When I appeared in the Trial, I looked across the cavern at my opponent, a large stone golem. As was common for the first five levels of this Trial, the construct didn’t move to attack me.


    Normally at this point, I would begin setting up a few quick Qi Gathering Formations to drain the area of energy and pass the stage without a fight, but this time, I had a different idea in mind. I had learned a lot about fighting recently, and it would be good to use these early levels to hone my skills.


    Since the golem wouldn’t take the initiative to attack, I spent several minutes setting up a few safety measures around the room in the event that I felt out of my depth once the fighting started. These included a few Shielding Formations to provide me places to hide and a few Qi Gathering Formations that I could activate if needed to partially drain the energy from the environment and slow the golem down.


    Once everything was set up, I studied the golem to figure out the best ways to attack it. As I did, a new idea popped into my head.


    I cautiously approached the golem and activated my formation analysis ability.


    Unknown Rank Unknown Formation


    Rank 3 Mobile Defense Node


    Base Material: Marble and Unknown — Base Material Quality: Unknown


    Energy Throughput: Unknown


    Energy Efficiency: Unknown


    Even with all the unknowns, this still told me a couple of things. First, being a ‘Defense Node’ meant that this golem was just a small piece of some larger grand formation. This formation might have originally been designed to create mechanical warriors for city defense applications.


    Of more interest to me was how the grand formation was constructed. Since my ability couldn’t identify it, the grand formation had to be above Rank 3. It was likely far, far above Rank 3. However, the golem was successfully identified as a Rank 3 node. This opened up some interesting possibilities for using low-Rank nodes within a high-Rank formation that I hadn’t considered before. I would have to study this more in the future.


    This analysis did not, however, provide me with any workable means of subverting the construct’s controls, so I moved on and prepared for my attack.


    Once everything was ready, I rushed forward and aimed to fight the stone construct using only my physical strength and unpowered martial abilities. Of course, simply punching a rock with nothing but a bare fist would just leave me with a broken hand, so I sheathed my arms in qi as I attacked, but I didn’t attack with any energy directly.


    The moment I began my offensive, the golem started moving. It wasn’t very fast, but if it hit me, I would be in a world of hurt.


    I did my best to dart in and attack potential weak points in the thing’s joints, but my hits did little to no damage. Eventually, my luck ran out and I got hit by a glancing blow.


    I was knocked back several meters, and the shielding formation that I had strapped around my neck broke apart.


    Taking out a new shielding formation from a small satchel and donning it, I considered what to do next. I had wanted to get in some basic martial combat practice, but these things were too dangerous, and I wasn’t yet skilled enough to compete with them.


    Deciding to play it safe and move on to more qi-centric practice, I began incorporating Lord Gong’s pushing and pulling into my attacks.


    Even though the golem was made from stone, the formations on its body prevented my qi from controlling it directly, so I had to work with the materials lying around the arena.


    I tried a few different tactics, including raising the earth beneath one of the golem’s feet to make it trip and trying to shove rock spears into its joints, but none of these ideas had much of an effect. In the end, I was forced to simply bash it to death with stone after stone.


    When the thing was finally defeated, I collapsed in exhaustion.


    Trying to fight like that had used up a large portion of my qi, and it would take time to recover. Lord Gong’s fighting style might have advantages in simplicity, but not relying on set techniques forced me to use far more energy than I otherwise would have. If there had been weak fleshy bits I could have attacked, things might have been different, but constantly using copious amounts of energy to bash one rock into another rock was far too exhausting.


    Still, my reason for coming here wasn’t to go deep into the Trial to gather essence. I was here to train, and since the rock golems were able to absorb so much punishment, they would serve as an excellent punching bag. With the power behind the golems’ attacks, I had to be careful, but once I knew what I was doing, I was able to avoid its strikes and the fight hadn’t been overly dangerous.


    For the second stage, I used a spear of wood fire to down one of the golems before it could activate. The moment I did, the other one came alive and started attacking me.


    This time, as I danced with the construct, I worked to incorporate flames from the Cold Mountain Fire into my attacks. The earth fire didn’t burn through the thing''s body like the wood fire had, but the seed had the advantage of only requiring a minimal amount of my own qi to activate.


