I had never been a morning person.

  I couldn’t even remember the last time that I woke up before dawn.

  Usually, I was the type of person that needed at least three alarms and the promise of coffee to drag myself out of bed.

  But here, in this unfamiliar body, my eyes snapped open before the first rays of sunlight had a chance to filter through my window.

  Whether it was the anxiety, or this body just had a better sleeping habit than my old one, either way, I found myself lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, mentally preparing for whatever was about to happen.

  Entrance Exam.

  They were the two words that filled me with a strange mix of dread and curiosity.

  I knew it was important.

  Show up late and you were in serious trouble.

  Miss it, and you might as well pack your bags.

  I had never been a fan of exams, and the uncertainty of what to expect made me feel uncomfortable.

  With a sigh, I rolled out of bed to change into one of the gray robes the quartermaster had given me. As I tied the sash around my waist, I noticed my reflection in the small bronze mirror mounted on the wall.

  It was weird seeing a stranger’s face looking back at me.

  Instead of the usual black hair, there was brown hair.

  The blue eyes were replaced by brown eyes.

  But even I had to admit that the original Ke Yin was handsome in a way that I hadn’t been.

  The features were sharper; the skin was clearer.

  People from my old world would say he won the genetic lottery, but in a world full of jade beauties and arrogant young masters, this face was frankly unremarkable.

  I shook off the thought and grabbed my identification token before heading out.

  The corridors of Dormitory Three were bustling with activity.

  Some recruits looked as nervous as I felt, while others seemed more confident, as though this had been their true calling all along. Whether that was arrogance or confidence was yet to be seen.

  As for me, I just kept my head down and followed the general flow of traffic towards the outer sect square.

  By the time we arrived, the sun had begun to rise, painting the sky in shades of purple and orange.

  The outer sect square was a massive courtyard paved with blue-gray stone.

  At the centre, there was a raised platform which was empty for now, and surrounding it were rows upon rows of recruits in gray robes.

  At least a few dozen, maybe more.

  Most of them looked around the same age as my new body – 16.

  They had arranged themselves into two separate groups.

  On one side, there were the recruits that stood with their chins held up high – the clan recruits, I could only assume.

  On the other side, there were the scattered groups of nervous-looking individuals who were trying their best to seem as small as possible.

  This must be the village recruits.

  I didn't need to guess which group I belonged to.

  Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I made my way towards the back, where a loose collection of villagers looked as out of place as I felt. None of us said a word. We simply just stood there, waiting for the Entrance Exam to begin.

  “Is this your first time trying?” a soft voice said beside me.

  I turned to find a girl around my age, maybe a year younger.

  She had a round face with sun-kissed skin and callused hands.

  Some sort of manual labourer if I had to guess.

  She wore the same gray robes as me, but there was an awkward stiffness around her, like she wasn’t used to formal clothing.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “What about you?”

  She nodded quickly, her eyes darting around the square.

  “I'm from Wayback Village. My father is a farmer. I still can't believe I'm actually here.”

  There was something genuine about her nervousness that put me at ease.

  At least I wasn't the only one who felt like a fish out of water.

  “I'm Ka—" I started, then coughed into my hand. “Ke Yin. I’m from Floating Reed Village.”

  Smooth, Kane. Real smooth.

  Fortunately for me, she didn’t seem to notice my stumble.

  “I'm Su Yan.”

  Her eyes then rested on the clan disciples who were chatting among themselves like they owned the place.

  “They seem so confident.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, not knowing what else to say. “They do.”

  “I heard some of them have been preparing for this moment their whole life,” Su Yan murmured, fidgeting with the edge of her sleeve. “Their families probably have cultivation techniques and spirit stones to spare.”

  “And we're just…starting from scratch,” I finished.

  “But this is our chance, you know?” she looked me straight in the eye. “If I can pass the trial, if I can become an outer disciple, it’ll change everything. My father won't have to work himself to death in the fields. My younger siblings could have a better life.”

  Her motivation for trying was pleasantly surprising.

  And not at all what I had expected to hear.

  Usually in cultivation novels, the primary motivation for power was more selfish than selfless.

  They wanted to live forever.

  Crush their enemies.

  Stand at the peak of the world.

  It was refreshing to see that Su Yan simply wanted a better life for her family.

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  And it made me realise that even though this world might be similar to the cultivation novels that I had read, these people were not characters in a story, they were genuine people with their own fears and goals.

  “What about you?” she asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. “What made you want to join the sect?”

  That was a loaded question.

  The look she was giving me betrayed that she really wanted someone who shared the same values as her.

