Everyone in the grand hall turned towards her and the giant screen the Saints were looking at. Saint Arialdo Vassi began to laugh loudly as he gripped his stomach. This woman was truly shameless to the end. She planted those resuscitated underlings ever since she was allowed to take on the trial. She had been ordered to take the corpses away after one of them successfully got her the treasure and such a thing was banned henceforth. After all, giving ownership of the mist to a champion was truly unfair. She actually won the very first time one of her knights resuscitated... At the time, Arialdo Vassi was already the Saint Patron. He couldn't say anything about it during the trial as no rules banned it beforehand. He made sure it was banned after she acquired her treasure though. The problem was that she had planted more than a dozen of those dead knights before one was brought back to life by the mist. And even after he told her to dig up the corpses, she never did.
From time to time, a dead knight would come back to life and fuck with the trial. Every time it happened, she became officially recognized as a 'contestant' once again. And no one could do anything about it. There were a few rules in place:
=> No one but a Saint could interfere in the trial.
=> No one could interfere in the trial except to safely extract a champion, henceforth forcefully disqualifying him.
=> In order for a Saint to interfere with a champion, the contestant it serves has to approve and pay an equivalent price.
=> Only the contestant it served has the rights to the body of the dead champion and its belongings.
Basically, even though she was a Saint and no longer eligible to participate, she could. It was all because she found a loophole in the rules way back and planted her seeds beforehand. Of course, the rules had been patched as soon as they found out but it took years and for her to win. It was already too late at the time. Many corpses that could revive through the mist and would be able to own it were planted, waiting for her to activate their cores and waking them up.
And every time, she said it was the last one, as if she couldn't remember how many there were. She was truly a vicious one. She was also the one holding the record regarding the number of trials won. She won four. And she was the only one who won more than once. Arialdo Vassi was very glad that he passed on his Patron title before this trial began, there were just too many twists this time. For once, he could freely enjoy the show without feeling anxious or accountable.
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Saint Patron Bôrakos, on the other hand, was furious. He was pointing at the woman, Saint Shalonna, repeating "You" in rage. She just chuckled as she said: "Well, it seems like I will have to give up on my Saint role for this trial, oh oh"
She elegantly jumped down from the platform before taking out a table, chair and tea set and taking a place just under the platform. She controlled the activation of the cores of those dead corpses. She had, in total, managed to plant 12 back in the days. But only half of those were successes. She used up five already. She won four times and lost only once through those. She had waited a long time to make use of the last one. This was the right time.
The flower of supremacy...
It wasn't attractive solely to those under the 70th stage and its use wasn't just to help one breakthrough. If she got this, she could turn it into a weapon or artifact of the 7th grade. A weapon of the legendary 7th grade with the element of domination... She couldn't help but gulp at the thought. Sure, it might force her to waste a few decades working on it instead of cultivating but it would be worth it in the end. Such a mighty treasure...If she could birth to it... Whatever was beyond the end point, she wouldn't have reasons to fear. And so, she activated her last trump card, hoping to snatch the treasure.
And no one could do anything about it.
All the other contestants were glaring fiercely at her but none would dare take any action. As for the other old fools on the platform? They wouldn't risk it. They were all beyond the 70th stage, they wouldn't stir up shit for such a thing. The longer one lived and the stronger one was, the cowardlier he became. All those pinnacle experts here treasured their lives above all else. No one would dare bother her. Even if she ended up stealing the flower from under their nose. What could they do? She was stronger!
Hae-Hyuk was having a headache. If he had been anxious before, he was now completely filled with despair. Why did all these things have to happen during the trial he wanted to win at all cost? He even used the ability from the 60th breakthrough to find Min-Su and Jin who should have the highest odds to win... He sacrificed so much... Yet, would he end up losing it all?
He recalled what the Saint told him previously:
"Do you trust in your chances? You do know that you aren't the only one able to glimpse through fate, right?"
If the others also read the fate and acted according to it, what would really be his odds of winning? He began to think he might have been played. At the same time, he saw Cao Lei smirking at him with an arrogant look. If he wasn't in this sacred place, he would have showed him a piece of his mind, a.k.a the might of his fists.