    By using hit-and-run tactics and quickly burning down enemies with the wood fire when I was overwhelmed, I was able to climb all the way to the twenty-first floor before I had to bow out. If I hadn’t spent so much time practicing and had spent a bit more time trying to quickly take out my opponents, I could have gone further, but that wasn’t important to me. I could come back here again and again to gather as much essence as I needed. Learning to fight was a better use of my time.


    As for the rewards from the trip, I received a substantial amount of essence, but I was uncertain how it compared to what I got in the Master-level Trials or how much more I would need to advance my affinities. In any case, I would just keep draining the place until I hit my limit.


    <hr>


    After leaving the Trial, I went directly to the Mission Hall and put in a request for a new combat trainer.


    Lord Gong’s training had been valuable, and I felt that it had dramatically improved certain aspects of my martial ability, but the biggest drawback of his combat style was the massive amounts of energy it took to use.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    In situations like the Test of Body, where the total amount of combat was limited and I had as much time as I needed, this wouldn’t be such a drawback. In battles against other cultivators during a mission, I could see the quick instinctive responses being a valuable tool to have in my arsenal, even if it meant using up more qi than normal.


    However, in the Earth Peak Trial, energy efficiency was king. I needed to go as far as possible, and I only had 24 hours to do so. Any time I spent on cultivating was time I wasn’t spending on moving forward. I needed to find a teacher who excelled in energy-efficient combat.


    This time, when I created my mission, I specified that the teacher needed to have walked either the Path of Mind or Soul on their way to Yellow City.


    Those who had walked the Path of Body had proven themselves as qualified Grandmaster-level combatants, but they were also usually the ones who felt that combat was their weakest area. By requiring my teacher to have walked a different path, either I would get someone who was completely incompetent, or I would get someone confident enough to save the Path of Body until higher up the mountain. I could only hope that the former would not apply for such a mission.


    <hr>


    The first two instructors who accepted my mission fell into the incompetent category. They could barely teach me anything, and only 15 minutes into the lesson, I left and went to the Mission Hall to voice my complaints. This only earned me a partial refund of my credits.


    After each of these failed trainers, I added extra details to my mission request to try and narrow the pool of prospective teachers. On my third attempt, I finally got a trainer who knew what they were doing.


    His focus was on exactly what I needed to learn, qi efficiency. He shared a list of several techniques that I needed to purchase from the Scripture Pavilion. These techniques were designed to have the most impact for the least amount of energy.


    After the lesson, I purchased the recommended techniques and studied them carefully. When I was confident I could use them reliably, I set my mind on returning to the Trial.


    However, as I was getting ready for my next excursion, Yan came and put a halt to my preparations.


    “Everyone’s ready. We can start looking for a combat mission.”


    <hr>


    We convened a group meeting in our apartment suite to prepare.


    LiTing reached into her storage bag, pulled out four weapons, and handed one to each of us. She had designed them after asking us each for our preferences in weapons.


    YuLong was given a massive maul like the one he had won in the Master-level Trial. JiaQi was given a guandao, a long polearm with a large blade suitable for taking down large beasts. As a dark qi cultivator and illusionist, Yan had specialized in attacking from the shadows, so he was given twin daggers that could be used for a quick, deadly strike.


    After briefly considering and testing all eighteen types of weapons, I had decided to ask LiTing for a crescent-moon spade. This was a long polearm with a broad, shovel-like blade on one end and a crescent-moon blade on the other. I couldn’t say why, but it just felt right.


    LiTing looked at us carefully after handing each of us our chosen weapon.


    “Don’t use these unless you have to. They are near the limit of what is normal for Rank 3 weapons, and I focused all my energy into giving them the sharpest edge possible. They will be able to easily slice through anything up to and including Rank 2 refined armor. Even most Rank 3 weapons and armor won’t hold up against them. The tradeoff is that the weapons are fragile. If you attack with all your strength, they may break after a single hit, but that hit will be deadly. Use them only when needed and try not to let anyone alive know that you have them.”


    We all nodded solemnly in reply.


    Next, I took out several small formation medallions and passed them around.


