Chapter 249: The Trial Of Souls
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Fang Shuan spent the next four days tempering his soul inside of the Temple of One Hundred Demon Souls. He spent a day and a half dealing with the first gate, the Cauldron of One Hundred Demons.
Not only did he need to go through extreme soul agony and pain as his soul boiled within its bubbling, ethereal liquids, but he also had to constantly battle one hundred Illusory Dokkaebi Beasts while doing so.
“What sort of torture is this?! Has that Heavenly Demon tricked me into coming to die here?!”
This “Trial” seemed just as harsh as what Anna had gone through. Fang Shuan had to push himself to his absolute limits to fight back while having his soul constantly breaking into pieces.
“I-I can’t…! I can’t die here…! I promised Anna… I promised my family that I…!”
At some point, he despaired, thinking he would die there, eaten by the Beasts. However, as he started devouring them in an act of savagery and desperation, he realized the true purpose of this tempering process.
“RAAAH! I won’t die! I will live! I will devour you all, bastards!”
He needed to eat the one hundred demons to restore his soul and make it stronger, all while taking damage from their relentless attack as the cauldron boiled and tempered his soul.
An agonizingly hard trial!
Yet slowly, hour after hour, he finished it, devouring all one hundred demons of the cauldron. The bubbling liquid was then absorbed by his own soul.
“T-This is…?!”
He felt a sudden blissful feeling; at long last, a relaxing sensation permeated his entire soul as it restructured itself and continued fusing.
It was as if his soul melted and then reformed slowly, and it was only the first of the three gates that the temple had.
In this process, Fang Shuan used his Soul Cultivation Technique using the Holy Nether Essence that Anna had given him to further temper and improve his abilities.
After an arduous hour of cultivating, he walked into the second gate once he was done. He didn’t need to sleep, and he felt refreshed, as if all the pain he had gone through was gone.
On the second day, he walked into the second gate, which had a long corridor too, only illuminated by small torches with purple flames.
What greeted him inside was a different sight, whatsoever.
There was a single road moving forward, surrounded by an endless emptiness.
Above the ceiling, there were giant ethereal weapons encompassed with purple flames, constantly swinging around.
If anybody passed through them, their bodies would be fine, but their souls would be easily shredded to pieces.
The end of the corridor was out of sight; Fang Shuan couldn’t see it at all.
Despite how small the temple looked outside; it was probably several kilometers big.
At the right, sitting in front of the walls, a giant reptile-like Dokkaebi statue spoke once it detected his presence.
“YOU WHO HAS TEMPERED AND STRENGTHENED THEIR SOUL…”
“MUST NOW STEP FORWARD INTO THE PATH OF SOUL-BURNING TORTURE.”
“CUT YOUR SOUL INTO PIECES, AND REGENERATE IT BACK.”
“ONLY THROUGH ENDLESS AGONY, YOUR SOUL SHALL ASCEND.”
“Dammit…”
Fang Shuan soul flared like an endless golden flame; it had already become completely different than before, and he felt much stronger.
But was that it?
He had only completed the first trial in this moment after all.
“I have to do this. I have never liked half-assed things after all,” the Golden Emperor smiled as he rushed forward.
The entire trial was simple: move through the path and reach the end, as your soul is constantly being cut apart.
Evading the incoming weapons was possible, but not all of them.
As Fang Shuan evaded some, three more came, cutting through his soul.
The giant swords, spears, and axes slashed, pierced, and hacked through his soul.
Pieces of his soul were being constantly cut apart and cut down.
Fang Shuan continued moving; the purple flames burned his soul wounds, cauterizing them.
“Ugh…! T-This is hell!”
The young master couldn’t help but complain about how agonizing the entire process was.
He hated this the most; he was literally being chopped into pieces.
Yet he perseverated, using the patience of a man who had lived for thousands of years.
SLASH!
The weapons kept cutting him; he couldn’t escape them all.
His soul was being constantly reduced to a smaller size.
SLASH!
“Ugh…!”
He was constantly losing his mind; the smaller his soul became, the weaker he felt as an Undead.
Fang Shuan continued running and running; the end was nowhere to be seen.
“For how long will I have to run? Where is the end of this hellish road?!”
His soul had become so strong after passing through the first trial that now that it was all being chopped off and burned, it felt like a waste.
The enormous soul he had gained before was now being cut down over and over again.
Growing smaller and compact.
“Hahhh… Ugh…! I- Ah!”
His golden eyes widened the moment he finally saw the ending: a huge white orb floated in the middle of a small platform.
“There!”
He ran past countless other weapons; his soul being chopped more and more.
From 100% of his soul, he went down to a mere 10%, and it was now going down even further.
The weapons at the end of the road took even more of his soul per attack.
9%
SLASH!
8%
“No…!”
7%
“I can make it!”
6%
“FUCK!”
5%
“Father, you bastard!”
4%
“I will get my revenge; I will make you pay for what you did, for having betrayed us all!”
3%
“RAAAAHHH!”
With all the leftover Holy Nether Essence Fang Shuan had, he jumped towards the platform above, evading ten weapons but then receiving two more blows.
1% of his soul remained.
And his hands touched the white, floating orb the size of a watermelon.
FLASH!
A bright flash of white light engulfed him completely, embracing him in a warm light that slowly restored his soul.
He was so exhausted and pained he fell asleep.
Yet as he slept, the incredible sensation of satisfaction and power he felt made him have very good dreams.
“Ah…”
When he finally woke up, he found himself in the opposite direction of the road, as if he had been thrown there.
His soul seemed different; the white orb he touched and its white light filled 99% of his soul anew.
Instead of its gold color, with many patches of other discolored souls that belonged to his legion, there was now a pure white soul, glistening with pristine brilliance.
