When Curo entered the room, he was greeted by a giant hall. Inside the hall, there were 15 Formation and here seemed to be some people queued up for them already. Seeing Curo enter, Qing Zhao’s eyes lit up as he walked towards him and extended his palm.

Curo placed the Token on the man’s open palm and waited for further instructions. When Qing Zhao was checking the details inscribed on the Token, Curo used this chance to look around. Most of the people in the room were wearing the same robes indicating that they were from the Academy.

Besides some young people standing around, seemingly keeping order, some older people, who had golden embroideries indicating that they were Instructors, were intently staring at the screens outside the Formations. Suddenly, one of the men snorted and a milky white light covered his hand.

With a swift motion, the hand pierced into the Formation and as he yanked back a youth, the same age as Curo came flying out of the Formation. Without saying a word, the man then indicated for the next person to enter. The man then took a Token and inscribed something on it before handing it back to the boy that had been sent flying. It was at this moment that Qing Zhao handed Curo his Token back.

He then said, “Follow me.” Curo nodded his head as he solemnly nodded his head and followed behind him. Qing Zhao then brought Curo to a Formation that was currently unoccupied and started explaining, “Inside, you will encounter a wave after wave of monsters. Once you kill the entire wave, you will be given half an hour to rest before the next wave appears.”

The man then looked at Curo seriously and said, “During that break, if you have suffered serious injuries or feel as though you won’t be able to take on the next wave, you can infuse your Qi into the Token and be transported out.” The man let it sink in a bit before he continued explaining, “You will be teleported inside with your True Body. All injuries you suffer inside will be permanent so, be careful. Also, you will only be allowed to take one Offensive Artefact and a Defensive Artefact. As for the rest of your possessions, I will have to ask you to hand them to me.”

Curo’s face flickered but before he could say anything, the man let out a laugh, “Don’t worry, no one will steal them here and I will personally hand all of the possessions back after you exit the Formation.” Curo let out an embarrassed chuckle as he withdrew a jet black Guan Dao Halberd from his Spacial Ring and handed the Ring over to the man.

Qing Zhao furrowed his brows as he asked, “Do you not want to take a Defensive Artefact with you?” Curo scratched his cheek in embarrassment as he said, “It is not that this Junior doesn’t want to but rather, I don’t have adequate Defensive Artefacts to take with me. Junior exited closed door training only a few days ago and managed to upgrade my fleshly body to a degree that all of the Defensive Artefacts this Junior possesses would only be dead weight.”

Hearing this, Qing Zhao gave a deep glance at him before nodding his head. However, all of the other people in the room took in a sharp breath. All of the Instructors and Students however were looking at the duo with confusion.

These 15 Formation were ranked according to their difficulty and usually, an Examinee picked the Formation according to their own judgement. If they didn’t feel confident in challenging a higher ranked Formation, they could challenge the lower ranked one. Qing Zhao had led Curo straight to the highest difficulty Formation and hadn’t even given him a choice in the matter. Curo took a deep breath and followed Qing Zhao’s gesture to enter the Formation.

When he entered the Formation, a white light enveloped his body as he was transported to the testing ground. The moment Curo had disappeared, a gentle voice sounded out, “Instructor Qing, may I ask why you directed him to the Purgatory Formation without letting him choose?” The man didn’t even turn around as he intently stared at the Formation and said, “He has just exited closed door training and hasn’t had time to adjust to his new cultivation.

As an Instructor, I feel that for him to gain the most benefits from this Examination, it would be for the best for him to enter the Purgatory Formation.” The gentle voice sighed as a young woman walked in. Her emerald green eyes stared at the Formation intently as she walked next to Qing Zhao. She then asked, “How long do you think he will be able to withstand?”

Qing Zhao scratched his chin and said with a wide grin, “If he isn’t exactly sleeping in there, he should be able to withstand at least 15 Monster Waves.” A deadly silence enveloped the hall. Although, the Examinees didn’t understand the meaning behind the man’s words, all the Student’s and Instructors did. Even the current strongest person from the generation could only withstand 18 waves inside the Purgatory Formation. It was also worth noting that even though he managed to withstand 18 waves, he was seriously injured and needed to recuperate behind closed doors for nearly a year.

The young woman was shocked as she glanced at the man standing next to her. She sucked in a deep breath before saying with a serious expression, “Let us see then how far this little monster can go.” The man let out a sly smile as he kept observing the light screen.

***

When Curo opened his eyes, he was in a desolate wasteland. There wasn’t a hint of life as far as eyes could see. After observing the surroundings for a bit, his eyes turned sharp as he stared in front of him. In the front, he could see exactly 100 skeleton soldiers.

However, their bones were black and they were wearing nothing but a helmet and a sword. Curo sucked in a deep breath as he realized that all of them emanated the fluctuations of a person with 20 Qi Kindling’s. As His face turned cold, he gripped his Halberd with both of his hands and just as he took a stance, his leg muscles visibly tensed up as he disappeared from the location a moment later. When he reappeared, he was right behind the one hundred skeletons.

