I was woken up by a loud clapping sound that seemed to echo from all around me. My eyes shot open and I found myself on soft grass. My eyes wandered to my hands and arms, but they looked completely fine. The same could not be said about my clothes which were still ripped around the arms and covered in blood. I looked around and saw a lot of other people waking up. I noticed that a lot of time must have passed as the sun was setting. I stood up and looked for the source of the clapping. As my gaze wandered through the group of people who had gathered, did I spot Devi. His robes looked surprisingly clean. In general, it seemed like my robes looked the worst which earned me looks from some of the richer looking people. Although I did notice that some of the people looked approving.

  They were mostly the ones whose robes also had blood stains, although none of them looked as bad as mine. I finally spotted another gate further along the grassy field we had woken up. I thought about making my way over when suddenly a group of people flew down from the sky. I had not noticed them before. I also noticed that I no longer saw the castle and pagodas. It must have been another separated place, similar to the stairs. I hoped that this meant that I had passed. The group of cultivators waited for a few more moments after landing before the man who stood in the middle spoke, with his voice reaching my ears as if he stood right in front of me, “You all have passed the first test and hardest test. We will test your aptitudes next, and we will go in order of how well you performed in the first test. A light will appear above your head when it is your turn, after that simply come to us.”

  While the man had talked one of the other cultivators created a table and chairs with stones. Although I had seen them fly, had seen spiritual beasts and had been healed, this somehow made me really realize that there actually was magic in this world. The cultivators had set up a ball of sorts on the table. Then a light shone over the head of a girl who looked to be around fifteen years old. She wore completely ragged clothes with holes. She also looked malnourished, but she didn’t seem surprised by it. She quickly made her way through the crowd and stood before the table. She placed her hand on the ball. I could not really see anything from the distance and since everybody started to walk closer to the table.

  I saw that she went to the right side of the table and waited there. She just laid down and seemingly fell asleep. I didn’t bother with going into the crowd and sat down. I opened my gourd and drank a bit of the water. I was confident in my aptitude, since the god had sent me here. It would have been pointless to give me an aptitude that would be undetectable. Instead, I was curious how exactly the woman who had created the table had managed to fly. I hadn’t seen any stones flying under her feet, so I was wondering if that was just an ability every cultivator had. I needed to wait for two more people to get their light before the light shone on me. I was surprised that I had done so well, considering that I had just been a normal office worker.

  I stood up and made my way through the crowd. Luckily, they had the common decency to make room for me. As I arrived did, I get a look on the other two who had done better than me. One was a teenage boy in expensive looking robes. He had blue eyes and shoulder length black hair. The other was an older looking man in rags. He looked around fifty and I was curious if there was actually no age limit to this whole entrance exam. I threw the questions to the back of my mind and stood before the table. Now that I was closer, did I see that the ball looked like it was made out of obsidian. The woman who had created the table said in a soft voice which was almost being drowned out by the chatter behind me, “Place your hand on the ball and wait for a few moments. After you feel something enter your hand, you can remove it.”

  I nodded and followed the simple instructions. The ball still felt slightly warm from the previous people. It took a few moments, until it felt something enter my hand. It was a weird feeling, unlike anything I had ever experienced. It felt like a static shock, but instead of shocking me it was a rough and solid feeling. As if I had touched rocks, without using my body. I removed my hand as the woman had requested and waited for her. I noticed that her expression had changed into one of shock. She pulled out a small wooden plague from her robe. After a brief moment, did she put it back. The other cultivators looked at her with curiosity but didn’t ask. She said with a now slightly shaken up voice, “Please go to the right and join the others.” She had a friendly smile on her face as I turned to join the others.

  The boy with blue eyes looked at me with curiosity, while my eyes wandered to his stainless clothes. Since I would need to wait either way, I thought it prudent to learn more about the people with the most potential. I smiled and asked, “How did you pass the first test with your clothes staying so clean?” He thought for a moment before he put on a smile and said, “How about a trade? I will tell you how I passed the first trial like this and you will tell me what your element is.” He stretched out his hand, and I shook it without much thought. It would be useless to hide it anyways since I doubted that I would live a calm life here.

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  I responded, “I don’t actually know what the elements are, but I felt something similar to stones. Does that answer your question?” Grinning, did he respond, “Yes it does. You should have an earth element. I have two elements. Fire and lighting.” I was wondering why he just told me this information. Apparently, he noticed my surprise and continued, “It is not really a secret. My family is famous for having dual cultivators. Oh yeah, I completely forgot to introduce myself. I am Artius Evergrah.” He waited for my response, and I began to wonder if he wanted to avoid answering the question. Still, I decided to play along and said, “I am Miranda.”. I decided against using my last name, since it might be reserved for cultivator families.

