All of the clouds that represented eyes moved to the crippled sentinel. Merging into one large mass, they then let the sentinel absorb them. Almost immediately, it swelled in size. The legs regrew, the sentinel’s cloud eyes became multicolored, a mixture of the eye color of all beasts and sentinel illusions that Lute had slaughtered

Its body armor also became multicolored; the heavy sword remained blood red. The aura around its body swelled until it was at the fifth level of the Nascent Qi Realm almost on the verge of breaking through to the sixth level.

Lute who was meditating, opened his eyes, shocked at first, but then understanding dawned upon him.

‘I see, in order to prevent recovery time, no matter how small; this is the failsafe mechanism that shall force me to fail.

Lute stood up, he barely recovered even ten percent of his Qi, and he was still thirty percent short of a full recovery. If he was at full strength he might’ve grudgingly went blow for blow with the Sentinel, trying to whittle down the remaining seven minutes of time.

Instead, Lute decided to cut his losses and run since he was already over one hundred meters separated from the Sentinel. Without even thinking of preserving his Qi, Lute revolved it at full strength, and utilized the Qi Burst Steps to their limit.

He immediately dashed away, increasing the distance between him and the Sentinel. Every step shattered the ground beneath him, every step propelled him further and further away.

As much as he wanted to fight, Lute knew that this was one he wouldn’t be able to win, no matter how hard he tried, it was better to run away and let the time run out.

Although his actions were unexpected as previously Lute was rashly charge into a head on clash. The sentinel quickly recovered. It made large bounding strides that would propel it forward, every step thunderous under its weight.

Hearing the Sentinel slowly close the distance, Lute furiously overdrew his Qi, forcing more and more power into the Qi Burst Steps, barely a minute had passed, there were still six left, and the sentinel was gaining on him.

Off in the distance, instead of a bloody field of carnage, blood colored trees appeared. Lute changed directions and charged towards the forest edge. It was here he that would become his saving grace.

Boom!

Off to his left, a crater formed next to Lute. If he was hit, forget about having a strong body, he would’ve exploded.

‘What the hell was that, had I been a few feet to my left I would have been forced to forfeit.’

Quickly glancing behind him, Lute was barely able to make out a condensed arrow made of Qi travelling on a trajectory, its target, his face.

Lute yelped in surprise and dove to the left, barely dodging the arrow as it caused another crater to form, this one, even larger than the last.

“Seriously, he can morph his weapon to all the previous illusions?!”

Lute shouted in dismay, but there was no one to answer his dumbfounded plea. So he kept running for his life, overdrawing his Qi, forcing every last drop of its power out, all in the hopes of surviving.

Nearly three minutes were left, as Lute dodged arrow after arrow; he finally made it to the forest edge. Now, instead of craters, trees were exploding everywhere within his general vicinity due to the force of the condensed Qi arrows.

Within the forest, Lute could hear sentinel smashing trees left and right with what was now a Warhammer. Trees were completely decimated. But instead of trying to escape, Lute focused on suppressing his aura and cultivation, through this method, hopefully the sentinel wouldn’t lock onto his aura.

Choosing to climb up the tallest tree he could find, Lute watch as the sentinel loomed ever closer, demolishing every tree within its path. Attempting to find Lute within this thick blood colored foliage.

But it was to no avail, Lute had survived long enough in forests to know how to evade detection, and with his aura suppressed. He jumped from tree top to tree top observing every action the Sentinel took, attempting to find its weak point.

‘Should I even try to assassinate it? I have never attempted such an action before, and its cultivation is far superior to mine, would I even be able to kill it in one strike?’

Such thoughts were running rampant through Lute. If he was in his peak condition, then he would’ve most certainly tried it. But after overdrawing all of hi Qi, forcing out more power than ever before, he only had about twenty percent of his reserves left. This was only enough for a few Qi Burst Steps or Explosive Palms.

The sentinel began to rage, annoyed that it couldn’t find its prey, it began to furiously release strikes with ever increasing power, destroying multiple trees at once instead of just one at a time.

With every strike containing its full power, Lute noticed the Sentinel begin to weaken, its cultivation was actually starting to drop because it only had a fixed amount of power and if it used all of, then it would dissipate. Lute failed to notice this before because he killed the illusions so quickly, had he fought a war of attrition, and forced them to expend the life force sustaining them, then he would’ve noticed sooner.

The sentinel fell to the strength of someone that just barely broke through to the Nascent Qi fifth level. Which still eclipsed the current Lute’s strength, but as it was still continuing to release strikes at its full power it kept weakening.

Lute’s eyes flashed with a cruel glint, they were the same as a predator that stalked its prey for days. “Found your weakness.”

Lute muttered this with a cold edge to his voice, with barely thirty seconds left, he wanted to try and assassinate his opponent.

