1664-1678

Chapter 1664: Was There Any Differenc

Min was taken aback for a moment but continued to talk with Blansin and the others as if nothing had happened. However, he used his Divine Sense to answer Rean's question at the same time. 'Why would you ask something like that?'

Rean smiled in response. 'It might be hard for the others to tell, but not me. Well, to be honest, I think your beloved might have noticed something as well. Although she isn't willing to bring it out. Anyway, at least for me, it's quite obvious that you don't like the guy very much.' Rean couldn't help but ask soon after, 'Is he some kind of love rival of yours? Are you afraid of him taking your Erla away?'

Min looked at Rean with a weird expression for a moment. 'I won't lie. I don't like the guy. However, it's not because of some love issues. Erla and I wouldn't get separated that easily after so many years. Not to mention that Blansin doesn't have this kind of intention towards Erla to start with. The problem lies somewhere else.'

Rean wasn't disappointed to hear that. He would feel quite sad if the issue was that cliche. 'Oh! Now you have my attention. But first of all, if you wish, I can ask him to leave the group. I'll just come up with some random excuse.'

Min immediately shook his head, saying, 'No, there

s no need. The reason I don't like him is because of the reason behind his presence in this place. It's quite complicated.'

'His... presence in this place?' Rean was confused. 'Wasn't he supposed to be here?'

Min confirmed Rean's words. 'That's correct. You see, I came to know Blansin through Erla since they're friends. He's one of the top geniuses of the Silver Horn Sturgeon Race. He's also in the Void Tempering Realm, just like Erla. Yet, he's just 179 years old. His race considers him to be their leader in the future. Of course, I'm only talking about the Silver Horn Sturgeon Race in the sea where he lives back in Terces Continent. Nevertheless, he's very important for them.'

Min continued, 'However, here he is, trying to join the Jhiod Continent. Erla, on the other hand, is different. She has some connections with the high-level White Scaled Carps as she's the daughter of one of them. That's why she came to know someone like Blansin and also how she had the connections to come to this place. However, she isn't especially gifted like Blansin. Both she and I are over double his age. Our reason in our attempt to join Jhiod Sect is basically because it's one of the best ways to make up for our lack of talent.' Min was only talking about super high-level talents. At their age, their cultivation was already very good compared to the majority.

'You think he wants something from Erla, is that right?' Rean asked.

Min nodded in agreement. 'That's what I think. However, Erla wasn't supposed to have anything that would matter to someone like Blansin. Sure, she might be the daughter of one of the White Scaled Carp higher-ups, but that's about it.'

Rean understood what Min meant. 'You think it's too much of a coincidence for him to appear right here, right?'

'That's correct,' Min answered.

Rean then used his Divine Sense to check Erla's body from top to bottom. Erla would definitely feel it, but because of the place they were in at the moment, there was no lack of Divine Senses everywhere. She would think that it was just another one, just like how she was using her own.

'Hmm... I can't see anything different on her,' Rean mentioned.

Min agreed with him. 'She's not very at hiding things from me either. If she had something important on her, she would have already told me.'

Rean then asked, 'So, do you want me to stop him from going with us, or should we just leave it be?'

'Leave it be,' Min answered. 'I want to see if I'm just thinking too deep into it or not. After all, it might indeed be just a coincidence. With Blansin's talent, I'm sure he would be welcome in the Jhiod Sect once he passes all twelve tests. Considering he survives until then, that is.'

Rean then called everyone's attention. "Alright, everyone. Let's go. It's time for the next test."

Erla, Habac, Blansin, and Min immediately followed Rean to the area of the spatial gate. There were many other groups and solo cultivators and demon beasts waiting there as well. Eventually, one of the managers appeared as the spatial gate activated. "The next test is the Pressure Realm. This will test your physical condition more than anything else. As for the rest, go and find yourself." Sure enough, very little was said before the test started. It was mostly because the tests repeated, so there wasn't much of a point in telling the same thing over and over again.

Roan's group quickly passed the gate together with the others. Kentucky and Celis' group followed a moment later. As for Rean's group, they were close to the last groups who passed through the portal.

*Bang!*

As soon as they appeared on the other side of the Spatial Gate, everyone felt as if their body were being pressed by a mountain. Naturally, Rean's group was no different. Min and Habac were obviously the ones who suffered the most. 

"What the hell? Was it supposed to be this hard?" Min asked.

Habac nodded with a bitter smile. "It is. Last year, I wasn't able to resist this pressure for more than a few hours. I trained quite a lot before coming back here, so you better get used to it."

Erla and Blansin were demon beasts, so they had stronger bodies. Then again, they had to admit it was quite hard to keep standing. "As expected of the Jhiod Sect, I guess?"

As for Rean... "Hmm? Is there any difference between inside and outside?" Surprisingly, he didn't look the least bit annoyed.

Chapter 1665: Divine Sense Messag

Let alone Min, Erla, and Habac, even Blansin was shocked to see Rean taking it so easily. "How the hell are you not affected by this place's gravity? Is there some secret technique for that? Is your Enhancement skill really that good?"

Rean looked at them and laughed in response. "Hahaha! I'm joking, I'm joking. Of course, I can feel this place's gravity. It's definitely very strong."

Min's mouth twitched in response. "You don't seem to care that much in my eyes, though."

Rean agreed with him, saying, "Well, that's for sure. With my physical ability, just this much gravity won't bother me. However, I'm not using my Enhancement skill."

He then looked at the others and continued, "You, on the other hand, seem to be using a lot of Divine Energy to keep yourselves standing."

Habac immediately explained, "Why do you think this test is so hard for those who aren't demon beasts? Most of the humanoid races can't resist this place's gravity like the demon beasts. We are forced to keep using Divine Energy nonstop to neutralize the gravity's force that's trying to pull us down, you know? Even the demon beasts, if they aren't some crazy strong ones, will have to use some amount of Divine Energy to keep themselves in peak condition in this place."

Blansin agreed with Habac. "He's right. I may be proud of my physique. However, I have to keep some flow of Divine Energy if I don't want to be affected by it."

Rean then touched each of their shoulders. "Then, let's try my Enhancement skill." The Enhancement skill was a pure body-enhancing ability. It was perfect for this place.

'Life Style, First Form, Enhancement!'

Immediately, Light Element entered each member's body, greatly increasing their raw strength. 

"Phew... that feels a lot better," Habac couldn't help but comment. 

The others agreed with him. However, Rean warned them. "It's only a temporary thing. My Light Element will be spent up sooner or later. At that point, I'll have to use this skill again, so make sure you don't stray away too far from me."

Following that, Rean looked at Habac and asked, "So, what can we expect in this test? Is it some survival test again? Or maybe we have to traverse this Dimensional Realm under the effect of this gravity?"

"The second option," Habac answered. "The Pressure Realm works almost the same way as the Soul Land. We will have to traverse it while many traps and other hindrances try to stop us. As you can expect, physical attacks cause a lot more damage in this place than attacks filled with Divine Energy or Soul Power. The best way to make use of it is to use Divine Energy to strengthen our bodies and then use physical attacks."

Rean quickly understood. "The amount of strength one can display with that method will depend a lot on their original raw strength. It's really a test made for cultivators with powerful body cultivation techniques. Of course, demon beasts too."

Rean then shrugged his shoulders in response. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go." Soon after, Rean began to run in the front.

Erla, Habac, and Min looked at each other and quickly followed. With Rean's Enhancement skill and their own Divine Stones, they should be able to make it through or at least have a good chance.

Last but not least, Blansin followed them from behind. However, little did the others see, but he didn't have a good expression on his face as he looked at Rean far ahead. 'I have to find a way to be alone with Erla.'

Meanwhile, Roan didn't know what to do with Krikei. Krikei was obviously a Kipos Lake Spirit. Rean's Enhancement skill worked wonders in living beings of flesh and blood. However, the effect of this skill in Spirits was limited to the point it could be called useless. 

Krikei himself didn't weigh much. However, the gravity still affected him more than anyone else. "This goddamn test..." he said with quite some difficulty.

Vrie, the demon beast in Roan's group, was obviously taking it easy. Lita wasn't faring that well but wasn't doing so bad either. After all, the Enhancement skill worked well on her. "Krikei, you'll have to use more Divine Energy. There's no other choice."

Krikei knew that they were right. "I truly don't want to use that much Divine Energy. After all, it would affect our battle formation."

Roan shook his head. "It's still better than letting you drag us down with how much you're suffering in this place." Sure enough, Roan didn't beat around the bush with his words.

Without much choice, Krikei began to drive even more Divine Energy to counterattack the effects of gravity. Only then did his floating body stabilize somewhat. "Fuck it! I've been saving Divine Stones for this moment, so I'll use them!" Soon after, several Rank Two Divine Stones appeared around him as he absorbed their power. "Let's go. The longer we wait, the more Divine Energy I'll have to use. I'll be counting on you if any problem arises."

Roan glanced at him and said, "If you put us at risk, I'll cut you down myself."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure you will." Krikei brushed Roan's words aside as he started to move away. He wanted nothing more than to finish this test as fast as possible.

