Mountain Dragon Ape

"Zhou Family, Zhou Xinqiu" Zhou Feng raised his voice and turned to face Zhou Xinqiu while a smile erupted on his face. Zhou Xinqiu's long legs were seen through the slits in the golden-red dress as she walked up towards the stage. The Jade Pin on her robe had a certain elegant glow in the sunlight. As she stepped onto the platform, the symbol of 'Zhou' appeared behind her and as she raised her head to look at the crowd, a red light of anticipation could be seen flashing in her eyes.

She turned to look at all the other young faction masters and seeing their reactions she let out an accidental but extremely alluring smile.

"Hehe brother Hei, this Zhou Xinqiu is indeed such a beauty, imagine if I could have her all to myself. However, if you would be willing to help me, I wouldn't mind sharing her with you." Liu Yan, snickered on top of the stage.

"Hm, she is truly a beauty, but there is no way the Zhou Family would allow you to do such despicable things to her." Hei Fengjue replied.

"How so? Won't the Zhou Family be overthrown after this?" A burning nefarious light grew brighter in Liu Yan's eyes as he saw Zhou Xinqiu playing with her hair.

"Even so, It won't be an easy battle, so I suggest you don't do anything to overly provoke them before then." Hei Fengjue eyed Zhou Xinqiu for a second before closing his eyes and preparing for the competition.

"People of the Zhou Sect, The first test is a test of one's overall skills. In this test one must head into the beastial mountain and go towards the platform at its summit. Of course, The beasts in the outer sides are weaker than the troublesome beasts in the places closer to the summit. Naturally, you will also have to deal with the other 50 competitors. At the summit platform there will be a tournament style battle to figure out the top 10 rankers and who has met the requirements to enter the Bronze Qi Circulation pool." Zhou Feng explained the youth ceremony in detail before beginning again. "Now then, with all explained, please head to the base of the beastial mountain and begin. Anyone who has not reached the summit of the mountain in 6 hours will be eliminated."

----

While the contestants gathered at the base of the mountain, the roars and cries of the spiritual beasts within the mountain became louder and louder, almost as if they knew what was about to come.

"Xinqiu, I will leave now. Make sure to be careful and try to do your best. If you encounter any really dangerous beast then please try to flee." Zhou Ye warned Zhou Xinqiu before leaving the base of the mountain.

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"All contestants! The 6 hour timer... starts... NOW"

All 50 competitors rushed into the mountain along with Zhou Xinqiu in all different directions. Zhou Xinqiu first tried to head to the summit as fast as possible before an ancient voice rang out in her head.

"Little girl, don't rush, based on the rules it doesn't matter how late you arrive as long as its within 6 hours. After all, within this mountain are a lot of foundation steadying treasures which you would need after you breakthrough to the Qi Circulation realm. Especially since you are using an external method to breakthrough." Qin Gong spoke. "Along with those herbal treasures, there are beast soul cores within the heads of some of the beasts here, if you can gather as many of them as possible, it might be beneficial to growing your soul in the future."

"Oh, Alright, ill go do some gathering then!" Zhou Xinqiu's figure slowed down before she eyed a glowing grape vine. "Do we need this?"

"Hm, Spiritual vine berries. A good catch indeed-" Qin Gong agreed but before he could continue, Zhou Xinqiu had already ran up to the vine and cut off the stem. "AIYA!! I WAS GOING TO SAY DONT CUT THE STEM, ONLY CUT THE ROOTS!"

"Wha- Why...." suddenly the ground shook crazily and tree leaves began falling.

"If you cut the stem, the energy will leak and call the beasts here..." Qin Gong had his palm on his face. "Listen to all my words before doing something stupid next time."

"Ah.."

"Its ok, we are only in the outer area so the beasts here won't be able to do much to you"

A hoard of flood vultures took over the area blocking out the sky before they all launched attacks towards Zhou Xinqiu. She gathered all her Qi into a vortex and released one soul imprint which blocked all the attacks. "Hmph, weak" she leaped up into the air and performed the 3rd stance of the nine sword dance art. her body contorted into three illusions which slashed out into the sky and all the flood vultures fell to the ground along with some glowing orbs.

"Is this the beast soul core?" She spoke while picking one glowing orb up.

"Yes it is but its such a low level that it won't even help grow your soul by 1%. Beast soul cores have the same ranks as beasts themself. Low rank level 1 - 5 beasts are at the Body tempering stage, while Low rank level 6 - 9 are at the Qi Circulation stage. If you want to grow your soul at all with these beast soul cores then you need at least a low rank level 5 core. These trash beasts are only at the low rank level 1 stage, about the power of someone at the 2nd to 3rd level of body tempering." Qin Gong explained while Zhou Xinqiu gathered up more of the Spiritual Vine Berries.

"ROAR!!!"

"What was that.." her pupils shrank as a huge white ape with dragon scales stomped behind her.

"Low rank level 4 beast, Mountain Dragon Ape" Qin Gong replied

"LEVEL 4!? ALREADY!?!" She couldn't believe that she was just fighting level 1 beasts few minutes ago and now was confronted by a level 4 beast so quickly.

"Hahaha It shouldn't be here in the outer regions, it probably only came because of you cutting that stem. It should have the strength of about a 7 - 8 level body tempering expert." Qin Gong laughed.

Zhou Xinqiu's eyes flashed with a glint of confidence before a bell sound rang out and 3 illusory dark red crystal palms appeared behind her and a red mist aura spread out from within her body. "Hmm is that all, 8th level? If that's really the case... COME AT ME BEAST!"