Jumping from tree top to tree top, Lute positioned himself above the sentinel. With a murderous look in his eyes, and barely ten seconds left, he jumped. In the same manner as how he killed of the illusionary spider, Lute focused every last strand of Qi he had, forcing it all out, he wouldn’t have any left after this attack.

The Sentinel felt Lute’s overflowing Slaughter Aura and as it looked up, it was too late. Lute released the Exploding Palm Technique from his legs, which was one of his newest adjustments to the technique, allowing him to release it from other parts of his body aside from the hand.

The strike, amplified by this technique, caused a thunderous roar. Lutes foot collided with the base of the Sentinels neck, causing it to shatter. With just a few seconds left on the timer, Lute followed through with the entire attack, causing his leg to bury itself into the back of the Sentinel.

It didn’t dissipate, but was severely injured, it began to swing its large weapon, the warhammer, clumsily in an attempt to retaliate but it was too late.

3…

2…

1…

0…

Light flashed, and as the Warhammer was about to connect with Lute, he disappeared, once again he was standing with many other competitors, all of which were just as devoid of Qi and stamina as he was.

‘Looks like I am not the only one who struggled.’

As he looked around, Lute realized that the test catered to each individual, increasing to a strength that would push you to your limits. For Lute, this was especially noticeable as he and Toros had a game. Lute had to survive an increased difficulty of the formation that Toros secretly meddled with, naturally, although it was a close call towards the end, Lute won.’

Looking around, off in the distance, Lute made eye contact with Toros, who gave him a secret thumbs up motion, outside of the view of anyone else. Only Lute noticed, he glanced at Toros, then he forced all thoughts from his mind. Sitting on the ground, he focused only on recovering Qi and stamina.

There was only one test left, as for what that would be, he didn’t know, but Lute was going to spend every precious second he could trying to regain the strength he lost in order to maximize his chances of passing, and entering as a formal disciple of the Fallen Tide Hall.

There were only two-hundred trial participants left. From tests of the Martial Heart, comprehension and endurance, over one-thousand had been eliminated. As for the final trial, it had yet to be announced. The Fallen Tide Hall was letting the remaining participants recover their Qi reserves.

Lute was focusing on restoring his Qi. But even more so, he was focusing on breaking through. After going through trials that originally should’ve been easy but instead pushed him to his limits; he felt that he could take that final half of a step and become an authentic Nascent Qi cultivator.

With each revolution of Qi, it condensed, purified, and grew in strength. Once Lute reached peak strength once again, he didn’t stop his cultivation session. With every revolution and intake of Qi, his now bloated meridians and Dantian felt as if they were going to rupture. But he could feel the wall shattering by the second. Beyond it was a new realm of strength that he was on the cusp of connecting with.

Lute perspired slightly as he forced the Qi through his body. Pain was noticeable as he kept absorbing strength from the world. With every revolution, the wall that blocked Lute from the well of power that was the Nascent Qi Realm began to crumble. Each passing moment, the gap was becoming more and more transparent and nonexistent.

With thoughts of only advancing forward, Lute suddenly shivered, he felt his entire body jolt as if he was electrocuted. A thunderous roar shook his inner self. This was the first sign of the breakthrough occurring. Although feeling pain, Lute was excited.

‘Finally, it’s finally happening. My Dantian is forcefully expanding, strengthening, and adapting in order to act as a vessel for more power.’

With each passing second, Lute’s Dantian expanded; in order to reach the Nascent Qi first level the Dantian needed to expand two to three times its size. This was where the age old saying of a first level Nascent Qi cultivator, no matter how weak, was able to take on three Peak Foundational Qi Cultivators at the same time came from.

‘What is this? It’s still not stopping?’

Lute completely focused upon even the infinitesimally small changes that occurred within his body. From what he knew, his Dantian had already reached the size needed to be a first level Nascent Qi cultivator.

With each level of progress in the Nascent Qi Realm, the Dantian would increase anywhere from two to three times per level depending on the cultivators luck, talent, and whether they cultivated secret or taboo arts. If they were from the Divine Realm, bloodlines and their purity could also affect this.

The Dantian would permanently stop expanding in size once the cultivator reached the peak of the Nascent Qi Realm, never able to expand in size again unless extreme heaven defying resources, and secret or taboo arts were used in tandem, but such events could only occur within the Divine Realm, and even then it was so rare that anyone who accomplished such a feat could be considered a legend.

However, Lute’s body had obtained a virtually perfect foundation. There would be no luck about it, his dantian was always going to increase in size to the limit of it capabilities without rupturing because his body could handle far more stress than someone else of his level.

The Nascent Qi Realm wasn’t about just increasing total quantity of Qi anymore. In order to breakthrough, it also required the Dantian to expand. With this breakthrough, Lute experienced what all cultivators went through, which was a brief moment in time where they became one with the world, allowing the intake of the world’s power to increase to an extreme degree.

