——(POV third person)——

Li Huang didn't have to wait long as in half an hour, half of the disciples came out of their chosen doors and he could engage in a conversation for the first time in a long while. He talked about random topics from the sect to various auctions that he found interesting and even gave them a few pointers for cultivation.

He was always an open person to his fellow disciples but now he was like a friendly neighborhood grandpa that everybody knew about. Two years of having no human interactions might have a hand in his behavior too.

"Thank you, senior brother, I honestly didn't know how to train this move." One of the disciples said with gratitude as he cupped his fists.

"It's nothing. Some of the written materials are hard to understand if you have no example to follow…" Li Huang said as he knew all too well that some of the teaching materials that is available to the outer disciples are practically written like a riddle.

"Senior brother, are there any good auctions coming up?" One other disciple asked him. Li Huang wasn't an information broker but didn't mind answering it.

"Actually there is going to be one a couple of weeks after this trial. I will go there so if anyone wants to come I don't mind." Li Huang said. He had many items to sell and many more to buy for his training so he really count on this auction.

The disciple cupped his fists and thanked him. At the same time, Hu Anjing came out of her test with her new sword and noticed the crowd around Li Huang.

"What did I miss, junior uncle?" she asked as she got closer.

"Oh nothing much, I was answering some questions." Li Huang said and others also greeted Hu Anjing.

Hu Anjing just nodded and from her posture, Li Huang understood that she had something to tell him in private.

"I think it is better if we rest a little as we still have the second part of this stage left…" Li Huang said to other disciples and they all agreed and left after some small talks.

~'How was your test?'~ Li Huang sent her a sound transmission now that they were alone.

~'It was good. I got a new sword that I know is at least a rank 1 True Spirit treasure.'~ She said with excitement.

~'Nice! Let me take a look…'~ Li Huang said. He knows that this sword is really valuable if it is really a True Spirit treasure. Even in the heavenly sword sect, not many disciples have such weapons as they are hard to make and harder to obtain.

Hu Anjing handed the sword to Li Huang after she took it out of her storage ring. She remembered Li Huang's 'teachings' when she was about to get back here so she put it in her storage ring just to be on the safe side.

Li Huang who saw that she took out the sword from her storage ring gave a nod of approval to her and used [Peeping eye of heaven] on the sword right after that.

The moment Li Huang saw the grade of this sword he sent a sound transmission to Hu Anjing as he handed the sword back to her.

~'Put it back in your storage ring.'~ He said.

Hu Anjing didn't hesitate and complied without asking any useless questions as she trusted Li Huang's judgment.

The moment the sword was back in the storage ring Li Huang relaxed a bit. Hu Anjing just looked at him and waited for his explanation.

~'That sword is not a rank 1 True Spirit treasure, it is a peak rank 9 True Spirit treasure…'~ Li Huang sent this sound transmission to Hu Anjing and she now understood why Li Huang asked her to hide it.

~'…This is the closest thing to a Fairy artifact.'~ He continued. Yes, the same Fairy artifact that are the pillars of the seven holy lands. Although this sword is obviously much weaker when compared to a Fairy artifact, it is the next best thing.

~'If some expert were to know you have this, they will kill you and take this from your corpse.'~ Li Huang didn't sugarcoat his words and told her bluntly.

~'So only use it when you either have no other choice or when you are sure that you are going to kill everyone who is at the scene.'~ Li Huang looked at Hu Anjing to get a confirmation out of her.

~'I understand.'~ Hu Anjing nodded with seriousness as she knew how the world worked. If they killed her, the heavenly sword sect would try to get revenge but revenge wouldn't bring her back to life so being a member of the heavenly sword sect doesn't mean much when you don't have enough power to keep your life.

Li Huang who know what was on her mind, gave her a few moments to collect her thoughts.

~'How was your test?'~ Hu Anjing asked Li Huang after a minute.

~'The reward was great but I was on the test for two and half years…'~ Li Huang said with a straight face as he was really not that bitter about it now that he had this storage ring.

~'What? How is that possible?'~ Hu Anjing was baffled.

~'Time passed faster there. Anyway, I got a storage ring that is so hard to break that if they attack me for days, they can still find the ring in my ashes!'~ Li Huang only said this much as he didn't want to make the existence of this ring known so he only gave Hu Anjing some small details.

~'That must have been hard but you seem happy about the reward…'~ Hu Anjing said as she too didn't want to dig deeper.

~'I mean come on, this is really what I needed!'~ Li Huang said as he was really in need of such a treasure. He was this close to ordering some custom storage rings.

They bantered for a little longer and waited for other disciples to come out of their doors.

…

It didn't take long and in less than half an hour all the disciples were back from their tests and luckily none of them perished in their test, not even Jin Fen.

Right about this time, the old man graced the disciples with his presence as he appeared again.

"Good. Now, you have only the final battle to finish." The old man said.

"Follow me to get to the final test." The old man said as he entered the door right behind him.

Following the old man, everyone entered a grassland like where they were in the past. The old man started climbing invisible stairs and after some time he turned to face the disciples.

"Now you have to fight a beast horde as you did before but this time you can't use your storage rings and you can't use your weapons." The old man said with a smile.

"Good luck." The old man said and faded away.

"This is going to be fun." Hu Anjing said.

"I can't agree more." Li Huang said and launched toward the nearest group of beasts that he found.

…

It didn't take them more than 20 minutes to finish all the beasts. They were not very strong but they had a huge advantage in numbers.

Li Huang and Hu Anjing used their sword Qi even when they didn't use their weapons. This made it easier for them to finish off the beasts fast and efficiently.

Although the number of the beasts was bigger when compared to the last time, everyone did way better this time. They did better because they have improved in their cultivation.

Happy with their performance, everyone waited for the old man to appear again. The old man didn't disappoint and showed up moments later.

"You have passed all the tests, now you can get the final reward." The old man said and pointed toward the entrance of this round, where they started this test.

~'Go and put it in your storage ring.'~ Li Huang said to Hu Anjing and she did so. As the leader of the heavenly sword sect disciples, she was responsible for things like this.

Hu Anjing started moving toward the reward and others didn't try to do anything as they knew this was the sect's property. Even Jin Fen knew better than to try anything here.

"This is a palm technique that is very effective in close range…" The old man explained a bit about the technique that was the reward of this formation.

"Now that you have finished the test, you can exit the formation. To exit, you have to go back to the first stage of these tests…" The old man said after some explanation and pointed to the portal that would take them to the previous stage.

'Why didn't they just use a teleportation formation to send us there? Is there some lesson about laziness here?' Li Huang thought it was weird to walk back but ultimately come to the conclusion that he might be lazy.

Walking back they first entered the room of doors and then got back to the meditation room.

When everyone was using this chance to ask Li Huang for some pointers Jin Fen slowed down and looked at one of the meditation setups.

Examining it, he found a blue orb by its side that seemed to power this whole contraption.

'Old man, so this is why you told us to walk back? You wanted me to have this?' Jin Fen thought and in a swift move pocketed the unknown blue orb.

He increased his pace and looked at Li Huang's back.

'With this, I can suppress you in no time. Let me see if you dare to be arrogant at that time.' Jin Fen thought. If he were to use this blue orb to cultivate, no amount of talent can stop him.

The group continued their walk until they were outside of the formation.