Chapter 12, Trial by fire

Amidst the blinding light, Jian Yu experienced the breaking down and reforming of his entire being. It seemed like his very soul was screaming for the torture to end but it never even paused to give him a break. However, it finally gave Jian Yu a breather after what seemed to be ages. Jian Yu's eyes were still sealed tight by the blinding light but his chest moved up and down, embracing the peace given to him; which only lasted a moment.

The next thing he knew, Jian Yu's entire body arched backwards as a searing pain made it's way onto his back. It felt like his back was placed atop an erupting volcano. The pain lurched it's way into his body from his back and inched closer and closer to his heart.

If the pain beforehand was torture, the pain Jian Yu was currently experiencing was indescribable. To put matters in perspective, it was probably a hundred times more painful.

Thankfully, this lasted a few minutes before Jian Yu was greeted with peace once again. This time, his heart thumped furiously at the thought of something far worse happening. Yet, all that came afterwards was the blinding light fading away to reveal the interior of a magnificent temple.

There were no coloured glass panels or fancy artworks but there were golden sculptures of ancient beasts lined up in two columns. What followed after the columns was a huge sculpture of an azure dragon. Unlike the other sculptures, this one was sculpted out of ordinary stone and didn't look extraordinary at all, unworthy of it's place in the limelight of this magnificent temple.

Behind the azure dragon were 3 other ordinary looking sculptures that depicted other divine beasts. Namely, they were the vermillion bird, white tiger, and the black turtle. Their presence further heightened the atmosphere in the temple to another level of magnificence.

What was strange was that the azure dragon sculpture looked exactly like the one on his pendant. Jian Yu's hand reached for the pendant and instead grabbed at nothing but air. The pendant was gone. Jian Yu looked around searching for it but to no avail.

"This is all too bizarre for me... First, that bizarre torture chamber and now this temple? I feel like I shouldn't be here..."

When entering a foreign and unknown land, it was very common for people to die of unexpected dangers. Jian Yu knew that as he heard old folks used to say that most maps were drawn from the blood of the explorers. They would bravely walk into the unknown and chart out the maps, even if they suffer severe casualties. Admiration towards the brave men and women bloomed in his heart since then.

Jian Yu put away the concern he felt towards the missing pendant for now and looked ahead towards the huge sculpture. There was definitely something off about that thing, he was sure of it. Jian Yu turned his head to check whether an exit was behind him.

Before Jian Yu could fully turn his head, the statue trembled as if it received an insult straight to it's face and shockingly, opened it's mouth!

*Woosh*

From the gaping mouth came a mysterious stream of water. It was violet and seemed to act alive as it flew across the temple almost like a snake to where Jian Yu stood. Jian Yu turned his head back to look at the incoming stream of water closer to find that it closely resembled a dragon!

"I want none of this! Go away!" Jian Yu screamed at the sight.

Dragons were ancient beasts that lived during the time of his ancestor's ancestors. Back then, they ruled the skies and nothing dared obstruct their path. Now that there was something that resembled a dragon heading his way, he didn't dare to wait any longer and searched for an exit in this seemingly endless temple. Who knew if he was going to be food for the dragon?

*Roar*

As Jian Yu ran around disorderly, the dragon let out a roar and increased it's speed a dozen times over. In the blink of an eye, it was directly behind Jian Yu. He didn't notice this but he was still as disorderly as ever. Shockingly, the dragon rammed into Jian Yu's back and disappeared into his body!

This time, no wretched pain overcame Jian Yu's senses. There was only an extremely relaxing coldness that came with the absorption of the dragon. The sensation made it's way to Jian Yu's heart before he knew it. Jian Yu stopped in his tracks as he felt it and let out a soft moan. This was a very euphoric kind of sensation.

If Jian Yu could turn his head entirely backwards like an owl, he would be amazed to find that a tattoo of an azure dragon had been imprinted into his skin. It had been imprinted by none other than the pendant that Jian Yu had. During the time that Jian Yu experienced severe torture in the blinding light, it had removed itself from Jian Yu's neck and glided to his back to drill into Jian Yu's body to form a tattoo on the skin and... an illusory meridian!

