After hearing what the voice said, Tianshen turned around and looked at the little puppy. Panhu was still at this point standing behind him, but was still not saying a word.

‘Is that the voice of the Azure Dragon?’’ asked Tianshen.

After a moment Panhu replied ‘’No, as I recall this voice should belong to one of his trusted subordinates Shao Long. He was the supreme elder of the then established Azure Dragon sect’’.

Tianshen faintly smiled as if figuring something out, then turned around and started walking in the direction of the altar. Step by step he was soon standing in front of the transparent cup that was still in laying in the middle of the altar. He could now smell fragrance of the liquid inside the cup and could tell that it was a mixture made from the pill of truth. The pill of truth was not a very complicated pill to make and it was mainly used on prisoners or in various situations of war to extract information from people. So the pill of truth did what it was named after, it made people tell the truth, but there were many adverse side-effects, one of which was intense brain damage.

As Tianshen was pondering about these things the voice spoke again ‘’You already walked towards the altar so the first test shall now start, there is no turning back.’’

Tianshen stood in place for a minute as if thinking, after which he calmly spoke two words ‘’I refuse’’.

At this point an ethereal figure materialized in the air above the altar, it was the figure of a middle-aged, tall, muscular man that wore golden armor all over his body. Behind his large body one could faintly see a golden sword which was strapped to his back. He was exuding the aura of a fierce warrior that faced countless battles, which Tianshen confirmed by looking at the numerous war scars on his face. At the same time a colossal pressure was weighing on Tianshen and Panhu, a pressure of a 2nd stage Martial King.

This surprised Tianshen because Cao Chen had told him beforehand that the ancestor had a cultivation of a 2nd stage Martial King. So this either meant that the Azure Dragon and his sidekicks were on equal footing in terms of cultivation, or that the Azure Dragon was much stronger than everyone previously thought. After making this deduction, Tianshen became a bit uneasy since he enter this tomb thinking that 95% of his now sealed soul power would be enough to conquer the tomb and it’s dangers, but now after witnessing how strong one of the Azure Dragon’s subordinates were, he was not so sure anymore.

Shao Long was staring at Tianshen with a piercing gaze and it felt like a devastating storm could erupt at any moment.

‘’So you choose death?’’ asked Shao Long who now crossed his large arms in front of him.

Tianshen calmly looked back at Shao Long with an equally piercing gaze as if accepting the challenge and replied ‘’A mere remnant soul of the Martial King realm dares to look down on me? Choose death? Death is never a choice for me, death is the choice I give to those standing in my way, and in case you haven’t noticed, you are standing in my way.’’

If anyone from outside of the tomb could hear the words that Tianshen spoke now about someone being a ‘mere Martial King’, they would surely vomit blood. What is a Martial King? Being a Martial King meant standing on top of at least the Azure Province. It was common knowledge that in the Azure Province, the strongest expert was a 3rd stage Martial King, and he was the now retired Head of the Tang Clan. As for beyond the Azure province of the Blue Cloud country, there were other provinces that had cultivators who had already reached the limits of a Martial King and maybe beyond that.

(Cultivation Levels Reminder: Qi Accumulation, Core Formation, Earth Realm, Sky Realm, Heavenly Realm, Martial King, Martial Emperor, Martial Venerable, Saint.)

Shao Long was visibly taken aback and felt wronged by the words of the teenager, not only could this teenager tell that Shao Long was a remnant soul, he was also looking down at a Martial King. All that aside, the boy looked like he was around 15 years old and had a 5th Core Formation cultivation level.

Tianshen continued ‘’Since I was born my sole goal was to go against the will of the Heavens, I do not conform to choices given to me by others, I do not play by other people’s rules, even the Heavens themselves would not dare to decide my death for me, I choose option three’’. At this point Tianshen’s long black hair was fluttering as a gust of wind arrived seemingly out of nowhere, his blue eyes were shining like two stars and the pressure in the room increased by many levels.

Panhu jumped back and kept his distance from Tianshen and Shao Long, he wanted no part of this. He also noticed that although Shao Long seemed to be struggling to keep a straight face while facing Tianshen’s Soul Power; he was not affected at all, this told him that Tianshen was controlling his Soul Power in a way that it doesn’t spread to every corner of the hall, but was only targeting Shao Long. This would make the concentration of Soul Power targeting Shao Long much thicker so in turn, much more powerful.

Shao Long was greatly surprised to say the least, he felt an immense Soul Power coming from within the youth in front of him, a Soul Power that was in no way inferior to his own.

