Solanky focused his mind and prepared for what was to come after descending for about 100 meters. The participants could see a whirling whirlpool before them. The whirlpool sucked them in, they could feel the space-time around distort and the spiritual energies around became denser than the outside world.
The whirlpool appeared above a foggy forest and disappeared, the various disciples fell from the sky. During the fall Solanky cautious as ever, looked around and saw a huge winged creature approaching them at a terrifying speed which reached 1800m/s. Solanky shouted "Watch out! Something is approaching us", all the participants looked in the distance and saw the silhouette of the creature in the distance becoming larger in their eyes.
Cilia said "Oh no that is a Sky-Fog Blade Winged Vulture born with the strength of an elementary god or devil, one of the ten vicious flying birds of the god-realm, why is it alone", hearing this the participants were all shocked because they all knew the reputation of the Sky-Fog Blade Winged Vulture. This bird was known to live in wakes numbering the late hundreds, they looked like regular bald vultures from Earth but they stood at 2.43m and had a wingspan of 6m the most outstanding feature about it was its wings which were covered with blades instead of feathers which they used to cut through the air at terrifying speeds.
Solanky tucked his hands and legs together and dived down head first towards the foggy forest, the speed of his descent increased several times. A disciple from the sword heart said "Is this guy looking for death" he didn't finish his statement and he heard a screeching sound behind the vulture approaching and they could see more than three hundred birds flying towards them.
Cilia also copied Solanky's style of descent and dived down. The other disciples of the sky hybrid sect also followed suit and after a moment of hesitation, all the other participants also did the same. But some of them were unlucky and were slow to crush their jade slips, the first blade-winged vulture reached them and maneuvered with its wings stretched out and it slashed through the participants who delayed in their decision at a speed of 3200m/s.
Solanky slashed down ruthlessly through the fog and the blade's energy created a clear pathway for him to see beneath the fog. He saw bare land and he shared the coordinates of his flight path with Cilia and the other sky hybrid sect disciples. He landed and activated his observing eye technique which he used to observe his surroundings, he found out that 30m away from him was a river and in that river, there were countless monsters laying low and waiting for the water to be disturbed. He sent a message to his sect's disciples to avoid the river, one arrogant disciple said to Solanky that he couldn't boss them around and landed at the banks of the river.
The moment he landed he said, "See nothing happened" The moment he said that a giant crab emerged from the sand and pinched him with its razor-sharp claws so hard that he was sliced into two. The giant crab took these remains and entered back into the sand of the banks of the river. The other disciples who followed his lead were terrified and decided to land on the river, the moment they did a huge tentacle pulled them from the surface into the depths of the river and one could see blood rising from the button of the river to the surface.
Solanky shook his head and held the hand of cilia and pulled her away from her standing position carrying her and jumped onto a branch of a tree near them. And at that moment the body of a disciple from another sect dropped from the sky and his limbs were all amputated and he had open cuts all around his body. Cilia looked at Solanky and said "How… how did you know"
"You have to pay attention or you will get killed" Solanky teasingly said. Solanky told the disciples of the sky hybrid sect to divide themselves into groups of two, to increase their efficiency of finding spiritual stones and killing beasts for spiritual life cores, he picked Cilia and dashed with her into the distance. The disciples of the sect all agreed and chose the partners and scattered.
Solanky carried Cilia behind him and he activated the bloodline of the dragon ape and swung through the branches of the forest. They then came to a cave that belonged to a beast called the red-haired wolf which lived in packs and they had the strength of a half-step high-level god with the alpha having the strength of a half-step god emperor.
Solanky and Cilia tip-toed and entered the cave, the moment they entered they were met with a shocking sight. They saw over two thousand red-haired wolves slumbering in the distance and behind them were a hundred spirit stones it seemed like they were all guarding it. Cilia tapped Solanky and pointed to a large rock platform and on the platform a massive red-haired wolf was sleeping and it was an alpha female wolf, before that red-haired twelve spiritual life cores were laid before it.
