Few months have passed since Wang Wei had a meeting with the Upper management of the sect.
Soon after the meeting, the Supreme Elders--which all had the cultivation level of Supreme Realm--quietly left their place of retreat.
This was actually world shaking news. In the last generation, for some reason, the Path of Supreme was entirely cut off.
No matter how powerful or heaven defying a Heaven Chosen was in the last generation, no one could enter the realm of Supreme. This was the reason that Wang Wei's father was still in the realm of Saint.
As for Wang Wei's generation, many of the Heaven Chosen have just been born and have not even started cultivating yet. And if they have, they are in a low level realm.
In fact, many of them have not even proven to the world they can gain the title of "Heaven Chosen". The reason people already called them that is because once they were born, many Heaven Phenomena appeared--just like Wang Wei.
Furthermore, many people born with a special physique appear at the same time all over the world. Especially people with special bodies in the 3000 Heaven Physique List. This was a list certified by Heavenly Dao itself.
What's even more shocking is that two of the top 3 Physique already appeared. Throughout the history of the Myriad Emperor Plane, the appearance of one of the Top 3 physiques was rare enough, let alone two appearing at the same time.
As a precedent, once that happens, it can only mean one thing: the three top physiques will be born at the same time and a Glorious Time will be born.
The fight for Heaven Will will be a fierce one; Heaven Chosen will be everywhere like dogs. As such, the Emperor created in this era will be a very powerful one.
Coming Back to the topic.
The appearance of the Supreme Elders brought a shock to the world since they technically have not seen a Supreme Realm for close to two generations.
Although the Supreme Elders tried to be as low-key as possible, when the Dao Opening Sect started searching for some rare and precious materials, the powerful groups of the world sent their spy agencies to acquire news.
These sects did not find specifically what the Dao Opening sect was doing, but they still got some news. Furthermore, when the Supreme Realm powerhouse of the Fox Demon clan moved the whole clan to a domain that belonged to the Dao Opening Sect, the whole world knew that something big was happening.
After a few months of work, the Polishing Dao Heart Pagoda was successfully refined. The only reason it took such a short time was due to the fact that many Supreme Realm powerhouses worked together as a team.
And it turned into a Quasi-Emperor Artifact.
Wang Wei learned from the library that weapons in this world were divided into seven ranks: Profound, Earth, Heaven, Saint, Supreme, Quasi-emperor, and Emperor.
In fact, there is another rank called Immortal weapons. According to the information in the library, Immortal weapons are more powerful than Quasi-Emperor, but far inferior to Emperor weapons.
After seeing this, Wang Wei went and asked his father about Immortal Weapons, but his father quickly shushed him and told him never to talk about these unless he reached a certain level.
From what Wang Wei observed the past few years, anything related to Immortal seemed to be a taboo or some sort of open secret that you have to reach a certain level of cultivation and status to know.
In the end, Wang Wei had to sigh that the waters in this world were indeed deep.
The reason that the Polishing Dao Heart Pagoda reached the level of Quasi-Emperor instead of the Supreme Tier has to do with Wang Wei.
At an early age, Wang Wei discovered that illusion had little to no effect on him because of his mysterious soul. So, to make sure that the Pagoda had an effect on him, when it was being refined, he released a small part of his soul in it.
Thus, after passing the Heavenly Tribulation, The Pagoda reached the level of Quasi-Emperor--which surprised many people.
Today was the day that the Pagoda opened.
Wang Wei stood in front of it with an excited face. There was a little fat boy standing half a step behind him. This boy's name was Li Jun. He was Wang Wei's only true brother in the Dao Opening sect.
Li Jun's life in the Dao Opening sect was somewhat of a tragedy. The Polishing Dao Heart Pagoda was his only chance to change his future. So, he stood there with a look of determination on his little chubby face.
Soon, the pagoda started working, Wang Wei, Li Jun, and many core disciples entered and started their journey. As for the inner and outer disciples, they have to wait for their turn.
In the First Layer of the Pagoda, Wang Wei found himself in a vast and endless desert. His body looks and feels ordinary. You know, despite the fact that Wang Wei is eight years old, his original body was as strong as an Olympian athlete in his previous life due to all Heaven and Earth Treasure he consumed daily.
Even the milk Wang Wei drinks everyday is from a powerful beast with high cultivation. All of these is to lay a solid foundation for his future cultivation. Only Emperor level forces can afford the resources to train true Heaven Chosen like Wang Wei.
However, in this Pagoda, Wang Wei's body is quite ordinary, and even a little malnourished. But he did not care, he knew this was part of the test. He packed the little food and water he was given.
After inspecting his body, Wang Wei began to walk in a direction.
He walked for twelve hours straight. Soon, he became thirsty and hungry. He took a bite of his bread, drank a little water, and continued his journey.
Three days passed, and Wang Wei continued walking without direction. His clothes were tattered, his shoes were already burned by the heat of the desert sands and his feet were full of blisters.
His body was full of both burn marks from the overbearing heat of the sun and frost bite from the cold wind of the desert night when the temperature dropped below freezing point.
For some reason, the amount of food he had never increases or decreases: just the right amount to keep him alive, nothing more and nothing less.
At this point in time, Wang Wei became quite delirious. There was a voice in his head constantly telling him to give up. It was telling him that he was the future Sacred Son of the Dao Opening Sect, that he was born noble. He did not have to go through such pain and suffering.
Many times he wanted to listen to that voice, many times he wanted to quit or even kill himself to end this misery.
But every time, he would think of his mother, father, and grandfather. He would think of the expectation that the sect had of him. He would think about his goals of one day bearing Heaven Will and proclaiming himself Emperor.
He gritted his teeth and continued.
Soon, seven days passed.
Wang Wei's body was slowly falling apart. He was so skinny that his clothes became loose on him. Underneath his shirt, you could not even distinguish between his skin and his ribs. His arms were so thin that you could use it as a ruler.
The skin underneath his foot has been burned off--you could only see his muscle oozing out blood with every step, leaving a trail of blood, hardship and misfortune.
Wang Wei's body was simply not functional anymore. He was moving simply by his sheer will and determination.
Despite all this, he continued his walk forward. Not even death itself could stop him.
Meanwhile, outside of the Pagoda, the elders and disciples were shocked. There was a formation that showed what was happening inside the pagoda for the rest of the people to watch.
The result of many of the disciples were quite abysmal. Few were able to last more than a couple of hours. The best result so far was the Rank 1st Contemporary Sacred Son, which lasted three days.
Two people lasted the longest (7 days): one of them was of course Wang Wei, the other, surprisingly, was Li Jun.
. . .
Outside the Pagoda, in the clouds.
The Sect Master, Great Elders, and Elders stood there, floating in the air, talking with each other.
"Great Elder Li Jiang, I did not expect your family to have such a potential genius," said one Elder.
Although he was complementing the Great Elder, you could tell from his tone that he was being sarcastic.
Another Elder said: "It seems that your Li family almost missed a Heaven Chosen."
The conversation between the Elders in fact involved the internal contradiction and competition of the Dao Opening Sect.
The Great Elder Li Jiang was in fact in charge of the Hall of Resources. This hall, as the name implies, involved distributing resources to all the disciples and Elders of the sect. Whether it was the distribution of pills, talisman, weapons, or selecting a cultivating cave full of spiritual energy, they all fall in the jurisdiction of the Hall of Resources.
The Li family was in charge of the Hall of Resources for this generation.
As a matter of fact, the Dao Opening Sect is currently divided into four parts: The Wang, Yan, Li family, and the Sectarian side.
The Dao Opening Sect had 9 emperors: 4 from the Wang Family, 2 from the Li Family, 2 from the Yan Family, and 1 from disciples recruited outside of the families.
As a result, there are many contradictions and competition between the four parties.
Li Jun is in fact the Young Master of the Li family and Great Elder Li Jiang is actually his father. However, Li Jun's life in the Li family is not very well.
There is a Glorious Time coming in the world, and many of the Four Groups have talented people to nurture to represent them in the Grand Stage that is about to come. However, the Li family does not--well at least the Main Branch of the family does not.
Li Jun, as the sole heir of the Li family, was not born extraordinary. Although Li Jun's talent is good--if he were placed on the lower planes, he would be a heaven defying genius--but, in the Myriad Emperor Plane, in this Glorious Times coming, he is simply insignificant.
As such, his life in the family is quite hard. Although he still receives all the training and resources necessary, he has no status. Even the servants in his house always gave him a cold look.
What's even worse is that when the kids from the Li Family Branch bullies him, and no one comes forward to stop them except for his mother.
As such, Li Jun's evaluation in the family is someone that is not worth training. His life only got better after he started hanging out with Wang Wei. So, you could imagine the shock the elders had after seeing his performance in the Pagoda.
Great Elder Li Jiang blushes with shame upon hearing the other's comments. How would he know his son has such a powerful will?
Although he always feels bad for his son, as the patriarch of the family, he is trained from birth to put the well being of the entire family before the need of the individual, even when it comes to his own blood.
Of course, Li Jiang is not a completely heartless and terrible father. He tried his best otherwise Li Jun would not have received as much resource as he did now.
The Noble families like the Li and Wang are ruthless, they do not raise anyone who has no value.
Back to the Pagoda.
After 8 straight days, Li Jun's body collapsed in the desert and he was sent out the pagoda.
His body was in fact in perfect shape--as the Pagoda Trials are just powerful illusions. But when Li Jun was sent out, he was still immersed in the trial. As soon as he got out, he started screaming: " Water, water, I need water."
His father, who was in the cloud, instantly appeared before his son and fed him some water. Afterward, Li Jun passed out and was taken away by the Great Elder.
Soon, many murmured of the disciple began to spread throughout the venue.
"Was that Li Jun who passed the trial?"
"Yah, that was him."
"But I thought he was a waste. Now, I just saw him perform better than the Contemporary Sacred Sons."
"Shhhh, don't talk about these kinds of things if you want to mix in the sect."
Conversations like these were happening everywhere in the sect. The people most affected by these rumors were the Contemporary Sacred Sons.
In the Dao Opening Sect, the disciples were divided into outer disciples, inner disciples, and core disciples. The top 10 Core Disciples were referred to as Contemporary Sacred Son. They compete with each other and the winner will win the status of Sacred Son.
What is a Sacred Son?
The Sacred Son represents the future Sect Master of the Dao Opening Sect. It represents having most of the resources of the sect at your disposal.
The Sacred Son's status is second only to the Sect Master and the Great elders of different Halls.
The Sacred Son even has the right to mobilize the elders--which are all in the Saint Realm--when necessary.
As such, many disciples are competing for the status of the Sacred Son.
In fact, Wang Wei was designated as the Sacred Son the moment he was born, but this news was not announced yet. Although this was unfair to these disciples, this is how things are in a sect controlled by powerful groups.
Of course, things are not as simple as stated. When Wang Wei becomes the Sacred Son, he has to prove to the Contemporary Sacred Sons and all the other disciples that he deserved such title.
Otherwise, his status would be nothing but empty air. So, a fight is imminent between Wang Wei and them sooner or later.
Although Li Jun escaped the pain and misery of the desert, Wang Wei did not. Soon, 13 days passed, and Wang Wei was still walking.
All people could see on the screen outside of the Pagoda was a skeleton with worn out clothes walking in the endless desert.
Soon, the skeleton's body started to decompose into the tiniest of sand particles blowing away by the desert wind.
Wang Wei was ejected out the pagoda after a thirteen days arduous journey of non stop walking.
It took Wang Wei a few moments to process the fact that he had escaped the endless desert.
In this brief moment, a great change had occurred to Wang Wei. In his mature and wise eyes, you could notice an iron will of determination.
A will that could make even the most ruthless man tremble.
A will that could inspire courage, dedication, and foolish bravery to all his allies.
A will that could instill fear in the heart of his enemies--even if he was the Devil itself.
After Wang Wei regained his composure, he scanned at all the disciples that were looking at him. Everywhere his eyes went, the majority of the people put their head down out of fear, while the rest looked at him with reverence.
Soon afterward, Wang Wei passed out and started to fall down. However, before he hit the ground, his father appeared out of nowhere, caught him and immediately left.
. . .
In a mountain floating in air, there was a very large resident made entirely out of wood. The houses were separated by equal distances. If you look at it from high above, you would notice that they make some kind of natural geometric pattern.
The vast spiritual energy engulfed the entire mountain in the form of mist bringing a touch of ethereal and immortal like atmosphere.
All the people in this mountain were dressed in a material-like silk robe that is perfectly tailored to their body shape and size.
This place is the Main House of the Wang Family, where Wang Wei and his family live. Inside the main hall, Sect Master Wang Tian and his wife were standing together, looking at their young son who was still in a coma.
Wang Wei's mother said worryingly: "Why do we have to look at our son suffering like this? He's only eight years old."
The Sect Master sighed and responded: "This is the path that he chose. Since he embarked on this road, all we could do is to support him all the way through."
Wang Wei's mother hugged her husband and started crying silently.
It took three days before Wang Wei woke up. He was a little scared afterward. Although he was the one who designed the tests, the specific of the trials were left for the elders to decide.
Wang Wei spent half a month adjusting his emotions and daily life. During this time, he reinforced his drive and ambition to walk the Path of the Emperor. Afterward, he went to find Li Jun to enter the Second Trial.
When Wang Wei saw Li Jun, his face was glowing with excitement. The look on his face conveyed the fact that his life was quite happy the past few days.
"Looking at the shady look on your face, your life should have been moist after the Pagoda Trial."
"Big Brother Wang Wei, what do you mean by shady? That is the face of beauty and success!"
