Black…

Unadulterated Black…

Every thing was endless black before Azalon. Even his senses that became several times more sensitive than those of a normal human after his cultivation reached the Spirit Sense Realm couldn’t sense a thing in that pitch black world.

Not a single ray of light to see, not a single whisper to hear, not even from his own body, and not a single damn thing he could smell!

Azalon realized in horror that he couldn’t even feel his body any more! Its like his body was there but it was also not there!

And that was not at all a good feeling, and on top of that this black world cut off all his senses.

Azalon panicked! He really really panicked!

He wanted to scream, but couldn’t… Even if he couldn’t see or hear, he at least wanted to feel what’s around him, but couldn’t!

He couldn’t wrap his mind around what’s happening.

A human mind excels at adaption than any other animal in the Animal Kingdom! It always tries to find a way to overcome its disadvantages and restrictions.

That was the sole reason why humans could stand at the very apex of the food chain even without any bodily enhancements like claws or fangs!

That was why a person with any kind of sensory disabilities would have one’s remaining senses strengthened to overcome the faulty sensory organ!

A blind person would have his hearing and touch enhanced, and similarly a deaf or mute person would have his vision and touch enhanced!

But what Azalon was facing right now was in an entirely different level than those. He had not one or two but all his senses cut off! His mind couldn’t cope with that and his heart felt like it was frantically pumping massive amounts of adrenaline to help the mind think of some solution! It was the basic preservative response a human body would automatically trigger when it faced with this kinds of situations!

Azalon tried to take a deep breath but gave up when he found out that he lost that feeling too. But he was still alive and active, or at least that was what his condition looked like. He tried to calm his over active mind and think about his situation. He could at least do that with full capacity!

“This has something to do with the Academy Selections. I am 90% sure of that. If that is true, then this should also be some sort of test! But what exactly are they expecting me to do?! That is the important question right now.” Azalon connected the dots between all that happened till now and came to a conclusion.

This was a test just like the Preliminary Test or the Garden Test! But what should he do?

“LILY!… Raka!… Merup!…” Azalon was shouting in his mind, but he got no response from his Spirits. He could feel the connection he had with them, but he couldn’t converse with them. “Figures. This test forces me rely on myself, not my Spirits, not my cultivation and not even my senses! *Sigh*” Azalon muttered gloomily, but of coarse this was all going on in his mind as he couldn’t project his voice out.

He concentrated and calmed his heart and mind. If he let these two push him into panic, then he couldn’t find the solution behind the situation. It was imperative that he calm down first.

Time lost its meaning in that black world. Azalon had no way of guessing how much time had passed or how much time he still had to solve this situation.

But by his guess, not much time should have passed and he gradually calmed down to normal. But before he could start thinking, the moment his heart and mind calmed down, the black world around him changed…

*Crack* *Crack*

Small cracks started appearing on the black world and the cracks spread becoming bigger and bigger. Finally, with a loud *Crack* that echoed everywhere, the black world shattered!

Azalon watched with astonishment as the world around him changed. His senses returned to him one by one as the black world shattered, but his Spirits and his Cultivation was still out of reach.

As Azalon watched on, a bright light filled his mind.

The blinding light sustained for about 30 seconds but Azalon was calmly waiting for whatever the light was to reveal. Even though the light was intensely bright, it instead had a warmth that spread through Azalon as he bathed in it. A comfortable feeling rose in him and he could feel himself relaxing even more after the panic he felt in the black world.

He was now sure that this world or whatever this was was a test designed for the candidates. As to what they intend to test? Azalon had no idea!

The bright light faded away and Azalon opened his eyes to see an endless prairie extending to the very edges of his vision or whatever he was using to see right now. Grass stalks that were as tall as himself were swaying as the wind howled through the open lands.

*Growl* *Growl*

Suddenly, a pack of vicious wolf – like Spirit Beasts jumped out from the tall grass and in a flash, they surrounded Azalon. They were growling loudly and thick saliva continuously dripped from the open mouths that glittered with sharp teeth and fangs!

