Before taking the test to join the sect, I wanted to set myself up for as much success as possible in a short timeframe. So, after leaving the Academy, I did not rush to take the Exam. I rented an apartment and began preparing my cultivation base.


    For the past few years, I had been switching between the Profound-Rank techniques that Instructor Yuan had provided me. This let me test out a few different ideas for meridian construction, and I got a better sense of how they helped qi flow through the energy body.


    In the Academy libraries, I had gotten a few Earth-Rank techniques that took these ideas to another level, and I wanted to try them out. I hadn’t done so before because I felt they would need the proper Rank 1 techniques to work at full efficiency, and I didn’t want to undo my Rank 1 cultivation until I finished permanently improving my earth affinity.


    Outside the walls of the Academy and in a disposable timeline, I had a new limitation to worry about. I could not allow myself to cultivate essence. If my earth affinity suddenly jumped up several stages when I reverted to my reset point, people would begin to ask questions that I didn’t want to answer.


    So, as soon as I was alone in my apartment, I began working toward building a brand-new foundation.


    The first thing I did was create both a Rank 1 and a Rank 2 Qi Gathering Formation with filters for earth qi embedded into them. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t create a completely pure cultivation environment like in the Trials. Without completely purging the area of energy first and establishing a qi barrier that could completely prevent other energies from entering, there would always be some amount of impurities in the air that I would need to be careful of. However, since the earth qi inside such a formation dominated everything else, it would be much faster and easier to cultivate in it than in the more general formations.


    Once my preparations were complete, I began dispersing my meridians. Once that was accomplished, I took a Qi Expulsion pill to finish off destroying my cultivation base and return to Martial Disciple 1.


    At age 25, qi stagnation would begin to set in if I remained as a Martial Disciple for too long. The general estimate was that I would have a grace period of one year before natural aging would begin to take effect on both my physical and energy bodies. This didn’t give me too much time to waste, but it was more than enough.


    I decided to cultivate the Writ of Steady Stone. It was a Peak-Earth technique with the mental effect of making one more deliberate in their actions and less prone to acting rashly. Taken to an extreme, this seemed like something that would lead to indecisiveness and a cultivator who was unwilling to do anything at all. It wasn’t my favorite effect, but I chose it because I saw a connection between the mental effect and the meridian design.


    The Rank 2 manual for the technique focused heavily on variable meridian sizes to adjust flow rates. As an example, the meridians entering the arms were like thick tree trunks. Their diameter was constant throughout the arms and created wide channels for a large volume of qi to circulate through the arms at a steady pace.


    What made the technique special, though, was that it had branch meridians at key points, such as the fingers and elbow. These branches were small tubes that created secondary pathways for qi to flow down and later rejoin the main trunk.


    Under normal circumstances, qi would only flow through the trunk at a slow pace. But when one decided to act, they could divert all of their energy through the small branches instead. This constriction of the meridian size, as well as the pressure built up by the large volume of qi behind it, allowed for explosive releases of energy.


    This was exactly the kind of technique I needed to shatter some rock monsters.


    I entered the Rank 1 formation and began cultivating the first stage of the technique. Unlike other techniques I had used, this one recommended cultivating the feet first and then slowly moving upwards. This would give the body a firm foundation and connection to the earth below.


    Since I would be rushing through the Disciple and Master levels, I didn’t think this would make too much of a difference, but I still followed its advice.


    The Writ of Steady Earth used just as many acupoints as the Writ of True Earth had, but they were placed differently and only focused on cultivating qi. I thought that this would mean I would gather energy at a much quicker rate, but that wasn’t completely true. It started at a faster rate, but after I reached about 50% of my maximum capacity, the qi from various different acupoints started fighting each other. This caused my cultivation speed to slow, but the advantage was that it greatly improved the density and power of the energy in my body.


    Using a formation and over a dozen pills, I reached Peak Disciple in four months. Then, I spent another two years carefully cultivating through the Master levels. I didn’t have the Rank 3 technique for Steady Earth, so I had to use the one for True Earth. I wasn’t happy about this, since I could foresee the denser qi from the Rank 1 technique needing a special dantian to handle it, but I had to work with what was available. After I joined the sect, I could look for a copy of Rank 3 Steady Earth.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    With six more months until the next sect Entrance Exam, I raised my cultivation to Grandmaster 3. I could have gone faster, but I didn’t want to have to deal with clogged meridians this time.


    The day before the exam, I carefully examined myself. Three years had been more than I wanted to spend before entering the sect. I could only hope it would all be worth it.


    <hr>


    The Nine Rivers Sect Entrance Exam was held once a year, and it drew people from all around the continent to South Gate City.


    Previously, whenever the Exam approached, I did my best to stay indoors. I was not a fan of large crowds, especially not large crowds of cultivators. However, even though I didn’t go out much, it was still clear to me that cultivators who came here for the Nine Rivers Sect were much better behaved than the young Disciples who competed to join the Twin Mountains Sect had been since I had never heard any loud arguments or fights at any point while I was in the city.


