Chương 62: The Rewards and the Return

Lying on the branches, An felt the point in the sky suddenly disappear. Realizing that the cultivator had most likely left, he exhaled and removed his hands from his eyes, staring for a long time at the spot where that point had been.' I clearly felt a gaze on me... that's not good...' Lost in thought, he slightly accelerated the healing of his wounds.

Spending the entire night between slow healing and cultivation cycles, he lay on the branches and watched as the sun rose over the treetops into the sky, painting everything around in shades of orange. Watching the rising sun, he could hear in the distance the sounds of waking beasts and birds.

Turning his head, he surveyed the area around the lake, where the entire ground had been dug up and fertilized with the already dried blood of the beasts that had been ground to pulp by the barrier, all because of the trio sitting by the lake, laughing and telling stories around a campfire. Suddenly, he felt a vibration in his pocket. Taking out his plaque, he realized that the mission time was over, and soon he would be able to return home. Whoosh!

Blinded, he felt the Qi around him change, and he was teleported back. Opening his eyes, he frowned. Instead of the Sect's northern gates, where he should have appeared, he had been moved to a strange black room, where three people stood nearby, with their eyes still squeezed shut.

"Ah!" Opening his eyes, Mo Fan heard Mi Mili's exclamation. Turning toward her, he noticed that Shepor Dunt was looking in a certain direction with a strange expression. He threw a glance at Mili, who had her hand over her mouth and was staring with wide eyes in the same direction. Turning to where they were both looking, he froze. To the side stood one of their group members, the one who had abandoned them twice. But what shocked Mo Fan was this disciple's appearance.

His skin and hair had been torn from his head, through which his skull was visible in some places. His face was broken, with a torn nose and huge chunks missing all over, without part of his lower lip. A healing hole on the side of his throat, completely covered in dried dark blood. Broken bones protruded all over his bare torso, and deep, ragged holes in his flesh were still in the slow process of fusing. His arms and legs were twisted and broken, also with bone fragments protruding.

All over his body, huge cuts and areas with torn flesh. Seeing this half-walking corpse before them, all three didn't know what to say, lost in the moment.' I hope my appearance isn't too strange... I probably should have accelerated the external regeneration a bit...'

Standing in place, enveloping himself in Qi to keep his still-fusing limbs in place, An, feeling their gazes on him, tried not to pay attention to them, not throwing even a single glance in their direction, resorting to the logic of 'if I don't see anyone, then no one sees me.'" Um... How are you feeling? Are... are you alright?" Mili took a step forward and asked politely. Woosh! The moment she asked, light suddenly flooded the room, interrupting her.

Before them stood a table, and behind that table stood one figure, enveloped in white light, soft, not blinding, and two figures in black hooded robes, completely hiding their faces.

"Group 214. Four passed the trial. Highest score: Inner Disciple Mo Fan. Lowest score: Outer Disciple An." Hearing the name of their fourth member, they threw glances at him.

"Total trial score: 6143 points. Overall group ranking... First." A mechanical voice continued to announce the results. Hearing first place, everyone was happy, except for An. He lowered his head and closed his eyes.

"The reward for first place in the trial will be received through your personal Sect disciple plaques." Immediately, the plaques of the three began to vibrate. Unable to resist, they looked at the information contained within them. Seeing their rewards, they immediately rejoiced, understanding that all their suffering had not been in vain, especially for such rewards.

"Amendment one: By unanimous decision of the authorized circle, candidate 2302 has been excluded from the reward pool." Hearing this, all three thought about it, and realizing something, simultaneously looked at An, who stood in place with his head slightly lowered and his eyes closed. Looking at him, Mili couldn't understand how he could remain so calm after the verdict they had just heard, after being denied the reward, after everything he had been through, judging by his appearance.

"Candidate 902, Inner Disciple Mo Fan, is hereby designated a core disciple. By decree of Sect Leader Gu Bai."

"Candidate 1832, Inner Disciple Shepor Dunt, and Candidate 2490, Inner Disciple Mi Mili, are permitted to undergo the trial for core disciple status."

"Candidate 2302, Outer Disciple An, by unanimous decision of the authorized circle, is excluded from the list of candidates." Standing with his head lowered, An smiled, understanding that he would most likely be able to avoid such future ' trials' from the Sect, by showing such a poor result. Realizing that he could finally live and cultivate in peace, An could not help but smile wider. Standing nearby, Mili looked at An's face with melancholy in her eyes, pitying him and his fate of being rejected by his own Sect.

But the moment she saw how his eyes suddenly began to faintly glow, literally, and his crooked, toothless smile, she felt uneasy, experiencing the same sensation as at the gorilla's carcass, a primal fear trying to break out from within. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. She immediately averted her eyes from him and tried to calm down. The figure enveloped in white light noticed the changes in An's behavior.

Throwing a glance at him, he tilted his head slightly, lost in thought.

"Amendment two: By decree of Sect Leader Gu Bai, the first-place group will receive additional rewards."

"Amendment one to amendment two: Only candidates 902, 1832, and 2490 are eligible. Candidate 2302 is excluded by unanimous decision of the authorized circle." As soon as the mechanical voice finished, An felt the plaque in his hand begin to vibrate. Understanding the reason, he simply closed his eyes. Whoosh!

Waiting for the flash to pass, he opened his eyes and realized he had been transported back to his old spot, next to the tree he had been leaning against before the teleportation altars had appeared out of nowhere. The moment he was transported, a wave of noise surrounded him from all sides. All the disciples participating in this trial, more precisely, all those who had survived, simultaneously began to appear around him. Everyone around began discussing what had happened to them.

