1 The Test: Survival

I couldn't speak. I was in a wasteland filled with dead bodies. I was thirsty, too thirsty. My throat hurt, my whole body felt dry.

I tried to move around, but the painful burning sensation that filled my whole body didn't allow it.

I glanced around, but could only see the dark brown dirt and bodies, I braced myself, letting out a few heavy breaths before trying to stand up again.

The mud that had caked around my body cracked and broke apart, but the attempt was still unsuccessful and I ended up falling to the ground again.

A cool liquid touched my lips, it tasted like dirt and iron but I calmly drank it. Once I had my fill I slowly stood up on shaky legs which I quickly made steady. I realized what I was drinking was blood, I breathed slowly forcing myself to be calm.

The body in front of me was massive or I had returned to being a child, I looked at myself for a few seconds before deciding it was the latter.

I strode along slowly, but steadily, I barely had the energy to move but I felt like I had to leave this place. I kept my back straight and made efficient movements, trying to balance my speed with my energy.

The land was wet and muddy, the bodies of millions of dead cluttered the small hill I was on.

I flicked my wrist in a practiced fashion, not overly surprised when I stayed firmly on the ground instead of flying. I had been in aether blocking formations before so this was not too unexpected.

I moved on, tired of how painful my old wooden shoes were, but still glad I could walk on something. I had already taken off my white robe that was covered in mud, it was too heavy and didn't provide enough warmth to make it worthwhile to wear.

I heard the howling of a wolf nearby, 'calm' I thought while trying to hide myself. There was only one large black wolf at first, but slowly more came, foaming a pack of at least forty.

Each one was the size of a car with metallic looking fur and massive fangs. Each one looked like it could kill me in a second, but they were not very fast because of their heavy fur.

A wolf was getting closer to me, it seemed that it could smell me even though I was covered in bloody mud, not that dissimilar to the ground.

The giant wolf howled, alerting the pack before chasing after me.

I started running, trying with the little strength I had to get away. I tripped and fell on a body, cutting my face on the bodies weapon, which was sticking out of the ground at an angle.

Before my body could touch the ground, I firmly planted my hand and flipped back into a brisk jog.

The sounds of quick footsteps was dangerously close behind, I knew I couldn't outrun a wolf in this body. I imagined a group of giant wolfs aggressively ripping flesh from my body. I was losing my calm. I knew that I would lose efficiency if I became scared so I tried to internally use aether even if it damaged my body.

Aether is always useable internally, even in an aether blocking's formation.

I was sure I would be able to escape if I internally used aether, but quickly found that my aether core was not formed. That would be impossible unless I wasn't in the same body.

I should have realized sooner, but I assumed my age had just regressed, that was much easier to manipulate with aether than switching bodies.

If using aether wasn't going to work, than I would have to unlock my full strength.

Popping sounds rung out from my body as my speed rapidly increased. My bones were slowly cracking and I had already badly fractured my pelvis but I kept on running.

The sounds of footsteps and howling suddenly came to an end. I took a quick look back and found there to be no wolfs, in fact the entire war zone I had just been in had disappeared.

I found myself in a lush jungle.

The sounds of colourful birds and small insects filled my ears, I felt like many years had passed. Almost as if this wasn't my body and I was only temporarily controlling it. My aether core was also partially formed, I could almost emit aether but my progress was still too small.

I looked down and found myself in a light yellow robe with intricate green patterns, I was also a few years older.

I journeyed into the jungle, pushing the thick foliage out of my way, I had to regain my calm, that was important if this place was anything like that last.

The light rustling of leaves warned me of approaching danger.

I got into a fighting position, my hands tightly balled into fists. A monkey like creature with overly long claws jumped out of a nearby tree.

I tried to dodge but I still wasn't calm, making it impossible for me to dodge. My calm lotus fighting style required me to stay calm in order to fight.

Normally it would be easy for me to stay calm, but this body was as adapted to endless calm as my last one.

