15 The Test Ends
Editor: c_pantoja619
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Since Astra's and his group-mates reason for coming to the Beast Forest was now complete, and since it was already too late at night and considering the dangers lurking in the forest, the group immediately left the forest and reached the city where they would spend the night, and on the next day head back to the sect to officially stamp the test of Astra's complete.
After reaching the city, the group searched for an inn to stay and rest up well, as all the running and searching for a beast to tame in the beast forest while also keeping their guards up all the time was quite taxing on their mind.
Everyone one in the group after finding their rooms to stay, immediately had something to eat and then went on to bed. No one bothered to even cultivate.
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The night passed by very quickly.
The next day, everyone got up early in the morning, tidied themselves up had breakfast and headed back to the sect. After walking for the time it takes of an incense stick to burn, they all reached the gate of the Heavenly Sword Sect. There the group were greeted by two guards, they were the same guards that Astra and Nanea had met when Astra first arrived at Heavenly Sword Sect. After they were greeted, Nanea told the guards to relay the message to the Head Elder Zheng and all the other elders, that they had returned.
After Nanea told this to the guards, Astra and the group headed to the teat Arena where the tests were being conducted.
Once Astra and the group arrived at the arena, they waited for about half an incense stick of time till all the elders together arrived at the arena.
All the elders after arriving were greeted by the group. Then, Astra spoke
"Elders, I have completed my test to tame a beast." [Astra]
Hearing this all the elders had a similarly shocked expression on their faces. The elders didn't let this feeling last for long and soon calmed themselves down. Then, Elder Jian went to Astra and asked
"To testify your tests completion, could you let me see your tamed beast?" [Elder Jian]
Elder JIan asked Astra for this so that he could determine if he had tamed a beast way below his cultivation realm or not? As it was necessary of the beast to at least be at ?Spirit Qi Foundation Establishment Realm? to qualify as a decent beast. And ?was also the requirement for Astra to pass the test.
As soon as Elder Jian asked Astra to let him have a look at Pulchera, Astra's tamed beast, Astra called.
"Pulchera! Come here, Elder Jian wants to look at you, my companion." [Astra]
As soon as Astra spoke those words, a white lion cub came running towards Astra from under the Arena seeming happy for being called by her master.
Witnessing such a scene in front of them, all the elders were dumbfounded. One had to know that for a beast tamer to successfully form a contract to help its tamer but only in dire situations but other times the beast would be treated like ones ancestor was already difficult, but here they all were witnessing that the beast in front of them was as perfectly tamed beast which all the tamers out there spread around the continent ?took years to achieve. But here they all were seeing a young boy able to achieve that feat in about nothing less than a day. All the elders had this stiffing sensation in their chests as if the world was falling apart.
And also from the looks of it the little white lion beast, Pulchera, ?seemed to be nothing less than a beast at the peak stage of ?Spirit Qi Core Formation Realm?, just a step away from reaching ?True Spirit Realm?, where it would could completely become a spirit beast. For anyone to tame a beast which had cultivation level lower than the tamers was already difficult let alone taming beasts of higher cultivation, but here was standing this young man, Astra, who had tamed a beast 3 sub-realms higher than him. They all had this thought and had a common question in their mind, 'Are you peerless cultivator, who changed his appearance to come and toy with our mind?'. But none could let this question escape their mouth and suppressed it in their mind.
"Good, it seems that you have tamed a very nice beast. It is already at the peak stage of ?Spirit Qi Core Formation Realm? and a push away fro reaching ?True Spirit Realm?, when it reaches it it will become a spirit beast. And this cultivation realm far outcasts the requirement for passing the test. So, you've passed the Beast taming test.
Best of luck for the next few tests." [Elder Jian]
After saying this Elder Jian left the arena and joined the other elders, and from among the remaining 3 elders another elder came to the stage. He was a middle aged man wearing the robe of Formation Master Hall.
"I am the elder of the Formation Master Hall, you can call me Elder Mo. I'll be responsible for conducting your test on formation.
