“So, is this the test?”
A glint of surprise rose in Yuan Linglu’s eyes. Finally, she understood why they would be considered qualified as long as they could climb up ten dragon bones. The overwhelming pressure and the devilish and demonic figures that seemed both real and imaginary, as well as the horrifying feeling, were all making it hard for her to step forward. She even had the urge to turn around and run away.
However.
That was not enough to freak her out.
She calmed herself down and made up her mind. She was going to deal with it all, be it the demonic figures or the overwhelming pressure. She walked forward with determination. An awe-inspiring and exceptional aura oozed out from the slim girl.
Within an instant, she had climbed up five dragon bones!
She was halfway through the test already!
At the fifth dragon bone, the overwhelming pressure had grown by several fold. The demonic figures were becoming more substantial as she moved further into the world of darkness. She could see their bodies, and how the demons made threatening gestures to her. She could hear some whispers in a mysterious language. She couldn’t tell the exact words being spoken but the whispering was making her shudder with terror.
Yuan Linglu worked up her courage. She was about to keep going when she thought of something. She looked around.
To the left.
No one was there.
To the right.
No one.
Yuan Linglu was surprised.
Where’s the other guy?
Right then, she noticed something from the corner of her eye. She looked to her left side, further ahead, only to be stunned.
The young man had walked to the seventh dragon bone and was going toward the eighth one steadily.
He was already ahead of her!
Yuan Linglu pulled a long face. She no longer hid her strength. Powerful energy burst out of her and she pressed forward. Hoy!
Hoy!
She strode forward against the pressure induced by the overpowering energy and the many demonic figures. Soon, she had climbed up to the eighth dragon bone, catching up with Su Ping.
She took a deep breath. Keeping an eye on Su Ping was no longer the priority. She had to beat him and arrive at the tenth dragon bone first!
Roar!
Right then, the many demonic figures transformed into vicious dragons that were roaring and lunging towards her. The pungent smell of blood in the air was enough to take one’s breath away. The dragons’ roars, which had a deterrent effect, froze her blood. It was as if over a dozen dragons at the titled rank were shouting at her simultaneously. Theoretically speaking, anyone below the titled rank would have passed out because of fear.
But, Yuan Linglu was familiar with dragons, beasts that the general public could rarely see, because she had spent much of her childhood playing with her grandpa’s dragons. Dragons’ roars were not foreign to her.
Despite the heavy burden on her psyche, she pressed forward.
It was the ninth dragon bone.
The vicious dragons became even more violent and the roars were even more offending to the ears.
At the same time, some hands were pulling her from behind. The sleek and cold touch made her quake. She didn’t know if that was a mere illusion or a real monster.
There was something she did know. She could not stop!
Come on!!
She drew her sword and cut the tentacles off from her. She shouted and wielded her sword at the vicious dragons as she advanced.
Soon, she had made it to the tenth dragon bone.
She was a bit relieved when she made it. She turned around, only to see that the young man had also reached the tenth dragon bone.
What a surprise. Yuan Linglu looked away from him. Since he could make it to the tenth dragon bone, she had to be better!
The eleventh dragon bone!
It was as if a huge hand were pressing down her back. She mobilized astral powers but still, she felt she was carrying several sandbags and could barely stand up straight. She bit her teeth and tried to summon her battle pets.
But her calls received no answer. Space had been sealed.
Yuan Linglu was a bit scared. Soon, she realized the reason. The test was for her and the dragon king’s soul must have set up the seal so that she couldn’t rely on her battle pets.
Such being the case…
She would deal with the challenge all by herself then!
She waved her sword and skillfully slashed the vicious dragons in front of her. Because of the pressure and burden, her moves were a bit off but she still managed to do so with elegance and grace. Without that burden, she would have moved faster than the average eighth-rank battle pet warriors.
Her physical strength didn’t match her rank!
No. 12, No. 13…
She had climbed to the fifteenth dragon bone!
Pff!
