One Year Later
In a cave deep within the forest, an explosion echoed, frightening every animal near the entrance.
"I didn't expect the cave to collapse," Bai Long chuckled as he shrank in size. The truth was, no explosion had occurred. His body had simply grown so large that he crashed into both sides of the cavern at once.
'Time to finally leave this cave,' he thought as he began transforming into a human.
His draconic golden scales shimmered violently as silver light coursed beneath them. Limbs twisted inward, claws melted into streams of energy, and the massive wings folded into nothingness. His dantian flared, golden-silver fire weaving flesh and bone into a new shape. When the light dimmed, a human stood in his place — silver eyes, red hair, jade-like skin, and an aura faintly radiating heat.
Walking out of the cave, he summoned his draconic wings once more and took to the skies.
'I'll first need to locate a city to gather information on the best sects in the area.' After deciding on his plan of action, he flew north. Bai Long travelled for over an hour, passing countless villages that seemed too small to provide any useful information.
'Where are all the major cities? Did I fly in the wrong direction or something?' Just as he considered changing course, something caught his eye — a vast city surrounded by towering stone walls.
'Finally.'
He glided over the walls and tucked his wings away before exploring the city.
Bai Long scanned the walls for any sign of sect recruitments but quickly encountered a major problem — he couldn't understand the language being used. Realising the severity of the situation, he searched his memory for any translation techniques.
'Ah, the Supreme Language Translator Technique.' A peerless method that translated all spoken and written words into the user's native understanding, while rendering their speech understandable to others.
Having mastered it in his past life, and as it was a mental technique, Bai Long required only fifteen minutes to reach the initial mastery stage.
(Mastery stages ranked accordingly: Initial, Novice, Adept, Expert, Perfection, Transcendent, Dao Integration, Perfect Dao.)
Now able to understand the posters, Bai Long noticed that a sect called Sword Manor was holding trials on the twenty-fourth. He turned to the first passer-by and asked what day it was. Although the person looked at him oddly, Bai Long learned it was the twenty-first.
'Now I just need to wait three days, then I'll join Sword Manor.'
Whether he would be accepted or not was never in question — Bai Long had already reached the Spirit Severing Realm, and compared to others at the same level, his strength was overwhelming.
***
Three Days Later
During the three days that followed, Bai Long gathered information about the world he had entered. The realm he was currently in was a lower realm called Shui Yao Zhou, and this city, Eastern Sword Manor City, resided in the eastern part of the continent.
Sword Manor was the top sect in this world, with a branch in each region and the main sect located at the continent's centre. Today, elders from the main branch had arrived to recruit promising talents from the eastern region.
Bai Long made his way to the centre of the city where the trials were being held. Upon arrival, he was surprised to see over a thousand participants. Then again, who wouldn't want to join Sword Manor?
After twenty minutes of waiting, two cultivators arrived, flying in on swords with their auras fully unleashed — a show of intimidation meant to weed out the weak.
While countless people fell to their knees, there were still others who were barely affected.
"Those who couldn't keep their balance are eliminated. Please leave immediately," said one of the two, a man with long hair and an otherwise ordinary face.
As the failed candidates left, Bai Long was struck by how many had been eliminated. The two had only released an aura comparable to the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm.
'Some of these people are middle-aged and still haven't reached the Golden Core Realm... Is this normal across the entire continent, or is the eastern region simply poor in cultivating talent?'
"The next trial will be hand-to-hand combat."