Death... and me

And just like that, weeks passed in a flash as they just cultivated. In fact, they cultivated more during these weeks before the Soul Land test than they did in the last two months. That’s because all four of them focused on it. Usually, it would be Celis who cultivated nonstop. The other three always had something to do other than cultivating. Rean would be working on formations, Roan would be the one traveling, while Kentucky was called everywhere to help out with the sect.

Eventually, the next month arrived, and the twins’ group came out of the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm. Just like before, Rean gave Celis a lot of Rank Two Divine Stones to use in case they ran out of Divine Energy. Though that shouldn’t be the case in the Soul Land, it was better to be safe than sorry.

”Hey, how have your last three weeks been?” Rean asked with a smile when he gathered with Min, Erla, and Habac again.

”Pretty much fine,” Habac answered with a shrug. “In my case, I’ve been preparing for this test since last year when I entered to check it. I focused a lot on my Soul Power, so my cultivation barely moved at all during the last twelve months. In exchange, I should be able to bring out 60 to 70% of my Divine Energy power.”

Min and Erla sighed after that. “We weren’t prepared for it at all. We worked on our Soul Power, but just a few weeks is far from enough to reach any meaningful result.” In Erla’s case, she was even worse than Vrie, only being able to use only 30 to 40% of her Divine Energy through the use of Soul Power. As for Min, he was only slightly better. He could achieve 40 to 50%, but that’s because he was part of the humanoid races.

Rean laughed before he patted Erla and Min’s shoulders in response. “Hahaha! Come on! You two are a couple, aren’t you? I’m sure you did something more than just focus on your Soul Power. In fact, doing ‘that’ was definitely a good thing to relieve your stress after the first test.”

Erla’s face went slightly red while Min’s mouth twitched when he heard that. “You’re not very popular with your jokes, are you?”

Rean nodded, saying, “That’s true. I wonder why since they’re so good.” He then glanced at Erla, adding, “Though it doesn’t seem like what I said was a joke in her eyes.”

Habac couldn’t help but say in response, “Come on. If you tease them like that, they’ll be even worse at the test. Whether a baby will be born a few months later or not is their problem, don’t you think?” Well, Habac was having fun as well… especially after he passed one of the hardest tests, which in his opinion, was the Deep Sea test.

Rean laughed a lot more while the couple pretended they didn’t hear anything.

Meanwhile, Celis asked one of the demon beasts in his group who had taken the Soul Land test before. “So, there’s no such thing as someone attacking us?”

The one he talked to was a Jade Ox in human form. “That’s correct. The test is all about forcing our way through, but not against enemies. Instead, it’s against the environment.”

At Roan’s group… “So what exactly are we fighting against?” Roan asked.

”According to the information I got, we will start the test at a certain position of the Dimensional Realm,” Krikei explained. “From there, we have to make our way through the many barriers along the way. All of them can only be taken down by attacks that use Soul Power as the conductor.”

In Rean’s group, Habac was the one explaining. “But don’t think we’re safe. These same barriers and the environment around us will send out several attacks in our direction now and then. They don’t contribute anything to the test. Instead, they’re all attacks with enough power to kill those who are caught with their guards down. Believe it or not, there was even one time when a giant wall several kilometers tall appeared in front of my last group and began to tumble in our direction. The wall was extremely hard and thick. We had no time to retreat either. In the end, we tried to open a hole through it and failed. With that, we could only crush our badges and get teleported out before being smashed by it. These kinds of crazy situations are common inside there.”

All the groups also received similar information.

In the room where Libraia and the elders of the Jhiod Sect’ building were staying, they accompanied the show through their monitoring formations. “Hmm… we have quite a few experienced participants this time,” Libraia mentioned.

Iglet looked at her and could tell what she was thinking. “Are you going to start this next test with that?”

Govin and the other elders couldn’t help but smile when they heard that. “That will be a big surprise for them. Hahaha”

Libraia, obviously, was having fun watching. “Since none of you object to it, I guess I’ll go do that.” She touched a few runes on the formation in front of her as the smile on her face widened.

Back in the hall, the spatial gate that connected to the Soul Land Dimensional Realm was finally opened. Following that, one of the Jhiod Sect members came out to announce. “The Soul Land is open now. As always, attacking other participants in this test is prohibited. Your target is to reach the other end of the Soul Land Dimensional Realm. Now, that’s all. Just go out already.”

Everyone quickly entered the gate, soon appearing in the Soul Land. However, they quickly noticed that none of them could move forward.

”Don’t worry. The Soul Land test only starts after the spatial gate closes. That’s why we can’t move yet,” Habac explained. The same kind of explanation happened everywhere.

A few minutes later, everyone felt the force holding their bodies disappear. “It finally started!”

Usually, the groups would follow their own paths and move away from each other. After all, it’s known that the higher the number of participants close to each other, the harder the obstacles they would come across. In the end, using too many cultivators, demon beasts, and spirits was a foolish idea. That’s why everyone kept their groups the same way as they did during the last test. Well, at least those who survived the last one, that is.

Unfortunately, none of the groups advanced at all after the test started. Not that they didn’t want to, but that they couldn’t.

Rean’s mouth twitched as he looked to both sides and ahead of him. There, he saw a gigantic wall several kilometers tall and who knows how long. Rean simply couldn’t see the end of it either on both sides. “Habac, this can’t be that wall you mentioned, right?”

Habac let out cold sweat as he said in response, “What if I tell you this wall is the one and the same?”