Transformation.

While the king didn't reveal any expression outwardly, inside he was confused. Why am I feeling such affection for two people who I have never even met before? It must be because of the thread. I've only ever felt such affection for one person before, and my life has lost all meaning since she left. Perhaps...I have a new reason to carry on living?

None were privy to the Kings internal thoughts and the banquet proceeded smoothly. gifts were given to the King from each city, valuable yet not too extreme. Wen Hui had also given the group an expensive painting to give when it was their turn.

After the gifts, the king gave a speech reminding the disciples of their loyalty to the kingdom and to train hard at the sect gaining glory for their Kingdom.

This was something that had to be done in order to hide the fact that the King had lost his motivation to run the country, they had forced the King to say his piece.

After that the various disciples chatted and joked, whilst those on the platform talked amongst themselves. The King had his eyes closed after his speech and did not take part in the conversation. Those around him were seniors of the Yun clan, who actually ruled the country.

The Yun clan ran a little differently to normal clans; they had one King, while those of the same generation would be subservient to that person. There was no equal treatment between brothers, status in the clan was absolute. The rules must be followed to the letter, in order to remove conflict and keep them internally stable.

Yet the situation was different now, with the King being useless at the moment. The various bloodlines were now in a behind the scenes struggle to gain more power and influence, and be crowned the unofficial king.

No one had any idea what caused such disinterest within the king yet they didn't care. The king had even isolated himself from his wives and concubines for some odd reason.

The banquet was coming to a close as the sun set outside, and the various disciples were escorted outside respectfully.

Ling Jun and the group returned to the hotel, deciding to sleep in preparation for the hard days to come.

Ling Jun lay in the bed thinking about the King, towards whom the thread had connected. And the affection he had felt towards the King.

***

Within the palace, the King was now sitting alone in his chambers, his lacklustre eyes regaining a hint of life as he contemplated the two kids he had seen before. He though back to his irrational affection towards them. He wondered if they felt the same thing.

He contemplated and soon came to a decision.

Opening the door to his chambers, he stared at the two guards outside. The guards were surprised to see the King leaving his chambers voluntarily. The bowed ninety degrees which was why they didn't see it. By the time they realised something was wrong, they were dead. Two peak soul realm cultivators had died to a measly seventh level Qi realm equivalent cultivator.

Jin Xieren, who was posing as the King, bent down and picked up one guard before removing his armour and putting it on himself. Even as he did so, his skin bubbled before pealing apart and reforming into the exact same appearance of that guard. The guard had all but disappeared, swallowed by Jin Xieren's 'skin'. The other guard was dragged inside the chambers and left there.

Jin Xieren swiftly made his way out of the palace, killing anyone he witnessed on the way, with sneak attacks. After leaving, he made his way to the Blue Phoenix hotel, one of the largest buildings in the capital.

He sneaked into the building by ambushing a disciple who would head to the sect later on. Transforming into that disciple, he re-joined the disciples group, whom he had memorised during his cursory glance in the palace.

He pretended he was feeling sick and went to sleep.

***

The palace was in an uproar. When it was reported that the guards were not present outside his majesties quarters, they decided to investigate. Upon entering the chambers, the dead guard was discovered, a strange wound in his back. It was a round hole in the body as though the weapon used was cone shaped with a point at its tip.

When the officials had seen the wound, they instantly recognised it. It was similar to the wounds found on various people within the palace just before the King fell ill. That event had unsettled the entire Yun clan, as the culprit had never been found.

Had that hidden assailant returned, this time taking the King with him? More bodies turned up later and clues led to them believing that the assailant had only started killing from within the Kings chamber, killing all the way to the exit. Had the killer remained in the palace the whole time? It was a scary thought.

At least the tracks led to outside of the palace, though everyone was still on guard.

Thankfully there was only one qualified candidate to lead the kingdom at the moment. The third prince, who was being raised as the future King, after the other two princes decided to enter the sect. This meant that the country would not be too affected by the loss of the King.

The assailants tracks disappeared after leaving the palace. Jin Xieren had disposed of the body of the disciple he had killed.

However, all this would not have anything to do with the disciples, as they would leave for the sect tomorrow.

***

The next morning, all the disciples, 1129 in total, were gathered in an open circular area. In the middle was a strange portal which flashed with lights. Various soul realm cultivators were powering it.

The various Floating cloud sect disciples gathered their disciples and handed out tokens which were representative of ones qualifications to participate in the examinations.

Ling Jun looked around casually, yet when his eyes landed on a certain disciple they widened abruptly. Jin Xieren had been standing in the direction of the palace so Ling Jun hadn't noticed anything initially, yet he now realised that the string was attached to this inconspicuous disciple!

