Chapter 307: Cannot Be Provoked!

“Huff... huff... huff...”

Heavy breathing could be heard from all around, as though the enormous nose of Corvasini were right in front of them, behind them, and above their heads. In the darkness, it existed without form, yet it was studying each one with extreme care. It induced a strong, trembling unease, as though just half a step away lay a cliff, and if you fell, you would drop straight into the illusion beast’s bloody maw.

Karon stood with his arms folded, quietly waiting. Richard sat on the ground. He had started to tremble slightly, but after looking up at Karon, he immediately settled down again.

In truth, if Richard had participated in the selection exam on his own, he would have been far calmer than he currently was, as if he were alone, he would have known that he could rely solely on himself. But with Karon to depend on, Richard’s emotions had grown more unstable, because he had the luxury of emotional leeway.

Roar! At that moment, a long howl suddenly erupted. Under that wave of sound, the human soul was like a small boat that could capsize at any moment. A black light emerged around Karon, also encompassing Richard and isolating both of them from the effect of that howl.

The sound gradually faded. Richard looked up while touching the tip of his nose. Is it raining? No, it seems to be snowing.

Karon also sensed the change. The temperature around them seemed to have changed.

Changing temperature within an illusion? It could be done, but the effect would not be very strong, as everyone participating in this exam was considered excellent in some capacity or another. They all knew that everything within an illusion was false, and more importantly, they understood that they could not freeze to death, nor would they be burned to death. If it was only simple torture using cold or heat, most people with firm wills would be able to endure it.

But would the exam really be so simple?

***

Above the sculpture of the Corvasini, Bishop Byrne’s eyes swept over the 198 participants in the circles down below. The eyes of the sculpture beneath his feet looked up, then formed a screen of light that poured down across the entire plaza. The stone boxes beside the bishop were already completely open. Several psychic type holy relics had left the boxes to begin circling the examination, augmenting the ritual array. At the perimeter, a group of ritual array priests who had been transferred from other districts were maintaining the array. There were also about eighty examiners whose eyes were constantly swept across the entire plaza, watching every movement without pause.

Bishop Byrne sat down, then said, “The selection...”

***

The blackness receded. Everyone in the plaza could be seen at this moment. They all appeared in the same places they were in the plaza where the exam was being held.

Seeing this caused Richard to feel extremely embarrassed, because he was sitting right in front of Karon. This looked a bit like someone who was preparing to do something inappropriate after the lights went out, only for the lights to suddenly turn back on. However, in almost no time at all, Richard no longer needed to worry about anything. As a blast of wind and snow swept past, many people screamed and fell to the ground, rolling and shifting about. The arrangement of people in the exam instantly became scattered. Richard relaxed.

He was then blown back by the wind and snow. His body went rolling, only for Karon to reach out and grab Richard. Borrowing that support, Richard restabilized himself. He wanted to stand up like Karon, but discovered that he simply could not do so. This wind seemed to grow stronger the higher one stood. Richard could only crawl on all fours. However, after looking around, he saw that less than thirty people were able to maintain a standing position. In other words, most people were just the same as him, only able to crawl at this moment. With enough others sharing in his embarrassment, Richard could accept it without issue.

Ahead, a towering, snowy mountain appeared. Everyone was actually already on a path on the mountain. Seeing this gave Karon an inexplicable sense of familiarity. It felt as if he had seen this scene before, and experienced it.

At that moment, Bishop Byrne’s voice rang out, “The selection rules are as follows: Within the allotted time, the five people who climb the highest up the mountain path will win the qualifications for this district.”

There was nothing more after that. The explanation of the rules was incredibly brief, because the method for this exam was extremely simple.

No one knew how much time was allotted for the exam, so all that any of them needed to do was walk or crawl up the mountain. There was no need to think about anything else; Each person simply needed to ensure that they could remain within the top five. Alternatively, if others were simply unable to persist while you chose not to give up and continued climbing, you could still surpass them and enter the top five. The rules stipulated that the five who reached the highest within the allotted time would win, but the amount of time could be casually decided.

Karon immediately analyzed the deeper meaning hidden within the simple rules, because he had also noticed that, including himself, only about thirty people were currently able to stay standing. This meant that these thirty people had relatively strong souls and were able to resist the force of the wind and snow that was placed upon their soul. However, there were also some people whose soul power was not at that level, or they could temporarily not reach that level, due to various innate or acquired reasons. Those people did not lack any chance of victory; As long as they could persist and continue crawling forward without stopping, then even if they were slower, once the people up ahead were unable to endure, they could simply crawl past those people and overtake them. Everything had to be done within the allotted time, but that time had no true definition.

