“Oh, wow and here I thought my fear would not be used against me. Such an idiot I am. And what do you mean by accept them? I don't mind confronting them, but accepting? That is not going to be possible for me at all,” Shin exclaimed and then continued with slight disappointment, “Am I going to fail after this coming so far? Ha, at least I will escape from this wretched place.”
The previous trial had given Shin enough of a nightmare that he won't forget ever in his life. Shin closed his eyes in irritation and when he opened it, he was completely in a different place.
Shin stood high above in the air, and as he moved his body, there were no changes in the environment. "So, I can't directly interact with this illusion," he thought.
He sensed a shift as he observed a copy of himself emerging from a ruin, looking extremely happy after obtaining a great reward. Days seemed to pass quickly as the copy chose to conquer the world instead of ascending to the next one. Using all his powers, the copy eliminated the remaining ascension-level cultivators, established an empire named 'The Akatsuki Sovereignty,' and forced the remaining clans into servitude under the threat of death.
Once the world was conquered, the copy became drunk on power, abandoning his ambitions and indulging in a life of leisure. Publicly, he tortured anyone who opposed him, instilling even greater fear in the citizens of the empire. Arrogance consumed him, leading him to believe he was special and that others existed only to serve him.
The copy forced himself upon women, toyed with them and their families, and eventually killed them. His cultivation regressed, yet his tyranny continued unabated. He believed no one would dare oppose him, as they were, in his eyes, nothing more than slaves.
Observing all of this, Shin burned with fury. If looks could kill, the soul of the illusionary Shin would have been obliterated. At that moment, he suddenly gained the ability to influence the illusion. Without hesitation, he teleported into the palace, appearing in the room where the copy was abusing his female servants.
As soon as Shin arrived, his overwhelming presence caused all the girls to erupt into a blood mist, dying instantly. The illusionary Shin panicked, shouting for his guards, but no one came. Seeing Shin, the copy screamed, begged, and pleaded, but his words fell on deaf ears. Shin picked the copy up by the neck. The copy struggled, but with his weakened cultivation, he was powerless.
Face to face, the copy stared in confusion as realization dawned upon him "Who are you? Why do you have my face?" The copy was completely bewildered. He was just having the time of his life with those sensual women whom he had graciously taken as his slaves. But that situation drastically shifted when the man in front of him, entered his palace and now he was at the mercy of that person. Nevertheless, what confused him even more was that the man had the same identical face as his. Was he some doppelganger of his created by one of his enemies to take revenge on him?
"I am you. I am here as your executioner," Shin replied, his calm eyes filled with fury. He was calmly considering what to do with this copy of his. Death was a surety but he was contemplating on the necessity of torture in this situation. Shin’s furious reply was met up with the copy’s terrified spluttering, "Who... what... why... how...?"
After all, who could blame him, the current circumstances were so perplexing yet he was not even given the time for comprehending it. Shin continued with serenity as he had come to a decision of what to do, "Before you die, I'll at least tell you why. Just so you know what you did wrong."
"What...?" The copy started resigning himself to his fate. He had at least some hope that if the man in front of him was his doppelganger created by an enemy then he would not die here but the current declaration made him aware that he was not getting out of this alive. This filled him with frustration and unending wrath but there was no possible outlet.
"You abandoned your pursuit of knowledge and truth. You committed countless atrocities—" Shin started listing the various mistakes made by the copy according to him, but he was suddenly interrupted, "Atrocities...? I'm pretty sure you would have done the same."
"No, I may have the power but I would not ever go so low as you. And even if there comes a day, I do such atrocities, it would be a means to an end, not for self-indulgence as you did.” Shin admitted with disdain. With those words, Shin tightened his grip, ending the copy's life. Closing his eyes, he felt a sense of resolution. When he opened them again, he was back in the white room.
[The candidate Shin Akatsuki has passed the fifth trial.]
Staring at the white background of this white room, that he had found himself back again, Shin contemplated on a bit of what the previous trial was about. He had come face to face with the worst of his fears. And he made sure to fulfil what he had promised himself. He soon comprehended that the fifth trial was not just about confronting the greatest fear, but also about being true to himself and following through what he himself had decided and vowed to do during such a situation.
[Trial – 6 Pain and Death]
The sudden, though not unexpected start of the next round made Shin who had a serene expression on his face quickly become pale. He immediately understood what the next round would be, simply through its name. And he just hoped that whatever he was thinking would not come to pass. But he had been not that lucky during these trials, so he didn't expect any miracles anyway.
[The candidate will have to face all kinds of pain known to the world and die through that pain.]
