Spirit Cultivation

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Tens of Air Bullets continued to bombard the vine but there was still no visible damage on its surface. Instead, it only continued to grow, getting longer with each successful defence. 

'Just a bit more and I should be ready to sweep through all the rounds,' Xuefeng commented, already having his own plan in mind. 

When he read about the vine's absorption abilities, he didn't expect it would be able to consume the attacks so effortlessly, using them to grow stronger. 

His current vine wasn't exactly indestructible. It had only one-tenth of its true power but that was more than enough against the weak golems. 

Just as Xuefeng thought of using the two golems in his plan, the Trial Spirit called out to him, 'Continue doing nothing. I will wait. The longer the battle spread, the lower score you will get.' The golems stopped attacking when he finished speaking and simply waited by the edge of arena.

'It seems the Spirit noticed something,' Xuefeng grinned despite getting exposed. 'He is trying to provoke me into battling.'

Despite being powerful, the vine was stuck in a single place so as long as one stayed outside of its reach, they were safe. Too bad, the arena was only this large. 

His golem reached out towards the red crystal stuck into his chest and smashed it against the vine, crushing it into dust. The Fire Qi burst out but it was momentarily sucked in by the vine, giving an immediate boost to its growth. 

"Sure, let's fight then," Xuefeng called out loud and finally switched the roles, attacking instead. His vine couldn't get any stronger than this if the Trial Spirit didn't want to fight. 

The vine which was curled up like a viper suddenly launched itself forward. It was even faster than Wuying's Shackles of Doom, rushing to the golems like a snake which smelled its prey. 

Thick Air Qi surrounded the two golems, looking like an area of effect shield but it broke like a bubble once the vine reached them. Two sounds of metal crushing into the ground resounded throughout the arena which was followed by another ten loud smacks as the vine unleashed its fury. 

'Congratulations on the win. Round three will start in three… two… one…' 

The Trial Spirit announced his win and the smashed golems dropped into nothingness, done feeding the vine with it's Qi. It grew to the point it could reach every corner of the arena but that wasn't the final goal of Xuefeng's plan. 

He wanted to go up!

Ding!

The gong signalled the start of the third round and four black holes appeared in the sky. 

This was exactly what Xuefeng was waiting for. 

'Let's finish this trial early.' 

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!

Just as four new golems spawned, the vine smacked them before they even reached the ground, breaking their crystals with ease. 

'Congratulations on the win. Round four will start in three… two… one…' 

The Trial Spirit had no other choice but to announce his victory, beginning another round but the results were similar. Changing both the number of opponents and spawn position didn't help at all. 

'Congratulations on the win. Round five will start in three… two… one…' 

'Congratulations on the win. Round six will start in three… two… one…' 

'Congratulations on the win. Round seven—'

——— 

Even though Xuefeng found the cheat with the Forbidden Art, his wives were not worse than him. With the trial where the cultivation didn't really matter but instead it was control and arts that were valued, they could finally shine. 

In Princess Shan's trial, her golem wore ice armor and cut through its enemies with a long ice sword. 

Wuying's golem had two bloody daggers and she picked the smallest fighter, putting faith into speed instead. It turned out to be a good bet as none of the enemy golems could catch her. 

Xiao Wen chose Fire Qi, passing through each round with brute force of flaming fists and Yi chose metal which she mastered thanks to Xiao Feng. She created a sword for herself and implemented her sword arts with it. 

Despite being weak at fighting, Yiren found her own way to victory.

"Whoa, you are all so cute!" Yiren called out excitedly, holding onto a group of cute white bunnies. In just a moment, she created hundreds of Air Qi bunnies, wanting to squeeze them all. 

Thud. 

When the enemy golem dropped to the ground, she gathered them all together and called out, "Alright cuties, make mommy proud! Attack!" 

As if an organized army, the bunnies rushed towards the golem and jumped on it, biting the metal until there was nothing left. 

The only one who struggled was Tianshi who didn't have deep fighting skills. With great difficulty, she was able to reach round three but it was the limit of her abilities.

'You were unfortunately unable to pass the Trial. You will be sent back shortly.' 

The Trial Spirit informed her right after her golem's crystal broke, sending it's fragments around. In the next moment, she found herself back in the temple. 

"Sigh… I knew it," Tianshi muttered to herself, already expecting such a result. 

Being the weakest from the group definitely wasn't the most pleasant but Tianshi didn't blame herself much. She knew she had the least amount of experience so it was normal she was the worst. 

'Don't worry, you are already doing fine,' her Spirit cheered her up and added, 'Your fate is closely tight with your husband. You are not meant to be a hero. You are there to support him, walking by his side. Your future is already decided. I have never seen a clearer future than yours.' 

'Mhmm, I know. That's why I don't mind it. I'm happy to stay by his side. Forever and ever,' Tianshi nodded, smile returning onto her face and walked out of the temple, leaving though the losers exit. 

To her surprise, there was a big commotion outside. No one noticed her at all as they were conversing loudly. Tianshi didn't eavesdrop and instead looked around in search for anyone else. Thankfully, she wasn't the first to end her trial.  

Nuwa was sitting in front of the temple on the white cloud she made for herself. Their gazes met and Nuwa beckoned at her. 

'You were quick. Congrats,' Tianshi congratulated in her mind, recreating the connection between the two of them. She didn't have a doubt that Nuwa won the trial. 

'Thank. Don't worry, you will slowly improve,' Nuwa comforted her friendly. 'This trial was indeed hard.' 

'Hah, not hard for you,' Tianshi chuckled and asked, looking at the crowd, 'Why is everyone looking at us strangely?' 

She thought that something happened in the capital and everyone started chatting about it but being next to Nuwa, she noticed a lot of gazes were aimed at them. 

Nuwa shrugged, replying casually, 'Not sure. Maybe it's because someone became the new leader on the leaderboard.' 

'Leaderboard?' Tianshi questioned and looked at the board next to the temple. When she saw the name at the top, her eyes widened. She finally realized why Nuwa was acting cool. The top name definitely belonged to her. 

'Liu Xuefeng's Number One Wife.'