I didn't hesitate to disperse my Domain, which caused the old man to frown. I didn't want two domains to collide against each other, and I'm better off prepared for what I'm about to do if I didn't have my own domain active.
The sudden dispersion didn't make the old man stop, he probably thought I was giving up.
The world around me began darkening once again as if nighttime had fallen and the entire world turned to pitch-black darkness where it had no end or no beginning.
I looked around at the endless dark where only me and the old man stood. He, in his white robes, played the role of a deity, while I, looked like an insignificant ant in front of him.
"Brace yourself, this will hurt," the old man said.
"I can say the same to you too," I replied and immediately closed and opened my eyes, finding myself easily back in the real world, my hand had already turned white due to me enabling the White Plague Palm and I shot forward to the now confused old man.
He didn't seem injured, and I almost thought that he was as strong as Zhang Tian, however, it was nothing but a pretext as the old man suddenly threw up a load of blood as his nose and mouth spat so much blood his clothes turned red.
My palm was an inch away from touching his chest and I could cause the White Plague to spread into him absorbing his power into mine. Though I knew that doing so would cause the same issue of me rupturing my veins again that I barely managed to heal, better that than dead.
However, the old man, bloodied and stunned still managed to grab my hand before it touched him.
"How…cough!" he coughed twice before he added, "How surprising… You pass," he said and removed his hand from me.
I didn't understand what was going on at first.
And looked at Liang Yu who was staring at me with wide eyes.
"Congratulations Brother Shen Bao!" she said.
"I really…can't believe it, a mere nascent soul cultivator…this is going to be interesting," the old man's devastating presence disappeared as if it was never there in the first place.
He smiled as his eyes gleamed with a bright light shaping to match his whole aura.
"What's the meaning of this?" I asked.
"Here," the old man said as he handed me a badge.
Looking at the badge, it had the symbol of the Heavenly Academy on it.
I was so confused I didn't understand what was going on.
"How can I be a part of the academy if the test is still a week from now?" I asked.
"Is that so?" the old man smiled, "Do you honestly believe, that adversity will wait for you until you're prepared?" he said.
And I immediately understood what was going on.
The third test started the moment we finished the second, there was no waiting period, no grace, and no standby, it was already in progress the moment we finished.
Everyone who had finished his second test is already being monitored and being tested, perhaps many have already failed.
"Do you honestly believe that the Heavenly Academy will accept trash, the trash that can't even protect itself? You fought well," he said.
"If I'm being honest… you weren't just holding back, you never even placed me in your eyes, I know for a fact that I could have died a hundred times over if you had truly wanted to kill me, but at the same time, I know that this test…if it was someone else in my shoes they would have died, isn't that right?" I asked.
"You're very arrogant thinking that you're the strongest Nascent Soul cultivator… but, you're not wrong, anyone else would have died…To be honest, I'm vexed at you," the old man said.
"Why? Do we have an enmity between us? It's my first time meeting you, and I even helped one of your disciples…" I said.
"It is that, your interference reduced the opportunities for Liang Yu to show herself and prove her full value, now her own final test is going to be slightly harder," he said.
I looked at Liang Yu and opened my mouth but decided not to speak.
"And that's not only the reason why I personally asked the Heavenly Academy to test you personally," he said as he turned with his back towards me.
"It's because, as a grandfather, I couldn't save my own skin, and you, a stranger avenged her for me, even if you didn't do it purposefully, your actions gave me a conclusion," he said.
"It sounds like you're not interested in taking it out on the Three Sun Sect," I said.
Which was very strange. In a world of cultivation or the ones I used to know, something like what happened to this old man would only end by his death or the eradication of the entire Three Sun Sect.
"The times have changed," the old man spoke as if he was able to read my mind.
"And it was your Master who caused this… that blasted son of a…" the old man didn't finish his curse.
"The death of one concubine, caused him to go mad, and eradicate an entire Holy Land, a power capable of having a voice in the Heavenly Academy's council, all by himself. From that day onwards, all the planetary councils decided that personal vendetta would be solved in a different manner, the death of my granddaughter, I'll avenge by dueling the sect master of the Three Sun Sect, but I cannot kill any of his disciples."
