Chương 79: Chapter 78 – The Challenger Unmasked

"So you mean to tell me that the mysterious 'Challenger', the one everyone has been searching for, the one who stirred up the entire sect like an anthill that's been kicked, has been you all along?!" Hua's incredulous disbelief was rather entertaining for Ren to watch. This was the very first time he had revealed his identity to anyone, and he was glad it was his brother who found out first.

"I honestly didn't expect it to garner such attention. By the time we returned from the Moon Elder's inheritance trial, it was already beyond my control. I found myself atop the tiger, and it was impossible to get off. I was even gaining some things from it. So I kept making more challenges, and the rest you already know." Ren explained. Hua was silent for a few breaths. Then he looked at Ren and said, "I have always respected you for swimming against the river when it came to your upbringing.

Today, that respect has grown even deeper. You are a good man, Zhao Ren, and I am proud to call you my brother!" Ren was taken aback by the sudden, sincere praise and couldn't help but blush and mumble thanks. Then to deflect the attention from himself, he offered to show Hua the 4th challenge he had made since it would be of particular interest to him. Indeed, the 3rd wasn't very suited to Hua. The 3rd challenge he had designed was around the concept of alchemy.

Ren had initially planned to use the yin flame as a sort of endurance test, but the flame wasn't nearly hot enough to be used in that manner. Since Ren mainly used it for forging and alchemy, he changed his approach and settled on the alchemy challenge. He took the various steps of alchemy and created a challenge for each one. First, the trial taker would have to identify herbs. Ren had used information jade slips and illusion formations to recreate images of the herbs along with a faint hint of their qi signature.

The jade allowed him to display hundreds of different herbs he had thought were necessary for a good foundation. Then he tested their knowledge of combining herbs. He had created dozens of sets of 5 herbs, and the trial taker would have to select the 3 most appropriate herbs that would work well together for one of the common recipes found freely in the library. Most would be stumped by what made the best pairings, but that was part of foundational knowledge in Ren's opinion.

Without knowing the best pairings, conflicting energies would only bring down the quality of the resulting pill. It had taken a lot of study on Ren's part to create this portion of the trial. While it was easy to implement through arrays, it would have been mortifying to be wrong about any of the answers. The final portion of the challenge was about flame control. A necessary part of alchemy was precisely controlling the heat and the melding energies within the cauldron.

Unable to think of a way to mimic the energies of the cauldron, Ren had settled for testing just the flame control. It required the trial taker to manipulate a simple flame through a series of complex exercises. The best part about the trial was that it was a compound trial. The various parts all held weight in the end. If you performed poorly in one section, you could make up for it in another. It reflected the realities of pill making, where lacking knowledge could be made up for with pure skill and vice versa.

Ren had used a similar scoring system as the 2nd challenge but set a very high requirement for success. Because though one could cover for one's weaknesses, the ideal should still be to strive for perfection. While Ren hoped that was the lesson the challenge imparted, he couldn't deny that he was also trying to restrict the number of winners. After all, the reward he had assigned for this challenge was an ember of his Ossiferous Yin flame!

The ember was still recovering after he had split it from the one on his mountain. If he split it into even smaller fragments, it would take longer to recover. He had left an enormous pile of bone for the ember to feed on until the challenge was discovered. He only needed to last till then because of the requirement he had placed. Similar to the previous trial where they had to bring a seed, if one wanted to participate in the challenge, they had to submit bones from spirit beasts.

Hopefully the number of attempts would provide the ember plenty of bones to consume. To ensure security, Ren had completely hidden the flame and only revealed it to the rare victors when he awarded them a small spark. They would likely know its value and not spread the word to others. Ren had repeatedly reinforced the same lessons of curbing one's greed across most of the challenges. He could only trust that it had sunk in if someone reached this far from the very first challenges.

Ren and Hua were flying to the location of the 4th challenge when Hua finally asked a question. Ren had seen the inner conflict in Hua raging ever since they had taken off. He already had an idea of what it might be about, so he kept quiet and waited patiently. He was proven right when Hua asked,"Is this why you pursue so many different skills and professions? For the challenges? You don't have to answer if you don't want to!" He looked a little apprehensive.

Ren understood that it was because he had implied the challenges had ties to his cultivation. It was considered taboo to ask about one's cultivation. Such secrets were only revealed to one's closest people, such as dao partners. But he didn't mind answering this question because it skirted the main topic of his cultivation. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"It's the other way around. I originally liked learning new things that I then used to create the challenges. I like trying my hand at different skills. You know how long cultivators can live. I never expected to have advanced as much as I have. Now even core formation isn't out of the realm of possibility, and that is said to grant over 500 years of lifespan! More if one practices body cultivation. I just thought that with so much time, no profession is out of reach." Ren clarified.