“Everyone’s souls…”
Fang Shuan’s soul was unique as it was a Legion Soul made of many souls unified together, but perhaps because of that, it was imperfect.
He had to cut that out and regrow it completely, reforming it.
This was the second trial, Soul Reformation.
“Huh?”
Yet, despite that, he felt their presences within him; somehow, it felt like he had gotten back all the chopped pieces of his soul.
“Wait, was that white orb…?”
He quickly realized how this trial worked, and Fang Shuan found out that the chopped soul pieces were transferred into the White Orb.
This strange orb then refined these soul fragments into a pristine, liquid-like white ether essence, which was now what reformed his soul.
“So they were not gone; they simply became something else.”
He felt their presences, although more faint than before; they had become a deeper part of him, his strength, and his soul.
“My soldiers, your emperor shall not disappoint you.”
On the fourth day, Fang Shuan stepped into the third and last gate; this one was the simplest.
He was made to face ten Dokkaebi Statues, their power tremendous, and their attacks capable of targeting his soul directly.
The fight was arduous and full of pain; the trial was simple, and there was barely any introduction, but the statues had greeted him together.
Fang Shuan could still remember how creepy it was.
“WELCOME TO THE LAST TRIAL, THE ARENA OF SOULS.”
“IN HERE, YOU MUST CONFRONT THE SOULS THAT DIDN’T MADE IT.”
“THE ONE THAT STANDS AT THE END OF THIS BATTLE SHALL CONSUME THEM ALL.”
It was pretty easy to understand how this worked. All ten of the statues he fought were possessed by the souls of those that “didn’t make it” or died in the trial.
Their souls were never truly destroyed; even if shredded into pieces, they were simply remade, reconstructed into specters of this temple, into these Dokkaebi Golems.
His fresh and strong soul attracted them like wild beasts, and Fang Shuan had to put in everything he had to defeat them.
One by one, and as his body and soul were being torn apart, he crushed them.
At the end, after fighting for five whole days, he was the last standing.
His soul was wounded and, in agony, smaller and weak, having once more reduced its size to 12%.
“Hahhh… I-I made it…”
As he dropped half-dead over the ground, the statues remaining glowed.
All ten of their souls, with purple, green, and black colors, flew towards another white orb in the middle of the arena.
The protective barrier around it disappeared, as the white orb then turned purple as it absorbed and devoured the ten souls.
“TAKE YOUR PRIZE, CHAMPION.”
“Thank you; your sacrifice will not be wasted… Your souls shall live on my own from now on.”
Fang Shuan honored the might warriors of ancient times he fought and absorbed their souls, now refined into a pale purple colored ethereal liquid.
FLUOSH!
His soul absorbed it all, as he quickly started to float in midair.
He didn’t panic; Fang Shuan quickly sat cross-legged in midair and meditated.
Using his Holy Nether Essence, he controlled the energies and further refined them into his soul.
Eventually, and once the process was over, he gained even more power than originally expected.
His soul went from gold to white, and now to a dark purple with red and black color and a spherical center of golden and white color.
“My Soul… It feels like it has been Reborn,” he gasped.
Not only there was Soul Ether Essence, the very energy of a soul, but also another energy that Anna was supposed to be able to create and nobody else.
“Holy Nether Essence?”
The core-like center of his soul was constantly and slowly generating Holy Nether Essence; Fang Shuan was gaining this powerful energy passively, even though Anna wasn’t even giving it to him
His soul, compared to the beginning, felt at least a hundred times larger, and his power, incredibly vast!
“Young master Anna, this humble servant will not disappoint you,” Fang Shuan smiled confidently. “This power I attained through endless agony and tempering, I shall use it to make your goals come true.”
As Fang Shuan saw his fists blazing with purple-colored Soul Flames, he walked out of the temple, feeling anew, and slowly made his way back to his young master.
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(Anna’s POV)
The remaining four days went by flying. The Heavenly Demon gave me all kinds of “fun” missions, which, although rather excessive sometimes, like “kill one thousand monsters in the middle of an erupting volcano," were still doable.
Three missions a day for four days; it was 12 missions in total, so twelve of those Crimson Seal Pills were given to me. He recommended I consume them all together once I acquired as many as possible.
And today, as I just finished my third and last mission of the day, which included fetching the Rainbow Pearl from the Thunderous Sea while fighting five hundred Deep Sea Thunder Martial Beasts, I was rewarded with the last pill.
There was also another quest notification; I got a new quest for all three missions every day; completing all three gave me the same rewards as previous quests, which helped me accumulate four more additional items and 40k more Plot Points.
Not bad; this was a really fruitful grind, and I felt much stronger as well. Using my Seal Abilities, Martial Arts, and Skills together without restrictions at long last helped me gauge how strong I actually was now.
And it was ridiculous.
I practiced my Myriad Self Arts while doing so too; slowly, I was managing to gain more power, but even now.
I felt like I was lacking in something; I not only still needed more training, but my personal technique wouldn’t develop further.
I needed to expand my horizons and comprehend and learn something else.
“Well done, my disciple; you have not stopped training and tempering yourself; you’re both diligent and also talented, a perfect disciple… However, your growth and your talent does not fully remain within the Demonic Path,” The Heavenly Demon smiled back at me, petting my head. “Go learn from that woman; your unique Martial Arts will only develop once you understand both sides.”
“I knew it, so you figured that out too?” I asked him.
“I knew for a while, actually, haha!” he laughed. “Now take this,” he gave me the last pill. “Eat them right now; sit down and relax while doing so.”
“Thank you, master,” I nodded.
As I sat down in front of the Thunderous Sea, sitting over the comfortable and soft sand below the sunlight, I heard the voice of someone.
“Young master Anna! I am back!”
It was Fang Shuan!
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