Chapter 163: End of the Trial – step out with indecisiveness

Allan was going all out with his available power, and thanks to the Body Whip technique it seemed to be enough. His ears played the most important part, allowing his good perception to balance things to a great degree. The training for many days paid off.

A deep screeching sound echoed in the vicinity, and above Allan's swift attack. The physical limits of his holding knife were incredible, arriving precisely where they needed to, and causing the barrier to halt on its way down. Allan's strike left a deep crack in the middle of the barrier, but it wasn't enough. It seemed to be much denser and harder since it was smaller.

That was at least his quick thinking and the fact, that the knife's tip was like the tip of the palm, stronger than the flesh – unsurprisingly.

Allan noticed his success when no gust of wind or following sharp sound echoed from his failure to breach the barrier. There was also no change of direction but a continuous momentum that traveled through this 2nd attack above. So, he thought he should make another slash at the cracks, right?

Wrong.

He felt and heard a small nuance of the speed and shimmering cracks of dispersing energy. It was an unnoticeable sizzle, as if bees laid in the grass, trying to take their desirable nectar from a pretty flower. That was the barrier cracking and repairing itself.

Instead of following with the 3rd motion, he jumped, and right he did. The momentum of the barrier was restarting, and it wanted to escape out of his reach, following the direction of his previous slash. Allan grabbed the knife into his clutched fist, swinging it vertically over his head, hitting the top of the barrier, and not the cracks.

The motion was peculiar. Again. He consider letting the knife fly through the air, arriving at the interconnected cracks, but it wouldn't be enough, so he used a more direct approach.

His swing hit the barrier in his high jump, pushing it not up, but down when it needed to be. There, Allan heard the click to the ground, and it was his key moment. He continued swinging his arm and pushed the knife in his fist like a hammer down, cracking the barrier at the upper part. Surprisingly the two sections of the cracks connected, making the healing a bit more difficult and slower.

The push of his fist caused the barrier to strike the ground, and it stopped moving as his fist rested on it instead. The tip of the knife penetrated the barrier, so Allan knew it was now or never.

A few centimeters was enough and the momentum of the barrier was completely lost, making the use of its momentum against itself also obsolete. Allan used his head, but not literary. He jumped, arriving with his knees to the knife that he still held. Slamming at it, the ground cracked under the barrier, but the barrier? Not so much.

Again, and again, he jumped, kneeing the barrier in hopes of accomplishment or something else. The barrier eventually ended in a pit, half of its mass. It no longer moved, but his knees ended up bloody. Soul Fire also seemed to be preoccupied with something, and dint' heal his knee or anything else.

Stopping, Allan figured he couldn't do much. The knife stopped 3 centimeters deep, but that was it.

It didn't move even half a centimeter deeper.

“Give me a break…” Allan sighed, panting, and feeling tired. He did give this thing his everything, but everything seemed to not be enough. “Rank S? This is ridiculous… It feels much tougher than the one before. Or… my strategy made it easier? I did strike it differently… so maybe I am making a mistake when not accounting for the momentum?” he wondered, but he lacked the means for accomplishments.

So, he thought for a moment, before figuring out a method to get out of this predicament.

“If momentum is gone, then I will create the momentum. My body isn't strong, but so what?” Allan turned his head upwards, as if "watching" the surroundings. “I have all the momentum in the world, but not time…”

Holding the cracked barrier, it wasn't a handful one, but it didn't need to be one. His palms held it like a hammer, since the knife seemed to be stuck inside of it, secured.

Placing it in the air, Allan faced the direction of flying barriers, hoping for some to strike the knife. It worked, but not every time. Some barriers were tougher and faster than others, but they should work just enough. Metallic, fast, and penetrative forces hit Allan's body and knife alike, and soon enough, the knife went deeper enough until the cracks spread around.

At last, the barrier cracked, and Allan fell to his back, tired and hurt.

“Oyo… This worked,” he mumbled, uncaring for his safety. “Barely… I swear. Strategy, power, and situation need some consideration. I will think of this in the future.”

The crumbling barrier was all that remained, as the attack was quite successful and unique in terms of strategy. He achieved something that didn't happen in the history of the Trial of 400 Orbs.

Although, Allan had no idea of that.

“Reward gained. Rank S. Low-Rank Immortal Manual. Qui Lin's Life of the Body. Auxiliary cultivation manual.” the voice talked to Allan's mind, jolting him up from his reverie so he got up. A couple of barriers almost hit his head, but he seemingly dodged them without any effort.