Just as he appeared, a loud Bang echoed out in the quiet world. When the bang had finished echoing in the desolate wasteland, all of the skeletons turned into black lights and dissipated.

A monotonous voice entered Curo’s head, “Do you wish to send in the next wave?” Curo loudly shouted, “Yes!” After Curo had said that, another group of skeletons appeared, however, this time, there were 200 of them. Curo revealed a smile as he readjusted the halberd in his hand and thrust forward. He was currently relying on his fleshly body to just muscle his way through.

By doing this, he was trying to find the limit of his body. He knew that ever since his body was reformed in the blood cocoon, his fleshly body was several stages higher than his current cultivation that wasn’t sealed.

He just wanted to see what his limit was, how far he could go with solely with his fleshly body. With a burning fighting intent in his eyes, he lightly licked his lips as he continued to rampage. In just a few minutes, the number had grown to 300, then 400, all the way up to 900.

***

Outside the Formation, Curo’s performance inside had gathered quite a few spectators. All the other Formations were currently empty and no one was in queue either. All the people inside the Hall were currently staring at Curo’s performance.

When Curo had reached the 9th wave, the young woman next to Qing Zhao furrowed her brows as she said, “Until now, he has solely relied on his fleshly body. I will admit, it is truly strong but now, the enemies he will encounter are going to be in the Qi Spring Stage. Just by relying on his body and the Top Grade Halberd isn’t going to get him far.”

Qing Zhao’s smile grew wider as he said, “If you think those two things are the only thing’s he’s got, then I am afraid you are underestimating him severely.”

The young woman furrowed her brows even more as she pursed her lips, “Let us see what kind of a genius this brat is then.”

***

Inside the Formation, after killing 900 of Qi Kindling Stage skeletons, even Curo was out of breath as he sat down and started regulating his breath. The half an hour of rest period whistled by quickly as the next wave of monster’s appeared. This time, there wasn’t a hundred of them, but only 9. However, these 9 made Curo’s face grow serious. These nine skeletons were equivalent to an Early Qi Spring Stage with having excavated 20 Qi Springs.

In addition, they stood in a peculiar Formation, meaning that they were using a Battle Formation. When before the skeletons didn’t employ any Battle Formations, then now he was going to have to fight an uphill battle. Curo tightened his grasp on the Halberd as he took a stance.

The moment he took the stance, his whole demeanour changed. A faint shadow of a dragon started spiralling around the Halberd as Curo charged forward. As Curo thrust his Halberd forward, the shadow of a dragon shot forward and roared loudly. When the roar echoed out, the skeletons movements grew sluggish as the dragon opened his maw and swallowed the front most skeleton.

After crushing the skeleton to pieces with it’s illusory maw, the dragon swept out it’s tail, hitting all of the skeletons squarely in the chest. However, the blow wasn’t strong enough to shatter them.

As the skeletons flew backwards from the blow, a shadow appeared behind them and with a sweep of his halberd, shattered the skeletons.

When the last of the skeletons had been destroyed, the illusory dragon returned to Curo and started slowly float around him. Curo didn’t rush to the next wave but rather sat down cross legged ass he reflected upon the battle.

***

The outside that was previously filled with murmurs was now deathly quiet. The young woman next to Qing Zhao took in a deep breath as she stared at the screen in shock. Then with a complicated face, she looked towards Qing Zhao, “That Art…. I thought the last of the Jing Clan had died, burying the Art with her.”

Qing Zhao didn’t move his gaze as he told her, “The person he was with earlier was the Jing Clan’s Founding Ancestor Jing Fang. He is the last of his direct Bloodline and let me tell you, he held no expense in establishing his Foundation.” Hearing this, the woman’s eyes sparkled as she seemed to understand something. Suddenly, her face changed as something clicked to place.

Then her face also turned deathly serious as she continued watching the screen. There was no more contempt or disdain in her eyes, only pure seriousness.

**

Inside the Formation, Curo was breathing heavily as looked around with a grim face. Around him, countless bones riddled the ground. His robes were in tatters now and on his body, several superficial wounds had appeared. Curo stared ahead grimly before letting out a deep breath.

He then clutched the token and infusing some Qi into it, he was covered in a milky white light that transported him out. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by a huge crowd of spectators. No one said a word and Qing Zhao only let out a smile as he said, “Congratulations, you have completed 18 waves of the Purgatory Formation. Here are your possessions back.”

As he said so, he tossed Curo his Spacial Ring. Curo fished out a new robe and after fixing his appearance, he cupped his hands towards Qing Zhao and gave a slight bow.

Qing Zhao’s eyes then turned slightly serious as he asked with a smile, “Why did you exit? From your performance, you could have defeated another 3 or 4 waves.”

Curo slightly shook his head and said, “This Junior’s understanding of his techniques is too superficial. During these battles, I have gained many insights and need some time to digest them. However, the time between the waves is too short to do so, so this Junior only has the choice to exit and go to comprehend these insights before they slip away.”