Han Lingyun was suddenly taken out from his meditative state with the sound of another disciple arriving. He curiously glanced over.

 

At first, Han Lingyun was blinded by the setting sun. He could only distinguish the shadow of a short figure holding a sword. As the figure stepped forwards to leave his box next to the other ones, Han Lingyun recognized a familiar face, the one of Su Xialu.

This sword cultivator had previously left a deep impression on Han Lingyun, especially for doing as he pleased. During the SCA competition, he had purposely refused to fight during the first phase to be pitted against a strong opponent for his first duel in the tournament bracket. He had later triumphed and reached the quarter finals where he stopped fighting.

Now, the young man had swapped his Eastern Warrior's Temple robes for azure ones. He scanned the disciples already present. He was the 8th to make it here.

"Hello everybody, I'm Su Xialu from the Eastern Warrior's Temple. I'll be glad to exchange pointers with fellow cultivators."

His gaze stopped on the sleeping Luo Mingyu, revealing a desire to battle. Both were true sword cultivators.

 

When the sun fell behind the horizon, the bald middle-aged man finally stood up. With a wave of his hand, the 8 boxes disappeared. He then sent out 3 beams of light that shot through the sky in 3 different directions. Han Lingyun wasn't able to see if these were talismans or weapons of some sort.

The man stretched his biceps that seemed about to rupture his clothes. He started with a deep rumbling voice "The time is up. I will only be instructing the 8 of you.

From now on, you will refer to me as Senior Lu. I expect absolute obedience.

I don't normally take in disciples. I exceptionally accepted this time, on the condition you hadn't reached foundation establishment yet. Your time with me ends when you break through to the foundation establishment realm.

I was also told I would be receiving the elite of the alliance. I must say, it has been decades since I've last been so disappointed. How could you be so frail, weak, and full of impurities? With all the medicines you have consumed, I wouldn't be surprised if you piss purple. I'm especially looking at the pair from the same sect at the peak of qi condensation.

…

The difference between all of you is very important though.

Your first task is to make your own cave near the summit. This will be your sleeping quarters. Just sleeping at this altitude will already reinvigorate your blood. But don't worry, you won't have much time for it! A yes, don't dig too deep or you will find a pocket of lava.

Here, I will be forging you 'à la naturelle'. That's what we called it when I was young. No pills or elixirs.

The first one that doesn't listen to me I'll beat him up and break his bones."

…

At this point, three beams of light reappeared and landed in Senior Lu's hand, revealing three boxes. They disappeared in another swipe of his hand.

Seeing this, Dai Huiling seemed fidgety. "Senior Lu, pardon my interference. May I know how is disciple Gong Hai from my school faring?"

The bald man revealed a cruel smile. "His body is scattered in the bellies of several beasts. Are you in a hurry to join him, little girl?"

Dai Huiling violently shook her head, with a white complexion.

The bald man took a small stone and started playing with it in his hand. "Very well, prepare to dig your caves. You can start when I throw this pebble. When it hits the ground, I want everybody back in front of me. I still recommend make a suitable hole, there is rarely wind up here but you might freeze to death when it comes. And by the way, after this, I won't allow any of you to make the slightest change to your cave."

As soon as he had finished his words, the man leaned backwards. Han Lingyun wasn't able to follow the next movement with his eyes but there was a sudden explosion with the sound barrier being broken. Without hesitation, he rushed in a random direction and started hacking the volcanic rock with his sword and all his might.

'I should have less than 30 seconds! Let's say 20 seconds to have some margin.'

Entire blocks of rocks were dug out in the blink of an eye. Han Lingyun first chose to focus on going downwards. He intuitively knew where to attack to find the weak points of the rock-solid ground. With the blackbird art, he could cut through the ground like tofu and easily manipulated the separated parts to throw them out of the growing hole. 2 meters under the ground, he then started cutting a side wall and expressly cut a short passage in an upward angle.

After a meter diagonally, Han Lingyun widened his sword movement to make a small cavity. What took him the most time was to cut everything into small pieces and rapidly guide them out of the cave, requiring his utmost concentration.

 

The cavity completed, Han Lingyun rushed out and landed in front of Senior Lu. Only Mao Enlai had finished before him. In the following seconds, Zeng Yiengjie, Luo Mingyu and Dai Huiling made it too.

