Naelia appeared at the room's entrance a short while later, summoned by a message through the transmission disk she had given John. She spotted the two of them waiting for her outside the room, and waved excitedly as she ran towards them. She ran up to Zuri and hugged her, as if she had not seen her for years.
"Big sis Zuri! I missed you!" Naelia exclaimed, embracing Zuri tightly.
John looked at the young girl with a peculiar expression. She was like a pet that rushed up to their master whenever they returned home.
'She's quite eccentric if nothing else.'
Naelia released Zuri a moment later, then took a step back.
"What do you need me for?" she asked curiously.
"I need to take the participant tests," John said.
"AH!" Naelia exclaimed, slapping her forehead with her palm. "I knew I forgot something!
John and Zuri exchanged a glance briefly, while Naelia nodded after slapping herself. Her forehead was slightly red, a small handprint left there from her actions.
"Follow me," she said, turning around, skipping down the hallway with a youthful exuberance. John and Zuri followed, moving through countless hallways and chambers until they eventually arrived at the testing grounds, some thirty miles away from their lodgings.
The testing room was located on the bottom floor of the arena. A large crowd of spectators gathered outside the testing rooms entrance, hopeful to see some of the geniuses participating in the tournament. Most of the spectators were youths, either too young to participate, or not talented enough.
Some cried out with excitement as they saw a youth leave the testing ground, their words indicating that the youth was quite talented, expected to place in the top one thousand. John ignored the crowds as he followed Naelia into the room after getting clearance from the guards posted out front to keep the place orderly.
The testing room was quite large, nearly a mile wide and deep, with the ceiling several hundred yards overhead. The walls were a fiery red color, while the floor tiles were a darker orange. As he entered, he spotted several long lines of youths stretching from almost where he had entered, to the wall on the opposite side of the room.
There he spotted a large formation of some sorts in front of each line, in which the youths were stepping into and disappearing within. The youths then appeared a while later, each with a tired, fatigued look on their faces. However, their auras were still strong and vibrant, giving a conflicting feeling to what he was seeing.
"So, how does this test work exactly?" John asked curiously. He was quite curious as to how things like 'health' were established. Was each participant wounded and pushed to near death to obtain that value? Surely that was far too brutal and dangerous for the tournament to consider.
Naelia had come to expect John's ignorance of how the tournament operated by now, and answered without giving him a questioning look.
"Most of the values are obtained within those formations you see," Naelia replied, pointing to the formation the youths were stepping into. "It's a soul-based formation, which puts each entrance into an illusory world. There, it subjects them to a variety of illusory tests, such as taking place in a battle, comprehending Dao's and battle arts, taking damage to the point of death, and so on. Those values are then recorded, and the metrics you saw earlier are established.
"An illusion can do all that?" John asked skeptically. If it wasn't a real test, how could it be accurate at all?
"It's not just an illusion," Naelia said, drawing out her words. "It's one of the most impressive soul-based formations on the continent, which the Three Dao Sects worked for centuries on to perfect. And of course a soul-formation illusion can do all that. Your soul knows yourself better than anything, so if you are put into an illusory situation while not being aware that it's an illusion, your soul will treat it as the real thing. It will recreate your Qi levels, your powers, your arts, and more within that illusion, allowing the formation to measure your values without actually subjecting you to things like being near death."
"I see," John eventually nodded. When explained like that, it did make quite a bit of sense, and was a much better solution than nearly killing each youth to find out their values. He frowned a moment later, as such an illusion could potentially reveal his Asura Transformation and other secrets to those administering the test.
"Isn't that…kind of invasive though?" John asked, frowning. "Won't those from the Three Dao Sects be able to see what the illusion is showing, and get information on the other youths?"
"It doesn't work like that," Naelia shook her head. "These illusion formations have been used for thousands of years, and have been carefully vetted by many powers. The only thing it does is record values. It does not record what Arts you use or how you battle."
'I suppose if the Prime Shadow had no concerns, then I shouldn't as well. If there was something to be concerned about, he would have warned me about it,' John thought, sighing lightly.
The line moved slowly but surely, the rate of movement revealing that he would be here for several hours at the very least. There were hundreds of Dao Transformation youths waiting to be tested, each with an eager or nervous expression on their faces as they awaited their turn.
As he stood in line, John figured it was a good time to get more information regarding the tournament rules. Naelia excitedly explained what she knew of the rules, more than happy to be of help to John and Zuri.
The most important things she revealed was that the first round was an open style round, in which the participants had to make their way through a land of dangers and get safely to the other side. There were over ten thousand participants in each bracket, and this was a way to thin the numbers quickly.
However, Naelia had revealed that any youth who had placed top one hundred in previous Three Dao Tournaments did not need to take this trial, as it was considered nothing more than a waste of time. Additionally, some top youths in the distant past had conspired amongst themselves to eliminate the tournament favorites at the time, grouping up on them during this stage. As a result, their participation for this trial was eventually eliminated.
After the open trial was the tournament proper, which one on one battles taking place over the course of two weeks until a victor was crowned. The battles were normalized, but using age instead of cultivation. The age of the younger participant would be used, at which point the older participant would have their cultivation restricted to what it was when they were at that age. The Three Dao Sects considered cultivation speed to be as much of an indication of talent as combat prowess, and so they implemented this system to account for cultivation speed talent.
Several hours later, John finally arrived at the front of the line. He stood before the large formation, which was shaped like a massive cube, fifty yards on either side. The formation cube was gray in color, with blue and white formation runes covering almost every inch of its exterior. The runes glowed with a brilliant light, and emanated a strong soul aura.
A screen of white light covered the entrance, obscuring vision into the cube. John waited patiently for the previous entrant to leave, which took about ten minutes. The youth, a girl a year or two older than him, stepped out with a small formation disk in hand. She was quite beautiful, but her face was haggard and eyes fatigued, as if she had just endured a strong, mental battle. Her cultivation aura was still strong, revealing that the fatigue was entirely soul-based.
She glanced at John then moved out of the way, allowing him to step inside.
"Do not resist the formation, or it will not only not work, but it will also injure your soul. Allow it to put you into a true illusory state. Do you understand?" A Yang-Dao Elder standing next to the entrance asked John. John nodded his understanding, and then at the instruction of the Elder, stepped through the wall of white energy.
A strong, overwhelming soul-power descended on his mind, trying to invade it. John hesitated for a brief moment out of instinct, then lowered his soul-defenses. His mind was instantly enveloped in an illusory battle, one that he did not know was false.
