The stone archways lit up. White light beamed, filling the stone arches from left to right. Hui cut a surreptitious glance around him, then nodded and stepped inside. Here we go.

White light filled his vision. He closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he stood in a massive, simple stone room. Stone stretched high above him, and all around him, in every direction. The room easily stretched a thousand meters by a thousand meters, if not larger, so large that the walls faded away. A sparse net stretched halfway up the room, connecting all sides of the room together.

Hui looked around. Plenty of room to maneuver in here. And the net… is that just to remind us that we’re in All-Heavens territory, or does it have some purpose?

Qi pulsed. The chains clanged. From out of the walls, blank-faced figures in white robes materialized. Hui whirled, quickly counting his foes. Ninety-nine… one hundred. So I have to defeat a hundred enemies! Alright. Their realm…

Hui licked his lips. They match my realm? Not ideal, not ideal. He jumped in place, shaking out his limbs. Okay. Life qi for battle. How does that work?

Overgrowth? That’s the most obvious attempt, but do these constructs have biological properties? Experimentally, Hui sent a strand of life qi into the nearest construct and pumped life qi into it. The construct shuddered and began to glow gold, but nothing else happened.

Hui twisted his lips. Hmm. Not great. Well, I can’t expect a sect’s expendable battle constructs to perfectly mimic a human body, after all. The kind of attacks that life qi can make internally in the human body are the exact kind of attacks that a construct like this would be immune to. Although I can sense rudimentary vital organs, situated to allow an assassinator or poisoner to still effect these constructs, they aren’t recreated in sufficient detail for my life qi manipulation to destroy them. The real issue is that they have no growth mechanisms in the first place, so that stimulating them with life qi is a dead end.

What else?

Putting aside life qi, I do have all the treasures I profiteered off of—ahem, received in honest payment from those cultivators I healed. But… then again, All-Heavens Sect specializes in life qi. I should focus on showing off my strength in life qi in this battle!

The constructs drew their swords. They knelt, readying attacks.

Hui closed his eyes and clenched his fist tight. He opened it, revealing a handful of lotus seeds. Gold light glowed over the seeds, and they burst open, blooming into small lotus clones. Hui’s eyes gleamed, and he boldly shouted, “Go, my minions! Protect me!”

Five lotus clones rushed off in all directions.

Phew. That felt good. Ah, it’s so nice that no one can see or hear me in here. I can shout all the embarrassing lines that I’ve always wanted to shout. What else? What should I shout next? He drew himself up to his full height. “Go forth and destroy!”

Yes, yes, that feels right! Hmm, anything else…?

--

From overhead, the All-Heavens elders moderating the tests watched on, gazing down at the chambers. To their eyes, the chambers’ ceilings were transparent, leaving the contestants visible to them.

Mu Bingshi frowned down at one of the chambers, crossing his arms. What on earth is that cultivator doing? First he poisoned the mind of Jing Ruchen, and now he’s shouting nonsense at the heavens? Is there a hole in his brain?

Although, come to think of it, there’s a few weirdos this year, Mu Bingshi thought, stroking his beard. He cast his eyes over the chamber.

Across the room, one of the cultivators sat on the inside of a many-layered barrier while the constructs stumbled randomly around the room, occasionally bumping into talismans that blew up in their faces. Inside the barrier, that cultivator had several enchanted items laid out before him, and sat in the lotus pose, clearly meditating on the artifacts.

Meditating in the middle of a test? A madman! He’s sure to fail. Mu Bingshi shook his head.

Not far from him, a dark-robed man manipulated a stream of thousands of black ducks to attack the constructs. The constructs fell in droves, their qi leached out by the ducks, while the ducks continued to multiply.

Mu Bingshi squinted. What strange spirit beasts. I don’t approve, I don’t approve at all! Though it’s not entirely in my hands… if it was, I’d kick him out!

Across the room, yet another man slashed randomly at the constructs with no technique or skill. Occasionally, he ducked or bowed apologetically at nothing, only to turn around and start slashing again.

And him—how’d he even make it this far in cultivation, and have so little talent with the sword? Although… Mu Bingshi squinted. No, no. My old eyes must be deceiving me. To see some traces of the Seven Swords of Autumn in his footwork… it’s impossible.

--

After shouting a few more chuuni lines where he thought no one could hear him, Hui finally straightened up and coughed into his hands. Enough of that. The lotus clones can’t hold off these attackers forever. What should this small Hui do? Attacking with life qi… if I can’t use overgrowth techniques or targeted internal overstimulation attacks on specific organs, what should I do? Play dead?