[The candidate is warned that the pain and death are not illusions but a complete reality. The trial will utilize death and life elements to keep your soul tethered to the world and resurrect and heal you from all kinds of injuries respectively.]
And yeah, the description of the trial just made his fears come true again. He sighed, but then accepted his situation and spoke up. “I am ready.”
……
In a room entirely made of white, one could see a man lying on the floor, panting hard. He had a handsome face with sword-like eyebrows, black hair, purple-colored pupils, and a sharp jawline. Currently, though, his face was an unnatural pale, and he alternated between breathing hard and grinding his teeth.
“Finally…, finally, it's over, haaaa, haaaa.” The man rubbed his forehead using his left hand. “Finally, that hell phase has been completed. I died so many times. I suffered pain many times worse than anything I could ever imagine. It made it seem like all the suffering I had in my life was child's play. This pain is something I wouldn't want my worst enemies to suffer.”
The man then calmed himself down and sat up straight and cross-legged. He looked toward the translucent screen in front of him, which showed his achievements with a hint of pride.
[The candidate Shin Akatsuki has passed the sixth trial.]
[Since this trial was extremely traumatic, the candidate will be given some time to rest before the final trial begins.]
[The candidate will not be given the soul light, which he received after the 4th trial, as it will negate the benefits you received in the trial.]
Shin then began to recollect how it all began. The moment the trial instructions were given, his soul was taken out of his body and then teleported to some unknown place. Then his soul was transferred into a person. He was unable to utilize any of his abilities in that body. When he looked around, he found himself in a village taken over by bandits.
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He was then taken by the bandits and tortured by them, experiencing his first hell, where he died by a thousand cuts. Again, his soul was transferred, this time into the body of a person in prison. The soldiers took him, cut his arms and legs off, and let him bleed to death. Again, his soul was transferred into the body of a person tied to a stake. He was being persecuted for being a wizard, whatever that is, and he was burned to death at that stake.
This continued on and on, as his soul was transferred into various situations where he experienced different kinds of physical pain such as death by freezing, death from pleasure by a succubus; a type of devil that sucks your life force through sex, castration, blood eagle; where his ribs were torn out of his body in the shape of the wings of an eagle, impalement, crucifixion, boiling; where he was tossed into boiling hot water and simmered alive, and so on. He also suffered pain from soul injuries, tearing, destruction, and other excruciating soul-type pains.
After all this, he was seemingly transferred into the body of an infant, where he didn't immediately experience pain and death. So, he tried to live a life, grew up, made friends, and when it seemed like his sufferings were over, he experienced betrayal and died. He then experienced despair, loneliness, depression, and mental anguishes.
To maintain his sanity, he counted the number of deaths he had to go through. He kept counting even though these deaths were seemingly endless. At one point, he got so used to death that the only thing bothering him about this trial was the different types of pain he had to suffer. Basically, he became indifferent to death. After a long time, this suffering came to an end as his soul was tossed back into his real body in the white room with a message on the holographic screen that he passed the trial.
After this, he became unconscious, and he had woken up about an hour ago. Shin could still feel his soul shivering from the trauma he had experienced.
“Nine hundred and ninety-nine deaths” Shin closed his eyes again and went into deep meditation. “It would benefit me tremendously to reflect on these deaths. I also would have to manage my indifference to death properly, as although it is a good thing, but if I don't keep it in check, it can cause my death. Since here if I die, I would die permanently.”
…….
After an unknown amount of time,
Shin woke up from his meditation with a serene expression, his eyes reflecting the wisdom and insight he gained from this experience. He then took a deep breath, stood up, and announced, “I am ready for the next trial.”
[ Trial 7 – Fortune ]
[ This is a trial as well as the reward. The candidate would be teleported to an area with multiple doors. Behind each door is a different reward that you have gained the qualification to receive through these trials. ]
[ Some doors have better ones, while some have worse ones. But do not worry; each and every one of them would be extremely useful to you. ]
[ You can only choose one of them. ]
Shin was then teleported to a dark place illuminated by the light of thousands of doors. Wherever he looked, whether left or right, front or back, up or down, there was a door. Every single one of them was golden in color. There seemed to be no difference among them.
[ Now Choose. ]
[ MAY YOUR FORTUNE GUIDE YOU ]
The doors appeared to be placed without an order, and when he sent out his divine sense, he found out there were exactly ten thousand doors in the entire space. "May fortune guide me, huh?"
Shin then put up a grin and created space loops in front of every door and connected each space loop with all other space loops. Then he added a bit of order element into these connections and made sure that only one of the connections worked every time. Then he added the chaos element to randomize the selection of the connection that would work.
