Aimless Ascension

Chapter 234  227 Trial (2)

Sun Ziang cleared the little blood from his combat robe after massacring a dozen or so Murder Monkeys. Half of the lower-ranked beasts had been dealt by the other two, while the rest ran away getting the chance. Sun Ziang didn't command them to chase after them as that wasn't his concern.

He raised his head to face the lower-rank dungeon overflowing with energy. That was his priority here.

"This certainly doesn't feel like a lower-rank dungeon," Shi Fan said as words wheezed out of his throat. He dealt with one silver rank and a few iron-ranked beasts alone. Being a newly advanced Iron ranker the fight had taken away a good amount of his stamina and Qi.

While Twilight was serenely eerie, standing on the side, her robes fluttering in the wind.

"Shall we clear out the dungeon now?" Sun Ziang suggested, "Or do you need some rest?"

"I'm good," Shi Fan managed to say, gritting his teeth.

"Are you sure, you don't look that well?"

"I'm fine," Shi Fan said, his voice still not ready to lose out.

Sun Ziang narrowed his eyes and glanced at his acquaintance, who simply shrugged as this didn't concern her.

"Come on," Shi Fan said, walking ahead towards the dungeon, "This is only a copper rank dungeon, even with the overflow, we might be able to solve it within a couple of hours if we try our best."

The entrance of the dungeon was beaming with purple light and wasn't big enough to let them enter at once. So when Shi Fan entered they could only follow after him. Thankfully, the dungeon hadn't spread its position all over the place.

However, there was something different about this dungeon. The moment they entered the dungeon they found themselves—not in a cavern-type dungeon, but still under a naked sky with different kinds of topography. It was still under the cover of darkness, though it was more like an evening than a starless middle of the night. The surroundings were dimly lit with the star and moon's light.

Sun Ziang was about to check more when a booming voice assaulted their ears.

[Welcome Contestants to your first trial.]

[Please affirm your participation and difficulty level.]

"What was that?" Shi Fan asked, first time experiencing a talking dungeon. "Have you ever come across a dungeon like this?"

Sun Ziang nodded after little thought. "These kinds of dungeons are rare to come across," he said, "because unlike most other dungeons this isn't naturally formed, but built by practitioners to test aspiring practitioners."

"You're saying someone of higher rank created this dungeon and left it here?" Sun Ziang asked, frowning.

"That was probably thousands of years ago," Sun Ziang affirmed. "Probably some higher-rank practitioner left his inheritance through these dungeon trials."

Sun Ziang's eyes lit up hearing that. Even the silent assassin seemed interested as she scanned her surroundings.

An illusionary image with text appeared before them all, as they exchanged glances to come to a common decision on how to participate in the dungeon.

[Please select your difficulty level: Easy | Intermediate | Hard ]

[Easy: A thirty-day survival trial in the wilderness where you have to do miscellaneous tasks in the meantime. Rewards: Common/Uncommon Fate marks, Artifacts, or treasures of similar value.]

[Intermediate: A twelve-day survival trial in the wilderness where you have to complete various miscellaneous tasks in the meantime: Rare Fate marks, Artifacts, or treasures of similar value.]

[Hard: A four-day survival trial in the wilderness where you have to complete various miscellaneous tasks in the meantime. Unique Fate marks, Artifacts, or treasures of similar value.]

[Participation type: Solo | Group (3/5)]

"Hmm," Sun Ziang considered, reading the details of the dungeon. A question appeared on his mind immediately: Is this the inheritance Mother wanted me to find?

Well, the hard difficulty prize seemed good enough, but that certainly isn't something that could alert a Sovereign. Which led him to think, this was merely the first trial, perhaps there were more after this.

"Wow, they certainly didn't cheap out on the rewards," Shi Fan said, eyes filled with hope. "We're choosing Hard difficulty right?"

The question was directed at him, but Sun Ziang didn't answer immediately but turned to face the dark-cloaked figure.

"How are you guys sure of handling the Hard difficulty?" he asked.

"I'm pretty confident," Shi Fan said, after a thought.

Twilight shrugged again, as if it didn't matter to her whatever difficulty they chooses.