It was times like this that I wished I had learnt the angry boar or fearful ghost fighting styles, but sadly I had not.

The monkeys shark claws scratched my arm before it hid once again to attack in my blindspot.

The time that it spent hiding was enough for me become calm again. The monkey once again appear and tried to cut off my head But I quickly sidestepped it's attack and delivered a punch to the creatures stomach.

The monkey seemed to brush off my attack, I wasn't calm enough yet. It swing a fist at me which I grabbed, quickly pulling off a claw before using the monkeys force against it, throwing it forward.

The creature was sent into a tree, it deftly landed and prepared to charge again, but I already had its sharp claw in my hand.

As the monkey charged at me, a swung the claw, cleanly cutting it in half.

I took a step forward and was in a desert.

I had grown into an adult and was wearing a black outfit that covered my face.

Not much time seemed to have passed since the last "event" because my aether core was still the same size. I wasn't disappointed because my body had become tens of times stronger. I now knew what the cultivators of the past felt like when they broke through into a new realm.

I was prepared for whatever was going to be thrown at me now. My calm was fully restored and I was ready for battle.

A large sand worm jumped out of the ground, I tried to duck but slightly slipped on the loose sand, I put a hand on the floor and used it as a pivot to swing my body out of range of the sand worms attack.

I used my free hand to pull out a spear from my back and slice the sand worm in half, but I fell down from the counteracting forces of the attack and a second sand worm jumped out from the ground.

I was not prepared for more so my calm slightly slipped.

I jumped back onto my feet and ran at the sand worm before slicing down its stomach, causing it to writhe in agony. I put it out of its misery by cutting it in half from its head to its rear.

I prepared to go to the next event but was surprised when the ground rumbled. hundreds of giant black scorpions converged on my location. I lifted up my spear and prepared to fight.

The sound the scorpions made really irritated me so I wanted to kill them fast.

The first scorpion stuck its tail towards me, but I reflected it with my palm into another scorpions head, killing it.

I stuck my spear into the scorpion that struck at me, it's green juices flew around, splattering on me as I went to tackle with another scorpion. Slicing its head clean off.

I twirled my spear around, leaving deep gashes on multiple scorpions. I knocked away a stinger with the end of my spear and cut off the point of a different scorpions stinger. The splashes of green juice covered my body.

The sun was low on the horizon, casting an orange glow on the surroundings.

I was seated on a large pile of giant scorpions, trying to catch my breath before the last one of the nuisances made it to my position.

My calm had long been broken and now I was desperately fighting for my life.

I glanced sorrowfully at my spear, which had been snapped in half by a scorpion.

The final scorpion was upon my position, I readied my fists to deliver a blow to its head.

My pupils contracted, I was about to hit the scorpion when it dodged and I ended up taking out one of its legs.

It tried to sting me but I moved my head to the side, losing a few hairs as the tail brushed past my head.

I grabbed onto the tail and swung myself on top of the scorpion, I clenched my hands on the end of the tail, crushing it. I was about to attack the head when I was suddenly thrown off.

I felt a sense of danger and turned around, there was a scorpion in the pile that wasn't dead. The scorpion tried to close its pincers on my leg but I dodged.

I went back to fight the now stinger less scorpion when I suddenly had an idea.

I hid and waited for the scorpion to come to my location where I suddenly ambushed it and held its tail down.

We were right next to the buried scorpion, I put my hand in between the buried scorpions pincers, when it tried to clamp down, I removed my hand and replaced it with the scorpion tail.

The tail was sent flying as green juices sprayed out of the wound, I crushed the skull of the buried scorpion then I swung my hands up, the broken end of my spear clutched between them.

"Screw you and your sounds" I uttered as I swung the spear head down and pierced the head of the last scorpion.

The fight with the scorpions was like torture because of the sounds they made, they were so annoying that it made me grind my teeth.

