Reincarnated As God

After a few minutes of thinking, Meng Li had a solid... had a plan. The map of the world had 7 important, separated areas in total - the two continents, the two archipelagos, two poles, as well as the Weixi Island. The distribution of power on those continents was quite unbalanced - the two continents were either occupied by a single power or divided between two powers. On the contrary, the two poles as well as two archipelagos were split into many different powers, all fighting for land.

Not so much in terms of the archipelagos, since the powers inhabiting them had to ally in order to keep the two empires away, but the poles were a total mess.

On top of all this, there was also Weixi Island, but it only had one city. Meng Li analysed the different relationsh.i.p.s between powers, how long it would take for people to travel from all corners of the world to the places where the tests would take place, how long it would take to even distribute news about the tests, etc.

In the end, he came to a simple conclusion - the easiest way to achieve their goals would be to simply go to each of the powers and ask politely to host such an event. For example, the Full Moon Empire's ruler was the one with the most power over his own empire, and so, would be able to spread the message extremely quickly and help them host the test. With their strength - at least Meng Li's strength, they would be able to simply ask the respective factions to do what they wanted in exchange for a favour.

Such a thing would work on both of the continents and probably the two archipelagos, but the situation was a bit harder with the two poles. The south pole at least had a faction which was definitely the strongest there - the Arctic Frost Peak. However, the north pole was simply a perpetual war zone.

While thinking of the south pole, Meng Li couldn't help but chuckle slightly. It was both funny and sad to think of the cultivator who used secret arts and sacrificed his lifespan and future cultivation just to break through... And now, everyone could break through freely without using secret arts. The situation also must've greatly relieved the factions which received the invitations from the Arctic Frost Peak, as their leaders should break through rather quickly.

The last thing Meng Li thought of was to also conduct a test in the Kantan city on Weixi Island to try and find any talents which might be hiding there. Even though the island was extremely dangerous, it was inevitable that some talented but weak cultivators would exist there, and with how isolated the island was, rushing over from it to attend a test somewhere else was not possible.

With this idea, Meng Li looked over at Ye Jian. Ye Jian was still deep in thought, so Meng Li waited a bit. However, as Ye Jian didn't wake up for a few minutes, Meng Li did so for him.

"Brother Ye?" he asked. Ye Jian was roused from thought and looked over at Meng Li. In response, Meng Li explained to him what his idea was with the places to host a test. Ye Jian nodded as he listened, but after Meng Li finished, he spoke up.

"Good idea, but since it's going to be so central, we need to announce it sufficiently early..." he said. Meng Li understood what he meant - since there would be only one test in such a giant place as the Full Moon Empire, they would have to leave enough time for people to hear of it and come to the capital... It would be a shame if they missed a genius simply because he didn't hear of the test in time.

"And don't worry about the north pole situation, we will simply have to visit more factions to notify them." Ye Jian told Meng Li. With this answer, he seemed like he was about to sink deep into though, but Meng Li still had a question.

"So, what are the tests going to... be?" he asked.

"That's... a good question. I still don't really know." Ye Jian answered with a wry smile.

"Then tell me about it! I should be able to help." Meng Li laughed. Ye Jian nodded and began explaining.

Since he wanted to accept disciples, the person's strength couldn't be the only factor. After all, if a person was strong, they probably had a set mentality, as well as some ideas about cultivation that couldn't be changed... Ye Jian didn't want a strong servant, he wanted a blank slate, who could still learn and accept his teachings.

This meant that the people who could even take part in the test had to be young, and below a certain strength level. Ye Jian already had an idea about those two factors - he wanted cultivators below the Qi Sea Realm, and preferably below thirty years. He wasn't quite sure about the age limit however, as he wasn't quite sure about this world's level. Thus, he asked Meng Li.

Meng Li, of course, turned to the system, and quickly had an answer - there were practically no people below thirty who were in the Qi Sea Realm. Thus, they wouldn't miss out on a genius by accident. Thus, the age limit of thirty years was settled.

The other factor in taking in disciples was their talent, of course. But unfortunately, talent couldn't exactly be quantified - after all, someone might have an extremely fast absorption speed but had no interest in cultivation. Such a person wouldn't make a good disciple at all, and would instead be a disappointment. Meng Li remembered a certain novel he had read, where talent was split into four attributes.

Those four attributes were the basic talent in cultivation, so speed of absorption; the comprehension of a person, and how fast they could learn; will, and how resilient they were; and finally, luck, which is quite self explanatory.

The first attribute was quite easy to quantify, and Meng Li even saw some tools to measure a person's talent in the summoning tab, but the other three were much more complicated.

The second could also be quantified, though it was a bit more complicated, and the third was even easier than the second. Luck was the hardest one to test, and so Meng Li decided to ignore it.