Meridians were the pathways for qi, blood and other bodily fluids to flow in. Everybody had 12 main meridians to circulate qi throughout their body. Not one more, not one less.

As of this moment, an occurrence rarely heard of in history was occurring. The dragon that disappeared into Jian Yu came to a halt, superimposing on the illusory meridian, solidifying it. Jian Yu now had an additional meridian!

As one circulates qi through their meridians, having one more would mean that Jian Yu could absorb qi faster than anybody else. If anybody heard of Jian Yu's good fortune, they would cry out in envy.

Although unaware of what was happening within him, Jian Yu now knew that the temple bore no ill will towards him. In fact, it looked to him that he was there to be rewarded instead. Hence, he turned back towards the azure dragon statue and actually began to walk towards it.

After Jian Yu sauntered his way to the huge statue of the azure dragon, he closely examined it end casually tapped it to admire the craftsmanship. It was a normal thing for him to carry out but it provoked a reaction from the statue. The statue's open mouth widened some more and let out a world shaking roar.

The entire temple shook at the sound and the statues began to crumble, bit by bit and it slowly faded away. Meanwhile, the scenery of the gorge came back around Jian Yu. It looked completely ordinary except that the treasures were still missing.

"No! Come back! I'm sure you have more treasures for me..." Jian Yu's hands clawed at the fading image of the temple being replaced by the gorge. His heart filled with extreme reluctance as he felt he didn't get to fully utilize the opportunity handed to him.

In the end, the temple disappeared from his eyes as Jian Yu collapsed to his knees, exhaustion from all that had just happened flaring up.

"Eh?" Jian Yu let loose a puzzled gesture with his mouth as his cheeks twitched in place.

Peculiarly, there was a single item on the ground right in front of Jian Yu. It was a tiny medallion that had the four divine beasts' images engraved on the front and the name 'Divine Beast Temple' on the back.

Clearly, this was related to the temple from before so Jian Yu picked it up and placed it into his bag of holding. Afterwards, Jian Yu sat down and began to absorb qi to recover. His eyebrows went up as he noticed that he was recovering faster than expected.

"What the.."

As he did so, he noticed the existence of an additional meridian that connected his dantian to his heart and then to his back. This discovery surprised Jian Yu. However, what surprised him even more was that his other meridians were all much tougher and could circulate more substances within it than before. Nonetheless, he was delighted and aware that he had not left that temple empty handed.

It took mere minutes before Jian Yu fully recovered. He felt much better now that he had technically improved his talent. His previous shame of a talent was washed away slightly with his recent good fortune. He jumped up to his feet and hurriedly climbed the rope up the gorge, no longer crestfallen about the treasures he had lost from the gorge.

*Boom* *ROARR*

The moment Jian Yu's head popped out of the gorge, he saw a huge flame serpent flying into a ferocious bear. The cultivator who sent the attack was backed up by another group of cultivators. All them wore white robes with auspicious golden clouds decorating them all around. The bear bellowed out at the impact of the flame serpent but instead of fleeing at the provocation of the group of cultivators, it actually charged towards them!

Afterwards, Jian Yu tilted his head to the left and saw another group of cultivators fighting a pack of wolves past the other. The wolves' fur was pitch black and their canines were razor sharp. It was clear that the wolves would be highly advantageous over the cultivators if they were fighting in the middle of the night. Unfortunately for them, the suns were high in the sky and they were trapped by the cultivators.

Jian Yu ducked his head back down into the gorge and wondered, "What is going on?"

Just as he was about to head back down to hide until the fights break down, he heard a tragic cry for help from behind him.

A few days ago...

A group of a hundred cultivators, all ranging from the 5th level of qi condensation to the 7th, were aboard a flying vessel flown by an Elder of their sect.

They had been selected to participate in a trial by fire in the mountains. The mission was to collect as many demon hearts as one possibly could, no matter the method. The only rule was that nobody was allowed to kill their fellow sect disciples. The mention of allowing the use of whatever method caused strange gleams to flash in the eyes of a few while fearful looks appeared on the faces of others. The goal of the event was clear. The strong preyed on the weak to grow stronger.

