With 100 stages to complete, I needed to be extremely efficient with my use of both qi and time. I had reason to believe I could complete 50 in one day, but I didn’t believe for a moment that the second 50 would be as easy as the first 50.


    My quickest and most stamina-efficient way to take down the Trial’s constructs was by piercing them with a thread of my wood-based spirit fire. My most qi-efficient and least mentally taxing way of taking them down was bashing them apart with the ball end of my staff.


    Because the Trial’s environment contained only pure earth qi, I was able to cultivate while moving and fighting without needing to worry about accidentally drawing impurities into my body. To use that to my advantage, I started fights by blasting my enemies with spirit fire until my qi reserves fell under 10%.


    Qi Recovery Pills were most effective at these low energy levels, so whenever my qi recovered to more than 10% of its maximum capacity, I sent out a spirit fire to quickly destroy another construct.


    While waiting for my qi to recover, I fought against the golems using my staff. It took far longer to destroy them like this, but by switching between spirit fire and physical power, I was able to make swift, constant progress through the initial stages of the Trial. The only minor difficulty was maintaining my qi-empowered muscles at such low energy levels, but I was able to quickly adapt my combat style to account for this handicap.


    In half a day, I had advanced all the way to stage 30, setting a pace slightly above what I had expected. Once I reached stage 40, though, things slowed down dramatically. Instead of simply needing to destroy my opponents, new challenges presented themselves.


    At first, these changes only concerned the terrain of the arena. For example, on some stages, large pits and high cliff walls separated me from my enemies. However, after stage 60, there were also formations I had to be wary of.


    These new impediments were annoying. I was skilled enough with Grandmaster-level formations that they didn’t have a chance to stop me, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that they slowed me, and I couldn’t afford to be slowed down.


    At the end of the first day, I had slightly surpassed my goal of stage 50, making it to stage 54. At the end of the second day, I had made it to stage 90. From there, my progress slowed to a crawl as I had to expend nearly all my energy on each stage to deal with the terrain, formations, and dozens of opponents.


    The only real challenge for me was time. I had the skills needed to complete anything this Trial wanted to throw at me, but I needed the time to do so. Three days was a tight deadline, but I was able to get it done and reached stage 100 with a few hours to spare.


    I expected 100 to be more of the same, an ever-increasing number of enemies and traps littered around an increasingly complex battlefield. To my surprise, I was presented with only a single opponent and an arena that looked suspiciously like the first stage.


    When I appeared, the construct didn’t move to attack immediately, so I had time to prepare.


    After assessing the battlefield, I was worried. It looked far too similar to the first stage for my liking. I didn’t believe things would be that easy.


    I spent time carefully examining everything in the arena, but I only found one important change from previous stages of the Trial. There was qi of multiple elements in the air. All five basic elements were present. Not only would that mean I would need to be more careful when cultivating while fighting, but it also meant that this golem would have some way to make use of these different elements.


    I tried to use energy vision to get a sense of what I was up against, but the golem shone with a solid white hue which blocked me from seeing its internals. All I could see were the inscriptions it used to power itself. To my disgust, filters of all five elements were indeed present in those inscriptions.


    Instead of taking the risk of fighting an unknown enemy for no reason, I decided to use my tried-and-true method of creating formations to drain the arena and easily disable my opponent.


    I moved to a large rock and started to carve a Qi Gathering Formation, but as soon as I did, the golem attacked.


    This didn’t surprise me. I had been waiting for it. What did surprise me was that its target wasn’t me. Instead, it attacked and destroyed my half-finished formation. Unlike in previous stages, this thing wasn’t about to let me slowly carve formations around the room.


    Since that option was out, I went with plan two. I tapped into my wood-based spirit fire and shot a lance of energy at the creature to destroy it in a single attack.


    When my flame was within half a meter of the thing, a red shield formed around it. Instead of striking into the golem, my spirit fire wrapped around this shield.


    I tried to pull the fire back, but I was too late. The red shield glowed brighter, and my spirit fire disappeared. It was gone. If I wanted to use a wood-based fire again, I would have to buy a new one.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The red-glowing construct began moving toward me.


    If it was going to use my spirit fire to empower itself, I could try to do something similar.


    I tapped into the seed of the Cold Mountain Fire and sent a jet of earth-based energy at the construct. I wrapped it around the monster, siphoning energy from the fire shield and into my spirit fire, empowering my attack.


    As the red glow faded and my Cold Mountain Fire blazed with energy, I noticed a golden sheen appear around the golem. As quickly as I could, I retracted the fire and sent it back to the seed in my soul. If I empowered a metal shield, I would no longer have a chance in this fight.


    With spirit fires unusable and unable to complete formations before they were destroyed, I had to rely on pure martial combat. This golem was far tougher than the ones before it, so punching through its shell would be impossible. However, the seeds of a new tactic had planted themselves in my mind during the past dozen or so stages of dealing with these constructs.