This test follows with you forming a Normal peak low tier formation on this formation plate over here." [Elder Mo]
Saying this Elder Mo flicked his wrist and a formation plate with the radius of 50 centimeter appeared on the table along with come carving knife. After which the elder continued.
"This formation plate here is a peak normal peak tier formation plate so it shouldn't be that difficult to carve the formation on the formation plate, but beware that ever a single scratch or error on the formation plate will result in the formation plate to be useful no more, and on top of that, if you do then you'll fail your test. You have 1 hour of time for ?the test, it you also can't complete it within this time frame then you'll fail. If you understand then let's begin the test." [Elder Mo]
As soon as the elder said those words, Astra went to the table and examined the carving knives, there were a couple of carving knives on the table both looked alike. He picked up one of the knife and swung the knive as if carving in the air. After he had familiarized himself with the knife he reached out to the formation plate and began observing it. He had Leilana with him so it was quite easy for him to grasp the characteristics, flaws and the materials used to make the formation plate. After all that was done, Astra began revolving his pure and dense Qi in his meridians and thought of basic Qi gathering formation.
This formation that he was going to carve was compiled when he was in the library, because of going through many such books he had accumulated a lot of knowledge on formation and could compile a less flawed version of basic Qi gathering formation. Though this formation was basic low tier but after being compiled through the accumulation of all the basic knowledge available, Leilana had compiled the formation to show the might of basic intermediate tier formation.
Then Astra began carving the formation. The way Astra was carving the formation seemed like someone caressing their woman. This scene now dumbfounded Elder Mo, the exquisiteness shown by Astra during all this process was something ?elder Mo himself had been aiming for but his progress had stagnated at some point. During the entire time Astra was carving the formation, he was observing him hoping to understand the difference in their knowledge on formation, as if finally understanding his eyes began to shine. He understood that the path he was walking on to reach the peak of formation masters was all wrong. The young man in front of him had shown that, for a formation master to reach the peak, it was necessary to be one with not only the nature but the formation, and formation materials also. All of them should be in sync in order to be the peak.
While elder Mo was lost in his enlightenment, Astra had completed his his test for carving the formation. He and the other elders saw that elder Mo was lost in a trance as if enlightened, so no one called out to him. After around 3 hours, he finally came back to. Now his demeanor looked mores refined than earlier. Then he spoke.
"Sorry to have kept all of you waiting. While I was observing Astra carving the formation, I got enlightened while observing his work. So it's clear that he passed the test but to make it more like an actual marking and not showing favouritism I'll still be checking his formation." [Elder Mo]
All the elders were dumbfounded, and elder who had been pursuing his field for years was enlightened by a 15 year old boy who just a few days ago was clueless about it. This was totally unheard of.
Ignoring the elders dumbfounded expressions, elder Mo walked up to the formation plate and observed the formation, the formation looked like any ordinary Qi gathering formation but one could see that it was more abvance and powerful that the normal low tier formation that Astra had access to in the library. In awe with the exquisite craftsmanship of Astra , elder Mo activated the formation, on activation the formation began to glow and gather the qi in the surrounding. The qi gathered was more pure and dense than the qi gathered by the available qi gathering formation, and showed the might of gathering qi like a normal peak intermediate formation known.
Then elder Mo spoke.
"Astra, you've passed the test. No only do you have a monstrous talent in formation but also a high level of comprehension, to actually being able to bring a normal peak low tier formation to normal peak intermediate tier. If you need any help or guidance in the days to come don't hesitate. I, Elder Mo, swear on my name that I'll always be there to help you whenever you need me." [Elder Mo]
Saying this much elder Mo walked down the arena and joined with the the other elders. After all this was over, another elder came to the arena, he was wearing the robe that identified one as a demonic tunist.