Last but not least, there was Kentucky and Celis' group. Well... If Rean and Roan didn't feel anything, then let alone Kentucky, whose body was even stronger than theirs. Celis, on the other hand, did feel the weight of gravity. Celis had a huge vitality, but his body's strength definitely didn't reach Kentucky's level. If anything, in terms of resistance, he was below the twins and their Third Grade Star Bodies. "Kentucky, you will take the lead while we follow behind to give you support."

Kentucky then looked at everyone and asked, "Isn't it easier if I just use Rean's Enhancement skill on them?"

Celis disagreed, saying, "Aren't we here to train? It makes sense for Rean and Roan to use the skill. However, we're demon beasts, so it's better to rely on our own strengths."

Kentucky could only agree with it... 

Suddenly, Kentucky noticed that Rean was getting closer through their connection. The same was the case for Celis.

Chapter 1666: Thank You, Celis, Kentucky

　Celis and Kentucky looked at a small hill on the side in this Pressure Realm. They knew Rean was behind it while moving along with them. Eventually, Rean got close enough to send the two a Divine Sense message. 'Kentucky, Celis, help me a bit on something.'

In this Pressure Realm, there were no rules about attacking other participants. It was different from the Soul Land. As always, each of the tests had its own rules. 'Er... are you sure about that?'

Rean nodded in response. 'Yes, just do it. Make sure you do what I say.'

Kentucky and Celis didn't mind and immediately called out the other demon beasts in their group. In total, they still had eight members after the losses in the Soul Land. It was then that they rushed over to the other side to attack Rean's group. 

Obviously, Rean and the others saw when Kentucky's group appeared and immediately stopped. "Someone's coming."

However, before Min or anyone else could say anything, a snake demon beast launched out a jet of poison in their direction. Except for Kentucky and Celis, everyone in their group was in the Void Tempering Realm. That meant their attacks also had a small amount of Space Power behind them. Of course, the snake wasn't the only one. The other demon beasts also attacked with full strength.

Rean's expression turned dark before he ordered, "Run! There are too many of them for us to fight! They're not mindless puppets like the ones in the Deep Sea Monster Assault test."

Rean then gathered the power of their battle formation and immediately counterattacked as they tried to open distance from the demon beasts. However, there were too many demon beasts for them to deal with... well, Rean could probably still defend against their attacks as long as Celis and Kentucky intervened. However, the Minokawa and Cedar couldn't show up since Erla and the others would definitely recognize them as part of Rean's group.

"This isn't working. Let's split!" Before anyone could say anything, Rean broke the battle formation and quickly grabbed the closest members of his group with his Divine Energy. Min and Habac felt their bodies being pulled as Rean dashed away. At the same time, Rean looked at Erla and Blansin while using a Divine Sense message, 'You two are in the Void Tempering Realm, so it will be easier for you to escape on your own. I'll help Habac and Min escape, and you two do the same thing. You already know the direction we're heading in, so try and meet us there.'

"Wait!" Min didn't want to split from Erla for obvious reasons. However, Rean's overwhelming advantage in this test made it impossible for him to break free from Rean.

'Life Style, First Form, Enhancement!'

'Death Style, Second Movement Form, Shadow Air!'

Rean's advantage in this realm was so great that he could even afford to fly while carrying Habac and Min. There were no rules against flying in the Pressure Realm. That's because it was considered a very wasteful way of spending Divine Energy with the gravity applied to everyone's bodies. Then again, the story was different for Rean, Roan, Celis, and Kentucky. Naturally, Rean used the second form of the Death Movement Style, aimed at fast movement in the air.

Seeing Rean flying away put Erla slightly at ease. She knew it would have been hard for her to pull Min together because of the Dimensional Realm's traits. She also focused all her strength on her spatial ability and immediately dashed away.

There was one guy who was delighted, though. That was Blansin. He didn't expect that he would suddenly be alone with Erla. As long as he managed to escape the assault of the Demon Beasts coming at them, he would have the chance he was looking for. "Erla, grab my hand. My movement technique is better outside water. As long as we focus on running away, we can definitely escape this place fast enough."

"Alright!" Erla considered Blansin a friend, so she had no reason to not do so. Soon after, Blansin activated his movement technique before the two focused on their spatial abilities.

The demon beasts behind attacked nonstop, trying to stop Rean's group. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong target. Because Rean was in the Transition Realm, they thought he would be the easiest one to catch. Little did they know that Rean's strength made him the fastest in their group. By the time they decided to switch their attention to Blansin and Erla, the two were already quite far away.

They pursued Erla and Blansin for a while after that. However, the high gravity of the place was already putting a great strain on their bodies. Erla and Blansin, on the other hand, still had the effects of the Enhancement skill. They had it a lot easier than the demon beasts behind. At least that would continue to be the case until Rean's Light Element in their bodies ran out.

Eventually, the demon beasts from Kentucky and Celis group stopped the pursuit. Not that they wanted to, as they would continue if they needed. It's because they received a Divine Sense Message from Kentucky, telling them to let Erla and Min go. 'That's enough. You won't be able to catch those two anymore and will instead spend your strength for nothing. Come back so that I can use my Light Element skills on you.'

The demon beasts seemed bothered by the fact that they couldn't fulfill the Divine Demon Beasts' orders. However, since they told them to go back, they could only do so.

Kentucky then appeared far behind as he used his much better long-distance sight to watch the situation. "Yep, they're gone." He then looked at three humans standing on his side. If Erla and Blansin were here, they would definitely have recognized them as they had been in the same group a moment ago. "Rean, is that what you wanted?"

Chapter 1667: I need something from you

Habac obviously recognized Kentucky and Celis. They had seen Rean and Roan with those two before back in the entrance hall where the spatial gates were located. "This... what's happening here?"

Min, on the other hand, more or less understood what Rean was trying to do. After all, they had talked about Blansin a lot before entering this test. "Are you trying to leave Blansin alone with Erla?"

Rean nodded in response. "That's correct. You think he has some ulterior motive, don't you? What better way of checking things out other than letting them think they were stranded from us due to some 'unfortunate' circumstances? Hahaha!"

Min didn't look happy, though. "But what if he tries something against Erla?!"

"Don't worry," Rean didn't seem worried. "He will first find somewhere to rest since they had to run a lot to get rid of the demon beasts behind them. The Enhancement skill I used on them didn't have a lot of Light Element, so they should have run out of it by now. That means they're back to their normal states plus the strain of the recent escape. Let's not forget that this realm also has a lot of obstacles that they don't want to run into."

Habac was still confused. "Just what are you two talking about?"

Rean looked at him before giving Habac a summary of what he and Min had discussed. Only then did he understand Min's concerns. "So that's how it is. You could have told me beforehand, you know? These friends of yours scared my soul out of my body."

Min was about to leave in Erla's direction when Rean stopped him. "Calm down, Romeo. Your Juliet won't go that far."

"R-Romeo? Ju...liet? Who are those?" Naturally, Min and Habac had no idea what Rean was talking about.

Rean could only sigh after that. "It's quite saddening that you can't understand. Anyways, we're going after them."

*Rumble...*

Suddenly, the rest of the demon beasts returned to Kentucky and Celis's sides. Obviously, they were puzzled to see Rean's group there since they were pursuing them at first. 

Kentucky then explained, "Don't worry. They're with me."

Following that, Kentucky used Rean's healing and Enhancement skills to ease the burden on the demon beasts' bodies.

Rean was satisfied with that as he pushed Habac to Kentucky's side. "Kentucky, Celis, take care of this guy, will you? I'll go after Erla and Blansin. Flying with two extra bodies in this kind of gravity is a burden even for me."

Habac was taken aback to hear that. However, he knew that Rean wasn't kidding about the gravity. It's just that he would have to stay in the middle of a bunch of demon beasts. Not to mention that he could see it. The demon beasts here were all sentient. None of them seem to like the idea of having him in their midst. "Errrr... can I not?"

Kentucky then patted Habac's head with his huge wing. "Hahaha! Don't worry, don't worry. These are my friends. Here, let me introduce them to you."

Kentucky then brought Habac to the Twin-tailed Crimson Tiger in his group. "This is Gunter. He likes the taste of the flesh of humanoid races, so don't bother him too much, okay? Other than that, he's a very nice guy, very dependable actually. If you get in danger, ask him for help. Next, we have..."

Ignoring Habac's bitter expression, Rean grabbed Min's body with his Divine Energy before taking flight once again.

Seeing Habac being left behind, Min couldn't help but ask, "Will he be fine?"

"Oh, that?" Rean knew what Min was talking about. "Don't worry. Kentucky is just messing with him. Leaving that aside, we can now follow Erla and Blansin from above. If it's only you, I can keep flying without spending too much Divine Energy."

Min simply couldn't measure Rean's true power. All he knew was that even Blansin wouldn't be able to do as much as scratch him. In any case, it was a very good thing for him and his wife.

Around two hours later, Erla and Blansin finally stopped in a concealed corner to recover their Divine Energy, especially since Rean's Light Element had run out by now. 

Erla then began to focus on healing some injuries on her body. "Phew... not only have we had to escape those demon beasts, but we were also almost killed by the other trap of this Pressure Realm." 

