32 The Rising Star Tournament Finally Begins! (1/2)
The light of teleportation rapidly subsided, leaving Shin Sumi with a twisted stomach and a feeling of confusion.
She instantly knew she had left the sect. Where she was exactly, she didn't know.
”The air feels thicker and its harder to breath... But this overflowing Shinsoo...” she muttered.
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Her position hadn't changed in the slightest from when she had sat on the stone platform of the North Cultivation Plaza.
Her stomach quickly returning to normal, Shin Sumi ensured she wasn't going to vomit before unfolding her crossed legs and lifting her body from the ground.
Around her was nothing and no one. A slight breeze made her hair flutter behind her head.
”All the people present on the platform, where did they all go? Has the trial started?”
Unbeknownst to her, pairs of deep eyes enshrouded in mystery were watching. In fact the invisible figures were watching everybody that had been teleported by the Spell.
Patriarch Sen wasn't the only one watching the beginning of the Rising Star Tournament. Back in the sect, most of the Elders had gathered in the Grand Hall. A giant stone tablet made of glittering jade that spanned the entire floor of the building relayed images and sounds from the dimensional pocket where the tournament was located.
”Patriarch, what is the meaning of this?” asked an Elder surnamed Ku. He was one of the lesser Elders that had not been made aware of the tournament rules. ”Why does it seem like none of the disciples can see each other?”
On the stone screen, two groups of hundreds of disciples, one per cultivation plaza, were slowly regaining their senses.
”Hehehe” started a voice sitting on one of the highest seats of the Grand Hall. The voice that was neither imposing or deep sent shivers down the spine of Elder Ku. It belonged to none other than Grand Elder Chu Xuanba, Chu Erlong's grandfather, after all!
”Elder Ku, you have in front of you one of the marvels of the Star Zheng, wielded by our Patriarch. It is a simple spell but quite a strong one. All the Honorary Disciples are under the impression that they are in a barren land right now. They are merely trapped in an illusion though.”
Another Elder from a high seat continued ”The first trial is for them to escape this world of illusion. It is a difficult feat testing the mental prowess of each individual as well as their ability to understand their senses.”
”The power of the illusion will diminish by one percent every two hours. The fastest disciples should be able to understand in a day or two and will be transported to the next level. In the meantime we get to enjoy watching them run around aimlessly without a clue, hohoho”
And sure enough, as the disciples started recovering from the teleportation spell, all the Elders could see their confusion.
***
Almost as soon as she got up, Shin Sumi was taken by a strange feeling. First the unusual atmosphere and secondly something deeper. Something that seemed to come from inside her.
Unsure of what was going on, Shin Sumi attributed the feeling to the fact that her dantian was bubbling by itself, awoken by the high concentration of Shinsoo in her surroundings.
”This is a great place for cultivation! Although it is a bit strange that the sect leader has not given us any information on what to do...”
Shin Sumi tried to move around a little bit. The sky above her head was a uniform purple grey and the land was exceptionally flat. With her experience of her own vision, Shin Sumi knew she could see as far as a dozen kilometers or so.
Even still, no matter how far she moved, the land was barren and no even the smallest elevation was visible.
Besides with her speed, she had been expecting a strong push of air against her face, but although the air seemed thick, no amount of resistance was felt.
In fact, her hair was still flowing gently with the same breeze as earlier!
”This is strange, I am sure I am facing the wind now but my hair...”
No matter how much she thought about it, something very bizarre was going on.
”It appears useless to explore around. There's not even a landmark visible, and there is no sun to give me a sense of direction” she thought.
Due to the strange sky above her head, Shin Sumi's shadow wasn't visible. The whole world was filled with a gloomy light that broke all of her senses and perception.
It reminded her a little bit of the dark chasm, where senses were altered when one didn't use an artefact like the Copper Bell.
Unable to find a solution right away, Shin Sumi decided to sit back down and cultivate. Leaving a sliver of Divine Sense focused on the present situation, she rotated her dantian, slowly incorporating the outside Shinsoo to her own.
The Copper Bell was still powering her dantian, her appearance that of a slender young boy, looking fifteen of age.
Because of that, the turbulent flow was tinted with red.
After an hour of cultivation, Shin Sumi found that unexpectedly she didn't progress as much as she thought she would. The turbulences in her internal energy were mostly dissipating the newly added Shinsoo.
It was only after another hour and after she retracted the Copper Bell's powers from affecting her Shinsoo attribute that a glimpse of an idea crept up in her mind.
Shin Sumi was a bit surprised to see that her appearance remained that of a young boy instead of the familiar Yan Yan, but quickly attributed it to the fact that she had consumed the Confusion Pill while her Shinsoo was of Yang attribute.
”So I can even use Yin type Shinsoo while looking like a man” she thought, interested by the idea.
Initially she had been proud to be able to turn into Yan Yan at will and mask her real identity, but because Yan Yan's little shop had been so successful, now even Yan Yan was known around the lower valley of the Dark Sky Starry Sect.
Something kept ticking in Shin Sumi's mind though. After retracting the Copper Bell, the sensation of a Shinsoo more turbulent as usual had disappeared but because of the link between her and the Copper Bell, she knew it was due to it.
It was as it the Copper Bell was restless, or trying to tell something to its master but without being able to, as it what was impacting it was too powerful in comparison.
It was when the four hours mark since the beginning of the Rising Star Tournament had been passed that the Copper Bell finally reacted.
The Star Zheng's power had diminished only slightly but it was now enough. The Star Zheng was a really powerful artefact and was wielded by the Patriarch of the sect, an expert on an unfathomable level to Shin Sumi.
Because of that, even though the Copper Bell was really powerful, it had been unable to dispel the illusion due to Shin Sumi's lack of strength.
Shin Sumi felt the Copper Bell radiate through her bond with it as soon as the strength of the illusion was weakened enough for the bell to act.
A gentle chime rose up in the air while the engraved rows of characters on the bell's surface shimmered.
The air seemed to distort, twist and finally break. For an entire three breaths of time, all the other participating disciples were fully visible to Shin Sumi.
”The whole time I was in the middle of them,” she spoke out loud slowly, not knowing if the others could hear her or not. ”It seems like most of the disciples have not realized it yet.”
She observed for a brief moment how everybody looked in a trance, some of them running erratically in place, others meditating with confused looks on their face.
The next instant, the light of teleportation and the twisting feeling that accompanied it enveloped Shin Sumi. She was gone.
***
”Oh, three of them are already awakening? This is unheard of. It seems this generation has quite good elements” commented Patriarch Sen who didn't seem to pay much attention to the screen tablet.
Because he was the one using the Star Zheng's powers, he obviously had been the first person to notice the behavior of the disciples. As soon as his voice died down all the Elders in the assembly frantically scanned the magical jade with their eyes, trying to recognize who was in the process of leaving the illusion.