“13 minutes remain.” out loud voice proclaimed, informing of time that he didn't waste this time around.

Founding the treasures with shaking hands, he found a sizeable scroll on the ground. It was old looking and tattered scroll, but Immortal Manual it was. Storing it directly into his clothes, between his belt, and the strip that kept his short robe from opening, he was satisfied.

“One promise done. Let's move on.” Allan muttered and returned to his hunt while forgetting anything else.

He even smiled afterward, as if the true trial only just started.

His mind turned clear, and his ears piqued any potential amidst the countless hits in this wild place. Anyone would become crazy in this place, or overwhelmed by many barriers, but not Allan. His arms and upper body were bruised badly, but so what? He wasn't afraid of some pain, since even death itself didn't stop him, so why this?

The sounds of hundreds of barriers were like an unhinged storm, and finding peculiar sounds amid this storm was extremely difficult. He tried his best to find similar sounds to the Rank S barriers. To Allan's disappointment, there were not a whole lot of them and he indeed discovered only 2 Rank S.

Nothing more, which made sense.

They were intentionally put in this place as a starting motion to the storm. With them gone, the barriers were still fast, but not as crazy as before. It was unexpected, since this wasn't supposed to happen, but happened anyway.

A minute passed in his try to hear, but Allan rather stepped forward, hitting whatever barrier came his way. Hitting them all with the Body Whip technique, knife, or using their momentum against each other, he was doing his best. Incapacitating them with his knife, knees, or stamps of victory, Allan turned to the storm instead.

“5 minutes remain.” out loud voice proclaimed after a time, that didn't seem to pass that fast.

Allan stopped in his tracks, surprised by the lack of time. “Well, it's not like I have time to cry. I am doing my best, after all.”

Allan found time to be his biggest enemy. He was yet to find something that would sound helpful right from the way of its name. No fitting Martial Arts were in these barriers, even though he destroyed dozens of them in the past minutes. Most stuff the voice told him was of Rank A, while Bs weren't under his radar any longer.

Dozens of barriers cracked apart under his careful and unhinged attacks. He was no longer hesitant and cared to find what mattered. There were boxes of stuff he did not care about, scrolls about stealth or how to swindle people with the right way of talking, and a few other strange things.

Most sounded bad, or straight-up useless. Allan could not help but voice his disappointment until there was something that left him excited.

It came from a momentary struggle of momentum, and dozens of strikes of his Body Whip technique and his knife in hand. Dozens of these strikes at the same spot were enough to crack it – albeit it took some efforts to remain a hefty-looking barrier in place.

“Reward gained. Rank A. Peak Mortal Rank – Manual for the Phoenix Glaive. Scroll 1, 2, and 3. Martial Art Manual” a voice in his head said.

“Heh. At last! I will take this, thanks the heavens.” Allan said with a smile, taking the 3 scrolls to his hands. They were wide and large, and surprisingly heavy. His cloth or belt wasn't up to take these scrolls, so he put them within his armpit.

He wanted to cheer and shout in a great mood, but the place wasn't fine to do that. So, he tucked his left arm over his head and secured his goods with his right hand.

It was still a few minutes until the end, so he decided to do the right thing and try to find the other things that he considered interesting. He always tossed them to the wall along his journey, making them possible to find later.

Walking the wall seemed to be safer than one would assume. Being in the middle of the storming barriers was also, obviously worse.

By a side of the wall, Allan figured that the only things that mattered were a scroll and a book underneath it. They were the earlier reward he gained after some experiments. Allan bumped into the book with his leg, finding it in a while.

“Well, there it is. What now… What now…” he scratched his head, crouching down as he ignored the barriers since he got what he wanted. “Minutes are passing by, and the end is approaching. I want these two as well, but more so that forging book.” Allan helplessly said, hoping to take them both, since he thought taking half of the rewards wasn't possible.

The scroll and the book were also desirable, but figuring something out at the last minute didn't seem to be possible.

“Only two choices. One is already reserved, while the Peak Mortal martial manual around the glaive is appealing to me more so than anything else. As for this Raging Dragon Fist, it is not really that interesting to me from the hand-to-hand combat perspective, but who am I kidding? I have no idea about any of the possible values of these two rewards. They are both Rank A, but what does it even mean? I bet this is still incredibly valuable if it would be offered to royalty in the Waan kingdom. I bet on that.” Allan talked out loud, helplessness and wonder were more than apparent in his voice.

And right he was. He lacked the context over the lands of Immortal realms, but these rewards were also quite good even in these lands in question. Of course, it depended on the Path, desires, and wealth of the individuals.

