Chapter 357: Second Trial
Chapter 357: Second Trial
Rhain’s long eyelashes fluttered, and he slowly opened his dark grey eyes.
"Rhain! You’re okay!" Lyra cried out, overjoyed. She was so relieved that she instinctively grabbed his arm, a brilliant smile blooming across her ash-stained face.
Karsten and the five surviving mercenaries, who had been holding their breath, let out collective sighs of relief.
They all knelt at one knee before Rhain.
"Lord Rhain! Thank the gods you are alive!" Karsten shouted, "You saved us! If you hadn’t stepped out to help us, we would all be dead! We owe you our miserable lives! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!"
Rhain sat up, his gaze immediately landing on Lyra’s tear-stained face.
Seeing her red, puffy eyes and the dirt smudged across her cheeks, he was quite amused.
"You didn’t have to worry this much," Rhain chuckled lightly, brushing the dust from his dark robes. "I survived a spear piercing straight through my heart not long ago. Compared to that, this was just a minor injury."
Lyra’s breathtaking face instantly flushed bright red with indignation.
"A minor injury?" Lyra shrieked, her haughty demeanor returning in a flash. "The skin of your entire body was cracked and every single bone in your body was broken! Only a monster like you could survive such a fatal state and just call it a minor injury!"
Rhain’s smirk widened.
"Does that mean you were worrying about me?"
The flush on Lyra’s face deepened, she aggressively turned her head away, refusing to meet his teasing eyes.
"I wasn’t worried about you!" Lyra stubbornly retorted, crossing her arms beneath her chest with a loud hmph. "I was just afraid that if you died, I would be lonely again and there would be no one left for me to chase! Besides, I need you to live until I get the chance to beat you myself!"
Rhain let out a hearty laugh as he stood up.
"That is never going to happen," Rhain stated with unshakeable confidence.
Lyra ground her teeth, glaring daggers at him, but before she could snap back—
"Ahem."
The old man cleared his throat, his ethereal voice echoing across the serene garden and stopping their quarrel.
The remnant soul hovered downward, his ancient eyes fixed entirely on Rhain.
"You truly surprised me, young man," the old man praised, "I do not wish to pry into the secrets of a junior, but if you do not mind... could you reveal the secret of your abnormal regenerative power?"
The old man stroked his translucent beard. "I am already a dead man. A mere fading fragment of the past. You do not need to worry about me coveting your secrets."
Rhain looked at the old man.
He obviously couldn’t tell him about the Abyssal Sovereign Physique.
It was a secret that was tied with his system.
"It is nothing profound, Senior," Rhain lied without changing his face, his expression perfectly placid. "I was just born like this. My wounds naturally heal much faster than others."
The old man’s brows rose in genuine surprise.
"Born like this?" the remnant soul murmured. "To possess such a tyrannical innate constitution... What of your parents? What grand, ancient lineage do they hail from?"
Rhain fell entirely silent.
For a brief moment, a look of reminiscing crossed his dark grey eyes. The faces of his parents from his past and present life flashed through his mind.
"They were just ordinary mortals," Rhain finally answered, his voice quiet. "From a remote, unnamed town."
Lyra’s jaw practically hit the floor. Karsten and the five mercenaries stared at him as if he had just claimed the sky was green.
Ordinary mortals?!
The greatest martial prodigy of the Solathane Dynasty.
A youth who possessed two Domains at the Core Formation Realm. A monster who could casually execute Emperor-Grade martial arts and hold back the falling sky.
Born from ordinary mortals in a remote town?!
"Bullshit," Karsten muttered under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief.
Lyra snorted inwardly. ’He is definitely just trying to hide his true identity,’ she thought. ’There is absolutely no way an ordinary man’s bloodline could produce a freak like him.’
The old man hovered in the air, his ancient eyes studying Rhain intently.
He thought the exact same thing as the others. The boy was clearly protecting the heavily guarded secrets of some supreme powerhouse.
But the old man was wise enough not to inquire any further.
Karsten, still terrified by the lingering dread of the flaming meteors, cautiously stepped forward.
"S-Senior," Karsten stammered, bowing deeply. "Since we survived the meteor shower... does that mean the trial is over now? Can we leave?"
Lyra and Rhain also looked up at the old man, equally curious to know the answer.
The old man simply stroked his beard and shook his head.
"You have merely passed the first hurdle," the old man stated, his voice ringing with ancient authority. "There are still two more trials left before you can claim my inheritance."
Karsten’s face turned ghastly white. Two more?!
Before the mercenaries could panic, the old man casually waved his translucent hand.
Swoosh—!
The same profound, pure white light that had healed Rhain descended from the sky.
It envelope Lyra, Karsten, and the five trembling mercenaries.
In the blink of an eye, their fractured ribs, scorched flesh, and deep wounds were perfectly healed.
Their depleted essence reserves were instantly restored to their peak.
The group was surprised, feeling the boundless energy surging through their meridians once more.
The old man lowered his hand, his ancient, fathomless eyes sweeping over the rejuvenated group.
"Now," the remnant soul spoke, "Are you ready for your next trial?"
Rhain turned to look at Lyra, who gave a resolute nod, and then at the trembling mercenaries.
They all knew they had no other choice. They were locked in this realm until they succeeded or died.
Rhain looked back at the remnant soul and gave a firm nod, "We are ready."
"Very well."
𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶
WHOOSH—!!!
The space around them began to change once more.
The beautiful garden before their eyes began to dissolve like a dream, Rhain’s vision blurred for a moment, not knowing where he was being teleported this time.
When his vision finally cleared, he found that he was not standing in a desolate ruin like before.
Instead, they seemed to had been teleported into an ancient, primeval forest.
The environment here was staggering.
The trees towering above them were impossibly tall, their treetops piercing the sky, and their trunks were so unfathomably thick that it would take more than a dozen grown men holding hands just to hug a single one of them.
The old man’s ethereal voice echoed in their minds, delivering the rules of their next trial.
"The Second Trial. You must venture into this ancient forest and collect the beast cores of one thousand Domain Master beasts."
"You have exactly one month."
Before the terrified mercenaries could even scream in despair at the impossible quota—
ROAAAAR—!!!
A terrifying roar erupted from the deepest parts of the ancient forest.
It was so overwhelmingly loud and dense with killing intent that the ground beneath their boots trembled like an earthquake, and the massive, ancient trees seemed to shake in fear.