915 Sword Cave

When morning came, Alex met up with Aria right in front of the lodging area.

"Nyx. Are you ready for today?" Aria greeted him with a smile while fixing her hair and putting on her mask.

"Yeah." Alex nodded. "Still, there are a total of eighty-three people with a letter recommendation. Their strength is ranging from 5-Star Martial Monarch to 3-Star Martial Saint. Most of them are in 7-Star to 8-Star Martial Monarch though."

"I see. We have the advantage for this test then." She nodded. "We will only need to wait for the elder to explain the test, I guess."

"Yeah. According to the elder we saw at the entrance, it will start two days from now. I don't know whether it has started or not, but let's check the town first." Alex nodded.

"Sure." She nodded.

The two then walked toward the center of the town, finding many people waiting for the test.

Alex didn't forget to check their number to see if they missed someone or not because it would be a clue to what they would do.

Luckily, the number remained the same as he asked Aria to stay around there and wait.

An hour later, an elder appeared. It was the same female elder they met in the registration area.

She looked at the entire town and shouted. "We are going to start the test right now. Come to the center of the town to hear the explanation first."

The participants immediately gathered in the center as the elder nodded.

"Since all of you are here, I will start explaining all the tests you will have during this enrollment process. There are three tests which are according to our usual rules. The first will be to see your Sword Talent.

"All of you need to go through the real Sword Cave as fast as possible. If you go through it fast enough, you will be getting points, enough to buy a special privilege. I will talk about that later.

"I will be explaining things you need to know about the Sword Cave. First of all, as you might already know, you will have a big benefit if you start cultivating inside the cave. It affects everything, so you don't need to worry about your weapons. Whether it's a spear, bow, or whatever, you will feel the effect.

"There is no time limit here, so you are free to do anything during the test. If you decide to finish the first test, you will find an elder whom you can talk about the special privilege. The privilege is about the real test in the third test. I am sure you know that the third test will be unknown, so we give you the opportunity to know it beforehand, but this information can only be obtained with the points you get from the first test.

"Basically, you will get one point for every monster below Martial Monarch you kill and ten points for every 1-Star to 5-Star Martial Monarch you kill. One hundred points for every 6-Star to 10-Star Martial Monarch beasts you kill. And lastly, every star in Martial Saint stage is worth ten thousand points.

"After you get enough points to pass the second stage, you may go and finish the third stage. The overall time limit is seven days. Whatever you can accomplish during this will depend on you. And you can even go back here to exchange the points at every checkpoint, so good luck. By the way, the second checkpoint needs thirty thousand points to pass.

"There is no rule other than the no-killing rule in the second test while the other two is imposed that no one attack or does any harm to other parties. Use your wisdom and strength to prove that you are worthy of being here. That's my advice."

"And some of you might be wondering where the other disciples that enter the sect without a recommendation letter like you? The elder in charge there will only start to explain this when all of you have started. So, let's get started." She smirked and snapped her finger as a giant Teleportation Array glowed beneath their feet.

Everyone was shocked to see its appearance and gasped.

"This…" Even Aria felt something was wrong and looked down, wondering what Array it was.

As an Array Master, Alex scanned the entire Array with his Spirit Eyes. He had been deciphering this since the beginning because they must have drawn it last night since he didn't find this when they came in.

He immediately grabbed Aria's hand.

"Eh?! Nyx?" She was surprised by his bold action, but before he could respond, they had vanished from that place.

The moment the participants realized, their visions were dark and sharp qi suddenly enveloped them.

"Where is this?!"

"Wait?! This must be the Sword Cave!"

"Where do we need to go?!"

"I can barely move."

"I think there is only one way to go. It's to go forward."

The group immediately checked their surroundings and found it was right. Since they had realized their mission, they immediately ran forward.

"Hmm?!" Aria still felt Alex's hand this whole time and asked embarrassedly. 'Nyx?'

'Sorry. The Teleportation Array earlier will surely mess up our position, so I hold your hand to make sure we are not separated.' Alex replied before releasing her hand.

'Oh?! Considering we have a clear mission this time, should we also run forward?' She asked, listening to the footsteps that kept getting farther and farther.

'No, it's fine. I am curious about something.' Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw the energy in his surroundings. It was indeed weapon qi, coming from many types of weapons. However, what baffled him was the fact that he could only see the energy, not the sources. There should be the source somewhere, so he was curious about it.