The bald man was smiling strangely at Han Lingyun. "I recommend you to take a step back, young man."

Han Lingyun immediately jumped backwards, only instants before the rock crashed down and broke into hundreds of pieces that zoomed in every direction. Han Lingyun had a dozen or so bits that planted in his flesh, making him cry out in pain. The others were slightly better off. Dai Huiling was completely unharmed, having had the time to activate a defensive qi barrier right on time.

 

Cui Qingge, Mo Nianzu and Su Xialu finally came rushing back.

Cui Qingge bowed apologetically. "Senior Lu…"

The man had a wide grin at this moment. "What have I just said about listening to my orders? Do you three take my words as empty air?"

Su Xialu took a step forward. "We had no intention of disregarding your words, Senior Lu, but we didn't know when the stone would fall down."

 

Facing the proud Su Xialu and his unyielding gaze, the bald man's gaze turned malevolent. The next second, Su Xialu was lying limply on the ground, his limbs in unnatural angles. He started groaning, furiously fighting the pain. But this state only lasted a short moment before he just fainted.

It was Cui Qingge's turn to lose all color. She slowly raised her head, her pitiful eyes imploring Senior Lu. Meanwhile, Mo Nianzu, still with his unconcerned and icy expression, was still wordlessly examining the limp Su Xialu.

The next moment, Cui Qingge was crying and mumbling on the ground next to Su Xialu, her limbs as messed up as the sword cultivator.

Mo Nianzu's face finally darkened. He was also struck down right after. After a grunt full of hatred, he fell silent as well.

Senior Lu laughed uproariously. "I love Qiqing Sect disciples the most, it is always so satisfying to break their emotionless façade!"

The five other disciples all had contorted faces. If it wasn't from the pain of the previous rock shards, it was from horror.

Senior Lu chuckled. "Don't look at me like that. If I don't establish my position by being harsh when you arrive, how will you listen to me later? All this is for your own good."

…

"Anyway, the night is really starting to fall now, I think it's the perfect time for a warm up. You can drop off all of your stuff here. Come on, your flying swords and everything else, just leave it here. Hmm, what can I make the 5 of you do? How about… Running up and down the mountain 10 times in a row? Perfect! Last one to complete it gets his bones broken." Senior Lu displayed a radiant smile.

The five disciples immediately started sprinting down the slope. The voice of Senior Lu resonated behind them.

"If you can't do it before sunrise, I'll break your bones too."

 

Han Lingyun's face was ashen. He had already taken out the rocky projectiles that had entered his flesh and stopped the bleeding, but his brain was still receiving pain signals from all over. Yet, Han Lingyun had no time to delve on this.

'10 times, that's 400 kilometers in a bit over 12 hours. I need a 33 km/h average speed. It would be alright if this was on flat ground but…'

Han Lingyun was already completely out of breath, and he was only beginning the descent. The air at this altitude was incredibly thin. The air pressure was 20 times less than the air pressure at sea level. Oxygen was logically incredibly sparse, making the effort exceedingly difficult. Han Lingyun's head was hurting but the lack of air wasn't his only concern.

He sprinted down the mountain with incredible agility, magically managing to keep stable a footing even when the temperature rapidly dropped to -40 degrees Celsius once again. Han Lingyun's blood was madly pumping but at this temperature, it was so cold it was stinging.

The speed made it even worse.

His lungs were hurting, his fingers had lost their feelings. Every part of his body felt like it was being stabbed by the cold.

 

Han Lingyun tripped and began rolling down the pointy rocks, only stopping after a good hundred meters. His skin was incomparably hard to the skin of a mortal but the fall still left him bruised on many places.

The boy didn't wait a second longer and immediately continued the decent. His brain empty.

Finally, the temperature rose to the zero mark and the density of oxygen had increased enough for Han Lingyun to zoom down the last part of the mountain at full speed.

 

Han Lingyun arrived in front of the fog formation, heart beating wildly. He turned and looked up the mountain reaching above the clouds. A hint of despair flashed through his eyes before being replaced by the utmost determination.

He couldn't see the other 4 disciples, they seemed to be on other sides.

Without further deliberations, Han Lingyun began to climb back up.