As I knew things were already under my control, I closed my eyes and regulated my breath again. This time, I intended to start cultivation for real. And I entered into the magnificent world of cultivation fast and without any hiccups.

The last couple of times I trained, the world outside got a massive shock and showed a violent response. It wasn’t just limited to my cultivation, but also a thing that happened with the races I acquired from the other universe.

My mind drifted and I experienced a state of peace and tranquillity like never before. It was like I went directly to heaven, not feeling any pain, worry, or anxiety.

My thoughts were calm, and my confidence skyrocketed. It was like I was a god creating and controlling this world.

And this world felt like it was my body and cultivation base combined!

It was an awesome feeling, one that I realised later on to be called an epiphany.

It was a rare phase where a cultivator would enter a miraculous state of mind and soul. Cultivation wasn’t just done by blindly absorbing energy from the world around.

Instead, it was an attempt to blend one’s mind and soul together with the world outside.

Once succeeded, one would experience such rare moments like this one. I didn’t know if it was thanks to my long time holding myself back or thanks to the pure and condensed black shadow energy I was absorbing.

However this didn’t matter. All I felt at this moment was the world I was in was getting bigger and broader by each passing minute.

Time in cultivation wasn’t anything like time in the real world.

I knew this the hard way already. And I made people like Silverlining and the sovereigns suffer greatly from it before.

So even if it felt like a few hours just passed, I knew it might be days or even months out there in the real world.

At some point, I felt like I hit something as the world all around me got shaken instantly and trembled fiercely. I thought it was my time to get out of such a state, but when that blockade appeared, it vanished in the next hour.

It was as if I was a needle and just penetrated through a thick balloon! Yet the balloon didn’t explode as expected, instead it led me inside another bigger balloon.

Then inside that world, a weird thing happened. A fog appeared in front of me. It was pale gold in colour, making us wonder about what it was.

Gradually it turned into a tornado from a small clump of fog. It hovered over the ground and kept roaring around without creating any sound.

Yet for a reason, I felt if this happened in the outside world, then deafening roaring rumbles and thunder would be heard from it.

I watched it grow in size without feeling any speck of worry or fear. My mind was still drifting in this awesome state, and nothing seemed to be able to shake me out of it.

However, just when I thought I was invincible in this state of mind, the tornado kept expanding and in a flash it covered me inside.

Then the scenery in front of my eyes changed and all I could see was a barren endless land, thick and overriding on each other dark clouds with thick tongues of thunder flashing there.

“Every hegemony has to pass a test first,” and as I was standing on this barren land while feeling puzzled, a majestic sound came from the entire world here.

It looked like a mighty god was looking down at me at this moment, or perhaps it was the world itself who spoke to me. I couldn’t tell. But whoever spoke just now left a tremendous impact on me.

It was as if he could annihilate my presence with a single thought of his! It was a scary feeling, especially when it just came after I felt being invincibile.

“You are going to have three trials right now, the trial of body, the trial of soul, and the trial of heart. Failing any of the three means failure in passing to the next level. Failing in all the three means death. Get ready, hegemone, you are going to be tested.”

“Tested?” I was taken aback. I never heard of such a thing before. The old man’s teachings never mentioned such a thing, neither did Sith.

“You are an owner of a land in the origin world, so you are now a citizen of that special place. As privilege comes with restrictions and tests, you have to prove yourself or fail.”

It seemed whoever was on the other side was present at this moment. I just spoke out of my shock, but it seemed I could chit chat with him.

From what he said, I got that this all happened thanks to my special situation. My cultivation base was already inside the shadow world and I got a territory there.

Was that world this special? If it was, then would this affect me later on or what?

He spoke about privileges, but all I got was hindrance and chains!

“I can’t fight alone!” I moved my eyes around, “can I summon my armies, my items?”

“A test of hegemony must be taken solo, as the path to glory is always solo,” the voice paused before another bellow of words came in the next second, “if you can’t prove yourself, how do you expect to reach greater heights? Depending on external factors isn’t strength. Strong hegemony shall only depend on themselves. The test difficulty just doubled thanks to your complaints.”

“…”

The corner of my eyes twitched when I heard him saying these words. What the heck was wrong with you man? Damn! I was just chatting with you. Why are you acting all hostile and aggressive when we were just talking?

However, fearing that he’d grow more furious and decide my death on the spot, I restrained myself from retorting back.

F*ck it! I looked up and clenched both fists.