When Dyon felt the Presence, at first, he was a bit surprised. But, when he felt the realm of the Presence, he felt the urge to laugh. If he hadn’t been in such a crappy mood, maybe he would have.
It was at this point that he finally realized that the third trial hadn’t been tailoring its beast waves to his own strengths. No, the reality was that this trial was meant to place heavy pressure on one’s Presence to begin with.
Dyon was certain that even with his combat prowess, it would have been impossible to defeat hundreds of thousands of enemies at once with his soul sealed, if he hadn’t had his Presence. And if it wasn’t for his Perception, he would have died long ago.
That was when he understood. The first trial cultivated Perception. The second trial gave you the acting role of King and introduced you to the concepts of Presence.
Usually, those who do well in the second trial spend decades there, eventually growing a Presence seedling. Then, the point of the beast waves of the third trial was to culture that Presence seedling, and then fight past the 100th wave with the gains you’ve made.
Unfortunately for these trials, Dyon had cultivated Presence long ago because of his father. Even while being a mortal, his own father high level Presence. Although he wasn’t at the Duke or King level, the fact he had cultivated a martial art so far without any concept of cultivation was mind blowing. He then passed it on to his son. In fact, Dyon already had a high-level Viscount Presence by the time he entered Focus Academy, and it only grew with time.
In the end, Dyon entered the days of the second trial with a Peak Duke Presence. And then, because of Luna, it sky-rocketed to the Peak King Level.
So, what did this mean? It meant Dyon was currently undergoing a trial meant for those with seedling Presences, a Viscount level Presence at most. To those of the martial world, this third trial was exceedingly important because it was what separated those ultimate geniuses with King level Presences, from those with mere Peak Duke level Presences and below…
Why did all of the peak level geniuses of the martial world all just happen to have lower King level Presences? It was because the highest levels of the third trial provided this benefit…
However… Didn’t Dyon already have a Peak King level Presence? Wasn’t this trial too much of a joke in front of him?
Maybe the funniest part was that this arrogant young man with a lance that was currently charging at him, with full confidence in his victory… Was exhibiting a Presence of the mere Peak Viscount level… An entire four realms below Dyon…
Seeing Dyon raise his massive sword, Dyon’s grand teacher sighed. The only reason he had been worried for Dyon before hand was because the beast waves were no joke and it put him at a massive disadvantage. It could be said that now that Dyon had passed the beast waves, there was no challenge remaining before him at all…
The rankings for the trials of the Epistemic Tower were reset every one million two hundred thousand years, because in the martial world, this corresponds to one generation of youngsters. This time span is simply calculated by the fact if one were to reach the peak of dao formation, 1.2 million years would be your upper most life span. In this way, every generation is pitted against their own generation.
For the current generation, the record for the third trial was the 157th wave. In regards to the very best records Dyon’s grand teacher had ever seen, Dyon had already shattered them for both the first and second trials… And it seemed he was about to do so for the third as well…
The young man with the Lance watched in horror as Dyon’s Presence erupted. His confidence was completely crushed in an instant without even a chance to retaliate… It felt as though his bones had turned to mush and his brain couldn’t form coherent thoughts… The only thing left was an instinct… The instinct to bow in reverence…
Dyon’s massive sword swept through challenger after challenger, and as he did so, the holds on his cultivation alleviated as well.
The luster of gold on his sword also grew brighter. By the time he reached the 145th wave, his name had appeared at the 100th spot on the rankings, causing an uproar.
However, that wasn’t the truly shocking part… Because after less than a minute, he leaped another 11 spots as the bright red number 146 appeared by his name…
It would have been one thing if Dyon was quickly blasting through the 110s, and much more acceptable. That was because many of the more outstanding geniuses had reached the Marquis levels of Presence, having cultivated Presence since they were young due to their knowing the asks of the trials. This was cheating a bit, but they believed that family background and resources were simply a part of the martial world that would never disappear.
But… The 145th challenge of the third trial had a Duke level Presence. In fact, this would be true until the 155th challenger, where they would then have King level Presences!
For Dyon to blow by them so fast, that could only mean that he had already cultivated a King level Presence before the 156th challenge! That was completely unheard of!