Ares closed his eyes and braced for the inevitable. Although he was aware of the concept of pressure, he had never actually experienced it before. All he knew was that it was equivalent to a heavy, omnipresent weight. He focused his mind and waited… And waited… And kept waiting? What the hell are they playing at? It had been about ten seconds since the start of the test and yet nothing was happening. He opened his eyes to take a look around and could immediately take a guess as to what was going on. It wasn’t that the test hadn’t started, but that he was inadvertently, unknowingly, cheating.
Li Li, Dirk, and Aejaz were down on one knee with gritted teeth and Appa was slightly squashed on the floor. There were a fair few examinees that had already dropped out and only 15 were currently left.
As for how Ares was completely unaffected, it was actually just his bloodline acting up. Ares had long since figured out that the ancestor he inherited his bloodline from was arrogant beyond reason. As a result, he constantly found himself getting annoyed at just about anyone and everyone who tried to lord over him. Even Aejaz had to tread carefully when he fooled around with Ares. Although he could control this unreasonable domineering attitude and keep it down, it still kept whispering sweet nothings into his ear about complete domination and control. To Ares, it made sense that his bloodline would be somewhat resistant to pressure. However, it seemed like it was considerably more than just ‘somewhat’ resistant; it was more like a complete immunity. He could feel a rising urge to laugh disdainfully at whatever was the cause of such a childish trick but, again, he was able to stifle it. Hell, if he didn’t keep himself in check, he could see himself walking over to one of the participants, pushing them onto all fours and sitting on their back as an arrogant show of force. His bloodline was far too unruly. Ares hoped he would be able to rein it in properly when he finally reached bloodline awakening. It wasn’t that he necessarily minded his bloodline’s attitude, but that it needed to understand the concept of time and place.
Of course, standing around effortlessly like this was more than enough to stick out both figuratively and literally. Although Appa was too busy trying not to meld into the floor, Dirk and Li Li were more than just a little annoyed. Ares was obviously not taking the test the same way everyone else was so, for the people that wanted to compete with him, they began feeling both robbed of the chance as well as furious that he was standing there looking down at everyone. They didn’t know how he was doing it; they just knew he was and that was enough to anger them.
The Elders were naturally taken aback too. In the many years they’d run this test, the only person to even come remotely close to a showing like this was the current sect master, but even he had to at least hunch over. Teng was wondering if Ares’ personal treasure had something to do with it, but the use of treasures was allowed in these tests so it made no difference to him anyway. Did you find your treasure yourself? Then you earned it. Was it given to you? Well then you were lucky enough to receive it. The world of cultivation was unfair, if you lost to someone because of a treasure they were given then that’s just how it goes. Treasures exist and there’s nothing anyone can do about it so, instead of whining, people should embrace it and just accept that not everyone''s luck is equal. That was how Teng thought at least.
Rud, on the other hand, wasn’t too sure. If it was the treasure, then he wanted to see what Ares could do without it. If it wasn’t, then to what extent could he ignore pressure and, more importantly, how was he doing it? When Rud saw Teng diligently keeping an eye on the other examinees, he slowly began to add his own pressure in and direct it solely towards Ares. He wasn’t trying to make him fail, he was just progressively adding more and more until he saw a reaction of any kind.
Ares, however, couldn’t feel a thing. Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. For some strange reason, he felt the urge to laugh rising again. There wasn’t really anything left for him to do so he just put his hands in his pockets and looked around at the other examinees. None of the 15 had yet to bow out and it looked as though they would all make it.
Of the 15, Li Li was handling the pressure the best, followed by Dirk and Aejaz. Appa was doing the worst but that was logical. Damned shades cultivated in a slightly different manner to normal people. In short, they completely skipped flesh unfettering and skeletal structuring because they had neither a skeleton or flesh, but spent three times as long cultivating through the mental accumulation realm to make up for it. This meant they were quicker to learn mental arts but were more susceptible to physical-based attacks. Damned shades categorically never fight physical fights as they instead make use of their near-inexhaustible mana supplies to fight. They also don’t have arms or legs so it’s not like they could brawl even if they wanted to. They almost always have a greater grasp over mental arts than normal people thanks to the time they spend cultivating in the mental accumulation realm so that tends to be a specialty for their race. As for pressure, it’s a type of physical effect and damned shades have a natural weakness to it, hence Appa’s current struggle.
“The test will end in five, four, three, two,”
“Examinee number 32, fail,” Rud interrupted the count as one unlucky participant fell short just before the goal.
“One.”
The pressure lifted and everyone other than Ares felt a wave of relief sweep over them.
“Congratulations to everyone who passed, please wait on the platform and relax for 10 minutes while we prepare for the next trial. As for those of you who failed, better luck next year. Train hard, try again, and succeed in the future.”