'What is this something that can pique your interest?'

'Although the power that is suppressing this cave is pretty balanced, the truth is… The Sword Qi in this place is more refined than the others. It might be because of their name or the Sword God himself, so I want to know the origin of this Sword Qi. There is no way it will continue to produce this type of qi with just a breakthrough.'

'I see. Still, there is a chance that we will be too late.'

'No. Whatever the reason, the time we need to beat is not that short. I have said it myself. This energy is suppressing the participants, especially if we get too worked up. That's why it's best to maintain pace while conserving our energy. Do you remember the fact that we need to gather seventy thousand points after this?'

'They want to use this cave to exhaust us?' She noticed it after getting the clue from Alex. 'If we are too exhausted, we might be killed by the monsters. And the fact that she is saying that we can't kill anyone during the second test, not forbid any kind of attack, it means we can hit people and steal their points.'

'Yes. I have the same conclusion. That's why we need to conserve our stamina as much as we can. And I am planning to kill many people since I have fancied a few things in the towns.'

'Are you going for a shopping spree?'

'Not that much, probably only one or two and under your name so as to avoid any direct confrontation.'

'I see. I don't really mind. You can use me as much as you want, but if there are any excess points, can you give it to me?'

'Hmm? I don't mind. It's not like I am planning to hunt just to meet the bare requirement. I will be hunting for a period of time and will buy according to the points I get during that time, so if I have some points, you can use it. Probably for your brother?'

'Yes. He might not be able to get some benefits from this, so I am planning to give a few items to him.' She nodded.

'Sure. I don't really mind.' Alex nodded.

'Thank you.'

'Let's go then. We need to pick up the pace and learn the truth behind the third test. After that, I will know how long I need to spend for the second test.'

'Understood.' She nodded and surrounded her body with Sword Intent to lessen the burden.

Alex did the same and started running at a certain speed.

As they expected, the group was already too far ahead because some of them decided to fly or run as fast as possible, but they didn't care about them.

What Aria cared about was Alex's opinion and waited until he talked again. Meanwhile, Alex kept using his Spirit Eyes to search the source of the qi that enveloped this cave.

Three hours passed, but they saw a few people dropping on the side, completely exhausted. They must be those who used their full power from the start, so Alex and Aria kept running without looking at them.

'Since we have seen three people, we will soon find a few more people. However, it means that the majority of the group remains there.'

'Yeah.' Alex nodded. 'Anyway, are you exhausted yet?'

'No. I am good. I haven't even used twenty percent of my power to pass this test, so we can still go at this pace.'

'Alright then.'

The two kept running without saying anything until they saw the main group, who seemed to have slowed down because of this. And as expected, they could barely see people, so there was no way they could see Alex and Aria coming from behind.

The only time they realized would be when they were close enough to them unless they used their extra energy to check their surroundings.

Fortunately, Alex and Aria had no need for such a thing. Aria had a good sense other than her eyes, so she didn't have trouble sensing people around, while Alex had his Spirit Eyes that made him able to see everything perfectly.

They passed a few people and, before long, the entire group itself.

'Their number is not matched. I guess there are still a few talented people in the front.'

'I agree. Most of them are probably Martial Saints.' Alex agreed before he picked up something. 'There is something wrong.'

'What is it?'

'I can finally see the source of energy, but this one only fills the Sword Qi, not the others.'

'Still, it's your main objective, right?'

'Yes. If you notice, there is an array that hides a path, making us think there is a wall there. But if we put enough force, we can slip inside the Array. Do you want to take a detour or go first to achieve something great?' Alex asked.

'I have no need for an extra achievement even though you want me to be in the spotlight. Since the main group is still behind us… Probably an hour, we can take a detour first and speed up later. I feel like going with you is the best option, so yeah, I will follow you.'

'Alright then.' Alex nodded and held her hand again as the two ran like that for two minutes before Alex suddenly pulled her to the side without anyone noticing and disappeared without a trace.

Meanwhile, Alex and Aria suddenly felt an immense Sword Qi coming from the end of this cave as they released even more energy to withstand the strength.

They walked for a few minutes before finding a blue light and immediately approached it with precaution.

A sword stabbed on a platform came into their vision. It was a beautiful sword with a golden handle and a long silver blade with blue patterns.

'Divine Weapon!' Alex narrowed his eyes.