A visible wave of tension can be seen coming over the crowd of young disciples as the name is said by Elder Fuanzhi as though there is some specific memory attached to the name itself but as they don’t elaborate no one takes notice except for Jack as the younger group proceeds forward as the elders move out of the way looking in the direction of the players.

‘Boy, you better not disappoint,’ a message comes over Jack’s mind, the voice is recognisable as the person who was talking to Jack first.

Jack looks around the crowd of elders standing there, each one of them are completely silent yet seemingly in deep contemplation about something as their serious expressions show. He scans the crowd and spots the first elder wearing a grey robe, the only one, easily on contrast to his peers it seems like he must have some sort of unique status.

‘How so?,’ Jack responds after practising this sort of communication enough to make short conversation.

‘Ohh, you have better skill than I thought boy. This is a life or death trial.’

Jack raises an eyebrow and holds back a comment about how that’s obvious given the amount of dead players that seems to have been brushed under the rug, ‘Most things are. What is this?’

‘An ancient testing site. Proceed through the temple until the last point, the only trial that matters is the third one. The rest are simply killing monsters but I look forward to your result in the third trial.’

‘Why me?’

‘You have a surprising amount of depth. If first elder were to inspect you as I have, you might already be back in his sect being dissected.’

Jack’s heart thumps hard, ‘Really?’

‘He has already done it, you have seen how they do not consider players to be alive and who knows what sort of treasures can be found on you all…’

‘Thank you for the guidance. Can I handle the trials at my level?’

‘I hope so, I cannot give you too much guidance other than speed is one very key factor. Now enter the pathway, we elders will be following behind closely.’

‘Ok, thank you,’ Jack responds mentally and changes his focus on what’s ahead, an incredibly dark pathway with a time limit.

Elder Fuanzhi begins to yell again, “You will have 28 minutes from entering the pathway, do not forget that. You saw what happens to people that aren’t strong enough, I cannot say it will be any different.”

“Do we each get 28 minutes or is it when the first person enters?,” one of the players ask as the young disciples begin to move through the barrier.

“Once the first person enters the time will begin, do keep up.”

A few players can be heard swearing as they move forward, Jack also moves forward as the first disciples begin running quickly disappearing into the darkness of the pathway piercing through the ocean before them. 

The soft sand becomes hard as he nears the eerily quiet ocean, Jack’s feet become wet as his feet sink into the sand trudging along the solid yet porous surface of the wet sand. A faint slimmer of an energy barrier can be seen holding back the waves alongside where he is walking now alongside some of the quicker players.

Jack makes eye contact with a few, most are outright hostile but some aren’t including a young male and female pair who give Jack a silent nod.

The group of players enters the shimmering barrier around the same time immediately noticing the difference in environment, where it was once warm and humid it has now become cold and frigid. The sun seems unable to pierce through this barrier as the entire landscape is an eerie white colour as through that’s the only colour allowed here.

Jack looks down at his skin and even feels a slight difference come over him as the strange white colour casts a weird shadow over everything. He’s about to move forward when a voice comes over his mind.

‘<Master, please be aware that in future we will only be able to speak through your awareness inside this space. This method will be impossible.>’

‘Is it because they’re strong?’

‘<Yes Master, this unit has detected entities that are edging sky realm. Discretion is advised.>’

Jack smiles awkwardly and looks forward, several people have raced ahead but they’re considerably slow, ‘Noted thanks,’ he says within his mind before crouching, ‘Bunny Dash!’.

He propels forward to the surprise of some people, but as they’re already far ahead they focus on running ahead again, Jack repeats the process several times noticing that some of the front people are also using the same skill.

It seems like they too had benefited from the easter event, he uses it several more times before needing to rest having made some progress but not leaving the people running normally too far behind. No where near enough to catch up to the front runners. They’ve been at it for about 5 minutes but all they’ve had to do is run so far, 

Jack uses the skill several more times crossing a larger distance, finding himself unable to tell how far below the surface he is now as everything is still cast in the eerie white light, “Out of the way,” he hears behind him as he’s looking at the strangeness around the place.

It’s too late though as the young woman crashes into him after trying to dodge the wrong way, her body slams into Jack’s causing the two to tumble against the barrier sending shock wave up the entire barrier wall.

The two come to a rest, “Get off me!,” she immediately yells and pushes Jack away.

“You’re the one that hit me.”

She glares at him angrily, her face and brown hair messed up from rolling along the ground, “You’re the one standing around in the middle of the pathway.”

“I was resting… besides, what if I was an enemy? Some sort of creature? Would you just run into them?”

