8. Clear Mirror Phantom

“You look like you’re about to die.” Sirius, commented

“Urggh… I feel like I’m gonna die. This ship is a Golden Core artifact and flying it is way worse than just keeping it still.” Faust groaned.

“It could have been powered by spirit stones. What use is there complaining when you decide to pocket the mid-grade stones and power the ship yourself.” Rozaline mocked,

“Hey. 20 mid grade spirit stones is a bargain. Basically two hundred gold.” Faust retorted.

“Oh, how the minds of the poor baffle me.”

“One day. One day.” Faust answered ominously.

“Don’t worry. When I reach the golden core realm, I’ll give you an allowance for all your help, senior brother!” Sirius chimed in.

“…” Faust’s eye twitched as he gazed at the ceiling, sprawled out across the chair.

After sighing helplessly, Faust spoke some more, “The ship should arrive back at the sect just before evening.”

“If you don’t clonk out first.” Rozaline made sure to add.

Faust eye twitched again. “…If I don’t clonk out first…” He repeated. It was a genuine danger as he felt the ship drawing his Spirit Qi out slightly faster than he could replenish it.

No wonder Flying Ships were the mark of a Golden Core powerhouse.

 

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The ship landed at the base of the sect’s mountain range.

Faust directed the disembarkment of the two thousand or so people, before finally stowing the ship away and throwing two Qi Replenishment pills into his mouth.

Faust stood in front of the crowd of new disciples a few steps up from the base of the stairs leading up to the mountains.

“This is the second trial!” Faust’s voice boomed.

“…Make it up these stairs.”

The task seemed simple.

What these recruits didn’t know was that the stairs sealed Qi, making it impossible for a normal Qi Refining cultivator to use it for body enhancement.

“Hehehe…” Sirius chuckled. Faust too, remembered when he had joined the sect…

…300 thousand steps— going up and down several mountains before reaching the center of the mountain range where the sect was located.

The new disciples all looked at each other, then some began sprinting up the stairs.

Faust and Rozaline hid their expressions well. Even the rich prodigies were not exempt from this trial and few prepared for it. Sirius on the other hand had an evil smile on her face as the three stepped on their flying swords and rose into the air to observe the group.

 

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Forty eight hours later….

“Hwaaaa!” Sirius yawned as she woke up from a flying carpet artifact, stowing her blanket, pillow and stuffed doll away before switching back to her flying sword. If Faust wasn’t a sucker for cute faces he would have forced her to use her spirit stones to power the carpet if she wanted to sleep.

“Oh? Come to join the fun?” Rozaline asked.

“Isn’t it just walking?” Sirius asked, blinking out the groginess in her eyes.

“Between men, all walks become a race.” Faust said, looking down at the end of the thousand mile stairs.

As Faust expected, just as in his own recruitment, this batch of disciples also thought that it was a race.

After several landings to perform first aid on people who had passed out from exhaustion, the first people began reaching the last step, falling to the floor with ragged breaths just before the first mountain gate of the sect.

Faust looked up, the Clear Jade bridge, which also acted as the final mountain gate, was visible in the distance, probably just sticking above the trees if they were looking from the ground.

The first few to pass were commoners who had worked hard labour in addition to reaching the early Qi Refining realm. They had probably thought that since this was a test, they had to be first.

Not far behind, Long Tao, Aneroze and Foria came up in a group. Not surprising since Tao went the traditional route and reached the first realm of Body Tempering, while Foria had followed Faust’s instructions and started on the path of body tempering. Faust could only guess Aneroze had also practiced some body tempering since she kept up. Around them were some other heirs from powerful families who had practiced body tempering.

The third group were the majority. The ordinary commoners with similar backgrounds to Faust.

The final group, arriving almost 13 hours later, were the young masters of clans that hadn’t forced them to practice body tempering. Without being able to use their qi for body reinforcement, they heaved and groaned beneath the sun.