  But I had never been a good liar.

  And I could hardly tell her the full truth, that I had died in another world and woke up in this body with no warning or explanation.

  That would go over well…

  “I don’t really know,” I said slowly, opting to go with what was technically the truth. “It just happened. One moment I was just doing my own thing, the next, I was standing in front of an Immortal Sect.”

  “Ah,” Su Yan sighed, her expression softening into something sympathetic. “Your family must have pushed you to accept. I understand. Sometimes our parents want things for us that we're not sure about.”

  I blinked.

  That was definitely not the case.

  I had no idea what my family were doing right now, and how they would handle the news of my death.

  Instead of correcting her, I just accepted it.

  After all, her assumption was easier than the depressing truth.

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “Something like that.”

  I needed to change the subject.

  Otherwise, she would ask more questions I couldn’t answer.

  And it was only a matter of time before I let something slip that was truly suspicious.

  “I thought there would be more recruits,” I said, looking around the square. “Like hundreds or even thousands.”

  “The Immortal Master that recruited me mentioned that the sect has different recruitment methods. Major sects like Azure Peak only open their gates officially once every five years. It’s the ceremony with the trials and everything. That’s probably what you expected. But during the other four years, they send out scouts to the smaller villages to find talent that wouldn’t normally be able to make it to the sect without help.”

  “Oh, so this isn’t the official recruitment?”

  “No, the next official one is in about two years," she explained. "That's when most of the clan disciples join because it's overseen by the sect master and the elders directly. It's supposed to be a huge event.”

  “The pretty girl is right,” a voice cut into our conversation. “But there are pros and cons to both methods so don’t be disappointed just yet.”

  We both turned to find a young man walking over to us.

  He looked to be in his mid-teens, with brown hair and brown eyes.

  He wore the same gray robes as us, but the way he carried himself suggested that he was used to better.

  “Even though the sect elites oversee the official ceremony,” he began. “The trials are much harder and more competitive.”

  “And what’s the downside of this way?” I asked.

  “Well, instead of an elder guiding us, we’ll get assigned an inner or maybe even a core disciple.” Noticing the disappointed look on Su Yan’s face, he continued. “But we only need to pass one trial.”

  That was good news for me.

  I had just got here; I was in no way ready to compete in some deadly tournament.

  I just hoped the trial was easy.

  And safe.

  “I’m Wei Lin, by the way,” the young man gave a short bow. “From the Wei Merchant Family.”

  The way he said it was like he expected us to recognise the name.

  “Wei Family in Myriad Paths City?” Su Yan’s eyes widened slightly. “The ones who control the main trade routes?”

  “Ah,” Wei Lin smiled. “I’m surprised you heard of us.”

  Yeah, he wasn’t fooling anyone.

  He must have noticed my lost expression because his smile faltered, he quickly recovered before continuing.

  “We supply spirit stones and cultivation resources to dozens of sects across the continent. Surely, you've heard of my father We—”

  “Sorry, I’ve never heard of him,” I admitted.

  Su Yan winced.

  As for Wei Lin, his expression went through several interesting stages before settling on bemused acceptance.

  “Floating Reed Village must be very isolated.”

  “Pretty much.”

  My eyes narrowed slightly.

  I had only revealed to Su Yan where I was from, and this was before Wei Lin had entered the vicinity.

  Either he was already a cultivator and had access to supernatural hearing, or he had done his research.

  It seemed our meeting wasn’t as coincidental as he made it out to be.

  Wei Lin still looked like he wanted to say more, probably try to explain exactly why his family was important, but he never got the chance.

  The entire square fell silent as everyone’s attention focused upward.

  I felt my breath catch at the sight.

  There was a figure approaching through the sky.

  They stood on a sword, flying through the air like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  The cultivator landed with impossible grace, the sword dissolving into particles of light the second their feet touched the ground.

  It was a young woman.

  Probably in her early twenties, though with cultivators, physical appearances could be deceiving.

  A thousand-year-old woman could look like a child.

  As for this lady, she definitely did not look like a child.

  She had long dark hair that fell down her back, her features were refined in a way that seemed almost unreal, and her figure was that of a blessed woman. It was as though someone had taken the concept of beauty and brought it to life.

  “Jade beauty,” I thought distantly. “I think I now understand why they call them that.”

  But it wasn’t her beauty that awed me, it was the power that radiated from her.

  It pressed down on everyone in the square like a physical weight.

  My chest began to tighten, the air became thicker, it was difficult to breathe.