    This was no doubt partly due to the sect’s robust law enforcement arm that could and would keep people in check, but it was also because the people who could aspire to join the Nine Rivers Sect were higher-quality cultivators. Not only were they generally more mature, but they also tended to have a firm hold on the mental influences of their techniques.


    The Entrance Exam was open for two weeks, and one could get in line to take the test at any point during that time. The line on the first day was long, so I decided to wait until later in the week, but as the days passed and the line only grew, I knew waiting had been the wrong choice.


    On the fourth day, I hurried up and joined the queue.


    Standing in line, moving forward only a few steps an hour, was annoying. I considered cultivating to pass the time, but that would risk drawing in impurities that would need to be expelled later, causing me to lose more than I gained.


    After a full day of standing in line, I didn’t care much about the impurities anymore and needed to cultivate to give myself something to do and not go insane. However, I didn’t grow my cultivation base. I sent all of the energy to my spatial fire seed to grow my storage space. If I were lucky, this would burn away any impurities that accidentally slipped through.


    As I stood in line, slowly cultivating away and thinking about ideas for the future, time crept by. I saw looks of impatience and annoyance on many faces, but no one was willing to cause a scene. Even if they were unhappy, they were all willing to show respect to the sect.


    That was, of course, until the fifth day. I was near the very front of the line when one of the sharpest, most ear-piercing voices I had ever heard sounded out from the building where the Exam was taking place.


    “You dare!? Do you know who my father is!? I am the crown prince of the Empire of the Eternal Sun! My uncle is an elder of this sect! You dare say I’ve been rejected. I’ll have your head!”


    A moment passed where nothing could be heard, then the voice cried out again.


    “You dare!? Wait till my uncle hears about this he’ll—”


    I heard the sounds of scuffling coming from inside.


    “What do you think you are doing!? Get your hands off me you brute!”


    An elegant young man wearing a peacock robe appeared in the building''s entrance. He was floating nearly half a meter in the air.


    A second later, a burly, simple-looking man in a plain brown robe became visible behind him. He was holding the peacock up by the scruff of his neck.


    “If you don’t put me down this instant, I’ll kill you! How dare you!”


    The burly man kept a hold of him and hauled him off somewhere out of sight. The peacock’s fate was unknown, but everyone in the crowd just shook their heads.


    I didn’t see any traces of ridicule on their faces. Everyone seemed to share the same sentiments. Fear and sorrow. They had all seen this kind of scene before.


    I began to understand the people around me a little better. These weren’t young men looking to prove themselves. Nearly every one of them was between 40 and 60 years old. They knew. They knew the risks of cultivating. All of them had likely seen its effects on their friends and family, and they knew that even if they took every precaution, they might only be a single step away from such a fate themselves.


    While watching the scene had been a little depressing, I was glad that everyone was prepared and ready to properly handle mad cultivators, both sect and new recruits alike.


    A few more hours passed, and I was finally able to enter the exam building.


    While the outside had been grand and imposing, with a red colonnade, a jade peaked roof, and gold ornamentations, the interior of the building was extremely subdued, with a simple wooden floor and tan plaster walls. There were no decorations or ostentations in the room.


    Several scribes sat at a long table to my left, and a door leading deeper into the building was to my right. Across from me was a dark oval portal that looked like it led into the deepest abyss. It was the entrance to another Trial. Two smartly dressed guards in blue combat gear stood on either side of it.


    One of the scribes addressed me while looking down at his papers.


    “Name?”


    “Su Fang.”


    “Age?”


    “28.”


    “Blessing?”


    I had thought about this and decided to simply repeat what I had told the Academy. “It has a few nuances, but it enhances my general cultivation comprehension.”


    The scribe noted this down and then looked up at me, waiting for me to continue, but I held my silence. When he was certain I would say no more, he finished marking down a few extra notes and then pointed to an affinity testing orb.


    I proceeded as normal, and he tapped it to resolve the images of my current affinities. I noticed that the three symbols representing fire, earth, and wood had changed colors and dimmed, but otherwise, it was the same picture as last time.


    The scribe squinted when he saw the static caused by my additional affinities, but he didn’t ask any questions about it. After writing down a few notes, he put down his brush and gestured to the Trial portal. “Enter.”


    I approached the portal and tried to look inside, but all I saw was blackness.


    I took a deep breath, mustering my courage.


    I picked up a foot and stepped through into an unknown Trial.


    <hr>


    I stepped into a room with a wooden floor and tan plaster walls.


    To my right, a group of scribes was doing paperwork.


    “You have qualified as either a Grade 1 inner sect disciple of the Fire Peak or a Grade 2 outer sect disciple of the Earth Peak. Which do you choose?”


    I looked around, confused. Why was I here? What happened?


    I was just about to—


    The scribe cleared his throat loudly. “Fire Peak or Earth Peak, which one?”