    This thing needed energy to move, and the parts of the formations that gathered energy for it were clearly visible on the outside of its body. So, instead of trying to break through its shell and attack its core, I focused on slowly destroying these inscriptions one after another and eroding the golem’s ability to maintain itself.


    It was a long fight, but in the end, I was victorious, and earth essence flooded into me. As I cultivated it, I felt a deep snap as my affinity broke through to peak five-star.


    Task complete, I bowed deeply toward the center of the room to show respect for my new ‘master’ and then turned to leave. As I did, his voice echoed through the room once more.


    “Kid, I’ll give you a piece of advice. The older generation isn’t allowed to interfere in the conflicts of the younger generation. No matter what happens, the older generation cannot directly intervene in the personal disputes of the sect’s disciples. This means I cannot help you settle any grudges, but it also means that if an elder disapproves of you, they cannot attack you directly. They can only train people up and send them after you. Do with this information what you will.”


    I bowed once more. “Thank you.”


    <hr>


    With the Trial complete, I had finished everything I needed to do in Mortal City. LiTing and I were ready to ascend to Yellow City. Before we left, we had one final meeting with the rest of our classmates.


    Yan had already started teaching a class of Masters in the Academy while JiaQi and YuLong had started a small mercenary group that they were using to complete a few combat missions every month. With Lord Hao hanging over our heads, leaving the sect to do missions was dangerous, but the rules of the battlefield provided them with enough protection that they considered it worth the risk.


    LiTing and I shared heartfelt goodbyes with everyone, but I also took this moment to have a private chat with Yan.


    “Have you found anything that’ll work?”


    A look of frustration crossed his face. “I know what we need. It’s called a memory orb. However, I can’t find any for sale, and I have no idea where to look for them. From what I can tell, it’s a type of refined item, so LiTing might be able to make one. Since I haven’t been able to find an orb, I’ve also been searching for a manual with information on how to create one, but I’ve not had any luck with that either. I’m going to have to keep looking.”


    There was no question in my mind that I wanted to take their memories back through the time with me. I hadn’t yet figured out how, when, or if I would restore them, but I needed to have that option available.


    While Yan might be having trouble finding a way to procure these orbs, now that I had the name of what I needed, I no longer had to buy such costly information from the System. I could purchase the item directly.


    I rubbed my chin to hide my subvocalizations. “System, how much for a memory orb that I can use to store the memories of one of my classmates and then transfer them back during my next life?”


    Cost 500 billion credits.


    That number made me groan. Yan gave me a funny look, so I explained.


    “Those memory orbs are probably a Rank 6 item. That’s why you’ve had so much trouble finding them. They’re not something that would be available to a lowly Grandmaster.”


    He nodded and refrained from asking how I knew that information.


    “I’ll look into other options. Since you and LiTing are going to rush up to Emperor, I’ll leave researching the orbs to you.”


    “Yan, there’s also something else I want you to investigate… How much do you know about essence cultivation techniques?”


    He rolled his fingers in thought. “I know you’ve been cultivating that earth one. I didn’t understand why you bothered, but I’m starting to have a guess. Why?”


    The side of my mouth twitched. “I need techniques for the other elements. I only have one for earth. I want one for every element possible. Neither the Academy nor the sect has them in their libraries. Do you think you can help me find them?”


    “They probably burned any copies they had to prevent people from wasting essence. I’ll see what I can find out for you, but no promises. Essence techniques are rare, and while they aren’t valued highly here, they are of immense value to most clans outside the sect, so few would be keen on sharing one.”


    “I understand. Just let me know if you find out about one. I can worry about the details of acquiring it later.”


    With those issues taken care of, Yan and I rejoined the group.


    LiTing and I would be racing to Profound City to stay ahead of the news that we had left Mortal City, and we didn’t know how long the journey would take. There was always a risk that we would get stuck on one of the paths for an extended period of time, so we made plans to meet up outside the gates to Mortal City in three months. If that didn’t work out, we would try again once every three months thereafter.


    We said our goodbyes, and I patted Yan and YuLong on the back in farewell. I got a bit of a surprise when JiaQi hugged me, but I was able to respond somewhat naturally, even if I was a little stiff.


    Before we left, I looked at the three of them.


    “Lord Hao is an annoyance, but in truth, he’s just a bug. Our real problem is the Zhuge Clan. If you ever leave the sect’s territories, be careful of them.” I focused on Yan. “You know what they can and will do more than me. Everyone needs to stay safe until our… protections are in place. I don’t want to risk losing anyone before then.”


    A look of resolve appeared on Yan’s face. “Don’t worry. I know what to do. The clan would never risk directly offending the sect master, so they will have to play by the same rules everyone else does. Even if we can’t fight back against them, I can keep us alive.”


    After one last round of goodbyes, I turned to LiTing.


    “Ready?”


    A bittersweet smile appeared on her face. “Yes.”