Finally reaching the end of the path, Jun Li came to stand on a clear overlook, carved into the steep mountainside.

  Looking past the crowd of Disciples she had fallen behind from, Jun Li saw that on the other side of the overlook, opposite the trail that led here, there was a short drop that led to a semi-steep slope that appeared to lead all the way down the mountain, through the forest of red trees below.

  ‘The sign in the Outer Sect said the Trial was a race, where to then? The forest below?’ As Jun Li thought about where the goal of the race would be, her attention was suddenly brought back to reality as Elder Shao began to speak. “Let’s see… firstly, let’s go over the rewards for today’s Outer Sect Trial.” As Elder Shao said this, she began to search through the pockets of her robe.

  After a moment, Elder Shao paused before removing her hands from her pockets, empty-handed. “Hmm, I suppose they’re still at the Repository… anyway, there will be three rewards.”

  Elder Shao stepped over to the edge of the overlook and sat down, looking out over the sloping mountainside. “First place will receive a 50-year Blood Ginseng.”

  When Jun Li heard this, she was quite surprised, according to her inherited memories, a Blood Ginseng was a type of Medicinal Herb used in all manner of physical Cultivation styles, even Daoist Cultivators a world away made use of it to refine their physiques, Jun Li could even vaguely recall the Immortal she had inherited her memories from using them in such a way.

  “Second place will receive a 20-year Cloudwood Lingzhi.” Jun Li wasn’t sure what this particular Medicinal Herb was, but still felt confident that it would give her everything she would need to break through to the Late Qi Condensation stage. “And finally, third place will receive a chunk of Purple Jade.”

  In comparison to the first two rewards, Jun Li wasn’t sure if Purple Jade would be enough to allow her to make a proper breakthrough.

  She was close to the bottleneck between the Middle and Late Qi Condensation stages, but wasn’t yet close enough to that bottleneck for it to slow her Cultivation.

  For Jun Li to make a breakthrough now, she would need a Cultivation Resource with not only enough External Qi to break through the bottleneck, but also enough to reach that bottleneck in the first place, something she was confident an aged Medicinal Plant could do, though she held doubts as to whether or not the chunk of Purple Jade would be enough.

  “The objective of today’s Outer Sect Trial is simple, a race to the plain at the base of the mountain.” Elder Shao pointed off into the distance.

  When Jun Li saw where Elder Shao was pointing, she was stunned. The distance from the overlook to the base of the mountain was so great that Jun Li didn’t know if she could run it in 30 minutes, let alone whatever speed this race might demand from her.

  “In the plains, there will be three flags evenly spaced out. When a flag is removed from the ground, a Formation woven into its fabric will display a number, representing the order in which it was removed from the ground.” Elder Shao turned to the Disciples. “Whoever holds a flag at the end of the Trial gets the reward corresponding to its number.”

  Elder Shao stood up and began walking to the center of the overlook. “Alright, step down off the overlook and stand in a line on the mountainside. I’ll declare the start of the race.” As the Disciples made to follow Elder Shao’s instructions, Jun Li was right behind them, jumping down the short drop from the overlook and trying to keep her balance on the somewhat steep mountainside.

  As the Disciples spread out to form a line, Elder Shao spoke from the overlook. “There is just one rule to follow during the race, don’t directly harm any of the other Disciples.” Hearing this, Jun Li realized she hadn’t even thought of the possibility, and now felt forced to consider what forms of ‘indirect harm’ could befall her during the race.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Seeing the disciples had all formed a line, Elder Shao continued. “The race will begin in a few seconds. Try not to get mauled when you’re racing through the Forest of Magical Beasts, okay?” Jun Li looked down the mountain, towards the forest of red trees below, and turned a bit pale, as though the threat of ‘indirect harm’ wasn’t enough to give her second thoughts.

  “Now get ready, the race starts when I say ‘start.’” As Elder Shao began to count down from ten, Jun Li took a breath and prepared herself ‘I hope this works…’

  She braced herself on the mountain with her arms and activated her Movement Technique, which began to twist and sift through the gravel at her feet.

  “-two… one… start!” The moment Elder Shao announced the start of the race, Jun Li pushed off the slope of the mountainside and leaned forward.

  The only thing connecting Jun Li to the mountain now was the semi-solid clouds of her Movement Technique, causing her to begin sliding down the mountain at a speed beyond anything she could have achieved by running.

  Jun Li immediately regretted accelerating to the speed she did, as she now felt she would be unable to stop herself in time to avoid any unexpected obstacles. Some of her peers, on the other hand, seemed to hold no such concerns.

  Ren Liwei sped past her on foot, seemingly using the same Movement Technique he had used in their duel to move both faster and with more control.

  As Ren Liwei passed Jun Li, so did another Disciple follow along behind him, a shorter man with a saber slung over his back.

  Jun Li saw that this Disciple used the same Movement Technique as herself, the Glass Cloud Art, but unlike her, the Disciple seemed to have neither concern nor restraint when it came to his speed and leaned entirely forward, his hands near scraping the ground.

  Seeing first and second place quickly taken out from under her, Jun Li hesitated, but decided to speed up even further, resenting the idea of letting this chance at a breakthrough slip away.

  However, even if Jun Li wanted to speed up, she didn’t have many options, having only a month’s practice with her Movement Technique.

  Seeing even more Disciples begin to overtake her, Jun Li began to panic, trying to find a way to make up for having ever hesitated.

  Jun Li leaned further forward, trying to decipher the factors behind her speed. ‘I’m currently attached to the ground by my Movement Technique, the rotation of which is uncontrollable… due to how little friction the Technique has, I’m effectively sliding forward in a free-fall...’

  Jun Li quickly discovered the factor that most heavily affected her speed. ‘My weight… the heavier I am, the more I’m pulled down, and the more I’m pulled down, the faster I’ll slide down the mountain.’ Despite identifying a key factor in her speed, Jun Li still wasn’t sure how to act on it.

  Even if Jun Li waited until she entered the forest, and even if she miraculously picked something like a heavy branch up off the forest floor, it wouldn’t help her.

  Not only would it disrupt her sense of balance, but the object would also introduce more wind resistance, potentially so much so as to cancel out any benefit its weight would have provided.

  “My weight…?’ Jun Li thought for a moment about the skills she had developed as a Cultivator, realizing she already knew the solution to her problem.

  Normally, Qinggong was a technique used to make the body lighter, in order to lower the strain of running or to allow one to leap great heights, but at this point, Jun Li had very different intentions for the technique.

  ‘I’ve no choice but to try…’ Searching through her memories, both created and inherited, Jun Li quickly found a slow Qinggong breathing technique fit for use in long-term travel and attempted to reverse it.

  Breathing shallowly, Jun Li slowly expelled all the breath in her body, focusing her weight down to the earth.

  For a moment, Jun Li felt as though the air of the mountain was passing by faster and faster. However, after a mere moment of reverse Qinggong breathing, Jun Li felt her lungs begin to burn, and she was quickly forced back to a normal breathing pattern.

  Coughing as she tried to catch her breath, Jun Li found she had overtaken a number of Disciples, though her reverse breathing only lasted a moment.

  Slowly recovering from the painful stresses her reverse breathing had inflicted on her lungs, Jun Li steadied herself and looked forward.

  Ahead, Jun Li saw the forest of red trees ahead, as well as Ren Liwei and the Disciple with the saber on his back, both dashing into the forest without hesitation, despite Elder Shao’s warning of Magical Beasts.

  Seeing their lack of hesitation, Jun Li felt she couldn’t let herself fall behind.

  ‘I have all the tools I need… Now I just need to use them without restraint.’ Jun Li resumed her reverse breathing, pushing forward through the pain.