Seeing Aster casually lifting the large stone tablet on which more than twenty people were sitting, let alone the elders on Wade’s side, but even the others from the side of the Myriad Occupation sect were baffled for a second.
After all, that ant that Aster was currently being "held down" by physical pressure akin to that of twenty Star Axys realm body path cultivators... while not being one himself.
"As expected of brother Aster he truly is on another level at everything he does", said Erick as he tried to replicate Aster’s feat of carrying a stone plate by himself.
"Crack!", now, don’t look down on soone whose body constitution’s na is "Barbarian King", Erick did manage to lift the stone plate by himself, up to his stomach’s height, before he stopped.
Not because he couldn’t go past that, but because the ground below him started to crack, any more than that and his legs would sink into the ground.
That’s what Erick ant with Aster "being on another level", him carrying the stone plate alone might seem like sothing easy to achieve with just physical strength, but that’s not the case.
If simple brute force was the key to this trial, then body cultivators would easily pass it with flying colors, but besides the strength, the participants that wished to carry others had to skillfully distribute the pressure to not hinder their movent.
And that’s sothing only achievable through good old training, and not the basic one, but the kind that people with high physical strength have to undergo if they wish to live in a low ranked planet, and not destroy everything they touch by mistake.
"Oh well, I’m not talented when it cos to control like brother Aster, but that’s fine since I prefer simpler stuff", casually added Erick, his muscles tensed and veins bulged on his arms as he completely lifted the stone plate.
And before the thing had the chance to shove Erick into the ground, Tiana and Sofia who were leading a group of girls from the sect, placed themselves at the corners and sides of the stone tablet, while Erick walked to the center, thus letting them handle the distribution while he acted as the main pillar.
In other words, Erick took on most of the pressure from the atmosphere while the others were in charge of stabilizing the stone tablet, a simple yet effective formation, which perfectly used Erick’s tough barbaric body.
Of course, that doesn’t an others can’t take on the role of being in the center, but the idea is to take turns between the girls who have the highest physical strength of the bunch, like Tiana and Sofia for example, naturally it was Aster the one who devised this strategy.
Speaking of Tiana, Erick who saw his older sister having no issue leading the group of girls from the sect, couldn’t help but say.
"Sis, since there is no need to for you to intervene until it’s ti to change places, why don’t you go join brother Aster, Sofia and can handle it on our own".
"Huh, why should I, I can perfectly walk by myself and in any case, there is no more space on that stone tablet", said Tiana, to which Erick thunderously laughed as he added.
"You can always ask brother Aster to carry you with his free arm; besides you paid special attention when sister-in-law Alice feigned to fall due to the pressure of the atmosphere hahaha!".
"S-Shut up!", poor Tia felt her face burn due to embarrassnt, Erick’s voice basically echoed through the whole road given how loud he is, and so the energy constitution daughter was imdiately drowned in the curious gazes of the junior disciples.
And more importantly, the teasing ones from both Alice and her own mother, Felicia who had the words "My Tia is finally at that age", written all over her face while she giggled.
’Ughhhh, I’m going to kill that loose mouth muscle head as soon as we are out of the non-conflict zone!’, swore Tiana in her heart, she couldn’t even give Erick the usual smacking because she had to hold onto the stone tablet.
"What are you looking, start walking already", said Tiana, her "harsh" tone only increased the giggles from the girls of the sect that were in her group, besides the top ten core disciples, and a few girls who were either out of the sect until not too long before this mission started, all the girls in the top hundred had faced against Alice and the others.
In order to get a chance to join Aster’s group, needless to say but they were all defeated with ease, and while so were quite wary of Alice who played so pranks on her opponents, like ripping their clothes "accidentally" during their exchange, the vast majority knew and respected Aria and the others, because they were overwhelmingly strong.
