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Yan would take JiaQi and Cai XiaoYu as his two attendants, and I would take LiTing and YuLong.

We would stay in Earth City for five more years to prepare, and then we would head out. I couldn\'t help but wince at the thought of how this delay would affect my timeline for reaching Peak Emperor, creating memory orbs, and resetting, but for Yan and the others who had just arrived, this schedule was already tight. They would only barely have enough time to ascend to Martial Emperor with solid foundations, and that was with LiTing and me feeding them contribution points.

Once all the details were confirmed, we separated out to prepare.

ChenKun hadn’t been able to tell us much about the path ahead of us, but he did know that it would be important for each of our small groups to be able to operate independently. Each three-person group would be facing their challenges on their own.

He also added on a request that each of our groups be independent. I could concoct pills and create formations for YuLong and LiTing, but he did not want me to give any to Yan’s group. This was supposedly to demonstrate that all five teams were powerful enough to stand on their own without outside assistance.

I didn’t like the idea of having our groups tackle unknown challenges without being as prepared as possible, but the only reason we were climbing the mountain in the first place was to repay our debt to the man. He had provided us with ample protection over the years. We could do this for him in return.

Since Yan’s team was entirely composed of Martial Kings, their primary focus was on cultivating to reach Martial Emperor as soon as possible. Whatever free time they had was spent sparring to improve their fighting skills.

As none of them placed much importance on their profession skills, this wasn’t too much of a surprise. Yan only used his illusions as small aids when fighting, and Cai XiaoYu had never demonstrated a talent in any of the professions. JiaQi had LuLu, but aside from learning what she needed to do to help the deer grow and improve, she had never worried much about improving as a beast tamer.

As for my group, YuLong was in the same position as Yan’s group, so he also spent most of his time cultivating. LiTing and I, however, were different. Our cultivation bases were already at their limit, and our profession skills were well into Rank 6 at this point. While we did need to help the others earn contribution points, we still had a bit of time for other pursuits.

Unfortunately, there was no Emperor-level version of the Earth Peak Trial. This meant that not only could I not improve my earth affinity any further, but I also couldn’t easily practice Emperor-level combat skills.

Usually, Emperors would be able to practice martial skills by taking on various combat missions in the surrounding empires, but even though I had become more powerful than ever before, I was still not willing to leave the protection of the sect for even an instant. This meant that I could only improve my combat skills by sparring with my friends or paying for people on the Earth Peak to fight with me.

So instead, after discussing the situation with LiTing, we came up with a plan that would allow us to practice our profession skills while also preparing us for any dangers we might meet on the path up the mountain. Whenever our friends had time for a spar, we would practice with them, but nearly all our time was spent locked away together in a workshop.

At the end of five years, our group assembled at the gate leading out of Earth City.

We were the most impressive collection of cultivators I had ever seen. Sixteen Martial Emperors. Combined, we had enough power to devastate nearly any organization on the continent outside of the Nine Rivers Sect. Even the Sovereign clans would have to be wary about angering such a force.

At the center of the group was Ning ChenKun. He wore red robes embroidered with golden carp. He stood with the dignity of a man destined to become the world’s next Sovereign.

Behind him were three groups led by two men and one woman. They wore fancy robes in an assortment of bright colors. Based on their designs, I guessed that the nine of them consisted of one person from each element. I was wary of the woman dressed in the robes of a wind cultivator, but she was on our team, so I would do my best to behave.

Yan’s team stood to the right of the others. He, JiaQi, and Cai XiaoYu were all dressed in sleek black robes and looked ready for a fight. Even LuLu looked ferocious. The once cute little brown deer now had a four-meter-long body, shoulders taller than my head, and a mouth that sported a couple of vicious canines. My group had sparred with them several times over the years, and they had won nearly every time.

Of course, in the beginning, the reason for these losses was that LiTing and I were holding back the increased power we had gained from our more advanced cultivation bases. Later, while we no longer had to hold back, we weren’t exactly fighting at full power. Their group was filled with people who gave them natural advantages in fighting and tactics. Our group had… other advantages.