Green juice dripped from my hair, it splattered on the ground and I was suddenly kneeling in the snow.

My body was immeasurably strong and I had a strong aether core, I felt like a god.

I stood up, brushing the snow off of my silver robe. I journeyed forward, slaying the tens of thousands of creatures that tried to block my path.

I swung my glowing hands around at multiple times the speed of sound, slaying hundreds of creature with each swing. Nothing would stop me.

I killed every creature and slowly walked toward a place that was strange and dark.

I slowly returned to my original form as I stood right at the edge of the 2 areas.

My hair was short and brown and I had a body that had vast amounts of muscle, but not enough to impede my movement.

The ground was pitch black, like a void, I carefully tested stepping on it and found that is was solid but as soon as I was fully on it the space seemed to close. The white landscape at my back had become just like the floor.

I took a step back but found I couldn't move. I tried to shake right and left but nothing worked.

I felt a cold sensation roll over me, it was dreadful and cold, I felt my mind snap and I started laughing from fear. My eyes rolled back and I was forced to the ground, it felt like my heart had stopped beating.

Just before I lost consciousness I felt a calm force pulling my mind out of the murky water it was submerged in.

This is what I liked about this body, it would always become calm eventually, even in the most dire of situations.

A black jar with the picture of a universe printed on it was in front of me. The universe looked so real that I thought I could jump into it.

I saw a movement on the jar and suddenly realized. 'That's not a picture' I said in my head, it's a real universe.

But I once again felt the dreadful energy, it was even stronger than last time. I saw a large metallic worm creature in the jar. It was gargantuan, making galaxies look like ants. It had a light grey mettle body with mandibles around it head.

The worms mouth was always open and had crystalline purple teeth. Evenly spaced purple crystals ran down its back and spikes angled down its body at forty five degrees ran along its sides.

The metal worm coiled into a spiral shape and looked at me. "Free me, please" I heard a male voice in my head and somehow knew it belonged to the metal worm.

'No' I thought, 'calling it a worm would be a disservice, it's an overlord. An overlord of the cosmos. The cosmic overlord, that is the name it deserves'.

I slowly stood up and put my hand on the lid covering the vase like jar.

I slowly lifted the lid, but just as a small crack of the inner contents was revealed, the aura struck me and I lost consciousness, but not before a small silver energy was absorbed into my chest.

I woke up to find myself in a strange room, it was made of a strange black metal and a large red crystal was floating in the middle.

There were people around me, I couldn't see their faces in detail but each of them had a blue, ethereal number floating were their heart should be.

"4, 7, 5, 3, 6" I slowly said each of the numbers out loud, feeling a strange meaning behind them.

In total I counted nine numbers, from two until ten. I looked at myself and saw a large, golden, one.

Each of the numbers had animals or tools surrounding them. Number three had five, but the two must predominant were a large black dragon and a flaming sea serpent.

Number four had a white tiger, a black turtle, a red phoenix and a blue dragon.

Number nine had an emerald green dragon and number ten had a black scythe that looked like it belonged to the Grimm reaper.

I looked at myself and saw a universe surrounding my soul, with no animals or tools in it.

I felt a strange itch on my right hand and pulled up my long sleeve to look at it. I felt my eyes open wide and I let out a gasp.

[rewards for completing the trial

System without ai

Inner cultivation area

Spirit ascension platform (s.a.p)

Essence formation

Tang sect techniques

Innate full spirit power

100% memories of past life

"A passenger is on your soul"]

I couldn't quite make out the last line of text, so I put it to the back of my mind for later.

Although it was very old fashioned, I had enjoyed reading old books and I knew what all the things on the list meant. If I was correct, and I believed that I was very correct, I would be reincarnated into the classical story of douluo dalu.

I looked around the room and saw a lot of holographic computers running a seemingly endless code. 'How low tech' I thought.

I watched as everyone else around me disappeared, then my vision turned dark.

I could no longer see.