Broken alliances

Alliances were broken, and new ones took their places in a matter of seconds. Be it due to blood ties, sect ties, or clan ties, every tom, dick, and harry found their way to their respective places of origin. Lee Chun Hua, Mu Yan Zu, and Xin Minxia had joined up with the remnants of the Ashen flame clan, Renegade Dao sect, and Blazing Valor sect's cultivators, Nyakumi had joined up with the Nayuta clan of Shinobi and Samurais, and Baek Daechul was with the Hongik clan. A few smaller clans and sects were scattered around here and there, leaving Seth and Park Ju-Hui stranded alone since everyone else was already affiliated. In fact,

"Hey, Ju-Hui-ssi! Come on up here!"

Some friends of Ju-Hui were even out there somewhere. The girl hesitated for a while, and then left Seth while flashing him pleading eyes. Now everyone was gone, and Seth stood on his own with a frown on his face. He could basically understand Chun Hua and the rest since they just met here tonight and had been with their groups for a while, but he and Baek Daechul had wandered the desert for a full month.

The red head looked away while whistling and everyone else avoided his gaze. This was what the world was truly like, wasn't it? Even Nyakumi waved a 'sorry' at him while she stood behind a fortified wall of Qi Reinforcement Realm cultivators.

"Tch..."

Well then, if he was going to do it alone, then he would do it alone. It was just a basilisk anyways, how hard could it be.

The other sects and clans looked at him with disdain and disgust, while murmuring loudly.

"The Nascent Qi realm guy survived?"

"Its impressive..."

"Oh please, didn't you see that he was in a temporary grouo with Lady Chun Hua, Blind Blade, and Master Daechul? He probably just rode on their backs all along."

"Yeah, I'm sure he ran away from every scuffle."

"Yeah, let this trial thing stsry, and you'll see how he'd get killed in an instant..."

As if on cue, one of the Stone creatures hovered forward.

[If the affiliations have been concluded, then it pleases me to inform you all that you ate now seen as a team till less than five of you remain. You are not allowed to defect to another team till then, and your head will explode if you do.]

Then a gargantuan onyx serpent with glossy jet black skin, ruby red vertical slits on its eyes, and five foot long fangs emerged out of the river. Its dreadful eyes were locked on to the massive amount of humans below it, and it's spiteful gaze was focused on the strongest in each group as a snake views a mouse. The stone creature continued:

[All restrictions on the Qi, both within your bodies, and on the Trial grounds, have now been lifted, and you are free to use your flashiest techniques to try your luck. You all may die in the process, or you may live on to see the next trial as a slightly stronger cultivator. Begin!]

Almost instantly, the cultivators all sprung into action.

"Its just a big snake, no big deal!"

"At least its not one of those demons..."

The 'wall' blocking people from their Qi was instantly lifted, and the cultivators could exercise the might of their powerful realms.

"Iron Body Technique!"

This was the standard Qi technique taught to every disciple at the Nascent Qi realm, providing the cultivator with a layer of Qi that made attacks hurt less and blocked weapons from harming the body, a pseudo Qi Reinforcement of sorts. The man who activated the Iron Body technique dived at the gargantuan creature with a greatsword in his hands, aiming to decapitate the beast in one strike. He was one of the few people who had managed to kill one of the demons roaming about in the Trial grounds and thought the snake easier, not knowing that the Basilisk was far more dangerous than the demons.

"Aargh!!!"

His agonised screams following a second after, and his mangled and mutilated corpse thudded to the floor. Some parts of his body had turned into stone, some were rapidly decaying due to the venom, and his torso had two very large puncture holes from where the Basilisk had caught him in its jaws. The Stone creatures smiled.

[Oh, and I forgot to mention... The reward is a two stage rise in your cultivation realm for all the still surviving members of the triumphant group!]

What made a cultivator powerful was far more than flashy techniques and ages old spirit weapons, it was the amount of Qi energy from the environment that their dantians could absorb, and the speed at which they assimilated that Qi to their own. That man was a middle stage cultivator of the Qi Reinforcement realm, yet he was killed in one hit. If they did not want to end up like him, then they would have yo grow stronger really quickly, and if they wanted to grow stronger, then they had to kill the Basilisk. Seth in particular thought so, as a sword was already in his sweaty palms. His hands were trembling, yet he stood his ground. He had no chance since people like Chun Hua were there, but he did not have much to lose did he? The sword was not a long sword, an odachi, or a jian like most of the other cultivators had in their hands, but instead a sword he had seen the main character use to slay a basilisk in the potter movie he saw a while ago.

'If only I were a Griffindor-'

He did not even get to finish that thought as a literal horde of agitated cultivators dashed forward. Some were fast, some were a little bit slower, some were lean, and some were buffed. But they all had a determined look on their face. They all wanted that two stages rise in their cultivation realm.