Maxing out my luck in a cultivation world

Getting Quizzicle

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Deimos takes a good 10 seconds to think to herself. Barely even considering the easier difficulty. She felt confident in her understanding of the technique. "I think I'll go with the harder quiz."

Nodding in affirmation, Elder Shoushan begins to question her about the contents of the tome. Starting with a simple, "What is the main goal of this technique? As in, what is its intended purpose?"

Deimos thought to herself, 'Heh, that's easy.' She states, "It's just training Qi control, efficiency, and precision― right?"

Indicating she was correct, he asked, "Why do you think this tome was used as part of the entrance exam?"

Immediately, Deimos realized she had never thought of that. Why was it being used for the entrance exam? It had to have some purpose, right? Perhaps it was a technique that disciples were meant to use to increase their control.

Considering that she decided otherwise, that may be an effect.... but why would a sect willingly give away a technique to those who might not even make it into the sect itself? It didn't make sense.... to her, at least.

Other options..... she couldn't really think of any other uses for it other than an introduction to the sect's style. After all, they do have an insignia of yin and yang on their uniform... Scrambling for anything in her thoughts, Deimos was greatly overthinking it.

Elder Shoushan saw this and knew this was something many aspiring disciples did. They overthought everything, thinking it was much deeper than it actually was. Though this was a quiz, therefore he couldn't interfere. He would comment on this afterwards to her, of course.

Deimos finally came to the conclusion that they used the technique as a test to weed out those who couldn't understand simple techniques.... It's got to be that, right?

She questioned herself again, but stopped herself before she got too far. Looking back at Elder Shoushan, Deimos says, "Is it to weed out the weak minded people who can't understand much?"

Elder Shoushan shakes his head, "Just because one cannot understand techniques easily does not mean anything. Talent and comprehension, of course, are very very important in a cultivator's life, but everyone attempting to join our sect thinks they are worthy, do they not?"

Continuing, he says, "Those with weak comprehension, usually put more effort in compared to the average cultivator. They make up for the fact they aren't as gifted as others at understanding things quickly by putting in extra time, and they end up with a stronger understanding of it in the end."

Passionately explaining the logic behind the technique, Elder Shoushan keeps going, stating, "The real point of this exercise was to give a general idea of the philosophy behind our sect's techniques and aid in the beginning of anyone's journey with us."

At this point, Deimos was thinking Elder Shoushan was talking a bit too much on the topic, but she kept listening as he explained, "This technique is important to our sect because, while it does not directly relate to anything in the sect itself, it leads those who start learning with us in the right direction with the core values of efficiency, control, and the indirect manipulation of other types of Qi without actually having them."

Deimos nodded, talking before he kept going any longer. "I get it now; I must have been overthinking... What's the next question?"

Getting back on track, Elder Shoushan states, "For the final question, how does one actually initiate the main effect of the technique and how does it effect the environment?"

Deimos immediately thought of an answer, this time not questioning her knowledge because she didn't want to overthink it this time. "You must release your set type of Qi and use the opposite from the surroundings... and it doesn't interact with anything but you because the yin and yang forces cancel each other out.... right?"

Elder Shoushan nodded in approval, marking down her final answer as correct and then motioning for her to follow him. While they are walking to the middle of the arena, Elder Shoushan uses a talisman that creates a sort of copy of him.

She watched as a bit of Qi contained within Elder Shoushan's body steadily flowed into the talisman. She noticed that he was making use of something similar to the butterfly effect for Qi to power up the talisman, allowing for much less Qi to be used in the process.

The copy seems to be entirely made of Qi and tinged a shade of pale blue with a kind of swirl of Yang Qi in its core. At somewhere around her level in durability and power in techniques, it was obviously much stronger due to being a clone of an elder. She didn't know if she could come close to beating it because of that.

Elder Shoushan moved off of the arena, standing beside and watching the scene of both Deimos and his clone standing, facing each other, on a slightly elevated gray platform. In the middle, it contained a yin and yang symbol, probably due to the sect's obsession with that insignia.

A thin 3 inch (7.5~ cm) distance from the edge of the platform was perfectly smooth, while inwards from that, up to the insignia in the middle, there was a lattice type structure of tiles that seemed quite sturdy for their looks.

Elder Shoushan, spectating from the side, states, "This fight will consist of you going all out against my clone, I have weakened the clone to what I assume your cultivation level is; I am unable to tell your exact level because of some special property your Qi seems to have, so do tell me if it is too difficult for you."

Deimos cracks her knuckles, snapping her fingers to equip her gauntlets, taking her stance and readying for battle before telling Elder Shoushan "I'm ready."

Elder Shoushan took note of her gauntlets and how she summoned them, only becoming more and more interested in the specimen he had invited into their sect.... She can't be so simple as to not have a powerful family backing her; perhaps she was told to hide it?

Taking note of this, Elder Shoushan decided to not take it easy on her and encourage her to go all out. Beginning the countdown to the start, Elder Shoushan plans to block her first attack. "Three, two, one, GO!"

The instant she was given the green light, Deimos shrouded herself to the point of being invisible while simultaneously creating a mirage of herself that lagged a good 5-7 seconds behind her. Deimos then used lightning-blitz-style footwork to instantly accelerate towards the clone.

Readying her fist in that split second, she uses the lightning-blitz gauntlet style and goes for a quick gut punch while the clone is caught off guard.