Developer in the immortal World !

Flower stepped forward, looking curiously at the Room clutched in Jin's hands.

The disciple was holding it quite desperately, standing on the grassy terrain, his view distorted by fog. Despite knowing that the Room could survive probably anything that he could throw at it, he was still afraid of it simply falling to the ground and breaking.

"I'd like to start," the woman said. "After all, if the combat system is too bad for words, which is a real fear this time around, then there's no point in wasting Elder Lung's time," she rationalised. However, it was clear that she simply couldn't wait to sate her curiosity and wanted to go first for completely personal reasons.

Jin held up the room for the Elder to take. She gently received it from his hands, their fingers brushing against each other for but a second. She had rough hands, like that of a warrior. She stepped back to stand once again amongst the Elders.

"I'm going in," she said.

-/- POV: Elder Flower

Flower had been born into the Illusion Room Sect. But had never actually really cared for the cultivation techniques and the products that they sold. She'd wanted to be a warrior, in fact. But, one was blessed in this world to be born to a father who was an Elder in a well-established sect, and one was definitely foolish if one disregarded this privilege to go be a neophyte in someone else's. Especially since there would always be a suspicion of espionage. It had been the correct decision as well. With the resources of her family, she'd become the youngest sect member to form a nascent soul, at age 65.

And, she still became a warrior anyway, just not one with access to special and secret techniques of a sect that actually focused on martial cultivation.

It had ended up being a shrewd career move. By becoming a warrior in a sect full of people who were decisively not, she had something unique to offer to the creation of combat systems and to the testing of illusion Rooms.

This unfortunately also came with the fact that she became the go-to person to bother, when an outer, or an inner disciple needed to be tested for their aptitude. She was planning an entire expedition in a few weeks just to get away from this one responsibility, as it was very exhausting to spend so much time going through illusion Rooms that offered relatively little, for the time they consumed in having to be properly reviewed.

Thus, today was going to be her last review before she left the sect on a diplomatic mission to the Mad Monks Sect. In reality, she was just going there to exchange pointers with some martial cultivators and for some time off.

The cultivators who came to their mountain to look at their scenario library weren't generally interested in sparring, having to pay an hourly fee to be present in their library.

As she entered the illusion room, she leashed the heavenly energies strengthening her body to the level that was achievable by a low-level cultivator and the end of their qi gathering stage.

She found herself at first, as was common, in a blank space. For her it was white, but she knew that for others it was sometimes black. Entering an illusion Room didn't immediately bring one into the scenario, but simply brought one to a mindscape from which one could enter it if one so wished. Different scenario designers created different methods of access, but this outer disciple seemed quite traditional in that he simply created a visual cue of what seemed to be a helmet made out of metal crossed by two of those spears he was talking about.

Without any preamble she directed a mental probe at the icon, causing her surroundings to violently change from one second to the next. No transition, she noticed. Elder Lung would probably be unhappy with that, the outdated elitist.

However, any thoughts of what Elder Lung would think were blown away by her surroundings as they materialised around her. It wasn't a space that resembled anything she'd ever seen before. Large grey bricks laid the foundation of a square room interspersed with pillars of what she recognized as marble and worked in with elaborate designs that seemed decisively non-imperial in nature. She frowned as she looked around the dark space seeing also the high glass windows which let in the minuscule amount of light that suffused the room. It was large, the space, but also small, due to the pillars.

However, she wasn't that interested in architecture. What she wanted to know was where this enemy was supposed to be.

A scuff, an unfamiliar sound of metal on stone came from behind her, above her, she spun around drawing her jian made of dragon fang and sprang back just in time to avoid a downward stab from a large golden figure wielding a long spear with an extended blade which had jumped from a balcony that she had previously not perceived. By lowering her overall strength she'd also constrained her senses.

Instead of pursuing her immediately, the gigantic figure, towering over her by at least four heads, simply pointed his weapon at her, letting her admire the intricacy of its design.

It was beautiful, in a way. The golden armour with its spikes, ridges and fins. A red plume of feathers extending out of the lion-themed helmet gently waved in a non-existent breeze.

It looked completely inefficient, however, since Flower knew that the metal was useless as a defensive armour, and the lance made of wood and metal was also a complete enchantment black hole. But, this was a fake world, not bound by the rules of reality.

Before she could consider taking off points from the examinee for the fact that the figure was not moving it suddenly began to speak.

"I've slain dragons and monsters that you cannot even imagine, do you truly think that a mere human can best me? Dragonslayer Ornstein will show you the foolishness of your ways," it spoke in a raspy metallic voice with vocal cords that sounded like they'd never been used.