“No… but,” the young woman tries to continue but Jack interrupts her.

“So you wouldn’t run into them but decided that you could run into me? What if I were something in disguise as a human? There’s so many things out there, you’re the one bumping into people then hitting them as they protect you,” Jack says while nursing his shoulder. It doesn’t hurt but there’s no reason this woman needs to know that.

“Fine sorry for bumping in to you, but—

—thank you for your admissions of wrong doing, now I won’t seek redress from you but I hope you will never forget the lessons learned here today,“ Jack says before jumping away again not wanting to deal with this young woman further.

“Huh?,” she says abruptly before stamping her feet, “don’t run away,” she says while using her movement skill to attempt to catch up but as Jack was always ahead of her, it’s not difficult for him to stay ahead.

A few minutes pass by as Jack spots some sort of structure up ahead, some robed people and players are standing around the outside seemingly talking yet as he gets closer, 

“Apologise for killing those people!”

“We didn’t that was the elders, but I would still do it if I were in that position.”

“Exactly, so apologise. My friend died because of you.”

“Your friend is still alive, go log off and talk to him, leave this place… though you can’t leave this place,” the robed person smiles.

“We can leave if we want,” one of the players responds abruptly.

“Do it then,” the robed person responds.

“I’m not going to do it because you tell me.”

The robed people begin laughing then notice Jack arriving, they quieten down and watch him closely as he arrives to the silent group, “Hello. Is this the first point?,” he asks.

“No, this is a shrine. People in the ancient days would light incense here, it was meant to give protection but it doesn’t work.”

“Ah, how much further to go?”

“You’re about a third of the way, the leaders have already arrived and are waiting to begin.”

“They’re fast,” Jack says with a sense of awe, “how strong are they?”

“You think you can challenge them?,” one of the robed young men says with a chuckle.

Jack shakes his head, “I wouldn’t try to start something like that. I’m just curious as we players rarely encounter sect disciples.”

“Well the top ranked people are nearing ascension, far away from you all who haven’t even reached golden core stage. Lots of disciples fail to even form their core.”

“What’s a core?,” one of the players asks.

Multiple people shake their heads, “Learn more about the world you’re in. It’s incredible sometimes,” another player interjects.

“Sorry… but what’s a core?”

“It’s a source of internal energy, a physical form that redefines how you’ve experienced energy so far,” one of the robed people finishes speaking, “we should continue the journey.”

“Right, you player,” one of the robed people points to Jack, “you’re lucky that Elder Li took interest in you. You might survive this,” the robed person begins laugh as they all join in and leave together.

Some of the players are unsettled while some others leave shortly after the robed people do, Jack shrugs his shoulders at the people looking towards him.

“No idea what they mean, I think the guy’s creepy. You guys should remember we have 28 minutes total and it has nearly been half. We’re a third of the way so can’t delay too much.”

“Right, thanks for the reminder,” one of the players responds while the rest just roll their eyes. Jack leaves the area unconcerned with these people as they’re clearly faster than him.

Jack continues down the pathway without being interrupted for some time, taking short breaks now and then but overall increasing his proficiency in using the bunny dash skill consecutively. The non-element aspect of it has helped immensely during this period of not being able to use his internal energy outside of the fact that movement skills seem to actually be rather rare. Once ‘Bridging-The-Stars’ reaches further completion though it will all become irrelevant as the skill unlocked an almost teleportation like ability.

The young man lets out a sigh as finally comes into view of a larger structure, a giant doorway that is still tightly shut.

He crosses the distance as the giant doorway reveals its full size on this downward slope, he stops alongside several other players and nearly all of the robed people as he passed some on his way here.

“You’re about mid-pack, not that impressive,” one of the robed people say to Jack before turning to the rest of his group, “why would elder Li focus on him?,” they don’t care that their voice is being carried about as they openly discuss this.

“Perhaps it’s some sort of family connection?,” the robed people openly discuss Jack, their robes are similar to the elders while they all seem to be similarly aged.

“Family connection with a player? I don’t think that’s possible, maybe he bribed—

—bribed Elder Li, the one who turned down marriage into the Dongfeng family?,“ a yellow robed brown haired young man with glasses speaks up and cuts him off.

“Right it’s confusing, well since he’s here why don’t we test him out? We have to get started and he has just arrived,” a red robed red haired young woman speaks up, the group quietens for a moment as though they’re thinking about something together.

“We can give him 30 seconds,” a green robed blonde haired young man speaks up, his perfect chiselled looks give a heroic feeling yet a sinister gaze as he looks at Jack doesn’t relay an airs of positivity, “agreed?”

