Turning around Julius dogged over the dummy's left hand as he managed to smack the dummy consecutively on its head, chest and lower torso. A white light glowed from the dummy signifying its defeated state. Only 17 more to go, and only 10 seconds to do it. He moved on to the next fast as lightning, his wooden glaive piercing through the air with each strike. Whoosh, he dogged over another as he outed another hay opponent, only to get smacked by the makeshift stick that each dummies was holding.

"HOLD!" A indifferent and kingly voice sounded out

A man settled in a lotus position hundreds of meters away appeared in a flash before Junius. "WHERE IS YOUR HONOR!", "WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY."

Junius winced as he heard the harsh words from his master and only confidant, the sage of the glaive. Junius scratched behind his head only to get wacked by the blunt side of a glaive appearing out of nowhere.

"PAY ATTENTION BOY!" His voice calms down as he slowly repeats words dreaded more than death to the young boy. " Go to the circle". With a firm no refusal voice.

Julius, knowing his gruesome fate, drudged towards a circle of black flame and blades. As he got inside the circle, the flames not only burned him, but they tempered his Low-Gold Core with everlasting heat from hell. The blades facing him repeatedly jabbed and stabbed him, cause the once scarred skin to become even more scarred and burnt.

Screaming his heart out, Julius had to endure heart wrenching pain as it felt like his remnant was being birth then pulled back into his body in a repeating cycle. This, his punishment for not following orders to the fullest extent on his path of the raging glaive personally created by his master of an unknown age.

All that is known about his masters power state is that he is one of the top sages in cradle and very close to breaking through to becoming one of the great heralds. Even in the ninecloud courts his master, a well renowned figure known for killing the infamous Sage of the burning river, a master of the golden dragon's flowing flame art who terrorized part of the court.

...

Hours later, julius lay in a bloody mess in the now extinguished circle of flame and blade. His master looking from afar only shakes his head as he walks away back into a small house appearing from nowhere.

Junius, who is slowly waking groans out in agony knowing full well that that was not his last time in that circle of hell. Resigned he pulls himself up pulling the last vestiges of his madra to power his unknown iron body to drive him back to training. Back to the dummies once again. He thinks as he once again joins the repetitive grind of training.

...

The dummies head flies back as it glows a white light, and is officially out of the count, he runs and jumps over the next one hitting his hay foe to the left of him with three quick swipes, one overhand and two left to right. He activates his madra pushing himself further as he uses the piercing sweep to knock out three dummies at once. He backflips landing in a crouched position with another dummy out for the count. Only 10 more to go he thinks to himself as he runs back into the fight, He deflects the dummy to his right's attack and buts his spear against the chest of the one to his left, twirling his glaive he slices back around to the right and slashes across its chest and head knocking another out, as he ducks under an attack made by the left dummy he pierces it in the stomach taking out another one. I've got this he thinks, this is the best he's done so far as her uses flawless, glaive techniques to quickly knock out a few other in the span of a couple seconds.

His sixth sense flares up and he jumps, a close one as an attack sweeps by below him he strikes the subject of the previous attack, one of the few ones left with a thrust downward into the dummies chest, quickly pulling it out he also smashes the blunt side of the dummies head with enough madra to smash a tone boulder to smithereens. The dummy only knocked out for the count showing next to no signs of its previous injury proves its makers resilience in the art of soul smithing.

He turns around and kicks off another active dummy slashing the one behind him out of the count, and then he uses part of his madra and path to simulate his foot as a long glaive piercing the one he kicked off of.

"17.8 seconds, well done. But... not enough, do it again in fifteen and this time don't use your weapon, use your body as one. You have the rest of the day off to cycle with this. His master throws out an object, a flash of red and blue flies by. Julius catches it in his left hand, throwing his arm partly back from the catch. He looks up and realizes he's alone, his master must have gone off to train.

Julius returns back to a mat in the middle of the field and sits down in a lotus position slowly absorbing the chip of glaive madra. This chip holding enough madra to tear his soul and remnant apart is slowly integrated into his soul, ad julius uses his breathing technique and his core clangs with what seems to be an endless amount of weapons clashing in his core.

His cultivation of low gold, solid and calm with enough concentration to break into high gold immediately is concentrated even more with the consumption of this new madra. His core now on the verge of a breakthrough, slowly starts to grow as a bright flash occurs and Julius is seen profusely sweating with his brows knitted in concentration as he slowly absorbs the rest of his masters madra, only to pass out asleep on the cold ground.

...

The next morning he wakes up in totally unfamiliar surroundings and although half asleep, still snaps to attention looking around.

His mat, his training ground.....his master, everything and everyone is gone replaced by a sea of dying trees a surprising sight in the desolate world of Crucible.

With his attention snapped on the current surrounding of the unfamiliar scene he remembers that although his madra from his now high gold body should support him for a few months, then he will need food and water to sustain him lest he get hurt. So, shelter is definitely on the top of the list. 'Keep vigilance even in the safest of places' his masters words permeated him as he spread his madra sence around him noticing almost nothing out of the usual.

As he hid and slid through the shadows looking for sustenance, he started gaining confidence in his new pursuit for something in the forest.

Then suddenly Nothing, no sound, no bugs, the forest was dead.... The trees were now eerie as he changed from his casual jog to a full on sprint, spreading out his sense he realized there was a very powerful aura quickly approaching from behind.

He stopped and turned on his heel, knowing that he could not outrun this ferocious dreadbeast based on the aura alone and the remnant it chased. Strangely smart, he thought, that something as dumb as a remnant would think to use him as a distraction.

The trees behind in front of him rustled and creaked as a dog scorpion like remnant rushed past him. He was surprised, usually these things were always hunting for madra, rarely would they ever run, but as sudden as he thought that the trees that the remnant bursted through started booming and soon fell down in a burst of smoke.

Revealing a hideous monstrosity.