Everyone began moving forward, some walking, some crawling. Some who started walking slowly shifted to crawling, because getting closer to the ground meant that they suffered far less resistance than if they stood up. Crawling saved a great deal of effort.

Karon stayed standing. Richard followed behind, crawling while Karon blocked the wind for him.

To the left, the young girl Ashley walked with a frown on her face. She soon started bending over. To the right, the young man from the Knight Regiment kept his waist straight and advanced with stoic determination. However, this time, he gave Karon several focused glances, as if only now was Karon worth any attention. Some people’s pride was carved into their bones, while others’ was painted on their faces. This man was clearly one of the latter types.

Behind them, the young man who had been playing with stones kept throwing them forward, then walking over to pick them up, throwing them forward again, and walking forward yet again to pick them up. His movements were very fluid, as if what he kept throwing were not stones at all, but ropes, and he was borrowing strength from them.

To the right, the sleepy girl had already collapsed onto the ground. She was crawling... maybe. Her eyes stayed shut, as though she were still asleep, yet her body continuously squirmed and bobbed, inching her forward like a maggot stubbornly wriggling along in its sleep.

“Rock, paper, scissors!

“Haha, you lost. You take this stretch, I’ll take the next one.

“Fine, fine. A bet is a bet.”

The one who had been directly behind Karon was also walking forward.

Up ahead, Leon and Larry were also still upright as they walked forward. They had an image to maintain. Moreover, their group of associates soon gathered together. They split into two rows, one in front and one behind, and rotated in shifts. This sort of teamwork could indeed save individual effort, but Karon believed that this test would not be so simple that people could exploit a few tricks so easily. After all, the purpose of this exam was to choose five individuals, not a five-person team.

Sure enough, once everyone reached the snowy area, the temperature dropped abruptly. This was no longer a low temperature in a traditional sense, but an attack that aimed at the soul. Compared to this bone-piercing cold, the bit of wind from before seemed like nothing at all. Leon, Larry, and the others in their group stopped working together, as each person’s pace had become different. What existed in the land of this exam, what they could all see of each other, were just soul bodies. Each person’s reaction to having their soul freeze was different.

“Ah...” As screams rang out one after another, dozens of people simply vanished. They had not died, but merely been withdrawn from the exam. Of course, they might have been injured as well.

To Karon’s left, Ashley curled up, trembling non-stop. She was still advancing with her back bent. She turned to look at Karon, or more specifically, at Richard, who crawled behind Karon the entire time. She licked her lips, looking a bit eager to move. To Karon’s right, the young man from the Knight Regiment remained stern-faced. Every step he took was steady.

“Huff huff mm mm... mm mm huff huff...” Behind them, the sleeping girl continued her maggot-like advancement, though pain started to be seen in her expression. Even though she was still asleep, she was likely having a nightmare. The stone-throwing youth continued with the same rhythm as before. His stones were gradually releasing a small bit of heat. They should not be holy relics, and instead seemed to be more like some kind of symbiotic object. Upon closer inspection, Karon discovered that each time the youth picked up a stone and threw it, the stone he picked up would merge into his palm, while another stone would be generated anew for him to throw.

What Art was this? Karon had no clue.

As for the person directly behind Karon, he had already fallen a ways behind, because he had started quarreling with himself. As the temperature dropped and people’s souls began to suffer, the outcomes of the rock-paper-scissors were no longer being acknowledged.

Karon paid attention to Richard and found that although his cousin was trembling, he was still crawling at a steady pace. He could push on further.

At that moment, the people up ahead started disappearing more frequently, as though continuing forward led the examinees into a new phase.

As they kept forward, Leon and Larry suddenly let out miserable cries. The formation they had made with their friends had already scattered, but at this moment, it collapsed entirely. Two people vanished, having chosen to withdraw from the exam.

Leon clutched his hand while Larry covered his face, both letting out groans of pain as they forced themselves to continue forward.

“Ah!” To the left, Ashley stared at the back of her hand. It was already frostbitten. No, this was not simple frostbite. Her body, no, her soul itself was freezing and becoming brittle. It felt like watching one’s soul slowly freeze into solid ice. It was torture, a kind of torture that was nearly impossible to endure.

Karon reached up and touched his neck, discovering that ice had formed there as well, though he was not suffering much pain. There was only a mild sensation. When his fingernails turned into what looked to be ice crystals, Karon simply smiled.

No wonder this exam felt so familiar, no wonder he felt as if he had experienced this before. Only after reaching this point did he finally confirm the truth; Was this not the second Divine Seeker enlightenment he had experienced after rejecting the revelation the God of Order had granted to him?

