When dawn found its way to the tree, Shiga was already up. The storm had broken late last night, but they coyotes weren’t calming down. They became even more nervous. They no longer relaxed, not even the alphas. They coyotes paced around the tree, sometimes barking or yipping at it, and sometimes the younger coyotes would even try and climb it. They didn’t get far, but something was clearly wrong. Shiga carefully watched the coyotes and by just before noon, they had clearly had enough and fled, breaking into 3 families as they did so. Whatever had held them together clearly wasn’t worth anything anymore and for some reason they didn’t want to be here.

Shiga waited for a few hours, but nothing came out that immediately seemed dangerous. Cautiously, Shiga climbed down the tree. He didn’t know why the coyotes were scared, but it probably was something he should be scared of as well. Nothing attacked when Shiga reached the bottom of the tree, and the shelter he had made in the roots was undisturbed.

There didn’t seem to be anything that would scare the coyotes, but Shiga did not relax. Training might tire him and meditation would be too distracting at the moment. With little left to do, Shiga began to care for the tree again. He pulled off more vines, and carefully moved saplings to other places that they would be able to reach the sun in. After several hours, the sun began to set and Shiga sat down to relax a little. He hadn’t seen anything that seemed dangerous; while he had found several plants that he might be able to make use of. While he relaxed, Shiga heard some leaves stir. While it was probably the wind, Shiga was still on guard against whatever had scared off the wolves. He slowly stood back up and began looking around.

More leaves rustled, this time in the canopy of the tree. Shiga looked at his options. He could hide in his shelter for all the good that it would do. He could try and run away, but he didn’t know what he was facing or even if it was what had scared the wolves. Slowly, Shiga began to make his way to the tree. He slowly climbed up, while keeping one eye on the surroundings. The leaves rustled again, as Shiga reached the branch he had been on the past 2 days. Deciding that it was best to confront whatever was there, Shiga suddenly dashed as fast as he could in the direction that the leaves rustled. Suddenly, the leaves rustled a bit further away, and Shiga dashed after it. Shiga followed the rustling leaves all around the canopy of the tree. Eventually, Shiga ended at the final fork of the main trunk.

Shiga sat down while breathing heavily. He had been exerting himself for most of an hour, and was no closer to catching whatever had been rustling the leaves in its passing. While he recovered his stamina, Shiga looked around at the canopy he was in. The foliage was much thinner because of how high up he was, lighting the canopy up. The entire scene was relaxing and Shiga took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the scene. He noticed on a branch that there was an old flower laying on it. Shiga looked around and saw no other flowers. Spring was just turning into summer, but most trees had already flowered. Shiga gingerly picked up the flower and looked at it. The flower looked like a bell flower, but it had 2 layers of petals like a lotus. It was the size of a small child’s hand and was a light blue-purple, with flecks of gold on the edges of the petals. The flower would have been beautiful, if not for the fact that it had clearly fallen from the tree some time ago. Even as Shiga held it, the petals of the flower peeled away in the gentle breeze, leaving Shiga holding a seed the size of a fingernail. Shiga put the seed in one of his pockets before getting up. He had spent more time relaxing than he meant to; the sun was already almost completely set, with only the slightest hints of sunlight still shining.

Leaving the tree, Shiga returned to his shelter in the roots. He slept lightly, and in the morning he was up and about. Yesterday was the last day of the test, and today a proctor would come to bring him back to the city. Only a few hours after the sun rose, a proctor flew in on a large stork magic beast. He touched down and told Shiga to get on. After Shiga climbed aboard the stork, they took off. By noon, all of the people who had taken the test were returned. Some people were injured, and many looked like they had had lots of troubles. The proctors stood on the stage and announced how everyone had done. There were screens for people to watch, but they may not necessarily have seen every person who had done well, so the proctors would announce it.

“Shiga Wateya! Excellent! Created shelter, found food and water, and dealt with all challenges!” Shiga had done much better on this test than most people and his consistency of being above his peers was already attracting attention. Many schools and sects had already listed him as a potential person to recruit. However, many were withholding their judgment until after the final test which was often a deal breaker.

The Dao test was often divided into 2 parts. First there would be a written exam that would question people’s ideals and help them to get a clearer image of their Dao. Secondly, each person would go into an illusion formation that would be used to actually test each person’s Dao, and their determination. This was considered the most important test because 90% of cultivation was determination with the most influential 10% belonging to talent. Without any determination, a person with talent could easily be overtaken by someone without talent who was determined to cultivate. Luckily for Shiga, he had already lived one life...

~~Author Notes~~

Here is the new chapter.

After he takes the Dao test, I am going to write a new chapter that is just going to have some background knowledge on the world and the thought that I put into it. However, that will not replace the chapter that will normally come out afterwards. See you guys in a week!