6 Chapter 5: Undertaking Trials
In the middle of the ocean.
Jasmine and Chadero could be seen on a boat he made out of nen. Behind Chadero was his Golden God construct. He peered below at the waters looking for something. Sensing something, his Golden God construct immediately shot its arm into the water, latching onto something.
The water turned turbulent as the thing struggled. The Golden God construct threw it up, revealing a 50 meter (164 feet) water serpent. The serpent had a rainbow-colored pattern on its scales, making for quite a pretty picture.
"Hahahaha!" chuckled Chadero with glee.
The serpent fell down back into the water and caused a large amount of water to spike up. After the water dispersed a bit, a beautiful rainbow could be seen.
"You've been doing this for a while. Don't you get bored?" asked Jasmine.
"Why would I? This is too fun!" he laughed.
It had been 2 months since he left Floating Cloud City. Since then he had been going around exploring places and new areas. On his journey, he had met with the Primordial Azure Dragon to see what the drops of blood could do for him.
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Previously.
"Human! You are the first one to come here in a thousand years. The gods are gone! But we will not be forgotten! Do you wish to inherit the power of the Primordial Azure Dragon?!" rumbled an ancient voice.
"Yes!" responded Chadero with a fervent expression of excitement on his face.
"What? Primordial Azure Dragon? Head of the numerous Divine Beasts in the Primordial Era, the Dragon God, Primordial Azure Dragon!?" exclaimed Jasmine in shock.
"Hmmm? Girl, I recognize the power of the twelve Star Gods within you. As well as the Absolute God Slaying Poison... the inheritance of that 'Demon' must have been found. And for you to be here in this low planet; something big must have happened in the Star God Realm." said the ancient voice.
"Hmph. The matters of our Star God Realm has nothing to do with you, a mere residual spirit." responded Jasmine.
"While I don't mean to barge in. Can you send me to the trials already?" said Chadero dejectedly.
"Very well. There are three parts to the trial. One, your innate talent will be judged. Two, your willpower will be judged. Three, your character will be judged! Are you willing?" asked the ancient voice.
"Yes." responded Chadero.
"Wait! Human, your power is mysterious. It's obviously not profound energy... I will have to gauge your strength myself." exclaimed the ancient voice.
"Divine Master Realm... no, but close to it. Proceed."
A teleportation formation appeared on one of the walls of a cave; it lead to the trials. Chadero on a platform in a mountain range highland.
"The first part! Defeat all the Stone Dragon Warriors in this place and the entrance to the next will open."
Chadero nodded. According to his knowledge, this part of the trial scaled with the participant's strength, there were ten stages, and with each round, the number of stone warriors would be doubled, except at the end where the would be a Stone Dragon General.
He braced himself as unlike Yun Che, who was a complete monster in his own realm, he could not afford such cheats.
"Nen is powerful, but I've only mastered the basics so far. And if the warriors are at Divine Master realm... then I'm going to need to go all out to survive." thought Chadero. "Ren." A golden steam rose from his body as he prepared himself.
Two warriors appeared from yellow orbs of light. immediately, Chadero disappeared and arrived behind one of the warriors, sending a palm towards its head and disintegrating it. The other stone warrior responded and swung at Chadero diagonally, but Chadero ducked and threw a punch, creating a hole in the warrior and sending it flying.
Then four warriors appeared. "I won't be able to use the same strategy." thought Chadero. The warriors dashed towards Chadero, but were squashed by a golden palm from above. They were completely crushed, leaving a deep palm imprint on the platform.
Eight warriors then appeared from different positions unlike before. Four at the front and four at the back. But before they could move, they were wiped out by a 180 degree golden chop. More and more warriors began to appear from different locations, all converging on Chadero. However, this time they were infused with elements such as fire and lightning.
"Hahaha! Come" shouted Chadero, a battle intent deep within him lit up.
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"Your companion is quite a monster." said the ancient voice.
Jasmine nodded seriously.
Jasmine and the residual spirit of the Dragon God were watching Chadero fight against the stone warriors through a projection on the wall. Chadero appeared to be dancing in the battlefield with a maddening battle intent pouring from within him. Jasmine was quite shocked to see his fighting prowess. These were Divine Master Realm stone warriors. Although they couldn't use most of their abilities, their strength was no joke.
