The city was bustling; it was at its peak of activity for the day. Countless non-cultivators were working, either as merchants, or their servants. These were typically the only non-cultivators allowed within the inner city. For the most part, anyone that didn’t cultivate, lived either the outside the city walls, in small villages, where farming was the predominant way of life, or they lived in the slums, where murder, thievery, plague and rape was rampant.

Contrarily, despite many people knowing of this, they paid it no mind, this was the law of the world, if you were poor, then you were fated to be poor, if you were withering away in the slums of the city that was the most your existence amounted to.

Some people did manage to increase their status in society from either luck, which was what Lute had, or intelligence and effort. These were how most of the wealthy became as such, they originally had nothing, but through scheming, working, and using their exceptional ability to converse with others, they had built up their status in society.

That was one such world that was seen in Fallen Tide City. Lute used to reside in this world, withering away his life with thoughts of revenge, but not being able to do anything about his predicament. But now, now he was a part of the other world, the world of cultivation.

At first, Lute couldn’t understand the difference between the two. However, the more he casually glanced at his surroundings, the more he began to learn. The world of cultivation was equally as repulsive as the world of mortals, but the reasoning was different.

In the world of mortals, you could toil all day working, and it still wouldn’t be enough to support yourself, let alone a family, you were at the beck and call of cultivators. Your life was short, filled with hardship and labor, and less than one percent on non-cultivators rose to prominence in society. But even then, that prominence was short lived, as it only meant prominence in the world of mortals, such things meant nothing to cultivators.

As for the world Lute now resided in, the repulsiveness lied in the greed, jealousy, and arrogance. No matter where he looked, society was skewed. He could see many groups of cultivators beating a single person weaker than them to a near state of death, or even worse than death, being crippled.

If you showed talent, people less talented would form a group and kill you because they were jealous. If you had something of value, they would cripple you and take it for themselves. If you were of low birth, you didn’t reserve the right to even look at the feet of a noble. Absolute strength ruled supreme; there was no toleration for anything less.

Lute understood this concept painfully well, this was the entire reason he didn’t want to join the Fallen Tide Hall and remain as a rogue cultivator. Although he always planned to never use his full strength, making sure he had a trump card, he had to suppress himself even more since he was surrounded by many unknown variables now.

The moment he showed his true capabilities, greed and jealousy would turn anyone he met against him. This was why he made Seren promise to not reveal his ability to jump more than one or two cultivation levels, as it was abnormal.

If you were talented, you could jump one or two levels, possibly even three if you were considered a once in a thousand years talent. But Lute, with the difference of Foundational Qi and Nascent Qi, could release strength on the level of someone at the fourth level of the Nascent Qi Realm as the absolute limit of his capabilities, and this was even without combat Arts or Techniques!

He had the Thousand Way Scripture, but in the end, it wasn’t a combat art, and it didn’t have techniques, it only made all of his movements waste as little energy as possible while increasing their efficiency. As for the Primordial First Physique, while it could be considered a body tempering art, Lute didn’t learn any combat techniques from it because it had none.

Once he truly began to learn combat Arts and Techniques, albeit from the Mortal Realm, Lute had a gut feeling that he might be able to even beat fourth level Nascent Qi cultivators without having to use all of his Qi.

‘Todays goals are make sure I pass the tests without exposing myself, it would be hard to explain my strength. All I have to do is see what other people’s limits are at and make sure I am in the middle of the rankings after completing a trial.’

As a large pavilion appeared in the distance, these thoughts kept repeating in Lute’s mind. While he didn’t know the trials, as it was basically a competition to enter the sect, he could guess there would be rankings of some sort.

His goal was to compare his strength to the others, see what their limits were and then lower his to a level where he could pass unnoticed as an average cultivator. Then he would seclude himself in learning combat Arts after he joined the sect, cutting himself off from associating with others and putting himself at risk.

