The Sect Leader System-Chapter 279: Depths of Shadow

Zou Tian hesitated before he stepped into the Trials Pagoda, still feeling worried about what would happen. One possibility was greatly positive—he’d be given a trial, and he’d pass it. Two possibilities were as greatly negative. Either he’d be given a trial and fail, or the pagoda would determine that his requested modification did not meet the criteria for offered upgrades.

Basically, he had a one in three chance of a good outcome.

The problem was that so much rode on the result. The Jade Chameleon Sect was surely planning an attack against his sect at the tournament, and while Master said that it was his responsibility to deal with the enemies, Zou Tian knew that only he had a real chance at discovering the details of the Jade Chameleon’s plans.

But he could only accomplish that result if he could hide his cultivation.

He’d gone over his options with Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu. The Nascent Soul had been impressed by how well Zou Tian’s presence was already hidden by Shadow.

That obscuration was not complete, however. Even those in the Foundation Establishment realm only found it difficult to detect him, not impossible. If he added a technique to improve the effect, a Golden Core who had worked hard to develop their spiritual sense would probably still detect him, as would just about any Nascent Soul.

It was possible that a device could help with the situation, and it was likely that Master could create such a thing. Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu, however, had never heard of any device being so good that it would hide a cultivator’s presence from literally anyone.

When asked if Master might shatter those expectations, Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu had shrugged. “The sect leader is an amazing craftsman in addition to his other talents. Those swords he created were masterworks. If I had to put my life in anyone’s hands to conceal my cultivation, it would be his.”

At that point, Zou Tian had been much relieved, thinking that, regardless of what happened with the pagoda, he had a solid backup plan.

But Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu had continued. “The problem is that I don’t know if such a device can be created by anyone, not even the sect leader. Devices run on qi. No matter how well hidden those emanations are, it’s possible that someone you encounter might detect it. That possibility is probably low, but it’s there.”

Because Master had associated with Zou Tian while they were in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, he’d be under suspicion the moment he walked through the gates. Sect cultivators, partially due to their massive egos and partially because they were constrained by societal convention, would likely overlook a mortal associate of the Rising Tide Sect, but if he were proven to be a cultivator as well, it was likely his death sentence.

Master didn’t want Zou Tian to risk himself in that manner, and honestly, he didn’t want to die, either. As a street rat, he’d faced the possibility of violence every day, and there were times when his circumstances were so bad that he would have been okay with it had he experienced that fate.

His life was not like that anymore. No longer a street rat, he was a valued member of the sect. Even more importantly, he had friends. Most importantly, he had a loved one.

If something happened to him, he couldn’t bear the thought of how Wan Ai would react.

Thus, Zou Tian was left with the Trials Pagoda as his one option to save his fellow sect members without putting himself in an unreasonable amount of danger. It all came down to what happened inside that unfathomable treasure.

He took a calming breath to center himself and entered, striding purposely to the white pedestal and placing his hand on it.

A familiar blue box popped up in front of his eyes.

Welcome to the Trials Pagoda, Disciple Zou Tian. You have the choice of one of the following three trials:

Advance Cultivation or Technique

Add or Modify Qi Aspect

Improve Spiritual Roots

Zou Tian tensed. The moment of truth was upon him. “Esteemed Trials Pagoda, this lowly one requests a trial to modify my qi aspect.”

Disciple Zou Tian, please state the modification you seek to make to your qi aspect.

Luckily, he’d talked to Xun Wu about his experience with a similar trial and was ready for that question.

“Esteemed Trials Pagoda, the lowly one wishes to deepen my affinity with the qi element of Shadow.”

Selection to increase affinity of a qi element requires expenditure of sect resources and approval from Sect Leader Chao Su.

Contacting Sect Leader Chao Su.

Well versed with the process by that point, Zou Tian expected that blue box as well.

Actually, he’d expected a blue box. That the specific blue box had appeared was cause for great celebration. The Trials Pagoda could increase his affinity!

One big potential barrier in his way had been passed.

Sect Leader Chao Su says, “Ouch. Increasing affinity is twice as expensive as when Xun Wu modified his aspect. I’ll accept the cost once, though. Good luck.”

Master’s words had left Zou Tian with a huge decision to make. From past experience, the pagoda gave the trial taker an instant to read the message. No one had ever tried backing out at that point, but he thought that, presumably, he could. He had to consider his options quickly, though, before the pagoda’s magic whisked him away.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The issue raised by Master’s message was that failure didn’t only mean that Zou Tian might have more problems passing the next time. It meant he was wasting sect resources and that he might not get a second opportunity.

Should he continue and risk those mysterious and limited resources that Master was so concerned about, or should he back out?

The fact that Master was willing to spend something so presumably valuable on a former street rat was not lost on Zou Tian. His main reason for wanting to take the trial in the first place was to begin paying Master back for all that he had done.

Instead, Zou Tian was going further into debt.

At that point, his only chance of climbing out of the hole was to keep going. If he could just increase his affinity, he might find out enough about the Jade Chameleon Sect to thwart their plans. He’d still owe Master and his sect more than he could ever repay, but those results would be a start.

Definitely a start.

Zou Tian made his choice—to remain silent as he was transported to the world or dimension or wherever it was that trial takers went.

He soon found himself in the same room with the spongy floor and a mirrored wall that he’d arrived in the previous time. And the same unkempt man with the dirty gray robe was also there.

The man waved his arm. An inky patch of blackness appeared on the floor. When Zou Tian looked at it closer, he saw that the oval was actually different shades of gray, starting very light in the part nearest him and turning to black at the far end.