Azalon knew these wolf – like Spirit Beasts. They are simply called as [Spirit Wolves] and they were only Class 1 Spirit Beasts. But they were regarded somewhat dangerous to hunt as they always move in packs and had a great co – ordination among them that made them equal to those of Class 2 Spirit Beasts.

There were dozens of them and they were all looking at him and drooling as if they found a juicy piece of meat they couldn’t wait to sink their teeth into!

Azalon snorted as he watched these small fries. He could simply deal with Class 1 Spirit Beasts like they were ants and trample them effortlessly. But he forgot one very important thing!

A [Spirit Wolf] eyed him for a while and jumped at him with its mouth open intend to bite through his neck! Azalon almost laughed and tried to circulate his Spirit Energy as he punched out. It was then that he remembered that he was not in the real world and he couldn’t use his Spirit Energy!

He watched in horror as the wide jaws of the [Spirit Wolf] filled with glistening sharp teeth get closer to his arm.

Even though it had been only a short time since he cultivated the Spirit Energy, Azalon almost became addicted to the intoxicated feeling of strength and flexibility his body could explode with!

And now that the Spirit Energy was absent, he became flustered and his movements were rigid and inflexible. But he still didn’t retract his fist because his strength had an explosive increase after he reached the 8th Level just moments ago.

Don’t forget that just his physical strength alone is enough to deal with these lowest level Spirit Beasts!

The fist carried a powerful force and met the wide maw of the [Spirit Wolf]. The punch drove through the hide, muscle and bones of the Wolf and the head of the Wolf exploded in a bloody mist splattering blood and brain matter all over Azalon.

“Yuck. That’s gross!” Azalon gagged as some bits made their way into his mouth. He flicked his hand to get rid of the gore sticking to it and looked around at the remaining [Spirit Wolves].

After seeing their companion meet its death in such a way, normally the [Spirit Wolves] would have been scared and tried to run away. But these Wolves infront of Azalon acted as if they didn’t see what happened and were all still growling at him.

Azalon felt something off but he couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Before giving him any time to think, the Wolves howled and started rushing towards him like a massive tide of fur and claws and fangs.

Azalon was somewhat shocked when he saw the dozens of [Spirit Wolves] coming at him from all sides. A tinge of fear crept into his heart. After all, even though he had been hunting Spirit Beasts the moment he started cultivating Spirit Energy, they were all one on one battles. He would draw out a single Spirit Beast and deal with it. He had never been in the middle of a group of Spirit Beasts trying to attack him from all directions!

His vision became nothing but fur, sharp claws and fangs, and his arms and legs were constantly mowing down everything that entered his field of vision. His physical strength was more than enough to deal with these Class 1 [Spirit Wolves], but at that time, various Spirit Beasts started to constantly pour out from the grasslands, and not just the [Spirit Wolves] but many others as well.

After a long time, the Spirit Beasts stopped paused in their attacks and Azalon got a breather. He looked around and the reason why the beasts stopped attacking him became clear.

He had killed so many Spirit Beasts that their corpses piled up to form a sort of a wall around him like a fort. The Spirit Beasts had to jump over the wall to attack him.

Azalon was sure that this world he was in was not a real world but an illusion. But his senses told him otherwise! Even the Spirit Beasts felt tangible when they attacked him or he attacked them. Now that he got a short respite from the battle, Azalon didn’t rest but was thinking on how to overcome the situation!

“That should be what this test should be about! Without the support from the Spirits or your cultivation, you will tire out fast after battling this many Spirit Beasts! But what should I do to get out?” Azalon pondered over and over but he couldn’t the solution.

As Azalon was pomdering on the elusive answer to the situation, outside in the real world, the old man and the Elder Vanko were still on the hill top looking down at the candidates undergoing the trial.

The entire garden was lit up with a bright yellow light that was coming from underground and enveloped all the candidates that were in the garden.