Blansin nodded in response. He wasn't looking any better than Erla. In fact, he had to jump out to help her once and was caught in a very shitty situation. "Fortunately, another group also came by, and the trap had to divide its focus between them and us. Otherwise, we might have really died there."

Now that Erla finally had some time to rest, she took the opportunity to ask Blansin something else. "Blansin, why did you come to this place? We both know the importance you have in your Silver Horn Sturgeon Race. You're different from me, who has no use whether I'm there or not. If you end up joining the Jhiod Sect, you will also be cutting ties with your race." Sure enough, Erla had also thought about this topic. It's just that she didn't want to bring it up before.

Little did the two of them know, but around a kilometer high up in the skies, Reana and Min were observing them as well. Rean was obviously using his Divine Sense bending skill as well as bending the light to make themselves invisible. He could get much closer if he wanted to, but he preferred not to risk it as he didn't know if Erla or Blansin had detection methods up their sleeves. 

'I told you, didn't I?' Rean asked Min. 'Erla had probably noticed something as well.'

Min nodded. 'Let's hear what he has to say.'

Blansin then explained, "I have no intention of cutting ties with my race."

Erla was confused by that answer. "Then why would you take this test?"

Blansin then double-checked his surroundings with his Divine Sense, making sure no one was nearby. "Because I need something from you."

Chapter 1668: Clendes Sea Heart

Blansin then took an item out that Erla couldn't recognize. Following that, he poured Divine Energy inside. It was then that Erla felt her body go numb all of a sudden. It wasn't just physically but also on the energy side of things. She couldn't use Divine Energy, Elements, or even Soul Power. "T-this… What are you doing?!"

Blansin's expression wasn't like someone who enjoyed it, though. "I'm sorry, Erla, but I must take it back for the sake of my Silver Horn Sturgeon Race."

Above in the skies, Min wanted to go help Erla straight away. However, Rean quickly held him back. 'Hold on, idiot! We still don't know what he wants. If you stop him and don't find out an answer, there might be even more Silver Horn Sturgeons coming after Erla. In fact, chances are that much higher-level ones are outside the Jhiod Sect's building. They didn't join this hunt because the tests don't allow anyone above the Void Tempering Realm.'

Min felt a chill on his back when he thought about that. Rean was right. It was obvious that Blansin wanted something very important. However, neither he nor Erla herself knew what it was. In the end, he gritted his teeth and decided to observe further.

Back down, Blansin sighed in response, asking, "I think you have the right to know at least. Don't you think it's too far-fetched that your father told you to join the Jhiod Sect?"

Erla narrowed her eyes in response. "What do you mean? You know very well I don't have much use for the White Scaled Carp race as a whole. That's why he allowed me to come."

Blansin shook his head, telling her, "Come on. Even I know your father better than that. That father of yours would have never allowed you to try something as dangerous as the Jhiod Sect's test, let alone leave the White Scaled Carp race. That's also why you always had enough resources to reach your level with your talent. He even allowed you to get together with that human even though the other members of the race were obviously against it. He loves you way too much. Sure, you might not be as talented as me, but you aren't that bad. In the end, you don't just find a Void Tempering Realm demon beast in every corner, you know?"

Rean looked at Min far in the skies, asking, 'So her father was not against it?'

Min nodded with a dark expression. 'It's true. He absolutely doesn't like me at all. However, because he didn't know how to say no to Erla, he eventually accepted the two of us. However, Blansin's right. He was basically the only one who did. The rest continued to look down at us there, so we decided to leave. Even now, I find it strange that he would allow Erla to leave for the Jhiod Sect's test since he went as far as to accept our relationship just so that Erla wouldn't leave her race.'

Blansin continued from there. "Let's be honest, the travel to reach this test is very, very expensive as well. I only came here with a few elders, and it cost us a fortune in teleports." Not everyone was as rich as Rean, after all. "But lo and behold, your father didn't mind forking out the Divine Stones necessary to get to this place for both you AND your husband. Are you sure you didn't find it even the least bit odd? Think well, was everything really okay back in the White Scaled Carp race before you left?"

Erla's expression turned worse after that. Now that Blansin had asked, she thought back to the time she decided to leave. For some reason, her father seemed quite distressed. Not only he, but the other few high-level elders were the same. However, that was just about it. The rest of the race seemed to be pretty fine.

Blansin noticed her change. "It seems like you finally noticed something wrong. No, to be more specific, you did notice something wrong back there but ignored it at first. Living with Min there wasn't easy, so you were just glad your father allowed you to leave. As for the rest, you didn't pay much heed to it. However, he gave you something he shouldn't have. Otherwise, we wouldn't have come for you. Don't get the wrong idea. I truly consider you my friend. Believe it or not, I tried to think about other ways to get this problem resolved. Unfortunately, there's no other way."

Blansin finally entered the main topic. "I need the Clendes Sea Heart that your White Scaled Carp race has."

"Clendes Sea Heart?!" Both Erla and Min exclaimed when they heard that name. Fortunately, Rean kept a Divine Energy barrier around Min and him. That allowed the sound to reach them but not to leave. Otherwise, Blansin would have definitely heard Min's voice just now due to how shocked he was. Of course, Blansin definitely heard Erla's loud voice.

Erla immediately shook her head, though. "B-But, the Clendes Sea Heart is the treasure of my race. Look at me! Do you think I would ever have something as important as that?! Are you crazy! First of all, why didn't you just ask me? I would have told you if you had asked. I don't have it. I don't have it at all. I would never be allowed to get even close to it!"

Blansin agreed with Erla. "Indeed, you would never be allowed to carry such an item. That's exactly why you have it. Usually, no one would think about you carrying this thing."

"I told you I don't have it," Erla stood her ground. "I'm not lying. I didn't receive it from my father. If I had, do you think I would leave the White Scaled Carp race? Chances are that the elders would kill me before that!"

Blansin shook his head, saying, "I know you are not lying. Your father told me that. It's just that you yourself didn't even know you had it."

Rean above was completely lost, so he asked Min with a Divine Sense message. 'What's the Clendes Sea Heart?'

Chapter 1669: Awakening

Min immediately answered while trying to control the shock he was feeling. 'That's the White Scaled Carp race's treasure. Nothing for them is more important than the Clendes Sea Heart. I've never seen it before, let alone gotten close to it. I don't even know where it was guarded. Sometimes I even thought it was nothing more than a legend told by the elders of the White Scaled Carp race to their young. After all, if they really had such a thing, all the powers of the Terces Continent would have come for them a long time ago.'

'In any case, according to the stories, the Clendes Sea Heart is supposed to be an amazing treasure capable of controlling the sea itself. It was told that it was once forged by the god of the Clendes Sea so that he could protect his sea forever. Anyone who held that item would be invincible as long as they were in the Clendes Sea.'

Seeing Rean's confusion, Min also added some extra information, "Terces Continent isn't like Pol Continent, which is just a huge sea. It does have its own land. However, at least 50% of it is covered by the Clendes Sea. That doesn't make it any less powerful, though.'

Rean finally understood after that. 'If this Clendes Sea Heart really has the power of controlling the entire Clendes Sea, one could use it to destroy the whole land surface there. Obviously, nothing could match the power of those holding the Clendes Sea Heart in the Clendes Sea either.'

Min nodded in response. 'That's correct. That's why I find it extremely unbelievable that Erla would have such an item. I don't even know if she believes that this item exists at all. As you heard, even she had never got close or even seen that thing.'

There was one thing Rean didn't understand. 'But… if they really had it, why would they send it out with Erla? It would have been much better to keep it within the race.'

Min shook his head, telling him, 'How would I know? Let's hear what Blansin has to say. He had always been talkative as far as I know, so he will probably tell her a few more things.' 

Sure enough, Blansin explained to the puzzled Erla. "The Clendes Sea Heart, Erla, isn't some item. Instead, it really is a heart. To be more specific, it's your heart. Anyone who gets your heart can use the White Scaled Carp race's secret forging technique to refine it into a real treasure capable of controlling the Clendes Sea back in Terces."

"What?!" Sure enough, everyone was even more shocked now.

Seeing that, Blansin sighed as he continued, "You see now why it pains me to have to do this? I have to get your heart before anyone else does."

Erla didn't believe it. "This is impossible! If I had such power, don't you think I would be able to do a lot more than I can now? Even if my heart isn't refined into a treasure, just the fact that I have it would have been enough to make me extremely powerful and talented. I'm not anywhere near that!"

That's exactly the question in Rean and Min's minds. Erla was better than average demon beasts, but that's about it.

Blansin then took a black pearl from his spatial ring before showing it to Erla. "Do you recognize it?"

Erla nodded slightly, saying, "I also have a few of it. They're Deep Sea Calming Pearls. They are very good for calming one's mind during cultivation if you have Water Element Affinity. I always carry a few since they lose their effect with time."

Blansin bitterly smiled as he said, "That's what you were told. However, let me ask you. Have you ever seen anyone using them back in your race?"

"This…" Erla was taken aback by that question.

At the same time, Rean looked at Min and asked, 'Did you?'

Min pondered about the years he spent in the White Scaled Carp race's territory with Erla. He might not have been welcomed, but he did meet a lot of them, including some powerful ones. However, he had never seen anyone else other than Erla using those pearls. 'Now that he said that, I indeed have no recollection of anyone else using such an item. However, since Erla seemed to always cultivate with them, I've never paid attention to those pearls. They had no use for someone like me since I don't have Water Element Affinity. My affinity is Lightning, as you know.'

Erla's answer was similar to Min's. "I haven't… seen anyone using them. Is there some secret about it?"

Blansin nodded, telling her, "You aren't wrong when you said these pearls have a calming effect. However, this calming effect only works on the holder of the Clendes Sea Heart. What they calm down isn't your mind. Instead, they calm down the power of the heart. They exist for the sole purpose of not letting you lose control over your power. At the same time, they seal the heart's abilities to control the Clendes Sea. However, there's a huge side-effect."

Rean, Min, and Erla could already imagine what the side effect was. "They also affected my overall talent…" Erla couldn't help but say.

Blansin confirmed her words. "That's correct. However, it isn't a bad thing. When a child with the Clendes Sea Heart is born, the child will not live long if the heart isn't put under control. These pearls might have a bad effect on your cultivation. But above all, they were the reason you were able to live to this day. Sure enough, your father truly loves you since these pearls are extremely hard and expensive to make. Well, there were also your White Scaled Carp race's own ideas. They probably expected you to become their goddess in the future once you got strong enough to control the power of your Clendes Sea Heart."

Following that, Blansin took another item out of his spatial ring. It also looked like a pearl but was red instead of black. "Well, to harvest your heart, I first need it to recover its true powers. Sorry, but I'll have to awaken your Clendes Sea Heart now."

Chapter 1670: Is that so?

Rean and Min narrowed their eyes once they heard that. Should they try to stop Blansin now? It's because Erla's Clendes Sea Heart had been sealed that her talent didn't develop. If they allowed Blansin to do that first, she would recover that so-called enormous talent and power, right? She might not be anywhere close to Clendes Sea, but the heart alone probably would help her a lot.

However, there was also the possibility of her dying. The black pearls were used to keep the heart from going out of control and potentially killing Erla. Blansin mentioned that it was supposed to be the case until the day Erla got strong enough to control the heart on her own. The question was whether Erla was already that strong enough or not.

However, Min gave up in the end. 'Forget it! I don't care how strong she might become in the future. If there's a chance of her dying because of the heart's problem, then let it be sealed for all eternity. We need to stop him!'

Rean looked at Min as his opinion of him increased a lot. 'Well said! I would be truly disappointed if you didn't make this decision.'

However, just as Rean was about to attack, Erla opened her mouth. "The awakening of my heart? Would it be bad if I lost control over it? Are you sure you want to awaken it? If I'm not wrong, it would be better if I simply followed you back to your elders."

Blansin shook his head in response. "Don't worry. According to the records, the Void Tempering Realm is the requirement to control the Clendes Heart. That just so happens to be the realm you're in at the moment. Can you guess why?"

Erla was taken aback, and so were Rean and Min. However, all three of them had an idea. 'The power to control an entire Sea… That would be impossible without the power of space! The Void Tempering Realm is the realm where cultivators and demon beasts touch the power of space for the first time. Thus, the Void Tempering Realm requirement.'

Blansin could tell that Erla understood. "That's correct. To be more specific, the heart is capable of fusing both Water Element and Space Power together. Of course, that's just a small part of its power. Let's say that's just the minimum realm necessary to start taking control of its entire strength. The higher your cultivation gets from here, the more the heart will help you improve. Naturally, the higher your control over the Clendes Sea."

Min and Rean immediately gave up on the idea of stopping Blansin. Since she had the cultivation necessary to control the heart, that's obviously a huge opportunity for her. They could stop Blansin after the heart was awakened.

Blansin then moved the red pearl near Erla's heart, which immediately began to shine with a red color. At the same time, Erla felt like her own heart was going to pounce out of her chest as it beat faster and faster. Whatever the red pearl was, it was deeply related to her own heart. 

At some point, Erla and the others noticed that her heart was also giving out light. It's just that the light coming from Erla's heart inside her body was blue, not red. 

Blansin smiled as he let the red pearl go. It slowly floated in the direction of Erla's heart when suddenly, it became kind of ethereal. Following that, the heart passed through Erla's skin as if it wasn't even there, ultimately entering her heart.

*Arrrgh!*

Erla felt immense pain coming from her chest. That also affected her entire body, which seemed to be about to explode. However, that didn't happen. Instead, everyone saw as many strands of black energy started to come out of her body instead. One didn't need to be a genius to know what it was.

'The black pearls' energy…' they all thought.

That was correct. The red pearl, together with the Clendes Sea Heart, were expelling the black pearl's power that sealed the heart. 

Suddenly, Erla changed back into her White Scaled Carp race's form. As a Void Tempering Realm demon beast, she was obviously quite big. It's just that she now looked like a fish out of water. Blansin was already expecting that, though. He selected this area to rest exactly because it would help conceal Erla's body after the transformation.

Erla's body then began to change from that point onward. The color of her white scales slowly turned blue. The same happened to her eyes, which were white before as well. The color of her body wasn't the only thing that changed, though. Something that looked like a crown made of fins appeared above her head. It was quite big and shone with a gentle blue color that emanated energy.

Her other fins, scales, and even her body's overall form changed to something a lot more imposing. If one asked, Erla still kind of looked like a White Scaled Carp but was obviously from a different race.

The process took over an hour before the pain for Erla finally subsided. It's just that Erla was now as weak as an ant. She couldn't move a single muscle of her body. Changing back to her human form? That was impossible for her at the moment. Not to mention that the item that kept Erla restrained was still active.

"Seems like it's finally over," Blansin murmured as he took the tools necessary to harvest Erla's Heart. He did so with a painful expression, obviously not liking to do that. However, there was too much in play for him to care about his own feelings. "Sorry, Erla. I'll make sure your White Scaled Carp race will be safe."

However, it was then that a Divine Sense message echoed in Blansin's mind. 'Is that so? Shouldn't you keep Erla safe as well, then? Oh well, whatever. We will keep her safe since you can't.'

Blansin's eyes widened in response as his Divine Sense finally broke through Rean's Divine Sense bending skill. Of course, since that happened, that was because Rean was now too close for the bending to not work.

Chapter 1671: Do Whatever You Want

Blansin tried to retaliate, but Rean was obviously much faster. Sure, Blansin was able to fight those above his level with his talent and resources. However, he was still not Rean's match. 

'Death Style, Fist Energy Form, Shadow Bind!'

Rean's hair changed into a mix of black and white as Dark Element gathered and restrained Blansin.

Of course, Blansin immediately used his full strength to try and free himself. It's just that such an action was too late. In saying that, Rean appeared right in front of him as his sword came against Blansin's head.

*Bang!*

However, Rean didn't cut Blansin's head at all. Instead, he hit his head with the side of his Black Star. It's just that with Rean's raw strength, Blansin lost consciousness straight away. And just like that, Rean had Blansin in his hands.

As for Min, he went straight to Erla, who was still too weak to move. "Erla! Are you okay?!"

Erla, who didn't have the strength to even return to her human form, could only glance at Min and use Divine Sense to talk. 'I-I'm… fine… just tired as hell…'

Rean then touched Blansin's body before sealing the guy's demon core. If Rean wished it, he could have Blansin lose his cultivation forever at any moment. Not to mention that Blansin wouldn't have access to it unless Rean allowed him to do so. "Well, I'm done with this one. Let's that a look at the fish out of water."

'Life Style, Second Form, Instant Recovery!'

Rean's Light Element entered Erla's body, quickly healing any injuries she might have… which there were surprisingly none of. "Hoh? She isn't injured, it seems."

"She isn't?" Min asked in concern.

Rean nodded in response, saying, "Yeap. Her bodily functions are all fine. However, she's still being restrained by this thing. Of course, she's also too exhausted to do anything else, even if she wasn't restrained. Not to mention that the gravity of this Pressure Realm definitely isn't helping." Rean then showed the item Blansin used to lock Erla down. "Do you have any idea what this is?"

Min took it from Rean but shook his head in response. "No. In any case, let's just destroy it." Rean didn't mind as Min used his Divine Energy to crush the item.

Erla immediately felt the energy holding her body in place disappear before she could finally relax. 'Thank you, Rean, Min. I truly thought everything was over.'

Rean laughed in response, telling her, "Hahaha! It's nothing, it's nothing. In fact, you weren't at risk at all. Min and I have been observing you two from afar and were ready to take action at any point. It's just that I had to hold Min down until Blansin spilled the beans as to why he captured you. Otherwise, this guy would have jumped in a long time ago."

Min didn't regret it. "Hmph! He was trying to hurt my Erla. Regardless of the reason, I would definitely step in." However… "However, I admit that waiting was the best thing. Now we have a good picture of the whole situation and have Blansin in our hands."

Rean nodded in agreement. "The time limit for this test is the entire month the spatial gate is open. We have plenty of time here, so let's sit down and wait for Erla to recover her energy and for Blansin to wake up. I believe you two still have a lot more things to ask him."

Erla then glanced at Rean with her eyes, asking, 'Rean, aren't you interested in my powers?'

Min's eyes changed as he immediately looked at Rean.

Surprisingly, Rean nodded straight away. "Of course! A heart that can control an entire sea? How cool is that?! I very much wish to take it and refine it into the treasure Blansin mentioned."

Seeing the dark expression on Min's face, Rean laughed once again as he continued, "Hahaha! Unfortunately, I consider relationships a lot more important than any treasure in the Realm of Gods. Besides, Erla's heart would be 100% useless for me."

Erla pondered over it for a bit before understanding. 'My heart's power can only be used in Clendes Sea. If you don't decide to go to Terces Continent and live there, its power will be pretty much useless.'

Rean nodded in response. "Yep. That's pretty much it. Well, even if I did go to Terces Continent, I still wouldn't take your heart away from you. As to whether you believe my words or not, that's up to you."

Min narrowed his eyes, muttering, "Says the guy who attacked us the first time we met…"

Rean almost fell to the ground after that. "Ahem… I was just showcasing my amazing healing abilities. Yep, that was all. I wasn't doing it for fun at all. Definitely!"

Rean then came up with some excuse and immediately left to set up a simple concealing formation. The area was already well concealed, but there was nothing wrong with extra protection. At the same time, he shared the things he discovered with Roan, who was obviously in the middle of the same test. 'And that's about it.'

Roan couldn't help but sigh in response. 'Sure enough, without Destiny Avoidance Mode active, all kinds of crazy and continent-changing issues fall on our hands. What will be next? Something that will change the entire Realm of Gods? I don't know if I even want to see it.'

'Well, we do have to gather the fragments of the universe's foundation. In a certain way, we're already doing something that will affect the entire Realm of Gods,' Rean mentioned.

'That's true.' Roan had to agree with Rean on that. 'So, what do you intend to do with that White Scaled Carp. Or should I call it a Blue Scaled Carp now?'

Rean shrugged his shoulders in response. 'I'll just wait and ask Blansin a few more questions. In the end, we have no intention of heading to Terces anyway. Not to mention we wouldn't take her heart, so if we wanted to use it somehow, we would have to wait for the day she can truly control it properly.'

Roan nodded, saying, 'It's good that you know. I'm going to focus on passing this test, so you do whatever you want.'

Chapter 1672: Pristine Blue Carp

Around an hour later, Erla finally gathered enough strength to return to her human form. However, her human form also changed slightly. Her hair, which was black before, now had a blue tint to it. The same went for her eyes and other parts of her body that had hair.

"Hey, even the pubic hair is kind of blue now, hahaha," Rean commented and laughed as he pointed it out.

A vein popped on Min's head as he looked at Rean with an angry expression. "Can you not look at the private parts of someone else's wife?" he asked as he quickly passed a set of new clothes to Erla. Since her transformation was involuntary, the clothes on her body earlier were ripped apart since they could never fit her real form's size.

As always, a demon beast wouldn't change into human form already with clothes on. In fact, as a demon beast, Erla truly didn't care whether others saw her with clothes on or not. The majority of demon beasts didn't, actually. It's just that the humanoid races were very adamant about that, so they had to use them when they entered the cities of humanoid races. Kentucky and Celis were very good examples of it, as Rean had to force the two to use clothes when they were in their human form.

Rean nodded in response. "My bad, my bad. Then again, is it just me, or did she become more beautiful now? I kind of like her new appearance."

Erla was happy to hear that. "Is that so?"

Min only got angrier, though. "Shut up, you two! This is not the time to be talking about such irrelevant things." Well, he was just annoyed by their sudden intimate interaction.

Rean could only stop there before Min really lost his mind. "Fine, fine…"

Soon after…

*Bang!*

Rean kicked the 'unconscious' guy by his side, sending him flying against the wall. "Do you think I can't tell that you're awake? Since I'm this good at healing skills, I can obviously tell the difference between someone who's actually unconscious and someone who's awake. If you keep pretending for too long, I don't mind crushing your demon core right here right now."

Blansin's eyes immediately opened after hearing that. "Sorry! Please spare me! I'll do anything. Just don't destroy my cultivation!" He obviously found out about Rean's seal around his demon core since he couldn't use any Divine Energy at all at the moment. He also didn't doubt that Rean had the ability to really destroy his demon core if he wished.

Erla's expression changed before she approached Blansin.

*Pah!*

It was then that a resounding slap sound echoed through the entire area. Not that Blansin couldn't use Divine Energy, one can be sure that it hurt a lot. "You disappointed me, Blansin. I thought our friendship was better than that."

Rean then held Erla's hand before she slapped the guy again. "There's no doubt that what he did was wrong. However, during the entire time, he had a pained expression. At the very least, I can guarantee that he wasn't doing it because he wanted to. There's a lot more to this story, so let's listen. Of course, you can't forgive him either."

Blansin then looked at Erla after that. He didn't feel the least bit angry with what just happened. If anything, he felt relieved since he believed he deserved it. "I'm sorry. Rean's right. I was forced to do it."

Erla took a deep breath and nodded in response. "We can talk about our friendship later. First, I have a lot of questions since I'm as lost as anyone else. The first one, what happened to me? Am I not a White Scaled Carp anymore? My real form and even my human one are completely different."

Erla's words reminded Rean of something. "Min, you did tell me that the Clendes Heart was created by the Clendes Sea God, right? Could it be that Erla isn't a White Scaled Carp but from this god's race?"

Min obviously thought the same thing. "If that's the case, could it be that Erla is Elder Tuwencio's daughter?" Tuwencio was the name of Erla's father.

Erla was obviously shocked by that. "Blansin, is that true?"

Blansin shook his head, though. "Since we already got to this point, I might as well not hide anything anymore. Don't worry. You're definitely Elder Tuwencio's daughter. Not only that, but you were indeed born as a White Scaled Carp."

Erla sighed in relief after that. "So I'm not something else. I'm still a White Scaled Carp."

"No." Blansin shook his head, clarifying, "It's wrong to call you a White Scaled Carp now. Your true bloodline has just appeared after the Clendes Sea Heart was awakened. You have gone back to the origin of the White Scaled Carp race. Or better yet, you've gone back to the starting point. You're now what we believe to be a Pristine Blue Carp, a Divine Demon Beast of the highest rank."

"Pristine Blue Carp?" None of them had ever heard about it before.

Blansin continued, "It's normal that you haven't heard about it. Only the higher-ups of our Silver Horn Sturgeon race and your White Scaled Carp race know about it. Believe it or not, we are all descendants of this one god. It's just that our bloodlines have diluted so much these countless years that we lost the status of Divine Fishes. That's also why both our races have been on friendly terms for so long. We share the same origins."

Rean immediately thought, 'If Kentucky or Celis were here, they would have definitely felt the change in her bloodline.'

Erla was obviously even more shocked now. 

However, it was Rean that asked the next question. "What do you mean by the highest rank of Divine Demon Beasts? Could it be that demon beasts are like spirits? There are higher-ranked ones and lower-ranked ones?"

Blansin nodded in response. "That's correct. I don't know much about other Divine Demon Beasts, but I definitely know that the Pristine Blue Carp is among the top ones."

Erla couldn't help but look at herself. "Me, one of the highest-ranked Divine Demon Beasts?" That was obviously hard to believe.

Chapter 1673: The events leading to that point

"Was it the heart that changed her constitution?" Rean asked.

Blansin nodded, answering, "That's correct. Like I said, both our races are very far descendants of the Clendes Sea God. It's just that our bloodline was diluted with other types of fish demon beast races. Ultimately, we're still part of the same family."

Rean was confused. "Yeah, but how can she suddenly change like this? I mean, she had a White Scaled Carp bloodline."

Blansin shook his head, replying, "I don't know much about this part either. All that I know is that before the god departed from our Terces Continent's Clendes Sea, he told his descendants that one day, another Pristine Blue Carp would appear. When that happened, their own descendants would be able to use his bloodline to take control of Clendes Continent. It was his departing gift, or so I was told."

"That's weird," said Min. "If this god was that powerful, why didn't he conquer the continent? He could have simply given the continent to his descendants before leaving."

Blansin shrugged his shoulders in response. "You're asking the wrong demon beast. I believe only the god himself knows the answer to that question. At the very least, I don't know."

Erla sighed, saying, "Perhaps he was testing whether his descendants would be able to last long enough without his help. If they did, the next Pristine Blue Carp would appear. If not, then that was it."

Everyone agreed that Erla's thoughts were possible.

"So, that's to say Erla is now of the same race as your Clendes Sea God. The Clendes Sea God was also a Pristine Blue Carp," Rean concluded.

"That's correct," Blansin confirmed as he nodded.

Rean then continued, "Alright, that has a connection to something way too far in the past. We won't be able to find much about it. Next, how did you find out about Erla? Also, why did it take so long for you guys to appear?"

Blansin shook his head, saying, "The reason we took this long to come after her was that we didn't know about her birth. As far as we were concerned, the legend about a new Clendes Sea Heart appearing was just that, a legend. We knew it could be born in one of the descendants' races, but few even believed that. Even if we didn't, how would we be able to tell the difference? No one really knew."

Blansin didn't stop there, adding, "Of course, we eventually found a few clues that the next Pristine Blue Carp had appeared. From what I heard, we at least knew it was not in our race that it happened."

"Clues?" Rean and the others were confused. "What kind of clues?"

Blansin shrugged his shoulders, replying, "The Clendes Sea itself. It began to show signs of unrest and turmoil everywhere. It didn't take long before someone considered the option that the Clendes Sea Heart had appeared. Min and Erla probably know about these events as well."

Min and Erla nodded. "That's true. We did hear about weird events happening in the Clendes Sea itself in the past 300 or so years. It was becoming quite an annoying thing to deal with for the White Scaled Carp race."

"I see…" Rean immediately understood. "The time which the problems started was what allowed you to narrow down the possible candidates. Am I correct?"

"This…" How could Erla not understand? "The turmoils started when I was born!"

Blansin agreed with them. "That's correct. However, the White Scaled Carp race really hid your existence very well. Where? Right out in the open! You frequently visited our race, never had more protection than any of the other elders' children, your talent wasn't anything that impressive… all that together made it extremely difficult to find you."

"When we asked if the White Scaled Carp race knew about the possible birth of the next Pristine Blue Carp, they showed ignorance. First of all, we ourselves found it hard to believe, so it wasn't surprising that the White Scaled Carp race led us to believe they thought the same thing," Blansin explained.

"However, because the events in the Clendes Sea became more and more apparent, we grew more and more certain that the Clendes Sea Heart was definitely within us. The elders even conducted a search in the entire Silver Horn Sturgeon race to see if we hadn't missed it ourselves."

"It was when we decided to go to the White Scaled Carp race to ask the same question that things became rather weird. They didn't stop us from going through the search, but it felt like something was being hidden. Eventually, we did what Rean said. We narrowed down the timing of the events and the White Scaled Carps that were born around the same time they started."

Min sighed as he said, "We're talking about more than 300 years here. In the world of demon beasts, dying for such a long time is a very common thing. We could say that less than 10% make it through this whole time. After that, you only had to take the White Scaled Carps that were closely related to the elders as the main targets."

"Why the elders?" Rean asked. "It could be anyone from the entire White Scaled Carp race, right?"

Min nodded, replying, "It could. However, the elders are the elders for a reason."

Blansin confirmed Min's words. "He is right. Most of the elders got to their position by using their strength. Usually, that strength surpassing others came from a thicker bloodline. If the next Pristine Blue Carp was going to appear, there was a good chance that they would come from the elders' offspring. Of course, we didn't neglect the other White Scaled Carps, but they weren't our main targets."

"The rest is easy to imagine," Rean said. "When the investigation got close to Erla and the other White Scaled Carps born around her time, Tuwencio and the other elders decided to send her away. However, it became the main reason for suspicions. Now, lo and behold, here's Blansin and his elders."

Blansin bitterly smiled but didn't deny Rean's words.

It was then that Erla remembered something. "Wait! If that's the case, my father and the elders would never talk about me or my destination. How come you guys knew about it? What happened in the White Scaled Carp race for them to open their mouths?"

Chapter 1674: The Worst Elder And The Ldeal Father

Min narrowed his eyes in response. "I'm not sure. In the end, the scale of this problem is way beyond our cultivation level. If we go back, you'll definitely be killed and have your heart taken."

Rean agreed with Min, saying, "That's their only option now. Whatever the outcome is, your death is a must. After all, if you grow strong enough to head back and use the power of your Clendes Sea Heart, the races that attacked your White Scaled Carp race will be done for. Even if you say you won't take revenge, not a single soul there will trust you."

Erla's expression turned worse after that. "That means I can't go back?"

Rean nodded. "That's correct." He then pondered a bit before saying, "In fact, you can't leave the Jhiod Sect building either. Blansin did say that he came with a few elders of his race. I'm pretty sure they're all high-level ones with cultivations that will make you feel despair whatever you do against them."

Blansin didn't deny that. "Yes. They're all top elders of my race." His expression seemed terrible now that he realized Erla's race would be wiped out regardless of the outcome.

Rean continued, "With that being said, you only have one choice. You must complete the twelve tests of the Jhiod Sect and join them. That's the only way you can guarantee your race's survival."

"Why?" Erla asked straight away.

"Because once you join the Jhiod Sect, the Silver Horn Sturgeon race won't be able to touch you. Terces is nothing in the eyes of the Jhiod Sect that controls this region. They have control of all continents around in their hands, you know?" Rean explained. "Keeping your race alive will be the only way to prevent themselves from being wiped out the day you resolve to go back to Terces Continent. They will use them as leverage."

Min agreed with Rean on that point. "He's right, Erla. This is our only choice. Well, I have no use here. The only one who must pass this test is you."

Erla immediately embraced Min. "I don't want to be in this alone! You have to pass the test as well! I don't think I can hold myself in Jhiod Continent without you there to stop me."

Min sighed before patting her head, replying, "You do know that now that you've become a real Pristine Blue Carp, our talents and future are in completely different leagues, right? First of all, you always cultivated slightly faster than me. I have no chance of keeping up with your cultivation at all. Are you sure I'm still good enough? I'm pretty sure you can find someone a hundred times better. In fact, with your future prospects, you can have someone important in the Jhiod Sect marry you and guarantee a much better future for your race in Terces. Not only that, but it would be one of the fastest ways of helping your race in getting out of this situation."

Erla's expression became sad when she heard that. "I…" Still, she knew that Min was thinking about her future and her race for her. Even after all the prejudice, he thought about her future above all else.

*Bang!*

Suddenly, Min was sent flying out of Erla's arms. Erla then looked at the perpetrator on the side. "R-Rean, what you doing?"

Rean had a terrible expression as he exclaimed, "What kind of bullshit is that? Do you know how it feels to love someone while not being able to be with them? To not know how they're doing? To not know even if they're alive or not? Man up, you fucking piece of shit! Don't talk about what you don't know if you haven't even experienced it."

The kick was so strong that Min broke several of his rib bones. That showed how Rean didn't care about holding his strength back at all. "Rean, you…" However, seeing Rean's expression, even an idiot would know that Rean definitely had some experience with it.

Erla, obviously, noticed that as well. "Is it really so painful?"

Rean then calmed down after that. "Sigh… you have no idea." He was on this journey to the center of the Realm of Gods to try and find information about Qia. He might not show it on the surface, but he obviously missed her. When he heard Min's words just now, he couldn't hold his anger back.

Rean then came closer to Min and touched his shoulder.

'Life Style, Second Form, Instant Recovery!'

Naturally, Min's injuries disappeared in a moment. "Trust me. Not only will your departure make her sad, but it will also make things worse. If you truly love her, you should never leave her side. Don't turn out like me."

Min dropped his head before he looked up again. This time, however, determination appeared in his eyes. "Right! I'll definitely stay by her side."

Erla couldn't help but tear up a little after that. "Idiot. You should have said that from the very start. Why do you need to receive a beating to understand that?"

Blansin, who was watching everything, finally called their attention back to the main topic. "Ahem… I'm happy for you two. However, we have some more pressing matters to talk about, no?"

Rean nodded before he looked at Erla. "He's right. By the way, aren't you forgetting to ask about a certain someone, Erla?"

"Ah!" Only then did Erla notice who it was. "My father! What happened to my father! Is he dead?"

Blansin nodded, answering, "Don't worry. He did receive many severe injuries, but he won't die from them. It's just that he refused to cooperate until the very end. Tuwencio was willing to see the entire White Scaled Carp race disappear rather than utter a single word about you."

Rean couldn't help but laugh after that. "Hahaha! He's definitely a terrible elder to have in your race, but you have to admit he's the ideal father."

Erla sighed in relief. "Right. He definitely is."

Rean also mentioned, "Don't worry, he won't be killed. He's definitely the main carp that can't be killed at all costs. Obviously, that's because he's your father."

Chapter 1675: Decisions

Rean then touched Blansin's shoulder, sending a stream of Light Element inside his body. Not long after, the seal he put in Blansin's demon core disappeared. Blansin could now use his full strength again. 

"This…" Blansin was taken aback.

Not only him but Erla and Min as well. "Why did you let him free?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders in response. "This idiot only wanted her heart so that he could prevent a bigger calamity for the White Scaled Carp race. Now that he knows that taking her heart will only complicate things, I doubt he'll come after you anymore."

Blansin had to ask, "And why would you believe me? I could be totally lying, you know?"

Rean smiled in response. "I got this thing that detects lies from a certain emotionless stone. I can't say it's 100% accurate, but it isn't that far off. For a naive guy like you, it's quite easy to see through."

Blansin scratched the back of his head in response. He didn't hear about himself being naive all the time, especially with his status in the Silver Horn Sturgeon race. "Fine! I admit that I lacked thought about the situation. I was doing it so that I could stop the fight against the White Scaled Carp race, but if it can bring their elimination, I obviously won't try it anymore."

Blansin then looked at Erla after that. "Sorry, Erla. You can do anything you want to me. If you wish to kill me, I won't resist."

Erla clenched her fists, thinking about what Blansin's race did. However, in the end, she relaxed. "Sigh… whatever. We have known each other for way too long already. However, that doesn't mean I forgive you."

Erla then looked at Rean and asked, "You said that the only way to keep my race alive is to join Jhiod, right? But in that case, doesn't that mean my race will be under arrest and in a very precarious situation until the day I become strong enough to go back?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders, replying, "Unfortunately, I can't think of any other way. If you have a better idea, then, by all means, I'm all ears."

Erla immediately shut up her mouth after that. It was obvious she didn't have any better idea.

However, Blansin was different. "Min had mentioned that Erla should marry someone important in the Jhiod Sect to get their help. Since she's a top-ranked Divine Demon Beast, there would definitely be high-level demon beasts there who would be willing to have her."

Min's expression turned dark, but Blansin didn't stop there. "Of course, Min and Erla are together, so this idea is out of the question. But then again, it doesn't mean Erla can't use her race to acquire the favor of some high-level elder. As long as she shows her talent and bloodline, it shouldn't be too hard to become the legacy disciple of one of those demon beasts. With such a backing, you could come back to the Terces Continent and make a deal with my race. As long as the Jhiod Sect's name is on the table, my Silver Horn Sturgeon race will definitely consider it."

Erla's eyes lit up after hearing that. "That's it! It's a lot faster than waiting for my cultivation to reach an acceptable realm."

Min nodded in agreement. "I'll help you with that as much as I can."

Rean then patted Blansin's shoulders after that. "Aren't you quite bright? Hahaha! No wonder you're considered such a huge talent."

Blansin's mouth twitched as he looked at Rean. 'Me? A huge talent? Then, what are you? A god? I couldn't hold a candle to your strength, and you're still far below me in cultivation.' In the end, the encounter with Rean wiped Blansin's thoughts about him being a genius. He was far from that when compared to the young white-haired man.

Rean then turned his attention back to Erla and Min. "Well, I'll help you pass the test since our battle formation is also helping me. However, once we get into the Jhiod Sect, it will be up to you to get your objectives completed. My brother and I have a lot more things to do, and we probably won't stay in Jhiod Continent for long before leaving and never coming back."

"What?!" Everyone was taken aback to hear that. "Then why are you taking this test?"

"It's the fastest way to enter Jhiod Continent. It's that simple." Rean answered truthfully.

'Would anyone take such a dangerous number of tests just to get a free pass? Are you serious?' they all thought at the same time.

Erla then shook her head and put those thoughts behind her mind. "Whatever. The fact is that we will indeed help you to get into Jhiod Sect as well. I don't know if I can really become one of the Legacy Disciples of those demon beast elders in Jhiod Sect. However, even if I can't, I can always return to the original plan and train hard until I get strong enough to head back on my own."

Min nodded, saying, "With the Jhiod Sect's resources and your recently awakened bloodline, you can definitely reach the Inner or even the Core Sect. Of course, I'll obviously do everything I can."

Rean looked at Blansin and asked, "What about you? What are you going to do? To be honest, you should give up on the tests. We can't fit you inside our battle formation, so your presence would be more of a burden than a help."

Blansin took his badge, the one that would teleport the participants outside if it was crushed. "I have no need to be here anymore." Blansin warned Erla and Min after that. "I'll go out and talk with the elders. They already know that you're inside the Jhiod Sect building, after all. It's just that they can't enter with their cultivation. Remember, if you come out without being a member of the Jhiod Sect, they'll definitely capture you. With their cultivation, as long as they're not in the Jhiod Sect building, no one will really intervene if they do that."

Erla and Min nodded in response. "Thank you, Blansin."

Chapter 1676: The Outside Elders

Blansin then talked a bit more with Erla and the others before finally crushing his badge. Obviously, he got teleported outside of the test straight away. "Sigh… I hope you can pass the twelve exams, Erla. At the very least, you have a strong ally to help you do so." With that dealt with, Blansin exited the Jhiod Sect's building. 

'Blansin, come over.' As soon as he did that, he received a Divine Sense message from one of his elders.

Blansin looked in a certain direction and saw his elders across the street through a window, leisurely waiting inside a restaurant. Blansin quickly headed over before entering the restaurant and sitting at the same table. "Elders, I'm back."

The one who seemed to be the leader nodded in response to his words. "How was it? Did you get the item?"

Blansin shook his head, saying, "Elder Tilte, I have failed your expectations. Erla already knew what was happening in the White Scaled Carp race, so she didn't let me get close at all. She didn't allow me to enter her group either. I tried to enter the Pressure Realm test to look for her, but the environment was too dangerous to travel alone. Also, as you know, you can't attack anyone in the building. We have to come up with some other plan."

Tilte narrowed his eyes in response, replying, "You're one of the greatest talents of your generation. If you can't do it, then no one else we know can. We also can't get in there ourselves. I can feel it. The Divine Senses of the protectors of the Jhiod Sect in that building looked at us. It was as if they were observing us from the moment we appeared in this city."

The other elder shook his head, saying, "It's fine. As long as we don't do anything with the participants while they're inside, those guys won't do anything to us either."

Tilte agreed with him. However, his expression didn't turn any better. "The problem is the risks. The tests there are too dangerous. So far, she's still alive. But if she dies there, we'll never be able to recover her heart. It will simply rot somewhere."

"Indeed," Blansin pretended to agree. "However, what can we do? She definitely won't come out of there. Also, I tried to threaten her with the lives of the White Scaled Carp race, but it seems like she already had a conversation with her dad before she headed out. Everything that was happening was within her and her dad's expectations in case things went south. She won't come out even if you bring her dad as a hostage right in front of the Jhiod Sect's building. At the very least, that's the feeling I got from her."

Tilte found the description Blansin gave about her a bit different from what he had heard. But then again, Erla had been kept as a secret for so long, so what he knew might have all been a lie as well. "Don't worry. We predicted that such a thing would happen, so we called for extra help."

"Extra help?" Blansin was taken aback to hear that. "What does elder mean?"

"We recruited mercenaries in the Mercenary Guild to do this job for us, and they will join you in the tests," Tilte explained. Soon after, he looked in another table's direction, where nine customers were eating. 

When Blansin checked their cultivation, he immediately noticed that they were all at the Initial Stage of the Void Tempering Realm or above. Two of them were even at the Peak Stage. "Are they going to enter the tests of the Jhiod Sect?"

Tilte nodded in response. "Correct. The one in the middle is called Hume. He will be the leader of this group. Naturally, you will be there as well to harvest Erla's heart."

Blansin found it strange, though. "That doesn't make sense. Everyone knows how dangerous the tests are. If those guys could take part in the tests to start with, why would they be outside?"

"You're wrong," another elder added. "They're not going to try to pass the tests. The tests are obviously dangerous, but the majority of deaths come from people who refuse to give up. After all, they would need to start everything again. These guys are different. They know how dangerous it is and aren't willing to risk their lives to pass the tests. If they see they'll die, they will immediately crush their badges and get out of the tests."

Tilte nodded, continuing, "That's the agreement we had with them. Of course, the tests can still have you killed if you don't pay attention all the time. You might not even have the chance to crush the badges. With that said, Blansin, you must be careful as well. You and the others are the future of our race, after all."

"I'll definitely take care, elder. However, can I trust them?" Blansin asked in doubt.

"You can," Tilte confirmed with a nod. "All you need to know is that as long as they aren't at imminent risk of death, they won't crush their badges and will help you get Erla. You already have the tools and know-how to harvest her heart. The agreement, payment, and everything else related to those mercenaries is something for us to care about."

Blansin nodded after hearing that. "If elder says so, this Blansin shall carry your orders."

Tilte couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the Jhiod Sect building. "I just hope Erla doesn't die in the Pressure Realm test."

Blansin then asked something else. "Elder, isn't it possible to ask for the cooperation of the elders of the Jhiod Sect?" Of course, Blansin knew it wouldn't work, but he had to keep pretending he wanted to have Erla's heart as well. That's why he asked this question.

Tilte shook his head, saying, "It won't work. First of all, they won't be convinced by some random excuse to get Erla's heart. If we really show this much interest in her, they will know something is up. We can't risk losing Erla's heart to Jhiod Sect. Our Terces Continent might be nothing compared to Jhiod, but it's still an entire continent. The Jhiod Sect would definitely love to have an item that could have the entire continent walking on the palm of their hands."

"Very well." Blansin stopped asking questions there.

Chapter 1677: Bad Luck,L Guess?

Then again, Tilte was right about one thing. Erla had to pass the Pressure Realm test or fail by crushing her badge and get teleported out. She couldn't die in the Pressure Realm.

Back in that same Pressure Realm, Erla had finally recovered her energy after what happened. "I think we can go again. However, I'm having a hard time figuring out the changes my body went through. My flow of Divine Energy in the battle formation will probably be all over the place."

Rean nodded in response. "That's to be expected. Don't worry. Let's go back to Kentucky and Celis' group first. We need to fetch Habac since he's the one with experience in these tests."

Min couldn't help but ask, "But how will you even find him? We went our separate ways quite some time ago. I doubt they're still in the same place."

Rean smiled in response, saying, "Don't worry, I know where to find them. We just need to be careful on our way there."

Sure enough, around two hours later, Rean's group saw Kentucky and the others again. Well, Rean had the connection with Kentucky, Celis, and Roan, so it was obvious that they found the other party. "Phew… finally caught up to you guys. Hey, Habac. How have you been?"

