It was a sunny morning across the central continent of the Pristine planet. All the greatest cultivators on the planet were tense within the Three Extremes Sect. There were no longer hundreds of them radiating a divine aura after the physical reconstruction; currently, only half a dozen of these cultivators remained. They all reached this level recently.
Practically 99% of the greatest cultivators died in the last hundred years, in a suicidal war against a small city. Everything was surrounded by a formation, leaving no route for escape or replenishment of Qi; they were like a turtle in a jar and should be quickly destroyed.
At first, the Three Extremes Sect volunteered to send all its cultivators to try to create ties with the twelve families; but shortly after, they realized the mistake they made.
The one commanding the city’s defense was the sect’s most beautiful and youngest Elder. She was considered an unparalleled genius, someone strong enough to destroy one of the planet’s greatest clans on her own. This young woman had even made the sect leader advise everyone to avoid causing trouble for her. Once seen as the future leader of humanity, she was now defending a city that no one had even known existed until now. Yet, not even the twelve families had been able to make her submit.
In the end, when they tried to flee, they were forced to keep going; until eventually, all the most powerful were forced to fight... only for a tragedy that will be remembered as bloodier than the other two wars to occur.
Currently, all the few cultivators in the Body Destruction Realm were newly advanced youths. They possessed an aura of uncertainty and tension; everyone knew that a large-scale fight was imminent in the place where a desert should exist. The fear that the twelve families would want to use them again permeated all the cultivators of the continent.
But on that morning, suddenly all the sunlight was extinguished like a divine omen.
The highest cultivators looked at the sky, stunned; they saw and felt something that left them speechless. The entire space in the sky seemed to tremble and distort, the spatial laws were being subjugated and not even light could pass.
A confrontation on a level that the fragile laws of an ascending planet couldn’t bear was unfolding. Everyone felt that this day would be marked as the first of a great change.
***
Going back a few minutes in time. About six million common cultivators from the twelve families were gathered around the formation, waiting impatiently and staring intently at that place.
They were all extremely excited. According to the higher-ups, there were less than six hours left for everything to collapse without energy. This event was called the "Golden Exam". All the families sent their most promising members; this was a unique chance to obtain very difficult resources. Each member relied only on their luck and power to choose and capture a valuable target.
Strict rules were established among the families. Each could only send five hundred thousand disciples; totaling six million cultivators. This number wouldn’t give any chance of escape for the people in the city. These cultivators would have to seek their own reward, but there was very little for everyone. A savage competition would occur, and that’s exactly what the families wanted.
For them, the battle wasn’t against the people of the city; it was a contest between all twelve families, with their young members as participants. The first step was to capture the cultivators from within the city, and then a bloody dispute would happen among them. Only the best would come out alive and take everything with them. Sharing among many was considered foolishness; only the elite would emerge alive with all the rewards.
To comply with the established rules, each family brought ten common elders, totaling 120 elders at the elementary level of the Spirit Fusion Realm. As a measure to prevent any eventuality or cheating, a central elder from each family at the second level of the Spirit Fusion Realm was watching everything from afar.
Everyone imagined that the city dwellers were preparing until the last second for a defense and that they possessed something of extreme value hidden that saved them once. They didn’t know what happened before, as all the elders and members just died together, as if they had been erased from the world. Even their divine formation was completely dominated, something that should be impossible on that small planet.
Due to this unprecedented event, they were convinced that the city and its inhabitants possessed extraordinary hidden treasures. To maintain order and prevent large bloodshed among the upper levels of the families, they created this ’Golden Exam.’
It was considered a fair method, where the members of the families who achieved something would keep it; it depended only on luck and skill. They even kept the incident a secret from the four Empyreans families. If the humiliation of failing so much to defeat those mediocre cultivators was discovered, it would tarnish the families’ names and the consequences would be hard to imagine.
It was only a matter of time until they were discovered, but the gains obtained seemed to compensate for it; the four families wouldn’t blame them if they had solved the problem and shared everything afterward. Those families that gained more in this ’Exam’ would have more leverage to share, thus gaining more prestige and future benefits.
Everything seemed perfect. Everyone waited for time to pass slowly... until everything changed.
Hundreds of holes in the formation opened up, and in the same second, all six million cultivators from the twelve families widened their eyes. They felt the air become filled with Yang and infinite natural energy; it was all coming from inside the formation... wasn’t that a desert of death? Everyone thought, shocked.
Nearly a million people, all within the Body Destruction Realm, emerged at the same time. In a second, they spread across the skies in an eight-sided formation, each with a faction. In the next moment, the barrier closed.
"Hahaha, they came earlier! Excellent!"
A demonic beast roared excitedly, then all the air and laws stirred. Six families were composed of demonic beasts; all assumed their true form and roared excitedly. There were four human families, each with diverse specialties and weapons; all removed their weapons with sinister smiles.
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To complete it, there were two High Elf families. One of them emanated an aura of natural wood, focused on healing and defense. The other was specialized in archery, with the aura of all of them seeming to merge with the environment; certainly, their arrows were imperceptible and inevitable.
The one hundred and twenty elders huffed and nodded simultaneously to those of their families; it was earlier than expected, but everything was already set.
"Attack!"
The powerful roars of the elders with divine cultivation, containing an unbounded battle intent, echoed throughout the planet.
At the same time, a metallic figure whose face couldn’t be seen emerged in the air. Her figure was slim and feminine, accompanied by an immense crossbow in front of her. Witnessing this, the pupils of all the elders contracted; they felt a deadly pressure looming in the air.