  Before he could say anything, did I ask, “So, are you going to tell me your secret to the clean robes?” He had a blank look on his face before he let out a small laugh while scratching his head, “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. There is not much of a trick. I simply walked up the entire way.” I just stared at him in shocked silence. It had felt impossible for me to even move towards the end, and he had just walked up. I also had thought that the test was supposed to be fair for everybody. The boy continued in a chipper voice, “The trial is there, to see if someone has enough willpower to cultivate, as it can be a mind numbingly boring and painful process. I am already strong enough, that it doesn’t need to be tested anymore. I am slightly curious though, how she has managed to get a better score than me.” His eyes wandered to the resting girl.

  She lazily opened one of her eyes and said, “I also reached the top of the stairs.” There was a natural arrogance to her words, but I didn’t mind that. I was curious why she had this much blood on her clothes if that was the case. Artius looked shocked and said in a confused tone, “But you don’t have any Qi. How is that possible?” The girl didn’t bother responding and just continued lying on the ground. As impossible as it seemed, she must have crawled the entire way up. I left Artius standing in shock and went over to the older man.

  He reeked of alcohol and seemed to be drunk, but I ignored it and asked him, “Did you do anything special as well while walking up the stairs? I imagine it must be quite hard to climb so many stairs while drunk.” The mans eyes wandered across my body, he stared at my chest. He answered while slurring his words, “Don’t know. Can’t remember. What’s it to you anyways?” While he talked, did I notice that while his robes were filthy, they were completely free of any blood. He was obviously hiding something, and his gaze didn’t seem lustful. He probably just tried to make me go away. I thought for a moment and asked, “Because I expected you to be strong and wanted to see if I could learn anything useful while waiting. But if you don’t want me to bother you, I shall leave.”

  I leaned in a bit closer and whispered, “But next time, remember to add some blood to your robes and properly slur your words. But since Senior wishes to be alone, I shall oblige.” Since I was guessing that he was more powerful than he let on, I might as well be respectful and maybe garner his interest. I went back to the others and noticed that someone else had passed the test, while three people had been rejected. Artius had already begun talking to them, so I joined the conversation trying to get more information about the sect itself and the general rules of the society. I was wondering how exactly this much military power in the individuals would influence the world.

  Sadly, the conversation turned out rather fruitless, since it was mostly both of them talking in a stiff manner about family matters. The only thing I got from the conversation of the two teenagers, was that the cultivator families were something akin to noble families from medieval times. Although I wondered how exactly they managed to hold that power, if individuals from all walks of life could become powerful. After all, the next generation had no guarantee to also be powerful, otherwise every family would be powerful after enough time passed.

  Since the conversation was not really being helpful and they showed no signs of stopping, did I remove myself from it and found an empty spot. Even if physical strength turned out to be unimportant, it also shouldn’t hurt. I suddenly regretted never working out properly back on earth, as the only thing that came to mind were push ups. My robes were dirty either way, so I hoped that a bit of sweat wouldn’t bother the examiners in the next test. As I started doing push ups, did I quickly realize that I probably didn’t know proper form, but I still continued since there was nothing better to do.

  I could obviously socialize but I had never been the best at it, and I was also not sure yet who I should even spend the energy on. It would be a waste of time and effort if that person would not even get into the sect. I wanted to decide at a later point what the best approach to this world would be. If socializing was better than everything else, I would follow that path. I was interrupted by someone right as I lifted my body off the ground again. I saw a pair of muscular legs in front of me and a disapproving voice, “Your form is terrible. You won’t get any stronger like that.”

  I went into a sitting position and stared up at the girl in front of me. She looked more like a mountain of muscles than a human and I wouldn’t have been able to tell that she was a girl, if not fer her voice. I took a moment to calm my breath and said, “I never worked out before, but I want to get stronger. Could you perhaps show me some exercise I could do while we pass time until the next test?” The girl thought for a moment before she said with a grin, “Lets work on stamina. Unless you already know how you want to fight later in life. Otherwise, stamina is always a safe bet. Never hurts to have more of it.” Taking my silence as agreement, did she continue, “Lets just run around the field. Simple right.”

  I nodded and began to jog. As I ran did, I remember that others had managed to push themselves farther than me in the test of determination, and I didn’t want to repeat my failures. So, I set the goal in my mind to only stop when I either pass out or the current test ends. The girl jogged next to me and seemed completely relaxed, but I didn’t speak to conserve my stamina. After around thirty minutes of jogging did, I feel like my sides were killing me. I also noticed, to my despair, that only around a fourth of the people had been tested yet. I suddenly saw Devi run across the field and adjust his pace to jog next to us. He nodded with a giant smile on his face but kept quiet.