Spiritual Trial

As Leo walked behind the old man, he couldn't help but reflect on the past few days since his reincarnation. He had been thrown into life-threatening situations at every turn, leading him accept his fate as a person of incredibly bad luck.

As he mulled over these thoughts, the two arrived at a closed door, with the old man speaking up: "Young man, the spiritual trial lies behind that door. Once you enter, the trial will automatically begin. Should you complete it, the formation within the room will break and your reward will appear before you. Typically, after finishing the trial, you would be free to exit the room and choose to take on the remaining trials in other rooms. However, there are no more trials left; the person who came before you completed them all except for this one. after obtaining your reward, step through the portal that will appear, and it will transport you to the border of forest."

The old man paused, then asked Leo if he had any questions regarding the trial. Leo couldn't help but voice the question that had been weighing on him: "Elder, what is the trial about, and why didn't the person before me complete it?"

The old man answered with a sinister grin "In this trial, you will confront situations, thoughts, or events that disturb you the most." He paused for a moment, carefully observing the young man's expression, but not receiving any reaction, he continued "The person who came before you lasted only a minute inside the room before he fled, sobbing and screaming. When I inquired about what he saw, he merely clutched himself and muttered about somenting that wasn't down there."

After learning about the failure of his fellow sect member and hearing his words upon exiting the room, Leo had a few ideas about what his fellow sect member might have seen in the room. However, he decided not to pursue his thoughts and instead asked the old man about the reason for exiting the room.

"Elder, didn't you say that if someone couldn't complete the trial, they would die?" he asked.

The old man replied, "That rule doesn't apply to this trial because there is nothing in there that will hurt you physically. You can try repeatedly, but if you can't complete the trial, even if the space around us doesn't collapse for another day, you'll be trapped in here and eventually die from hunger."

Leo let out a small sigh of relief upon learning that the trial would not result in his death. "I need to complete this trial before the domain collapses. I have approximately a day," he reminded himself, feeling a sense of urgency. "I'll enter the trial, Elder. If you'll excuse me," he said, bowing respectfully to the old man who nodded in response.

As Leo reached for the door handle, he braced himself mentally for whatever lay ahead. "Let's see what the most disturbing thing is that I'll encounter," he thought to himself. Steeling his nerves, he stepped into the room, ready to face the challenge that awaited him.

As Leo entered the room, a blinding light engulfed him, causing him to shut his eyes. After feeling the light dissipate through his eyelids, he slowly opened his eyes, bracing himself to see what lay before him. He looked around and saw a very disorganized and chaotic place with scattered objects on both sides of a path that led to a mountain top. After seeing the trial and understanding how it worked, Leo thought to himself, 'So this is the most disturbing thing that I thought of? A place full of unorganized things. To pass the trial, I need to reach the mountain top following this path.'

Leo felt that the trial was too easy and started walking towards the mountain. After a while, he saw a bundle of red rocks on his left, placed from smaller to bigger. Seeing this, he felt some satisfaction, only to notice the seventh rock was smaller than the previous one, ruining the pattern. Suddenly, all his satisfaction turned into frustration, and he almost walked out of the path to fix it. But he managed to control himself and thought, 'I can feel my OCD symptoms decreasing after dying. I can ignore it.' He continued to walk, but his mind repeatedly replayed the uneven rocks, torturing him. He began to tremble all over and sweat. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and turned back, ran to the rocks, and left the path.

Immediately after leaving the path, Leo found himself lying on the cool floor outside the room. He saw the old man floating above him, laughing and asking, "You couldn't even last a minute. What did you even see?" Leo answered the old man with a terrifying expression on his face, "Horror, terror, chaos," while steadying his breathing. Then he murmured, "What kind of trial is this? If you were going to expel me, at least do it after I fix the rocks."

Upon hearing Leo's murmuring, the old man asked, "What rocks?" Leo answered, "Just give me a minute to come to my senses," while thinking about a way to pass the trial. After a minute, he found a simple way to overcome the trial, got up, and entered the trial one more time, ignoring the old man's questions about what he saw during the first attempt.

As the light disappeared again, this time Leo didn't open his eyes, thinking, "If I can't see, I won't feel disturbed." He started walking, only to find himself lying on the floor again, and he heard the old man say, "You didn't last ten seconds this time. I'm really curious about what you are seeing in the trial." Leo thought, "So closing my eyes counts as a failure too. I thought as much, but there's no harm in trying." He then answered the old man, "You wouldn't understand."

Leo paced restlessly outside the room, his mind racing with thoughts of how to pass the trial. He considered the idea of simply running to the mountaintop, but quickly dismissed it, realizing that it wouldn't be enough to distract him from his surroundings.

Suddenly, a memory from his past life popped into his head - the words of his psychiatrist. "If you ever feel like you can't ignore your symptoms and start to panic, just find something that will require your full attention and take your mind off your OCD."

Leo stopped pacing and took a deep breath. He knew what he needed to do. "If I run to the top while counting from a thousand to zero, decreasing by thirteen every time, I could make it to the top," he thought.

With a newfound sense of confidence, Leo entered the trial once more. As he began his ascent, he focused on counting, letting each number take up all of his attention. He didn't care about his surroundings, and ran all the way to the mountaintop.

Upon reaching the summit, Leo heard a loud sound of breaking and found himself in an open area. There was a ring on top of a table, and to his left was a portal. Then he heard an old man say, "I don't know what you saw in the trial, but congratulations on completing it in only your third attempt. That's very impressive."

As Leo heard the old man's congratulations, he thought, 'It's really true that my symptoms that have decreased. If it were my past self from Earth taking up this challenge, I don't think he could make it to the top.' He then asked the old man, "Elder, is my reward inside the space ring that is laying on top of the table?" The old man responded with a prideful face, "Yes, it's inside the Earth-grade space ring, in it there is a technique that I created called 'Aura Nullification.' Besides the technique, you will also find one hundred spirit stones."

Leo's mind was fixed on the Earth-grade space ring and the one hundred spirit stones that awaited him. He didn't care about the technique at the moment, knowing that with those rewards, his short-term problems would vanish.

Feeling a sense of urgency, he turned to the old man and asked for confirmation, "Elder, is this the portal that will lead me to the border of the forest?"

The old man felt irritated that the young man didn't show any interest in his technique and once again asked for the way out. However, he eventually gave up and answered the young man with a dejected voice, "Yes, if you use this portal, you'll be able to get out of here."

Just as he was about to leave, the young man suddenly asked, "Elder, what will happen to you? Can't you get out of here? The space around us is collapsing."

Hearing the young man express concern for his well-being, the old man tried to put on a brave face and answered, "No, I can't leave this place. My domain is the only thing preventing my soul from disintegrating."

As the young man took the ring and jumped through the portal, the old man watched him disappear. Suddenly, he heard the young man shout, "Fu*k you and your fuc*ing legacy!" then portal closed.