For beginners? Any Rank A – of this place – was considered an incredible and desirable choice. Though, getting them from the barriers was another question altogether. Most would find it tough since their greed would show itself in this Trial more than their desires.

Originally, the Trial of 400 Orbs wanted to achieve many results. One was to show all rewards unconditionally in seen-through barriers, enabling the Challengers to see them. The second was providing enticing rewards, and creating a tough environment to choose them. One could get lost, obliterated by barriers, or greed. Few would gain a couple of rewards, while Rank A was usually the main thing to consider, while Rank S was like the last boss.

They were tougher than any Rank As, and their purpose lay in the pretext of shaking things up. Cracking them was supposed to be impossible at this stage, but here Allan was, cracking not one but both of them.

Whatever being stood outside of this Trial, they must be furious, surprised, stupefied, or utterly calm.

Allan had no idea of anything, then his own greed. Viewing his satisfaction was a good sign since he got what he wanted.

In fact, he got rid of one of the Rank S rewards about the Soul Fires. Even though this information was worth more than this whole Trial combined together, he still did so. He didn't know it, and even if he did, what of it? In Immortal Realms, such information would be incredibly expensive and depending on the circumstances, it would be even better if someone was desperate about it. Sects, schools, or nations with powerful individuals behind them would buy it with treasures, or anything of similar value.

After all, Soul Fires were that rare, and hard to find.

Allan wasn't in such lands or was part of anything. None would buy it from him. That was good, and his satisfaction or greed, or the lack thereof, was only his ignorance.

An ignorance that turned to bliss.

All in all, he got what he wanted, but on the other hand, there was a passion for forging in his life. He would lie if he wasn't a tiny bit interested in the Raging Dragon Fist, but it wasn't his desire. Weapon manual was, while a body fighting technique will wait.

“How to cheat? Could… Could I cheat and take it too? Phenix Glainve and Qui Lin's Life of the Body. Those two are what I need to take. I wish 36 would be by my side in such a moment… I bet he would figure some cheat.” Allan mumbled, grabbing the stuff of his desires at the last moment.

He too, held some desires and greed, but could he wield it? Stop the unnecessary?

Before he knew it, all sounds disappeared in the room, as clicking and a gust of wind around the storming barrier, stopped.

Sudden silence spread in the room, leaving Allan surprised since there wasn't such silence for the past 60 minutes.

Ringing and tense ears and focus in his mind were making his head shudder, but he calmed in a couple of seconds. Adjusting his ears with a couple of shakes of his head, the ringing stopped.

“0 minutes left. The Trial of 400 Orbs is completed. Chose the 2 rewards and proceed to leave the room in order to get back to reality. A portal will appear in a moment.” the out loud voice proclaimed.

Staggering in his little corner, Allan was momentarily lost and hesitant. At the end of his greed, he took all 3 treasures, walking with them towards the gust of wind that was coming from one location.

A spatial portal appeared in the middle of the room, and everything seemed a bit chaotic once again. The gust pushed some barriers away, leaving Allan's walking a bit difficult. Apart from the rewards that Allan managed to choose from, the rest of the barriers remained floating above the ground, or close to the ceiling.

Suddenly, as Allan was reluctant and slowly walked toward the portal's reach, thuds and steps sounded from everywhere. They were the sounds he recalled. Small, and coming from lower ground. It was the same kind of sound that led him to this room.

Those were the steps of small golems – small creatures and structures that Immortals created for their unimportant or important tasks. They began to reach out, grabbing the surrounding barriers with their hands, or internal energy formation. Golems scattered throughout the room, working fast and steadily reaching out for every barrier, and even for the bare rewards that were on the ground.

Allan could only visualize the current situation, which was kind of ridiculous. None-living things moved around him. This was the stuff of legends, and he wanted to catch some, or at least touch one. Allan realized this desire but forgot his own.

“So, the time is ticking every moment. It seems the choice is hard. Martial art, or forging material of immortal pathways? What should I choose?” Allan asked himself, holding each of these rewards in each hand. He went with his desires, but perhaps this was his way to cope with his indecisiveness.

Involuntary, or intentionally, one of the golems reached his position, wanting to retrieve the rewards around him. That also included one of Allans' it seemed. Allam managed to "obtain" dozens of the rewards after his rampage throughout the room, leaving barriers unable to hold themselves. Anything out of his hands was undesirable to the Challenger, thus retrieved by the golems.

