Chapter 191: The Golden Sun Venerable’s Trial

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[You and your party have been deemed worthy of participating in the {Golden Sun Venerable's Trial}!]

[The entrance of the {Murim's Abandoned Temple} Dungeon has been sealed until the Trial is either completed or you and your party die. In which case, it will be deemed a failure, and the Dungeon will open its gates for new participants.]

[You and your party must complete the Five Challenges of the Trial to Complete it. The First Challenge: {Challenge of Strength}, will now begin.]

[Ten Disciples of the Golden Sun Venerable have been summoned by his Divine Powers. They might only be their Martial Souls, but they possess almost the same amount of strength as they once did when alive.]

[Defeat all ten disciples to advance into the next Challenge.]

[Dungeon Restrictions: Mana and Magic are sealed.]

[Dungeon Effects: Ki Regeneration Speed Increases by +100%]

The Golden Sun Venerable is a figure equal to an Almighty God in this Abandoned Murim World. There are many Murim Worlds, similarly to how there are hundreds of Hells and Heavens. However, unlike those places, Murim Worlds work with different logic and power systems.

Venerables are titles granted to the strongest of Cultivators, who have reached the pinnacle and have become their world's strongest. Naturally, they usually ascend into Constellations. The Golden Sun Venerable is one of them.

He belongs to the Orthodox Faction, so he cannot be called a Heavenly Demon. He was a figure of great respect who both protected his world and led it to prosperity. However, when he ascended into a Constellation, he had to leave behind his world.

Without their protector, the World of Golden Heaven Continent quickly perished against the endless invasion from other, fragmented worlds. And like the rest, it was devoured. Whatever fragments are left have become Dungeons, appearing within the Worlds qualified for "Awakenings".

Do you see a pattern now? It is an endless cycle where worlds are devoured and their fragments become dungeons for new worlds chosen for Awakenings, who are later destroyed in a similar way.

Over and over and over and over and over and over again.

And this fate will be shared with Earth. Indeed, only the strongest of Apex Worlds, amongst all Apex Worlds will ever qualify to "Ascend" into the Greater Beyond.

This is why, from the very beginning, Constellations never had the intention of saving our world. They only want to recruit talented members from it and bring them to their own factions to further strengthen their positions within the Greater Beyond.

Our world means nothing to them; they couldn't care less.

And that's why we must fight, because we can't rely on Constellations, the only ones we can rely on to save our world.

Is ourselves.

"Woah, what with the golden ghosts?!" Kevin panicked, quickly equipping his armor, and summoning his spear. "Ugh…!"

One of the Martial Souls swiftly attacked him, swinging their long sword against him while leaping in midair. A loud clash released a flash of bright light. Large quantities of Ki unleashed powerful pressure, pushing Kevin back!

"Fuck! They're tough!" Kevin stepped forward, trying to channel his mana to strengthen his body. "Huh?"

However, he couldn't.

"Why… Why can't I use Mana?!" Dan Baihe, our magician, was the first to ask this, however.

"I can't use it either!" Annabelle cried. "What's going on?! It feels like I never had it to begin with…"

As the trio was confused, the Martial Souls approached rapidly. I swiftly stepped forward, and with Gram in one hand and Aim's thunder sword form in the other, I unleashed a barrage of slashing attacks. Lightning Ki coursing through my body.

"{Thousand Blades}"

Dozens of slashes covered the bodies of two Martial Souls holding a spear and an axe. They were fast, but I was much faster. Before they could even react, their bodies were sliced into hundreds of pieces, exploding into particles of golden light.

"In this Dungeon, you can't use Mana nor Magic." I explained my friends. "You must use your own Physical Strength and Martial Arts, the only energy allowed here is Ki. However, your Ki Regeneration Speed also increases by 100 percent."

"Ki…? What in the world is that?" Kevin was clueless about it, even though he himself had plenty of Ki even without a Physique.

Why? Well, because he was already a strong Combatant-class Hunter. All Combat-class hunters develop Ki as their bodies grow. Though, unlike me, nobody has a Status or can see their exact stats. Many Combatant-class Hunters simply use Ki naturally as they fight, without realizing it.

"Haaah!"