"I am elder Hao of the demonic tunist hall. I'll be conducting your demonic tunist test. In this test I'll be giving you a tune manual and a zither and you'll have to play the tune in the presence of 9 spirit birds. These birds are known to have ?a strong soul, if you manage to make 1 of these spirit birds to dance to the tune you play then you'll pass the test. I'll be giving you 1 and half an hour for the test. If you understand this you can begin with the test." [Elder Hao]
Getting the green sigh, Astra first walked up to the manual and compiled the manual in his consciousness, where he began going through the manual while casually flipping the pages outside. After he had read the manual, he found many flaws in the manual through Leilana, so he began compiling the tune manual along with other manuals he'd collected in his time in the library. After what seem about half an incense stick of time, Astra came back out of his consciousness and now began observing the zither. After all was done, he sat down on the arena and began playing the compiled tune. He played the tune for 2 to 3 minutes when a spirit bird came flying as if drawn to the tune and began dancing after the 1st bird another came and danced to the tune. On observing the remaining spirit birds, it could be seen that, there was a bird that was quite confused to come over or not, it would take one step towards the tune then one step back. While this scene was happening to the spirit birds, the tune Astra was playing finally finished. And the two remaining birds went back to join their flock.
Then elder Hao spoke.
"Good very good, you've passed the test with bringing out the might of the tune to normal peak intermediate low tier. It seems that you have a real good talent of being a demonic tunist. Once the tests are over you can come over to the demonic tunist hall to learn the way of demonic tunist." [Elder Hao]
Saying this Elder Hao walked down the arena, and then the last remaining elder, Elder Rion walked up to the stage. She was the elder of the Terpsichore hall.
"I'm elder Rion of the Terpsichore Hall, and I'll be the conducting your Terpsichore test. This test is not that complex, the only thing I'll be testing is your knowledge and control over tour soul. Since you're only at ?Spirit Qi Core Formation Realm? so your control over your soul would not be complete as only at ?True Spirit Realm? would one begin their soul cultivation, but if you can answer my questions on soul and withstand 3 attempts of mine to suppress your soul you'll pass the test.
If you're ready let's begin the test." [Elder Rion]
Astra nodded to elder Rion that he was ready.
Seeing Astra nod, Elder Rion began with her test.
Elder Rion began asking questions after questions, after asking about 30 questions on soul, she spoke.
"Good it seems that your knowledge on soul in not anything ordinary. You pass this part of the test. Then now let's begin with the second part. Condition yourself well as you'll have to withstand direct attack on your soul." [Elder Rion]
Hearing this, Astra sat down and conditioned himself well and then said to Elder Rion
"I'm ready, Elder!" [Astra]
After ?getting the sign that she could begin, Elder Rion started using her Qi and soul energy that she drew through her Qi to begin suppressing Astra's Soul. She shook her hand and a wave of Qi headed towards Astra and began suppressing him. The force with which he was being suppressed felt to him like as if he was pressed under a boulder. In order to alleviate this feeling Astra began circulating his Qi. Since his Qi was more pure and dense than normal, he was able to calm himself down and alleviate the suppressed feeling.
Seeing this elder Rion was quite perplexed, but she still had two more chances to test the limit of this young man in front of her. She began her next attempt, this time the force with she was trying to suppress Astra's soul was 5 times more that before. But to her surprise, Astra felt nothing and stood there like nothing happened. Feeling quite confused as for what had happened, she initiated her third attempt but this time she used 20 times the might she had shown in her 1st attempt. This attempt of hers now had some affect on Astra as if caused him to kneel down on one knee. But he was still circulating his Qi, after circulating the Qi in his body for a couple of times he finally stood up. Though he had received some damage, Astra had managed to pass through the test.
"Congratulation! You pass my test." [Elder Rion]
Then Head Elder Zheng walked up to the arena and spoke.
"Congratulations! Astra, you've passed all the test with shocking result. And from now on you've officially been accepted as a inner sect disciple in our Heavenly Sword Sect. For today you'll be free and you can begin to attend the lectures.
Nanea, can you show around the sect to Astra, since he's new in the sect he doesn't know much about the sect. It's your duty to look after him." [Elder Zheng]