Destroying every barrier was unfortunately out of the question too, but Allan didn't consider that. There were too many of them and they all moved in many ways while it wasn't even something that should be desirable. Most barriers didn't even have a great choice of rewards, since why would someone take Rank C, instead of much more valuable Bs, or As? It didn't make sense.

There were more Rank A barriers, that Allan left out, but he couldn't reach them all in his state and time constraints.

Perhaps, it would be a different Trial if he wielded a weapon. With a glaive or a spear in hand, he would work much better than without them. Allan was sure of that, although the use of the Body Whip technique was still incredible in his mind, achieving things that he didn't think would be possible.

It was impressive.

The fact that he achieved cracking the Rank A barriers with dozens of strikes, was incredible. It required a considerable amount of power, and it took him serious efforts and strategy to destroy Rank S. Rank As weren't easy, however. In his case, the flying knife he held was one of the key differences in this Trial of 400 Orbs, which prohibited heavy or long ranged weapons.

It was a Body Forging trial through and through, but prohibiting small things wasn't something that would shake the Rules or those barriers. That was at least what Rules were like. Why, or how did that make sense? It did, to some.

Allan didn't even know the rules of this Trial, so why care?

His knife was key to his success. His continuous use of it in the process of destroying tough barriers in conjunction with the momentum, led to these results.

At this moment, his hand was trembling and visible bruises and cuts were scattered throughout the knuckles and all of his fingers on both hands. Allan always struck with fists and chopped with his straight palm as if he used his hand like a blade – or in this case, whip. It was no surprise that he sustained injuries, but they hardly mattered to him.

He succeeded and that was what mattered.

Thud. Thud.

Golem reached his position with a hesitating posture.

“Re-ward,” Golem spoke in rather a strange manner and pointed his stone hand towards Allan who was clueless about its intentions.

“I have mine already,” he told as he was unwilling to let go of anything within his hands.

“B-brat!” a huffed, and nervous voice suddenly reached his mind, shaking him.

Allan didn't know from where, but this was the voice that talked to him for the past hour. As he tried to figure out what it was, or where it came from, it continued.

“You son of a lucky bastard! You have at least a clever head on your shoulders, let me tell you that. Unlike the physical use of it, it is unfortunate as fortunate, but then… Who am I kidding!? WHAT are you kidding?! You… YOU! YOOUUOU!?” the mysterious voice shouted to his mind in anger and frustration. It was coming from this Golem, but Allan had trouble realizing that.

“Y-you? Are you the voice that talked to me before?” Allan crouched down, whispering face-to-face with a Golem who remained standing before him. This was the only passable answer.

“Shut it. Quiet! Don't talk to this Golem openly. Something undesirable will hear.” the voice urged, turning its frustration into seriousness as if life was at its stake.

“Hmmm… Stone or wood, it makes no difference to me. What an interesting tool. This place is TRULY incredible. As EXPECTED!” Allam said, enunciating the words as if trying to appease this place. HE patted the golem as if trying to seek its intricacies. Standing up again, he wasn't paying much attention to this golem after his quick check of this thing.

“Good… you can play well. But… Fucking brat! Listen very carefully! I am hardly having a good time with you… and your damned situation and accomplishments. 36 is an idiot, but someone I had to rely on as well, and now… Fuck! I helped you to our… no. To my benefit, but you needed this, as I figured. This change… It was yours. I get it. I hope you will remember this, brat. ”

Allan silently nodded, as if contemplating in his own world, but hearing Wisher's words wasn't normal.

“Right… Forget me, brat. I am just at the beginning of this hope, which may take years to see any results. As I see your… ridiculous strategy, which obliterated the rules, and common sense of this trial, you found not only Rank S reward but both of them… Crazy brat… You even ignored the first, without any hesitation but took the other like that too. Now, you hold two Rank As and can't decide. If you trust me, I can help you take one of them away from you. I know a good method to work it out. In the future without any process of the Trial, I can store one of them away, outside of sight of the ruler of this Trial. There are some… grey areas where it could work. Nod if you are up for this.”

“Huh? Another stranger within this place? Should I trust him?” Allan pondered over the pros and cons, but in the end, nodded. It seemed the voice was familiar with the 36, so Allan figured it was most likely the Wisher.

Since coming here, he only met one person, and that was a madwoman who wanted to kill him. Why? She viewed him as a potential vision of a reward. Greed. Allan knew it. For others to kill, there may be quite a simple answer or a very complex one. Allan realized that in these last 2 hours.

In truth, it was all about greed and hope. Immortals or mortals, both could be savage. While Immortals were strange figures, Allan was yet to understand them but mortals? He saw and hear them all his life.

