"Hm, it's your turn now," Ryuk said, noticing how the Elder glanced in his direction. He reminded Esme that it was her turn next, given that only two of them were left in this place.
"What about you?" Esme peeked at him, somewhat understanding that he was intentionally wanting to go last.
"I need to arrange for some people for the other two horses," Ryuk calmly replied, revealing that the reason he had brought three horses with him was to carry three people alongside him as he moved forward to the trial.
Among the three, one was already carrying Liu Wei's unconscious body, leaving only the other two, for which the candidates had already been decided.
"...fine." With those words and a nod, Esme moved forward towards the platform. As she walked, the individuals who were looking in her direction were immersed in murmurs.
"Another one without Qi?" one of the disciples said, looking at Esme, who was not showing any signs of qi from her body. He felt slightly confused, finding it similar to the previous ones.
"At least that man seems weak, but what about when he arrived here?" Turning their gazes towards the black-robed man wearing a mask that revealed only his golden pupils, they felt that this man was just at the foundational establishment realm. Given his dress and composed demeanor, they were slightly confused as to why they hadn't noticed him until now.
It was surprising, considering that he definitely would have attracted their attention, but it was as if he had just appeared out of nowhere.
"What do you think? Will she be able to pass?" One of them inquired of the other, looking towards the white-dressed woman moving with her fluttering ash-grey hair, adorned with a tiara and possessing the same golden eyes as the man, as she approached the platform.
"....It's hard to predict." The words clearly revealed the surprise among the outer disciples, given they were unable to determine this woman's strength or even make a guess, as all their previous guesses had been completely wrong.
'Another one?' The Elder, noticing the approaching woman who had just stepped up on the platform, felt that today most of the individuals seemed to lack Qi while performing and achieving unpretentious feats. This kept him on guard as he informed, "You just need to touch the judgment slab—"
:: Pass ::
"Huh?"
"Uh-Huhhhh?!"
"Th-that's?"
"Ohh mah gawd?!!"
One after another, all the automatic responses instantly took action unlike in the normal situation where the normal individuals most likely first get surprised and then try to understand what it was. Most of the cultivators, being engaged in fights with demonic beasts and other cultivators following the evil path, were well trained for such situations.
Thus, they considered such phenomena as a part of some foreign attack.
Within a few moments, hundreds of light streaks filled the air as they all hurled towards the black dome, which was simmering with darkness, which instantly absorbed all the surrounding light coming from outside, making it seem as if the night had fallen in that place.
The view soon became grim the moment all those lights representing cultivators arrived near the dome with their swords.
In that fleeting moment, the elder heading at the front instantly materialized his sword while charging his Qi with two fingers at the front. Taking the stance, he sliced his sword at the black surface of the dome.
Swish
Even with the sharpness of that sword strike containing sword intent, the sword directly, without cutting it in half, passed through the barrier.
'!'
But as if not even giving a moment to blink, suddenly the Elder felt as if he had touched something which was nothing but an abyss—devouring his energy.
[Activating Conduit Dome....]
"AaaaRrrrGggHhhh.....!!!"
A scream reverberated throughout the place, causing the disciples who were dashing towards the dome to suddenly halt as their gazes shifted towards their elder, whose sword though passed through the barrier, but now was as if something was forcefully sucking out his energy.
"DON'T TOUCH THE BARRIER!" Due to being well-trained, one of the disciples holding the highest position in the hierarchy yelled out, clearly understanding that the dome was sucking internal energy out of the elder and it was so intense that even Elder, possessing so much strength, was screaming due to pain from the huge amount of internal energy being forcefully drawn out of his dantian, passing through his veins while damaging them from within.
Normally, unlike any other form of energy like mana, divine energy, or others which transported through the body by several mediums or pathways, internal energy moved through the body by Qi veins or meridians, which in fact decided the amount of internal energy one can afford to utilize.
For example, even if someone reached the golden Qi realm, but has thin veins or did not unblock every meridian, they will not be able to utilize all of their strength due to scarcity of pathways, which is why unblocking the meridians was crucial for cultivators.
But just now, that black dome or whatever the thing was, had just forcefully sucked out the Elder's internal energy in a large amount, directly making his Qi flow in a huge stream that it forcefully penetrated all the blocked meridians while also breaking the thin veins in its path.