The funny part is, that while Tiana isn’t really Aster’s lover, since she participated in that little dynamic, those girls believed she was simply too shy to admit it, thus poor Tiana had beco a target of their curiosity, also Tia was surprisingly friendly with them, maybe because she didn’t really have any female friends back at the Barbarian Heart sect.
"Ahem, we should get going as well", said Cayden as he saw that besides the elder’s groups which were led by Mikaela and Agnes, all the disciples had started following Aster who was far ahead at the vanguard.
The previous thod was repeated at the other groups of disciples which were led by Lieze, Iris and the three sisters, but with Cayden and his subordinates as the ones in the center, and with the ones that were assigned to help just one fellow disciple, basically the side from the Myriad Occupation sect was on the move.
The elders had it actually easier, after all, they had monsters like Mylene, Felicia and of course the grumpy ligress girl among themselves, who to be honest could have handled a stone plate by themselves, albeit with a bit more difficulty than Aster, because their realms are higher than his.
Alexandra would have been included into that group as well, if she could use her black heavenly gold attribute, but since only physical strength was allowed, she fell behind as her specialty is defense not offense, she could still perfectly act as a central pillar of support though, which is what she was going to do once those three have had their turn.
Mikaela was in a similar situation, because her energy realm is too high in comparison with her body path one, it’s not like she was lacking, it’s just that two of those three had physical strength high enough to rival their main energy path cultivation, and Felicia despite her outstanding talent in the soul one, is a main body path cultivator.
Leaving aside the harmonious vibe from the Myriad Occupation sect, as one would expect, chaos was unfolding on Wade’s side as the tir above the heads of those that couldn’t move started showing noticeable signs of advance.
"Hey, we have to start moving, didn’t you see what happened to that guy from the Mountain Amber family, if you can’t carry us individually just make a stone plate like the Lord of the Twin Sword Valley and distribute the pressure among everyone", said the female elder from the Pleasure Palace, who was thrown to the ground by that male elder from earlier.
Naturally, the suggesting to imitate the thod that Aster whom the male representative from the Pleasure Palace, hated from the bottom of his heart, wasn’t seen in a good light by the latter, but the female representative couldn’t care less.
"Our group is not that big, male elders hurry up and make a stone plate to accommodate only us", she ordered, which made the male elder representative frown.
"Hey, I was negotiating with a couple of rcenaries to bring them with us...", the words of the male representative elder, were interrupted by the female elder snorting.
"Yeah, I know exactly what you were demanding from those female rcenaries, but now is not the ti to worry about whether you will get to roll in bed with soone or not, so go and help those guys too", she angrily said.
What a joke, she could barely remain sitting cross-legged, while her subordinates were quite literally collapsed on the ground, and the male representative elder was trying to score with so female rcenaries instead of making ensuring they would be able to move as soon as possible.
And unfortunately for the male elder, his realm might be the sa as the one of the female elder, but his status at the Pleasure Palace is lower, because the female elder has the backing of a Supre Elder, due to being one of his lovers of course.
’Damn bitch, she thinks she can order around just because she jumped on the bed of that old man!’, cursed the male elder, that being said he did comply, who knows where would the road lead to, and both his subordinates and himself needed companions to dual cultivate.
And to make matters worse, most of the participants on their side are n, and the very few won were either from a higher background, like the woman who was Fawn’s subordinate, and the attendants that were taking care of Bradley and Albert, or were not interested in dual cultivation, like those female rcenaries whom he was trying to convince.
Well, there was a parade of beauties not too far from them, but let alone him, not even Wade would dare to try and hit on soone from the Myriad Occupation sect, under Valentina’s watch.
Anyway, the point is that most of the mbers of the forces and families on Wade’s side, were not in good terms even within their own groups, and all this chaos was happening under Wade’s watch.
"Young Lord, those bastards are not even asking for our opinion anymore", whispered one of the elders from the Ocean Aquamarine family, to Wade who gritted his teeth to then say.