    “These are designed to absorb a single powerful blow to your head or torso. Once you put them on, they will only last one hour before burning out, and if you get hit, they will shatter immediately. Their durability is terrible, but they should provide near absolute protection against a single attack from anyone up to the Lord realm.”


    YuLong then handed out several talismans he had made. “These all have a basic lightning blast. It’s not overly powerful, but you should be able to stun someone for a few moments if you throw it at them.”


    JiaQi didn’t have anything to hand out, so she just sat and petted LuLu. The deer had been lying down, so I only now realized how large she had grown. When she stood up, her head would be taller than I was. Her combat strength was a mystery to me, but I noticed a couple of pronounced canines protruding from her mouth.


    Yan reclaimed everyone’s attention.


    “The mission we’re signed up for is straightforward. We are to invade a city and take out a majority of its defensive formations. The more we destroy, the higher our compensation. If we kill any sect members during the process, our compensation will be cut in half. If we kill multiple sect members, it will be revoked entirely. So, no killing. Also, try to avoid inflicting any serious injuries. I’ve researched this city, and we shouldn’t have any problems. Once the city lord is engaged by our employer, we just need to make a lightning strike at the defensive formation. Get in, get out.”


    I pulled out a map of a generic city’s defenses and showed it to everyone.


    “I won’t know what we’ll be facing until I see the city for myself, but this is the typical setup for this kind of formation. The core will be located in the Lord’s manor in the center of the city, and there will be at least half a dozen nodes scattered throughout the city. Attacking the core will be difficult, but all we need to do is eliminate at least half of the outer nodes.”


    I looked at them to get their opinion on a potential way to complete the mission more easily.


    “Instead of destroying each node individually, if I’m given access to one for a few minutes, I can try to modify it. If it’s as shoddy as some of the ones I’ve seen, I might be able to create a feedback loop that will destroy the core along with all of the outer nodes. This would leave the city completely defenseless, and we would be able to claim the highest reward possible. I won’t know if I can pull it off until I see the formation, though.”


    Yan considered things but couldn’t come to a decision.


    “Let’s wait and see what we’re up against. If the plan looks viable after we reach the city, we can try it out.”


    I nodded.


    JiaQi and YuLong looked excited. Their blessings revolved around fighting, and this was the first time they would get to put them to a real test.


    Only LiTing looked pensive, but I wasn’t sure why.


    As we were preparing to head out, I ducked into a side room to put one extra safeguard in place just in case everything went horribly wrong.


    “System, how much to establish a new secondary reset point.”


    Cost 10,291,304,960 credits.


    My eyes went wide.


    “How? That… that can’t be right.”


    A significant number of temporal anomalies have been detected. Cost has been adjusted to compensate.


    “What ‘temporal anomalies?’ What does that mean?”


    Items not native to this timeline have been detected.


    My heart began to beat faster, and my breathing sped up.


    Was something going wrong? Was this something I did, or was someone else interfering with the loops somehow?


    “System, did those temporal anomalies come from me or another source?”


    Calculating… Cost 10,000 credits.


    “Purchase.”


    Purchase confirmed. 6,733,076,524 credits remaining.


    Temporal anomalies originated from host’s storage space.


    From my…


    “System, are you talking about the spirit stones I gave my classmates?”


    Calculating… Cost 1,000 credits.


    I ground my teeth before replying.


    “Purchase.”


    Purchase confirmed. 6,733,075,588 credits remaining.


    Temporal anomalies are 1,578 spirit stones, 41 gold bars, and miscellaneous papers.


    That calmed me a bit. The ‘anomalies’ were of my own making. They were items I had brought into this loop from other timelines. While that had implications for how I could use reset points moving forward, it wasn’t a crisis. I would just have to be more frugal with handing things out from my storage space in the future to prevent this from happening again.


    The most important thing was that it meant I wouldn’t be able to set up any more secondary reset points in this life, so dying would mean returning straight to when I first entered South Gate City. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of not relying on a secondary reset point again. It would make the time I had with my classmates more meaningful. I… I could try to be a real friend to them in the little time we had remaining.


    I walked out of the small side room and saw everyone waiting for me. I gave them a slight nod, and we headed out.