In the end, his nod was honest, since he could not figure out any possibility for him to do anything. He even tried to open the immortal pouch that he took from that woman, but it remained shut.

Stories about legendary items of Immortals were something he only heard about – albeit to some extent. Swords that could cleave the sun or the sky itself, and the mysterious pouch which could hold marvels, untold to the mortal's knowledge.

They were all within his expectation even in the city of Waan, which held stories, and deep history. The sheer expense to get to know them was something else, unfortunately. Allan spent quite a bit of gold coins in the process of paying greedy librarians who held those records. Their greed was their hope, satisfying their wealth, in exchange for the curiosity of others.

“Good. I am doing this not only for your, brat… I see… potential. A huge one. 36 and I have some brief problems to move through, but now, he has my attention. Not him, but you, but it is all connected anyway.” Wisher told. “Anyway, there are no ways to overcome your current predicaments or time in this Trial. You are injured, and… the situation with that woman was variable that I didn't predict at all. It was… your fucking mistake, BRAT! I almost shouted and squelch like a madman! Ugh… Fuck you… with that, but it made up for a good show. Anyway, two rewards are the most you can take with you through this portal, and nothing more. There is the Immortal Intent in them, preventing the 3 to disappear from this place at one time. Trust me. Not even pouches are effective ways to cheat and some tried it before. More than two isn't possible. Now, give me one of the two treasures within your hands and you can leave. I insist on that.”

Allan heard him well and acted as if he didn't just hear a long talk of a strange figure. It was someone akin to 36. An old fool, and an old fox. He wished for some more information from this stranger, but it seemed it will have to wait for another time.

It also seemed that the general way of trust and gains was quite common amongst these figures. Such a premise of almost all beings beyond the stars seemed to be common for some reason. Allan couldn't help but scowl at such choices, but in the end, he extended his hand and gave the golem one of the rewards.

Golem took it with some trouble within the rough hands and stored it within the opening of its torso. The rectangular stone surface opened, revealing some glowing crystals, and gems.

“Good. Now leave. We will meet sooner or later. I trust it, as I see it.”

“Name?” Allan said as if he spoke to himself, wanting to see Wisher's integrity and sincerity.

“The Wisher. Someone who can help you in your Path.”

“Hmph! How funny.” Allan mumbled and walked through the portal. In a few steps, he disappeared from this space as if he was never there, to begin with.

The portal itself, also disappeared soon enough, leaving the golems to continue with their work.

Apart from one, who willy-nilly walked around and pretended to do work, every golem seemed to do their job.

This was Wisher's intentional play and clever force of his own little tries. He forced himself onto quite a dangerous task, and for what? Just to make sure that 36's student would have a firm grasp and land under his empty and useless eyes? No, and no. He had seen it differently than the 36. At least now, he had seen the bigger picture. 36 had no choice in the fear of death and his fate but himself?

Although The Wisher was not all that different from him, he was the most knowledgeable about many processes within this ship. And there were a lot of them, more than one would guess, and what he said to 36.

“I swear to the almighty Maker. This piece of fate is a joke!” he lamented within his mind, which possessed the golem. It was a forceful possession of non-living things so he was proficient with it. It was not the first time he had done so, and it worked well for his clever methods.

“That boy… brat! Yes, a piece of a brat. I swear 36 has some things to explain. Hmph! His Path, power… Soul Fire within him. I perceived him all in that fight against that woman. He has no spark… A path like a mortal… Empty like a piece of paper, but there is something too. Body Whip Technique and the toughness like a great Body Forger? It seemed he has the talent, but… who am I kidding? Seemed? For him to directly crack Rank S reward is one thing, but two? Ridiculous! Especially the way of his… emptiness? Lack of eyesight… He worked around himself as if everything was known to him. Inner Eye? I doubt he worked with that… It's not rare, but 36. I need to seek his path and what he has. He knew what went on around him. He is certainly blind… piece of a brat.”

The wisher was kind of speechless at the way Allan achieved his results. It all revolved around common sense, and that was simple. This was the very first Trial that he went through – something that was important, but not overly so, since the further one would get, the more precious the rewards would become.

Though, Immortal Rank treasures from the 1st Trial were what? Implausible thing, but what has been given, couldn't be stopped.

Thinking of that, the Wisher needed to restore his view of the world. There were 5 students who achieved Rank S reward within the Trial of Reward of this bracket and the further one's Path got, the tougher Rank S rewards will become to clutch.

Now, the 6th appeared, and he took both of them and even ignored the first.