Solanky checked his quantum wristband and the energy levels of all the wolves were displayed including the massive wolf. The information was sent to Cilia it read as:
Location from Sky Hybrid Sect: 2.88 lightyears
World: separate dimensional space
Location in the world: first-dimensional space trial grounds
Beast nearby (200m): Red-Haired Wolf
Number of beasts: 2,023
Energy levels: half-step god emperor (2 beast alphas) amplification (25,000)
Half-step high-level god (2,021 beasts) amplification (5000)
After reading this Cilia asked in a shocked tone, "Half-step…god emperor beast, two of them but I can only see one of them where is the other one" Instantly Solanky felt danger looming behind them. He said "It is just behind us" They heard a growling snarl coming from their backs, Solanky drew out his dagger adjusted his body amplification to 24,000 times, and dashed towards the alpha red-haired wolf.
Cilia also decisively began to spin her whip and a cyclone formed around her figure as she spanned towards the sleeping wolves, she said "These sleeping dogs must not be left to lay uninterrupted". The cyclone swept over the sleeping beasts and instantly killed 350 of them and their spiritual life cores were swept up into the air and vanished as Cilia collected them into her storage ring and jade slip.
The other slumbering wolves woke up from their sleep because of the commotion, the other massive wolf sleeping on the stone platform woke up and also howled. At that instant, all the wolves' hairs stood up on their backs and shone with a bright red color. Cilia saw this and said "Not good", the red-haired wolves all got in position and surrounded the cyclone. The massive wolf howled and 500 of the wolves all jumped into the cyclone, half of them were killed but the speed of the cyclone was greatly reduced.
Cilia looked into the distance where Solanky was holding his own against the other massive red-haired wolf whose strength was on the half-step god emperor level she asked "How is he this strong, I think he's going all out. Sigh… I guess I also need to get serious now". Cilia stopped spinning her whip and dropped to the ground, the remaining 1,421 all dashed towards her, she revealed a sinister smile tightly held the whip, and dashed at an incredible speed of 45,000m/s towards the wolves and used a technique called the Void Shadow Steps. With every step she took one could see after images and illusory images of her, she lashed out her whip in a peculiar style when Solanky glanced at it he was shocked because that style was used by ancient dragons and it was called the Distorting Tail Whip.
The whip lashed out and 730 red-haired were all instantly annihilated with their life cores destroyed. The remaining 693 red-haired wolves all backed away and paved the way for their alpha female to attack. The alpha female growled and dashed forward, Cilia knew she was no match for a half-step god emperor beast so she relied on her speed and nimbleness. She evaded the paw swipes of the alpha female and also managed to land some whip lashes on her.
The alpha female wolf went into savage mode and the red hair on her back began glowing blood red. Solanky saw this and said "I need to finish this quickly, he amplified his strength to match the alpha male", he dashed forward and his left hand was covered in the black-silver layer he punched the wolf so hard that his left hand pierced through the thick skull of the wolf's head and smashed its brains.
The alpha female stopped its actions as it felt the life aura of her partner disperse. Solanky's hand which was holding the dagger changed and the black silver layer covered his entire right arm and then he threw his dagger toward the female alpha wolf. It didn't have time to react as the dagger pierced through its head killing it.
The black-silver layer receded into Solanky's skin, the two alpha wolves were killed and the remaining wolves were in chaos. Solanky rushed towards Cilia and checked up on her, he jumped onto the stone platform and collected the spiritual stones into his storage ring and jade slip.
Solanky and Cilia sat on the stone platform to recover their energies and split the spoils of the battle. The remaining red-haired wolves avoided Solanky and Cilia so they weren't disturbed, Solanky sent 200 of the spirit cores into the jade slip and kept the remaining 101 which he decided to send back to the sect.
Cilia also did the same and they both received a message from the system saying "Congratulations, you have now received 200 points and you are now eligible to enter the second-dimensional space, which will be indicated by your quantum wristbands". They looked at their quantum wrist bands and the new location was indicated on it. Solanky and Cilia stood up from the platform and walked towards the location indicated on their bands.