The test takers that failed all dejectedly left the hall, followed by Teng who went off to go and make preparations for the next round.
Rud walked up onto the stage and headed over to where the bandit brothers were sitting. He simply had to know how Ares did it. Even if it were a treasure, that treasure would have to be heaven-defying to completely and utterly resist the amount of pressure Rud had secretly put out.
Ares lifted his head and turned to face Rud before he could speak. “It’s innate.”
“Bloodline?”
“Yeah, that’s all I know.”
“Which family are you from?”
“Street rat. No clue.”
“Alright, thank you for cooperating.” Rud turned around and walked away. He truly appreciated people like Ares, people who were upfront and honest. He could tell Ares wasn’t lying and that he told him near enough everything he could, although there were definitely still some other things left unsaid. Still though, it would be far too nosy to pry any further and those details aren’t what Rud wanted to know anyway. Rud wasn’t so unreasonable as to go around forcibly dredging up people’s history. He was also quite fond of making conversations quick when there was no need for them to be long so his evaluation of Ares was currently at ‘not annoying’. Whether or not that evaluation would change in due time remained to be seen… If only he knew now what future Rud knew.
Everyone else was completely mystified. Yeah, sure, their questions had been answered but… What the hell kind of conversation was that? Although Li Li and Dirk were still annoyed, they were able to calm themselves down slightly after learning about Ares'' bloodline. If it were really a treasure, they probably would have collectively jumped him and started a fight out of frustration. Unfair! He basically didn’t have to take the test! Look at poor Appa, dragging itself across the floor! Still though, there were two more tests left to try and gauge whether Ares deserved his reputation or not.
“Uh… Appa, are you ok?” Li Li was a little concerned as Appa really did look quite out of shape both mentally and literally.
“Mhmm, I’m just a little sleepy. I should be fine for the last two tests though.” Appa managed to lazily pick itself up and began hovering again. Appa, like all other damned shades, had no mouth, but was still able to emit sound and communicate verbally somehow. No one had quite yet figured out how shades did it. “Are you two ok?” There was a noticeable change in Appa’s tone now that it finally got what it wanted and was finally able to talk to people. It was happy!
No one really knows much about how damned shades come to be. They sort of just start existing one day and, eventually, when their life span runs out, poof, they disappear. After they come into existence, they begin to wander around and make new friends. They have no family after they’re born so their natural inclination is to have kind people in their life which is why they’re usually quite easy to get along with if they think you’re a nice person. Because of this, they can get quite attached to people and some end up being taken in as pseudo pets. Damned shades can quite commonly have serious dependency issues too. Some damned shades outlast their ‘owners’ and have even managed to become guardian deities for the clans and sects their owners were once in charge of.
“We’re alright, although I can’t say my blood isn’t boiling right now,” as Dirk spoke, he gave a quick glance in the bandit brother’s direction. “Speaking of blood, I’ve been meaning to ask, how exactly did you put your name down in Rud’s treasure book?” As a haemomancer, Dirk was well aware that damned shades had no blood inside of them so naturally he was curious.
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“Hm? Oh right, humans at your age typically aren’t in the mental accumulation realm yet, right? You humans are so weird! But anyway, the treasure doesn’t actually need blood specifically, but rather essence. In my case, I simply used some of my mental essence instead.” When Appa finished speaking, a small, blue tear-like object trickled out of one of its empty ‘eye sockets’.
“Huh, the more you know,” Li Li kept an eye on the little tear as she talked, it kind of looked like a really shiny blue gem.
The three continued talking to one another and passed the time until Teng eventually came back with a storage ring on his finger. “Alright everyone, your ten minutes are up.” Teng hopped up on the stage. “Rud, wakey wakey sunshine.”
Rud yawned, rubbed his eyes, and stretched his arms.
“Ok everyone, next up is a trial of resourcefulness.” Teng held out his hand and a white token shaped like a miniature gate appeared in his palm. “These tokens are used as identification for disciples. A couple years ago, an anaemic disciple fainted from blood loss after having to continually use blood to get around the runic formations in the sect. From then on, we decided to use these. It only requires you to drop blood on it once, at which point it will permanently function like a drop of your essence would. Under no circumstance are these allowed outside the sect but, while you’re in it, these will save you a lot of hassle.” Teng eyed the 14 participants and threw out 7 tokens into the middle of the platform. “You can’t leave this platform. In five minutes, whoever is holding a token, regardless of how they got it or how long they had it, will move onto the last trial. The trial will start in three, two, one, BEGIN!”
This was the reason for putting names in the Vermillion Record. A name had to be in the book in order for the token to accept a disciples’ blood, or essence in Appa’s case. As for why there were only 7 tokens, Teng only ever brought tokens for half the number of examinees left at this stage, be it 1 or 100, the Heaven’s Path Sect valued quality, not quantity.
A mad scramble was underway as eleven of the examinees barrelled towards the token pile. Li Li and Dirk were the first to pick a token before backing away and letting everyone else fight for the remaining tokens. Two of the slower participants realised they weren’t quick enough to get to the tokens before the rest would be taken so they veered off to chase the two that had already taken one.
The first participant caught up to Li Li and she threw out an open palm. From the palm, tens of razor sharp, pink petals flew out.
Li Li infused the gum she was chewing with mana, making a small magma balloon. As the balloon swelled, traces of a 4th realm meridian expansion, 6th stage cultivation base could be felt. Of the participants, excluding Aejaz, Li Li had the highest cultivation.
Pop
Magma spewed out, incinerating the leaves. The magma wave split apart like a curtain and Li Li dashed through, keeping a low profile with her fists raised. She took one heavy step towards the participant, planting her foot with an audible THUD. An ashen fist of fire came violently swinging at a speed the participant simply couldn’t react to, sending her flying across the platform and, eventually, off it. It was safe to say nobody was going to be foolish enough to bother Li Li again for the rest of the test. She hadn’t even used any arts and yet she completely decimated her opponent, who would be so stupid as to challenge her?
As for the other participant who was standing in front of Dirk, he wore a complicated expression. He’d been bold enough to challenge the 4th realm skeletal structuring, 5th stage Dirk, but this unexpected situation had come up instead.
“Yeah, you heard me, you can take the token,” Dirk was trying to reassure the guy, but his face practically reeked of malicious intent. The man was far too panicky and refused to move another step toward him so Dirk had to literally throw the token at him for him to even take it.
The man tried walking away when he noticed Dirk following him, keeping a set distance from him at all times.
“Go ahead, activate the token.”
To the participant, Dirk looked like he’d crawled straight out of hell and was here to creep up behind him and torment him eternally like some kind of haunting demon, but he also immediately understood the issue at hand. In order to make the token his, he had to drop blood on it.
Drop blood.
In front of a haemomancer.
“You know what? I think I’ll go fight for the other tokens.”
The other participant threw the token back to Dirk who currently had his hand theatrically draped over his forehead, shouting to the heavens, “Woe is me; no fun is you.” Thus, Dirk unofficially became the second participant who was ‘un-fuck-with-able’.
All the other tokens had been acquired by this point. Of the remaining five, three token holders were currently grouped up in a corner. One participant with a token had paid off two other participants with tokens to be his bodyguards. Not only would they not betray him as they already had what they needed, but the numbers worked out perfectly. None of the seven people with tokens would waste time fighting each other. One person had already been knocked off the platform, and the bandit brothers were sitting off to the side as if none of this concerned them. Appa was surprisingly slow and was still catching up while the person who wasted time with Dirk still had to come back over. This meant there were only two people left to fight for tokens and they weren’t stupid enough to fight a group of three, putting themselves at a number disadvantage so, instead, they went after the last two people with tokens, creating a 2 vs 2 brawl. When the other participant and Appa finally arrived, there would be no reason for them to individually try and fight the group of three, so they would head over to the 2 vs 2 area and make a mess there instead. This was the plan, there was no reason for these examinees to have to fight anyone! A bit of money here and a bit of ingenuity there was practically the definition of being resourceful!
Although it was somewhat cowardly, Rud and Teng were impressed with the quick decision making of the briber. This was actually the kind of thing they wanted to see. If they wanted to evaluate a person’s combat ability, that would be done in the third test anyway. More often than not, the most successful ones in this stage were the ones that never even had to lift a finger, which was why they were particularly curious about Ares and Aejaz. The bandit brothers had yet to do anything and that would be fine if they actually had a token. Rud could somewhat guess how Aejaz would get his, but was Ares really going to rely on Aejaz to get a token? It would certainly count. If dragging around a thief wasn’t resourceful then what was? But Ares really didn’t seem like the kind of person who was overly-reliant, so why were they going about it like this? He couldn’t figure it out so he just decided to take a ‘wait and see’ approach.
“Are you SURE ‘Jaz? Like, 100% sure.”
“I think so.”
“What do you mean you think so? If this doesn’t work, I’m taking your token. You’ve been warned.” Ares was really nervous about going through with Aejaz’s suggestion. He knew Aejaz could do ‘it’ as he’d seen him do ‘it’ before, but that didn’t mean it was guaranteed to work. It was the same trick Aejaz had wanted to show Ares 6 years ago before Ares had been impaled through the skull. He’d practised both that and his strange ability to increase the quality of stolen items and could do both somewhat reliably. He wanted to use this test as an opportunity to train this particular thievery art and practically begged Ares to let him get a token for him. After Ares’ showboating performance in the first trial, Aejaz wanted some attention too and this was how he was going to get it!