Play dead… kill my qi. Wait. Hui’s eyes widened. He dropped into a lotus pose and began to meditate, focusing on his internal flow of life qi. Instead of overgrowth, growth! Instead of overstimulation, stimulation! I’ll use my life qi to remold my body. Use science and the power of life qi to grow these muscles without any physical exertion, and craft the perfect body from scratch!

It's a common thing cultivators do all the time—to recreate the physical body and forge it anew into something stronger. Although it’s usually part of the world’s ascension through the realms or part of its tribulations, I haven’t seen any cultivators from this world undergo a body reforging! Perhaps it’s a lost art, or something unknown to the Heavenly Dao here, but this small Hui knows it! And with life qi, I can make my dreams a reality!

Hui beamed. Excellent, excellent. Perfect body, here I come! And with this malleable lotus body that’s so thirsty for life qi in the first place, I have the perfect canvas from which to craft my reforged body!

Life qi whirled inside him, filling him with strength. His lotus body dissolved internally. Hui grimaced, fighting back the urge to scream. Ow, ow, ow, shit! It hurts! Why did no one tell me it would hurt? Dammit… but I can’t stop now!

Using his life qi, he urged the insides of his body to reform. His muscle fibers twisted together, twice as firm as before.

Hui frowned. This much pain… for twice as much power? Twice? No, no. At least… at least ten times! He unwound the muscle and tried again, twisting it even tighter this time. His nose wrinkled. No, not enough. More! I’m not doing this to do it halfway!

The lotus clones drew a line around him, keeping the constructs away from Hui as he reformed his body. The constructs slashed at the lotus clones, and often sliced into green flesh, but the lotus clones healed faster than the constructs could damage them. The lotus clones, on the other hand, slowly wore down at the constructs, who had no inherent healing powers.

In the center of the lotus clones, Hui began to emanate a gold glow as he desperately concentrated life qi into himself, reforming his muscles and bones, forging them a hundred times stronger than they’d been originally. The gold glow grew stronger and stronger, until it grew blindingly bright. The glow swallowed the entire room, until nothing else could be seen but the gold light.

Hui shouted and leaped up from his sit. His entire body glowed with life qi, every shred of muscle and bone and tendon reformed from scratch and optimized to the ultimate degree. He flexed his arms. I’m so full of energy! Let’s go!

The lotus clones turned, looking at Hui. He tore past them, beating the nearest construct with his bare fist. The construct flew backward and smashed into the wall, crumpling to the ground. Hui dashed around the room, and the constructs smashed apart behind him, his fists moving too fast to be seen. The lotus clones cried out, startled and amazed.

Hui came to a halt. He clenched his fist. That was too easy. Is this body really so amazing? I should've done this ages ago!

One of the lotus clones walked over to him and raised its hands. Hui looked at it. “Do you want to be refined, too?”

Another lotus clone ran over and raised its hand, then another and another, until all five of them clustered around Hui. “Alright, alright! Give me a moment.”

Hui glanced around. A single construct remained, rushing toward him with its sword raised high. He darted over and disarmed the construct, then darted back over, setting its arms on the ground beside him. He glanced back. The construct stumbled along, harmless as it was armless. At a guess, there’s waves in this battle. After all, what’s a battle prowess trial without waves for the protagonist to blast through? If I defeat this construct, I’ll probably have to take on the second, more powerful wave, but I’d be better off fixing up the lotus clones so they can fight at this new level I’ve discovered alongside me, rather than taking on the entire battle alone.

He nodded at the clones. “Okay. It’ll hurt, but…”

The lotus clones raised their hands again.

Shaking his head, Hui reached out. Life qi glimmered in his palms. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

The lotus clones began to glow gold as well. They cried out in high-pitched voices, but none of them moved away from his hands as he reshaped their bodies.

At last, the gold light faded. The lotus clones stood taller than before, still not the height of an adult man but at least chest-height now. They flexed their newfound muscles and grinned at one another, all bold and proud. One darted off and hauled back their fist, punching the head off the final construct.

“Ah, don’t…” Hui sighed. He shook his head and stretched, preparing for the next wave. Oh, well. We’d have to kill the final construct eventually. I wanted to take a moment to strategize, but it’s too late now.

Let’s go! On to the second wave!