"Whatever, let them make their own mistakes, they’ll end up returning with their tails between their legs anyway, I’m actually more interested in what will happen if soone were to be continuously punished...", said Wade, which drew the attention from the others mbers of the three great forces, with the exception of Fawn who frowned upon listening to the previous.
Because she could swear, she felt a few gazes from the elders accompanying Bradley, being directed towards her group, sothing that she wouldn’t have normally paid attention to, or even noticed.
Which made an unnoticeable light flash through the eyes of the the light brown haired potential Fey princess, as she turned to see the mbers of her group, besides the kind uncle looking elder who was the bodyguard hired by her family, and the maid sent by her mother who was a non-participant, the other three, which included herself, had received wounds due to the previous trial.
However, thanks to Fawn blocking in front of her two subordinates, they who are participants could perfectly walk by themselves, since only the pain of their wounds remained.
"You two, carry elder Celia, uncle Otto please make a stone plate for ", she said with an authoritative voice, which made those elders inwardly click their tongues, before one of them separated from the group, while the others prepared stone plates for Wade, his brother and the others that couldn’t move.
It took them way more ti than Aster and the shape was not even close to be as smooth as his, but the guys from Wade’s side managed to make their own stone plates to move their non participants.
That being said, the difference in treatnt was shown the next second, for starters, besides the guys from the Pleasure Palace, and the elders accompanying Wade, Albert and Bradley, the other participants didn’t use so of their upper clothes to make comfortable seats for the stone plates.
But the really ugly part, was that once everyone had made their preparations... there was one guy who couldn’t move, left aside by his group.
"H-Hey, don’t leave here", exclaid the middle-aged man, to his previous teammates, he was a rogue that grouped with the mbers of the third tier forces, and was a non-participant, who unfortunately had both his legs and arms paralyzed due to the previous trial.
"Sorry, we can barely endure the pressure of seven people, and you can’t use your four limbs while that other rogue still has both legs and one arm, aning he’ll recover way more easily than you, you know the terms of the contract, priority is given to those that can contribute to the group", said one of the elders from third tier forces.
Long story short, he was being abandoned because he would be of no help, it’s also true that the rogue in question was the sole idiot whose four limbs were paralyzed though.
"Bullshit, I’m sure a single person doesn’t make that huge of a difference, and I saw you bastards discussing with people from other groups, before your attitude towards changed!", exclaid the rogue, unfortunately his previous teammates simply ignored him as they started walking.
Unlike rcenaries who have organization as they form groups, rogues are quite literally by themselves, so the other rogues didn’t even glance at the guy who was being left behind.
Amidst the curses of that rogue, who could still be heard into the distance, and after walking for a few minutes, the tir above the head of the rogue who was left behind reached the five-minute mark since he last moved and of course the flaming board appeared into the sky.
[A non-participant who hasn’t moved for a total of five minutes has been detected, administrating punishnt]
"Wait it’s not my fault, those bastar... aghhh!", the rogue who was in the middle of complaining, suddenly grabbed his head, blood dripped down from his eyes as he received the soul path punishnt of the trial.
Surprisingly, he was still awake after the punishnt ended, apparently the intensity of the punishnt for not moving was lower when compared to the punishnt for violating the rules, like the one that elder from the Mountain Amber family, received.
"I-I want to go back, let leave this damn road!", shouted the elder who felt as if his head was going to split, only to despair at the next words that appeared on the flaming board.
[Premature leaving is only allowed after suffering punishnt five tis, do take note that the intensity of the punishnt will escalate with each administration]
In other words, if one wanted to leave before the ones who prepared the trials allowed to, the only way was to be punished five tis, the problem is whether one would be able to survive being punished that many tis.
At least, the rogue cultivator knew he wasn’t going to be able to, unfortunately for him, the ones that could have taken him in, after he was thrown away by his previous team, were more interested in seeing how much did the intensity of the punishnt, increased.
While the continuous curses and insults faded into the air, since both groups advanced through the road, the difference in endurance started to beco obvious between both sides.