When we arrived, everyone froze and just stared at us. LiTing, YuLong, and I were all wearing robes that looked like they were woven from pure silver. Unlike Yan’s group, we didn’t wear leather straps to keep the cloth tight against our skin. Instead, our robes shifted of their own accord so as to never impede our movements.

Embroidered into these shining silver robes was a chaotic mess of blue lines. From afar, the silvery robes simply appeared to have a blue hue, but up close, it was clear that thin blue threads were woven into every millimeter of the fabric. The threads crisscrossed each other haphazardly, and there was no apparent rhyme or reason to their positioning.

The silver robes were a result of LiTing’s efforts as an Artifact Emperor. She made them to be soft, flexible, and durable. They would shrug off attacks from anything less than a top-of-the-line Rank 5 refined weapon.

Of course, since we were Martial Emperors, defending against attacks at only the King level wasn’t good enough. She could have made us armor capable of withstanding even Rank 6 weaponry, but to do so, she would have had to focus all her energy into improving the armor’s defenses. Instead, she reserved a significant amount of power to make our robes as comfortable as possible and left the high-end defenses in my hand.

The blue lines were my handiwork. Over the past five years, I delved into the art of woven formations. Using lapis lazuli as a base, I created thin blue threads and wove five different sets of intricate formations into each of our robes.

The first two were simple. They were basic cleaning and repair formations that should keep this new armor in pristine condition.

The third was a defensive formation that was strong enough to rebuff at least a few attacks from a Peak Emperor. Of course, having a powerful shield running constantly would have been impossible. Instead, it would usually remain inactive, and the robes would absorb most attacks directly.

The fourth formation was an energy detection formation. When it sensed an incoming attack beyond what the robe’s natural defenses could handle, it would activate the defensive formation. Then, once the threat had passed, it would deactivate the defenses to save the robe’s energy reserves.

The fifth and final formation was crafted to provide us with a last line of defense against what I considered to be our most dangerous foes. Developing this formation had taken me the better part of two years, and I had never been able to test it under real-world conditions, but I had done the best that I could. I hoped that it would never be needed, but I would rather prepare than rely on that slim hope.

As we approached our companions and took in their stares, the three of us smirked with confidence.

ChenKun grinned widely and gave a hearty laugh.

“Excellent. Nothing will be able to stop us.” He looked at each of his five direct subordinates, and we nodded to him one by one.

He turned toward the gate and stared up the mountain with intent.

“Let’s go.”

The path to Heaven City was steep and rocky. At certain places, we were forced to climb near vertical cliff faces, and at other points, we had to jump across large chasms. I tried to use earth techniques to smooth our passage, but I was unable to affect whatever stone this mountain was made from.

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The path ended only a couple of meters below the clouds. By merely raising my arm, I was able to trail a hand through the thick fog above us.

A quick check in energy vision showed that these clouds were not natural, but they were not illusions either. They were formed from a swirling mass of water qi held in place by a complex, high-Rank formation.

After studying the clouds for several minutes, I turned my eyes to the end of the path where six stone arches that led into utter darkness stood before us. My space affinity indicated they were teleportation gates, not Trial gates.

The two gates to the left and the two to the right had the word ‘Subordinate’ written across the top of their arches. The center-right gate was labeled ‘Lieutenant,’ and the center-left gate was labeled ‘Leader.’

Ning ChenKun looked at each of us with a grave expression.

“Stay safe in there. We can’t afford to lose anyone.”

We all nodded sharply. We were ready for this.

ChenKun walked to the leader’s gate, and Yan walked to the gate for his lieutenant. I took the gate to Yan’s right, and the other three sorted themselves out among the remaining arches.

After a final glance at LiTing and YuLong, I stepped through.

The three of us appeared in a small clearing that looked to be part of the mountain. The clearing was surrounded by dense fog, and while a small circle around us was clear, we couldn’t see anything past three meters in any direction. It seemed like we had been moved slightly up the mountain and into the cloud bank, but with teleportation involved, it was impossible to be sure.

I looked to my companions to get their input.

“What should we do?”

YuLong squinted as he looked in every direction.

