Chapter 128: Goodbye, Qilian

"Now then — you may have already been selected to enter the sect, but the journey there will be part of the test. In other words… if you fail, there is still a chance you may die and fail to enter. Keep that in mind."

The six disciples going in this year were all quite tough, so we didn't show any weakness or nervousness faced with this warning meant to rouse our anxiety. Elder Ning, the one who had said this, smiled as if pleased.

"Good. It seems none of you are daunted by the challenge ahead. Now, the first test will begin. Take these."

She waved her hand and threw six scrolls at us, perfectly aimed so that each one of us would catch one. I rolled it open and widened my eyes at what it was.

"This is the Flight art. Once learned, you will be able to fly in the air by using your Essence. Of course, I do not expect you all to be able to fly the whole way to the sect. The total distance will be roughly 2,000 kilometers, and there will be a rest point every 250. That is all. You have ten minutes to comprehend the art — the Blessing Nature Sect only needs the best of the best among cultivators. The timer starts… now."

Not wasting any time, the six of us wordlessly began to try and learn the art. From what I could see, it wasn't too difficult. After skimming through it, I immediately tossed the scroll to one side and closed my eyes, mimicking the movements shown in the scroll with my body.

And in my mind, I thought the art's name.

'Flight.'

Immediately, I felt myself be lifted up from the floor a bit. My eyes widened from the sudden and unusual feeling, causing me to lose my focus. I slipped on the stage and fell backwards painfully, hitting my head.

"Agh… damn…"

Quickly getting back up, I shook my head and tried again.

'Flight.'

This time, I managed to remain stable, even after lifting off the ground. I was now hovering a few centimeters above the stage as I desperately tried to control my balance. The three elders watched on, surprised at how quickly I had picked up on how to perform the art. After all, not even a minute had passed since the timer began, and everyone else was still busy reading the scroll.

Not for long, however. Hina-nee was the second one to throw down the scroll and begin actually attempting the art. Though she struggled at first, she quickly got the hang of it and even managed to rise up higher into the air, steady and controlled. I watched, stunned.

How the hell…

Recalling what I read in the scroll, I just had to control where I wanted to go with my mind, but… I'm trying, and it really wasn't working.

I gritted my teeth. It took everything I had just to keep my balance and not to fall back to the ground. Then, calmly, I relaxed and cleared my mind of all other thoughts, taking a deep breath to help me do so.

'Up.'

With that single thought, I felt myself suddenly skyrocket upwards, my eyes snapping back open as I passed by the clouds.

"W-Woah, hey!"

'D-Down! Down!' I thought in my head, panicking.

Suddenly, I stopped going up, before spinning my body around in mid-air against my will and pummeling downwards, face-first.

"Wait, no-! How do I slow it down-!"

'S-Slow! Decelerate! Low Speed! Opposite of Fast! Fast Not!'

I pulled every single terminology for 'slow down' I could think of out of my ass, but even then, it did not work.

"Fuck!" I yelled out loud, giving up and bracing for enormous pain and perhaps a significant drop in my INT stat.

But right before I hit the ground, I stopped.

I blinked, quickly rotating my body to make it upright again, then gazing down at my two hands in wonder.

"The hell…? 'Fuck' was the keyword?"

The elders, the other contestants, and the audience all looked at me in awkwardness, uncertain of what to say in response to my stupid movements.

I gulped in nervousness and ignored their gazes, taking a deep breath and preparing to try again.

"Okay… I got it this time."

'Flight.'

This time, having gained experience from the previous two fails, I managed to remain steady.

'Okay… now… up.'

I felt myself slowly rise upwards into the air, a lot more controlled than last time.

'Stop.'

Taking extreme caution to remain calm, I stopped rising up as I reached the height I wanted. Then, I commanded myself to fly straight in front of me.

'Forward.'

I began to slowly fly forward, just as I had intended. It felt extremely weird, moving constantly like this without anything below me and no gravity to chain me down, but it was a somewhat… nice and relaxing feeling at the same time?

"Okay… I think I got the basics of it down."

'Backward.'

I changed my trajectory and moved backward, calibrating my body to this new form of movement.

'Left.'

'Right.'

'Down.'

I landed gently on the ground, without needing to use emergency breaks this time. Good thing, too, since I didn't want to have to scream profanity out again.

I looked around and saw that everyone else had just about got the hang of it by now.

Elder Ning clapped her hands and smiled, stepping forward as everyone landed back on the ground.

"Congratulations. It seems all of you have successfully comprehended the art — not that I am surprised. As future disciples of the Blessing Nature Sect, this is the minimum requirement. Though I will say… you six are the fastest bunch I have witnessed so far, in all the years I have done this, going around to different cities' tournaments and recruiting new disciples."

I had many questions regarding that and the sect itself, but now wasn't a good time to ask them as we were about to take off.

"Now. It is time for you to put the skills you just learned to use. Everyone, fly into the air and follow us. Worry not, we will not fly too fast. As for… Aisa, was it? Come here, you can ride on my Star Shuttle."

Star Shuttle… so that was their name. Interesting. I wonder if all of them were like the leaf ones these three elders had, or if they came in different forms… probably the latter, honestly.

Aisa made an act of not wanting to separate from me, tears in her eyes, as I smiled back at her as if convincing her to listen to Elder Ning's instructions. She played her part perfectly, and so did I.

Aisa reluctantly stepped onto the leaf Star Shuttle Elder Ning had, and immediately, the tree elders took off into the air, high above the clouds.

The six of us followed, heading up until we reached their height.

After sparing a single glance back at us, the three Elders continued off, flying straight forward.

Below, the audience cheered for us, and the mayor, Zhen Yuhan, came onto the stage, holding another megaphone. He turned to the sky and grinned cheekily.

"Make us proud, children of this glorious city!"

I turned back for a brief moment, glancing at the first true, large city I've been to since entering the majestic world of Ascentia. The bird's eye view from above, amidst the clouds, was amazing.

At this scene, I couldn't help but smile in faint reminiscence, despite having not stayed here for all that long. Then, I spoke the words weighing down on my heart.

"Goodbye, Qilian."

*****

As we flew, the motion slowly became more and more familiar to me. I could control my body's direction without consciously thinking about it now, and I found that my mindset became more and more relaxed. The others seemed to be adapting quite well too, not struggling at all.

After roughly ten minutes of flying, however, the others began to slow down. Koroth and I kept going at our normal speed, but everyone else was visibly starting to get tired. Furuwa was better than the others, but even she had sweat forming on her forehead.

Running out of Essence…?

Aisa discretely sent a meaningful glance backwards that confirmed what I was thinking.

But Koroth and I are doing fine… what's the connection here? There's got to be something… some kind of rule that determines how long we can fly for…

The answer would obviously be Essence, but what could possibly cause me to have more of it than the others? Koroth did, but that was understandable since it was most likely because he was actually a demon, but I was just a human.

Wait… could it be… the MAG stat?

The MAG stat affects all hidden arts, and Essence is essentially the energy source of hidden arts — and other arts too of course. But if this is really the case… there is definitely a chance the MAG stat can affect how much Essence a player has in their body.

If my conclusion is true, then everything lines up. Hina-nee and Nadeshiko who are both Assassin-types who don't place much emphasis into the MAG stat are falling behind, while Furuwa who had a balanced stat distribution was doing slightly better than them. I, who had quite the high MAG stat, was doing the best out of all the players here.

Indeed… that seems to be the case. But if this continues… the three girls may not make it to the first rest point.

What should I do…