“Alright, alright. It’ll all work out. Trust me. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the dumb look on everyone’s faces later.” Aejaz had a sneaky smirk on his face. He wasn’t just going to break the rules, he was going to shatter them!
Meanwhile, Appa was getting frustrated. It didn’t want to hurt anyone, but unless it took this trial seriously, it wasn’t even going to catch up to anyone let alone get a token. Damned shades floated at an absurdly slow rate and really did rely on mana for just about everything, transportation included. It was going to have to take a token off someone and it guessed that asking politely was no longer in the cards. It stopped moving and ice gathered underneath it. The room temperature started to drop and everyone who was still fighting for tokens immediately paused to look over at what was inevitably going to be the bigger issue. In the gap between Appa and the floor, a giant eagle made entirely of ice had formed and let out a piercing cry. The eagle took off and Appa stuck to the back with little to no effort. Just like that, Appa had suddenly become the quickest of all participants.
The two token holders that weren’t in the group of three quickly decided to work together as things were clearly not in their favour. One generated a tiny ball of compressed water and the other hunched over it, imbuing it with mana. The ball looked unimpressive but Appa clearly knew the real threat of an attack like that.
The ball came hurtling towards Appa and, when the ball was close enough, it detonated and an amount of water considerably larger than what should have feasibly fit into the ball burst out. Each droplet of water was sharp as a knife and possessed traces of electrical magic in it. The electrical part had come from the second participant imbuing the ball with his magic. The droplets were linked together by the electricity, creating a deadly, hydroelectric net that would ensnare and pierce in a wide range.
Appa was completely unfazed... Not that anyone could tell from its blank ‘face’. The base of this attack was formed using the water pillar which meant dealing with it was incredibly simple for Appa who was a water pillar expert in its own right. Appa focused on the section of the net directly in front of it and a hole big enough for it to pass through opened up. It wasn’t enough for the eagle though so Appa turned it into water and allowed it to freely pass through the gaps in the net. As Appa fell through the gap, the water reformed itself into the ice eagle and swooped under Appa to pick it up again. In a completely seamless and effortless manner, Appa dealt with what would otherwise be an incredibly powerful combination of magic, all without lifting a single finger… Not that it had fingers.
Flustered, the two token bearers threw out desperate, last-ditch arts, none of which could break through the ice walls Appa kept summoning.
While circling over-head, Appa summoned ten or so arm-length stalactites before giving the two with tokens an ultimatum, “Give me a token, or I’ll hurt you!” Appa sounded incredibly unconvincing thanks to the hesitation in its voice, like a cute child threatening an adult, but the two token bearers still stopped and looked at one another whilst taking the threat very seriously.
“Rock, paper, scissors?” Time was running out, and if they wasted it fighting over who was going to give their token up, then Appa would probably come down and sort out the situation itself.
“Tsk, ok.”
“Rock, paper, scissors!” the two shouted in unison. One held up rock, the other held up paper. For a moment, the person who won was overjoyed. Their happy little moment came crumbling down, however, when they realised there were four token-less people staring at him. The two that had been fighting with them originally weren’t going to just give up and neither was the person who just handed their token over to Appa. To make matters worse, the person who unsuccessfully tried messing with Dirk had finally returned. The person with the token made a split decision, turned into a lightning dragon, and bolted off. The direction wasn’t aimless though, it was straight towards the three cowards who hadn’t fought anyone yet. Either you get involved, or I’ll make you get involved! the man thought to himself.
The three were naturally not pleased with this little stunt, but what could they do other than grit their teeth and fight? For the last two minutes, an all-out four vs four brawl was underway with no side having any real advantage. Occasionally a token would trade hands and the composition of the teams would also shift; after all, why fight the people with tokens if you already have one? ‘Who cares if we were fighting side by side seconds ago? You’re not on my side anymore!’
This whole time, the only person who managed to keep his token in this scuffle was the scholarly little man who originally hired the two bodyguards. Whenever ownership of a token changed, he was the first to make a hefty offer to get a little extra protection. He was also quite nimble on his feet and had an affinity with the pillar of illusions, making him a real pain in the ass for anyone to catch. Sometimes he was invisible, sometimes he was a clone. Once, he even managed to spook all seven other people simultaneously by briefly turning into a likeness of Appa.
Eventually, the little scholar got fed up with having to bribe people repeatedly so he came up with a new plan which just so happened to be similar to the one the guy who turned into a lightning dragon had earlier. Get someone else involved! Instead of bribing people who had tokens and could lose them at any minute, bribe people who didn’t have tokens and didn’t seem to care if they had them. In other words, the bandit brothers!