Habac didn't look very well, though. It was as if he had been under a huge amount of stress since Rean and Min left. "I-I'm… I'm fine…" During the last few hours, Habac felt the eyes of the demon beasts all over his body. It was as if they would attack him at the very first opportunity. Not to mention that a lot of them had higher cultivations than his own.

Rean smiled in response. "Oh, is that so? Then I guess we don't need to keep going together. I'll leave you with Kentucky and the others."

"No! Wait! I don't wanna stay here!" Habac immediately panicked.

"Hahaha!" Rean laughed out loud after hearing that. "I'm joking, I'm joking. My group also needs your experience. Plus, we need a fourth member for the battle formation."

Kentucky didn't like it, though. "What do you mean you don't wanna stay here? Didn't I treat you very well?"

Since Kentucky, the Divine Demon Beast, got angry, all the other demon beasts got angry at him as well. Because of that, they all looked at Habac with murderous eyes. As long as Kentucky gave the order, they would ignore everything and attack Habac.

Habac sweated buckets as he tried to explain himself. "T-That's not what I meant. I… I just want to pass the test with my own group. I don't want to be carried by others like what you're doing. It's not the objective of the test… yes, that's definitely it!"

Kentucky's expression finally got better after that. "Oh! So that's how it is." He then patted Habac's back with his wing. "That's a good mindset. Seems like you learned a lot while you stayed with my group. Well done, well done. I'll let you go with Rean."

Rean didn't know whether to laugh or cry after hearing that. He could totally tell that Kentucky was messing around with Habac. How could he not tell Habac's feelings? "Alright, thank you, Celis, Kentucky. We finished everything we needed to do."

Celis looked at Rean and said, "So, how did this woman suddenly turn into a Divine Demon Beast?"

Sure enough, Celis and Kentucky noticed the power of Erla's bloodline. They recognized her, but they were sure she wasn't a Divine Demon Beast the last time they met. 

Rean then organized his thoughts and sent the explanation to those two through a Divine Sense message. 

Naturally, Celis and Kentucky were surprised by what they heard. "So Divine Demon Beasts also have rankings, huh?"

Rean nodded, saying, "Indeed. Where in the ranking do you guys think you're in at the moment?"

Kentucky pondered a bit as he felt Erla's bloodline. "Hmm… we haven't seen many Divine Demon Beasts, so we can't make a comparison. However, the power of her bloodline is just slightly, very slightly below Celis and me. Perhaps it's because she has just become a Divine Demon Beast. Or perhaps this is the true power of her bloodline already. Now that I think about it, the bloodline power of the Divine Demon Beast back in the Huring Sacred Land was much lower than mine."

Celis agreed with Kentucky, continuing, "Kentucky is right. However, it's possible to make a better comparison. For example, the Divine Demon Beasts back on the Zasfins' planet had different bloodline powers. The Phoenix and the Black Tortoise were on par with Kentucky and me. As for the Basilisk and the Silver Fenrir, they were definitely below. The Basilisk had the lowest bloodline power between the Divine Demon Beasts I felt so far."

Celis then looked at Erla, who felt a little nervous. After all, she could tell with a glance that Celis and Kentucky were also Divine Demon Beasts. It's just that they had been that for a very long time already. "This girl's bloodline power is above the Silver Fenrir and obviously the Basilisk as well. She is also above the Divine Demon Beast from Huring Sacred Land. But she's still below Kentucky, the Phoenix, the Blue Luan, the Black Tortoise and me, of course."

Min was surprised to hear that. "Shouldn't Erla be a high-ranked Divine Demon Beast?"

Rean shook his head in response, replying, "It could just be that the Divine Demon Beasts we saw so far were all high-ranked ones too." At the same time, Rean thought. 'Well, the Phoenix and the Black Tortoise were very famous back on Earth, now that I think about it. The Basilisk and Fenrir… not so much. Could it be correlated?' Rean wondered.

Erla looked at Rean and asked, "How did you get to meet so many high-ranked Divine Demon Beasts like that, then?"

Rean felt like a spear pierced his heart when he heard that question. 'That's because of this fucking system and its Destiny Attraction bullshit! Do you think I want to get in this kind of situation all the time?! Even with you, I just asked to form a group with you because I liked the fact you and Min were a couple! How the hell did it turn into a situation where a continent is at stake?!' Or so he wanted to say… unfortunately, he couldn't talk about the system. "Ahem… bad luck, I guess?"

Chapter 1678: Black Hole Trap

Erla and the others didn't understand why Rean seemed to be affected, but they didn't ask about it either. "Well, I guess we already understand most of the necessary things. Should we keep going? We haven't finished this test yet."

Rean nodded before they separated from Kentucky and Celis's group. 

Meanwhile, Roan's group had finally arrived at the goal of the Pressure Realm test, being one of the first ones to be teleported outside.

Krikei couldn't help but feel extremely excited after that. "Great! Great! Great! Great! That was by far the worst test for a spirit like me. I'm finally over with it! Hahaha!" The test was quite hard in his case.

Vrie didn't seem that excited as he said, "As a demon beast, that was the easiest. But then again, the Soul Land before that was the opposite, so I guess I'm also happy to have passed that one."

Roan ignored them, though. Instead, he checked Rean's group through their connection… or so he tried. Unfortunately, being in another dimension meant to be separated from the Realm of Gods. Then again, Roan could ask Sister Orb about that, at least. 'How are they doing?'

[They're fine. That girl called Erla has really received a huge upgrade. The Pressure Realm can't make her feel bad at all with her awakened bloodline. Rean, obviously, has the Third Grade Star Body and the Enhancement skill, so he's faring even better. As for the others in his group, the Enhancement skill is enough for them to resist the gravity there.]

Roan nodded in response. 'I just need to wait for them to finish the test.'

However, Rean's group got into quite a tricky situation a few hours later. "Hold on! Don't let go!"

At the moment, they entered an area where gravity suddenly spiked several times. Yet, it wasn't pulling them down. Instead, gravity was pulling them ahead. Rean could see a 'black hole' taking form several kilometers in the distance. Of course, he knew that thing wasn't a real black hole. Otherwise, the entire Dimensional Realm would have disappeared already. It just had a similar function of having extremely high gravity. "If you fall into that thing, you will be dead for sure."

Nonetheless, it was strong enough to even kill himself, let alone the others. The only reason they were able to fight against the black hole's pulling force was that Rean noticed the moment a formation trap activated. With his reaction, he immediately controlled their battle formation to flee as fast as possible while pulling everyone with him. Only when they were already quite far did the black hole appear.

Yet, it still had the power to pull Min and Habac towards it. Only Rean and Erla had enough strength to fight the pulling power coming from that thing. The problem was that pulling Min and Habac had increased their burden twice. "Rean, we're being pulled by that thing. We won't resist much longer."

Min, who held Rean's hand, immediately asked, "What if we use long-range attacks to destroy that black thing? Perhaps it'll at least stop pulling us over."

Rean shook his head in response. "That thing is being controlled by a formation below the ground. That thing you're seeing is nothing more than the result of the formation. You can attack as many times as you want. It will have little to no effect at all."

Habac then got an idea, suggesting, "All we need to do is to generate a counteracting force strong enough to help us move away from that. Let's attack the area behind us. As powerful as this pull may be, the shockwave from a combined energy attack of us four while using the battle formation should definitely be stronger. After all, it'll happen right by our side."

"Ahhhh!" 

"Heeeeeelp!"

Suddenly, Rean's group noticed another group of cultivators and demon beasts being pulled into the black hole from another direction. They struggled as much as possible, but it was all useless. 

Rean, Erla, and Min immediately threw caution to the wind and agreed with Habac's option. Well, the truth was that Rean could escape on his own if necessary. It's just that he would wait until there was no other choice but to let Min go. "Alright. Focus on your strongest energy-type attack. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it can create a huge shockwave."

With that said, they all shared the location they would focus their attacks on with their Divine Senses and went all out.

'Life Fire, Second Form, White Stellar Explosion!'

'Thunderfire Descent!'

'Water Form Compress, Release!'

'Myriad Lightning Barrage!'

*Boom!*

Their bodies had just started being pulled by the black hole when suddenly, a huge shockwave hit their bodies. As the attack landed right behind them, as well as between their group and the black hole, the shockwave immediately shot them in the opposite direction of the black hole. Rean also used his Light Element to instantly heal any injuries due to the explosion before the force of the shockwave disappeared.

The shockwave was only enough to send them a hundred or so meters away before the black hole's gravity began to pull on everyone once again. 

"One more time!"

No one saved any Divine Energy as they repeated the same action.

*Boom!*

As they were a little further away from the black hole now, the shockwave was also able to throw them even further.

"Again!"

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

Only after the fourth explosion's shockwave did Rean's group manage to steady themselves against the black hole's force. "Let's get out of here. That thing's power is increasing. I believe this is a test to separate those who took too long to reach the end of the test. The longer you take, the worse it'll become."

Rean was right. That wasn't the only black hole formation trap that appeared. At the moment, it was still possible to pass through while ignoring the black holes. However, the longer it took, the harder it would become. At some point, completing the test would be impossible. Fortunately, Rean's group had made it through this problem and completed the test.