While Jin was screaming and rolling about, other fights were happening. One in particular had attracted most of the attention. Two of the strongest contenders for the final trophy faced off against one another. Cao Lei's disciple and the Temperature Dragon sentient beast.

To be honest, the abilities of Cao Lei's champion were average, maybe even sub-par. Compared to the other champions that made it there, he was the weakest. There could be no debate about that point, it was the truth. He was the weakest. Yet, he could still face those elites. That was due to the two supreme treasures he was bestowed. Officially stolen, the gourd and sword made for an incredible advantage. Especially now that he had received guidance on how to make use of them.

The sword was an artifact that could store the souls of those slaughtered by it. Those souls could be taken out and used at will by the owner of the sword. How many people did Cao Lei kill? How many were murdered? Just how many souls were in there? It wasn't a number that could be spoken at will as it was so staggering that the sin of it was too tremendous. And that was more than enough for the weakest to rival the strongest.

Thousands and thousands of souls were released with every slash of the sword towards the Temperature Dragon. Regardless of how strong he was, he couldn't endure such a continuous onslaught. While it was crude, unrefined and boorish, it was strong. It was the instance of quantity over quality. Regardless of what he used, be it flames or ice, he was unable to deplete the army of ghosts sent his way.

That being said, since he only used elements, he wasn't consuming any energy. Only his mental state was experiencing decline. But at such a slow speed that it couldn't be considered. He was a dragon. It wasn't that easy to defeat him.

Cao Lei's champion got tired of battling it this way. He didn't want to go through a battle of exhaustion. He could and would win if he did, of course. But he was reluctant. Because he knew that he would have to give back the treasures to Cao Lei after he won. And if he depleted the entire reserve...Cao Lei might actually kill him himself even if he won. He shuddered at the thought.

Fortunately, there was another way to win this. He quickly made the calculation as he gazed at the gourd that sat at his waist. Then, he moved on with his plan. He took the gourd in one hand and pushed the sword blade within it. It absorbed it as if it was bottomless. Cao Lei's disciple kept the sword activated as he used the souls imprisoned within the sword to fill the gourd. With so many souls, why would he sacrifice his own lifespan? He could just sacrifice the souls. Souls contained the lifespan of a being after all. Unfortunately, due to their state, they only had very few of it. It was so little that he had to sacrifice close to a million of souls to fill the gourd enough to activate it once.

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But it was a worthy trade to end this battle.

It took no more than an instant for all those souls to be absorbed. He took the sword out and turned the gourd towards the dragon before activating it: "SEAL!"

A bluish light that was too fast to be dodged rammed into the sentient dragon. Bewildered, he looked down at the place he was hit at. He thought he might have been pierced through but no. Instead, a weird bluish crystal-like substance was growing at a rapid pace over his skin. He tried everything he could to stop it from growing. Heat and Cold didn't work. His claws and energy failed as well. He resorted to cut the part covered by it but even that was a failure as the crystal grow back over his body.

Less than a minute later, he was stuck within an oval-shaped bluish crystal. It was empty within so that he could still move a bit but he was unable to break out from it.

Cao Lei's disciple laughed madly as he approached without being on guard at all. He put a hand over the crystal prison and spoke loudly the activating word: "REDUCE"

The crystal as well as the dragon inside began to shrink until the entire thing was no bigger than a marble. Cao Lei's disciple picked up the marble and glued it next to his gourd with an adhesive from his spatial ring. It was unfortunate but he couldn't kill the dragon and as it was still alive, he couldn't send it into his spatial ring.

That being said, it was his win. And he was still in perfect health. He laughed as he imagined himself at the top, having won the trial. It did not matter how many elites he faced or how strong they were as long as he own those two treasures.

A vortex appeared in front of him. He didn't think twice before going through it. It didn't matter who was next, the result would be the same. As for a requirement to rest? He had none. It wasn't his power that was being used here. He only had to infuse a tidbit of spiritual energy to tap into the incredible reserve of souls.

What a wonderful might!

Invincible!

As he walked out of the portal and within a new cavern, the first thing he heard was horrible shrieks. It seemed like a pig being slaughtered. He looked around and saw that he was in an empty room painted gold. And he saw the origin of the noise.

It was a weird humanoid creature with its body contorting in weird directions with a spear grabbed in the human-looking hand. It looked ugly with weird red and black liquid covering some parts.

He frowned as he asked himself aloud: "The fuck is that shit?"

It was Jin.