If the flow of the time was slow for those who were participating in the trial, now that the increase in the pressure became extremer, seconds felt like minutes, losing one’s sitting position meant that the said person was a couple of minutes to be eliminated.
By the minute 35 the five thousand aspirants who were overwhelmed and fell frontwards, due to the first exponential increase in pressure, finally couldn’t endure the pressure, unfortunately they were too tired to move so they had no choice but to ask the law enforcer to help them.
“Senior, we can’t withstand it anymore, could you…”.
The aspirants didn’t manage to finish their sentence before the law enforcer waved his hand expelling them from the area of the trial.
The neutral elders shook their heads, instead of being positively impressed by those who stretched their time to the last second but also ended up in a pitiful state.
“Every year we have these guys who overestimate themselves, what does it matter if you held a couple of minutes just to leave in disgrace”.
“Yeah, they should have retired when they were forced against the ground”.
“It’s normal for them to be hot blooded, they are just joining the sect and most likely haven’t been in real life and death situations”.
While the neutral elders were discussing with each other, the elders on the thrones were evaluating the five thousand aspirants who were still managing to keep their sitting positions.
A gray-haired elder sitting on a throne with a blue anvil emblem, turned to see the red-haired elder sitting next to Agnes as he rubbed his chin.
“What do you think Ruben, has anybody caught your attention?”.
The red-haired man called Ruben, put on a “contemplative” expression as his eyes wandered through some of the remaining female disciples, stopping on a few of them and lastly on Alice.
“Yeah, there are a couple of compromising sprouts this year, the pride of my Red Sword faction has asked us to find a suitable partner spar partner since none of the female inner disciples has learned sword intent but him, so I have my eyes set on a few energy/body cultivators”.
“Unless you want to be ridiculed, I suggest you to not think on that”.
“Mm?”, the red-haired man, head Agnes casually telling him that his goal was ridiculous, which made him frown.
“What do you mean with that Agnes, my Red Sword faction can offer the same conditions as your Black Sword faction”.
Agnes limited to smile and didn’t say anything else, the other elders on the thrones also scouted those who caught their attentions, trying to decide whether they were worth being accepted without having to go through the third trial.
Kana who was leaned backwards against Aster’s chest while she looked at the other participants, turned her head around before saying.
“Big brother, are we really participating in the same event as them, I don’t feel any uncomfortable sensation”.
Kana’s voice wasn’t too loud but it was enough for almost all the participants who were still able to think on something else besides the trial, to grit their teeth, some even glared at them.
And of course, one pointed at the fact that she was sitting on Aster’s lap.
“Elder, isn’t that cheating, the areas which are in contact with the tiles are more affected, but she isn’t?”, asked the red-haired guy who was the first ranked on the black stone tablet for a split of a second before Alice got tested.
The law enforcer who was drinking his wine, shrugged.
“Well, certainly it’s the first time I see someone doing something like that, but if I were you, I would shut up”.
The straightforward answer of the law enforcer took the red-haired guy by surprise.
“Senior, would you please elaborate?”, he asked trying to keep his cool.
“If you insist, carrying someone with you while being under the effect of the formation means that the effect will double, the little girl is experiencing the normal, but he has been enduring twice the effect”.
“Aghh”.
The answer of the law enforcer fell like a bomb, unleashing a chain reaction, some who were doing their best to endure the pressure lost their concentration and were eliminated, others fell to the ground which meant their participation was about to end too.
There was a second type of reaction too.
“Sounds great and all, but his age means the pressure he is enduring is lesser than us, the same applies to that girl, what a show off”, snorted the red-haired guy before he closed his eyes.
Or at least that the plan until he heard an indifferent voice making its way into his ears.
“You’ll be the first to fail the third trial”.
“What did you…”, the red-haired guy eyes opened but as he was about to get back at Aster, the sandglass reached the minute forty-one and again the increase in the amount of pressure rocketed, so he had to stop himself from falling resting his left hand on the ground.
He wasn’t the only one though, out of the remaining three thousand, half fell to the ground without being able to return to their previous positions, and the one thousand who were already laying down for having lost their concentration due to the surprise caused by the answer of the law enforcer, were immediately eliminated.
The red-haired guy with some effort returned to his sitting position, he turned around with the intention of saying a few words to Aster, but his pupils contracted as he saw him lifting Kana by her waist so that Alice and Aria could also sit on his lap.
Of course, the scene was a bit too much for those who were already at the end of the line, resulting in the elimination of another five hundred.