‘’How can this boy have such an immense Soul Power? The disproportion of Soul Power to his cultivation level should have killed him by now’’ thought Shao Long to himself. But before he could even think further or make any moves Tianshen spoke yet again:

‘’Since you were so courteous and nice as to give me two choices, I’m going to show you the same amount of respect and courteousness as you have shown me. So you have two choices; choice one: step out of my way. Choice two: Your remnant soul gets crushed by my soul power, and any wisp of chance you have to live ten to twenty more years as a soul will be over this instant’’ After Tianshen finished speaking, the Soul pressure increased yet again, by this point Shao Long could no longer float in the air and had to drop down to the floor.

Shao Long realized that he bit off more than he could chew, but he also had a warrior spirit and never backed away from a challenge. Everything Tianshen said about his remnant soul having about 10-20 more years to live was true, so he sighed and said ‘’I was put here to test the one that will be strong, righteous and courageous enough to pass Azure Dragon’s test and gain his inheritance, but I would never think that I would be the one being tested. Fate plays strange games, I don’t know who you are and how powerful you truly are but I have nothing to lose, my remnant soul will disappear soon, so I accept your challenge and I accept the consequences’’. After saying that, Shao Long unsheathed his sword and in a split second appeared before Tianshen.

As he was swinging his sword straight at Tianshen’s forehead, he saw the youth in front of him smiling and not being fazed at all. Being a true fierce warrior that has gone through countless of battles, being underestimated like this enraged him even further. So he circulated his remaining Soul Power to the maximum and swung his sword at Tianshen with everything he had.

As the sword was about to reach Tianshen’s forehead, a shiny blue circle appeared on it in a split second. The sword made contact with the blue circle, everything in Shao Long’s head went black, the hall around him, Tianshen and the little puppy disappeared. In the next moment he found himself standing on water, he looked around, and he only thing he saw was an endless Ocean; endless in the literal sense of the word. He extended his senses downwards and realized that he could not reach the bottom of this ocean. But looking closer, he understood that the ocean was not actually an ocean, it was soul power. After which Shao Long felt multiple shivers go down his spine.

‘’M-m-monster’’ he stuttered as he fell on his knees with sweat running all over him.

‘’Wait, I’m sweating’’ he realized, then he looked at himself and realized that he was no longer ethereal but had a body.

After which he heard a voice coming from nowhere: ‘’I like and respect your indomitable fighting spirit, and so I am giving you a chance, as for what this chance is; that is for you to figure out.’’ After which the voice never spoke another word.

Back in hall, Tianshen was still standing in his original place. To Panhu, who was watching from the sidelines it looked like Shao Long just disappeared into thin air, and he no longer had any doubts about how strong Tianshen actually is and that he really isn’t a being from this world.

Tianshen extended his hand and grabbed the truth pill solution and stored it in his spatial ring. After which he turned around and looked at Panhu and said ‘’The Dragon-Dog race eats jewelry, precious stones and weapons to help with cultivation, so this hall is my gift to you as your future companion. Stay here and cultivate while I proceed further, it shouldn’t take more than two to three hours.’’

After which Tianshen continued walking towards the next hallway that would lead him deeper into the tomb. Panhu stared at the back of the youth walking away for a moment after which he looked at all the precious things around him and couldn’t help but drool at the sight.

‘’Looks like this sir will be having a feast after so many years’’ said the little puppy and then jumped towards the closest wall and started biting off the gold.

Meanwhile Tianshen was walking through another hallway, what surprised him though was that he could detect numerous traps almost every step he took, but after walking for a while he soon discovered that none of them were activating. He did not find it entirely weird, he was aware of the other two remnant souls that still existed in this tomb, one belonged to the Azure Dragon of course, and the other was his second-in-command. They were definitely aware of what went on in the first hall so they realized that traps were useless against someone like Tianshen’’

Outside of the tomb, in the Azure Dragon sect, about 5 hours were left until the next phase of the tournament restarted.

Cao Chen was pacing back and forth in his chambers, thinking about what Tianshen instructed him to do before he left for the tomb. He expected a brilliant plan to figure out the position of Jin Ju in the Tang clan and proceed accordingly. But all Tianshen told him was: ‘’Proceed with the tournament as before, let the events unfold, always let your enemies think that you are playing by their rules and make them think that you are weaker than you actually are’’.

By this point Cao Chen had full trust in Tianshen but he had his doubts as to how Tianshen chose to deal with this situation, it was as if Tianshen did not take into account the possibility of many people dying at all. Cao Chen would be lying to himself if he said that the way that Tianshen treated human lives in general did not bother him. The image of Tianshen’s emotionless expression every time he takes a head was still very fresh in Cao Chen’s head.

After some pondering and a lot of sighing, Cao Chen finally sat down and tried to meditate. He needed to calm himself before everything went down, it seemed like he was going crazy for trusting the future of his sect to a person he met not so long ago, but if there was one thing Cao Chen would never doubt; it was that even though Tianshen was not the most benevolent or caring person he ever met, he would absolutely not let his people come under any harm.