Chapter 149: Chapter 149: It’s Not The Time Yet!
Chapter 149: It’s Not The Time Yet!
One minute had passed since the trial started.
In sixty brutal seconds, Navarre had eliminated twenty candidates.
At this rate, even if the remaining candidates ran themselves ragged for the full ten minutes, fewer than ten or fifteen would survive.
Navarre was practically untouchable. As a Spirit Manifestation Realm expert, he had already awakened his Spiritual Sense — an omnidirectional awareness that allowed him to perceive every attack.
Essence Condensation Realm geniuses were functionally blind in comparison.
They could attack with all their might, but Navarre saw their movements before they even reached him.
Finally, the top-tier geniuses inside the ring came to the same realization.
Running would not be enough.
If they continued to scatter like headless chickena, Navarre would simply pick them off one by one until the ring was nearly empty.
The only way to buy enough time for the majority to survive was to pin him down — to force him into a prolonged engagement that would slow his relentless elimination spree.
In the center of the chaos, a commanding voice suddenly rang out.
"Everyone above the hundred-foot mark — to me! NOW!"
It was the second ranked, three-hundred-foot prodigy, a lean young man with sharp, calculating eyes and a single-edged sword strapped to his back.
His name was Elian, and unlike other prodigies who came from highly powerful clans, and sects, he was just a unfettered cultivator.
His aura was shockingly at the first level of the Spirit Manifestation Realm, making him the sole Spirit Manifestation cultivator among the two hundred candidates.
His call galvanized the elite.
One by one, the geniuses who had achieved the hundred-foot benchmark converged.
Sylvan was among the first to arrive, his silver longsword already drawn, his ninth-level Essence Condensation aura blazing.
Liana followed closely, merging into the defensive line.
In total, ten geniuses — all of whom had surpassed the hundred-foot mark on the Origin Insight Tablet — formed a tight, coordinated formation, with Elian at the spearhead.
"We hold him together!" Elian commanded. "Don’t try to beat him. Just slow him down. Every second we buy is a second we survive!"
The ten-man squad charged Navarre from three directions simultaneously.
Clang! BOOM!
The ten geniuses clashed violently against Navarre.
To the shock of the crowd, the team of the ten prodigies actually managed to halt Navarre’s momentum!
For the first time since the trial began, Navarre’s relentless advance was checked.
Elian acted as the core, using his Spiritual Sense to track Navarre’s movements, while Sylvan and the others provided relentless suppressing fire.
Sylvan attacked from the right, his Epic Grade Silvercrest Clan technique providing a pressure that kept Navarre from turning his back.
But the one who shined the brightest was undoubtedly Liana.
"Radiant Silver Cleave!"
Liana swung her blade, but instead of the rigid, predictable arcs she used to perform, her silver sword light flowed with a lethal, and unpredictable power.
Under Rhain’s meticulous tutelage, her mastery of her Epic-Grade martial art had skyrocketed to an astonishing fifty percent!
Her strikes slowly wove through Navarre’s defenses, forcing him to actually take a step back to avoid being nicked.
Up on the high seat, Fabian nodded slowly, his eyes reflecting deep approval.
This was the true purpose of the second trial.
It was never simply about strength.
If the Academy wanted raw power, they would just measure cultivation levels and be done with it.
They wanted to test resourcefulness, adaptability, courage, and the instinct to act decisively when faced with an Invincible opponent they could never hope to defeat.
But even as he observed the candidates’ impressive coordination, Fabian’s true attention was elsewhere.
His eyes kept drifting back to the dark-robed youth standing alone at the very edge of the boundary line.
Rhain hadn’t moved a single inch since the trial began.
He was simply watching everything with a detached expression, as though the brutal elimination happening mere feet away had absolutely nothing to do with him.
"What do you want to do, young man?" Fabian’s curiosity was growing stronger by each passing second, and he couldn’t wait to see Rhain taking action.
What Fabian didn’t know was that Rhain was currently standing on his spot for a very specific reason.
"Inner Palace Disciple?’ Rhain scoffed as he thought of Fabian’s earlier promise.
He didn’t want to be an Inner Palace Disciple.
Seris had been granted the title of a Core Palace Disciple. If he wanted to ensure they weren’t separated by the Academy’s rigid hierarchy, he needed to secure the exact same status.
