Everyone witnessed the disrespect Patrick received, but no one cared, because in this world strength meant everything, and a Qi Condensation youth being spoken to like dirt was only entertainment until it stopped being funny. Some disapproved of the announcer's mouth, yet no one said a thing, and Kang Mu saw that silence as he smirked, the scene making him feel slightly better after the beauties had looked through him as if he were weather.
But unbeknownst to everyone, a dark gate opened above the broken world, completely devoid of light, chaos energy swirling inside it like a throat that had learned hunger, and this gate was the Infinite Punishment Gate, which Grace had created to punish those who disrespected Patrick for eternity. Their world was about to be destroyed if not for Patrick, all because of the stupid action of one cultivator who thought a platform gave him height, and the sky over the Ju Capital did not yet know how close it had come to being a memory.
Patrick walked closer to the testing stone while the gate hung unannounced above the clouds, and he slightly raised his pinky, holding it in a flickering position as if he were about to flick dust from a sleeve. Seeing this, the announcer was slightly disappointed in how this person acted, thinking even now the boy was playing, while the Emperor paid close attention, using his spiritual sense to probe this man for any strange signs, and finding, to his irritation, nothing but Qi Condensation sitting there like a lie that refused to confess.
The next moment the man flicked his pinky, and the stone tablet incinerated into dust particles, not cracking, not splitting, simply ceasing to be a tablet at all. The next instant the crowd burst into commotion as many powerhouses stood up to observe this man closely, because usually only the strength of a Spirit Emperor and above could destroy that stone, and even a ninth-stage Spirit King would at most scratch it if they used their full power, so a youth in Qi Condensation turning it to dust meant his strength had walked out of his realm and gone looking for trouble.
"Lord, I think we should bring this person to our sect, he must be cultivating some body-strengthening technique to be able to cause such impossible feats," a man spoke to another while assessing Patrick, and many conversations of that kind went all around the stadium as powerhouses became interested, the once-mocking crowd now completely silent, laughter dying in throats that had been so loud a breath ago.
Patrick had used his pinky and slightly tapped, his main goal being to control his power, but his strength was boundless, and even after restricting himself to the lowest he was still strong, which was the joke of putting an ocean into a cup and asking the cup not to drown. The other candidates lowered their heads in shame, and Kang Mu was the worst of them, almost bursting with anger as he sent a mental message to the elder who had warned him earlier.
"Use this opportunity to call out his abnormal strength and declare him a demon."
The elder received the message but did not take action, because he wanted to see if the Emperor would act first, and a house that moved before the throne moved sometimes found itself without a house. Ju Han saw the impossible feat this man had just done and wanted to act, but if he did many others would also act, especially the sects who were almost on the verge of flying to Patrick to accept him as their disciple, Heavenly Rain and Sunblaze and Beast and the rest of the six already leaning forward in their colored robes. Even after using his spiritual sense he could not find anything strange about Patrick, and his realm was indeed in the Qi Condensation realm, so how did he possess such strength, that question sitting in the Emperor's chest beside the older fear of two Immortals at the Shi residence.
The Emperor became more interested in Patrick, thinking this boy might have a cultivation method for the body far better than the Lesser God Body the Ju line had been smug about for a thousand years, and he smiled as greed filled his eyes, already imagining getting what Patrick possessed and putting it on his own bones. The host stood on the platform with a shocked and panicked face as he regretted his words of disrespect from earlier, changing his perception of Patrick and valuing him now as much as he valued the Emperor, which was a kind of worship that arrived late and therefore looked ugly. He swallowed and continued toward the third phase, because stopping the exam would only make the silence louder.
"The third phase of the competition is the comprehension phase, there are three cultivation methods here, and if you can master them within the given time, which is thirty minutes, then you pass the test, after which you will demonstrate these cultivation skills, the more proficient you are at using them the more points you earn, with the highest being one thousand."
The man pointed to a table with three cultivation books copied fifty times, the conductors having already eliminated most candidates after the second test, fifty left who could still pretend this was a contest. The crowd went into an uproar of gossip and argument over who would win, some arguing over Patrick and the influential families, including Kang Mu, whose five thousand six hundred and nine now looked like a child's scribble next to a pinky.
Patrick was the first to pick this time, walking to the table without hurry as he took the three cultivation books and saw their names, the first called Lightning Dragon Punch, the second Ghost Shadow Steps, and the third Golden Buddha Shield, the most common methods in the empire, sold in stalls for low prices, the kind of trash that made mortals feel like they had begun a legend. Grace's voice rang out the instant his eyes touched the pages, panels unfolding in him the way they always did when the Infinite System was bored enough to be helpful.
