While Hae-Hyuk was nonchalant about the loss of Jin, Cao Lei should have been the first to rub it in his face. Yet he did not. For the simple reason that he was incredibly angered by what happened. He couldn't consider it a win. Because that dumb champion of his lost the sword! The Sword of Resentment was his own weapon! And that fucker lost it! Unless he won, the sword would be deemed to belong to whoever had it in the end. If it was no longer one of his champions or its corpse who held it, then it would no longer be deemed his. He made quite the gamble back then when he gave his two treasured equipments to his two champions. Well, when he let them rob him of those... From the start, he expected things to turn out as they did. One of the two would reunite both weapons and climb up through their might. He believed he would be able to stop Hae-Hyuk from winning if he did that but not that he might lose one of the weapons...

In any case, he could always track them through a brand he left on them and would make sure to get them back whatever the cost but still. He was angered by the fact that his champion made such a stupid mistake. Now, because he lost it, his power level was lowered by a lot. It would be a miracle if that dunce did not end up being trounced in the finals...

One might consider it honorable to reach second place but the fact was that it was the opposite. It was the worst kind of humiliation. You got so close to the sun only to end up unable to grasp it. It was the worst. And judging by the development of the second battle, it was quite likely that Hae-Hyu'ks second champion would reach the final.

If his own champion lost because of that mistake, he would be furious. If that loss happened to Hae-Hyuk's champion? He would probably end up going on a killing spree throughout the continents. He glanced back behind him at the monk that would soon die and made up his mind to go slaughter his place first.

Then, he turned his gaze back to the screen displaying Min-Su's battle. The final result of this trial would depend on the issue of this battle.

...

It was only a dozen minutes later or so that something happened in the cavern. Dae-Jung searched the entire place to no avail only for a secret door to open in a corner of the wall he observed previously.

He cursed once before walking towards the exit (or was it an entrance?).

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In any case, he couldn't see what was beyond the gate. Regardless, it was clear that this was the path he had to take so he walked forward. No one could stand on his way towards the final win. Grasping tightly on the gourd, he moved with a steady and calm pace. He would sacrifice ten years to win but so what? He would live and be thanked graciously by his master. This was the future he envisioned and the future that would happen.

After he crossed the door, a bright light blinded him for a few seconds. Once he got used to the light, he was awe-struck by the sight.

He was outside.

Outside the mountain.

He was standing on one side of the peak of The Peak. Right now, he was truly at the peak... As he stood there, he saw the castle and the gigantic statue in the distance. Judging by this, he was likely on the right side of the mountain. He tried to look down but some white mist prevented him from doing so. He couldn't see the rest of the mountain but he was able to see what was far from it. He looked up, thinking that the final battle would be taking place there. But there was nothing higher than he was. Aside from the top of the door, there was nothing higher. He turned back only to see that the door was no longer there.

He tried to check the other side but found out that he could not. There seemed to be some kind of barrier preventing him from going over there. That's when he heard a voice coming from the other side: "Finally out..."

He didn't recognize the voice but he was ready to bet his life that this was his opponent. Would they have to fight here? There didn't seem to be more than a dozen square meters in space in total... He would be at a disadvantage.

The thought left him mere seconds later as a change happened to his surroundings.

A bridge began to form in front of him. It was blue, white and gold in colors. There were rails on both sides of it depicting various epic battles that he couldn't recognize. Every ten or so meters, circles appeared surrounding the bridge. They were of the same color and seemingly floating there. They had a single big golden bell affixed on each of them. And they were all ringing at different times, creating a fantastic melody that made his blood boil.

The further the bridge materialized, the more bells began to ring, constantly adding to the tune. Finally, he could make out the appearance of a similar bridge coming from the other side. The both of them were arcing around towards one another. And they stopped when they were hundreds of meters away from one another.

Then something else began to appear. Some distance lower than the bridges, in the space between them, a giant stone mat appeared. Then, a statue of a woman sitting cross-legged upon it. The statue seemed small from his view but it was actually immense. He guessed that it might as well be as big as the other one next to the castle.

The arms of the statue extended and then its palms appeared, facing upwards. Finally, a giant plate appeared in its hands. And then, a melodious and thunderous voice was heard: "May the heavens bless us!"

The voice echoed continuously without losing strength as the bells continued to ring.

The time had come.