And the only way to force Fabian’s hand was to completely shatter his expectations by eliminating Navarre.
"But if I eliminate him right now...’ Rhain’s dark grey eyes swept over the remaining candidates.
If he knocked Navarre out of the ring in the first two minutes, the trial would end prematurely.
That meant all one hundred and eighty of these candidates would technically pass.
The Stormveil Academy clearly didn’t want to accept two hundred disciples today.
If he ruined their filtering process by acting too early, it might cause unnecessary complications for him, or force Fabian to create a third, more tedious trial.
’I’ll let him play for a bit,’ Rhain thought with a faint smirk. ’Let him complete his role first."
Back in the center of the ring, the pressure from the top ten geniuses finally struck a nerve.
"You pesky ants!" Navarre snarled, his patience evaporating. "Don’t get cocky!"
His aura exploded, turning crimson.
Stormveil Academy Epic-Grade Martial Art: Crimson Gale Palm!
Navarre unleashed a devastating barrage of crimson palm prints. The sheer density of the Epic-Grade art powered by a Level 3 Spirit Manifestation Realm essence was overwhelming.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The team collapsed one by one.
With overwhelming force, Navarre single-handedly shattered their encirclement, and dominated the top ten geniuses.
Within less than a minute, three of the top ten prodigies were blasted out of the ring, coughing blood.
Sylvan was sent skidding backward, his arms trembling as he barely managed to stay inside the boundary.
Only seven of the elite team remained, and all of them were on the verge of defeat.
The crowd watched in breathless awe at Navarre’s terrifying strength, but they also marveled at the resistance of the top ten geniuses who had managed to force an Inner Palace disciple to use his techniques.
Navarre didn’t waste his time with them anymore, and broke past their weakened defensive line, leaving them gasping for breath, and turned his attention back to the ordinary geniuses who were hiding in the back.
The elimination resumed.
One by one, candidates were thrown out of the ring like discarded ragdolls.
"Fifty..."
Within the first three minutes of the trial, more than fifty candidates had already been eliminated.
Navarre’s eyes swept across the arena, searching for his next victim.
And then, his gaze locked onto a person on the edge of the circle.
Rhain.
From the very beginning, his true target had been Rhain.
The only reason he hadn’t attacked the boy first was because he didn’t want to look petty or biased in front of Preceptor Fabian.
But now?
He had eliminated a quarter of the field.
It was just natural to clean up the stragglers.
A vicious grin stretched across Navarre’s face.
"Your turn, commoner."
With an explosive burst of speed, Navarre launched himself forward, his crimson palm aimed directly at Rhain standing alone at the boundary line.
A Level 3 Spirit Manifestation attack, aimed at a peak Essence Condensation youth standing perfectly still with his arms crossed.
To the spectators, it was an overkill.
Swoosh—!
Navarre closed the distance in a flash, his palm radiating a lethal, crimson light aimed squarely at Rhain’s chest.
It carried strength that was enough to utterly crush any Essence Condensation Realm strength.
But just as the burning palm was about to connect, Rhain simply tilted his body half an inch to the right.
Whoosh!
The crimson palm hit nothing but empty air.
The residual shockwave blasted harmlessly past Rhain’s shoulder, not even stirring a single strand of his dark hair.
Navarre stumbled slightly, his eyes widening in brief surprise as his momentum carried him forward.
But Before he could recalibrate his stance, a calm voice echoed in his ear.
"Stop."
Navarre stopped instinctively.
Rhain hadn’t even bothered to take a combat stance.
His hands were still folded before his chest.
He slowly turned his head, casting a highly disappointed glance toward the center of the massive stone ring.
More than one thirty candidates were still standing there.
Rhain then turned his dark grey eyes back to Navarre, "Your job has not yet been done."
He raised a hand and casually waved it at Navarre dismissively, "Go away."
Although Rhain didn’t speak it very loudly, it was still clearly heard by everyone.
The spectators watched Rhain with their mouths hanging wide open.
Did he just shoo away a prestigious Inner Palace disciple of the Stormveil Academy?
Like he was ordering a disobedient servant to go sweep the floors?
The sheer audacity of the act left the hundred thousand spectators entirely paralyzed.