He looked at the other strings and realised that this must be the emperor, posing as a disciple. Yet it was extremely hard to notice anything off. The emperors disguise technique must be absolutely top tier. In fact, it was possible that that he had simply posed as the emperor.

If that was the case, then his disguise technique must be truly frightening. He could stay hidden even with Xiantian realm cultivators present in the palace.

Xiantian was the realm after soul realm and Ling Jun had realized that there were about ten Xiantian realm cultivators within the palace alone. There were probably more within the other great families.

Jin Xieren glanced at Ling Jun and Meng Li and smirked. Meng Li had also realised that he was present. Ling Jun got over his shock and smiled back. So did Meng Li.

Once all the tokens had been handed out, the disciples warned them to be respectful to anyone they see, before each group was lead one by one to the teleportation formation.

Jin Xieren's group was lead over before Ling Jun's.

Eventually, Ling Jun's group made their way over to the formation. Ling Jun was extremely curious about this formation, and as he stepped in he observed the motes of space around observing the teleportation process. He watched as the motes of space compressed forming a hollow tentacle which seemed to probe for a direction. Once the destination was found, the space formed a tunnel linking them to the destination.

The compressed space behind them reverted back to how it was before, pushing them instantly to the other end and their destination.

They arrived at a large open space of barren earth. Ling Jun joined the other disciples in retching from the teleportation experience, though he had to force himself.

As he looked up, he saw the disciples formed into lines. There was another teleportation forming linking to this place from another area. Ling Jun realised this must be linked to the Moon Kingdom neighbouring the Cloud Kingdom.

Once all disciples had arrived, they formed into lines and there were about 2500 total. In the front stood a Xiantian realm elder. The pressure coming off of him was so intense it felt like he could crush any person here simply with his aura alone.

He looked middle aged and average in terms of looks. Yet his eyes were vigorous and powerful, commanding immense respect. His hair was slightly whitening, giving him a wizened appearance.

He introduced himself as Ye Jin.

"This year, all of you disciples will be thrown into a battle royal situation, until there are only 500 disciples remaining. If you wish to forfeit, you must snap your token. If you do not snap your token and die inside, the responsibility does not lie with us. This in effect means that death is a very real possibility. If anyone wishes to back out they may do so now.", Ye Jin said coldly.

No one backed out. They had all been prepared for the cruel requirements and had resolved to try their best. This battle royal meant that even weak disciples had a chance if they didn't pick fights and waited for the strong to eliminate each other.

Though those strong ones were not stupid, they would probably remove all the fishermen first before targeting any strong people.

Ling Jun had realised something the moment he had appeared here. He had realised that there was another teleportation formation placed here. He quickly turned to Meng Li and told her to follow the thread later.

He then turned to look at Jin Xieren contemplating a bit before mouthing to find him, when Jin Xieren glanced at him.

Jin Xieren eyes flickered with confusion, what did he mean to find him? He was right there!

"No one wishes to back out? Good, at least you all have courage. Though you will need more than just courage to enter the sect. Okay, the test begins now, good luck."

Ye Jin instantly disappeared and the familiar sensation of moving through space appeared again.

When Ling Jun arrived once more, he was alone. He was in a forest area surrounded by trees. He quickly found a hidden place and sat down cross legged. He didn't have the opportunity earlier, but he had received enlightenment from the teleportation and wished to expand on it.

He thought about his Flowing River steps. Then he thought about how the space had moved during teleportation. He tried manipulating space in the same way, ten minutes later, he finally connected to a destination and passed through space appearing a hundred metres from his initial position.

Too slow he thought. It took ten minutes to teleport a hundred metres. It would be useless in battle and even for escaping. Such a long time for such a short distance was unacceptable.

He decided to forget teleportation for now. He thought back to how the compressed space behind him had returned to normal, pushing him forwards.

He concentrated on the space just behind him before realising that that was the wrong place to start.

He had to start from further back. He started compressing space from further back pulling all the space behind him to that specific point. It was a strange feeling, as though he was moving back yet he had not moved at all. Once Ling Jun arrived at the compression point, he let go of control of space and was instantly propelled forwards at insane speed crashing right into and through multiple trees, almost killing himself in the process.

He sat down and quickly manipulated time in order to recover from his injuries. It took twelve hours to completely recover from an injury that would've otherwise taken around a month to recover from.

He had severely underestimated the speed of the new technique he had developed. Yet he was satisfied. This was a great way to escape from trouble. The compression could also be used as a quick way to dodge attacks. Though, he wasn't able to change the direction while he was in movement, he could still initially control the direction by changing the compression point.

Ling Jun stood up and dusted himself before staring at the threads. There were only two strings present at the moment. It seemed that had arrived in a completely different space.