Sam and the rest of the candidates are looking at the platforms excitedly. The treasures are something they don't recognize, but they knew they are valuable.
The golden statue looked at the candidates and said.
"I know by this time, that asshole Indra has given you some enlightenment or something the previous time. But don't expect that from me. Okay.
I was such a genius of my time that I don't need things like enlightenment to cultivate. Before you knew it, I was already strong enough to rival the heavens.
So, I will not be giving you crap like that. Even if you need enlightenment, it is better if you get it yourself.
As for what I will give. I have five platforms here and those statues are a representation of me when I am a Nascent stage cultivator.
They will perform only the techniques I learned when I made it to the Nascent stage, any form of attack that I learned after that will not be used.
So, that means, you guys are fighting, the actual Sun Wukong when he was a nascent stage cultivator and that too at Level-1.
Pick a platform and defeat him, you will get the reward of that platform.
If you are strong enough and there are still other platforms left, you can try and challenge them too provided that there are no challengers on that platform.
After the five platforms are cleared, you get to face the final test. But for that, you have to defeat at least one opponent. If you didn't do so, there is nothing left for you here.
If you understand what I said, then you can start."
The five stone statues took a battle stance at the same time.
The five candidates looked at the rewards on the five platforms. They don't know what they are. At least, not everyone. Sam is trying his best to remember every detail of the story he heard and read about the monkey king.
He has to understand what these treasures just by looking at them.
One of them is a scroll with a symbol of an eye on the fire. He could guess, something along the lines of the Golden eyes-fiery gaze. Of course, it wouldn't be real art. Because they are not cultivated, they just popped up for the monkey king.
Then he looked at the next one, it is a wine gourd. Maybe, it is a type of wine.
The other one is a peach. He doesn't know what type of peach that is, but the peach is also wrapped up in some type of energy container.
The fourth one another scroll. In that there is a symbol of a person sitting in between fires and there is a depiction of smoke emitting from his body. Maybe a body tempering technique.
The last one is the hair strands. There are five of them. Sam is most interested in them. He does know something related to the hair of Sun wukong. It can summon the clone of the monkey king himself and there are some other things as well.
But he knew that it is not real, that is because if the real monkey king arrives, then there is no way for this world to survive, the sheer force of his sneeze will cause an apocalypse to this world. Even though they might not be real, there is no way he is going to let it go.
He is the first one to make a move and landed on the platform with the hair strands. The rest of the candidates are puzzled, they don't know anything about the things present here. Even the chosen one from the Beast faction, the one who is chosen by the monkey king himself doesn't know anything about them.
When Akriv looked at them for some time, he went towards the peach. As for why he didn't go for the eye art, he must have had his reasons. Sam felt that he might go for it. Even though the Golden eyes- Fiery gaze is not an ability suitable for archers, that would be the only known after he cultivated it.
Anyway, he is not bothered much. In fact, he is relieved. Out of all people, he is worried about Akriv most. This guy might be an archer. But he is still good in the close range too.
Ten feet in a cultivator's battle can almost be considered as hand to hand combat, but he could still use his bow and arrow there.
And the platform allows more than that distance.
The rest of the candidates also moved. Particularly the monkey king's chosen one. He leaped towards the scroll which has the person sitting in the middle of flames.
Sam took out the staff and got into a battle chance. The monkey king's stone statue looked at him with an expression of natural confidence. It is as if the whole world cannot defeat him and the heavens are beneath him.
Particularly, when he saw the stance, even the golden statue started looking at him.
Sam made the first move. He swung the staff from the side to hit the statue on the left side of the face, but the body bent backward in an extremely unnatural angle and the statue backflipped. Then he whipped the staff towards Sam.
Sam who is an expert in battle, felt like it is the first time, he couldn't read the opponent's moves. They are unconventional. They don't have any form of rhythm.
Sam started feeling the pressure. As he was attacking, he started using the wind elemental energy with his attacks and there are sharp tail wind blades that are attacking the statue.
There are some small scars appearing on the surface of the statue.
Sam is already sweating, but after exchanging more than twenty moves, the statue somersaulted and smashed the staff in Sam's chest.
He was flung away and crashed into the ground.
Sam lost.
Then only he noticed the others, and they are already down even before him and are already halfway through healing their wounds.
Seeing that they are not concentrating on him, Sam started using his light element to heal himself. he doesn't want to waste time with the digestion of pills.
He closed his eyes as he healed and started recollecting all the information he has from the previous fight.
The monkey king is more of a monkey than the warrior when he is at the Nascent stage, that is what Sam understood from those moves. It is not following any form of style of stance. The statue is behaving the same as a monkey.
Unpredictable is the only word that could be used to describe that fighting style.
After healing himself, he walked up to the platform once again. But this time, there is some other reaction from his body.
Sam started sending all his spiritual energy to his muscular fibers.
His body is enveloped with spiritual energy. His body seemed to have buffed up a little and the skin under his robes tightened.
Sam decided that this is the best time to utilize the results of the body refinement.
Due to his body cultivation, the natural strength, defense, endurance, and stamina of his body improved greatly and his physical attacks are stronger than normal, but the real prowess of the body tempering comes, when the muscles are fed with the spiritual energy.
This is the best physical form of his body.
At this moment, due to his disguise, Sam couldn't use his other elements and weapons, so he has to find a way to deal with them and the physical attacks are the most common things and are easy to cover up.
Sam's body is emitting a dangerous aura. At this moment, the spiritual energy around his body is being repelled due to the force emitted by the body.
Sam didn't bother to use any form of elemental powers.
He took his battle stance and swung his staff straight at the statue's head. The statue's eyes turned mischievous and slanted its head to the side to avoid hitting its head and used its staff to block the blow from landing on its body.
But as soon as both the staves collided, there is a large spiritual energy outburst. The spiritual energy at the contact point was blasted away and cracks appeared on the ground below the statue's feet.
For the first time in the fight, the expression of the stone statue and the expression of the golden statue turned serious.
Sam resorted to the most straightforward way to counter the unpredictability of the statue. The brute force.
With his skill, Sam was able to land at least a few hits in the first bout. So there is no way he would lose.
The exchange began and every time, the statue blocked Sam's hits, the whole body of the statue started trembling.
Sam's moves are fast, precise, and most importantly tyrannical. Every move he is making is driving the spiritual force away.
After a few exchanges, the monkey king statue back down and suddenly opened its arm and blew on it.
A lot of sand appeared on the palm out of nowhere and the vision is blocked for a second.
The statue is laughing his heart out at its trick.
But Sam didn't bother, he held the staff in his left hand and punched with his right hand in full force.
Half of the sand cloud cleared away with just one punch. The force of a punch is almost like an explosion.
As he hit a few times, the sand cloud disappeared and then lunged forward as he swung the staff on the statue. The statue was caught off guard due to the surprise from the punch.
As for why Sam threw punches instead of staff, which is the question the rest of the candidates who are watching the scene are all wondering. They knew the answer.
As Sam landed the hit on the statue's head. Even before the point of contact, they could hear a cracking sound from the staff. It couldn't take the energy and force from Sam's attacks.
Sam doesn't want to waste the staff away without landing a proper hit.
And the proper hit it is.
Even though the statue reacted in time to block with the staff, it broke apart and Sam's staff landed straight on its left shoulder and
*BOOM*
