16 Mirror (1/2)

I helped myself with my hands, trying to clear away the dizziness I felt in my head. This teleportation was too much.

After a few minutes, I could see myself surrounded by mirrors, hundreds of them. I used my soul to cover every direction, but there wasn't anything except mirrors.

'What the hell is going on?'

I was expecting some ancient voice or something explaining what I must do to pass the test. I waited for a few minutes and nothing happened, this was getting on my nerves. What kind of test was that? On top of that, the mirrors were not mirrors, there was nothing reflected in them.

...

Back at the Imperial City, many youths were celebrating, and some of them were crying. For those who were crying, there was no second chance. They had utterly failed the Sect Trials. Their only hope would be breaking through to the Qi Refining stage but for most of them, that would require getting their hands on Spiritual Stones, but those were scarce for poor and medium families, even some rich families would have troubles getting their hands on them. Those celebrating were, of course, the youths who managed to succeed. They were now proud members of their Sect.

The ones in charge of the trials this time were some of the Sect's core members, they were young men and women who had reached the Nascent Soul cultivation stage. Even though some big clans in the Imperial City had stronger Nascent Soul cultivators than the ones the Sect sent, they had to give them face and they treated them with the utmost care. After all, they couldn't fight a Sect even if they joined hands with other clans, even the King wouldn't dare to stand against a Sect.

This time, there was another event going on nearly. Usually, Sects would run their inner and core test when the Ancient Ruins portals to the different levels appeared. The portals never spawned at the same time or at the same place, the sects would always have men trying to find out where they would appear. The Ancient Ruins gave benefits to those participating, of course, only if they lived through it.

A coincidence happened this time and the portal to the Ancient Ruins' first level spawned at the Imperial City, it was also close to the time when the Sect Trials started to gather talented youths.

Everyone in the city knew of the events that had transpired. Roughly an hour later, all the youths had calmed down. This was an important and crucial step in their lives, they got to see their seniors and interact with them after they exited the Ancient Ruins. The youths had solemn faces, they just joined their respective sects and they were already under such pressure, they couldn't make their Sect lose face.

On the city gates, a vast portal could be seen. Those looking into it would feel dizzy, they couldn't imagine what kind of existence created such a big portal. It was big enough to be seen from a hundred li away.

Among the serious youths, there was a young girl whose figure stood out. Her beauty was something that couldn't be discussed, she had a proud and arrogant smile on her face. Even so, it didn't affect her sexy and slender figure. She could be described with one word; perfect. She had the right to be proud and arrogant, she was the number one, her name was Wei Beiyu, princess of the South Country and the only daughter of the King. She was the reason why the Sect Trials started one month before the time they were set.

The core members of the sect were frowning. Based on their previous experiences, someone should already be out by now. It's been over one week already, why had nobody exited?

No one in the crowd dared to say a word, they could see their frowning faces, they weren't dumb. Something was clearly wrong. Crack a joke? Who would dare to utter a word? Piss off a Nascent Soul and you were dead for sure.