136 Chapter 136 (1/2)
The First test came to an end and the day came to a close. The first test was mostly there to get rid of contestants at the lower spectrum. There was no place for people that weren't at a base foundation establishment level. The second trial would test the practitioner's bravery and resilience. The youths would gather in a room with a special treasure. This treasure would give out a menacing killing intent that would be akin to a demonic beast at the middle stage of foundation establishment. The task was quite rudimentary, the contenders would have to receive the killing intent and move forward. If they could move past the placed treasure they would make it into the next round of testing.
This sounded quite easy, even easier than the first test that you had to actually present some bodily strength. In reality, killing intent from demonic beasts was quite invasive. It would cause a person to freeze up and pass out, the demonic aura invading your body and soul. Most early foundation establishment cultivators would find it troublesome. Thus this test was mostly in place to weed out people with a shaky foundation. Badly flawed pillars didn't give a warrior enough protection against this type of mental attack. But there were specialized techniques that blocked killing intent from affecting the practitioner's mind.
”How many of them passed again?”
”All of them passed...”
The person that was responsible for test the earlier day asked about the results of that Zhang Clan. They had made a good impression in the first one, so he was curious about their results which were quite shocking.
”How can they all have passed... resisting such a high amount of demonic killing intent isn't even easy for more battle-hardened warriors!”
There was one standard way that people got used to killing intent. It was quite easy, you just had to face off against many demonic beasts or cultivators, or take part in battles. You would steadily get used to fighting and build up a strong mind that would block things like killing intent from even stronger beings than you. But these were young kids from a middle-sized clan, did they lock them away in some demonic beast infested woods or something, was what this person was thinking.
”Can you tell me how it happened, exactly?”
”Sure brother... it was quite astonishing”
The person responsible for the second test explained everything from his point of view. The rooms that were used for the tests were quite large and could house up to a hundred cultivators at a time. This was mostly due to the treasure that produced the killing intent having a wide range.
The Zhang Clan participants gathered all together. They weren't the only people in the testing chamber though, with them were two other clans that each had twenty-five people. The Zhang Clan had close to fifty participants. The treasure that was giving off the ominous aura was placed at the other side of the chamber, with the cultivators opposite it in a straight line.
The treasure in question looked like a small statue of a demonic beast, inside of it was a demon beast core and it was fashioned in a way to release the killing intent. The man that was responsible for the test didn't think much about the whole thing. The only thing out of the ordinary was the number of people from the Zhang Clan, that were still participating. Normally it would be about half of that, just like the other clans that had twenty-five people with them.
The item was activated and the test started. The juniors were supposed to each the other end of the room where the treasure stood and just walk out of the door behind it. This would indicate that they passed, the whole test also had a time limit of thirty minutes. The man recalled seeing the participants from the other clans. Their faces sunk and they started looking quite pale after getting hit by the demonic aura. They sluggishly moved forward, one step at a time, some of them were even barely dragging their feet forward while resisting the killing intent.
”But those Zhang people were strange... they looked fine but they weren't moving forward... I thought that they had passed out while standing at first. To my surprise, they started walking nonchalantly... they looked fine... like the demonic aura wasn't affecting them at all...”
This was all thanks to Tranquil Mind, which was an already widespread technique around the whole clan. It had zero drawbacks and allowed everyone to think calmly under pressure. It also mitigated killing intent that wasn't over a certain degree, making this test a cakewalk for everyone involved.
”Some of them struggled at the end... but they all made it out within the first ten minutes, the best person from the other clans only managed to leave after a full fifteen minutes!”
The man that asked about the information rubbed his chin, trying to digest the information.
”This Zhang Clan is strange... think we should keep an eye on them. Even people from out Dark Palm sect would have trouble with this test...”
The man was slowly getting curious about this small clan, this wasn't anything serious from his standpoint just yet though. There were more tests after this one, it was still up to debate if more of those Zhang Clan juniors made the cut. The next one would actually test their battle prowess and was also the one that weeded out most of the junior practitioners from the tournament.
The next test was named 'The corridor of puppets' and the name kind of said it all. The participant would walk into the corridor that was quite lengthy and wide. In the said corridor, he or she would find multiple puppets that were similar in power to cultivators in the early and middle stages of foundation establishment. He or she was then supposed to get through this wide passage while being attacked by the angry automatons.