1,000 Swords Converge

Walking through the hallways of the hotel, William and the others eventually arrived in front of a door. The guard leader opened it, gesturing for them to go inside. Everyone went in, and the guard leader closed the door behind them.

The room was pretty big, with enough beds for all of them, and some couches and tables in the middle. There was also a door in the back of the room.

The leader of the guards sat on one of the couches.

"Okay, you've all been registered for the exam," he said. He then took out a jade token.

"There is one of these for each of you. They contain some information on the entrance exam. They also function as a protection talisman that will block spirit condensation realm attacks when broken. However, this would also mean disqualification from the exam. There's more information on the jades, so I won't say any more. Come up when your name is called."

"Charissa."

"Grant."

"Harlow."

"Freddie."

Each person came up to get a jade token from the guard leader.

"William."

William walked to the guard leader and took the token from his hand. Quickly stepping aside to let another person get their token, he went to one of the beds. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he threw some of his things there to claim it as his own. Then, he injected his spiritual energy into the token.

Suddenly, a bunch of information appeared in his mind.

"...So that's how it works."

The entrance exam would be held in three days. It was in an area about half a day's travel away from the city in a carriage. That place was called the spiritual forest.

This place had many spiritual beasts there. These were beasts that had cultivated. However, since they didn't have a cultivation technique, their cultivation was just from storing the spiritual energy in the air somewhere in their body to form a beast core.

These beast cores were the main objective of the exam. Participants would start at one side of the spiritual forest and would have to collect three beast cores and reach the other side within eight hours.

If you stepped out of the forest during the exam, you would be disqualified, and you also weren't allowed to attack other participants.

William put away the token. The exam would be in three days, which meant he still had time to practice some of his techniques.

Those with more beast cores would have a higher result on the exam, therefore allowing them to choose better schools to go to. Each school had a different score requirement, which was the minimum amount of points you had to score on the exam in order to get into the school.

It also had to be noted that just the amount of beast cores didn't decide your score. It was how much spiritual energy was inside them that mattered. For example, someone with cores from a spirit condensation realm beast would clearly score more than someone with the same amount of cores from spirit foundation realm beasts.

Done reviewing the contents of the token, William looked around the room. He noticed that almost everyone had found a bed and was still looking at the jade token. Clearly, they were still reviewing the information they had just received.

"Anyway, I haven't checked my status in a while."

"System, show me the status panel."

______________________________________

[William Reynolds]

[SP: 28,342]

[Cultivation Technique: Nine Revolution Absorption]

[Cultivation Level: Spirit Foundation Realm- Stage 9] [+]

[Spiritual Force: 90/90]

[Strength: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Speed: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Agility: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Spirit 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Will: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Techniques Learned:]

[Farming (Novice)] [Cooking (Novice)] [Beast Taming (Initiation)] [Illusory Sword (Experienced)] [Sword Control Scripture (Experienced)] [Fleeting Cloud Movement Technique (Experienced)] [Falling Autumn Swords (Novice)]

_______________________________________

William nearly fainted when he saw how much SP he had. He had almost 30,000 SP now! He imagined all the things he could buy in the system store.

Unfortunately, he still didn't have any cultivation techniques, so there probably wouldn't be much change to his stats. The only thing he could do was raise his comprehension over some techniques.

Still, with this much SP, he would have hours worth of the ultra comprehension boost! With this, it seemed he would also have to upgrade the level of the techniques he used.

"System, open the shop."

______________________________

[Shop:]

[Armor]

[Artifacts]

[Beasts]

[Combat Techniques]

[Cultivation Resources]

[Entertainment]

[Electronics]

[Exercise]

[Fashion]

[Food]

[Formation Blueprints]

[Furniture]

[Home Appliances]

[Medicine]

[Pills]

[Talismans]

[Tools]

[Weapons]

______________________________

This time, William wanted to explore the shop some more to see if he could find anything interesting.

"Show me the pills."

"Affirmative."

______________________________

[Pills:]

[Stamina Pill] [1 SP]

[Mana Pill] [1 SP]

[Strength Pill] [1 SP]

[Speed Pill] [1 SP]

[Agility Pill] [1 SP]

[Berserk Pill] [3 SP]

...

______________________________

As William scrolled down the list, he didn't find anything that interested him. The pills weren't very different from each other. All of them either increased his stats or raised his cultivation for a while. Of course, some were a little more unique, having special uses like hiding your scent, or helping you breakthrough. Of course, there were also pills for uh... other purposes.

Moving on, William also checked out the talisman section.

