Sage didn’t want to waste any time, or establish some false rapport between the two of them. He brought out the token he’d got from Guan Zhenyan, “Venerable Surari. I am here as a representative of the Dream Dealer. I’m afraid I’m here to collect some things for him.”

The large man’s eyes snapped open wide and stared at the token in Sage’s hands. Then the man’s eyes closed again and the sudden dangerous feel to his aura disappeared. With just the flash of his eyes, Sage felt threatened. Surari’s aura impacted his mind, altering how he reacted. Suraru thumbed a few more of the beads he was holding. The man’s large frame meant the beads were the same size as golf balls, slowly moving them through his fingers as he uttered another chant.

“Amitabha. Attachments of the past always attempt to latch back onto you.”

Surari reached into the front of his kasaya and pulled out a small golden ring hanging from a strap around his neck.

“I am ready to pay the Dream Dealer what I promised him so long ago, but it is very valuable and I do not wish to disrupt our karma by allowing it to be stolen. If I am to trust you with it, then you must prove your capability. If you are not skilled enough, then you would not be worthy of working for the Dream Dealer.”

Sage was slightly surprised by the way this had gone. Wasn’t this guy just refusing to pay like Voctem? Surari was just more tactful about the whole thing: If you can’t beat me, then I’m not going to pay you. Sage sighed, “You owe the Dream Dealer and I’m here to collect for him. Once the payment is transferred to my hands your obligation will vanish.”

“That is exactly what the wolf wearing a sheepskin would say. Come, prove to me your qualifications.”

Venerable Surari stood up from the prayer mat and started to walk. He walked past Sage and through the doorway Sage had entered from. Without waiting or looking to see if Sage was behind him, Surari walked down the corridor, taking a few turns and then striding out onto a balcony. He took a few steps and then hopped over the railing, leaping into the air and gliding slowly down to the ground.

Well, the ground outside the pagoda that is. The pagoda was still on one of the levels of the Tianxia Capital after all, even if it was resting upon a huge plateau-like rock. The ‘natural’ features were so real and convincing that it was easy to mistake it all for the true outdoors. The rocky ground, the rivers between these tall pillar-like rock formations, and the blue of the ceiling above were just too close to the real thing.

Sage followed behind Surari, using his own ‘Leaf Spinning Slowly’ step from the Falling Leaf Steps to glide through the air behind him. He spun a few times on the way down, dispersing Qi from his foot in a very specific pattern that formed the shape of a leaf. He drifted down to the ground behind Surari and they walked out into an empty stretch of ground. The plateau that the pagoda was built upon was pretty large compared to many of the others, but it wasn’t still something that the two of them could easily destroy if they went all out.

Surari walked over to the corner of the field where a waist high pedestal was standing. He placed his hand upon it and then a powerful energy moved. The ground around them suddenly lifted upwards, forming a complete set of four walls around this training area. Then the stone of the four walls as well as the ground behind them changed color to a metallic gray. It didn’t take much for Sage to make the connection that this was an array which transformed the area into a far tougher and more damage resistant material.

The monk across from Sage smiled slowly, “Prepare yourself.”

A second later, Surari suddenly flicked one finger towards Sage and there was a sharp crack. Then Sage stepped backwards, struck in the chest by a sudden force. After the step back his waist bent and his upper body swayed towards the ground and then lifted back upwards. His back had bent over halfway into a bridge and then swayed back to an upright position like the branch of a tree. He looked down at his chest and saw the multiple layers of clothing were torn apart and there was a shallow wound on his chest. In fact, if he didn’t have such a strong body he was sure he would already have a hole clean through his heart already. At his level such a wound wouldn’t kill him instantly, but it would greatly impact the strength of his body.

Most Nascent Souls would have died to Venerable Surari’s casual sneak attack, but Sage was not like the majority of Cultivators. He had the powerful physique of a Demonic Beast and had even improved it with the liquid metal mineral body and then tempering it with the Violent Sun Body Instruction. Sage had already known this move was coming, but he’d decided not to avoid it in the hopes of intimidating Surari.

“Quite a move. I don’t suppose that has convinced you? Do you think the Dream Dealer would employ a weakling?”

Sage did not enjoy tooting Guan Zhenyan’s horn, but it seemed the man had quite a reputation around here and he was attempting to flaunt it a bit to get the job over with. Unfortunately, it seemed his act had the opposite effect. Venerable Surari suddenly smiled and slapped his palms together. At that instant of contact all the skin on his body took on a golden hue. Not just a shade, but a full metallic tinting. Surari’s skin turned to gold, shimmering in the light and somehow bending and flexing like flesh. Then the man pulled in his arms and pushed over the folds of his kasaya, shedding the garment off his upper body. The many folds of cloth gathered around the man’s waist, revealing statuesque muscles made of shimmering gold.

Seeing this provocation, Sage also tore off his outer layer of robes and rushed forward. The Jade Mantle appeared around his body to match off against the monk’s golden skin. He saw the exact trajectory of Surari’s punch and threw his own to match it. Their fists met with terrifying force and the whole area rang out with a loud clanging noise. The ground beneath them was metallic and released a hollow ringing sound, but it was not nearly as loud as the intense clank that came from Sage’s Jade Mantle knocking against Surari’s golden fist.

The two of them stared at each other and their linked knuckles. Then they suddenly shot into motion again. That first punch was followed up by a dozen more, their fists met again and again. Sage didn’t back down and with Foresight, he could see the trajectory of every punch, meeting it exactly to match force with force. The arena they were in suddenly sounded like a blacksmith’s foundry. Surari’s expressionless face started to slowly shift. He varied the timing between his punches, not following any rhythm or pattern, but still he was countered by Sage’s fists. He even altered the speed the punches moved as they were in flight, yet still Sage was able to exactly match the speed and direction, countering each punch head on with his own fists.

Surari’s all-out offense slowly shifted to a more measured style. Instead of caring only about making his fists connect with Sage’s body, he started to use more feints to try and mis-direct Sage’s defense. The monk’s face grew further enraged when he found out that none of his attempts at mis-direction did anything at all. Sage seemed to know exactly when he was going to actually throw a punch and which of his motions were just fakes. Then the two of them slammed their shoulders together in an identical charging motion and suddenly came to a stop again.

“You are not taking me seriously?”