  I wasn’t the only one struggling.

  The disciples around me were having similar reactions, some even worse.

  Most of them were pale, a few had even dropped to one knee, unable to handle the pressure.

  The woman’s gaze swept over the recruits with an expression that revealed nothing.

  “I am Liu Qingge, a core disciple of the Azure Peak Sect,” she finally said, her voice carried across the entire square without her needing to raise it. “For the duration of your time in the Outer Sect, you will address me as Senior Sister Liu.”

  Immediately, every single disciple in the square bowed deeply as best as they could.

  And the ones who were on their knees basically prostrated.

  “Greetings, Senior Sister Liu!”

  I was a half-second behind everyone else, but I managed to copy the bow and mumble the greeting. My heart was racing. Between the pressure of her aura and the realization that this was actually happening, I felt like I might pass out.

  When we straightened, Senior Sister Liu looked at us directly in the eye one at a time.

  “You have been brought to the Azure Peak Sect because someone saw potential in you. Whether that potential is real or merely imagined will be determined today.”

  A ripple of nervous energy passed through the crowd.

  “The Entrance Exam will decide whether you enter this sect as outer disciples or are sent back to wherever you came from.”

  At that point, the pressure increased to unbearable levels.

  It felt like an invisible hand was squeezing my ribs together.

  My knees wanted to buckle under me, and I had to lock them to stand upright.

  Among the crowd of recruits, the reactions ranged from extreme fear to outright panic.

  The clan disciples mostly stayed upright but were red faced and sweating heavily. Most of them gritted their teeth to hold themselves upright. Whether it was their pride or their actual abilities keeping them going was unclear.

  The village recruits were less fortunate.

  To my left, a boy collapsed onto the stone floor with a choking gasp.

  Su Yan was still standing next to me, but barely.

  She was white as a ghost, and I could see her legs shaking.

  She was chewing on her lower lip so hard I thought she would bleed.

  Ahead of us, three more recruits dropped to the ground, as if they were puppets whose strings had been cut.

  One of the recruits didn’t even try to break his fall.

  He passed out before he even landed.

  "Shit," I thought, my mind racing. “This probably isn’t even the main test.”

  Of course it wasn’t.

  This was exactly the kind of thing that happened in cultivation novels. The powerful expert shows up, releases their aura, and immediately half the candidates wash out before the exam even officially begins.

  It was a classic move.

  Weeding out the weak from the strong.

  And I was worried about which category I belonged to.

  My legs were begging me to quit, to lie down and admit defeat.

  Every breath I took felt like I was sucking in pieces of broken glass.

  But I fought against it and kept standing, looking forward, trying not to show weakness.

  In a world like this, weakness means getting killed.

  Senior Sister Liu’s gaze swept over the square, lingering for a fraction of a second on each of the recruits lying on the ground before moving on. There was no disappointment, nor satisfaction in her expression, only… assessment.

  Like we were cattle and she was deciding which ones were worth keeping.

  Just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to keep standing, the pressure finally began to ease, allowing everyone to breathe normally again.

  I breathed deeply, trying to calm my racing heart.

  Two robed figures appeared from nowhere, and they walked through the square, checking each of the fallen recruits. Those that were only kneeling, and were still awake, were ignored. Those that had fully collapsed were picked up and thrown to the side of the square like discarded trash.

  “Candidates who have failed will be escorted back to their villages,” Senior Sister Liu continued, in the same emotionless tone. “The sect thanks you for your interest.”

  That was it.

  No second chance.

  No appeals.

  No “Maybe you can try again next year.”

  You fail, you're out, goodbye, thanks for playing.

  By the end of it, around twenty recruits had been eliminated or had chosen to leave.

  The remaining recruits looked terrified.

  “Good,” Senior Sister Liu said, and I couldn’t tell if there was approval in her voice or if she was simply stating a fact. “Now we start the real test.”

  I swallowed hard.

  The actual test. Just like I thought.

  Because apparently the near-death experience was just the warm-up.

  The disciples around me began exchanging glances, they were probably wondering the same thing that I was.

  It was unlikely to be a written exam, so what was it?

  A fight?

  A test of endurance?

  A test of character?

  If I listed all the different sect entrance exams that I had come across in novels, then I wouldn’t ever stop.

  Senior Sister Liu let the silence stretch, I wasn’t sure if she enjoyed watching us squirm, but her expression didn’t change.

  When she finally spoke again, her words cut through the tension like a blade.

  "The test is to awaken your inner world."

  The square erupted into whispers.

  Inner world?

  What the hell was that?