Some just sat and wept, others, with heads held high, immediately left or flew away on artifacts, unwilling to let anyone see them in such a disheveled state. Seeing no reason to linger, he activated his Qi Legs and Qi Clouds and headed toward Hope Peak, toward his home. …. Arriving at the gate, An entered and immediately a fat rooster shot out of his burrow, barely fitting through its entrance." Bawk!"

Only his head was sticking out of the burrow, looking with big frightened eyes at the man with a broken body from head to toe.

"It's me..." he said quietly, seeing the rooster's reaction." Bok-bok?" Realizing who was before him, Baldi crawled out of the burrow and slowly approached him, still not fully understanding why the man before him suddenly looked like this and smelled like a monkey. Waiting for the bird to approach him, he bent down and patted him on the head.

"You're getting too fat, soon it won't just be the entrance to the burrow that's too small, but the burrow itself..." Straightening up, he began teasing the bird." Cluck. Bwawk!" Offended, Baldi stretched his head upward and returning to his burrow widened the entrance several times with a few movements. Having completed the modifications, he straightened up again, and turning his head slightly to the side, not looking at An, snorted and began stomping his foot at the entrance." Heh... Fine, fine...

Here, take this!" An pulled out two second-rank fruits and threw them toward Baldi. Sensing the power of the fruits, greed overshadowed all the offense. Abandoning everything, he jumped and intercepted both fruits in midair. Crashing to the ground without even dusting himself off, he ran into his hole, clucking louder and louder. Sitting on the shore, he untied his pouch from the rope and took out a change of clothes.

Discarding all his torn clothes, more precisely, torn pants, that was all that remained of his encounter with the demonic barrier, laying out the clothes next to himself, he closed his eyes and activated his regeneration to the maximum. All the Qi around began to stir, creating conflicts around him. Even the air itself began to emit sounds accompanied by small flashes. Right before his eyes, his body was returning to normal.

Old bones and dead chunks of flesh and skin dissolved and were absorbed by his own body, creating new bones, skin, and flesh. His regeneration was so fast that the ground around him began to turn black, from the escalating conflicts, even the air became so heavy that the water a few meters away receded, exposing the bottom of the shore. After a few dozen minutes, even Baldi came out of his burrow, and quickly, holding both fruits in each wing, ran to another part of the plot, away from the shore." Hmm."

Finally, the process ended, and the Qi around him returned to order. An opened his glowing eyes and exhaled a huge cloud of green Qi. The moment it left him, this cloud began to fall around him, triggering a chain reaction. All the blackened earth burst into bloom. Immediately, plants of different shapes and colors began to sprout from the soil.

Standing on another part of the plot and seeing what was happening around An, and feeling this cloud of Qi, a cloud rich in vitality, rich in life, Baldi, along with the fruits, ran into this cloud. Having reached it, he held both fruits up high, so that more of this energy would fall on them. Standing like a fool and holding the fruits, he didn't notice that a pair of glowing green eyes were watching his actions.' Does he think this will work?'

Tilting his head slightly, An shifted his gaze to the fruits in the rooster's wings.' Oh... It actually is working!' Reading the Qi from the fruits, he understood that they had indeed absorbed and been enriched by his Qi, but only by a few percent, not anything significantly. Lost in thought, he turned to the plants he had planted, and saw that all the sprouts that had broken through the soil had bent over, greedily absorbing the Qi from this cloud.' Hmm...

This cloud that I exhale, is all due to the accumulation and excess of Qi in the body. During regeneration, during breakthroughs, the accumulated Qi overflows and begins to destroy my body, and when my regeneration activates, this excess mixes with my vitality and is expelled from my body through breathing and pores in the skin.' Having understood the reason for this cloud, he realized that it posed no threat to him and didn't harm him.' By the way... I need to shave completely, so my hair is even...'

Touching his half-bald head, he smiled and, activating his Qi, removed all the hair from his head. After examining his bald head, he touched his neck and felt the brand.

"Even after a chunk of meat with this brand on it was torn from my neck... It still healed and appeared again." Creating a water mirror floating before him, he tilted his head so it was clearly visible. Creating a Qi Blade, he pressed the blade to his neck.' Eh... Too bad I can't convert my Qi into second-order elements. Otherwise, I'd freeze my neck right now, so I wouldn't feel the pain…' Clenching his teeth, he began to cut the brand from his neck.

With a pale face and trembling hands, barely holding back from the pain, he could only cut off a quarter of the area he needed. Holding back his screams, he pulled back the cut skin, and with one sharp movement, cut off a huge piece of skin and flesh from his neck, completely removing the brand.

Having destroyed the piece in his hand, he immediately gave a mental command to heal, but constantly repeated the thought in his head: ' Don't restore the brand. Remove it.' But the moment his wound began to heal, in the water mirror, he immediately saw the outlines of the brand reforming.

"Damn..." The brand had fully restored itself.' If it's not on a physical level, but on a mental level or at the level of Qi itself, then why don't I feel anything from this brand? It can't be that the brand is part of the original code during regeneration… can it?' Realizing that nothing had worked, he had no desire to repeat the process, looking at his trembling hands and feeling the cold sweat continuing to run down his face.

Having removed the water mirror, he began to take out all the second-rank spirit plants.

As for the fruits, he decided not to touch them, and to use them for making his own wine.

"Damn! I forgot!" Just as he started laying out the plants, he remembered about the wine. Specifically, that he had wanted to visit the Scripture Pavilion and find out if there was any information or recipes there for making alcohol. Without thinking long, he gathered everything back into his spatial pouch. Making sure his new clothes fit comfortably, he said a few words to Baldi, and, without lingering, flew out of his plot straight along the path leading to the Outer Platform.