"Where are we going?" I asked Xiao Feng as we moved through dark alleys, and run-down the backstreets of Chun Lun.
"You'll see when we get there," he said.
Soon we arrived in front of a closed door. It belonged to a house that didn't seem to be well maintained.
Xiao Feng knocked on the door and soon a hand came from behind the closed door. He then handed the person a pouch, and the door opened up for us.
We both walked in and I failed to find the person who opened the door.
"Don't try to find them, unless they want to be seen, you won't see them," Xiao Feng said.
A little bit of a bad omen came to from his words, I was feeling slightly out of my depth in this place, but I had to give him a bit of slack, he didn't appear to be holding any malice. And worst-case scenario, if shit goes awry, I can just flush everyone out with ungodly amounts of poison.
The two of us went down a dark flight of stairs until we arrived at the bottom of what seemed to be the main floor of this building.
There were no other people around besides an old woman that was hunched over in front of a small desk, writing something under the flickering light of a dying candle.
"Grandma…" Xiao Feng spoke but he was silenced before he could finish.
"This one is far too weak, are you sure about this, Xiao Lang?" the old woman said.
"Just information, nothing more," Xiao Feng said.
"Humpf, you grew soft, Xiao Feng. No matter, here," the old woman said and handed him a piece of paper.
He took the piece of paper, read through it and said, "Seriously, again?" he said.
"Well, I'm not the one who do the tests, now, leave, I'll have more customers soon," she said.
"Right, follow me," Xiao Feng said, and I did. This time we didn't go back the same stairs, but went through another entrance that got us into a different street.
A back door.
"What's that?" I asked.
"People who bring information, they're pretty expensive, but reliable. Anyway, apparently this time's test is a bit annoying," he said.
"What, you have an idea on what it is?" I asked.
"Yes, it's the same as the last couple of times. A race, a very dangerous race," He said.
"Race… that's not very fair is it, I mean, with people of higher cultivation level wouldn't the race be in their favor?" I asked.
Xiao Feng shook his head.
"This race isn't about cultivation level, it's more about control, and managing situations. All, cultivators will be given a shuttle that they'll use, the objective is probably going to be the same as always. You'll need to collect a set amount of flags, one from each city, and once you arrive to the end, you'll be rated on your speed," he said.
"Seems simple enough, but…I think it's not going to be as simple as you said it will be," I said.
"Care to explain your reasoning?" said Xiao Feng.
"Well… are fights allowed?" I asked.
"Yes, killing the opponent is not though," he said.
"Is it possible to rob someone's flags?" I asked.
"Now you're thinking like a real cultivator, yes," he said.
"Then, what's the point in racing if for example an ascendant can just wait at the finishing line and just rob you of your flags?" I asked.
"You'll be given a bracelet that will limit your cultivation level to that of a soul Formation Cultivator, though it's already too high for you, it's far easier to escape the hunt of another Soul Formation cultivator since the shuttle moves at higher speed than a Soul Formation cultivator. Also, every cultivator is limited by the time they can spend outside their shuttle, so if someone tries to leave their pod and hunt you, you can change direction and have them decide between risking being disqualified chasing after something they can't catch, or hop in on his own pod and chase after you," he said.
I thought about what Xiao Feng said, and decided that it was actually not so bad. As far as the shuttle is fast enough to out speed another cultivator, I'll just need to stay inside it, and make sure to avoid all trouble, but the test is probably meant for people who face troubles head on. Seems like an interesting trial.
"The test is going to start in a couple days, you should be prepared. I'll give you the run about on the shuttles if they use the same as the ones from last time, I'll have a manual on how to drive it and use it. It's annoying at first but once you get used to it you should be more than capable of contending with people at higher cultivation stages." Xiao Feng said.
"Right, that will be pretty helpful," I said, "Thank you," I said.
"I'll need to pull a few strings to get the manuals, for now go and rest up back at the Golden Carp, I'll take care of your expenses. Wait for me there," he said.
I parted ways with Xiao Feng and headed back to the inn, apparently, I didn't even need to ask the inn owner, as Feng already told her I'll be staying in.
She handed me the keys to a room where I'll be staying and pointed me to the direction.
I went upstairs and locked the room behind me. I also made sure to check the room for any spying devices or any random thing that I could find, but after going through the room several times, I didn't find anything.
I made sure to have an inscription to block divine sense from spying on me before I sat cross legged and began checking up on my body.
Truth to be told, I was dreading this.
And the moment I saw the damage I had, I felt even more remorseful, but at the same time I was pretty thankful for the fact that I still survived the battle against a half step ascendant.
It wasn't easy by any means, and a lot of luck involved in it, still I survived. However the damage was too much, and two days of rest are not enough to repair this.
However, every step to recovery starts slowly.
I began by eating a few pills and slowly peered inside my body checking the damage and slowly guiding the poison Qi to repair the ruptured spiritual veins.
The process was going to take an absurd amount of time, especially with just pills.
I do have a way to heal up, but the more I think about it, the more I dread it. The Hand of the White Plague. A cursed hand that can suck out the life of anything that touches and renders it into power for the owner, something dreadful from the vile spells of the Poison God. Yet the more I think about using this thing, the more I know I shouldn't.
Healing naturally is the best and I'll slowly do so.
I continued on repairing my spiritual veins, and focused on slowly filling the 'holes' that were causing most of the Poison Qi I was gathering to seep away from me like if I was a bucket full of holes.
I still can't however ignore the elephant in the room. Looking even deeper into my body, my Nascent Soul looked like it was about to wither and die. I filled it up with so much foreign Qi that it almost burst apart. And now it looked like a sorry excuse of a living soul, desperately trying to grasp at life.
Strangely so, I should be feeling excruciating pain from having my soul damaged. Yet nothing of the sorts happened. So I was thankful for that.
Bit by bit the healing process took more time than I was expecting and two days flew by in a blink.
I heard a knock on my door and it was Xiao Feng.
"Shen Bao, are you ready?" he asked.
I stood up, and undid the Divine Sense inscription, and said, "Yes."
I opened the door to a slightly frowning Xiao Feng.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I have to admit, though I took a bet on you since you have nothing to lose and will do all it took to get a spot in the academy… I never would have thought that your achievement in the path of Inscription and Formation were this great. I'm stunned to say the least." He said.
"Oh, the divine sense blocking formation? Yeah, that's just some basic stuff, I don't want people peeking on me," I said.
"Well, anyway, let's head out, here take a look at this," he said and handed me a couple pieces of paper.
They were diagrams of a pod that worked on Qi. They called this a shuttle but it was more like a pod.
This seems rather interesting I mumbled as I read through the diagram.
