(45) First trial, second door [1]

The fight was unceasing, and the surviving young cultivators continued their resistance. The cave room was huge, enabling everyone to have a wide area of maneuver. This was the main reason the people who were currently standing could survive. 

All these cultivators, who were all below 14 years old, could not take the providence plant wolf head-on. 

At this moment, one of the cultivators supporting his teammate, who was being chased by one of the providence plant wolves, felt a sense of incongruousness from the surrounding. 

The providence plant wolves began behaving strangely, their ears twitched and they bared their fangs toward the second door abruptly. 

Normally, the cultivators would have tried taking advantage of this situation. But they held their ground with dark shadows cast over their faces. They could sense the threatening vibes let out by the second door too. 

The ghost claw on Mangrel's right arm disappeared, marking the consumption of the soul. 

The amount of time this martial art could be maintained depending on the soul used. Soul, a stronger spirit could allow a longer period of sustainability. 

Surprisingly, the girl he killed, in the beginning, had quite a strong soul. Mangrel could maintain the ghost claw for almost four minutes. Whilst the other soul vanquished after two minutes. 

'That girl's background doesn't appear simple. I killed her so I need to be on guard to take care of any future complications.' Mangrel thought before instantly staring at the second door. 

With the door completely open, the place came to a standstill. 

No one moved, staring at the darkness on the other side of the door. 

A blue spark became visible to everyone there, as if it was the starting sign, dozens of blue sparks appeared before vanishing. 

The spark continued increasing as if it was moving nearer.

'Those are...' Mangrel Squinted his eyes with a slight frown. 

Before long, a blue wisp showed itself, moving out of the door. Following the first wisp's lead, dozens of wisps made their way out of the door too.

The appearance of those blue wisps was only visible to a few people. Mangrel knew as well because he was aware of what they were. 

It was a butterfly, it had long glistening blue wings and was small, the same size as a nail. 

'Soul dissonance butterfly...Wanting to test the spirit of these young people is no different than beating a dead dog and telling it to die!' 

'loopholes useful against the providence plant wolf were provided before, so there is a high chance there is a catch this time too.' Mangrel glanced at the providence plant wolves around before an insidious glint appeared in his eyes. 

"Everyone! Move back while maintaining your current formation!" An order from Mangrel was issued to everyone, making them break their initial daze.

The bluish aura around the soul dissonance butterfly caused any living being to fall into a trench. Just being in their presence was enough to be affected by this ability. 

Once they came into contact with a cultivator's body for a while, their soul would break down. 

Mangrel was guarding his mind using spiritual energy from the beginning. It was a natural action for every experienced cultivator, guarding the mind in a foreign place was the basics of survival. Many mysterious phenomena exist throughout the world, and even with prior knowledge, sudden situations can prove to be deadly.

With Mangrel's prior warning, all the surviving cultivators were stimulated awake. They retreated while keeping an eye on the providence plant wolf and the soul dissonance butterfly. 

The providence plant wolf stayed rooted in place, still baring their fangs towards the butterflies. To them, these things posed a much higher threat than the cultivators. 

All the cultivators could understand this point too. Making them slightly relieved whilst Conflicted internally.

The advance of the soul dissonance butterfly was slow, veiling them in a graceful light. 

Though the providence plant wolf did not think the same, the bone-chilling aura covering these butterflies made their body tenser more than ever. 

Everyone's attention moved to Mangrel, waiting for his next instructions. 

'Hmm, as I thought. This trial can't be completed unless many people work together. The current me cannot kill all these soul dissonance butterflies. Their numbers are in the hundreds, contending against them would be hard...' Mangrel knew that he needed to make use of every cultivator around him. 

Mangrel hence instructed: "Save up all your origin essence for the next door. From now on, only use spells to attack those butterflies, only spiritual attacks affect them."

"You spade, change position, and move to that group in the frontline, I saw that you can use spells the best among the group." Mangrel pointed at a certain person. 

'Who are you calling black!' Being called a black person (Spade) out of nowhere, the man felt both humiliation and anger. Swallowing the scorching wrath, the man dragged his feet to the new position. 

Mangrel continued changing the position again.

Howl!

The soul dissonance butterflies came in contact with the wolves, already showing a glimpse of the result. 

Soul dissonance butterflies are zero-rank mid-grade beasts, but they could easily take down the providence plant wolf, by overwhelming them using their numbers. 

The providence plant wolf's body had naturally resisted the invading power of these butterflies, but there was a limit to this ability. 

It didn't take long for all the surviving providence plant wolves to die. Their bodies lay on the ground, they were nothing but empty coils with no soul remaining. 

"You..." Mangrel stared at the person before him. 

"Jagrel sir" Jagrel bowed his head with a retainer's face. 

"Alright, lead all the cultivators in the left wing of the frontline. You must keep a minimum distance of three meters at all times, no matter the cost." Mangrel knew only one outcome existed for anyone who would come in contact with their soul aura. It was death. 

The young cultivator who specialized in earth elements, Fereim was positioned in the front line too due to his stronger spirit. 

Fereim was somewhat dissatisfied with Mangrel's action. He remembered seeing Mangrel standing idol and talking with Jagrel, while they fought hectically.