The second important thing about these four attributes was the fact that they weren't created equal - Meng Li didn't really know about luck, but in his opinion, the most important attribute was will. After all, talent could be raised with heavenly resources, comprehension could also be raised, be it permanently or temporarily, but will? Meng Li was clueless as to how he might improve it, practically even more than luck.

Thus, his idea was to centre the tests around the will of the cultivator. His idea was to try and create a test which would be equally as hard for every cultivator, regardless of the cultivator's strength, skills, or wealth.

As Meng Li told all of this to Ye Jian, Ye Jian listened closely. He seemed quite surprised by the distinction of the four attributes Meng Li presented, and agreed with Meng Li that will was the most important.

When Meng Li presented his idea, he fell silent for a moment before speaking out once again.

"So, do you have any ideas about the test now?" he asked. Ye Jian stayed silent for a few seconds before responding.

"Yes, I do... But it will require a few materials." he answered hesitatingly. Meng Li perked his ears to listen, and Ye Jian didn't make him wait. He explained his idea.

"In my previous life, I had some expertise with formations, and I'm sure that I can create a formation which changes the difficulty depending on an individual's strength. I think the best way to do something like it would be to create a pagoda." Ye Jian explained. Meng Li was quite excited, since formations seemed expremely interesting to him - he had wanted to learn about them for a long time, but never found the chance to do so, until now.

"So, what will you need?" Meng Li asked excitedly. Ye Jian didn't go easy, and quickly started listing items. Although Meng Li listened intently at first, he lost interest after a few minutes of not understanding anything Ye Jian said. He should probably start from the basics...

Meng Li only gave the system the task of summoning the items Ye Jian asked for. Luckily, practically all of them were only Qi Foundation ingredients, and the Qi cost was practically negligible to Meng Li.

After Ye Jian stopped reciting, Meng Li had practically fallen asleep. If he ever were to have trouble with falling asleep, Ye Jian's lecture could help him tremendously... But now, they had a bigger worry.

"So... Should we return to that room?" Meng Li proposed. It seemed like returning here was only a waste of time, and they would be better off simply staying in the control room until they were sure they had settled everything. Ye Jian didn't respond to his question, and only nodded slowly.

With Ye Jian's agreement, Meng Li shrunk the sword once again, grabbed Ye Jian's shoulder and returned to the control room.

When they were in the room, he looked towards Ye Jian, who looked at the small room with the table and two cushions with a frown. Meng Li guessed what he was worrying about.

"Brother Ye, do you need a special room for making that pagoda?" he asked. Ye Jian nodded and answered.

"Yes... A much larger room than this, and a strong fire for refining ingredients." he listed. Meng Li nodded and was ready to dive into the summoning tab, but Ye Jian quickly added. "Not TOO strong, brother Meng... If it's too strong, I won't be able to control it." Meng Li nodded and dove into the summoning tab.

With what he searched for, Meng Li was made aware of practically a new world of cultivation - the strange treasures of heaven and earth. The strange treasures created under the heavens weren't only the herbs he knew about - there was an unaccountable number of strange things under heavens, and it was impossible to list them all. Cultivators were constantly being faced with new, unknown treasures, which they didn't know the uses of.

Even different creatures could be also described to be heavenly treasures - beasts were used often in alchemy with their body parts being used as ingredients. Even humans could theoretically be used as ingredients, but doing so was an extremely demonic practice.

The strange treasures under heavens included ones which couldn't really be classified. For example, the crystals Meng Li played around with - they weren't ores, and neither were they pure Qi. They had elemental properties, which weren't found in normal Qi. Meng Li didn't know much at the time when he first found them, but in truth, these crystals... Didn't really make much sense.

Meng Li remembered the crystals now because in the summoning tab, an extremely pure crystal of fire was available for summoning, and it created an extremely pure, and hot fire when supplied with Qi. Meng Li also found strange fires which burned without fuel, as though they were inextinguishable. However, all of these fires contained strange properties, and Meng Li was a bit worried about whether they were fit for their purpose, and summoned the pure fire crystal.

With a thought, Meng Li made all of the items Ye Jian requested appear within the control room, as well as the fire crystal. Before the crystal produced any fire, Meng Li quickly created a barrier around it, preventing it from turning the control room into an inferno... He was sure the control room would be fine, but the same couldn't be said about Ye Jian and Meng Li's clothes.

The fire crystal was an a.d.u.l.t's fist in size, and looked like molten lava. Strangely enough, when not supplied with Qi, it wasn't even warm, though it maintained the orange colour.

Without worrying about the crystal, Meng Li also asked the system to create a room in the control room for refining treasures. He asked to make it much bigger than this room, and to look like carved stone.

The system complied, and in an instant, a stone door appeared in the wall without any sign. Meng Li, now used to such a thing, walked over and pushed it open. The room looked exactly like he asked the system for - a well lit room which looked to be carved from stone. Meng Li couldn't quite identify what stone it was, but he was sure that it was stone.

Ye Jian walked over, looked at the room, and nodded. It was fitting for his purposes.