With the last stretch before them and without the qi suppression on the stairs, Faust led Rozaline and Sirius to wait at the final mountain gate, within the courtyard that stood beneath the towering arches that supported Clear Jade bridge.

Watching the sky, the three waited for all the new disciples to gather in front of them.

Around the group, many other outer disciples were passing by, watching with nostalgia as they stopped to look or passed by slower than usual.

Faust cleared his throat, “Welcome to the Outer Sect’s main courtyard!” he welcomed.

“Behind me is Peripheral Village, where any mortal items you need can be found. To your right is the Jade Road Mountain, where all the Outer Sect Dwellings are found. To your left are the Outer Sect facilities, where we will be going for the third trial.” Faust gave a brief rundown before turning to lead the way towards the Phantom Mirror.

Long Tao raised his hand.

Faust’s eye twitched and he paused his step. “Yes?”

“Whats that?” Long Tao pointed up. Faust followed his awed gaze along with many others to the massive pillars that suspended Clear Jade bridge hundreds of meters in the sky.

“Clear Jade bridge. It connects Jade Road Mountain and Diamond Mountain, where the sect market and administration is. There’s another route to get up there that we’ll take when leaving the third trial.” Faust explained before continuing.

Someone else raised their hand and Faust breathed in sharply before turning once more. “Yes?”

One of the dull looking commoners gestured to the whole mountains. “I heard that sects all had floating mountains, endless waterfalls and mythical beasts in the sky?”

“Pft.” Sirius snickered and Faust felt his face twitching.

“Budget cuts.” Faust responded, turning to continue leading the way.

“What are… Budget cuts?” The commoner scratched his head.

“Those are mainly from stories. They’re too expensive for most sects to afford or maintain.” One of the more compassionate heirs from the second group leaned over and whispered.

The north path from the Outer Sect’s main courtyard had countless paths branching off of it to various training and spirit herb fields. There were also paths leading to spirit beast habitats and husbandries.

Faust gave brief introductions to the most important paths. He could have introduced more, but there was ample signage and looking at the gazes that constantly flickered from one thing to another, he had doubts about if the group was even listening.

“Screeee!” A large white crane flew overhead, casting the whole group in shadow. The new disciples all looked and pointed, chattering loudly.

Faust caught sight of Core Disciple Mu Ronghua atop the white crane and raised a brow. Currently the only core disciple from the 47th generation of disciples that Faust was a part of. A bastard child from a family even more powerful than the Roze clan who wasn’t allowed to enter one of the main sects holding hegemony and got shoved into Clear Mirror sect.

“And. Here we are.” Faust mumbled to himself.

The group had taken a sidepath over and between countless ponds, creeks and lush forest, until they reached a 30 meter waterfall that stretched left and right as far as one could see through the forest canopy.

A single rock jut out halfway down the waterfall, splitting the stream in half to create an entrance underneath. “Clear Mirror Cavern” was inscribed across a golden plaque hanging from the rock.

Faust turned to the disciples of this period. “Welcome to the third and final trial.” he said, before turning and bowing towards the entrance. Rozaline and Sirius bowed beside him.

“Inner Disciple Faust, requesting permission to bring the new disciples to the Clear Mirror Phantom.” Faust asked, cupping his hands.

“…” There was silence.

Some of the new disciples began shuffling their feet, but a response soon came.

“You may enter.” An old, hollow and ancient voice echoed across the surroundings.

Faust stood back up along with Rozaline and Sirius.

“Pay respects to the elder who guards the Clear Mirror Cavern.” Faust ordered behind him.

“““We pay respects to the elder!”””

The heirs all bowed, cupped their hands and offered their respects. Those who had listened to Faust’s whole speech yesterday followed a moment later. Lastly, the slow witted simply followed the rest of the group.

“…You are the 50th generation of disciples…” The elder’s voice floated across the air, reverberating through the surroundings.

The group stood back up, then followed Faust under the waterfall, down a flight of wide stairs and through one of several paths that devolved from paved stone into worn rock and moss covered stone.