"Heh heh," Wang Wei smirked, then proceeded to smack his head. "Kid, do not be too happy yet. We live in a world where the strong preys on the weak. The only time people are interested in you is when they find you valuable. Do you think passing the First Layer of the Pagoda is enough for the whole Li family to completely value you? Remember, in this world, only strength, only results will give you the status and honor you desire."
After hearing Wang Wei's words, Li Jun immediately recovered from his excitement. As his big brother said, the result he has accomplished now is not enough for him to change his situation.
Now, things look all good, but that was the result of the recent hype of the Pagoda Trial. Once the hype disappears and he has not made new results, although his life would improve slightly, but it would not completely raise his status in the clan.
After pondering these issues, he converged his excitement, and asked: "Big Brother Wang Wei, when are we executing our Big Plan??
Wang Wei looked at him and said: "Wait until you passed the Pagoda Trials and survive the Spirit Road Trial 7 years later, then we will start our plan."
Li Jun nodded and then he became reserve just like he used to be. Noticing the change in temperament of his little brother, Wang Wei nodded in satisfaction while heading to the Pagoda.
As he walked toward his destination, Wang Wei started thinking about the day he met and became friends with Li Jun.
At that time, he was three years old. He had just awakened a new ability.
When he was three years old, Wang Wei discovered that his eyes could see an illusory dragon on top of people's head. The dragons were of different size and color. The colors being red, orange, yellow, gold, and purple.
Even he himself had a purple dragon above his head. After awakening this ability, he searched in the library and learned that this was a manifestation of Luck.
In this world, Luck is a real and observable thing, as such, the color of the dragon determines the level of luck someone has with red being the worst and purple gold being the highest.
In fact, not everyone has a dragon that represents Luck. According to the knowledge he acquired, luck is divided into carp fish, snake, flood dragon, and true dragon.
The majority of cultivators have the Luck of a snake, as having the chance to cultivate itself is a manifestation of luck.
In this vast world, there are trillions of mortals or ordinary people. Out of these people, probably only 1 out 100,000,000,000 can have the talent to cultivate.
Among these people, the cultivator who can get the title of Heaven Chosen has at least A Golden Dragon of Luck.
As for the highest Purple Golden Dragon, no one--except for Emperor's Direct Descendants--can be born with it. If you want to achieve such a level of luck, certain conditions are acquired to achieve.
When Wang Wei learned about his power, he visited the whole sect to learn about how to use this power.
After many days of observation, he noticed that when the Luck Dragon meets a more powerful one than itself, it is suppressed and becomes dormant. When it is excited, it means a person is going to have a fortunate encounter.
When someone defeats another person in a fight, a part of the luck is transferred to the victor.
Wang Wei noticed Li Jun because he was the only one among the direct descendants of the sects that had a red dragon.
On that fateful day, Li Jun was besieged by a group of kids who were constantly beating him, even though he lied in the ground defenseless.
The reason that Wang Wei noticed Li Jun was not because of him being bullied. In the sect, children's fights were secretly allowed. It was a way to develop the concept of strong prey on the weak at a very young age.
In fact, Wang Wei himself beat a few children in order to establish his status as the boss. As a kid with the mind of an adult, Wang Wei can only secretly say that the process was quite enjoyable.
The reason Wang Wei noticed Li Jun--despite his red dragon luck--was the determination he saw in his eyes and the fact that he did not fight back.
You know kids at their age had no cultivation or training in combat. And Li Jun, who was quite heavy at that time, had many advantages over these kids.
So after the fight, Wang Wei approached him and asked him: "Why did you not fight back?"
"What's the point of fighting back besides adding more unnecessary injuries to me."
After hearing Li Jun's word, Wang Wei immediately understood what he meant. Wang Wei had learned about Li Jun' situation and knew that his bullying had to do with his status in the clan.
If he had a high status like Wang Wei, all he had to do was to beat a few kids to establish his dominance, then things would end. But, in his case, after beating the kids, they would gang up on him and beat him more severely in retaliation. As such, being passive, he would not anger them and receive less injury.
This was not an easy thing for a three year old kid to realize. After all, circumstances and the environment has a major influence on people's growth--especially children.
After noticing that Li Jun was different from other kids, Wang Wei said: "Well, kid, I like your wisdom and bravery. Follow me and be my little brother. In this sect, no one dares to bully my little brother."
"Who are you calling a kid? Furthermore, as far as I am concerned, I am older than you. I should be the big brother."
"What an interesting kid. In that case, let settle this like everyone in the world does. Whoever has the bigger fist is the big brother."
"Well, what you say makes sense."
Afterward, they fought madly like kids, rolling in the dirty ground. In the end, Wang Wei had to rely on a few unsavory tricks to win.
And Li Jun gracefully accepted his status as the little brother.
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