Kapitel 19: Tortoise Longevity Art 6th level

Had he not been wary of arousing the interest of some creatures in this place he might have burst out laughing.

At this moment he had perfected the will manifestation of every technique until he managed to come up with his own way,

At the same time, the bottleneck for the Tortoise Longevity Art was weakened a lot. How could he not be happy about this? This was his foundation and he knew that only by having the longest lifespan could even one have some remote chance of going after stronger martial arts, except for the geniuses that can take less effort to do what others accomplish in their lifetime.

Since he had the chance he did not bother to do anything at all, but rather sat down and started to practice the Longevity Art slowly, and just like that time passed.

Before he knew it he had reached the final threshold and this time it seemed that an explosion had occurred in his mind.

"Boom!"

No different from the big bang, but his eyes were empty at this time like a person without a soul. It was indeed the case as even his spirit was decimated, only fragments were floating about.

He finally experienced the sense of crisis that he was worried about all this time but for some reason, a figure resembling him manifested with some runes on its surface and fused with his body slowly changing him.

It was the will manifestation he had achieved and at this moment it seemed to be disappearing as it fused with every part of his body and the spirit fragments seemed to have started to melt at an even faster rate. In the end, the huge space opened up, and it seemed to hold his consciousness. The big bang resulted in a bunch of white smoke floating in the consciousness. It came from the destroyed spirit and it had already turned into a soul at this moment unlike the preconceived rumors he read in novels, the soul did not resemble the body at all.

At this moment he could be said to have started to undergo a transformation as immense energy was dragged from the island from all directions drowning his body.

The energy continued until it turned into a milky-like golden liquid, and Musk inside it was indeed like a fetus in its mother's womb.

His cells started to absorb the substance but other than the fact that they were being destroyed and reborn due to the immense vitality in the golden liquid, everything was reversing including his body size, which seemed to become smaller like that of a five-year-old. In the same way, his hair turned completely silvery, and the process did not seem to stop as the energy he was absorbing seemed to be increasing with the passage of time.

.....

In the distant region beyond the island, on the mainland, a group could be seen fighting seriously and the competition seemed too serious as some would be killed and others seemed to have some cards they crushed and escaped but the number was not large.

In the same way, some seemed to have formed groups, and on rare occasions could an older person be seen as most of the people involved in this competition had younger faces, but their eyes told a different story. They were people that had lived a long life and their appearance was probably due to the realms they had reached the old fellows in the groups are people that reached some levels late and even after breakthrough refused to change their appearances.

This is understandable, after all the way humans are is like that, most prefer to avoid change and only a minority can welcome change so easily. In the same way, those that have managed to retain their old appearances tend to have unshakable wills. To them, appearances might not matter much, but most of them were men, no woman could be seen with an old appearance among the group.

It is indeed the case as most women in this world seemed to have some resources that could preserve their youths until their death, and if one consumed it in their early years it would still have the effect. At the same time, they were the majority of the group that cared so much about their appearance, most men seemed to have no time for this. In fact from the group one could see some of the men with long unsightly beards, but that was not something they cared about.

At the cultivation level, they were at, it was indeed possible to have the beard fall off at will or even fit their desired state, but it seemed they were more concerned about completing this trial they had entered.

Besides a huge tree, a man with a huge beard was hiding and his thoughts were scattered before his eyes seemed to regain some calm. "I can not be disqualified in this stage, besides for me it would mean death, after all, I did not have the chance of obtaining the life substitution talisman."

One could not see any envy on the man's face, but rather a look of ruthlessness, and his line of sight was facing a group of women in the distance and from their clothes, it appeared they had some background.

"You can't blame me for doing this. Blame yourselves for choosing to come to this trial grounds." The man had bloodshot eyes and his actions did not seem to have been noticed by the group at all.

In another location, a woman was sitting in a decapitated building, and around her body parts could be seen, and those that were intact in the room missing a head or even a heart destroyed.

Her white dress was also drenched in blood and yet she ignored it, to her it did not seem to matter but to those outside the building looking at the woman from the streets, she was a devil.

The woman had a cold look in her eyes, as she looked into the distant sea. "This trial is gonna take too long, only if I had some way to bypass all this and reach the center of this trial grounds."

In this trial, Musk was still unaware he had been thrust into as he spend his time polishing his foundation, the outcome was key.

It seemed that the participants were allowed to use all the means at their disposal to get rid of competition from scheming to all sorts of tricks in the arena and the ones overseeing it did not mind as it was just the first stage.

There were still billions of people in the trial and it seemed that not all of them were put at the same starting point. On the same issue, only those with the most outstanding achievements in the trials were highlighted. It seemed that this allowed Musk to operate unnoticed as the strongest on this level would manage to comprehend a higher level than what he was at.