Soon, Tyler and his group of two pets continued their journey. After this group of bandits, Tyler didn’t meet another group.

The distance between his city and the Hall of Dragon Treasury was only one day for a cultivator.

Even with walking, he was getting closer to it by evening. He could see a large mountain range in front of him.

This mountain range was surrounded by a massive array known as the ’Thousand Flower Illusion Array’.

Because of this, the entire place looked like a mountain, but it was a massive tower from the inside.

That’s what made it so hard to enter without a proper ticket. And, this ticket was only supplied by the Dragon Race living in their region.

Each ticket could only be obtained through two methods.

Buying the ticket from the source or participating in a special contest where the top five were given the ticket.

Both of these required a very high level of strength below the fourth level.

He turned his head towards the vast distance away from the mountain. Unlike the normal greenery, the air in that place looked a bit distorted.

It was the Azure Desert, located beyond the Star Forest.

He ignored the desert and walked towards the entrance of the mountain. When he got there, he noticed three more people in front of him.

They looked the same age as him. He didn’t care about them but they noticed Shibyo on his shoulder.

Two of them didn’t recognize it, but the other two did. And, they immediately showed some greed.

But considering the requirements for the ticket, they didn’t make any move. Instead, they walked in front of the gate and took out a metal card.

The first person placed his metal card on the door. A purple energy emerged on the door.

It hadn’t been opened, but they knew what to do. The man jumped into the purple energy that was the shape of an egg and disappeared.

Soon, the other three did the same and entered the portal.

Just as Tyler was about to do the same, a voice rang from the door.

[No pets allowed]

"Nee!"

Shibyo meowed before jumping off his shoulder.

Then, Tyler gave it a nod before entering the portal. His vision went black for a moment before a white light distorted his gaze.

After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and found himself in a large blue room. He looked around and found nothing.

The room was not only empty, but it also didn’t have any windows or doors.

At this moment, he heard a voice echoing in the room.

[Participant! Hall of Dragon Treasury is a trial of the Dragon’s Pride. In this trial, you could lose an arm, a leg, or your life.]

[Trial is not responsible for keeping you alive. Do you still wish to continue?]

Tyler waited for some kind of panel, but since nothing appeared, he shouted.

"Yes!"

[Hall of Dragon Treasury has three trials! Combat, Q&A, and Talent]

[Please, close your respective trial!]

Hearing that, Tyler paused for a moment and said.

"Combat!"

He knew nothing about Q&A and talent. He didn’t even know there were three trials.

So, he chose the one that suited him the best. After he said that, a bright blue light appeared in front of him, forcing him to close his eyes.

A second later, the light disappeared, replaced by a clone of himself.

Seeing this, Tyler immediately grabbed the hilt of the sword. He noticed a powerful threat coming his way.

Just as he predicted, the voice said.

[Start the battle!]

And, his clone moved. Its hand touched the hilt, its feet stomped so fast that its body blurred and appeared in front of him.

Tyler unsheathed his sword and slashed it horizontally, blocking the attack coming from his clone.

Ding!

[Sword Drawing Technique]

[Sword Drawing Technique]

Both were essentially using the same technique, but surprisingly, Tyler found something strange.

His clone’s movements were perfect, but his mana was slightly weaker.

Ding! Ding!

Tyler immediately moved his head, pushing his clone back and striking it with a vertical slash.

But the clone managed to react almost instantly, without even sheathing its sword, and it managed to generate a similar level of strength.

Their collision left them confused as Tyler didn’t understand why this clone’s mana was not as good as his.

After all, it was supposed to be his clone.

’Still though, its movements are extremely, almost perfect.’

Tyler kept pressing his clone, with his enormous strength and speed, but the clone kept countering every single one of his attacks.

Even when he used Shadow Strangling, he managed to evade using Instant Step.

While putting pressure on it, Tyler kept thinking.

’I had been training with Alfred for almost a decade. Although it was just a mortal fighting style, it still had the essence of a battle.’

’During that time, I put a lot of effort into creating my fighting style.’

At this moment, Tyler suddenly used Iron Curtain on his palm, catching the blade before his clone could unsheathe it.

Although the sharpness of the blade failed against the Iron Curtain, his clone instantly kicked him on the wrist.

It was almost an instinctive reaction, but Tyler was also doing a similar thing. He stabbed the clone with his sword.

But the clone managed to move his waist so that the sword would only stab the corner of the body.

Tyler found his wrist weakened and the clone took advantage of it, raising its sword vertically as it slashed at his chest.

[Iron Curtain]

Tyler instantly used the same move over his chest, blocking the sharpness of the sword.

He pulled back his sword and cut it diagonally.

[Instant Step]

The clone suddenly blurred in front of him and appeared behind him.

’I knew you were gonna do that.’

Tyler thought to himself as he used the reverse grip to hold the sword while thrusting it back.

Crack!

The sword pierced through its chest, and in a single stab, it finally ended the clone’s life.

It fell to the ground but without releasing blood. Instead, its body transformed into a wooden puppet.

"To think this place could copy my years of hard work within just a few seconds."

Tyler knew how much he had suffered to develop his fighting style. This fighting style heavily relies on intuition and instinctive movements.

This allowed him to predict his opponent’s next attack and counter it despite lacking the power and strength.

That’s the reason why he chose Sword Drawing Technique.

It required him to sheath his sword to bring out its maximum potential, but to do any of that, he needed to make sure his opponent couldn’t take advantage of him.

His clone perfectly copied his fighting style, but this also meant he knew what his clone was going to do.

’Even so, why was its mana so weak?’

Tyler couldn’t help but frown.

If this clone could replicate his fighting style, why couldn’t it replicate his mana quality?

He understood why he was able to defeat those bandits so easily. It was due to his mana quality, but now, he was a bit confused.

Why was it so hard for this place to replicate his mana quality?

[The Combat Trial has ended. Would you like to proceed to the next trial?]

"Yes!"

[Please choose your trial]

"Q&A"

At this moment, he suddenly found himself blanking out once more. When he came to his senses, he was in space.

Literally, he was floating in outer space, surrounded by darkness and light from the sun and the stars.

His eyes widened in shock as he saw a large creature, nearly the size of this entire mountain range, appear in front of him.

This creature had long, snake-like body with deer’s antlers, tiger claws, fish-like scales, and a ferocious face.

Only one word came to his mind.

Dragon!

It nodded at Tyler and opened its mouth.

"My name is Hongsu. I have one question. How can people of different races coexist on the same planet?"

"Give your answer. Based on your answer, I will ask you further questions."

Tyler’s expression slowly cooled down. He was genuinely surprised by the dragon’s appearance, but now, he was even more surprised by this question.

Why did Dragon Race ask such a question? Why would they want peace?

But he put his focus on the question and started thinking about it. Nearly a minute later, Tyler answered.

"By giving them equal power capable of destroying the world and education!"

This very much surprised the dragon. It genuinely looked at Tyler with an astonished gaze and asked.

"That’s such a bold answer. I can understand education, but why do you think giving such power to these people would bring?"

Tyler raised his finger and said.

"Because any living creature that has emotions has different desires, but they all have one thing in common."

"Every race, every creature just wants to survive at the end of the day."