The yellow light was formed by many symbols that were arranged to form a massive array that was flickering constantly with a mysterious frequency.

If Azalon could have seen this array of symbols, he would have recognized that most of the symbols were the same as that of the opening array the Elder Vanko used when he opened the mountain. But their arrangement was complety different than the array that was used to split the mountain and there were several additional and complex looking symbols that were placed at some particular locations in the array and these symbols were glowing more brightly and frequently than the other symbols!

Moreover, these symbols were directly under the candidates who were envoleped by the yellow light emitting from these mysterious symbols. It seems thay whatever the candidates were experiencing was all related to these mysterious symbols!

In the hands of the Elder Vanko, there was a small hourglass and the falling sand filled almost half of the lower hourglass.

“I told you, Master Paul, not to get your hopes high with this group. These are nothing but existances like geese that are hoping to sprout wings and fly in the skies like dragons! You will be disappointed if you think that they will break out of this [Dream Rendering Array] that I have personally laid out and activated by four of the inner disciples using their Spirit Energy! Even Core Realm Cultivators will have a hard time breaking the effects of this array at its full power. As for dealing with these children, just 10% of its full power is more than enough.” The Elder Vanko spoke with a smug expression as he gave a mocking look at the boys and girls who had struggling expressions on their faces and their bodies covered in thick sweat.

The old man Paul smile never faded even when he heard the words of the Elder Vanko, but his eyes were filled with anticipation as to what surprises he would see from this batch of youngsters.

He had always been like this from the moment he could remember about himself. He would always be wide eyed as he watched the world in motion around him. Everything he would see would show him a new wonder that was only possible in the hands of Mother Nature.

He could see profound mysteries in even the smallest things, in the way a fish swam in the water, in the way a bird would fly in the sky, in the way fire danced in the dark, in the way the dark would flicker around the fire but couldn’t consume the fire… Everything was a sort of wonder for him. And the living things especially the humans and their arch enemies, the Spirit Beasts and the Demons were even more so!

And when his cultivation reached the Nascent Soul Realm, his Soul didn’t form a [Soul Weapon] but it became the eyes of his Nascent Soul.

[Heaven’s Eyes Nascent Soul]. The name of his Nascent Soul, a Soul with a pair of eyes that always searched for the way of the Heavens.

And these pair of eyes were currently looking at a small boy that sat beside a waterfall with a gray tiger cub sleeping in his lap. A concentrated expression was on the still childish face with his eyebrows tightly knit together.

“Prove me, kid, that the feeling this old man had about you was not wrong.” The old man Paul thought in his heart as his eyes glittered with expectation.

The sands in the hourglass continued to fall and one by one, the candidates woke up from whatever dream world they experienced. Almost all of them had blank looks in their eyes as they sat there with blank faces. Nobody knew what they saw in the dream world, but they did see had a massive impact on their minds.

The two Elders watching from the peak did nothing to help these candidates but instead stood there watching everything below.

More and more candidates started waking up and as sands in the hourglass reached three fourths, only a handful of the candidates were still remaining within their own dream world and were still struggling against their own dreams.

*Crack*

But it was at this moment, that a loud crack sounded in the silent garden. The Elder Vanko’ s eyes widened and a wierd expression surfaced on his face. Meanwhile, the smile on the old man Paul’s face grew wider as his eyes filled with delight and wonder.

“No… No way… there is no way that a kid who just reached 8th Level Spirit Sense Realm could break this [Dream Rendering Array]! One way to break this array is to damage the flow of the Spirit Energy flowing through it by using even more powerful Energy than those who activates this array. And the other way is to have a strong and steady heart that wouldn’t waver under the dreams projected by the array! But… but… that’s impossible… Not by this peasant!” The Elder Vanko started mumbling incoherently as he watched the cracks on the complex symbol flickering below Azalon enlarge and finally shattered!

“That is why I said not to take your eyes off the world around you, Vanko.” The old man Paul said solemnly as they watched the small boy stand up with a slight smile amd walk towards the mountain they are standing on… …