Yuan Linglu was about to step forward when the weakness in her knees brought her to the ground. The burden that could topple mountains and overturn seas made her feel that she was deep in the ocean. She could no longer breathe and her lungs were about to explode.
She supported herself with the sword and breathed heavily. Some slimy and pitch-dark liquid closed in on her. There was a strong force that was yanking her, making it hard for her to move about.
So tired.
She was exhausted.
This… should be good enough, right?
Yuan Linglu looked back.
To her surprise, no one was behind her!
In a hurry, she turned to the front. To her dismay, the person was at the eighteenth dragon bone, two dragon bones away!
How… is that possible!
Yuan Linglu was about to have a mental breakdown.
Along the way, there were the demonic figures and the vicious dragons. The physical pressure alone was enough to break a person. She felt she had reached her limit at this point. How could that young man make it further than her?
Was he physically stronger than she was?!
Yuan Linglu bit her teeth. Trembling, she forced herself up and worked up the strength to move on.
Sixteenth… Seventeenth dragon bone.
Yuan Linglu shivered and fell to the ground. The last wisp of determination in her mind had faded away.
She couldn’t make it any further.
She leaned against the dragon bone as she looked forward, only to see that the young man was still moving on steadily, further and further away. He had reached the twenty-second dragon bone.
Silence.
Yuan Linglu was aware that she had lost to him at this test.
A complete defeat.
He was so far away that she wasn’t in the mood to catch up with him. He was five dragon bones away. The level of burden on that dragon bone was enough to crush her.
She was at her limit, in her mind, and in her body!
Well? She’s not catching up?
Su Ping was stunned; he could no longer hear any noises behind him. He turned around and saw that the girl was sitting down on the dragon bone. She must have stopped there, trying to adjust her breath.
He thought Yuan Linglu was recovering to get ready for the next test.
Su Ping raised his eyebrows. He darted a glance ahead. There were over a thousand dragon bones in total.
I wonder how far I can go.
Su Ping was curious and eager to experiment. He thought he could rely on the Little Skeleton when it came to the test on physical strength. Or, he could try it a bit further and save some energy until he was close to reach his limit. Keep moving
Su Ping stepped forward.
Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five…
As he kept going, countless violent dragons were shouting at him. Some came out from the darkness outside the skeleton as if they were born out of the void.
Behind him were gruesome whispers and callings.
Nothing else? Su Ping’s mind was not disturbed in the slightest.
When he reached the thirtieth dragon bone, Su Ping was seeing an ocean of blood and a mountain of corpses, from which many skeletons and dead bodies were emerging. Some freaky figures appeared; all of them had a ghastly look.
Su Ping tilted his head and admired the view for a bit before he went on.
He could tell that the burden on his body was growing stronger but the views and illusions were unable to scare him in the slightest. After all, he had witnessed things more frightening than this.
In the Chaotic Realm of the Undead, which was a world of ghosts and skeletons, the strange and uncanny occurrences were commonplace. That was a world of no living creatures; a gray, twisted world.
Compared to that place, those illusions were “lacking in creativity.”
The physical burden was the thing that made him slow down.
Su Ping wasn’t sure if the burden was real or just imagined
After all, the dragon king’s soul mentioned that this was a test to gauge their will.
Such being the case, it shouldn’t have much to do with his physical strength.
He could tell the burden was most likely imagined. For instance, when a person’s finger was burnt by fire, hypothetically, that fire had no temperature; the person’s brain would still raise an alert that something was hot and that the finger should be moved away.
The test was far more complicated than illusions. It could reconstruct a person’s cognition.
To put it simply, while he knew those were illusions, he had reached a certain point where he would actually perceive physical pain and believe that everything he saw was real.
Making yourself believe that those were illusions and then ignore them was not enough to make sure he could keep going.
The “infiltration” of those things had convinced his body that the pain was as real as it could get.
Su Ping could also feel something yanking and pulling him from behind, but the force was not strong; he could easily break free. That was not because he was physically strong, it was all due to his strong will!
The stronger his willpower was, the lesser the infiltration would be and as such, he would not be so affected by the illusions.