“If he dies earlier I’m not going to save him,” a blue robed black haired young man speaks up.

“Screw you, I’ll go save him, Elder Li might give me a reward. Make sure you screw up,” a blue robed black haired young woman quickly speaks over the young man.

“Right, well young man that Elder Li talked to. You want to try soloing the beast up ahead for thirty seconds?,” the yellow robed young man speaks up.

“Me?,” Jack asks looking around him, “you’re talking to me?”

“Yes we are.”

“Oh, I thought you were still talking between yourselves. It’s pretty rude to talk about someone openly like that.”

“So you’re not going to take this up?”

“What’s in it for me?”

“We’ll acknowledge your strength.”

Jack rolls his eyes, “I don’t need that. No thanks, can’t be bothered. Don’t have a weapon either.”

“Don’t have a weapon, what are you doing here then?”

“No one said I needed a weapon, aren’t we going to run late if we stay standing around here?”

“Yes so hurry up and go inside, here,” an object goes flying through the air towards Jack who notices it just in time to catch the object. 

A straight sword.

“Good job catching it, you can keep it if you last thirty seconds,” the red robed young man says before approaching Jack and grabbing his shoulder dragging him forward.

Jack breaks free but finds himself standing beside the unopened door, “Will going in here get you people off my back in the next regions?”

“You know about the next ones? Perhaps Elder Li does take an interest in you…,” the red-robed young man says with a wondering gaze, “at some level. Now enter as we’re running out of time.”

Jack inwardly sighs but knows that he’s somewhat in a corner here, he doesn’t have much support from the players and the robed people seem to have their own ideas. He looks at the sword for a moment, it’s a simple looking straight silver-looking metal with a well worn handle and hilt, incredibly rough to hold in his hand yet it doesn’t feel weak unlike his city-lord sword… one day that will be powerful but like so many things around him, it needs time to grow.

He touches the door that lights up and disappears, a loud roar can be heard coming from the inside as Jack feels his body pulled inwards.

A few people move out too but are stopped by robed people, “We’re letting him try it solo for 30 seconds. We have 4 minutes total.”

Jack finds his body stopping by itself a short distance away from the middle of what looks to be a large circular arena, much better than the previous one as it’s a flat surface instead of an awkwardly shaped sphere. His vision and spiritual sense are crawling all over the field so far but have found nothing of note apart from a small depressing in the very middle of the arena.

Jack suddenly feels a massive pain across his chest, he steps backwards immediately finding the space where he was standing has a giant claw-like tentacle slash the empty space.

It disappears.

Jack doesn’t know what that is and cannot see its body, he immediately uses ‘Bunny Dash’ to move around the arena while calling upon some extra mental reserves and deploying divine sense alongside spiritual sense.

The detailed extra information flows into his mind causing an immediate headache, almost causing him to stumble on the landing but an abrupt change of direction works in his favour as a strike lands in what was his eventual direction previously. Analysing the tentacle provides the information that they’re physical tentacles from some sort of sea creature. The attack it’s using seems to be a property of the creature itself so getting an accurate idea of what’s going on isn’t possible without finding the main body.

The problem is… that seems to be impossible as the beast doesn’t exist where his divine senses are saying the body should exist.

Jack lands where the tentacles physical body should be but finds nothing where he’s standing, he lets out a quick test slash before leaping away away. His slash resulted in nothing but thin air being sliced leaving him somewhat stumped.

A moment of consideration comes over him, should he contact White for help with this but finally a hint reveals itself as the creature’s body shows itself… right where Jack was standing.

It quickly disappears as though it was never there, Jack lands then runs towards where its body should be now.

He stands still for a moment, he feels an incredibly amount of pain come over his body as a grey light shrouds it but he’s only able to do one thing, jump away.

He leaps directly upwards using bunny dash sending him a hundred metres in the air, if this doesn’t work then he’s going to be very sore. His body soars into the sky causing the grey shroud and pain to leave, a strange flickering can be sensed below him.

Jack’s body begins to fall as gravity takes over, his body picks up speed as the flickering gets stronger before the creature roars into existence below him. He brings his sword down below his body ready to pierce into the giant creatures body momentarily.

A massive amount of pain courses over Jack’s body, he ignores it as it begins to glow grey again this time it begins to dark.

The creature disappears out of existence before Jack’s sword is able to pierce its flesh, but he doesn’t budge as a sudden roar resounds in the arena.