'Damn, that Poison God was making waves and making it difficult for me.'
"And once he is dead," the old man spoke as if killing a sect Master of a powerful sect was nothing worth mentioning, "The law states that we'll be remunerated by the sect for their transgression, we didn't have the evidence to back up our claim, but now with the lost Scripture found, we can easily hold them to trial, and I'll get my Trial by Battle match that I longed for," the old man said as he tightened his grip.
The old man turned to face me and said, "Now, you can go, the people here, I'll guarantee their wellbeing. And will also make sure that they're formally admitted to the planet. You should rest because in one week all trials would be over and you'll be officially joining the Heavenly Academy," he said.
"Liang Yu'er," the old man said to the girl.
"Yes, Sect Master," she said. "Have you been well?" he asked, his tone like that of a grandfather.
"Yes, I was well," she spoke back politely.
"Good, your trial is soon to come, make sure you're ready," he said.
The old man said then he turned his head to the distance, "You brought a couple of good seeds with you…" the old man said but then his head immediately snapped to the main hall of Lucid Springs.
"What in god's name!" the old man's words were uttered with disbelief.
I realized what he had seen and spoke, "That's my own granddaughter," I said.
"The Golden Yin Body, that's a rare thing," he said.
"I don't want her to enter the world of cultivation," I said, "But that's not my choice to make, I gave her the tools to grow and strengthen herself," I said.
"That's the problem with you," the old man said.
"Books and tools aren't enough for you to grasp the understanding of martial art! Your whole life, did you truly have a master?" the old man said.
I couldn't reply.
The old man scuffed, "No wonder you're foundation is rubbish, you spent your whole cultivation life reading and never truly experienced anything, do you know the saying, it is better to travel ten thousand miles than read ten thousand books? Experience, tell me, how many years have you wasted cultivating to reach where you are? A hundred? Two hundred? Maybe even more, since you don't seem to have any master, how much would you have improved if you have had a master," he said.
"I'm close to eighty-nine years old," I replied.
The old man scuffed, that's still rubbish compared to many of the geniuses in the world," he said.
"I only cultivated for a total of five years," I said.
The old man quieted down.
He didn't speak, nor say that I was lying.
He pulled a small stone from his holding bag and threw it my way.
Just as I grabbed it, it shone bright and began showing some numbers. They were the same numbers I spoke 89 years of age, 5 years of cultivation.
"How… when did you start cultivating? At such an old age? You shouldn't even have been able to train or practice, not even the Poison God's technique can allow someone at the winter of their lives to handle the pain from the Bone and Body Grinding poison? What kind of monstrous willpower do you have?" the old man's eyes were wide.
"I'm tempted… really tempted," he said as he muttered under his breath, he was about to say something and then stopped.
"But am I really qualified… no, it's impossible, I can't guide him through the poison path, I know nothing of it," he said giving argument and counterargument at the same time.
"But that would be a waste of talent, but how, how can he have talent when he has no Talent Root." The old man began circling around himself.
However, I felt something was not quite right, why was he even speaking those words, he could have said that in his head and I wouldn't even know. Was he trying to imply something?
I then noticed his footprints, the way he walked, ever so subtly wasn't… normal, his foot slightly twisted before it touched the ground, and it made a deep groove on the ground.
A footprint that was printed on the hard ground was visible for me to see and I could… feel something from that footprint.
Immediately, my Mind's Eye activated and my focus shot up to the maximum.
I was able to see the subtle moves and was mesmerized by them. I even noticed the old man's subtle twitch of his lips as he noticed me staring at the way he walked.
Soon, the old man stopped and he turned to me and said, "I'll come back at the end of this week, by then, I'll give you my opinion," he said and then turned to Liang Yu and said, "Let's leave, you need to be prepared," he said.
And soon the two of them flew high up and disappeared among the clouds.
…
A lot of things happened today, and I was still reeling from the pain of the last battle.
I sat down on the ground and began eating a few pills as I watched the footprints on the ground.
There was something there, I can't understand it, nor can I fully explain it, but there was something there. And I want to figure out what it was.