Chapter 103 - Trolls In The Castle

She returned to the White Room with the Red Carp still in her embrace.

The Red Door burst into specks of red lights and hovered around her.

Cheng Xiu looked at the light specks and the Red Carp in her hands.

The body of the fish vibrated for a moment, and burst into red lights as well.

Cheng Xiu backed up. "What is go-"

The light specks fluttered around her, and hit the walls of the room, turning them red.

As she watched on, the room became redder, and redder, and turned into the colour of blood.

The soft melody that had played during her first simulation echoed around the room again, and Cheng Xiu's eyes started to glow golden in response.

The shadow of a woman wearing martial clothing, with long hair and two swords on her back appeared on the furthest.

Cheng Xiu walked towards it in a trance, her mind blank and not registering any of her actions.

She raised her hand and the Red Carp sword appeared in it, and she slashed it downwards, creating a crack on the wall that the shadow stood at.

The shadow stepped out of the wall, and the colour of the wall seemed to bleed into the dress of the shadowy figure as she began walking towards Cheng Xiu.

The cultivator realised that the woman is someone that she had gone familiar with. It was the Faceless Woman from her Soul Weapon Quest.

[Ding!]

[player Selafia Veritas took the path of the Great Tao and ran after their fortune. Her efforts are rewarded by the heavens.

Congratulations, Player Selafia Veritas! You have successfully completed your second Breakthrough Trial!]

[Ding!]

[+1 to all stats for levelling up.]

Cheng Xiu was paying less attention to the AI and more to the person in front of her, who despite not having a face, had the posture of a great ruler.

Cheng Xiu cleared her throat. "Did I violate any of your rules? Was I not supposed to leave the Castle ruins before the Quest was over? Did I lose my chance at having a Soul Weapon Shard?"

The faceless woman shook her head. "You need to return now as you are now eligible to take part in the third ring without delays."

"What would have happened if I hadn't been able to level up then?"

"Nothing. You would have had to return to your Realm as you would have failed to match the conditions required to participate in the Rings."

Cheng Xiu was surprised by those words. She would have lost her chance at the Soul Shard without the Level Up. She was really lucky to have made it out with the level up then.

"I was really lucky then."

The woman shook her head. "You would have already gone through a Breakthrough if had stayed in the White Room and not taken the Soul Quest. By taking the test, you have, in fact, subdued your progress in the game for the time being. It finally reached a point where your Cultivation Body was starting to show its wear and tear."

Cheng Xiu realised what she meant. "So it was my body that was at fault and not the Qi in the Castle Area. I thought the area had lesser Qi than in other places."

The Red-robed Martial Artist nodded. "That is also a factor. But you would not have felt the effects so early if it was the only reason. You felt it the most because your body felt the instinctive need to not be in trouble. To not get killed. And overuse of your Qi at that crucial moment, when your body was bursting to undergo a Breakthrough would have had permanent consequences. Shall we leave then?"

Cheng Xiu nodded, her mind occupied by what she learned there. Did this happen to the Blessed in the real world as well? Is that why many lose their Qi access or get defects? Their Qi Realm wants a breakthrough but their body is not ready enough?

Cheng Xiu's eyes filled with golden lights, distracting her from the thoughts.

She blinked away the spots that filled her eyes, and found herself once again in a spot only a step away from the third ring, even though she was sure she had stepped into the ring when she was summoned away.

She looked at the woman in the Red-robes who stood in front of her, just beyond the third golden ring.

Her face had a new addition to it: eyebrows.

Cheng Xiu shook her head, and then stepped into the glowing golden ring.

The pressure on her was far greater than it had been in both the rings before combined, and Cheng Xiu fell to the floor with a thud under the pressure. Blood oozed out of her mouth and nose, and her eyes became bloodshot.

Pain wreaked havoc to her senses.

Cheng Xiu let her Qi flow around her body, concentrating on its rhythm rather than the pain induced into her body.

If nothing else, happened, Cheng Xiu still had it as a consolidation that her pain tolerance had gone up, hopefully.

Cheng Xiu gritted her teeth as the pain got worse.

Her Qi flowed in her body madly as she tried to recuperate.

Slowly, very slowly, Cheng Xiu's skin got a translucent glow, and her bones started to strengthen. Her blood began to flow without hesitation and her vision sharpened.

Cheng Xiu realised that her body was going through a power-up from having gone through a Level up. This might have been what had happened in the first Breakthrough as well because there was no actual reason to change a working format. The only difference between back then and now, was that Cheng Xiu could see the level up happen in real-time, unlike before, where, because she was in the White Room for so long before she was in the Grandmaster's Arena, her body rejuvenated without her knowledge.

Cheng Xiu felt her cracked ribs heal, the wounds left on her skin by the Dire Wolves also healed, and her mind seemed to become sharper.

Cheng Xiu tried to get up, and struggled to her feet, her breathing laboured and her demeanour tired.

She stood still for a moment, collecting her thoughts and her emotions.

[Ding!]

[Player Selafia has to kill 30 Trolls, and rescue the female Cultivator with the tiara from their camp so that she can go find her Dao Partner to win in this round.]

Cheng Xiu wrinkled her nose as a fishy smell entered her nose. She could not believe it, her experience in this Quest seemed to be an attack on her nose.

Her eyes fell on the creatures that appeared out of a golden portal.

The Trolls were large creatures that looked not so different from humans, except for the fact that there was a fishy smell to their skin. They carried clubs on their shoulders and looked angry as their eyes fell on Cheng Xiu.

"Another Human!" one of the trolls growled to the one behind it, "I see these ugly creatures wherever we go now! Even our sacred places are not being spared from them now."

"And their smell!" a feminine voice said from the side, a horrified look on its face. "They smell so weird!"

The troll that was leading them laughed. "But I have heard that these Humans can become cultivators too!"

A troll near the leader gasped. "Can they?"

A troll to the right drooled. "Does that mean...does that mean...oh!"

The leading troll nodded with a laugh. "With this one and the one we have caught before, it is sure to be a delightful evening, my people!"

"Is it a female?" another feminine voice asked curiously. "I have heard that the ones with the bumps on their chest are females!"

"So the one we caught before was a female?" the one next to the leader asked.

The feminine troll nodded. "I think so. And looking at it, this one is also a female!"

The other trolls looked at Cheng Xiu and nodded to each other.

Cheng Xiu, who was observing the goings until now felt conflicted.

She was offended that she was being checked out by Trolls of all things, but also curious of how they decided which one was the female and the male. It could not be the voice because the first voice sounded more feminine while the other female voice was deeper.

She was not moving from her spot though. Each step that she took would be challenging for her so it was better to see how the Trolls moved and attacked at first, and she also needed to find her target that she was supposed to save.

The leader hummed as it noticed the considering glint in Cheng Xiu's eyes. "Careful though. This one seems a lot stronger and smarter than the one we captured before."

"How can such things cultivate and how strong can they get?" a troll asked the leader, "they are no different from those animals!"

"That is right!" a feminine voiced troll agreed. "They have to distinguish their male from their female through their looks! We are clearly the smarter creatures!"

Cheng Xiu rolled her eyes at the logic that the female troll employed. Nonsense. That would be the same logic that those Blessed people used to say that people like Cheng Xiu had no brain and should stick to menial jobs.

A golden spear with blue crystals encrusted into its head appeared in a flash in front of her.

The Trolls stepped back as one, suspicious.

Cheng Xiu smirked. "Let's see who is smarter, shall we?"