"The first challenges were also about testing my own skill. To put what I had learned to practical use. After they gained popularity, I tried to avoid repeating similar trials. That way, I trained the new skills I acquired while creating the next challenges." Hua looked impressed again. He replied seriously, "I know what you mean by the increased lifespan. Unless I get killed, I will already outlive even my youngest sister back home.

Master said that no disciple of his would remain at the foundation realm, but that just made me sadder. When he saw that, he gave me some perspective when he told me that the sword takes even longer than that to truly master! Heh. That old fart can be kind when he wants to. Now, I want to see how far my sword can take me." Their profound conversation was undercut by all the annoyed squeaking from the traitorous tortoise that had abandoned Ren for Hua, whom it was now urging to fly faster.

Ren could only shake his head and laugh. To taunt the fickle little tortoise for switching rides, Ren engaged his second fastest speed and raced ahead of Hua. Hua tried his best to catch up; his flying sword wasn't good enough. When he started to slow, a small gust of wind pushed him forward for an instant, but he was already falling behind. When they landed, Ren turned his nose up to mock the frustrated tortoise that was stomping its tiny legs on Hua's head.

It made for a hilarious image because Hua didn't even notice it. His gaze had been captured by the challenge amidst the rocky area they found themselves in. Before him, laid out in increasing size, were a series of boulders and large hunks of metal. For the 4th challenge of the inner sect, Ren had created a pure strength challenge. Inspired by his growing strength from his body cultivation, he had gathered up the densest materials he could find to provide an appropriate challenge. The trial taker's task was simple.

Lift the stone above their head. If successful, they could proceed to the next stone. If they succeeded in lifting every single one, they could leave their names on a special stone at the end. Those who could lift all but the last 3 boulders would still be added to the stone to record their valiant attempt. Ren wasn't ashamed to say that technically, even he couldn't complete this challenge. He had enhanced the weight of all the rocks and metals as much as he could.

But even before he had applied the arrays, he couldn't lift the last 3 boulders. He had found this area while exploring and hunting, and the enormous boulder that captured his attention was still exactly where he found it. The boulders preceding it had been slowly leveraged into their current location, but Ren couldn't even move that last one. Ren was very aware that unlike his other proficiencies, he wasn't a pure body cultivator.

If he set the challenge according to his own standards, then he would be insulting all those disciples who had pushed themselves beyond his stage. The final boulder was estimated to be around 45, 000 to 50, 000 jin. It neared the theoretical limit of the peak of the Organ Reinforcement Realm.

If someone lifted that while at the 6th layer of the foundation realm, the limit of this challenge, they were either extremely talented in both forms of cultivation or they had given up on qi cultivation to focus on their bodies. Either one deserved respect. After breaking through to the Organ Reinforcement Realm, he wanted to try testing his current limits. He approached the first rock. The smallest rocks were easily lifted over his head, but Ren knew better than to become overconfident.

The hidden pitfall of the challenge was that it only counted if every rock was lifted, from first to last. If not careful, you would arrive at later rocks exhausted, unable to lift rocks that you might have otherwise. Ren made his way through and reached the third to last rock, which weighed around 8000 jin. His arms and back were already burning, and his legs shook. Without his improved blood bringing more qi to his trembling muscles, he might have already fallen over.

But he could feel his heart struggling to pump the blood fast enough. His stomach ached from the strain of lifting all those boulders above his head. The very organs he would have to improve during his current body cultivation realm. But Ren pushed himself and began heaving up the rock. With arms that trembled like thin trees in a storm, he held the rock above his head for a single breath before letting it fall with a boom that briefly lifted him off the ground.

Utterly exhausted, he crawled over to where Hua was eagerly waiting his turn. He stretched to warm up his muscles and then began. A cultivator's realm was discernible through divine sense, but a body cultivator's realm was harder to perceive. Even at the 3rd layer of the 7 total layers of his sensory technique, Sky Piercing Divine Sense, Ren could only judge based on experience that the levels of energy he detected in Hua's body were close to his own, though a bit lower.

He was still in the Marrow Cleansing Realm and, as such, could not yet lift the third to last boulder. His tall and muscular frame didn't exactly play a big role in the strength he could draw on. Body cultivation didn't work that way. In the initial phases, it had a small impact on the natural body, but by the 2nd or 3rd layer, that difference was negligible. Once he finished his attempt, he didn't add his name to the rock at the end.

Knowing how his brother's honor worked, he probably thought since he didn't discover the challenge himself, he didn't deserve to put his name on it. Ren chose not to comment on it because nothing he said would change Hua's mind. Instead, he just said, "Let's go back for some tea. I recently made some wonderful tea from the root of a spirit herb I found. Let's also call over Mei Ling and Xi Yuan. It might just be the last chance we get to meet before the selection trials begin.

And on the way I'll tell you the idea I've been toying with to use for the 5th challenge. It's a little whimsical, but it should be fun!"