"I can feel the Absolute God Slaying Poison whittling away. And also that energy, it came from the boy didn't it?" he asked.
Jasmine nodded and replied "Yes. You may have already realized it, but the quality and level of that energy is much higher than profound energy."
"Indeed so. If that boy matures, he will be the first True God in eons! Or even beyond that!" said the ancient voice.
"He hasn't matured?" asked Jasmine with shock in her voice.
"Yes. He's merely sixteen. I was shocked too when I found out." responded the ancient voice.
Jasmine's brows furrowed as she thought hard about something.
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2 hours later.
Chadero's Golden God was fully unleashed. A 140 meter (459 feet) golden asura construct stood on the platform. It had 2 faces on the side of its head and 3 pairs of arms, with 2 of the arms on its back. Against it was a hoard of 3 meter tall stone warriors, all of them radiating immense power of the elements. Surrounding them were various different elements, some radiated fire, others radiated lightning.
It was the 7th wave and the fight had already destroyed the nearby mountains and land. Massive craters and depressions could be seen everywhere, along with slash marks and deep holes. The golden construct's 6 arms constantly disappeared and appeared everywhere, marking its appearance with a deep imprint on the earth.
A group of soldier archers shot out piercing arrows. The arrows collided with the construct but appeared to do no damage, however with every arrow, the area got weaker and weaker.
"I can't continue this for long. There's still about a 200 warriors left out of the original 256 warriors. Fuck they're way too strong." said Chadero. He was in the middle of the golden asura construct and blood could seen spilling out of his mouth.
"HEAVENLY JUDGEMENT!" a deep voice resounded throughout the highland. The asura's construct original golden color turned into a frighteningly deep red. A spinning wheel of flames appeared behind the construct and its front arms came together as if to pray. (https://imgur.com/gallery/67OwOB6)
The sky changed colors to a deep red and the sun disappeared. The only source of light was the asura construct's bloody glow. As large amounts of nen came out of Chadero, pillars of dark energy rained down. It seemed as if the Rapture was occurring. All of the soldiers were hit by the pillars and disappeared.
After that, the sky returned to normal. The earth was littered with holes of unfathomable depth, with frighteningly powerful remnants of nen.
[Host, it is recommended that you take use an Enlightenment Pill and Purification Orb, while drinking the Body Tempering Liquid.]
"Damn. System, didn't you say to bathe in it?" he exclaimed.
[Replying to Host. Combing the Purification Orb's effects with the Body Tempering Liquid will get rid of that requirement.]
"I still have the Protection of The Gods Amulet, lets do it." he responded.
Chadero quickly took out the Body Tempering Liquid and Enlightenment Pill, using them instantly. Then he brought out the Purification Orb which flew to his glabella. A burst of nen and clarity came to Chadero. He blinked in surprise as he felt himself. Unprecedented lucidity and nen wrapped around him.
Yellow orbs of light appeared, and with them came new hoards of warriors.
Facing the 512 warriors, Chadero felt calm. "Golden God Form 2. Divine Plating." The dissipating aura around him regathered and surrounded him. A thin golden armor materialized on Chadero. Starting from his glabella to the rest of his body. An godly feeling came from Chadero.
The Stone Dragon Warriors were hit with a feeling of suppression. The next moment, they were completely wiped out.
Chadero's consciousness moved out of his body and stared at himself. The effects of the items were showing themselves. Chadero became lost in a sense of majesty, the feeling of being able to control his aura completely was intoxicating. He immersed himself in the enlightenment and lost track of the world around him.
"I've been wrong the whole time. Nen isn't about controlling the aura, but about controlling yourself. The body's aura is not separate, it's not like some external tool... but it's literally part of your body. It should be thought of and used like it's your own limb. Be natural when using it and let it flow..." muttered Chadero in his trance.
The aura in Chadero's body suddenly changed, it felt more natural and instinctive; like thinking or a predator's desire to kill. The imperfections within Chadero's body were being purified and every breath he let out gave off immense energy.
"Be one with yourself..." he thought.
The ninth wave appeared and 1024 warriors came out of the light. However, with a thought, Chadero's aura turned into 1024 beams that shot towards all the warriors, wiping them out.
