Inside of the survival zone, Aster and Felicia's spirit avatars wandered through the jungle, the objective of the game was to survive the most time possible, while avoiding and overcoming traps that were set all over the place.
But that wasn't all, there were also encounters with other players and levels in the survival zone, since with time the avatar will grow, and supposedly change into something else, at least its outer appearance will.
If your avatar was killed then you will have to start over again from zero and that is why, those who are in the top, had stopped participating in this monthly trial, so far the record id the fifth level which is an open area were all the participants can interact.
But that is not the end of the trial, it's just that the sixth level is a wall that has been keeping all the disciples stuck ever since the foundation of the sect.
Aster's avatar suddenly stopped moving, making Felicia's avatar stop as well.
"What, did you find some trap which I omitted?", asked Felicia.
"No, I think I hear something", answered Aster.
His avatar then dodged to the left avoiding the claws of an eagle made out of yellow light, that appeared out of nowhere.
Aster softly snorted, the living type obstacles won't attack you if you don't bother them, so this eagle was acting weird, or it could be more accurate to say someone made it act like that.
Aster's supposition was proved right after a couple of seconds, when the leaves of a tree moved and a small group of 3 avatars came out of it, one of the good things of this monthly trial, is that besides the top five whose names are published, the rest are anonymous.
Anyway, this was one of the ways to get rid of competitors at the first level of the survival zone, which is lure dangers towards them, or push them into a trap.
"Senior, their avatars are too small, they are probably just new disciples, we won't be able to return to the third level even if we get rid of tons of them", said one avatar whose color was lime green.
"Green is right senior, I have never seen those colors before so they are new disciples, not worth much", added a the other avatar whose color was light gray.
"Do you think I don't know that, I just want to vent my anger since that bitch just casually wiped us out, like nothing!", shouted the third avatar whose color was light purple, the three were male disciples apparently.
Aster saw the eagle diving once again aiming at him, and he didn't move this time, he just stayed still and waited to see what would happen, in any case if his avatar was going to be reset, he wouldn't care as he just started and hasn't made any progress.
"Screee!", the eagle who clashed head on with Aster's avatar, pitifully cried as it exploded into yellow sparkles of light that were absorbed by Aster's avatar.
'Oh, so you did have a special trait due to the purity of your soul', said Felicia directly to Aster, unlike the enemies their souls were strong enough for them to keep that ability.
If Aster wasn't but a mere wisp of golden colored light right now, he would be smirking, his avatar suddenly rushed towards the enemies who "looked" at Aster with disdain.
"I don't know what happened to the eagle, maybe it's a malfunction in the formation, or maybe its condition to be cleared changed to direct contact with a newbie… ahhh!", before the lime green could finish speaking, Aster's avatar clashed with it breaking the enemy's one into many lines of lime greenlight that was absorbed by Aster's avatar, making it double its size on the spot.
"W-What the hell did he do!", shouted the gray avatar as he tried to escape, just to be blown into smithereens by Aster's, this time his size only increased one fourth of the previous size though.
The leader tried to runaway suing the time he got from the death of his subordinates, but he then noticed that instead of advancing he was being dragged backwards, right against Aster's avatar, and just like his friends when it clashed against Aster's avatar it was as if an egg was thrown against a metal wall.
The difference is that this time, half of the reward went for Felicia.
"That was quite fun, so if your soul is pure enough to get some sort of trait related to you, but I wonder why I couldn't directly attack them", she mumbled.
"That's probably because you are a guest elder and not a disciple, so you can mess with them as long as it's a direct kill", said Aster.
It made sense, since that would mean the elders could just enter participate and wipe everyone out, what would be the point of the monthly trial then, so elders were restricted from directly attacking and also the growth was hindered.
"Well at least now we know the best source of points aren't the traps, but the other players, let's leave I can feel Tiana's soul energy changing", said Aster.
"Mm, let's see what that daughter of mine is doing".
With that, the two avatars disappeared, Aster and Felicia's attention which was divided gathered once again and as a result of that, in the real world their soul energies suddenly went through the roof.
Aster whose hand was trembling after blocking Felicia's clawed hands with his black sword soul weapon, but then he suddenly felt his body being moved against his will, he was pulled frontwards, were Felicia was brightly smiling and ready to welcome him with a claw pointing at his neck.
Though it was all of a sudden, Aster still managed to react and a second less refined sword made out of condensed soul energy appeared on his free hand.
They both stopped moving at the same time, Felicia's claws were one centimeter away from Aster's neck, but her own neck had a soul condensed sword pressed against it.
"Mm, don't you know that in these situations you should let the girl win", said Felicia with a pout, even though she used her last hidden card to take Aster by surprise, she still lost by the skin of her teeth, of course she felt a bit sour.
Don't look at me like that, here this is your reward".
Aster laughed, and then he poked Felicia's forehead with his index finger, she was just a bit taller than him, so it wasn't hard to do.
"This is…", for a moment Felicia was in awe, what she got was Aster's thoughts regarding soul condensing methods, Rya forbade him from lending or teaching the Sword Crushing Parade to the others.
But the comprehension he got from it was his to use as he pleased, that included how he manipulated things using soul energy, how to do parallel thinking and other things regarding soul cultivation, naturally he handed the same to Sarina.
He couldn't do it before, as he just learned to after his recent breakthrough, also he couldn't share it with anyone, the other part had to have a decent soul cultivation realm, or had a constitution that went along with it.
Sarina was the first, he didn't give it to Aria, because she had to focus in developing her body now, also she was inclined to illusions and Aster had no knowledge regarding that, so she wasn't contemplated in this type of training for now.
Camila was the other potential soul cultivator, but she hasn't decided if she is going to take the soul path or the body path as her second, so she was also in the waiting list.
"And here I was wondering why that sword was so damn tough, I could feel my hands trembling due to the waves of soul energy created when my claws clashed with it~", said Felicia with her usual smiling expression.
She looked at the incomplete black sword soul weapon with admiration, it was the result of insane amounts of soul energy being condensed and compacted a lot of times.
While Felicia happily hummed, Tiana was sitting on the platform with a troubled expression on her pretty face.
But then she opened her eyes and her soul energy which she didn't use in such a way ever before, poured out of her body, just like Felicia, her hair followed the change and dyed white, making her blue eyes perfectly match it.
And that wasn't all, she stood up and then walked towards Aster and Felicia, her spirit avatar was floating next to her, she was now doing both moving and maintaining it, though it was only the start, she improved a lot now that she wasn't restricting herself.
Felicia looked at Aster, her eyes were filled with gratitude and other emotions, as she slightly bowed to him, without saying anything else, there was no need for that, since Aster could notice the changes on her, she was no longer hesitating.
Aster also noticed something interesting, unlike Felicia's black soul energy which engulfed spirit energy, Tiana's, one repelled it, spirit energy was being pushed away wherever she passed by.
"I must say, that you two look more like sisters than mother and daughter when using your soul energies", said Aster.
It's not like Tiana was more talented than Felicia, since she could manifest this change which was linked to her lineage, it's because she received the refined spirit energy Aster prepared for them at a younger age, so it was easier for her to unlock her innate ability.
As for why she wasn't using it so far… well it had to do with the fact that in this state, from within the white haze that was surrounding her, Aster could see a pair of yellow eyes looking from within.
The same happened for Felicia, but in her case the eyes were red and lurked in her darkness, there was one thing they had in common though, his dragon lineage reacted to both, it's the type of feeling a fierce animal would have when meeting another.
'They aren't dragons, but something more beast-like, I guess Felicia didn't use the word "Behemoth" lightly', thought Aster.
He knew probably Felicia was hiding something since she is the one from which Tiana inherited her constitution supposedly, but he won't push further, it's obvious she trusts him already, so there must be another reason not to tell him, everything will be cleared at its due time.
"It's good that you are now fully using your lineage and all, but don't forget you still need to be able to enter the survival zone, maintain your spirit avatar and fight with us in the real world and in the survival zone at the same time".
"What, you demon!", complained Tiana, she thought she could just train while her spirit avatar was in the survival zone, but now she had to actively focus in two different battlefields, to reach that point in the remaining two days was quite harsh.
"Of course you can always give up and wear some cute dresses for the next months, this new hair color suits you quite a bit", said Aster.
"I expected it to turn white, so I have the correct dresses for you so don't worry~", added Felicia as she took out a princess-like light blue dress, the kind that Tiana hated the most, one with lots of decorations.
Seeing Tiana who seemed as if she was about to cry, Aster softly laughed before saying.
"If you manage to do it even if it's just for a couple of seconds, I'll give you a special reward for your body tempering, the same which Alice uses for her body cultivation".
Tiana's eyes sparkled as she heard that, the ingredients used to temper one's body had a big impact on the result, and she could easily tell Alice used a mix that outclassed hers, her muscles were thinner than hers and yet she was able to excel the same amount of strength, meaning she gained more agility without having to sacrifice physical strength due to it.
In fact, she as a body cultivator had to admit she was jealous of Alice's muscle build, she exuded a similar sensation to Lilia, who is the strongest body cultivator she has ever met, and she doesn't look like a body cultivator at all.
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