They came to the location indicated on the map, and there was a portal before them. Cilia grabbed the arm of Solanky as they both stepped through the portal together. They appeared in an open field and there were several disciples of other sects waiting. They waited for a while as more disciples joined their numbers reached 100 and they were teleported away to a temple.
They reappeared in front of a large temple, a voice came from the temple saying you can enter the temple now. They all entered the temple and before them were countless scrolls which all talked about the different modes of cultivation. A voice said, "At this level, you have to pick a mode of cultivation different from your original path". The disciples of the various sects were all confused but an old-looking man walked from the space before them and said "You are to pick a different cultivation path and comprehend just the basics and the more you comprehend the more points you gain, comprehending the basics gives you 50 points."
Solanky and others bowed and said "Greetings senior", the old man nodded and said, "I am Lord Zenom a mysterious level being just like your sect masters". Lord Zenom said, "You must be wondering what a powerful being like me is doing here, don't worry I would not interfere in the assessment I am only here to explain the different cultivation modes to you and test you personally".
The disciples all bowed to show their appreciation, lord Zenom smiled and said "There are three main paths of cultivation and they are bloodline cultivation which most of you already practice, the second is called spiritual energy cultivation which is necessary for beings to manifest their comprehension of the laws through their bloodlines".
"The spiritual energy of every being is measured by the amount of spiritual stones they can absorb and how that energy is displayed through their skills, most of you elementary gods need 50 spiritual stones to reach the high god level and there are most who exceed that, the highest I know of attained by the sect master of the sword heart sect who was able to absorb 80 spiritual stones when he was at your level".
The participants were shocked because they knew the amount of spiritual stones they could absorb. Lord Zenom said, "Spiritual energy plays a crucial role in the amplification of bloodline power or magical spells and seals". The disciples listened carefully "The third path of cultivation is through magic and spells, beings who practice magic naturally have more spiritual energy reserves than beings of the same level".
Cilia smiled inwardly as she also practiced magic in addition to her bloodline cultivation. Lord Zenom said, "I will list the four various levels of cultivation in magic and spells".
"The first is called the beginner or illusion magic the strength they show is comparable to high-level mortals.
The second is called Elementary law magic and they are graded in stars, a one-star magician is comparable to an elementary god, a two-star magician is comparable to a god emperor and a three-star magician is comparable to a being at the level of a god of gods or devil of devils.
The third is called world-defying magic. Magicians at this level are comparable to dimensional gods and devils of the bloodline path. Their magic can defy the laws of any dimension they find themselves in and unlike beings on the blood path who can be easily killed and stopped from reincarnating. There is no such thing when it comes to magicians at this level, because they begin to fuse their magic and spells with their souls and they can reincarnate with their cultivation and memories intact.
The fourth level is called the supreme magus, they are divided into two stars. A one-star supreme magus is comparable to a being at the mysterious or obviousness level. And a two-star magician is comparable to an early stage god of creation and devil of destruction". Lord Zenom said.
Getting an understanding of the task the disciples began to choose their subordinate cultivation paths. Solanky and Cilia took the path of a magician and sat down to observe the scrolls. Lord Zenom was shocked to see that Cilia had comprehended two-thirds of the scroll she was reading, he said "wow what a promising seed for the sky hybrid sect", he looked at Solanky and noticed that Solanky seemed to have broken through to the high-level god stage with the amplification of 18,000 times and he had also comprehended one-third of the scroll.
He was shocked because he noticed that Solanky was fusing the magical path with his bloodline. He stood up and said, "Impossible how could he easily merge the two paths, he has comprehended two-thirds of the scroll where did the sky hybrid sect find these two monsters, well I guess he qualifies to enter the forbidden space the third-dimensional space to act as a probe". Lord Zenom smiled sinisterly and waved his hand and Solanky was encased in a barrier he placed a seal on him.
He appeared beside the third forbidden dimensional space portal and tossed Solanky into it. Solanky felt the space around him distort the moment the barrier was formed around him, but before he comprehended the basics he sent a warning message to Cilia to immediately crush her jade slip the moment he comprehended two-thirds of the scroll. Cilia did as she was instructed and left the trials with the help of the jade slip, the moment lord Zenom saw this he frowned.