The large pavilion was only the outermost entrance to the Fallen Tide Hall; it was actually only the gateway. Once Lute, approached, he could see countless cultivators all waiting outside, the cultivation levels were a complete mess, some people actually thought they could enter the sect if they were only at the first level of the Foundational Qi Realm, then there were some as high as late stage Nascent Qi Realm

Lute fell within the median; the majority of people were ninth level Foundational Qi to second level Nascent Qi cultivators. The only way he saw anyone below the eighth level of the Foundational Qi Realm having a chance was if the cultivator came from a prestigious family. But those were few and far between.

As for how Lute knew that, Seren was leading him to the area that nobles resided, and the ratio was easily noticeable. There had to be nearly a hundred commoners for every noble, and there were thirteen including Seren, and since he was affiliated with her then it could be seen as fourteen. There were nearly one thousand five hundred people attempting to enter the Fallen Tide Hall, for many of them, it was their third of fourth attempt.

The sect had no qualms about trying to reenter every month, as long as the age of the cultivator didn’t surpass sixteen. They only accepted one hundred disciples each month. Since nobles were basically guaranteed to enter due to their status, that left roughly seventy five positions for the remaining over one thousand participants.

However, for Lute, since he wasn’t actually a noble’s child, he wouldn’t get this special treatment…but he didn’t need it anyway, Alda already said he would pass easily, so he wasn’t worried.

When Seren, Lute and Alda entered the area for nobles to register for the trials, many eyes shifted towards them. How could they not, Seren was the daughter of the second most powerful person in Fallen Tide City, he was second only to the Fallen Tide Hall sect master, who was the strongest person in the city. The Fallen Tide Royal Family was then considered the third most influential.

Considering that Seren was one of the most attractive in the city, well known due to her status, and the fact she was being escorted by an Emperor, there was no way the three of them wouldn’t get noticed.

There were many confused gazes as well, why would Seren be entering the registration area, she was already a disciple? This was when eyes began to turn towards Lute and the emblems on his necklace and belt. How could anyone not realize the significance of this, since Seren was an only child, and her father was faithful, choosing to remain with only his wife although polygamy was considered normal, it meant that Lute was being sponsored by the Windcross family?

The commoners could only guess this, but the other nobles eyes flashed with a knowing look, although it was rare, their families had sponsored aspiring talents in the past, who then grew up to work for and protect their families faithfully. This sight wasn’t too uncommon, except for one significant difference. Even if they were sponsored, the social stratum dictated that nobles and commoners were to easily be differentiated.

Yet Lute stood out quite a bit, not only with his hair color and eye color, his height taller than anyone and his muscle build was far more developed than anyone else, they seemed fragile compared to him. He was wearing clothes befitting a noble and his aura, although suppressed, seemed to suffocate anyone that came too close.

Furthermore, they couldn’t sense his cultivation, only someone in the Spirit Opening Realm and above would be able to find out as Lute was adept at hiding his strength. However, the most shocking thing was, he was walking stride for stride with Seren, next to her, and it was an Emperor behind the two of them.

Normally, an Emperor walking behind someone of Seren’s status wasn’t considered abnormal, after all her father was extremely influential. But even if Lute was sponsored, he should be walking well behind Seren and the Emperor, wearing clothes befitting a servant. Yet this hadn’t happened, what was it that the Windcross House saw in Lute that they would deviate from the cultural norm.

Lute’s attempt at hiding within the average crowd so far had failed, and he was already painfully aware of this as murderous and jealous gazes could be seen from some of the commoners close enough to notice him. Their thoughts were along the lines of, ‘What makes him so special compared to me?’, after all, no matter how weak, cultivators typically had a large ego, always thinking of themselves in a better light than they actually deserved.

Under these gazes Lute didn’t back down though, seemingly unaffected on the outside, he acted as if he hadn’t noticed it, and walked with Seren in silence until they reached the registration panel, where there was an old robed man, who had jade slips.

