Chains Of Heaven

One Week prior

As I entered the examination area we were to see an elder flying in the middle of it.

"Wow, it is elder Xeng of the Master Teacher Association. I heard he already is of the fourth level of the Sovereign Profound Realm and a 4-star intermedium Master Teacher." One of the examinees said in awe beside me. I don't remember meeting him before nor any Master Teacher.

Perhaps they just never needed the help of teacher during this time I spent with him, weird as it may be for this to happen.

I was about to ask more when this elder Xeng spoke up.

"Listen all, everyone here is the future of this continent. You all are the seedlings that will form the core of our continent's glory in the future. But, not all of you are the same. We of the elder generation entered an agreement and as such there will be a special test for before any profession or the combat test can happen.

"That is due to a simple fact, strength. Strength is necessary no matter what occupation you d.e.s.i.r.e to enter and, as such, you will all have to pass through a test before you can compete."

Interjecting into everyone's moment of excitement at the chance to show off, elder Xeng continued with a warm smile, "All of those profound beasts are aggressive beasts who have a track record of harming the innocent on numerous accounts. I have confined them to the peak of one of the mountains of the Giant Beast Mountain Range, and you are free to hunt them down as you like. As long as you slaughter a True Profound Beast of level 10 and procure its inner core, I will consider you to have passed the base examination!

"Profound Beast of True Profound Realm level 10?"

"Aggressive beasts who have a track record of harming the innocent?"

"This examination sounds extremely hard鈥?

Elder Xeng's description was brief, but, as youngsters of various sects with ample knowledge and decent experience, they were able to understand the crux of the matter in an instant. Within an instant, their excitement for this tournament was replaced with unease.

Due to the superior physique that spirit beasts were born with, their fighting prowess was extraordinary. A True Profound Realm level 10 profound beast could fight a Spirit realm martial artist on equal grounds, and even if things turned out to be disadvantageous, it was likely that it would be able to escape safely.

Given that most of the freshmen involved in the examination were at the True Profound Realm, it would be difficult for them to clear the examination!

Not to mention, considering the aggressive nature of the profound beasts, they were bound to be difficult opponents to deal with. There was a vast difference between a profound beast with vast fighting experience and a spirit beast with no fighting experience whatsoever, especially if this experience involved fighting humans. If these beasts were experienced in fighting humans it would only be that much more complicated.

"The time limit is a single day. In other words, before sunset, you must return with the inner core in your hand. Only by fulfilling this criterion will you be considered to have cleared the examination! Otherwise鈥?this will spell the end of your fate with this competition."

Elder Xeng continued, "Also, I would like to warn everyone that the cultivation of the spirit beasts on the peak isn't just limited to True Profound realm. There are Spirit Profound Realm, Earth Profound Realm, and even Sky Realm profound beasts there. Thus, you should be careful not to be slaughtered by the profound beasts while hunting them down!"

Some of the other examinees seems to have been informed of this in advance, so they weren't too surprised by Elder Xeng's words, but, for me, this sounded quite dangerous and I had no idea this would be happening.

I guess spending time with Levy and teaching in the slums consumed the time I could have spent getting this information and preparing myself. Not that I think this is a bad trade-off, I would do the exact same again if given the chance.

After a moment of silence, a participant suddenly asked, "Elder Shend, if we manage to slay a Spirit Profound Realm or an Earth Profound Realm beast, how will the results be tallied?"

"Good question!" Elder Sheng stroked his beard. "We will be using a points system to gauge your result in the examination, and those who score higher will get special prizes, the top 100 will even be able to enter the Master Teacher Association Pavilion and be able to take a look at our library. In fact, the first place will even obtain a total of 10 points for the overall competition where, if you get first place, you will have the right to study our Master Teacher Association piece of a Transcendent Divine Might!"

At this point the surprise was in everyone's faces, in my case however, I was just twitching at yet again a familiar term.

I could not resist, I searched the books that were left in the Library of Heaven's Path that contained miscellaneous information about cultivation to try and understand what the term Transcendent Divine Might meant in this world. Thankfully the Library had a 'search' function so it was not hard to find the information I wanted.

