Bab 16: The Past: A visit to the Mortal Realm
As soon as the starting signal of second round was given, all of the disciples flew up into the sky as fast as they could—hoping to be one of the twenty participants that will be moving forward to the next round. They aimed to climb the World Tree as quickly as possible.
After some time, Longwei and Jiao-Long noticed that the people who were behind them disappeared one by one. They thought that maybe, this is one of the obstacles that they must pass. So, both of them did not slow down and continued climbing the World Tree.
However, when they were almost at the top of the World Tree, a fellow disciple who was in front of them turned around and looked at the root of the World Tree. He also got vanished. As Longwei noticed that Jiao-Long was also about to look back, he called his name and told him to look ahead.
They successfully climbed the World Tree and saw the Fairy River flowing down below and they followed it. They saw smiled as the water showed them their reflections.
"Such a wonderful place!" said Longwei amazed.
They both smiled and joked while flying and reached the Mirror Water. However, they had to stop in front of it.
"How are we going to pass through this?" Jiao-Long asked. "I can't even pass my hand through it."
Longwei looked carefully into it and muttered, "Your enemy is yourself." The Mirror Water began to ripple and their reflections walked out from it.
They were startled as the reflections were mimicking their movements to the smallest detail. Suddenly, they attacked them.
"Ahh! What is this?! get away from me!" Jiao-Long shouted in panic while drawing his sword. Both of started fighting however, the reflections seem to have endless stamina. So instead of continuing the fight, Longwei dropped his sword and embraced is reflection. Meanwhile, Jiao-Long took advantage of his superior sword to attack his reflection and killed it.
Both of their reflections vanished and the Mirror Water opened a passage for them to pass through. They looked at each other and both smiled. Then, they continued flying. After entering the Mirror Water, a Flower fairy came to the both of them and guided them to Penglai.
Both of them arrived at the same time. All of the people around them were amazed. They were also happy about the result. But Jiao-Long wasn't too happy about it because he was aware that Longwei knows his secret to passing this round.
However, Longwei did not mind this, as long as both of them finished the race. They even found their fellow disciples who suddenly vanished while climbing the World tree.
"I'm glad you guys are safe. What happened? I just noticed that you all were vanishing one by one." Longwei asked.
"I turned to look at the root of the World Tree and saw a child smiling back at me. Then suddenly, in just a blink of an eye, I was teleported back to Penglai." A fellow disciple said.
"When you're having a hard time in your life, you must not look back but continue to move forward with focus and look straight ahead." Elder Po cleared everyone's doubt. "This is what the World Tree is trying to say to you."
"I guess I'll try my luck again next Tournament." said one of the fellow disciples and everyone laughed.
Since twenty disciples managed to finish the round and made it to Penglai. Those twenty advanced to the Next round., Everyone got excited after Elder Po explained what the next round was going to be. It was because the twenty disciples were going to be staying stay in the Mortal Realm for a month. For this round, the Sect Leaders were personally observing a group of disciples along with an elder for assistance. They were responsible for the disciples' safety and stopping them from doing anything excessive during their stay in the Mortal Realm. They would also assess the disciples' ability to fare under the rules and regulations of the mortal world.
"The next round shall begin in an hour."
Before entering to the Mortal Realm, Jiao-Long went to Longwei to apologize for foul play. But he couldn't find a good way to apologize. In the end, he just called at him and said,
"Longwei."
"Hmm?"
"Nothing, I'm just glad that you're my best friend."
Longwei just smiled and patted Jiao-Long's shoulder. Everyone packed their belongings and said goodbye to their parents and Sect Masters.
"Once you arrive at Mortal Realm, you're on your own. You will be landing there alone. By the end of the Month, someone will pick you up to bring you back to Penglai. May you have a safe journey in the Mortal World." Elder Po said as he set the coordinates for the formation.
Then, everyone entered the Portal and was teleported to the Mortal World. Each of them arrived at a different place. Longwei arrived safely an found himself in a meadow filled with Lilium Stargazers.
"Woah." Longwei checked the scenery surrounding him amazed. While looking around, He saw a relatively tall tree up on a hill in the distance. He ran toward it, hoping to get an idea of his surroundings. But before reaching the tree, tripped on something and he accidentally fell down. He found himself on top of a lady and discovered the culprit for his tripping was her dress.
After falling, he ended up looking straight at her eyes and surprisingly found them to be pure and filled with beauty. Suddenly, the lady shouted, "Ahh! Get off me! You pervert!" He quickly got off the princess and helped stand up. Then she slapped his face, destroying the building up ambiguous atmosphere as soon as it appeared.
"Woah, Ouch! Accident! It was an accident! I'm terribly sorry!"
"Accident your face!"
"I didn't saw you lying here Miss. I'm sorry if I have offended you."
"Hmmpft!"
"Your Ladyship! Where are you!?" Sound of a servant shouting could be heard from a distance.
"I'm Here!"
"Ah! Let's head back Your Ladyship. Your uncle is looking for you."
"Okay."
Before leaving, the Lady turned to Longwei and told him with a reddened face that, "This debt, I will collect it the near future. You'll pay for offending me! Hmmpft!"
"Heh." Longwei smiled slightly at her threats.
"What a strange Lady." Then, he headed to the tree, climbed it and while planning how to spend the month, took a couple of hours of rest.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone