While Eidolon was regarded as not much more than an apparition, the watcher sitting behind it was anything but. Eidolon was someone who meddled everywhere, and while Zane didn't know what their sex was as Caue had never come to any consensus, all he knew was they had transmigrated from a
Eidolon had originated as a blacksmith, working excruciating days in Vaelrun's southern capital. If Zane could trust his 1.4% memory, then he could say that due to a freak accident and the system yet again interfering with a 'normal' citizen's life, the government needed a scapegoat.
Eidolon had risen to great popularity among the monarchs of Vaelrun, which had made them an enemy according to the republic. Thus, they had Eidolon arrested. During this time, Eidolon had already registered themselves as a player with the help of a traveling merchant.
So, when they were caught, they had ended up in a
To say it in simple words, Zane only felt utmost respect for the watcher. And he did feel a little jealous that Rhian was the one whom the watcher was looking at.
Regardless, a screen appeared in front of Rhian.
[Veiled Trial: Appease the Watcher with a temporary item
Grade: B
Time Limit: 3 hours
Conditions: Appease the watcher by showing them you are worthy of being given a Genesis-grade item!
Failure: All ties to the
Reward: Circe]
[
Zane felt his eye twitch. 'That was a very interesting way to say he wanted me to entertain him…'
[
[
"Zane?" Rhian asked as space warped in front of him before something appeared within black shards.
The sight of the sword was blinding, a complete opposite to Ember's obsidian touch. Zane glanced around him and exhaled sharply. He grabbed ahold of Rhian's sword, hissed as the shards of Repercussions slashed through his arm, and handed it to Rhian.
"Are you insane?" Rhian asked, staring at him.
Zane licked the blood off his thumb. "Not quite," he mumbled. "Though, I do see a way for you to appease them."
[Sacrifice has been received!]
[Ember's first attribute has been triggered!]
[You've invested 1000 species in Lacerate lvl 1 > Lacerate lvl 4]
[Wisteria's third attribute has been triggered!]
[Snakes' Skin lvl 1 is responding to your mana!]
"The Sect Leader seems to be having some trouble with Shu Meiying, don't you think?" Zane asked.
Rhian glanced at him before he was pushing Circe into his clandestine chest, then he touched Zane's shoulder.
Wind whipped his face and within a moment he was where the original sheen of light had been seen.
[
Zane's eyes immediately caught sight of the swords clanging against each other, their owners hardly seen. Except for when Shu Meiying had Hua Huiliang pinned to the ground. The both of them looked frenzied.
Except Shu Meiying didn't look quite human, in fact, he was looking a lot like the Watcher who was sponsoring him after Zane confirmed with Vide Omnes.
[
[Many
Before Zane could speak, Rhian was gone from his place next to him, instead, Zane looked up to see that Rhian had shoved Shu Meiying aside, but the force hadn't been sufficient.
"Xiaoshi," Hua Huiliang began, standing up and moving forth so Rhian wasn't directly in front of Shu Meiying who was spitting blood. "Get out of here!"
[
"And leave you?" Rhian asked, glaring at his father.
While Zane did love the sentiment of them bonding, he could practically see the dark aura radiating off Shu Meiying.
[
Zane vaguely knew this watcher too. They were one of the original creators of Fei Resurrection who were never credited and eventually died a painful death.
When Shu Meiying's body twitched, Zane let Wisteria uncoil and bind the man's arms to his waist. He moved aside, Ember already glowing faintly red with his mana.
But just as he reached closer, Shu Meiying smiled. "Got you," he said.
Zane barely had time to question it when he felt someone pull him away. Hua Huiliang held him steady as Zane's eyes widened at the sight of the skin of his arm burning off.
[
Zane immediately cracked a bottle of elixir over the wound before he could register the pain. As they'd theorized, Shu Meiying's body was no less different from the people belonging to the Shu sect. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and he was heaving like an animal gone wild at the scent of blood.
[Many
Hua Huiliang moved just as soon as he'd been there to help Zane. "You are a coward, Shu Meiying!" he called out as he clashed swords with the other sect leader.
Shu Meiying smiled sickly. "Is that your son, Huiliang?"
"Xiaoshi, get out of here!" Hua Huiliang yelled, only to be thrown back by Shu Meiying.
Zane blinked and Shu Meiying was in front of Rhian. The cursed man touched Rhian's chin. "Huang Delan had so many memories of you he tried to keep buried. He kept resisting, resisting. Oh, it was exhilarating—"
Rhian swung Circe.
[Sword of pure ether, Circe, has deemed
[
A blue aura surrounded Rhian and spread to the sword. Zane took the moment to act fast too, he used Wisteria to hold Shu Meiying down right when Rhian was about to strike him.
For a moment, it seemed to have worked, but when the dust settled, Zane's eyes widened to see Shu Meiying holding onto Circe while Rhian struggled to press it ahead.
"Shit," Zane cursed. He tried using Ember to distract the deranged man, but Shu Meiying unsheathed his own blade to block Ember.
[
Zane could feel time narrowing down, and in that moment he saw the same smile before Shu Meiying had struck him with Mouth Of Poison. Zane shoved Ember into the ground and wrapped Wisteria around Rhian instead and dragged him back, effectively getting him out of Shu Meiying's path.
"What is wrong with you?" Zane asked him. "The sword has deemed him as evil, even if you choose not to hurt him, the pure ether is supposed to burn him!"
"You think I'm not doing that?"
"Yes!" Zane pushed them out of an incoming attack. Shu Meiying possessed an Executioner, and by the way the sword was thrumming with diabolic energy, Zane knew the creator was having a field day. "You just need to push your mana into the sword and let it control you, not the other way!"
[
[
Circe glowed even brighter with Rhian's mana channeling into it. Just when Shu Meiying turned to face them, Hua Huiliang used that moment to shove the man to the ground. But that proved futile too when Shu Meiying triggered the Mouth of Poison again, burning Hua Huiliang's hand.
"Xiaoshi," Shu Meiying said suddenly.
Rhian went rigid.
"Xiaoshi, get the hell out of here!" Hua Huiliang yelled.
"Did you know how hard Huang Delan was to break?" The half-monster asked. "He told me everything about your sect, yet until the last moments he never uttered your name, then the news of a bounty arrived and that poor thing slipped up."
Hua Huiliang shoved his own sword into Shu Meiying's neck, but black ether tendrils didn't let it go any deeper than the surface.
[Members of the bureau are threatening
[
[Many
Before Zane could move again, a dark presence wafted in front of them and Li Feng stood in front of them. "Speak ill and I'll have your throat," he said monotonously. Then he seemed to reach some consensus after meeting Hua Huiliang's eyes.
"Xioashi, foreigner," Li Feng said. "Head over to the auxiliary trial. Zhangwe village is towards the South East. Leave this to us."
"But—"
"Your father is a worrywart, he won't fight straight knowing you can be impacted at scale. Will you leave or must I make you?"
Zane had an inclination to say 'yes' as he was curious as to how much Li Feng had yet to improve his [Warp] skill. It was a well-known fact that almost every monarch and every leader had a close associate who was somewhat of a mage. In the Hua Clan's case, it was Li Feng and Madam Hua. Li Feng did, or rather, would specialize in a portal-esque skill known as Warp, where he could choose to send certain people out of the current location to any location that Li Feng had seen before.
However, Rhian answered for him by taking a step forward. Before he could reach Li Feng, the ground under him opened, then extended to catch Zane and the feeling of plummeting to the planet's core was the only thing Zane felt until the moment disappeared like nothing happened.
He blinked and he was suddenly sitting in ruination. The surrounding land was ashen, with burnt grass and wood. Whatever moderate infrastructure had existed had also ceased to be, and in its wake lay the old foundation bearings that were lightly ablaze. "What happened here?" Zane asked quietly.
Rhian stepped ahead and gazed out before he paused. "All I can guess is that the start of the war began here."
"But…"
"The Lu sect is to the north of the Hua. It also means that Sect Leader Lu Huan had most definitely come through this place if he was heading towards Hua."
"How come they all gathered at Hua Receses?"
"The Fei Resurrection is placed in the midst of Xiaoluo, and it's closest to Hua Recess, so it's smarter to head there after discussion beforehand. It's protected by the emperor—"
"Xiaoluo has an emperor?" Zane interjected.
"Not quite," Rhian mumbled. "He's more of a figurehead than anything. His ministers are the ones who run the court. They keep tabs on the Sect Leaders. Originally they were responsible for keeping the Fei Resurrection hidden in the Temple between them. However, as you know, Shu Meiying was one of the 'founders'. He knew where it was and knew how to strike."
Zane stood up slowly and his eyes fell towards the West. Just as Li Feng had predicted, a beautiful Jade Palace sat by the Zexi River, its translucent green color gleaming in the distant break of dawn. From the outside, Zane could hardly tell if it was any more than three stories tall, but what itched at him was that it didn't seem big.
But the energy it permeated promised it held more than it let on.
He checked the trial again.
[Auxiliary Trial: Cold Jade Palace
Grade: B
Time Limit: ?
Conditions: defeat the inverted spirits held within the palace and survive until the time limit is up!
Failure: spirits within the palace will be freed. The Main Trial will continue.
Reward: 100,000 species to majority contributors, 50,000 species to secondary contributions
+more]
"What do they mean the main trial will continue?" Rhian asked.
However when both their eyes met the answer seemed apparent enough.
Shu Meiying must've left the amulet within the palace, or he was somehow pulling the energy from this palace all the way to the plains.
However, he glanced back down and pressed more.
[Current participants: Asha Vardhan, Lu Huan, Esmerray Val, Roh..]
Did that mean the Lu Sect Leader was still alive? Zane wasn't sure what to believe. Regardless, he pushed the screen away.
The time limit wasn't specified for this trial, but he supposed it was more than implied that the end of this trial would imply the end of the main trial as well. He clutched Ember in his sheath and picked out some elixirs he had bought from the tryst earlier.
He drank two bottles and dropped them on the ground.
[Your mana has been replenished!]
[Your fatigue has been reduced!]
He walked over to the palace's entrance. The carpet he could only guess was once gold and red was a charred mess as he walked over it and reached the door, Rhian at his heels. He pushed it open and stepped inside, holding it out for the other man.
[You've accepted the auxiliary trial!]
[The Temple Lord, He Who Drinks the Blood of Ten Thousand Defeats is looking at the new
'So this must've been another space-time event,' Zane thought. 'And the system must've built a temple to confine it.'
"Zane," Rhian said, and just as Zane opened his mouth to respond, the ground under their feet rumbled. Then it shot upright. Zane stumbled on his footing and crouched down to grab onto a crevice.
[The 'insides' of the 49th temple are rearranging themselves!]
[Auxiliary Trial: Traitor has been completed!]
[Major contributors: Hua Anhe, Adrian Arceli, Asha Vardhan, Rhian Amren, Zephyr Mor]
[Rewards will be distributed at the end of the
Zane braced for impact when the ground turned upside down. He managed to use Wisteria to hold onto the intricate beams until the turning stopped.
When he dropped from where he held the beam and stood up, the floor underneath was translucent with the same green sheen mixed with wisps of black. When he looked around, it seemed to be something akin to a training ground.
The next thing he felt was the decline in temperature; every hair in his body was standing upright, and it didn't help that his sleeve had gotten torn because he grabbed Circe from the shards of repercussions.
[
[
The room that supposedly opened into a training ground visibly twisted. Like the vortex that pulled at the sight in front of them on Horizon of the Wintering Rose. But it didn't open, it just twisted. Zane approached the twisting sight. 'How unnerving.'
But just as he reached his hand close, an arrow whisked past his hand, grazing it, and striking the ground. As soon as it did, a shadow underneath the jade flooring moved away.
'Who…' He turned around to see a woman pointing a bow at him. Then she shot another arrow, and the arrow head burst into flames where it'd struck the floor.
Zane felt familiarity waft off her, then he placed her as the woman who had delivered the news that the Shu were gathered near those plains. "It's accursed. A type of revenant that can travel through surfaces," she began.
'When did she get here?' Then Zane paused. 'Could she be Esmerary Val?'
Zane looked at the arrow and then back at the woman. "Thank you."
She nodded. "It'll be better for you to stay with me."