This time even the law enforcer couldn’t help but be surprised, he felt the urge to cough since he nearly choked with the wine, but managed to keep his cool to not lose face.
“That’s a bit too much”, he mumbled, but at the same time his interest in Aster’s performance for the third trial sky rocketed, then a realization hit him like a truck.
‘Could it be that he is actually going to endure the whole cycle of the hourglass, wait a minute, if he does it then… he is aiming to become a core disciple!’, screamed the law enforcer in his heart.
Pretty much he wasn’t the only one that noticed Aster’s intention, and the reactions were quite varied, some had expectation while others weren’t too happy with the idea, their respective factions had their respective male disciples who were striving for the honor of becoming a core disciple after all.
To put emphasis on the importance of core disciples and elders, the elders on the thrones were only inner elders, each faction just have one core elder and they are busy all the time, each peak has three factions for a total amount of twelve core elders, plus three core elders which are neutral, that’s why the floor of the restaurant in which Agnes’s friend invited them to eat had fifteen private rooms, one per core elder.
So right now, there were only two opinions about Aster in the minds of the neutral and throned elders.
“I must recruit him”.
“I must block him from achieving it”.
The floor suddenly trembled as the hourglass reached the minute 45, from the remaining 2,500 aspirants, 2000 were directly eliminated, they didn’t fell to the ground but directly fainted and were moved out of the trial area to avoid them suffering permanent damage in their dantian, meridians or their souls.
Surprisingly the red-haired guy was among the last five hundred who managed to endure the astronomical increase in the pressure, but as the minutes 47 and 48 passed, half of those remaining were forced to leave and another one hundred were on the ground doing their best to remain awake.
“Damn it!”, a collective scream filled of frustration echoed through the testing area as the hourglass reached the minute 49.
Now there were only thirty people left, the red-haired guy finally couldn’t remain sitting and fell to the ground but refused to be eliminated, only when the next big wave of the fifty minutes hit, he and the others who were already on the ground were eliminated, leaving behind only eleven people.
Aster, Alice, Aria, Kana, Tiana, Erick and Sofia as well as the pair of male and female twins, a quiet guy with gray hair and a girl with green hair were the only ones left, since this trial was directed to disciple aspirants, the elders were allowed to stay but weren’t being tested.
“Oh”, the law enforcer nodded in recognition, normally there are only two or three who reach the fifty-minute mark, just to be eliminated immediately after that, but this time things were different.
At the minute 52 the green haired girl as well as the male twin were eliminated, but kept their consciousness, so they didn’t leave in disgrace.
Aster then inspected the ones who were left, Erick seemed to be troubled but it wasn’t because of the trial.
“Brother, this is so boring!”, he complained, for someone as active as him, having to sit down and do nothing for a whole hour was no less than a torture.
“I can sit on your lap, if you want to”, said Sofia, making Erick immediately scratch the back of his head
“We are almost done here so… no thanks Sofi”.
Once the hourglass reached the 55 minute mark, the gray haired guy as well remaining twin stood up and left, earning the attention of the elders, but it didn’t last long as some of them were immediately attracted at the sight of Aster falling backwards on the ground.
The red haired elder which was in a bad mood after seeing his nephew not enduring past the 50 minute mark smirked.
“That’s what happens when you bite off more than what you can chew, you end up losing just for a petty show off”.
Even those who were looking from the sides felt a somewhat sensation of relief, the beauties who were sitting on his lap also fell, meaning he lost a lot of face, so that they might have a chance with them, unfortunately their smiles frozen a couple of seconds later.
The others got back up before Aster did the same as he chuckled, Alice asked him to do that just to mess with the others, and the results were convincing.
Seeing at the angered and outraged expressions that most of the male aspirants as well as the red haired elder were giving him, Aster inwardly sighed.
‘Women are a source of troubles’, he thought before he looked at the red haired elder.
“This is what happens when you are a narrow-minded fool, you lose face just for being an idiot”.
A sepulchral silence fell on the whole place, until Agnes laugh returned other elders to reality, the red-haired elder’s eyes became bloodshot, an aspirant just insulted him in front of everyone.
“You!”, Ruben was about to stand up to retaliate when a strong pressure prevented him from doing so.
The law enforcer glared at Ruben as he drank the content of his cup.
“Don’t even think about Ruben” slowly said Salazar, what a joke, Aster’s group was a few minutes away from enduring the whole cycle, something no one has managed to do up to this day.