[Skills: Lightning Dragon Punch, Ghost Shadow Steps, and Golden Buddha Defense are comprehended.]
[Upgrading skills to the highest stage, God-grade cultivation methods.]
[Upgrade complete. Master, should I add them to skills?]
He heard Grace's question as he replied without looking up from the cheap ink.
"No need, these are trash anyway, I am just trying to understand what mortals go through before fully acquiring immortality."
Kang Mu had a disgruntled expression as he began cultivating the skills, and since fifty candidates were left they could all fit the stage, the next moment all the youths going into a cultivating position with legs crossed except Patrick, who stood over the other candidates as if sitting would be an agreement that this was work. The host saw this and asked in a polite tone, the same mouth that had threatened disqualification now trying to be a brother.
"Why has young brother not started yet?"
The same question was going through everyone's heads, some beginning to assume that maybe Patrick had given up, but from the last test they canceled that thought as quickly as it formed. Patrick heard the man as he turned to answer with a dull gaze, the Infinite Punishment Gate still hanging in a sky nobody was looking at.
"These trashy methods are not worth my attention."
The entire crowd fell into silence as Patrick replied arrogantly, those words echoing the stadium until even the Emperor had a slight grin on his face, because arrogance was a language Ju Han spoke and he liked hearing it in a boy he wanted to own. The host was more confused than ever, having first humiliated this man and then, after the man demonstrated his strength, changed his views, and now not knowing how to approach him at all, like a dog that had barked at a carriage and discovered the carriage was a dragon. Kang Mu and the other candidates were still cultivating, unaware of the commotion, sweat already thinking about appearing on brows that had thirty minutes to become geniuses.
"It is not that I could not use them, but that I already comprehended them seconds after seeing them."
"What, how is that possible?"
"Although these are lower-grade techniques, it should take some time before one fully comprehended them."
The crowd fell into an uproar as people began reasoning that Patrick must be lying, because it should be impossible to comprehend so quickly by just looking, and lying was easier to believe than a pinky that ate a Spirit Emperor's stone. Even though the host had respect for Patrick now he still had doubts about what Patrick had just said, so he turned to the stand where the powerful people sat, including the sect representatives, wanting to see what the Emperor would say, but the Emperor did not show any sign of surprise, which in its own way was more frightening than shock, a man who had been told to retreat once already learning not to gape in public.
He turned back to Patrick and spoke more respectfully, choosing words as if they might cut him.
"Since young brother has comprehended the skills, then we should move to the fourth phase of testing the level of your comprehension."
Athena and Anastasia watched everything while sitting in the air with glasses on, drinking juice like two hot girls on a beach during summer, Athena having introduced modern culture to Anastasia as they got used to each other, sunglasses that this continent had no name for catching light that did not deserve them. They did not clap. They did not lean forward. They drank, and the stands pretended not to stare at the way empty air could be furniture.
The Beast Sect seats in particular had gone tight, because a youth who could dust a Spirit Emperor stone with a pinky was exactly the kind of body they liked to put a collar on and call a disciple, and yet none of them stood, not yet, each waiting for someone else to be the first fool to offer a place to a boy who had not asked for one. Kang Mu sat among that silence with his tiger still somewhere outside the grounds and his engagement to Lou Yan suddenly feeling like a rope instead of a prize, because Lou Yan was watching the training-ground crystals the way she had not watched him, and Moonflower white was already a wall between them.
Down on the sand of the closed ground the three cheap manuals might as well have been blank, Patrick carrying them the way a man carries napkins, and Grace, who had already lifted them to God-grade and been told not to bother filing them, only watched through his eyes as mortals crossed their legs and chased thirty minutes as if time were a beast that could be tamed by sweating. Athena tilted her glass toward Anastasia and said something about beaches that had never existed on this planet, and Anastasia laughed under her breath, gold and silver in the air, two Omni Queens making summer out of a continent that still thought an entrance exam was the center of the world.
The man led Patrick to a training ground, a closed area with crystals installed inside so the people outside could still see, and as they walked the Infinite Punishment Gate turned once in the high dark, patient as a sentence that had not yet been finished, waiting to learn whether a pinky had been enough or whether eternity would still be required for a man who had told a god not to waste his time.