“We’re supposed to go up the mountain, right? That way is up.” He pointed in the direction where the ground sloped upwards. “Seems like the right direction to me.”

I looked at LiTing who shook her head. “I don’t have any better ideas.”

“Alright, that’s what we’ll do then. YuLong, you take the lead. LiTing on the left. Me on the right. And… let’s get our weapons ready.”

YuLong smiled and pulled a massive pudao out of his storage bag. It was a polearm with a thin meter-long blade intended for attacking large demon beasts. Over the past few years, LiTing had made him half a dozen different types of weapons so that he would be prepared for any situation. We didn’t know what kind of opponents we would be facing, so starting with a polearm was a good decision.

My weapon was a Rank 6 crescent moon spade of a traditional design. LiTing had also made me one with the teardrop hammer-pick end instead of the spade, but unless we were fighting rock monsters, I didn’t plan to use it.

LiTing’s weapon was a bladed whip. By controlling it with her metal affinity, she could strike targets from nearly any angle and hit vulnerable spots with deadly accuracy.

Prepared as we could be, we started carefully walking up the mountain.

To no one’s surprise, not long after we started moving, creatures appeared in the mists and lumbered toward us. What was

a surprise was that they were, in fact, rock monsters.

I quickly swapped to my other staff, and YuLong switched to a large hammer.

He grinned at our opponents. “Been a long time since I got to fight you boys. Let’s see if you’ve improved.”

With our overpowered arms and armaments, we quickly crushed our opponents, but as soon as they were down, suits of living armor appeared from the mists and attacked us.

Our opponents’ defenses were tough to crack, but with our refined weapons, they didn’t stand a chance.

After walking a gauntlet of fights for ten kilometers, we were blocked from advancing any further when the clouds around us turned more solid than granite.

There was only one path forward, a two-meter-wide opening in the dense wall of clouds, but a powerful shielding formation prevented us from passing through.

After walking forward to examine it, I instantly recognized the formation. It was listed in Shen’s Rank 6 book as an example of a failed experiment. I sent out a wave of qi in a specific pattern, and the shield immediately collapsed.

I looked at my companions. “Let’s be careful. I think this test was arranged by the Master of the Earth Peak. It should get more difficult from here, but I don’t think it’ll be too deadly.”

After passing through the opening, we continued walking, but we didn’t face any more formation constructs. Instead, we were confronted with a variety of traps and barriers. Our ‘opponents,’ if you could call them that, were puddles of liquid metal that seeped out cracks in the ground and attacked us from every direction.

When LiTing saw this, she shouted a warning. “This isn’t the Earth Peak Master, it\'s Master Jin.”

Traveling this section was more tedious since we had to be wary of surprise attacks, but it wasn’t too difficult. After another ten kilometers, we were stopped by a barrier once more, and LiTing sliced through the woven net of metallic cables, allowing us to pass into the third section.

Before we could enter it, YuLong held up a hand to stop us.

“This… might be bad. Earth Peak then Metal Peak, right? Next is probably for me, the Lightning Peak. The Peak Master isn’t too fond of me since I’m terrible with talismans and don’t cultivate lightning qi. He might… want to make an example of us.”

I smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. We can handle it.”

The moment we stepped through the opening, bolts of lightning began falling from the sky like rain.

We were struck by countless, endless lightning bolts.

The energy they contained was minimal, and we didn’t even feel them as our armor easily absorbed their energy, but the constant flashing lights made it incredibly difficult to see the path forward. Even closing my eyes and relying purely on energy vision, I could barely make sense of the world around me. Lightning qi flooded the entire area.

All we could do was rely on our armor to protect us as we slowly picked our way forward. Few of the strikes contained any real power. They were just disorienting. However, a lightning elemental would occasionally appear and strike with the strength of a high-level emperor. We did our best to protect ourselves from this, but under a constant barrage of lighting, it was difficult to see the attacks coming.

Thankfully, the detection formations on our armor worked properly. Once our shields flared to life, we knew where we were being attacked from, and we could whirl on our enemies to dispatch them with a single swift strike. Wind might’ve been the most powerful element to use against such creatures, but earth worked nearly as well.

In this state, we continued down the path for six kilometers.