The creature reappears where it was standing, this time with the sword embedded in its flesh, Jack feels his sword deeply embedded in its flesh as his body collides with the giant creature that is flailing its tentacles about as they blacken.

A stinging sensation comes over Jack’s skin but he ignores it as he pulls his sword out and brings it down again trying to do as much damage to the creature as possible, he’s only able to get three strikes in before he’s thrown off the creature flailing about. Jack lands on the ground with a hard landing but he’s not given time to take notice as his own skin feels like it’s burning off. He looks down at it where he can see dark sports all over his skin literally disappearing into black mist like the sea creature.

He immediately pushes his consciousness internally where he finds immediate relief, a quiet eerie scene with a young woman.

“What’s going on with my skin?”

“You used your qi again,” White says with a large sigh, “don’t do that.”

“I didn’t use it intentionally, how can I stop this?”

“You already did, you should go back.”

Jack removes his consciousness from here and notices the itchiness is gone, what has been replaced with it is a sensation of broken ribs from the landing as he inspects his skin and finding it completely fine. Jack looks towards the creature and notices writhing its large body about the arena, he’s about to get up and senses some people beside him. A robed person lends a hand to him.

Jack takes the yellow-robed man’s hand, “Thanks, was that 30 seconds already? I could have finished it off.”

A red robed young man begins laughing, “You already nearly did, impressive stuff. No one outside nascent soul has fought that thing solo and survived, let alone damaged it so much.”

Jack rubs his neck, “I’ve fought those sorts of things a few times before, I kind of know their patterns. Maybe the game system was training us for this sort of enemy, have you guys?”

“Every 50 years a beast similar to this will be born within the oceans, our sects will typically set out to capture one to train young disciples on. Unfortunately they don’t live very long so exposure is limited,” the yellow-robed person says.

The creature roars another time then crashes on the floor, it flails about a few times as several other robed people are over its body, Jack feels safe alongside these people who don’t seem too bad mannered. The player group has mostly gone to try to kill the creature seems like they want to try to get the system reward if there is any.

“Well good thing it’s not unheard of but I certainly don’t want to do it again,” Jack says.

“Any one of us would give good treasures to experience what you did. I was looking forward to this for over 25 years as I missed the last one,” a green-robed young woman speaks up.

“Well you can always find another one…”

“We don’t have the time, training must be completed in a year…,” the green robed woman says.

“Remember your words,” a yellow-robed man says.

“Well the broodmother is yet to spawn so maybe there will be some there? If I summon the broodmother I’ll be in touch so who are you?,” Jack asks the green robed woman.

“Why would i… fine, my name is Genni Slyvter. You may find me at hundred-forest sect.”

“Where’s that?”

A bright flash of energy appears on the creature followed by several dozen more energy bolts from players, it seems like they’re using their skills.

“Forget it,” the green robed woman, Genni says, “you’re not worth it.”

“What? I’m a player, I’ve only been in this world for a few weeks. Where is hundred-forest sect?”

“It’s a disputed leadership, Genni is part of the northern branch while there’s the south and south west branches competing to be recognised as hundred-forest sect. She cannot tell you where it’s located, you can only find out through other people,” the yellow-robed person says.

“Can you tell me?,” Jack asks.

“I could but maybe I’m telling you the south-eastern branch location as I believe they're the rightful heir to the sect leadership?”

Jack raises an eyebrow, “Why?”

“Internal politics are difficult, isn’t that right Genni?”

The young woman harrumphs, “Whatever.”

Jack shakes his head at this interaction, it seems like the sect people are at some level just like everyone else. The attention returns to the creature that has at long last, stopped moving its giant body about and causing the door on the other side to open.

The whole thing only took three minutes well within the time frame required, the group begins to move towards an opening door on the other side of the arena when Jack notices that the players are bloodied up and the robed people are all almost pristine. It seems like they didn’t really do anything in the battle and watched. The group hurries their steps over to the giant door where a giant expanse is revealing itself alongside a giant temple in the middle of the strange white-light ‘underwater’ space, it gives it an otherworldly feeling as they look out at it yet ancient desolate feeling as the landscape is simply rubble except for the path they’re standing on.

“We only have 4 minutes to reach those doors, anyone left outside after that will have to deal with the monster swarms directly so let’s hurry,” a yellow robed man says pointing towards the white looking temple with dozens of spires, damaged over the years yet still standing strong.

A giant set of doors are prominent on the front swinging open, Jack readies himself so does everyone else in unison.

Jack doesn’t care and immediately uses his skill finding that it seems to have become some sort of race…