Aster slowly returned to where he was previously standing, along the way he noticed different kinds of gazes falling on him, as well as people mumbling with each other thinking he couldn’t hear them.
“Having a high realm doesn’t necessarily mean he is strong”.
“Yeah, look at all those girls he is grouping with, he is probably a silk pants from a dual cultivation family, the second round of the trial is always the limit to them… what do you think, big brother?”.
The red-haired guy who was enjoying the attention of the public, a few seconds before Alice was tested spat on the ground.
“If I didn’t care about stability and battle prowess, I would be a peak Stellar Axys cultivator, the next trial will be the downfall for guys like him”.
The elders on the stands as well as the ones who were occupying a throne were also on a debate, regarding Aster’s result.
The blue haired woman who stood up against the red haired elder before, turned to see Agnes noticing she was doing her best to not show her excitement but failing.
“Agnes, I know you have a thing for soul cultivators, but isn’t the rule of your Black Sword peak to only accept those whose battle prowess are above average?”.
Agnes shrugged as she lad back on her throne, for her this whole thing was meaningless, as she already had “caught” the big fish.
“We’ll see how it goes on the next round”, she said in a mystery filled voice, which made the blue haired woman raise an eyebrow.
Aster more or less expected that reaction from others, he would be considered a monster even at the forces with equal standing to the Drage family, so it was normal that others thought he just rushed through realms without solidifying his base, not like he cared.
Still after Aster’s performance the group became the center of attention once again, specially because the youngest looking member was about to take her turn.
Kana nodded at Aster and then walked towards the disciple who tested Aster, the poor guy stood there hoping he didn’t need the law enforcer to step in again.
Kana placed her hand on the sphere and the disciple soon announced the result.
“12 years old, early-stage Star Formation realm, level 5 talent, pass”.
Kana inwardly let out a sigh of relief as she wasn’t sure how that talent aspect would result for her, she didn’t seriously cultivate until a few weeks ago after all, but she was happy with the result.
“You see, that girl has a relatively high realm but no advance in a second path, the talent aspect can be tricked with an abundance of pills, she must be being prepared as a future…”.
Just when some people were mocking Kana for having zero advance in a second path, the sphere which was used to test her broke apart.
‘But of course, it would break’, thought the disciple with a bitter expression.
And that wasn’t all, after Kana, Erick and Tiana followed.
“15 years old, early-stage Stellar Constellation realm, early-stage Body solidification, level 5 talent, pass”.
“21 years old, middle stage Stellar Axys realm in body cultivation, peak stage Spirit Opening realm, level 5 talent, pass”.
…
After that, no one said anything afraid of being proven slapped with another incredibly high result, the next trial was where things got hairy after all.
Kana hummed as she returned to Aster’s side, she smiled as he patted her head, also marking those who were bad mouthing her as his targets for the third test, which was always battle related.
‘If Agnes’s words were right then, it doesn’t matter whether they are assholes or saints’, he thought as he gently stroked Kana’s long hair while Aria and Alice clung to him, making others who were watching get green out of jealousy.
The spheres breaking repeated wasn’t unheard off, there was always a few dozens of aspirants of cases, but this time no matter the results none of them was close to Aster and the others, the closest were a couple of twins a boy and a girl of 17 years old, the girl was a peak Stellar Constellation, as well as an early Body Solidification cultivator, the guy on the other hand was a middle stage Stellar Constellation, and a middle stage Body Solidification cultivator.
The law enforcer watched everything to the end inwardly nodding in recognition.
‘It seems this time’s batch is decent’, out of the 100,000+ aspirants, now there was only about 60,000 left, the number might look big, but if you take into account they were what was selected from a whole stellar system, you’ll realize it was the other way around, not to mention the grounds of the sect consisted in five planets as well as the neutral city and the castles, meaning there was space for tens of thousands of millions of disciples.
And yet according to Agnes each peak had less than half a million of disciples.
“That’s enough, we’ll now advance to the second round of the trials, sit down where you are”.
Following the instructions of the law enforcer everyone sat cross legged on the floor, the tiles were made of some kind of black jade like material which was actually comfortable, meaning this stage was especially prepared for this.
The law enforcer waited until the disciples who assisted during the first trial left, he then tapped the ground with his left foot and a three meters tall hourglass with four marks on its surface appeared next to him
“This hourglass’s cycle is one hour, the whole plaza besides the stage has a suppression spirit formation, once the sand starts falling, you’ll be put through an artificial pressure which will increase every minute, those who endure the first fifteen minutes will get a score of one hundred points, those who endure the second mark which equals half an hour, will get three hundred points”.
“With that female aspirants are eligible to become normal disciples without participating on the third trial, male aspirants will be eligible to become assistants, any questions?”.
“What if we reach the fourth mark”.
Everyone’s attention was drawn at Aster who was casually being surrounded by girls, while Kana was sitting on his lap.
The elders frowned, at Aster’s indifferent voice, but no one said anything, so far, his results were the best in the whole history of the sect after all.
“In the case anyone manages to resist the whole cycle of the hourglass, then that person would be allowed to immediately become an inner disciple without having to participate in the third trial, regardless of gender of the results of the first trial”.
“Take into account that you can’t use any spirit energy to resist the artificial pressure, don’t worry the formation is connected to the results of the first trial, so everyone will experience different levels and kinds of suppression”.
Aster nodded, thanking the law enforcer for his explanation, as he could feel the ridiculing gazes of others.
“There is no reward for the third mark and no one has been able to surpass the forty-nine minutes limit, that brat is underestimating the level of the sect”, snorted the red haired elder which was sitting on the same row as Agnes.
‘You wouldn’t run your mouth if you knew he can overwhelm Mortal Transcending cultivators with his spirit pressure’, thought Agnes but she didn’t say anything.
Seeing that everyone was ready, the law enforcer injected his spirit energy in the hourglass starting the countdown.
The tiles of the floor illuminated with spirit formations and officially the second trial started.
“Aghhh!”, not even a few seconds later a couple of people spat blood and fainted, thus failing the second trial, the law enforcer waved his hand with a disdainful expression and those who fainted were expelled from the plaza.
No one pitied them, the second trial was created to eliminate those who have relied only on pills and resources to advance, it was basically a process to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The neutral elders finally started showing some reactions taking note on the facial expressions of the aspirants.
Instead of paying attention to the artificial pressure, Aster was more interested in the runes which were engraved on the ground.
Unfortunately, while for others this trial was quite harsh, the formation wasn’t adapted to detect battle prowess beyond what was considered “average”, meaning that he was receiving an amount of pressure at most one major realm above his cultivation.
And so, one by one many of the aspirants were eliminated, while others gritted their teeth trying to endure, once the hourglass hit the first mark which prevented them from failing, they immediately left the plaza and stood up at the sides to wait for the trial to be over.
The law enforcer actually sat down on the stage too, unlike his previous positive attitude he was now disappointed, everyone had its limits and it wasn’t shameful to admit it, but the essence of a cultivator was having the will to improve, going against the heavens, not showing relief of barely approving.
“No perseverance at all, Galatia’s younger generation has surely decayed”.
“Senior Salazar is being too negative, even those who enter as regular disciples have the chance to become outstanding, fortune smiles to the most random people, isn’t the Fire Sword leader a proof of that”, said the blue haired woman next to Agnes, making her laugh.
The law enforcer watched the red-haired man frowning and he sighed.
“You three brats don’t give me more work and behave in front of the aspirants”.
Aster saw that most of the people were already showing signs of being tired, he turned to see how the girls were doing only to see they were happily chatting with each other, which of course drew other people’s attention.
But this time no one had extra attention to criticize them, as the minutes went by, the number of aspirants who remained on the plaza kept being reduced, and when the hourglass hit the thirty-minute mark, some aspirants fainted while others slowly left the trial area with relieved expressions.
“Oh?”, Aster finally showed some reaction, as soon as the 31 minute went by, the amount of pressure he was experiencing increased quite a bit, to the point that out of the about ten thousand aspirants half of them fell to the ground, and weren’t able to recover their sitting positions anymore.
“I forgot to mention it, but from the minute 31, the increase in pressure will be exponential, instead of fixed, good luck”.
The law enforcer took out a bottle of some kind of wine and raised his cup to those who were still on the trial, which in his eyes were truly worthy of joining the sect.