Immortal Taoist

**Unknown Location**

Currently at the back of the sect’s mountains, at a completely restricted area of the sect hundreds of arrays seemed to overlap each other.

They surrounded all surfaces as they swirl around the area to form a hazy atmosphere that seemed to be separating the inside and the outside of the restricted area.

Anyone that tries to look at the inside would be greeted with blinding light while any spiritual consciousness would just bounce back to its user.

A few meters from the restricted area a spiritual consciousness was spread across as Qi suddenly started gathering around making the environment become quite.

Everything seemed to be under the control of something as everything became still, the Qi gathered around to form a small portal that seemed to be glowing in richness.

Seven silhouettes became visible from the light as an old man with a cracked orb behind him led the others as they passed through the portal.

At his right was a man in red that stepped forward before calmly calling out into the sky.

“Little Han, you can open a path now”

After saying that, the Second Grand Elder stepped to the side and waited while the First Grand Elder Looked towards the others that seemed to be inspecting this particular area in front of them, one of them, the man in white looked towards him before saying.

“I’m Impressed, this is strong enough to even threaten my defense, and it seems that the one who built it is a nascent soul cultivator only at the early stage at that” the man said as he looked to his left where a woman with red hair and eyes was standing.

The First Grand Elder smiled a little before saying. “Yes, it’s as you have said, but It’s only after months of preparation was something like this achieved”

‘Not to mention the resources’ The old man thought with pride as movement finally came from the front.

The swearling arrays stopped moving before opening a small gap in between each other.

And a gush of qi was blownout through the gap that would make any Soul Wondering Cultivator think that it was a blessed land in there.

And yet the 7 individuals at the receiving end of it didn’t seemed faze as they slowly walked into the gap.

**At the Venue**

As the sun rose up high and the breeze stirred the flimsy decor around the venue.

The crowd began pouring into their seats with each of them calmly anticipating the coming competition.

Seated at the same seats, an old man in a gray robe was sitting next to a man in a blue robe who seems to be looking at the stage, the man in blue was beaming with excitement and smiling with a carefree demeanor.

The old man adorned in gray seated next to him sighed while closing his eyes, he started to communicate something through his spiritual consciousness.

“Aren’t you being too happy right now”

“what do you mean shen’er was able to place such a high rank” the man in blue replied as he looked towards the stage wherein was the ranking by the side, he was completely unaware of how his friend was perceiving him.

The gray robed old man shook his head as he looked at his fellow daoist, it was unsightly to see someone smile so widely in a group of serious cultivators.

He sighed and looked down at the stage, he thought back to the hazy figure of a young man full of vigor and hope, he started smiling slightly before focusing on the stage.

“She did well for a starter” looking directly at the corner of the stage the old man saw the organizer of the first competition Lu Yung standing by the ranking board that was still up.

“Hmm” the blue robed man muttered after he was finally brought back from his bliss as he stared at the old man in gray “She did work hard, her concentration and spiritual consciousness is really impressive, but I still don’t know why they allowed her to be the organizer by herself”

“Testing her mental capacity is a good direction, if I remember correctly she is only 40 years old, the fact that she was able to get this far this quick is a testament to the Lu family with their resource, not to mention that she has a special physique that drastically helps her cultivate” the old man said while stroking his beard-covered chin.

‘The grand sect elders would have obviously wanted to see her capabilities’ he thought.

The blue robed man nodded along as he thought for a moment, he perked up when he noticed that an equipment was being brought up stage.

And it was not just him, almost all the elders from the Levitation Sect were looking at it closely.

This equipment would be the entirety of the second competition between the two sects.

It was the result of 40 outer sect elders working together to create it, it had no fault in it and was personally inspected by all the Raging Flame Elders.

And even they were as excited about it as the Levitation Sect Elders, but most of them were watchful of this because the two sects had different standards for their own disciples.

Seeing their disciples participate in a mental capacity test was something that they took seriously since the mind is so easily influenced.

Seated at the top of the crowd were the sect masters, having not taken much interest in the last competition they were now slightly interested In this as this was of somewhat importance.

Down on the stage were the disciples in line that would be participating in the event, the top 10 disciples were seated in the crowd having been exempt from the following competitions, while the last 10 disciples were eliminated from the competitions.

At the center of the stage was a large spiral crystal with swirling engravings, the crystal was glowing with a faint bluish glow and was standing about as tall as a person, it would be the stuff used to assess the mental capacity and aptitude of the disciples.

Standing next to the large spiral crystal was a man, wearing a long robe that showcased some of the intricate engravings of the Levitation Sect, he stood proudly with an air of dignity, raising his hand in the air he began speaking.

“Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the second stage competition, my name is Han Li and I will be the organizer of this event, I am coming forward as a representative of the 40 Levitation Sect Elders that created this item before you”

Looking towards the spiral crystal he continues “Today we stand on the edge of a new beginning, an opportunity for our two sects to unearth the hidden mental talents of our young geniuses”

He looked at the disciples lined up on the side and continued“ the rules are simple, you walk up to the crystal and place your hand on it, you will all experience different things on different levels but you will be graded accordingly, and the sect with the higher points will be the winner of this competition at the end”

“And now this event may start, come up and place your hand on the crystal” he concludes as he takes a step back and folds his hands, looking at the first disciple on the line he waits for their response.

The disciple, a member of the Raging Flames Sect was the first to come up to the crystal as he nervously approached before placing his palm onto it.

At first, nothing unusual happened but then suddenly the crystal started to emit a yellow light that slowly encased the disciple within it, it flickered out of existence taking along the disciple with it.

The blueish light around the crystal began to surge as it radiates an energy throughout the stage.

Everyone present were focused as they watched the energy slowly turn into a screen that displayed the disciple in a black void, the screen had a hourglass timer on it’s side that was slowly going down.

The disciple inside the seemed to be confused as he looked around when he noticed bubbled were coming from his mouth and nose, only a second later did he realize that he was in deep water, he tried to keep himself afloat as he desperately used his hands and feet to try and go somewhere and yet it seemed useless.

On the stage some disciples were confused as to why he didn’t use his qi but the smart ones were already coming up with reasons as to why he couldn’t.

The audience looked at the disciple in the screen, he was obviously frightened and seemed confused, but after struggling like that for a few minutes he suddenly lost the ability to keep himself up before slowly floating downward in the water, with the hourglass being only halfway down.

The screen disappeared before the crystal began surging with qi again, a few seconds later the disciple was brought back standing in the same position that he once was.

He took a deep breath and sighed in relief before looking around in confusion, his face was pale with a little bit of bitterness in the depth of his eyes.

The organizer, Han Li began speaking once more as he wrote down” Do Sue, 50 points, you managed to stay afloat for halfway through this first level”

“Ok now…”

He was about to call onto the next one before he suddenly found something strange, looking up at the sky he realized that it had turned dark.

Not just him, everyone was looking at the sky because as far as the eye can see the whole sky had turned dark.