______________________________

[Talismans:]

[Weak Barrier Talisman] [10 SP]

[Weak Physical Attack Talisman] [10 SP]

[Weak Explosion Talisman] [10 SP]

[Weak Shock Talisman] [10 SP]

[Weak Restraining Talisman] [10 SP]

[Weak Flame Talisman] [10 SP]

...

______________________________

There were talismans for hundreds of purposes, which slowly increased in strength. William scrolled down the list to see what he could find.

"Holy crap. This is expensive."

______________________________

[Divine Phoenix Flame Holy Revolution Formation Talisman]

[Price: 124,895 SP]

[Tier 7 Talisman]

[Creates a barrier around created out of phoenix flames. Creates a circular flame barrier around you in a 3 meter radius that follows you. Can defend from attacks from earth spirit realm cultivators indefinitely. Lasts 1 hour.]

______________________________

"These stats are op."

William sighed. Something like this would require an entire month's worth of his current SP production. If only he was able to copy the objects in the shop. That would make his life so much easier

"Anyway, I better get some better equipment now that I have more SP."

"System, show me sword techniques related to the sword control scripture."

"Affirmative."

______________________________

...

[Sword Control Scripture] [100 SP]

[Advanced Sword Control Scripture] [320 SP]

[Great Sword Control Scripture] [1,200 SP]

[10 Great Sword Formations] [7,025 SP]

[1,000 Swords Converge] [14,250 SP]

...

______________________________

"I have a lot of SP now... yeah, might as well get the best sword technique. System, show me 1,000 swords converge."

______________________________

[1,000 Swords Converge]

[Price: 14,250 SP]

[Heaven-Low Tier Combat Technique]

[An improved version of the sword control scripture that allows you to control 1,000 swords individually with great accuracy]

______________________________

"Alright, buy it."

"Purchase [1,000 Swords Converge] for 14,250 SP?"

"Yes."

A book appeared in William's spacial ring, which he promptly took out. Opening it, he took a look inside.

"...what?"

Each individual word was completely understandable to him. However, when put together, he found that he didn't understand them at all! Some sentences were simple, but others were confusing, without much explanation. William closed the book.

"This might take a while to learn."

William glanced at his SP. Only 14,000 left. That was 1,400 seconds worth of the ultra comprehension boost.

"How many minutes is that?" He asked the system.

"About 23 minutes."

William frowned. With this time, he should be able to learn the technique. However, he still had to leave some SP in case another quest appeared or something happened. There was also the question of whether or not it was a good idea to use that time on this technique. With this amount of time, he could raise he comprehension over his other techniques greatly!

After some hesitation, William still bought twenty minutes of the ultra comprehension boost. Cultivation wasn't without risks. Besides, the other techniques couldn't increase his strength much, but this could.

Preparing himself mentally, William reopened the book and used the ultra comprehension boost. Instantly, he started to read. Honestly, this ultra comprehension boost was truly miraculous. His mind and body seemed to be in their best state, and he could easily register any information he read. Even his sight seemed to be clearer, and he found himself reading far faster than he normally would.

In just a few minutes, he had already memorized the contents of the book.

"System, can you temporarily stop the effects of the ultra comprehension boost?"

"Affirmative."

William returned to normal, but he still retained his knowledge over 1,000 swords converge. He walked over to the leader of the guards.

"Sir, is there any place where I can practice combat techniques without disturbing anyone?"

The guard leader looked up from a book he was reading.

"Back of the room, open the door. Take as long as you want, just come out when it's time for the entrance exam."

"Thank you, sir."

William went to the back of the room, opening the door there. Then, we went inside, closing the door behind him. When he was gone, the guard leader gave a quiet chuckle.

"Diligent kid."

...

William walked through the door and found himself in a room around the same size as the one he just came from. Besides a rack of wooden training weapons in a corner, the room was empty.

Walking to the middle of the room, William took out all the swords in his spacial ring.

"System, reactivate the comprehension boost."

"Affirmative."

Before the system even spoke, William was already going over the technique in his head.

"Alright, here goes nothing."

William waved his hand, controlling his spiritual energy. The key to 1,000 swords converge was connecting threads of spiritual energy to the swords he wanted to control. Compared to the sword control scripture, this would give him better control and awareness of the location of the swords.

William controlled the swords to move upwards. With his previous experience from the sword control scripture, this wasn't too hard. It was just creating the threads that posed a small problem, but he quickly figured it out.

Soon enough, he had all twelve swords he owned flying in a circle around him. Compared to the sword control scripture, William could control the swords much more precisely now, allowing him to do more complicated maneuvers.

"With control this precise, I might be able to..." Suddenly realizing what he could do with this, William quickly got to work trying it out.

For the next three days, the people in the room next to him could hear countless thuds and bangs resounding in the room, sounding suspiciously like someone falling to the ground...