He looked down and saw the dozens of stone people surrounding him. As the shattered sky pieces fell to the earth, Mitchell's purple sword appeared in his hand and he began a slaughter.
With a swing of his sword, he clashed with one of the stone men's fist. And surprisingly, Mitchell was pushed back instead. He moved back two steps.
He raised the sword to defend from another punch that came from his side. "Crack".
The purple sword cracked and pieces of it fell to the floor. This sword that could cut apart all things Mitchell had encountered was starting to break apart like a flimsly wooden. It could be seen that the stone men were very strong, way stronger than an average human. Their defense was also shocking. It could even defend against his sword.
Mitchell retreated several meters back and sucked in a deep breath. If these stone men could pose a threat to even him . . .how would the other participants of this trial face it.
As if in sync with his thoughts. He heard a female cultivator scream and a loud bang rang out through air. He sucked in an even deeper breath and wariness rose from his heart.
Purple light appeared on his right finger, h had retreated so as to cast this technique. He retreated some more meters again so as to let the qi compress as much as it could unto his finger and when he felt his fingertips expanding slightly, sign that his finger would explode if too much was stored inside. He. . . . . releases it.
And a loud bang rang out in the air. There was a purple flash of light before the explosion so when it exploded, he could not see the result. After the time taken for him to breathe in three breaths passed. He saw the end result. Many of the stone men were destroyed and the ones that remained were badly injured, his eyebrow rose in faint surprise. His surprise came from seeing a monster core from one of the stone men.
Now that he looked carefully, he could see their cores after he destroyed them. In the end they were still humanoid beasts. They possessed no intelligence and were led by instincts and the control the obelisk had over them.
He let out a sigh. This was . . . . . the trial had not even reached its peak, and he hadn't even stepped on the mountain yet he was already facing such powerful foes. The thought was too hard to bear. If he could not succeed, he was not sure what would become of him of him.
The way the trial was orchestrated, it was forcing only the strong to be able to survive and the weak would die.
But . . . if that was the case, why where they allowing people from foundation building realm to enter, after all they would just die meaningless deaths.
The divine pavilion are really ruthless aren't they, they don't care about the lives of cultivators, they only cared for powerful people to enter their academy. "Such ruthlessness. It can only be admired".
Mitchell stopped his unnecessary thinking and continued his fight the stone men. His qi burst cannon seemed to have an effect on them. It was like their constitution could not handle it.
Meanwhile,
Ange rushed along with Mitchell at a fast pace. After the event with obelisk, he seemed to have become much calmer now and his gaze was gentle. He spoke nothing and just held her Han as they rushed forth.
She already knew that this was not true. That this was an illusion and the Mitchell she saw here was not the real Mitchell but she wanted to believe it. She also was surprised at the capability of the obelisk to create such profound illusions.
She was a descendant from the Immortal Ghost Monarch who was very skilled at the aspect of hiding, illusions and disappearing into the void. Of course she would know that this was just an illusion that was being propelled by what she wanted in her mind.
Mitchell sneered but Ange could not see it. It naturally thought that she was completely fooled and could not tell the difference. In fact she even fell right in with it and no hint of worry was on her face, like she really trusted him.
In truth , Ange wanted to learn from this illusion. It was already so great despite the fact that they were still on the ground and hadn't reached the mountain yet, it level was very deep.
She suddenly heard a voice in her ears. It sounded ancient but soft and gentle like it had been since the beginning.
"Since thou hast known that this is an illusion and instead of thy trying to breakth out of thine illusion. Thy hast instead tried to learn for thou. On behalf of thine will which had remaineth so far . . .I wilth grant thee a serendipity." The ancient voice said.
********
Mitchell sat down on the floor cross legged, he was recovering the large amount of qi he had expanded when continuously using the 'qi burst cannon'.
He was already back to where the obelisk is and was sitting not that far from it. The ground around it radiated with soft glow . . . there was a relocation inscription under it. He already had a guess as to where it led but he was waiting for Ange. If she did not arrive in three days, he would leave without her.
It was not an act of betrayal. It was common sense, if she wasn't here in three days then it means that she has gone a considerable distance and was probably on the mountain.
He would have to leave and catch up to her then. But if were not like so, he would still leave because it was the only sensible thing to do. They had to progress up the mountain at all costs and even if they were separated it didn't mean they wouldn't see each other again.
In the mean time, he would try to further his understanding towards the 'qi burst technique' he had used. He did not have to suffer any repercussions for using it but he had to pay a large amount of qi energy to do so. If it weren't for the fact that his energy containment level was larger than your average cultivator, it would have been ccompletely depleted after the second blast.
*******
When Ange opened her eyes, she saw herself in a grassland. The sun was beaming overhead and the environment had an airy vibe. She had been sitting crossed legged before. She felt the wind on her cheeks and the rustling of leaves of trees.
She knew this was also not real but the feel that she got from her skin made her believe it was really real. She stood up and the scene in front of her changed. It changed to the faint shadow of the moon and she stood and looked at the chilly waters of the ocean. She was on an iceberg that was forever drifting in the water and would never stop. She felt the cold breeze on her skin and the gentle light that the moon always seem to shine down. She blinked once and the scene changed. This time she was in space. She looked down and saw nine planets circling each other. One planet could be said to be hundreds of times larger than earth and there were nine. There were also nine suns around them some circling at a fast speed while some moved at a relatively slow speed.
But one did not move at all. It stood in a place. The sun could be said to be dark. It looked like it exploded a long time ago and what was there was its shadow. The sun was the second sun and it was exactly the same one Mitchell had seen the purple god destroy and the purple moon took over its shadow. There was a single moon rotating round the dead sun while the remaining three moons followed about the planets.
"Why thine hast seen is an illusion that thou hast projected. To thine make an illusion, thine must think, see, touch , feel the illusion before it is casted. This is thine art that was given to thou many years ago, it is called thee 'Ghost Monarch Seven Striking ' illusions." That was all Ange heard from the voice and her vision darkened before she appeared on the grass plain again.
"I will bestow onto thine, nine days to comprehend thine technique before casting thy out". The voice said again and the place fell quiet. There was a complicated look on Ange's face when she heard all this. Especially when the voice said the name of the technique 'Ghost Monarch Seven Striking'.