30 Favored by the Heavens

Chapter 29: Favored by the Heavens

When Van entered the passageway, the door closed behind him. Van was rather surprised. For all of the other ones, there would only be a Qi barrier in the way, allowing the others to spectate the challenger from a distance.

I mean Yu Lin is a Great Golden Dragon. What did I expect?

Van thought to himself as he walked along. He hadn't reached the lands where the elements were extreme yet. At the moment, he felt tingly from the electricity. The heat didn't affect him too much because of the rather comfortable breeze.

As he proceeded onwards, the conditions became not as favorable. Lightning would strike places near him causing him to jump back in fright. Magma would flow up onto the surface of the Earth through cracks in the ground, burning Van's feet. Sometimes, a few stray wind blades would pass by giving Van a cut or two.

Despite all the struggles, Van was benefiting quite well from the harsh conditions. His body became a lot more durable than before and his cultivation was solidifying extremely quick. He had been focusing too much on his cultivation, causing his body and foundations to lag behind. Now that he had no time to cultivate, his body and cultivation had finally caught up.

Van suddenly stopped and his mouth became slightly agape. He could see another biome ahead. It was a combination of two other elements. The biome was rather strange with a heavenly light coming from above in the sky while there was demon like creatures dwelling in a wasteland on the ground.

He had never seen such a horrifying yet beautiful sight ever in his life.

Van calmed himself down and confidently advanced. Besides, he had Yu Lin to protect himself and one couldn't improve without a few dangerous situations.

Van could feel the strong death Qi coming from the wastelands. At first, the undead near him were just wandering around aimlessly, but they charged when he got within a few meters. Van pulled out his treasured Saber and threw out slashes imbued with Qi.

Recently he had been practicing his Void Fist and hadn't been paying too much attention to his weapon skills. Despite that fact, his raw strength itself was sufficient for eliminating the undead.

These trials were designed for those around the 6th Stage of Dantian Formation so it was rather simple for Van to pass.

The examiner sat in her room and had a thoughtful expression on her face, she was at the 9th Stage of Dantian Formation and had the authority equal to an Inner Sect Elder.

She had increased the difficulty of the passageway that Van was occupying but he was still treating it as a stroll through the park.

Her eyes started to glisten. Van was most likely hiding his cultivation from her. Either he was extremely skilled in hiding his aura or he had a higher cultivation than her. She assumed he first for the possibility of the second scared her. Such a genius would be extremely horrifying. She could tell from his bone age that he was only 13 years of age.

Even cultivating from birth wouldn't allow normal geniuses of the Middle Continent to cultivate to such a high level. From the Sect records, she found out that he came from the Lower Reaches of the Continent, making this even more shocking.

"This is going to be interesting. I've underestimated the abilities of this youth. With his talent, he'll go to many places. I'll give him some more benefits. Time to crank up the difficulty."

The examiner was rather confident in Van's abilities so she turned the passageway's difficulty onto the max settings.

"Are you sure that he can handle that?"

The announcer started sweating nervously. If any of the examinees were killed, he would be the one thrown under the bus. No one of the Disciplinary Division would dare accuse the examiner of the crimes, her status in the Sect was too great to offend her.

Of course, they didn't know that the Old Patriarch was supporting Van and his talent. If he got seriously injured, they would get the surprise of their lives.

Meanwhile, Van was currently destroying the undead like no tomorrow. He had obtained enlightenment of death energies by destroying the undead. From the dead bodies, he also obtained crystals filled with death qi. It wasn't high-quality death qi but was very beneficial for Van who had a very basic understanding of death qi through the death of the majority of his family.

"Hm?!"

The undead had started to become a lot fiercer and Van could tell that their bodies seemed to become 10 times harder. Van was starting to panic. At the rate that the undead were improving, he wouldn't be able to handle the horde. He felt a searing pain on his arm. An undead had cut his arm with its sharp fingernails.

Van started to run through the undead where the horde was the thinnest. He kept cutting them down left and right, but the howls of the undead drew others nearby causing the horde to swell in size. After two hours of constant life or death situations, Van had a body full of scars and had a very adequate understanding of death qi. He would unconsciously emit an aura full of death at times, causing the weaker undead to ignore him, thinking that he was one of them.

Of course, some of the smarter ones decided to follow the horde anyway, causing many more difficulties for Van. Since the realism and difficulty had been increased to the max level, Van had gained a lot of combat experience and was now a hardened killer. Despite these being undead, he had gotten used to carcasses and was now immune to the horrors of killing.

Van spotted something shining ahead. Van's eyes filled with hope.

Finally, a path to salvation!

Van thought to himself as he ran towards the mysterious place that was emitting such a bright light. As he got closer, he realized that it seemed to be a formation of some kind that emitted a Celestial Qi. Van's eyes shone with excitement.

He could take advantage of this to learn celestial qi! Since this formation has celestial qi and that if I rose into the sky past a certain point I would be in a world filled with celestial qi, wouldn't that mean that the formation and the sky are connected?

Van was rather confident that the formation would connect him to someplace in the sky that would allow him to escape this living hell that he had been experiencing for two hours straight. His saber skills had also become very well tuned. In fact, he obtained the most rudimentary form of saber intent.

He could make a saber intent that fit the length of his current blade and would advance for about a meter before disappearing. But in his current situation, the saber intent wasn't exactly useful. Saber intent strained him mentally. If he was in optimal condition, he would've been able to use it hundreds of times and instantly wipe out the horde. But he had wasted most of his mental facilities before comprehending saber intent. If he emitted more than 3 Saber Intents, he would collapse from the slight mental strain.

He had been consuming pills practically non-stop and their effects were extremely low for Van, so that wasn't a possible solution. His only path to salvation was the possible portal that lay straight ahead.

Van took a deep breath and advanced forward at a brisk yet steady pace. He kept a distance of about 3 meters between the horde and him, making it not too close that he would get hurt, but not too far that he wouldn't be too strained.

After another 10 minutes of running, he had made it to the formation that emitted a majestic celestial qi. At the 1 meter mark, Van threw himself at the formation and dove inside. With so much celestial qi, the undead would be deterred from following him. His assumption, luckily, was correct. The undead hissed and screeched at him, but wouldn't advance a step further.

Van laid on the ground watching his previous torturers' angry faces only about a meter away. Van started to laugh maniacally.

He had done it! He escaped the living hell.

After about another 10 minutes of laughing, Van finally recovered his mental facilities and started to cultivate. He realized that his foundation was extremely stabilized as before he took Yu Lin's pill and that he was now at the peak of the 10th Stage of Dantian Formation.

Van exclaimed gleefully. Those excruciating 2 and an (about) half hours were actually worth it. He had understood cultivation a lot more. He realized that only through a lot of life or death situations and with a lot of luck would one be able to advance quickly on the path of cultivation. One also needed to have an immovable determination that would be able to move the heavens to be able to reach the top.

He would become the strongest cultivator and rule the heavens. He would be the dragon that breaks the void.

Of course, he first had to get out of this promotion test.

Now, where's the on switch for this formation?