"Okay, we're going in the group if none of you opposes," Sun Ziang decided. Finding nobody opposing, he chose everyone else. "As for difficulty, Hard it is."

[You have chosen to participate in Hard difficulty in a group of three.]

[May fate be in your favour.]

With that, a complete stillness dawned between them and the wilderness. They exchanged glances and then something struck them, catching them off guard completely.

"My rank," Shi Fan squealed, "I can't feel my rank."

Sun Ziang narrowed his eyes, feeling a superior power locking onto his spirit, locking away most of his spiritual power if not all. His silver rank strength was no more, as he couldn't even exert copper rank strength. The amount of Qi he could wield put him in the list of the lowest of the initiate practitioners.

That wasn't all, his physical body strength was suppressed somehow as well. Pinching his skin and muscle, Sun Ziang found he was barely better than a normal human. This shouldn't be possible, unless. . .

"Interesting," Sun Ziang muttered and found the other youth panicking. Sun Ziang was ready to calm him down, but his eyes drifted off to the only woman in the group.

Twilight looked unstable. Her unique state let her interchange between physical and spiritual form, however, now she appeared just semi-corporeal. She was trying to clasp her palms together or phase through, but only managed something in between.

'This is going to be a problem,' Sun Ziang thought as another illusionary text expanded before their eyes.

[Welcome to Trial One

"DAMN! We are screwed!"

Difficulty: Hard  Type: Survival.

Participants: 3  Time: 4 days.

Descriptions: Great danger lurks in the surrounding wilderness, but opportunity comes hand in hand with the danger. Survive the wilderness for four days and complete the following tasks.

N.B: The task list will be updated during the trial.

Tasks:

1. Collect 300 Copper rank beast cores.

2. Will be updated later.

3. Will be updated later.]

"DAMN! We are screwed!"

***

Gale was glowing. Really, he was glowing, and not in a good way.

'How many hours has it been yet?' Gale asked, his spirit overflowing with radiance power from the blood and more from the gem core.

[You're almost there, don't worry about time,] Saarya told him.

Gale snorted and channelled the power from the core through his spirit. He was already two-thirds down with the core's power, and already fused with the celestial blood's power. The only thing left was emptying the core of all its power and fusing it with his spirit. Well, he was already in the midst of the fusing process, but the final touch would point out how much radiance power he would be able to hold.

While he was in the middle of this trial, Maya came in and out a few times, threw some healing spells at him to help him recover and went away to instruct his disciple. Well, she wasn't doing simply that, but checking on the outside as well, about the chances the place was going through.

A few hours ago, she came along with Xiaolin. Or was it half a day ago? Honestly, Gale wasn't sure. She told him, she was taking Linlin in the wilderness for her training, as there were some great opportunities for her to train in. Actually, Xiaolin wasn't ready to go with her, leaving her master in such a state, but with him suffering for so long, she was just restless the entire time, doing nothing but worry.

That was the reason Maya decided to take her under her wing for the time being. She said they would come back before he was done with torturing himself.

Gale just agreed to her with a groan. As long as Maya was with her, he didn't have to worry about anything. Well, he was in no position to worry about others with what he was going through.

Thankfully, he had Vale with him, who exerted all his power to protect his sanity.

[There's me too,] Saarya reminded him.

'Yes, there's you two, who wouldn't give me a straight answer.'

[It is for your own good.]

Gale snorted mentally.

"Just tell me how much longer I have to endure this?" Gale asked, gritting his teeth. He had no words to describe what he was feeling. It felt like his spirit was bearing tons of weight and getting wrecked all the way. And while the spirit resonated with this body, it was going through merciless misery as well.

It was changing him.

[I'm not certain,] Saarya told him. [Half a day, perhaps.]

"And it already has been. . . hmm, a week?"

[It hadn't been a complete day yet,] Saarya said.

"Are you sure?" Gale asked. "To me, it felt like a week or more."

[Trust me, it won't be that long to complete this, and if you like, I can protect your mind from getting too much affected by the pain, of course, that would create some complications in the trial, but nothing can be solved with proper attention and focus.]

"Really, what are you walking for then? You think something like this a normal human can endure?"

[Gale, you aren't a normal human.]

__________

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