The Martial Soul targeting Kevin swiftly sent him flying away with a powerful kick imbued with Ki, an explosion of golden light almost shattered his armor. Kevin quickly recovered, pointing his spear at the Martial Soul swiftly approaching him.

"Dammit! Fighting without Ki or Magic! That means most of my skills... I can't use them?! This is fucking unfair!"

As he complained, he evaded a strike into the head by ducking. Then he pointed his spear towards the Martial Soul's chest, piercing it three times with a barrage of consecutive blows. Each blow blew away a piece of the ghostly Martial Soul until it fragmented into pieces and dissipated, dying.

"Huh? Wait, these guys are a bit fragile, aren't they?"

As he wondered, Baihe and Annabelle were also fighting. The Martial Souls targeted them too. Two for each, though, much tougher than what Kevin had to go through. Baihe used all the techniques and evasive abilities she learned from me, evading blows after flows, and then using the spear we commissioned Hilda to make to channel her Ki through.

"Let's see if all that hard work pays off!"

She channeled her Yin-Attribute Ki across her body, feeling much stronger. An icy aura surged from within her body naturally, not one made of magic but of her own body's Physique. With that, she blinded the Martial Souls attacking her by unleashing a wall of white mist.

"Haah!"

As the Martial Souls were blinded and slightly frozen by the cold wall of mist, Baihe moved as swiftly as possible, appearing behind a sword-wielding Martial Soul. Her Frost Spear, an A+ Rank Weapon made using the fangs of the Ice Dragon from the same dungeon I rescued her from, pierced the Martial Soul's head and then slashed right through the rest of their body. It would have been able to react faster if it wasn't frozen as Baihe attacked it.

Crack… CRASH!

The Martial Soul fell down into the floor like an icy statue; it shattered into countless pieces. The second one managed to attack Baihe as it freed itself from the ice covering their bodies. The Martial Soul unleashed an Aura of Golden Flames made of Ki, melting the ice and then attacking Baihe with a barrage of punches.

"Ugh…!"

She was pushed back but defended herself, using her spear to block some of the stronger blows. Baihe smartly spread her freezing aura around the Martial Soul while it attacked her. Soon enough, their fists were frozen, and the rest of their arms couldn't move properly. While being slightly beaten, Baihe used this opportunity to quickly impale the head, killing it on the spot.

Meanwhile, Annabelle had a less difficult time, as she was able to still use most of her abilities anyway through the use of her Ki. Using her Skills, she swiftly materialized a pair of long, black blades through her special aura effects and intercepted both Martial Souls.

"You guys are fast, haha!"

While giggling like this was a game, Annabelle leaped from place to place, her foes barely managing to catch up to her amazing speed. Although they were able to step into midair and unleash some martial arts, they were still only B Rank Monsters.

Annabelle easily evaded their attacks with her superior "spider senses" and quickly used her spiderwebs to stop their movements. While using her long blades to cut through their joints and outright negate most of their attacks. She was brutal! I'm fairly sure I haven't taught her any of this. Did she learn it by herself, or did Scarlet teach her to fight like this? Maybe even Heisenberg.

While I was fighting Martial Souls myself as I kept an eye on everyone, I didn't even notice when Annabelle had already finished off the Martial Souls attacking her, their bodies collapsing on the ground, covered in wounds.

Kevin fought another two of them while I took care of the rest. They unleashed flashy martial techniques that conjured bright golden light from their weapons or hands, but I easily blocked them with my weapons and then cut through their bodies like a warm knife through butter.

"Haaah!"

"Die!"

"Raah!"

The last three of them leaped towards me. Their Auras erupting, resembling fierce and roaring golden dragons. I greeted their powerful pressuring Ki and weapon techniques with my own.

"{Thousand Blades}: {Lightning Viper}!"

By combining the power of my Traits, Skills, Ki, and Lightning with my Thousand Blades arts, my attacks resembled surging, fierce vipers made of golden thunder, piercing through their bodies like powerful spears, but actually cutting through them.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

"And that's about it!" I nodded. "Is everyone alright? Yeah?"

I checked on my friends, noticing Baihe had fully recovered by now. The effects of the dungeon increasing our Ki Regeneration Speed were very useful and a nice incentive for not letting us use Mana or Magic.

