Boats, many boats riddled the sky like flies around the fireplace they circled around a large stormy mountain. On one of these small vessels was Zhang Dong, his eyes glued to the strange structure in the middle.

The tower that he saw from afar stretched all the way up into the clouds and pierced them. There were many lightning bolts connecting with this tower. The stormy clouds circled around it while this tower absorbed these energies with what looked to be many lightning rods.

These rods were sticking out from this tower and glowing red each time the electricity made contact with them. This long tower went down and connected to a castle-like structure right on top of a snowy mountain.

Even from here, he could tell that this storm would be a good power source. If he was allowed to enter it and cultivate, he felt like he could be able to jump right into the core formation level. For this, he would have to make his way up to the very top.

‘Is it worth the trouble…’

Was the thought on his mind. He felt like he already overstayed his welcome here. The best thing to do was to just remove himself from the equation. He could already feel that there were some people above his cultivation level and he had to hope that his disguising technique would not be seen through. It was theoretically core formation proof but that didn’t account for special detection devices or skills that the people in this empire had developed.

“Is this the last batch of disciples?”

“Yes, elder Jingyi!”

While Zhang Dong was on the little dinghy that they called a flying ship he took a note of this Elder Jingyi. He was an older gentleman with long red hair and a well kept beard that was somewhat trimmed to pronounce his jawline.

He was clearly above the Martial Grandmaster realm, somewhere on the onset of the next Martial Saint realm. Zhang Dong did not feel comfortable facing somewhat of that caliber, at least not yet.

His spatial ring was filled with all sorts of treasures that he needed to absorb. Would he have a quiet spot to take in all the weapons to advance his body refinement to the next level? The spirit stones would grant him some system points that he could also directly spend on his cultivation.

For now, he needed to wait and hope for a chance to present itself for him. If push came to shove he already knew where he would be heading.

“You have all been chosen to be trial disciples for our Thunderball Hall. This does not mean that you are part of our Hall just yet!”

This old red-haired man started talking. He gave the disciple candidates the rundown while they listened.

“You all will be tested on your potential, if you can successfully persevere through the coming weeks, you will be able to join the other outer disciples! If you show talent, you might even be able to join the inner disciples and be invited directly into the hall building!”

At the finish of the sentence, the thunderstorm in the background started to rumble. It was clear that the inner disciples were allowed to go into that tower and cultivate with that lightning energy.

Zhang Dong theorized that those lightning rods were some kind of filtering treasures. They probably contained the chaotic electric energy and pushed them into the tower. There the cultivators could use it to cultivate the lightning that was now more controllable.

There was a long-winded speech about how everyone needed to behave and how they were not allowed to leave the sect grounds for now. This is what he had feared, that leaving this sect at this moment would become hard.

Without any means of fast transportation, if one of those Martial Saint’s decided to go after him he would not be able to outrun them. There were not many places to hide around here, they were high in the mountains with only snow and rocks. On foot, he might not be able to make it down this mountain top before someone noticed his escape.

‘I should relax… It's only been a day since I’ve come here. No one knows that I’m not this young master and don’t think anyone will care unless I start sticking out.’

For now, he decided to reorganize and keep himself hidden. Maybe during the coming days, an opportunity to flee would show itself. There was also the possibility of becoming an inner disciple. Which he would probably not have much of a problem with.

If he was allowed into the tower he would perhaps be able to absorb all of the electricity that it stored. Then after establishing his enriched lightning core he would just fly away on a sword.

He had lost his old spatial ring but there were some leftover items in his crafting abode that might still be there. Though he was not sure about his old items still being stored in his crafting abode. When the system got rebooted they might have been destroyed or used up to help him pass the barrier between the worlds.

“Show the trial disciples their new quarters, then tomorrow we will start the training!”

The long-winded speech was finally over and the red-haired elder flew away on his sword. The rest of them started descending down to the ground.

The main sect building was composed of that large tower with the castle-like structure in the middle. There were also many other smaller structures and houses around it going down from the mountain top. It made it look like there was a city on this large mountain but all the people living here were cultivators.

“You will remain here! An outer hall elder will come and instruct you at sunrise, rest well as you might not have an opportunity later!”

Lin Qiao and Zhou Dongmei were quick to leave after they dumped him onto the ground. Some other elder gave everyone an announcement while pointing to a large wooden shack. It seemed that this would be the place where these trial disciples would be staying.

While paying close attention to the surroundings he slowly followed after the youths. The doors to this large shack were quite squeaky and the inside looked quite minimalistic.

“What is this? Do they expect us to live here?”

There it was, the first complaint. One of the young masters that was brought up with a silver spoon started complaining. This was only natural, after spending years and being treated like little emperors they now had to live like servants.

This was one of the tactics that the sects liked to put their disciples through. They wanted to show them that they were nothing special and only the strong survived in the end. If the young potential disciples couldn’t follow orders, they would be quickly reprimanded and punished.

This looked more like a barracks for guardsmen than something that you would expect to find at a high-class sect. It was apparent that this youth here thought that he would get something like a cultivation cave for himself. These were reserved for inner sect disciples while the outer sect disciples had to always prove their worth.

It was a similar thing in his own United Element’s sect, but the dorms that they created for them would be considered rather lavish. The prospects had to share rooms but they were only in twos and could trade in their points for better housing and cultivation resources if they worked for it.

“Be quiet, the elders have ordered us to go to sleep and prepare for tomorrow!”

Another young master called out after hearing this one complain and quickly a shouting match between the two youths was started.

‘Ah… didn’t think I’d be part of one of these…’

Zhang Dong knew what was about to happen, the establishment of the pack leader. The ones that thought that they deserved the spot would soon show themselves. This was quite natural when a large group of young men gathered. They were quick to establish a hierarchy between each other but this meant that there would be bloodshed.

“You dare!?”

“Why wouldn’t I dare! This young master will teach you the error of your ways!”

A fight began and it didn’t look like the senior Hall members were interested in stopping them. He could feel some elders in the Martial Master realm looking from afar but they weren’t doing anything. This was probably seen as part of the course and if someone got injured during it, it would be their fault.

In the process of the fight, a couple of the bunk beds that were in this large shed were turned into splinters. Soon the young master that was complaining at the start was down on the ground and covered in blood.

It appeared that this young man was part of a group of three. And the two others jumped into the fray to attack the winner. He was not alone though and soon more bodies hit the floor.

The fight was even taken outside, this was a good moment for him to look at the skills that these youths had. They were all past the Inner Aura middle stage with the strongest being at the late stage. Dai Rong would be considered quite weak and at the bottom of the totem pole if he was here.

Within an hour of fighting, there was finally a winner. It was one young master with a larger frame than the others. He was clearly a dual cultivator with both body refining techniques as well as regular Qi ones.

He was part of a larger group of five that all made it into this outer disciple training ground. By being more coordinated than the rest they achieved victory over the youngsters that were mostly without any help. Some of the more crafty ones accepted this as normal and joined this group.

Some of the more stubborn ones were in the process of forming factions of their own. There were about forty people here. Twenty of them had joined this youth group while a few smaller groups that was probably going to try to get their revenge also formed.

They needed to bite their tongues for now but they knew that in the future an opportunity could arise. With that thought in mind Zhang Dong could see the various expressions of the young plotters. Some looked quite pissed off while some others just gave up right at this very moment.

‘Is it over? Great… I think I should try to sleep…’

Zhang Dong and a couple of youths remained in the barracks without going out. After this nonsense was over he moved to one of the beds and decided to meditate. He had just created his foundation pillar the day before and he needed to be sure that it was consolidated.

“Hey, what do you think you are doing? Who said you could take that bed, that belongs to me now!”

Zhang Dong looked at the person that was talking to him. It was a person from the strongest faction, it seemed that he had seen him occupied the bed. He knew very well that this youth was just trying to pull a power move on him to assert his dominance.

“You want the bed? Sure go ahead.”

He did not care about the bed though, he could just meditate on the ground if he wanted. There was no reason for him to stick out just yet and on the first day of getting here.

“Wait! Not so fast… you have a nice ring there… Give it to me!”

Zhang Dong looked at his hand that was now being grasped by this unknown young master. This spatial ring had quite the amount of treasure inside of it and he would not be willing to just give it away.

‘Oh, boy…here we go again.’