Finally at the tenth wave, a Stone Dragon General came out. Focusing all of his nen into a single beam, Chadero shot it at the Stone Dragon General. Obliterated.
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"How fearsome. It seems that he experienced a great breakthrough. Not many below the god realm will be his match." said the ancient voice.
Jasmine just stood there silently, watching.
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A stone gate to the next stage appeared.
Passing through it, the voice of the Dragon God resounded. "This is the 2nd part of the trial. You must kill 99,999 profound beasts in order to pass!"
Immediately, the plains started to shake as a giant mass of profound beasts came charging at Chadero. "From what I feel, they're not very strong. Far weaker than the stone soldiers from before." he exclaimed. "Thousand Palms Breakdown." A thousand limbs appeared out of nowhere and began crushing the beast hoard ruthlessly.
Soon there wasn't a beast in sight as they were all ruthlessly massacred by Chadero.
"Third stage!" resounded the ancient voice once more.
Another stone gate appeared.
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"Chadero! Your brother was killed by Li Gang! Come if you have the guts!"
"What!?"
...
"Forgive our family! We had no involvement in his murder!" sobbed an old man.
"Hmph. Get out of this country!" snorted Chadero in rage.
In the third stage of the trial, Chadero had two choices. To pull the roots out and prevent any future problems or to allow the people who weren't involved with his brothers to go. He had picked the latter.
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"Why did you not wipe out their entire family? Would they not come back to stab you in the back?" asked the ancient voice.
"Why would I? Does the wrongdoings of a few people constitute the downfall of an entire family? A person who would do that would become a monster. If they come back to stab me in the back, then let them do it. I will deal with them at that time." responded Chadero.
"Such thoughtfulness. Very well, I am satisfied. Human, I hope that you can do me a favor." said the ancient voice.
A pair of deep blue eyes appeared in the emptiness.
"My daughter is sealed in one of the Heavenly Profound Treasures, the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword. I hope you can save her by obtaining it before anybody else." asked the ancient voice.
"... very well. I will try to find the sword and save your daughter." he responded.
"Thank you. For this, I will bestow upon you the Dragon God's Marrows and the Dragon God's Soul with the 6 drops of blood." said the ancient voice.
6 drops of blood appeared out of nowhere and floated towards Chadero, entering his body. Suddenly, Chadero felt as if his body had gotten mysteriously stronger, albeit not by much. However, that wasn't his goal.
Next came a blue crystal that entered Chadero's glabella. A pressure came out of Chadero that stemmed from the soul. Even Jasmine felt pressured, but Chadero instantly controlled the pressure. Then he began to instantly refine the Dragon God's Marrows into his own, managing to complete it easily.
"Oh?" said the ancient voice in surprise. Chadero had assimilated the God Dragon's Soul too smoothly to his surprise. "He also unlocked the domain..."
"You truly are a monstrous genius." the ancient voice praised. "The marrow will continuously generates new genuine dragon blood, improving your bloodline by the second. Although it isn't much now, your body will reach a new height as time passes."
"I hope you can truly find her..." said the ancient voice as the eyes disappeared along with it.
"System what are my stats?" he said silently.
[Responding to Host.]
[Host: Chadero
Strength: 30,000
Dexterity: 30,000
Endurance: 30,000
Defense: 30,000
Speed: 30,000
Nen (Unlocked): 10,000,000
Control: Low-Medium
MAX AFFINITY: Conjuration, Emitter, Enhancement, Manipulation, Transmutation.
Abilities: Golden God Form 1, Golden God Form 2, Divine Plating, Thousand Palms Breakdown, Heavenly Judgement, Eyes of Deception & Dominance, Dragon Soul Domain]
"What happened to nen control?" asked Chadero.
[Replying to Host. Host has entered a new stage, thus it was changed accordingly.]
"Interesting. I'm twice as strong as my Ren state before without even using Ren. There's this Dragon Soul Domain too." smiled Chadero.
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In Chadero's Soul.
A majestic azure dragon was floating in Chadero's soul. However, it could not see the other thing. A gigantic shadow appeared to be sleeping. It was like comparing a human to an ant in size if you wanted to compare the shadow and the azure dragon.
Slowly the gigantic shadow opened one of its eyes and peered down at the dragon.
Soon after, it closed its eyes again.