"Yeah, I'm fine. That was definitely something surprising, though." Baihe said. "Were those people or monsters?"

"They could hurt us really badly; they didn't feel like ghosts either." Kevin sighed in relief. "Ugh, can you tell me more about what this Ki thing is, Anna? I'm really confused."

"I'll tell you as we go." I smiled.

"Anna, look, those golden ghosts dropped these things." Annabelle pointed at the small golden pearls lying over the floor.

"Oh nice! Let me collect them for you! Hehehe…" I quickly collected all their "drops".

While Martial Souls dissipated and left no physical bodies behind, a concentration of their pure Ki essence would sometimes materialize and be left behind. These were Ki Pearls, which are used to both restore Ki by absorbing them and also as a currency in Murim Worlds.

[You and your party have slain [Martial Souls (B Rank)] x10!]

[You earned 100.000 EXP.]

[EXP has been saved until your next Rank Up.]

[You have collected [Golden Ki Pearl (B Rank)] x10]

[Lucky! The [Golden Ki Pearl (B Rank)] x10 Rank has increased to A Rank!]

And with my Special Gathering Skill, B-Rank Pearls become A-Rank instead. Such a good harvest! These are also good for awakening Physiques and further boosting their Rank, so we'll definitely be collecting any of these we find.

"Congratulations! It looks like you were not just brats! Hahaha! I am shocked at how easily you defeated my disciples. I guess they weren't just the youngest and newest for nothing. They sure had a long way to go…" The Golden Sun Venerable's voice echoed across the room; his last words came out with a rather sorrowful tone of voice. "Anyways, you're done with the First Challenge! Rest as much as you want; once you cross that golden door, you're up for the Second Challenge. Here, grab your rewards."

[You and your Party have completed the First Challenge of the {Golden Sun Venerable's Trial}!]

[You and your Party received the following Rewards]: [Ki Enhancing Pill (B Rank)] x5 [Random Martial Arts Scroll (B Rank)] x1]

The rewards materialized in front of each one of us, and they were the same for everyone without any exception. They seemed slightly "lame," but they were all I was looking for.

"What, a scroll?" Kevin asked. "This Dungeon's so weird! We get rewards like this?"

"A golden pill? What's this for, Anna?" Baihe wondered.

"Hmm, they're bitter! Bleh." Annabelle tried tasting one but threw it out.

"Don't throw it out!" I reprimanded her. "Eat those pills! They'll increase your Ki by a tiny bit permanently! Also, the scroll will imprint martial arts into your body and soul; although it won't be a skill, it can be useful."

As I explained, I ate the pills and then used the scroll; there was no point in saving these goodies.

[You have consumed [Ki Enhancing Pill (B Rank)] x5!]

[Your Maximum Ki has increased by +125!]

Consuming the bitter pills was no problem for me. Each one I ate increased my Ki by 25! It wasn't much, but together, that was a whopping 125 permanent Ki. Not bad at all.

And then, the scroll... It turned into a light that flew into my body the moment I "decided" to learn from it. I could see inscriptions appearing across my skin, imprinting knowledge and information inside of my body and soul.

A powerful technique was imprinted, one that used just my own fists and my Ki.

[You have absorbed the [Random Martial Arts Scroll (B Rank)] x1!]

[The Information and Movements of the {Golden Dragon Fist: Tier 1} Martial Art have been imprinted into your Body and Soul.]

Golden Dragon Fist! I got one of the best techniques that you can get out of the Golden Sun Venerable Inheritance! Sick! I am not really a fist fighter because I lack the proper technique or skill. But this technique could quite literally solve that problem.

The only problem is that it is only a part of it. The complete set of techniques includes four more. The Golden Dragon Scales, for a tougher skin; the Golden Dragon Claws, for a stronger grip; the Golden Dragon Eyes, for greater accuracy and reaction speed; and lastly, the Golden Dragon's Roar, for a wide-range attack of pure Ki that can paralyze foes as you punch their faces.

This scroll is pretty much a Gacha… So hoping to get them all is unrealistic. Of course, through only the scrolls. Naturally, I didn't come to this dungeon to just play along by the rules. But for now, let's just move along. I wouldn't want the Golden Sun Venerable to get angry at me.

"Anyways, let's go. We've got four more challenges to complete."