Ice and snow, mountains and rivers, a lone figure trudging forward. It had been a journey of despair, yet in the end, he had still gritted his teeth and endured to the very last step, completing his own Divine Seeker enlightenment.

This scene was actually from a ritual array? And they were even using it as part of the selection test? If so, then what was this scenario called within the Church of Order?

Just as some monstrous beasts, after being sealed away, had eventually been integrated into the Church of Order as Arts or summoned entities, Karon did not find it particularly strange for a scene like this to appear in this exam. However, its true significance could not possibly be Divine Seekers, lies, and rebellion. More likely, this scenario had originally existed as a form of punishment within the church itself. Perhaps after being passed down for so many years, even the true origins of this array had become impossible to trace, but one thing was certain: it was genuinely terrifying.

Karon continued walking forward. Because he was waiting for Leon and Larry to continue ahead of him, Karon was even forced to deliberately slow his pace. The pain was real, there was nothing fake about it, but for someone who had already pressed through this entire experience once before, the impact was far weaker. That was because the greatest pain came from the endless despair that lay up ahead. Compared to that, this place was much kinder. At least here, there was a snow-covered mountain standing before examinees, and while it towered to impossible heights that left people feeling that they could never climb it, it was still far kinder than Karon’s previous experience. At that time, there had not been even the slightest trace of hope to be found. Which was why the freezing torment at the moment meant very little to him.

To his right, ice crystals appeared on the face of the young man from the Knight Regiment, but he still advanced steadily. The stone-throwing youth’s face remained mostly fine, but the stones he threw were now ice. The sleeping girl’s eyes remained closed, even as she cried and shouted. It looked like she would soon wake up, but if she could stay asleep at this moment, she seemed to have an excellent method of self-deception. That captain-like madman had already fallen far behind. With the wind and snow obscuring everything, he could no longer even be seen clearly.

Also because of the wind and snow, Karon’s vision was now limited to his immediate surroundings.

He threw one last glance at Richard, seeing that he was blowing warm air on his hands as he persistently crawled forward. He seemed to be staring solely at Karon’s boots, looking at nothing else. Karon stopped and bent down, reaching over to help Richard up. He offered Richard his right arm, allowing him to hold onto it as they advanced. Richard did not resist. He pressed his face tight against Karon’s arm, as if only by doing so could he gain the sense of safety that he needed at this moment.

Although standing up meant stronger wind, compared to having one’s soul freeze, that initial wind could practically be described as gentle. The reason Karon helped Richard up at this moment was not that he didn’t want to give Richard an independent chance to temper himself, but because Karon was very worried that when the freezing grew even stronger, Richard would lose strength, his soul would loosen, and he would simply be blown away by the wind. At that point, Karon might not even be able to react in time and grab him. It was better to pull Richard along while walking along.

Seeing this, envy practically radiated from Ashley’s eyes. She did not conceal her feelings at all. If gazes could become tangible, then at this moment, it would be equivalent to her treating “envy” as a bedsheet and flinging it at Karon’s face again and again. But he chose to simply not see it.

It’s only natural for me to drag my own cousin along. Who are you?

The young man from the Knight Regiment beside him saw that Karon was still dragging someone with him, and anger appeared in his eyes. Of course, he was not accusing Karon of cheating by helping someone. Rather, the man was angry that he was walking alone, while Karon was pulling along a burden. This meant that in terms of difficulty, Karon was in a highly unfavorable position. That made the young man uncomfortable. Karon sensed the anger from his right. As a psychologist, he naturally guessed what the proud young man to his right was thinking. If not for the wind and snow being too strong, and if he weren’t too lazy to speak with the people around him, Karon actually wanted to tell Ashley on his left to go to his right and hug the young man from the Knight Regiment.

The freezing intensified even further. It was no longer ice crystals forming on bits of people’s bodies, but rather the freezing spread across their torsos. More and more people chose to withdraw from the exam. This level of pain was not something ordinary people could endure.

Leon glanced back, then continued forward. His pride would not allow him to withdraw. As for Larry, he also staggered onward.

Gradually, the chill deepened further. Once the freezing reached an extreme, ice... felt like it was flames burning the body. Many people’s bodies started dissipating. For some, it started at their elbows. For others, it started at the edges of their face or forehead. For others, it was their lower legs. Despite that, as long as a person was still willing to continue upward, even if both of their legs were gone, they could keep advancing, because everyone present was only a soul. There were no physical bodies present.

Ashley was finally unable to endure anymore. As she walked, she drew closer to Karon and said, “I want to...”

Karon pretended not to hear.

Ashley called again, “I want...”

