets here?" the one who won the most from the last round said. But a rare few took his bet.
"He will die!" was the general thought, because on the Weapon Intent Mountain, it was normal to be heavily injured even if one was a Nascent Soul Cultivator, as for a Core Cultivator, death was the only escape. Because even if Shen Bao escaped the last trial, all he did was cover himself in some salve and didn't show any true martial might, for them he was nothing but a coward who used underhanded means to survive, but here, in the Weapon Intent Mountain, unless Shen Bao had some real power, he'll never make it out alive.
Many took the bet that Shen Bao will die, and only a few took the opposite. They only worried about their Spirit Stones, but for Shen Bao, he had his life to worry about. Because the moment he stepped forward, one of the swords near the bottom of the Mountain shone bright and showed a man in his mid-thirties holding a sword pointed at Shen Bao.
"You wish to challenge my Intent! Come forth, show me what you're made of!" the ghost-like apparition said as it charged Shen Bao.
Shen Bao, however, didn't even bother with the ghost-like apparition, because among all of the swords in the mountain, one of them shone a green bright light, and it was a sword that pretty much was the exact copy of the one in his hand.
"I suppose the Poison God had gone through this trial too...this is interesting, was he ever a member of this sect, or does this Mountain actually exist somewhere else..."