The crossbow was colossal, thirty meters long. It could no longer be categorized as a simple crossbow; it was a ballista on a gigantic scale, like those used to knock down city walls.
Completely black as the night, its presence was imposing. Its arms extended, emanating an aura of overwhelming pressure, paralyzing all the cultivators hovering in the air around it.
An arrow that seemed to be several meters thick was already prepared; it was unclear if it was an illusion, but its appearance was sinister, like that of a serpent. Its gaze was chilling for anyone who stared at it. The ballista’s arms were covered in runes, emitting a light that gave the sensation of life. It was as if the entire ballista was a living creature in itself.
"Hm? An interesting external power, but in the hands of the weak, it’s useless," said a High Elder from afar, with audible disdain for all.
"Attack together and bring that down first! We outnumber them six times. It won’t be able to do much before it falls. The prize goes to whoever captures it! Charge!" shouted another Elder, inciting a fervent chorus from millions of youths.
As everyone advanced through the air, ready for the attack, the world’s light suddenly went out.
The skies were tinged with a dull gray, while a dark atmosphere enveloped everyone in the blink of an eye. The High Elders widened their eyes, directing their gazes upwards. The fragile laws of this planet were subjugated, and even the light seemed to freeze, refusing to flow.
All present turned their attention to a specific point in the sky. Within the dark clouds, they spotted a man floating slowly, holding a spear, his hair radiating in seven colors as if they possessed their own light. Behind him, a ring of light formed. Pulsating like a heartbeat, with every microsecond, the ring grew larger and more defined.
Initially only three meters in diameter, within seconds, it expanded to resemble a giant rainbow in the sky. All the luminosity of the area was replaced by the vibrant colors emitted by that ring; it was the sun and the source of all the laws of that world.
Simultaneously, an endless aura of violence emanated from the man. His garments fluttered, and his colorful hair danced in the wind. The ring began to spin, while an indescribable oppression fell upon all present.
Humans and elves soon felt their bodies weaken, victims of a total suppression of their bloodline. Meanwhile, the demon beasts watched in disbelief; that ring... all the Qi and laws were being drawn and absorbed into that ring as if it were a black hole.
The connection to the spiritual root and celestial laws of everyone was suddenly severed. Those in the air plummeted dazed. Flying in these circumstances became impossible. The laws of the environment, which could previously be freely manipulated, now did not respond to the call of any of them. The only thing available was the Qi from their cores and meridians, along with their internal runes...
Just at that moment, a soft sound echoed. A tattoo lit up on the forehead of the robotic figure. A Yang power pulsed like a star, and a huge arrow shot out like lightning.
By common sense, the sound of an arrow piercing space should be deafening, but this arrow was imbued with special and mysterious mechanisms, blending with Yang and spiritual energy to increase its power. It practically produced no sound as it cut through the air.
"Watch out!" The High Elders sensed the potential for destruction and yelled from afar.
KBOOOM!
Unfortunately, it was too late for them to realize. The arrow exploded among them.
The massive arrow, resembling a pillar supporting a palace, disintegrated into sharp fragments. Although the cultivators at the peak of the Body Destruction Realm reacted quickly and activated their defenses, it wasn’t enough.
Within this arrow were the spiral blades personally forged by Vuard, each of them marked with a fully active rune seal of sharpening. They were the size of a fist and resembled frisbees but with dozens of sharp teeth. They were like shurikens, deadly and relentless.
These discs spun at extreme speed, causing their sharp teeth to become an unstoppable cutting force. As they pierced through people’s bodies, they released Yang and spiritual power in full, turning everyone into a bloody mist within seconds.
Thousands and thousands of these blades exploded among the cultivators, instantly piercing those nearest and triggering a chain reaction of destruction.
Those who were too close left no corpses behind. Accustomed to flying or using their laws, they now lost everything and clumsily attempted to run in despair. As for those farther away, they were lucky. After piercing so many bodies, the blade-launching discs lost much of their penetration power.
Still, this sudden explosion created a void space among the cultivators of the families within seconds. About two million of them were instantly killed, and another million were covered in blood, their bodies mutilated. Those who were lucky escaped only with the loss of limbs, while others lost their lives with a single blow struck in the heads or cores.
The air was thick with blood, and disorder and chaos spread rapidly. It all happened within five seconds, so bloody and brutal that no Elder could react in time. Although they were still an overwhelming majority, the fighting spirit of these hothouse flowers was completely destroyed.
Amidst the Elders’ thoughts, the nearly one million cultivators from the city roared and attacked with everything they had.
"KILL!"
The Elders yelled furiously at the members of their families, frightened. "FIGHT BACK, YOU IDIOTS!"
Some rushed to protect themselves, but most turned and attacked shortly after. However, it was too late when they realized countless colorful dots, like a dust cloud, around them.
Then, with a pulsating from the skies, the divine seven-colored ring emitted a vibrant roar. In the next second, numerous chains made of multicolored runes latched onto everyone’s bodies, holding them rigidly in place.
Corin simply laughed in the skies; he might not have been the most powerful of them all, but he certainly had infinite IQ to use. His maximum power had only one barrier—his technique and physical ability to withstand it. Now, in the midst of battle and with his body perfectly reconstructed, his techniques had an apocalyptic scale.
"SHIT, ATTACK TOGETHER!"
The Elders saw it with despair, and all 120 abandoned the rules of the "Golden Examination." They all joined the fight because they knew that otherwise, they would be slaughtered.