Karon continued ignoring her. This girl was indeed innocent and cheerful, but she was also a little too familiar with others.

Richard was already crying. If not for Karon pulling him along, Richard felt like he would have given up long ago. It hurt so much, and he felt such despair. Crying was not embarrassing, because of those who remained on the mountain, more than half were crying.

At this moment, a new stage of freezing appeared. After crossing a certain line, figures started to vanish one after another. They were no longer able to persist, and thus they chose to give up. After crossing that line, Karon glanced around at the others who were still persevering. He could only see about a dozen people. Even if he considered others who were farther out, there should only be maybe a dozen more, which meant that there were likely less than thirty people remaining on the mountain. With thirty people remaining, this stage could be considered the true elimination round.

“Ahhh!” Larry finally could no longer hold on. He knelt on the ground and cried as his figure dissipated. Leon looked over at where Larry had vanished, then continued trudging forward like a walking corpse. Yes, everyone present, including Karon, was moving like walking corpses. Karon’s mental state was fine, but the freezing and burning his body was enduring was no less than anyone else. Everyone was dealing with similar physical conditions. What truly differed between them was his inner state and mentality.

At that moment, a small stream appeared beside them. Water flowed down the stream, carrying small boats along. Those bobbing boats held steaming coffee and meat broth. No one cared any longer whether such a scene made any sort of logical sense on a snowy mountain; The moment the stream appeared, seven or eight people failed to resist temptation, and walked into the water, vanishing.

There were less than twenty people remaining. At this moment, the wind, the frost, and the freezing doubled. In an instant, quite a few more people chose to withdraw, their mental defenses crushed by this sudden doubling.

There should only be about ten people left by this time, because the intensity of the wind, frost, and freezing temporarily stabilized. Karon already had experience with this. Every drastic escalation was intended to thin the number of remaining participants. The examiners were controlling the pace of the test.

Ten to five. The final round.

When the young man from the Knight Regiment to his right looked at Karon again, the anger and pride gone from his eyes. What could be seen instead was pure admiration, because soldiers admired the strong.

“Ka... Karon... let... let me go... you... do your best...” Richard knew that they had reached the final stage. He desperately wanted to be among the finalists, but he was even more afraid that Karon would fail because of him. Between the temptation of winning and the guilt of causing Karon to fail at the final stage, Richard gave in to the latter. After all, reality had proven that Karon truly had dragged Richard to this point. Karon was clearly capable of being one of the final five, if not burdened with Richard’s presence.

Karon knew Richard was not putting on some pitiful act, because in this extreme state, where everyone had long since been reduced to something that was barely even human, if Richard still had the energy to put on such a performance, he could just as easily stand up and walk forward on his own. In truth, most people present were already completely numb, which meant that Richard was speaking the truest voice in his heart.

That was how people were. Whether it was relatives or friends, if someone deliberately tried to take advantage of you, you would resent them even if they only got a single rel out of you. But if someone always maintained their boundaries, never tried to exploit you and even considered things from your perspective, then spending a thousand rels on them would feel completely worthwhile.

Karon’s arm had already dissipated, yet he continued to drag Richard along, which allowed Richard’s soul to maintain the posture of moving forward.

“Come on. We’re almost there.”

“Can’t... drag... you down...”

“Hold on a little longer. Soon.”

“Let go... of me... after all... I... am... cheating...”

“We’re brothers. If what you’re doing counts as cheating, then doesn’t that mean I already knew the test in advance?”

At this moment, the person ahead of Leon failed to hold on. He suddenly turned around and, with his broken body, charged straight at Leon, knocking him down. Leon, who had been holding on with nothing more than his final breath, had that breath knocked out of him. He instantly vanished. This was all for the sake of the slot. Anything was allowed. Of course, the rules had never said that such things could not be done. However, the price of doing this might be rather large. Not only could one easily become targeted by others due to caution, more importantly, one could easily offend the wrong people.

Ten had been reduced to nine.

The man who had eliminated Leon lifted his head to stare at Karon. Seeing this, Ashley, whose face was already more than half gone on the left side, turned to look at Karon. The young man from the Knight Regiment to Karon’s right also turned to look over. The stone-throwing youth behind them likewise focused his gaze on Karon. The sleepy girl, who was now fully awake and had tearstains covering her face, was also staring at Karon. Their focus was on him because Karon was still carrying someone else along. As long as Karon fell, the number of competitors would instantly decrease by two.

Nine to seven!

Yet the next moment, everyone, including the person who had tackled Leon, looked away from him. They knew better than anyone how difficult it had been to reach this point, yet Karon was somehow still dragging another person along with him.

Which meant only one thing: He was someone they absolutely could not afford to provoke.