Thousand Forms Technique

Li Zhu stared at the chest in front of him for a while, before finally deciding to open it. One never knew what could happen in trials such as these, so Li Zhu did not doubt the possibility that the chest could be a trap, and could very well injure him.

Still, his curiosity took the best of him, and he opened the wooden chest, the lid of which was covered in a thick layer of dust, having stayed unopened for a very long time.

The inside of the chest was surprisingly quite empty, and there was only one small book, occupying about one fourth of the space available.

Although he was slightly confused at the reason such a large chest had been used, Li Zhu picked up the book with excitement, eager to see what the reward for beating the first trial was. The book's cover was tattered, and the pages were yellow, sign that it had been written long before the present times.

"Thousand Forms Technique: Volume one" Li Zhu read from the cover, intrigued. He then dived deep into reading the entire book, and at each page he grew more excited.

The Thousand Forms Technique allowed one to change their appearance, which Li Zhu desperately needed if he was going to meet people from stronger countries, who would recognize his face from past tournaments, regardless of whether he was a summoner or a swordsman.

The book in Li Zhu's hands was only the first part of the technique, and later books would allow him to change the aura around him and even his bone structure, if he wanted to fool even the most attentive experts.

'I should practice now, in case I need it when I leave the inheritance!' thought Li Zhu, expecting that if he actually won the inheritance, attention would be on him, and that would increase the chances of his identity being exposed.

With this thought in mind, Li Zhu sat down on the cold floor of the room, and began to follow the instructions in the book. Learning a new skill was not an easy feat, but Li Zhu was not particularly worried about how much time it would take, since nothing had been said about how long the inheritance trials lasted.

As for the week and a half he had spent in the desert, Li Zhu was now aware that it had all been an illusion, and although he had no idea how much time had passed since the start of the trials, it could not have been more than a day.

The Thousand Forms Technique was divided into three levels, the first of which was described in the book Li Zhu had, Volume One. Each level then had three stages, namely beginner stage, skilled stage and master stage. Each stage expanded the possibilities of changing one's appearance, and increased the believability of the disguise.

Li Zhu was quite used to learning new skills, but in his time as the crown prince he had never really explored the world of illusions, so each page of the book took him a long time to fully understand, and bring into practice. After all, one could not be good at everything, and Li Zhu was born to be a swordsman, with unparalleled talent in swordsmanship, not illusions.

Still, in this second attempt of his to grow into a powerful expert, Li Zhu was willing to explore more options, since he was beginning to understand that variety was important in fighting, since it made it harder for an enemy to predict the next attack.

The first volume of the Thousand Forms Technique was not too long, and after about a day, Li Zhu had already reached the beginner stage of the skill. He could now only change the appearance of his face, and not drastically. Still, if one did not suspect that he was Jian Long in the first place, they would not be able to make the connection between him and the crown prince.

"It's time to start the second trial!" announced Li Zhu, mostly speaking to himself, as the room was completely empty.

And with that, Li Zhu stepped through the door to enter the next trial. His face looked different, but anyone who knew him well would probably realize he was in a disguise.

The moment his foot stepped through the door frame, Li Zhu disappeared from the room, as the environment around him changed. He was now in a vast, stone room, with massive pillars holding up a dome of crystals. There were a few disciples walking around from place to place in the room, seemingly waiting for something to happen. They were apparently the few who were able to pass the first trial, and judging from the fact that there were about thirteen people remaining from the initial thirty one, the trial had been tough for everyone.

Li Zhu did not have to wait long to find out what everyone was waiting for, since shortly after he had entered the room, the voice that had come from the statue reappeared, announcing, "All participants that have passed the first trial have now arrived, so the second trial can begin!"

Noticing a few people looking at him, Li Zhu awkwardly smiled, realizing they had been waiting for him to arrive. Still, he was sure that other people practiced the skills they won, so the waiting time should not have been that long.

"This second trial will test your strength, your strategic skill, and your comradery. For this purpose, you all will be paired up, except for one person, in the case that there is an odd number of participants remaining. You will be matched with another person randomly, and transported into a vast illusion world. In that world, there will be a total of one hundred Soul Crystals, which all of you will have to find. In the span of five days, each team will try to collect as many crystals as possible, in anyway possible. This, of course, includes fighting other teams to steal their crystals."

'This could become violent very fast!' thought Li Zhu, who realized there would be teams that simply went around the world, stealing from anyone they came across. Also, the voice had not stated that killing was prohibited, so there was bound to be some deaths, especially since the members of the different sects were not exactly on good terms.

As Li Zhu thought about the potential danger of the trial, the voice continued, "You will all be given a map which indicates where the crystals are at all times. This encourages fighting, since a team with many crystals will be hunted down by everyone. At the end of the five days, the amount of crystals a team has determines the quality of the treasures they receive. People with less than ten crystals will fail the trial, but may keep the crystals they found. Finally, this is a team trial, and both team mates need to last five days, and stay together. That explains the basics of the trial, but there will be some surprises awaiting you... may the trial begin!"

As those words rang out, everyone felt as though their body was floating, before the scene changed completely.

When Li Zhu opened his eyes, a clear sky was his first sight, before realizing that he was lying in a patch of grass. Not far from him, there was a piece of paper, presumably the map that would help him track down soul crystals.

"Hurry up, kid, it is already bad enough that I need to be paired up, let alone with someone who is so slow!" as Li Zhu was taking his time standing up, these harsh words woke him up, causing him to turn around.

There, a young woman was staring at him with disdain, while holding up her map.

'Bo Ai! My luck is really bad this trial!' Li Zhu thought, recognizing the young woman as the heir to the Myriad Soul Palace. Although she was a powerful team mate to have, she was simply too arrogant, and would be a pain to work with. Since this was a team trial, Li Zhu had no doubt that their ability to work together would be tested, so having Bo Ai as his team mate was not a good result for him.

"What are you looking at, let's go! You can just follow me, and I will do the fighting!" said Bo Ai, before walking away.

"What are you saying, we're both at the qi gathering realm!" replied Li Zhu, noticing that Bo Ai's cultivation had been restricted, probably to make the trial more fair. After all, Ts'ui Ru was looking for someone talented, not someone with a higher cultivation due to their background. In most inheritance trials the cultivation of participants was restricted, to allow for younger or poorer cultivators to have the same chance at winning as everyone else.

Still, Bo Ai had an advantage over other people in the qi gathering realm, because having reached the core consolidating and even the golden core realm, she had much finer control of heavenly energy.

Bo Ai simply rolled her eyes at his comment, before looking down at her map, in search of some close soul crystals. The more crystals they found at the start of the trial, the less they would need to hunt down other teams.

'This trial will be interesting!' thought Li Zhu, somewhat dreading the next five days of having to deal with Bo Ai.