Seren, eyed the old man, she knew more about him than most. Although he always appeared to be in a dazed state, with glazed over eyes, he was much stronger than he appeared, that much she was assured of, especially since Alda had once said she wasn’t confident in fighting him.

“We are here to register my companion for the trials. He is affiliated with the Windcross House.”

Very slowly, almost as if he was on his death bed and barely able to move, the old man who was originally hunched over, and seemingly sleeping opened his eyes, not to gaze at Seren, or Alda, but instead at Lute. They flashed with an intelligence that went unnoticed by Lute, Seren or Alda.

Then, in an ancient, hoarse voice that sounded like it would give out at any moment, he spoke one word, “Name.”

Clearly this was directed at Lute, as the old man seemingly returned to a decrepit and ancient state, as if he were so fragile he could die any moment, his eyes once again glazed over.

Lute approached, and despite feeling something was off about this old man, he couldn’t do anything about it as Isla was sleeping in his body. Unless she was awake, there was no way he would figure out this person’s cultivation.

“Lute Ravenshadow, my affiliation is with the Windcross House.”

Stating the information that was requested, the old man then lifted one finger that was trembling, qi manifested around it that was so thin, Lute almost couldn’t sense it, then he began to etch into the jade slip. After he finished, it stated only his name and affiliation.

Handing the jade slip to Lute, the old man once again hunched over, seemingly becoming a corpse. All signs of life fading from him.

Lute clasped the jade slip onto his right shoulder, as every trial participant was required to wear one. But his thoughts were in disarray.

‘Who was that, why did I get a dangerous feeling from him as if he was a Vicious Beast when he was seemingly lifeless.’

“Seren, who was that person, he is mysterious?”

Seren shook her head, “I don’t know all I can tell you is that even Alda wouldn’t fight him with confidence to win.”

“I see”

“We must part ways here, as I am a disciple already, I am not allowed to stay any longer, but I shall spectate from the audience, try not to kill anyone….” Seren said dryly.

Now that Lute was actively going to interact with others, she earnestly felt that if he let his violence take control, someone was bound to die, as no doubt people already had a negative view of him due to being affiliated with the Windcross House, and those were just the commoners, nobles could be far worse, she was afraid that Lute might kill one because he got annoyed and so far, only she and Alda knew the true extent of Lute’s capabilities, especially Seren, as when she saw Lute fight Alda, he released his full strength, combined with his violent aura, it made her feel like a tiny boat in the middle of the sea during a storm.

On the contrary, Alda’s parting words were the exact opposite and made Lute smirk slightly upon hearing them, “Sure, don’t kill anyone, but do me a favor and beat the annoying Young Master attitude that so many of those pricks have out of them, give me an entertaining show.”

“I’ll do what I can, to the extent that my abilities allow me to.”

Although Lute agreed with Alda’s outlook, he didn’t totally commit. As he had to use all of his Qi to beat someone at the fourth level of the Nascent Qi Realm, but there were even late stage Nascent Qi cultivators, and those were among the nobles. But most importantly, it was because he wanted to hide his realm jumping abilities, at the most, Lute planned to fight a first level Nascent Qi Cultivator, and purposely lose against anyone else above that cultivation.

After Alda and Seren left for the spectators seats, Lute sat in a corner of the noble’s area, alone. Nothing escaped his awareness. Off in the distance, he could see the 12 nobles split into two groups of six and each group would occasionally stare at him, some mixed with interest, others with disdain.

As for the commoners, all they could do was stare at Lute in jealousy, but that wasn’t what Lute was worried about, he had the itching feeling that despite the old man who gave him his jade slip for admission into the trials, and he was seemingly lifeless with his eyes closed, Lute felt as if that man was staring at him.

‘Did my secrets get discovered already?’

That was Lutes’ final thought as he got up and headed into the Fallen Tide Hall trial grounds as the announcer shouted, “The trials shall now commence, please make your way inside in an orderly fashion.”