For Lute who possessed the Primordial First Physique and already had a much faster intake of Qi, adding on this brief moment of becoming one with the world; the speed at which he absorbed Qi, purified it, and condensed it became tyrannical.

As quickly as it began, the advancement ended. Lute who was basking in Qi of the world opened his eyes and reflexively made fists. Looking to his surroundings, people were staring at him, some with interest and some with pity.

‘Why would they look at me in such a way? Did I do something… Oh…’

Examining his body, Lute realized he completely skipped the first level of the Nascent Qi Realm, and also the second level. He leapt straight to the third level, and he was already closing in one the fourth level!

Although Isla claimed that no one on the Crimson Tide Planet knew how to cultivate the proper method. For the most part, although they made many errors, most people knew not to rush cultivation, for it would hinder further growth.

For those who knew Lute such as Alda and Isla, they wouldn’t be worried. With a glance at Lute, they would be able to tell that Lute’s foundation was incomparably firm, and this was the benefits. However some didn’t know that and only saw Lute as a child who was immature, rushing his cultivation.

‘I see, with the Divine Chronicle of the Primordial Way and becoming one with the world, as well as the fact my body already holds more Qi than most, it was able to support a breakthrough to this extent. Instead of increasing in size two to three times per level. My Dantian expanded roughly four times a level; this is most definitely the benefits of cultivating the proper way. However this shouldn’t be too impressive in the Divine Realm, I’m sure there are those who achieved an increase of five times a level.’

Lute was right and wrong; in the Divine Realm there were those who achieved an expansion of up to five times a level. No one had ever achieved a Dantian expansion of six times a level. However, the majority of people only had a Dantian expansion of three times a level.

If you were a genius or had powerful bloodlines and arts, then you could achieve four times Dantian expansion. In order to achieve the five times limit, powerful and pure bloodlines were needed, as well as the proper resources. While Lute had one of the most powerful bloodlines, and it was extremely pure as it came directly from the Spiritual God himself, in the end, he was within the Mortal Realm, unable to acquire the resources to reach the five times Dantian expansion per level.

Comparing his previous peak strength to what it was now, it was as if his previous Qi amount was a small stream of water filling a bucket. Now, it was like a river was flowing through his body and it was connected to a lake. The river being his meridians filled with Qi and the lake being his Dantian, full of even more Qi.

‘With this new power, I should be able to fight late stage Nascent Qi cultivators. However, I probably still can’t open the First Path of New Beginnings. The injuries suffered will be less as I advance, but they will still cause injuries great enough I will need multiple days of recovery. Perhaps when I break through in the Primordial First Physique, and achieve the Spirit Opening Realm, I will be able to keep the First Path open permanently.

Lute stood up, stretching out his body, flexing and getting used to this new feeling. For the most part he understood what his new level of strength was. He felt as if he could easily fight against someone in the seventh of the Nascent Qi Realm without fighting with his life on the line.

After waiting for a while, the final test was soon to begin. During this time of waiting, Lute felt the piercing gaze of Elias upon him, but it was inconsequential. Lute held no fear. Although most people knew his cultivation level now, it wasn’t a problem. He originally wanted to hide his power, and now he could.

Letting people think he was weak because he rushed his cultivation, Lute obtained a new chance to become low key. Only a few elders were suspicious. But aside from Alda and Toros, as well as Seren who all knew Lutes true strength, he would be able to hide himself well, as he doubted he’d need to fight against someone that was a late stage Nascent Qi cultivator.

Waiting in the crowd of two hundred, Lute watched the announcer fly into the sky with an ornate box, it was black and adorned with jewels.

The announcer then used Qi to project his voice. “We will now move onto the final test for you final two-hundred trial participants. Within this box are many slips of parchment, each one with a different trial on it, minus the ones you’ve already completed. I shall draw a random piece of parchment, what is written upon it shall be your trial.”

Unclasping the lock off of the box, the announcer sunk his hand into it, rummaging around without looking within, seemingly taking his time choosing one. Finally after nearly a minute, while all the trial participants held their breaths, he chose a parchment.

Slowly and methodically opening the folded piece of parchment, the announcer read it and his eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion before he began to speak. “This is a trial that we have no had in nearly two centuries, but it seems that today, it shall once again be used. All two-hundred of you are going to enter into a suppression formation. You shall be pressured until you pass out; the one-hundred who stay awake the longest shall pass. It is simple but difficult at the same time. I truly wish it could have been a different trial…but… think of this as a test of will power.”

While everyone else had ashen looks upon their faces, Lute was unfazed for two reasons. First, he felt that Toros wasn’t going to mess with this trial, so it should be easy. Second, there was no possible way that such a formation could be as suppressing as Isla’s Slaughter Aura. Staying awake until he was within the first one hundred should be child’s play.

“It seems that my entry into the Fallen Tide Hall was just confirmed.” Lute whispered to himself in satisfaction.