“Advance into the field as far as you are able,” the old man said. “You may stop and rest whenever you wish. Stopping will halt the experience, but you can re-start simply by continuing forward. A single even partial step backward, however, ends the trial.”

That explanation was, by quite some amount, the most lengthy and comprehensive of all the ones received by trial takers thus far. That difference wasn’t the only one, though, and not the more important. No, that honor went to the fact that his current trial would not give apparently infinite chances. If he stepped back for any reason, it was over.

Failure didn’t depend solely on not giving up. A momentary slip would cause a disastrous result.

Perhaps that was why the explanation was so much more detailed.

With the message given, the old cultivator disappeared, leaving Zou Tian on his own to face the trial. He stared at the oval.

There didn’t appear to be much to it—simply an oval on the floor with a gradient grayscale painted on it. The old man had referred to it as a field, but it wasn’t any longer than Zou Tian was tall.

He should be able to cross it in two or three strides at most, maybe one if he really exaggerated how far he thrust his leg out.

One didn’t have to have much experience with a Trials Pagoda to understand that passing probably wouldn’t be that easy, and when one had gathered stories from literally everyone in the sect that had tried the pagoda so far like he had, there was absolutely no doubt that it wouldn’t be so easy.

Thus, he approached the oval cautiously, barely extending just the tip of his toe into it initially.

Instantly, he was transported to a different world, one of light and shadow. All around him was bright yellow light. It warmed him, feeling just like being in the sun on a warm summer day.

Before him was a field of shadow, light at first and descending into blackness as dark as a cloudy night. The end could have been a matter of mere yards away or miles. Tens of miles. There was no way to tell, no scale, at least from the outside looking in.

As he stared into the distance trying to figure out how far it might be, the darkness called to him. Resonated with him.

Maybe the trial wouldn’t be too difficult after all.

His first step into the lightly shadowed space was simple. There was no resistance. Nothing hindered him at all. He simply stepped as if walking on a regular level grass field.

Zou Tian took several more steps with the same results, each bolstering his confidence. After his sixth step, he stopped, though he wasn’t sure why he did so. Where he was just felt … right. Something about the amount of light remaining.

No. Not the amount of light. The amount of shadow. The amount of Shadow.

Yes. That was exactly what he was feeling. His current affinity. Thus far, he’d only been transversing the amount of affinity he already possessed.

Once he’d stepped inside the Shadowed zone, the scale grew somewhat easier to discern, and by looking back and comparing that distance to what was ahead, he believed he’d thus far made it maybe twenty percent of the way. Twenty-five at the utmost.

When he started his next step, he knew things would change. There would be resistance of some kind, but there would also be an accompanying increase in his affinity.

He just needed to hold fast and keep advancing as far as he could into the depths of Shadow.

Zou Tian was right. Things did change. There was resistance.

First came the pressure. It was like a weight pressing down on his body, much like the experience of being in Master’s Gravity field.

It wasn’t physical, though. His robe wasn’t affected. Nor his hair. The pressure was real just the same.

As the sole of his foot came to a rest, the good news was that the pressure disappeared. The bad news was that was when the pain hit. It felt like something was penetrating his skin all over his body, and it hurt. A lot. He’d experienced the increase in his spiritual roots that Master awarded after the beast tide. The current level of pain had nothing on that agony.

If that initial level of pain was to be the extent of what would be experienced, Zou Tian could handle it. Easy.

Once again, he seriously doubted it would be anywhere near that simple. And unfortunately, he was again right.

When he stepped forward again, the pressure reappeared, and as he’d expected, it was more intense, harder to push through. And when his foot reached a resting point, the pain was that much more intense as well.

With each step, the pressure and the pain grew. By his fourth step, he raised his right hand close to his eye. From what he was feeling, he expected to see a bloody mess as something was surely penetrating his flesh and must have been tearing it to shreds.

There was no blood, though. The only change was that his skin appeared … darker, maybe? It was difficult to tell with the lack of light.

After another two steps of pushing through almost impossible pressure and enduring excruciating pain, he felt he was maybe halfway through the field. Maybe a little less. Definitely not more.

If he was right, he probably just doubled his affinity. That was a good result. He could quit, right?

But would that much Shadow absolutely shield him even from a Nascent Soul cultivator? He didn’t know. To be safe, he should keep advancing until he literally couldn’t move a step further.

One more step. Two. Three.

The pressure was like one of the sect’s big pavilions had been dropped on his shoulders, and he had to carry it with him. The pain had eclipsed increasing his roots two steps ago.

He was surely at two and a half times his original affinity. No one, not even Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu, would fault him for stopping.

But Zou Tian would fault himself.

Another step. And another.

He had to face facts. There was no possible way he was reaching the end. Such was not achievable by the current him. Even if he could somehow will himself to endure the ridiculous level of pain, the pressure was becoming more than his body could physically push through.

Most of the trials that sect members went through were designed to teach them a lesson. Once they learned the lesson, they passed.

He was almost positive the current one was different. It wasn’t trying to teach him how to endure pain. There was no lesson about Shadow qi.

If he was right, the trial was actually cramming an affinity for Shadow into him somehow. The pressure was overcoming the resistance to push into the next percent increase. The pain was the actual reward for overcoming the pressure as the Shadow entered him to increase that affinity.

His body couldn’t withstand much more. It was truly impossible for him to reach the end.

That thinking gave him the out he needed. Since he couldn’t go all the way, surely almost tripling his original affinity was fine.

Great. Since that thought had crossed his mind, he couldn’t quit there. It would be giving up.

One more step…