Chapter 10: First Encounter with Longwind

The instant the protective grand formation of the mountain gate was activated, more than three hundred youths of fourteen or fifteen years of age surged forward in wild haste, racing toward the mountain path beyond the gate.

It was as though the first to reach the summit would be taken into the sect.

A few of them, however, came to a halt and pondered the meaning of the trial.

And there were also a very small number who remained calm and unhurried, strolling forward with composure.

With his spiritual sense fully unleashed, Li Jiaan paid special attention to those unusually tranquil youths.

The moment the sect deacon departed, he had suddenly understood: in this world, body tempering existed, and one could begin tempering the body at the age of thirteen.

If this trial by the sect was meant to test willpower, would the youths who had already tempered their bodies not be at a tremendous advantage?

Once that obvious possibility was ruled out, Li Jiaan found the sect's intentions difficult to discern.

Fortunately, though he did not understand the sect, he understood human nature.

No matter how strict a system might be, there would always be loopholes.

In a competition where a single barrier could separate destiny from utter ruin, someone would certainly find those loopholes.

He only needed to identify such people, and perhaps enlightenment would come.

Among the more than three hundred youths, there were only three who were truly unruffled: two finely dressed young men and a refined, scholarly-looking girl, each acting independently of the others.

Li Jiaan kept silent and followed at a distance.

Sure enough, after traveling several dozen paces along the path visible from the mountain gate and rounding a small hill, the single mountain road split into two forks.

Most of the youths who had charged ahead at the start hesitated here.

Some grew so anxious at the two branches that sweat broke out on their foreheads, clearly afflicted by severe indecision.

A few others who had also tempered their bodies simply pressed forward with reckless confidence, their pace unbroken, thinking that if this road proved impassable, they could always turn back and try again.

As for the three people Li Jiaan had locked onto with his spiritual sense, one after another they seemed to choose the right-hand fork with complete nonchalance, as though there were no difference at all.

After traveling several more li, two more forks appeared before them.

By then, fewer than two hundred people remained on this road.

Those three again chose the left-hand branch without the slightest pause.

Several more li later, the same thing happened: yet another fork appeared.

In this manner, after five successive junctions, only eighteen people were left on the same road as those three, Li Jiaan included.

A bell rang.

At the sound, the eighteen youths saw a palace looming not far ahead.

By then, the sky had already darkened.

"The first trial is concluded. Class A, eighteen—"

"Wait, wait, I'm here!"

Just as the deacon was about to announce the result, a finely featured youth with surging vigor and blood qi came sprinting at full speed.

Li Jiaan remembered him. He had been the very first among all the trial participants to rush through the mountain gate.

He looked slightly younger than Li Jiaan, yet his blood qi was no less vigorous.

That was precisely why Li Jiaan had paid him extra attention.

Among the more than three hundred youths who had come for the trial, fewer than fifty truly practiced body tempering, and only this one could match Li Jiaan in that respect.

"Hmph, lucky for you..."

The deacon glanced at the handsome youth and, with a surge of spiritual power, declared in a ringing voice, "The first trial is over. Class A, nineteen. Class B, sixty-seven. Everyone else, descend the mountain immediately."

His voice rolled out across the area.

The next moment, the mountain forest the youths had just passed through rippled strangely. In the blink of an eye, the narrow paths vanished, the forks disappeared without a trace, and only a broad avenue remained, leading straight to the mountain gate.

The other youths also reappeared at once.

An illusion?

Li Jiaan lifted his brows slightly. He had not sensed the slightest thing.

More than three hundred people had taken part in the trial, and nearly eighty percent had been eliminated in the first round alone.

The eighty-six who passed were then led into a hall ahead.

"It is late today. Rest here for the night; the second trial will begin tomorrow."

With that said, the deacon turned and left.

Only after confirming that he had gone did the eighty-six youths in the hall begin discussing among themselves.

"What exactly was this first trial supposed to test? I didn't feel any difficulty at all."

"Exactly. My father said it must be a test of willpower, and told me to grit my teeth and keep going to the very end, but I found the whole journey easy enough."

"It was only a few dozen li of mountain road in total. Aside from that one fellow... I didn't seem to see anyone else overly exhausted."

"So, brother, what do you think it was really testing?"

The handsome youth had an easy, sunny manner and quickly struck up a rapport with those around him, Li Jiaan included.

Li Jiaan smiled and shook his head. "The great experts of the upper sect have their own profound purpose. How could a mere mortal like me hope to fathom it?"

"Brother, you temper your body too? Have you broken through the initial stage yet?"

"Oh, right. My name is Xiao Changfeng. I like making friends."

Xiao Changfeng had a rather impulsive personality.

Li Jiaan returned the smile. He had not yet broken through the initial stage of body tempering, so his blood qi could not be fully restrained at will; it was only natural that someone close enough could sense it within his flesh and blood.

"My name is Li Fan. A pleasure to meet you."

In general, people with such lively temperaments tended not to harbor many malicious thoughts, simply because they could not keep them hidden.

"Oh, I nearly forgot to say it, brother. Your mother is beautiful beyond words. No wonder you're so handsome too."

Li Jiaan's eyelid twitched, but he still answered with a smile. "Thank you."

"Then we're friends from now on. If both of us make it into the sect, we must stand together."

"We can talk after the trial is over," Li Jiaan said, already regretting speaking with him.

Conversations with people who were too spirited and unrestrained were very easy to lose pace with.

"By the way, your mother is already a Foundation Establishment expert, so why did she still send you here for the sect trial? Could it be that you're... an illegitimate son?"

"..."

Li Jiaan rubbed the bridge of his nose and gave a quiet sigh.

Still, it was no wonder Xiao Changfeng asked that.

The sects of this world and the clans belonged to two different ecosystems.

Clans depended on bloodline succession, and their cohesion was much stronger, though their inclusiveness was somewhat weaker.

Sects, on the other hand, relied on master and disciple inheritance, so their inclusiveness was greater, but their cohesion somewhat poorer.

Thus, in order to strengthen loyalty, sects required that once someone joined, they must sever all previous ties with their clan and former connections, and from then on be loyal only to the sect.

The sect would in turn provide certain compensation to that person's family.

For that reason, if a family produced a younger generation of good aptitude, they would usually not send them to a sect unless the family was too poor to support them, or the child was an unvalued concubine-born son or some illegitimate child kept out of sight.

Li Jiaan no longer paid attention to Xiao Changfeng. While pretending to doze, he reviewed the first trial of the day.

Then, all at once, inspiration struck.

He recalled the scene from when he had first arrived in this world and encountered Chen Zhaohu.

Could this trial have been testing one's fortune?

After a moment of careful thought, Li Jiaan was almost certain.

The cultivation world valued blessings and fortune; that made perfect sense.

However, even now he still had not fully grasped how luck and probability ought to be defined.

So he could not say whether the Azure Cloud Sect's method of testing was good or bad.

"If the first trial tested fortune, what will the second be? Temperament, or comprehension?"

Early the next morning, at the first crowing of the rooster, Li Jiaan was the first to rise from the crowd and step out of the hall.

His soul was strong, and he had already condensed his spiritual sense long ago. Even if he went several days without sleep, he would not be the least bit unusual.

Moreover, just before the rooster crowed, he had already keenly sensed that yesterday's sect deacon had arrived outside the hall.

"Today's trial should be about temperament. Resolve? Perseverance?"