That was when I was directly struck by an electric shock as powerful as Rank 6 lightning.

This attack wasn’t targeted at me, so I didn’t have to withstand its full force, but as it traveled through my body, I wanted to scream in agony. Thankfully, it only lasted a second.

This was not an attack that my armor had failed to absorb. It was an attack from my armor.

This was its final defensive formation. A lightning attack.

The moment I felt it activate, I began to panic.

This formation would only be triggered in one circumstance, when it detected a gu trying to invade our bodies. The heavy lightning qi around us had blinded us to the true danger that we were facing.

I put a hand on each of my companion’s shoulders and shouted to be heard over the deafening thunder.

“We need to run. Now!”

Maintaining a grip on their shoulders I hauled them along behind me and used movement techniques to carry us forward as quickly as possible.

We only had four kilometers to go. With proper movement techniques, we could cover that distance in no time at all. We hadn’t done so before because rushing into the unknown was a good way to get killed, but compared to enduring constant gu attacks, rushing was the lesser of two evils.

My armor’s protections activated twice more, and LiTing’s and YuLong’s each activated once.

It seemed like our defenses would hold, but I couldn’t be confident. I hadn’t been able to test them against actual gu before, so I didn’t know how long they would last. At least there was more than enough lightning qi available to keep them powered up.

When the clouds solidified around us, I looked at the way forward and frowned. I expected some kind of lightning shield or possibly a wind-based one. Instead, the barrier appeared to be nothing more than a thin sheet of translucent metal.

LiTing ran a hand across the metal barrier. “This isn’t good. This is… I think this is a Rank 8 metal. Master Jin showed me something like this before. How are we supposed to get through this? Even a Sovereign might not be able to do it.”

I stared at the barrier.

We needed the power of a Sovereign. We might need something even more powerful than a Sovereign. I could only think of one way we might possibly be able to generate that kind of power. I would have to use Emperor Li’s Earth-Rank spirit fire seed.

Was this a test to see if I had it? Was the Master of the Lightning Peak trying to force me to show my hand?

I smirked at the stunt and then motioned to my companions to move away from the barrier.

“I can handle this.”

I reached into my storage space and pulled out the jade box containing my fire-based Profound-Rank spirit fire. After quickly absorbing it into my body, I tried to use it to burn a hole through the metal. However, the Rank 8 material showed zero reaction to my efforts.

I had known that it wouldn’t work, but I wanted to give a show to anyone watching us.

This only seemed to make LiTing more nervous.

“Fang, that’s not going to work. You can’t melt a Rank 8 metal with a Profound-Rank spirit fire.”

Stepping back, I nodded grimly.

Putting on the pantomime had made me chuckle, but I needed to focus on actually getting through this barrier.

As we stood there, I heard the sounds of the gu and lightning strikes slowly approaching us. We had outrun them on our way here, but now they were catching up.

I didn’t believe for a second that we would have been able to ‘outrun’ the attacks if we weren’t supposed to. This was just a way to pressure me to use the fire seed.

I ran a hand across the barrier.

Nothing I had could even scratch this metal, and LiTing’s weapons might shatter if we tried to use them against it. What were we supposed to do?

I looked at YuLong and LiTing. Both of them were starting to panic.

Looking back to the metal. I tried to think.

What was the intended solution? Using the Earth-Rank fire seed. Was that the only way? Would that be enough for this test to be deemed ‘fair’ since we would have a way to complete it?

I needed another solution.

As I stroked the metal, an idea popped into my head. It seemed crazy, but… why not? I had never tried something like it before, but it should work, right?

I placed my palm on the center of the metal plate and pulled on it with my mind, trying to force the metal plate into my storage space.

It felt like I was trying to move the entire mountain. The plate was connected to the surrounding solidified clouds, preventing me from absorbing it alone.

Instinctively, I reached out with my space affinity. I bounded my intent to only the metal plate and pulled once more.

The Rank 8 metal vanished from the opening.

I smiled. I wanted to hug the Master of the Lightning Peak for handing me such a gift.

Grabbing YuLong and LiTing by the shoulder once more, I pulled them through the opening.