Cheat Cultivator's Ascension

"Fuck!!! Why is it so hard to finish even just the water element phase of the third test!!!?" an arrogant-looking young man complained as he walks in a corridor towards a one-person room. Entering the room, he was greeted by a simple lodging with a study table, a bed and some books to read.

On the wall opposite to him, a projection stating that he can wait here until all the participants of the third test finished, the man complaining as he thought that being treated like this is not deserving of someone of his level, but unfortunately for him, there's no one that will hear out his complains.

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"I managed to pass the fire and water phase and last until the final part of the wood phase, I wonder how far Su Tian can reached" after yawning while lazily lying on her bed, a seductive young lady said with a smile on her face, looking at the projection of an immortal-like young man in a light capturing stone, giggling as she continues looking at it.

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"I can go further…." A phoenix-like young lady said as she continues sitting cross legged in a location filled with what can only be said to be terrors of nature, the wood qi in the surrounding continuously beating her up as she fends waves of thorned vines attempting to hit her with her sword, this scene lasting for a few more minutes until she finally heard the announcement of the cold mechanical voice, prompting the world around her to change as the mass of wood structures turns into stones, signaling the start of a new challenge.

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"Damn, I got a lot out of it huh… I wonder how much reward there will be for someone who completes the third test" a young man wearing a daoist robe cheerfully said as he sits in his bed, looking at all the loot he got from completing just the third level of the earth phase.

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"HAHAHAHAHA is this the tenth level?! This is fun!!" a huge young man shouts with a smile on his face, his bloodied body seemingly growing as he tears apart each and every one of the stone figures approaching him.

"This is a test of guts, right?! I'll show you how much guts I have!!" he said before charging towards a group of said stone figures in the distance with his maniacal laughter spreading through the air.

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"I hope everyone passed" in different rooms, five ladies said almost at the same time as they thought of their sworn brothers and sisters after they reached pretty far in the final test, all of them reaching at least the fourth level of the metal phase, the last phase, with the strongest among them, a lady appearing to be an adult version of another one of them, reaching the eight level of the metal phase.

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"Old Tian will definitely finish this test"

"Ah Tian will definitely finish this test"

"Su Tian will definitely finish this test"

Meanwhile, also in different rooms, three young men said at nearly the same time, their confidence in their brother finishing the third test at an all-time high as even they managed to reach the sixth level of the metal phase.

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"Mhm, it's definitely the five elements" Wu Xiaotian said as he looks at his hand, five masses of different colored qi rotating along each other, their movements seemingly containing a mysterious meaning as their coexistence simultaneously constrains and promotes each other through their movements.

During the nearly one-year period that he's taking the third test, he managed to reach enlightenment about the properties of each and every one of them, his monstrous insights giving him enough knowledge to familiarize himself with each one of them in just a short span of days.

If other cultivators were to find out about this, he would definitely be branded as some kind of monster for achieving something that most cultivators wouldn't even come in contact with all their life within just a few days.

Clenching the hands holding the qi, the five colorful mass of energy also converges, prompting it to explode, said explosion releasing a terrifying wave of pressure in the surrounding, the power being released so strong that it leaves deep gashes in the solid, metal environment, surprising even him in the process.

As he contemplates the possibility of making a technique or a move out of this simple process of making the five elements coexist that he did on a whim, the familiar, cold mechanical voice rang across the field, his mind filled with anticipation as he wonders just what kinds of reward he will get from finishing the third test.

"Congratulations to the challenger for completing the third test. Analyzing achievement… Detected that the challenger doesn't use any sort of external help to finish the trial. Doubling the rewards… now calculating…" hearing the sentence, Wu Xiaotian couldn't help but grin widely as he thought of getting more reward.

"Passed all of the fifty intensity increase perfectly, doubled rewards, one-hundred thousand celestial origin seeds, ten World Tree Seeds, two Origin of Fire, two of each: Origin of Fire, Origin of Water, Origin of Wood, Origin of Earth and Origin of Metal"

Seeing the rewards appearing, Wu Xiaotian nodded in satisfaction as the numerous World Tree Seed alone is more than enough of a reward for him already, not to mention the countless celestial origin seeds, with one being priced at a thousand Universal Coins each.

"Come to think of it, just how useful is this celestial origin seeds?" asking the system, Wu Xiaotian speaks as he takes one of them, inspecting the perfectly circular, shiny white thing.

[The celestial origin seeds will be of use to the host at higher realms, so please keep them to yourself as it is difficult to obtain this in the host's world]

Heeding the system's advice, he keeps the seed he's holding inside the storage, after which he stood up and starts walking towards the corridor leading to his new destination.

While walking at the long corridor, he inspects his stats, lamenting at the fact that despite almost a year already passing during the final test, he doesn't even manage to breakthrough to the Core Formation Realm.

However, it wasn't really all for naught as in the middle of the third test, he suddenly felt that there's still something more he could do to increase his foundation in the Pedestal Establishment Realm, and the moment he felt this sensation, he couldn't help but rejoice as he will regret it so much if he were to breakthrough the Core Formation Realm and only finding out about this fact later.

Thinking about this, his regret of not being able to breakthrough Core Formation Realm vanished as he thought of being even stronger before reaching higher realms. While this delays his rise, this also guarantees that he will be far stronger than anyone else in his realm, so he is more than happy to deal with it.

"Now I just need to find out what it is that I lack" he mutters to himself as he starts playing around with the five-element qi once again, trying to merge them into a single ball but failing time and time again leaving shallow marks in the stone corridor.

"I also need to find a way to seamlessly transform my Transcendent Qi to five-element qi, and maybe learn about the properties of other qi when I have the time" he thought as he looks at the five masses of energy revolving around his palm, with him being the only one seeing the arduous process of using his soul power to continuously imbue his Transcendent Qi with other qi's property.

"Well, there's nothing I could do about it currently so it's good for now" he said as he looks at the sky-high prices of the manuals that can help him with what he wants, all of them having at least twelve zeroes behind the first digit, making him smile wryly in poorness while looking at his Universal Coins.