Those acting as the central support of the stone tablets, started sweating after around thirty minutes, but while the ones from Wade’s side had to stop and have soone take the role for them, Erick and the others on Aster’s side simply wiped the sweat from their faces and continued walking.
And around ten minutes later, the flaming board which had beco a subject of nightmares for so of the participants, after they stopped listening to the screams of that rogue who was abandoned, made another appearance.
[Congratulations on reaching the first resting point, the participants will now be given a choice to rest and circulate spirit energy, or pain lessening treatnt to help the wounded recover, the resting period consists of ten minutes during which the tir for non-participants will be stopped and they won’t be taken into account for the twelve-hour limit given to participants of the trial]
[Please take into account that treatnt will be administrated in a single session and it will only get rid of a tenth part of the pain each ti, also participants must endure the pressure akin to the highest realm of the ones receiving treatnt, you have one minute to make your choice]
Apparently, this ti there was no adapting difficulty, you had to take the pressure as it is, not even a second had passed since the appearance of the flaming board, when Aster asked.
"How much ti does the treatnt take, and how many people can receive it in a single go?".
[The base ti for each person receiving treatnt is of twenty seconds, however the final ti is decided by the number of people receiving it, multiplied by the number of participants enduring their pressure, plus ten seconds per person if the participant’s highest realm of cultivation is two major realms higher than the one receiving treatnt, or more]
[As for the number of people who can receive it at the sa ti, that’s free for the participants to decide, but be aware that the process can’t be stopped midway before deciding]
Aster took a second to then casually say.
"Everyone will rest, I will be taking care all the wounded".
Valentina couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at Aster’s decision, there were thirty people on their side who suffered wounds during the previous trial, which ans that if Aster wanted to heal them all, he’ll have to use the whole ten minute resting period for it.
But she wouldn’t have been worried if that was only it, after all she saw Aster carrying the stone plate alone and he didn’t even break a sweat, the problem is that among the thirty who were wounded, there were a few elders mixed in as well.
He was going to be receiving the pressure of twenty-five girls in the Earthly realms, four Mortal Transcending realm elders and one Sea of Knowledge one, and he also won’t be getting any ti to rest that after having carried a stone plate alone.
On the other hand, this was the only way for all the wounded girls to receive treatnt indeed, and Aster was the perfect choice for the job, because his highest realm is the early stage of the Star Axys, and there is no girl whose main path is at the early stage of the Star Formation realm here, not only among the wounded, but in both sides, even Kana who is the youngest is at the peak of it after all, and she isn’t wounded anyway.
[The treatnt session will be set for thirty people, with a single participant taking on the pressure, is that correct?]
The flaming board asked Aster to confirm, only for the latter to nod in response, as a result the air around Aster stagnated for a second, before a huge amount of pressure rained down from above.
"Crack!", unlike before, the ground cracked below Aster’s feet, as a sign that he was unable to distribute this much pressure, as easily as he did with the stone plate.
It’s normal, usually the golden energy of the paragon body is protecting Aster, at all tis, but right now to properly participate he was taking the pressure without it, it was his own bare body, against the trial.
And as such, while Aster would normally be able to defend against Genesis Manifestation level physical impact, without any problem, it was not easy enduring a Sea of Knowledge realm level impact, combined with a few Mortal Transcending ones, without it.
’Multiple Mortal Transcending realm physical impact is not a problem, but the difference between each realm is quite big at the Transcending realms, so a single Sea of Knowledge nearly threw out of balance, oh well, it’s still worth it when I get to enjoy this view’, amusingly thought Aster.
The "view" he was referring to, was the relieved faces of the girls who were receiving treatnt, which didn’t last long before their expressions changed to show both both gratitude and affection towards him as well as worry for his well-being.
And that is without taking into account the admiration that the others had in their eyes, even Cayden’s group who had their reserves towards Aster, due to the rumors that accompanied him, couldn’t help but admit that he was worthy of their young master’s respect.
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