Chapter 3: A Trial
Long Shen looked over and over again at his new appearance. He was a handsome young man with Dark Black Windswept hair, he quickly brushed it down so that it flowed over his shoulders like a beautiful river. His slightly tall stature and chiseled face made him look handsome, but would not overwhelm someone and he carried himself with an aura that made him look like a Noble even with his messy white robes that were now covered in patches of wet mud. His face also had patches of mud, Long Shen frowned as he looked at his face disgusted by the dirt that covered it.
He cupped his hands and picked up the chilly water and wiped his face with it. After washing he looked at the water again almost like it was a personal mirror before finally nodding and rising from the ground.
'Okay! Time to look around now' Long Shen decided that he was going to get out of the cave and try and find out where he was. Long Shen closed his eyes as he came out of the cave as to not be besieged by a headache.
When he opened his eyes a forest appeared in his eyes. The trees towered above him with green leaves that shined with morning dew. Long Shen didn't pay much attention to it as he just continued to look around. His hair flew about as he was hit with a small burst of wind, he didn't bother with it as he started walking away from the cave.
Long Shen decided that he was going to try and re-enter the cultivation world, after that he would find a local village or city to inquire about the current world he was in.
'Hmmm, if I remember the first stage of cultivation for mortals is Body Tempering.' Long Shen recalled.
In the Body Tempering realm, one would use their Inner Qi to reinforce their body, giving them many benefits. The first couple of stages focused on reinforcing the blood, making it stronger, when you received a cut or another injury your blood would be able to clot must faster than a regular person, and bleeding out would take a lot longer than a regular person. In the middle stages of the Body Tempering Realm, one focuses on tempering their muscles, If someone in the Middle Stage of Body Tempering were to have a weight lifting competition the Body Tempering expert would always win due to the fact that someone in the middle stage of Body Tempering could lift 10 times that of a normal man, the muscles would also become stronger and more resistant and someone using a knife would have to put more pressure behind it to pierce through the muscles.
In the later stages of Body tempering one tempers the bones, someone in the later stages of Body Tempering would need at least 5 times more force to break one of their bones then a regular person would. These were the reasons why Cultivators dominated over regular people. In the eyes of the world if you didn't have the strength to defend yourself then you are just another helpless lamb waiting to be slaughtered by those who are stronger.
That is why it is the ultimate goal of everyone in the world to become stronger than before and cultivate till their day's end. Naturally, cultivation doesn't just bring benefits with strength and endurance, but also life span. Although the Body Tempering stage provided no addition to life span, the later realms did, for example, the Qi Gathering stage would allow someone to live to 100 guaranteed.
Long Shen decided to walk back into the cave, he found a relatively dry spot in the cave where he sat down, he was going to try to unseal the Body Tempering Realm. Long Shen couldn't cultivate like a normal person, instead, he had to unseal the Gate that corresponds to the realm.
Long Shen focused his consciousness in his Dantian again, he once again saw the large majestic gates all around, he walked around until he found a gate that was only a little bit taller then he was. The gate was about 2 and a half meters tall, Long Shen himself was only about 1.6 Meters tall so he could easily walk through it, that is if it was open.
Long Shen sat down as he started to study the gate in front of him, the gate compared to the others lacked the majesty that most of the other gates had. It was small and had runes inscribed on it, but the runes weren't glowing and didn't give off an oppressive feeling. It had a drawing of a man on it fighting against a large bear it seemed as if they were in a deadlock comparing strength. The background of the gate was just simple stone, and not made out of the impressive materials of the taller gates.
Long Shen began to rotate his Internal Qi, and then touched the gate with his hand, and his Qi started flowing into the gate giving his hand a very warm feeling. He started to focus, he probed the gate and started to frown.
The gate required one to endure a trial, the trial's difficulty depended on the talent and current level of the cultivator. Long Shen's mind went blank. When he opened his eyes he saw that he was in a Forest with large towering trees, in fact, it was the same forest that he was just in.
"Graawr" A loud roar resounded out through the forest, Long Shen narrowed his eyes as he looked towards the source of the sound. There was a giant brown Bear looking at him as if he were salmon that he could catch in a river. "Grrrr" The bear continued to growl at Long Shen and started to slowly approach him. Long Shen started to slowly back away from the Bear. Keeping his hands at the front of his body and slightly crouching into a defensive stance.
The Bear was slightly startled as he never thought the frail-looking salmon in front of him would have the guts to fight back. The Bear stepped back for a moment on instinct but stepped forward again as it surveyed its prey. Long Shen snorted, he realized that the bear doesn't even think of him as a threat just another meal.
"Roar!" All of a sudden the bear leaped towards Long Shen, it brought one of its claws up and struck down at Long Shen, he quickly rolled away as the bear's claws landed with a "thud" on the ground.
The Bear was enraged that it had missed its target, it turned it's head and unleashed a loud roar hoping to distract Long Shen. It would have worked on a normal person but Long Shen was a God. How could such a petty trick fool him? The Bear once again leaped at Long Shen, but this time he was ready he quickly pushed off the ground and the bear missed again but this time Long Shen landed atop the bear.
Long Shen grabbed the bear's ears to steady himself, "RAAWRRR!" The Bear was fuming at this point, how could his prey get the better of him? The Bear began to furiously shake its head try to throw Long Shen off, but he just gripped even more than he did before. Long Shen let go of his right hand as he moved it to the Bear's right eye, he stuck out his two fingers and brought them down upon the bear like a spear.
"Rawrrrrrrrr…" The Bear let out a loud yelp as it's right eyeball was popped, a clear liquid covered Long Shen's hand along with a large amount of thick dark red blood.
The bear flopped onto the ground having lost its strength after its eye was assaulted, Long Shen hopped off of the bear and landed before it he looked around for a second before a picked up a decently sized rock. Long Shen looked at the bear with a little bit of guilt in his mind, even though he knew that it wasn't real Long Shen was still sad because he himself was like an animal before he evolved into a Dragon, he was like any other person, and could've been killed by anyone slightly stronger than him. Luckily he wasn't his old soft self from millions of years ago.
As he knows this was a kill or be killed world. He had survived millions of years. If he were soft-hearted he wouldn't be here anymore. In fact, you could consider Long Shen to be one of the most ruthless and cold-blooded people that has ever existed, as he had done many despicable things to become the Dragon God.
He brought the rock over to the bear and raised it over his head, and then he brought it down with as much force as he could.
"SMACK!, SMACK!, SMACK!" He repeatedly smashed the rock against the Bear's head. Blood splattered and dyed his previously slightly muddy robes dark red. Blood slipped down his face as he dropped the rock and wiped his face.
"This is how it must be, I remember the time I used to beat all opponents that stood before me… I like it!" Long Shen said to himself with a vicious grin.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone