The red haired elder wanted to argue, he an elder was insulted by someone who’s yet to join the sect, but he couldn’t bring himself to go directly against the law enforcer at least not without having spoke about it with the core elder backing him.
While there are fifteen core elders, there are only five law enforcers and each one is strong enough to suppress three core elders without sweating.
Ruben stopped trying to get up and then looked away.
The law enforcer then looked at the hourglass, during that little interaction Aster and the others already broke the previous record having endured 56 minutes of suppression, and right now the last grain of sand fell.
“They did it”, mumbled the law enforcer, he rubbed his eyes just to make sure they weren’t deceiving him.
Needless to say, but most of the throned elders had similar reactions, their eyes were literally on fire as they sent messaged through their communication talismans, although the trials haven’t finished, they all had the chance to recruit disciples for their factions ignoring the third trial.
Aster tried to get up only to be held down by Alice and surprisingly even Aria was participating this time.
‘You two want to kill me, if gazes could kill, I’ll be dead at this point’, said Aster through the mental connection so that only the girls could hear him.
Alice stuck her tongue at her brother before she got off his lap, not without saying.
‘It’s so that we can end this sooner, you still owe me lots of love and cuddles~’.
Aster raised an eyebrow he understood Alice acting like this, but Aria on the other hand was a surprise.
Aria who had a slightly flushed expression, hid her face on Aster’s chest to not look directly him.
‘Don’t look at the ice princess, I just had to bribe her with letting her tag along, you were the one that said we should act like sisters hehehe”.
While Aster and the girls were in their own world flirting, the law enforcer cleared his throat to draw their attention.
“Ahem, the second trial is over… the preparations for the third trial are still ongoing, faction elders, neutral elders, you are free to use your seeded spots if you want to”.
Aster patted the girls and they obeyed him this time, the spirit formation on the ground deactivated and the disciples who have now recovered slowly returned to the plaza, around 58,000 in other words those who endured at least fifteen minutes gathered once again.
Then everyone’s attention was drawn at the black stone slate who now also registered the time they endured during the second trial, and there was also an extra number registered.
Just as the law enforcer explained all those who endured only fifteen minutes had 100 points which forced them to participate on the third trial if they wanted to join the sect, that being said there weren’t too many of them, about three thousand only.
Leaving aside Aster’s group, the rest all had 300 points for females that meant the opportunity to skip the third trial and join as outer disciples, for males they could only enter as assistants, of course it was done like that to encourage them to participate in the third trial.
The first test eliminated those whose cultivation didn’t meet a certain requirement according to their ages or have low talents, the second trial focused in eliminating those who only relied on pills or had weak willpower as for the third trial, it only judged one thing, battle prowess.
Those who didn’t outstand in the first ones had the chance to prove themselves in the last trial, normally most of the elders waited for the results of the third trial before using their respective seeded spots, but this time there were more outstanding candidates than previous years, and they also endured more than their predecessors.
Although Aster didn’t care about the scores, he looked at the top area of the black stone slate because there was a commotion ongoing, the red-haired guy specially raised his voice as he pointed at Aster’s group.
“Hey, how is that fair, just for a couple of minutes they got 30,000 freaking points”.
Alice, Aria, Kana, Tiana, Erick and Sofia were already punctuated, getting s crushing score of 30,000.
The law enforcer snorted at the red-haired guy.
“That couple of minutes as you say, is the difference between resisting the pressure of a Mortal Transcended or not, now shut up unless you want me to fail you immediately”.
The red-haired guy was livid but he knew the law enforcer did have that authority, of course such a harsh punishment had to be earned, bur he didn’t want to risk it, so he swallowed his complains not without giving Aster and the others a poisonous gaze.
Unfortunately, his peril was still far from ending, the black stone slate which has yet to finish Aster’s score finally revealed the result, it took the other aspirants a couple of seconds to process what was being reflected.
“5-500,000 points!”.
“What the hell”.
This time not only the red-haired guy but most of the aspirants reacted the same way, the difference was simply too much, they looked at the law enforcer waiting for him to explain what happened, the others who endured the whole cycle of the hourglass “only” got 30,000, but Aster was awarded almost twenty times what they got, it was ridiculous.
The red haired elder, Ruben, gritted his teeth, knowing what that score meant.
‘This old bastard is screwing us… whatever becoming a core disciple right out of the bat is impossible’, he thought as he laid back on his throne.
The law enforcer looked at Aster before he said.
“Getting the first place in the first trial and enduring the whole cycle of the second trial would only give you 50,000 points, the amount is multiplied by ten if you are selected by the law enforcer on duty, in this case me”.
“But all of that only allows you to be a candidate of a core disciple regardless of your gender, the question here is, if you want to take the chance to become a core disciple from the very beginning… because the whole third trial will be modified depending on your answer, you know the requirement I assume”.
Without a second of delay Aster nodded.
“Yes”.
The law enforcer laughed out loud, truth to be told just like how he could fail someone, he could multiply their scores per ten, but it was limited to once per each time the sect was accepting new disciples, and this is the first time since he became a law enforcer, that he was using his authority to do it.
Only after confirming Aster’s decision, the law enforcer turned to see the other aspirants.
“The score needed to become an inner disciple is 30,000, just like I previously stated, those who endured the whole 60 minutes were already inner disciples without the need to participate on the third trial”.
“Alternatively, you can be chosen by an elder and be granted a seeded spot, despite not having met the 30,000 requirement, the others would need to participate on the third trial, which is a battle royal divided in men and women fields, the winner has to leave the opponent out of combat to take the points of the loser, the time limit is one hour, pretty simple”.
Aster now understood why Tiana didn’t want Erick to participate on the third trial and got him a spot as an outer disciple with Agnes’s help, to become an inner disciple a single person had to beat another 99 aspirants and take their points away in just one hour, the easiest way to leave the opponent out of combat in such a short period of time, is killing or making it surrender, the problem is that if the opponent fled then they will get nothing.
After saying that, the law enforcer sat down cross legged and only then, the neutral and throne elders were allowed to scout those who caught their attention.
“Join my Red Lotus faction, I’ll grant you an inner disciple position”.
“No, join the Blue Lotus faction, I grant you an inner disciple position and a Transcending pill, as well as resources for the next five years to help you reach the Star Tribulation realm!”.
…
Little by little the elders declared their offers, a lot of them tried to drag Erick and the girls to their factions, but were rejected, this kept repeating until the red haired elder who has already offered enough resources to Alice to reach the Genesis Manifestation realm, finally couldn’t keep his “friendly” attitude.
“Are you aware of what you are rejecting, to become an inner elder you need to be a Genesis Manifestation cultivator, is that not enough for you!”.
Alice who was calmly hugging Aster’s arm waved her hand as if she was chasing away the red haired elder.
“Shu, I will only go where my beloved goes and since he isn’t joining your… whatever faction was, then me neither and the same applies for the rest of us, so stop bothering us”.
The red haired elder was dumbfounded, he has been trying to convince Alice for about fifteen minutes, she could have told him sooner but choose to not do so, and now she was driving him away as if he was a dog.
“You little…”, the red haired elder wanted to reprimand Alice, but he felt the law enforcer’s gaze on his back, a vein bulged on his neck and the last drop was that he noticed Aster giving him a disdainful gaze.
“That’s enough, hear me out aspirants, those who join hands and attack this brat on the third trial will receive five hundred contribution points, the ones who manage to wound him will get one thousand!”.
‘That will teach to not mess with an elder you arrogant brat, I can’t do anything to you but with this it’s impossible that you become a core disciple now’, thought the red haired elder as he snorted and then returned to his throne without choosing anyone to take his seeded spot.
Some other elders had a strange glint on their eyes, while they didn’t announce it like the red haired elder, they also offered a reward to take Aster down, since he rejected their invitations, the only ones who didn’t bother to try and invite him were Agnes and the blue haired woman who was sitting next to her.
Aster felt the greedy gaze of about fifty thousand people and he smirked.
“That’s good, I won’t have to look for you one by one now”.
Aster’s declaration made a lot of the people who were considering not entering the third trial and be satisfied to join as outer disciples, to change their mind.
“Screw him, there are twenty thousand of us, if we spit him, he will drown, follow me, we’ll all get those free points!”, shouted the red-haired guy.
“Yes!”, the sound of twenty thousand guys shouting echoed through the area, in their hype, they forgot about one important detail… Aster withstood the pressure combined of four participants, since Kana, Alice and Aria were sitting on his lap.