We marched on and encountered another two hordes of ice pixies. After asking the horde chiefs, I realized that the region's main residents are these subspecies of pixies. I made the same offer to these two hordes, and both accepted.
However, I could clearly sense the more powerful entities lurking about. One time, a powerful aura swept over us, and I knew, without any shred of doubt, that it could have killed me instantly. But for some reason, it didn't.
A few days later, we reached the foot of a mountain pass. But the wind there was extremely strong, so we were forced to stop. I looked at the gales that were in vortices inside the pass and said to my companions, "It's best that you wait here. I can negate the attacks caused by the winds, but you can't."
Tulip nodded and replied, "Very well. We'll wait for you here. Take care, love."
I stepped into the mountain pass and activated my Lord of Wind powers. The gales had no effect whatsoever on me, so my journey upwards was as easy as breathing. When I reached the top, I was surprised to find no tower there, just a grand, rounded stone arena.
Farbauti stood in the middle, bare-chested, and no weapon in sight. He was radiating an aura that I had never seen before, one that came from his body. I bowed my head slightly and greeted, "Good to see you, Senior Brother."
He nodded but stayed silent. I looked around and asked, "Where is the tower?"
"It is not here," he said calmly.
"Where is it then?"
"It was never here to begin with."
"Then what was the tall building that I saw upon entering Bing Zhi Di? I am pretty sure that it was a tower."
"It is an illusion that was made to be a reminder to the powerful entities that reside in this land that the area is still under the Mansion of Night's control."
"What will happen when I take the blade piece? Will it just disappear?"
"No, the illusion will remain."
"Okay," I said, then changed the subject since he didn't seem to want to discuss it any further, "What is the test today?"
"The Body Power test. Magic is prohibited. Get ready."
I raised an eyebrow, but still did what he wanted. I put Pangu to the side and stood before Farbauti. He looked me in the eyes and started explaining, "Before we start, the fighting will be intense. This is a test, and at the same time, not. The point of it is to let the participant reach their maximum physical body power. If you couldn't reach it, then you would have to try a thousand times.
"Take this piece of advice seriously, be extremely careful, because not even the Colossus of Rhodes can withstand my blows. Shall we start?"
I fully expected myself to feel fear at this moment. My body was trembling, not from fear, but from excitement. I have grown to love these fights, because not only were they fun, with the exclusion of the previous one, they were very beneficial as well.
Farbauti was about to say something. He hesitated for a moment and then spoke, "Despite what I just said was true, it must be said that your body is close to the quality of the Dragon generals."
My eyes glinted. The dragon generals were legendary warriors of the Dragon Clan. They numbered four in total, and each was at the Eternal Emperor state.
"Let's begin," I said after taking a deep breath and steeled myself for the attack.
He nodded and punched the air with his fist. The force created hit me without any shred of mercy. I managed to endure it, and the twenty-one that were getting increasingly more powerful with each one, after that. The following punch felt extremely powerful, so I immediately transformed into my Dragon form to endure it. Another 30 punches, and I felt my options dwindling.
I once told Chiron that my mind worked best in a fight, and it is generally known that breakthroughs mostly happen under pressure. An idea came to me. I tried to compress the essence of the Dragon form, but combine it with the strength and size of the human one.
I went back to the human form and size, but this time, my skin turned to light blue scales. A tail and two gigantic wings sprouted from my back, shredding my top into small pieces. Two horns grew from my scalp. Right now, I look like a mixture of Dragon and Human. I decided to call this form the Quasi-Draconic state!
I felt the rush of adrenaline go through my veins. I let out a roar and shouted, "Bring it on!"
Farbauti let out a roar as well and punched with a force that caused the stone below us to cave in and turn into rubble. Despite what I had just achieved, I still felt that it wasn't enough.
My mind went to work again to find a solution and break my limits once more. The idea was something that kept circulating in my mind for a long time, but I didn't have the chance to try it until now.
A huge ghostly replica of me appeared behind my back and mimicked the same blocking movement that I did. I felt my body growing stronger with each second passing as my muscles kept tearing and reforming instantly. The pain was unbelievable.
The force of Farbauti's punch landed on me. All I could hear was the sound of an explosion. The area around us was obliterated. When the dust settled, I was still in one piece, and my Senior Brother exclaimed, "You have passed the trial!"
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Updated on 25/3/2026