Through this work, he created a chaotic teleporter that would teleport him randomly from one door to another. Then he closed all his senses, including divine sense, and walked into one of these loops. He then began to blink from one place to another and finally stopped after the nine hundred ninety-ninth blink. He then opened his senses, removed all the space loops, and entered the door in front of him.
This entire fiasco was completed within a minute, showcasing his great control over elements especially the element of space.
……
When Shin entered the door, he again felt the changes in space, which signified that he has been transferred to another space. He was getting used to the sudden transfer as it had happened so many times by now in this trial already. He looked around to get a grip on where he has been teleported to and he found out that it was a similar white room that he was in before. There was just a slight difference in it.
In the middle of the room, directly in front of him was a small table. However, Shin raised his eyebrows as he recognized that the table was entirely made of solid qi, the quality and the density of which were phenomenal! His own qi had only reached the level of solidification recently when he had a breakthrough and the quality of his was incomparable to that of the table.
On that table there was just a cube-shaped object, its surface covered in sharp, geometric shapes that jutted out like pieces of a shattered machinery. Lines of glowing blue light traced its edges, giving it a futuristic appearance. The patterns seemed layered, as if the cube were built from countless interlocking plates, each one carefully arranged.
Suddenly, a spirit materialized on his right side. It looked like an old man dressed in standard butler-type clothing. “Congratulations, you have passed all the trials, and your fortune has led you to the greatest reward this place can give to you.”
“The greatest reward? This little cube is the greatest reward?” Shin was a little skeptical about it but gave it the benefit of doubt, after all this trial had made him learn the lesson of not judging a book by its cover. Therefore, he questioned, “So what is it? And who are you?”
“I am but a mere servant, who was given the duty to manage the trials by my creator,” the spirit said with a humble expression. “This artifact, if it could be even called that in the first place, is the legacy treasure left by ‘The Great Ivis Luminous.’ She is a being who has surpassed this dimension of existence and entered the heavens. She left this treasure for a fated person to come and collect it. And it seems you are the fated person as you have passed all the trial which was created with some unique specifications.”
“She entered the heavens? Does that mean she’s dead?” inquired Shin as he didn’t comprehend what the spirit meant by surpassing the dimension of existence.
“Fool, it means she became a higher dimensional entity,” the spirit spoke with an irritated expression on his face. Then he continued, “Anyway, this treasure is a shortcut left by the great mistress to become a higher dimensional entity.”
“What is a higher dimensional entity in the first place?” Shin was very curious about this topic.
“Only those who reached the qualifications know in detail about it, and regretfully I don’t have any such qualifications,” the spirit seemed sorrowful. “But I know to get the qualification, you, Shin Akatsuki, would have to ascend at least ten times depending on the world to which you ascend each time.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The plane you are from is of Rank 1 and to get the qualification you have to ascend to a Rank 11 plane and become a pinnacle expert there. And just to ascend from one rank to the next one you would have to first reach the heaven's will world in your plane and then ascend.”
“Just so you know, the world that you entered from is of the lowest classification in your plane i.e. a mortal world. After the mortal world comes lower thousand worlds, then middle thousand world, then greater thousand world, and finally the heavens-will world, which is the peak of a plane. Only by ascending to the heavens-will world each time you ascend, would the number of total ascensions required would be 10, otherwise it increase accordingly”
Shin stared at the spirit with a dumbfounded face. He was beginning to get an inkling on just how mighty a higher dimensional entity would be. However, with his small humble mind It would impossible for him to actually even begin to image that level of power.
“Yes, what you are thinking is absolutely right. And that is only the level where you will reach the peak of this existence. To reach the higher existence is a near-impossible task,” the spirit educated Shin. “And this treasure would allow for a shortcut in this long and arduous journey. Now do you understand the importance of this treasure?”
“Y-y-yes,” Shin nodded his head so absentmindedly as he processed all that information, he just got that he failed to notice that the spirit had just read his mind, “But I don’t understand one thing. Why leave such a great treasure on a small mortal world?”
“That’s where you are wrong. We are not in your world. The entrance on your world is a mere gateway to this trial. Similar gateways are put on an ever-increasing number of worlds in an infinite number of planes.”
“Ohhhh.....that would explain it.” Shin nodded in understanding and sorted out everything that he just heard in safely tucked it in the corners of his mind for later review as he knew that what he learned today would be greatly useful for him in the future.
“Now enter the energy, in your case, it would be Qi into the cube. After you do that, everything else will be explained by the fragment of the consciousness left by the mistress.” The spirit declared as he vanished into nothingness.
Shin was a little cautious but still did what he was told. Then he felt a weird feeling in his soul as the cube vanished. That feeling also went away quickly as he went unconscious.