Transcendent divine might. That was something that only a Divine Master level existence could create by combining every aspect of their power and knowledge into a single ultimate ability. Most Divine Masters did not even have this ability as it was usually only those of higher levels in this Realm that could create one such ability. The transcendent divine mights of the Realm of the Gods were acc.u.mulated for millions of years.

A full and complete transcendent divine might is considerably rare. This was because a transcendent divine might jade slip usually was kept for the descendants of the one who created it only. Even if their descendants want to share this they would need at least to be at the Divine Sovereign Realm to be able to make a duplicate of that jade slip. This was why transcendent divine mights were so rare; they were basically unique treasures in most places. After one was born, it would exist onwards for hundreds of millions or even billions of years. During this time, these jade slips could fan the endless flames of war, causing endless struggles, spilled blood, and slaughter all in their name.

Thankfully, most of those would eventually reach the hands of the Master Teacher Association either during wars or due to Master Teachers creating or being presented with copies of such abilities as a way for those who created the techniques to have their names immortalized. The Master Teacher Association also managed to maintain a large number of this inheritance from the Age of the Gods where Transcendent Divine Mights were even stronger as more people had the power to create those. It is speculated that the Master Teacher association had to have at least 50 thousand Transcendent Divine Might skill and were what allowed the sects who did not have Divine Blood inheritance to be able to grow in power to compare or even suppress those who had those types of inheritance

I guess that when they say it is a piece it must mean it is an incomplete Transcendent Divine Might, it is still a great prize though. Especially if I can complete it with my Library of Heaven's Path.

But, I must try and just barely win, just barely be the top. This way, while many people would still look up to me it would not be too exaggerated.

Yup, that sounds like a plan. Yes, that will do well enough.

"Here is how the punctuation is going to work: Profound beasts of True Profund Realm give 1 point for each rank, those of the Spirit Profound Realm gives 20 points with an increase of five points for each rank, those of Eath Profound Realm give 100 Points with an increase of 10 for each rank, and the Sky Profound Realm Spirit Beasts give out 1000 points each. No points for the Emperor Profound Realm beast as it is for you to escape it, not try to fight it.

"Also, you all don't need to worry about stronger profound beasts than those I mentioned entering the area of the test. Our friends of the Formation Association have set up a formation in this place to seak the area and not allow anyone to enter if not from a specific route. There will also be many small formations and mechanical traps that the Formation Association and the Celestial Designed Association set out to hinder your progress so being watchful is recommended to ensure your safety, none of the traps are lethal but there is always a chance of ambush by profound beasts. Another point is that, as this tournament is to celebrate the future of the continent we must inform you all that you are not allowed to steal or attack other competitors. If you do you will be instantly disqualified.

"If you all understand you can go, you have until midnight to return to this place. And show the world who you are."

As he said that everyone set out in the direction pointed but I first went to check some things.

"Elder Xeng, I have a few questions." I said and the elder looked at me.

"Very well, ask." He said.

"I would like to know if it really is necessary to obtain the profound beast core or if simply taming them is also an option?" I ask.

"Oh, you must not know much of the art of Beast Taiming if you ask such a thing." He said. "You see, Beast Taiming is not something that can be done quickly, there are only really three methods for it to be tamed by someone. The first is for you to make it submit to your power, make it simply be unable to even think of defiling your will. The second is for you to interact and get close enough to it that the beast would want to continue following you, this method has a somewhat higher chance of success but also leads to a considerable cost of time and it is entirely possible that the profound beast will just take what is offered and then run away. The third is for you to help it increase in power and show you are able to empower it in the future. All beings want to become more powerful, thus the third method is the most assured to work but also the hardest as, to do that, it is necessary to improve the Profound Beast's bloodline and possibly awaken the bloodline of some ancient beast.

"After all, all profound beasts have some connection to some beast from the Age of Gods, if it was a God or not depends on the species but there would still be the chance to improvement depending on the beast it is a descendant of. For instance-" He pointed at the top of my head where Ji Ji was sleeping. "Your Emerald Swan, it is a member of the Swan Race that had a few Gods in the past as well so it is possible that this one could have an evolution of bloodline if cared off properly.

"Anyway, while the thought of taming a beast is admirable it would be far too hard for it to happen, but, for the sake of it, I will stipulate a special rule.

"If someone can tame a beast then the points received are tripled, not that this would happen."

Yes, let's do this.