The Elder who was looking ahead of the flying vessel turned to give a final briefing of the rules and what to avoid.

"The location of the trial by fire will be held at the Piercing Sword Mountain. The deeper you head into the mountain, the stronger the Dr demonic beasts will be. The mountain's ruler is a snake at the Elemental Core stage so don't go too deep into the mountain. Final warning, don't kill each other."

As his last words fell onto the ears off the sect disciples, the flying vessel hovered down to ground level to drop off the cultivators.

"The trial by fire begins!"

Moments after the declaration of the start of the trial by fire, the disciples ran off into the mountain. There were trees covering most of the mountain grounds so it was easy to lose track of each and every one of them.

"Sister Mei! Let's go deeper into the mountains. With numbers, we can overcome the strong! We don't have to be afraid."

One of the disciples, a slim man who seemed to be near the end of his teenage years, called out to the beautiful lady ahead of him. She had extraordinary looks and an even more extraordinary talent for the Fire element. Alas, she was still young and needed to catch up to those who started cultivation earlier than her.

She was born in Acirema and never thought anything of cultivation. She always read books and had the dream of writing her own books to be handed down in the city library. However, the city was attacked and her dreams were crushed. With the new overlords came new laws. They evaluated the talent of everybody regardless of age and took in the best. Being forced to enter the Great Dragon Sect want probably an honor to most but not to her.

"Tang Mei!"

Jolted by the sudden shout of her elder disciple, Tang Mei nearly jumped in shock. She had been lost in her own thoughts beforehand whilst running amongst the trees. She glanced back at her elder disciple who was running right behind her.

"What is it?" She asked.

The man's eyes lit up at the response he was given. "Do you want to hunt for beasts together? It will be much easier for both of us."

Tang Mei sized him up. He was at the 6th level of qi condensation like herself so he shouldn't pose that much of a threat even if he tried to pull some tricks. Even if something unexpected occurs, she had her own means of protecting herself. No deaths doesn't mean that the disciples can't severely injure each other after all.

A day passed by and the man proved his loyalty thus far by attracting nearby demonic beasts into her carefully laid out traps. Even if the job had been dangerous, he had willingly put himself in such a position. Additionally, the battle prowess of the man showed Tang Mei that he was not a threat at all. Thus, she spent her time relaxing with her fellow disciple.

Four more days passed and things took a turn for the worse. The man had overstepped his boundaries and caused an entire group of bull-like demonic beasts to start charging at them. Using all he could to escape, even his own life force, he mustered a speed to instantly appear next to the distant Tang Mei and pulled her with him as they ran.

He repeatedly apologized for his mishap shopping the way, never letting go of Tang Mei. This deep show of concern touched her innocent heart as they dashed through thorny bushes and muddy paths.

Eventually, they stopped behind a large tree. The sheer size of the bark probably needed roughly three fully grown men to hug around it to barely meet its circumference. There, Tang Mei and the her friend laughed off the near death experience as a simple mistake on his part.

Tang Mei was about to suggest resting up a bit before continuing to hunt but to her disbelief, she was caught up in a net.

"Big brother Shou! Help me!" She cried out, desperate for even the slightest of assistance from her new friend.

However, he just smiled and called out to others in the vicinity.

"Guys, we got her!" His voice echoing off the trees.

A minute passed by shortly to reveal another two men who wore hideous smiles. Considering their status, this was a very rare chance for them to ever lay their hands on a fine specimen like Tang Mei. After sealing Tang Mei's cultivation base with a talisman, each of their two palms rubbed against each other as they noisily discussed with each other. Words of nasty things were overheard by Tang Mei, twisting her face further.

Seeing the betrayal broke her heart. She had been tricked!

This was the first time she ever felt like this and it sent cold waves throughout her body. Her body shook at the very thought that the man she had been spending nights with turned out to be such a vile person. Add on the fact that she's only 13, he's especially sick!

So, she turned her back towards the three villains and screamed out her cries for help, hoping that she would be saved.