By the time the path opened up into a massive cavern, the disciples were almost forced to wade through the crystal clear water that ran throughout the whole cavern if not for the large protruding boulders.

The clear water glowed with pale blue light, casting waving reflections across the low ceiling of the cavern.

The path ended in front of a small, crystal clear lake that revealed the white sand beneath.

Glowing crystals and algae spotted the cavern in blue lights. However, the main light source of the cavern, lighting up the whole ground and the clear lake, was a massive floating mirror that hovered above the lake’s centre.

Faust flickered from the path of boulders to a large stone off to the side of the cavern, followed by Sirius and Rozaline.

“This is a phantom of the sect’s void artifact.” Faust introduced. “Each of you will take turns walking towards it. Though this is just a phantom, a projection of a small piece of the artifacts power, it is still sufficient to test those below the Nascent Soul realm.”

A disciple raised their hand. “Uh…. Do we walk through the lake?” They asked in a shaky voice.

“Not quite.” Faust looked across the disciples. “Would anyone like to volunteer to go first as a demonstration?”

A moment of silence as the disciples looked between each other.

“My, it’s quite simple.” Aneroze suddenly spoke up from near the front of the group, she lightly jumped off the stone she stood on and onto the lake.

The clear water rippled beneath her feet, but otherwise supported her weight as if it were solid ground.

Another hand went up, it was Long Tao. Faust wanted to ignore him but he spoke without waiting.

“Do we need to be in the Qi Refining realm to walk on the water?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“No. What you see in this cavern is a very real illusion, so real you can interact with it. The surface of the lake is more or less solid ground. You will be able to tell once you sufficiently master the Clear Mirror Pupil, which specialises in seeing through illusions specifically.” Faust explained with a sigh, then turned to Aneroze.

“If you will then, miss Aneroze, attempt to touch the mirror’s phantom.”

Aneroze smiled, then turned to the mirror floating above the lake and began walking forward.

One step… Two steps…

At 30 meters from the edge of the lake, Aneroze stumbled and caught herself. She took a sharp breath, then took a moment to stabilize her footing.

On the 35th meter, Aneroze was sweating profusely. She took several controlled breaths, waving her fan, then looked at the mirror with grim determination, taking another step forward.

At the 38th meter, Aneroze stopped. Sweat went down her face and her hair seemed to tangle on its own, becoming disheveled.

“Don’t push yourself. The illusions created by the mirror can be more real than reality.” Faust spoke.

Aneroze smiled bitterly, closing her eyes before turning around and walking back to the rest of the group.

“Thirty Eight meters. Better than your sister.” Faust commented, returning the earlier jabs from Rozaline, who hid her reaction behind her fan.

“Next volunteer?” Faust called out.

Another young heir stepped forward.

“Twenty Two steps. Better than most. Next.” Faust recorded each person’s results. There were several unofficial leaderboards maintained in the sect, one of which recorded how close one got to the mirror. The disciples who maintained the leaderboard paid ridiculous sums to ensure they got accurate data to make the rankings. There were even elders who had founded the leaderboards in their youth and who would “secretly” use them when looking for talents within the sect.

One of the braver commoners went next.

“Twelve meters. Don’t worry. Ten to Twenty is normal. The two before you were the exceptions.” Faust gave some words of comfort to the young woman who looked like they were on the verge of crying for the “bad” result.

After the poor result from the commoner, the next batch of people were the young heirs.

The heirs who had been forced to work hard by their family all achieved 20 meters or more.

However, the heirs who lazed around most of the time…

“Five meters… Seven meters… Nine meters…” Faust recorded the distances in a neutral voice.

After that show, the ordinary disciples were brave enough to volunteer and…

“Seventeen meters… Eighteen meters… Twenty four meters… Fourteen meters…”

“Oh? There’s a lot of impressive numbers this generation?” Rozaline commented, Sirius nodded along, watching the new disciples intently.

Soon, Foria stepped up, she looked to Faust for a moment and he gave her an encouraging nod.