Pathway

The Divine Crucible.

A treasure of immense power. It"s power was so extreme that it could gaze into the depth of the mind of a G.o.d. Even celestials would find it difficult to resist.

Jufeng was fighting the extreme pressure that was emanating from the eye pushing him into unconsciousness. The other disciples had already succ.u.mbed to the pressure and were about to pa.s.s out. This wasn"t their fault. How could they resist the immense pressure from a divine artifact when they were yet to step fully into the Zhuji stage. Their cultivation level was simply not strong enough at this time to withstand the vast amount of pressure from the emerald eye.

He was nearing his limit when the voices started again.

"Weak, too weak. Couldn"t even withstand a little immortal pressure. Yet, you want to enter the Jade palace? I"m bewildered, Femara."

"Indeed, Neviria."

"But the nascent souls seemed to be holding their own, Femara. They seemed to withstand the eye with no visible effect on them. Interesting."

"Why wouldn"t they, Neviria? They are nascent soul cultivators compared to the others who haven"t even formed a core. Can the two nascent souls withstand a G.o.dly glare? A celestial glare? Not to mention a divine stare. Well, maybe they can. Do you want to find out, Femara?"

"Let them be, Neviria. That would be unnecessary oppression. We are not oppressors. Are we?"

"Are we not? Of course we are not, Femara. Now, let"s focus on the matter before us."

With that, the pressure coming from the eye receeded much to their relief. A green-gold mist was released from the eye that made Jufeng recovered his full composure while the other disciples quickly regained their consciousness. Reena and elder w.a.n.g Xiu were also restored from the fatigue of the fear of the mind.

"We humbly welcome you all to the ancestral palacium of the mightiest of the emperors, the Jade emperor himself, Wan Bao. Welcome."

"You must be wondering what kind of palace is this after your visit to the garden. Well, you are right to wonder if that is true. As you can see, this is not your traditional kind of palace, just to confirm your thoughts."

"This is the mythical Jade Realm."

"A place that has transcended the mortal plane to the heavenly plane. The outer premises of the palace is a gift from the Jade emperor to all that enter this place. There are fruits and plants that would not be found in many other places but exist here. Even if you are to turn back without entering the palace, you would have recieved a worthy little gift in return."

"But inside the palace? It"s a different matter entirely."

"A true immortal domain beyond mortal comprehension. You may easily die in there that"s why the Jade emperor designed the following trials to see how able your cultivation levels are and to possibly prepare you ahead."

"Since you are here, it means you must have reached the conclusion of moving forward."

"Well enough, but you will have to pa.s.s our trials, only two of them, for you to be able to enter the Jade palace. And of course, you can stop at any time during the trials with the safe-word which I believe you already know."

"First of the trials is for you to face the truth of the Divine Crucible."

"After that, you"ll face the the Golems Might."

"Do not worry treasure hunters, the trials will be according to your levels and capacities."

"If you are all ready, then let it begin."

"Starting from the left."

As soon as the Luduans finished talking, the large emerald eye settled in front of Yingjie who held his head with both hand as a new powerful voice sounded in his head.

"Yingjie! What a beautiful name you have. Ying-Jie. Do you even know the meaning of your name? Yes, of course you do know. How brave you are meant to be, yes, how heroic. Born on a beautiful solar morning, the path of greatness was set. Yet, when you suppose to live up to your name, you proved to be a disappointment. You were there on that day. You watched your parents being captured and you did nothing about it. Oh, you actually did something. You ran! What? You were young? Mhm, you are right. You really were young when that happened. How old are you then? Five? Six? Some were that age when they performed unbelievable things. You were a coward and a weakling. Do you admit that you are still one?"

By the time the Emerald eye left Yingjie, he was already sprawling on the floor. He had tears flowing down his face as he continued shaking his head.

The Emerald moved to elder w.a.n.g Xiu as she stood transfixed in her stare at the eye.

"A true nascent soul. w.a.n.g Xiu Ying or should I simply say "elder w.a.n.g Xiu"? What a beautiful child you were born. Friends and foes revered your parents after your birth. The elegant jewel in the eyes of her parents, w.a.n.g Xiu Ying. You were a brilliant child, yes, I would have been proud of you if I was there too. I have to agree that you came into cultivation a bit late, I give you that. You have even become a nascent soul. But at what cost? Your parents died because of you. When your father was dying, you ran away instead of saving him. How pathetic was that? Cowardice is one thing but to add weakness to it? Truly pathetic. You had the chance to take revenge on the cause, but you were too weak to do that. Admit it, you are a curse and not a jewel, to your parents. You miserable coward and a pitiable weakling."

The words made elder w.a.n.g Xiu screamed with tears.

"Nooo."

"Denial? That won"t work with me w.a.n.g Xiu Ying. Face the truth and let your mind readjust itself. Now that"s better. Nothing relieves more than the truth."

The emerald eye moved from one to the other as the truth hidden in their mind was brought into bear for them to confront.

DXia was holding her head sobbing as she sat on the floor crawled up and shaking after her own encounter with the eye.

Chenric was kneeling down with his head bowed as tears dropped from his eyes.

Reena was already manifesting fire in anger as if she wanted to burn her pain. She had faced the truth before and she readily admitted it when the emerald eye brought it out again. But so many painful hidden truth that really wanted her to burn something.

"Jufeng, the one who comes with the wind. The immortal storm. True, you are not like many. Your name is even more unique than you can imagine. Do you want to know? Alright, I will tell you. You are not the one who comes with the wind, you are the one who comes with death. Yes, you are. Your father suffered because of you, a whole village suffered near destruction because of you, your folks left their birth place because of you. How many people are still going to die because of you? It"s good you already admitted that you are walking in the shadow of death. That"s so thoughtful of you for the fact that it"s true. I commend you for also admitting that you are a lamentable weakling. You are just too weak to save yourself, talkless of saving others."

Jufeng was staring into the unseen future and showing no sign of movement after the eye left him. He was completely lost in his own mind.

The emerald eye released another green-gold mist that restored their frames of mind to the normal state. This was truly a divine artifact. If the Crucible trial was of their levels, how would a G.o.dly one be like? Jufeng couldn"t help but shook his head at the thought.
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"That was the moment of truth. The ultimate burden that we love to hide or that was hidden by forces beyond us. The eye has done it"s part."

The large emerald eye suddenly disappeared leaving behind a faint mist of green-gold mist.

"The second trial will commence now. All you have to do is withstand and fend off the golems. It will be within a time limit."

The second trial, the Golems Might commenced with each of them facing the golems starting from one golem.

A giant time scale appeared in the mid-air, a little distance from their position.

They had difficulty pa.s.sing this trial, but they all managed to pa.s.s it.

The timescale disappeared and the golems returned to their statue state. The statues of the Luduans turned into their true living selves. They stared at the bedraggled group in front of them and made audible sighs.

"The world inside the palace is a dangerous and deadly one albeit many benefits. It"s a many facet domain created by a group of immortal friends. The friends came across a divine artifact on a quest for the emperor."

"A Jade monolith."

The Luduans, Femara and Neviria uttered to the group of cultivators standing in front of them as the two of them started their antic.i.p.atory transitions of talks.

"A s.p.a.cetime treasure of the utmost power. The friends are of different mystical elements of fire, water, terra, air and dream and illusions. They knew that if they only had one artifact and there was no way to divide it among themselves."

"And besides, any one holding a divine artifact without the power level to support it, was only seeking death considering more powerful cultivators that will come after it if known. So, they delibrated on what they should do with it and they all agreed to present it to the emperor as a gift."

"When they returned with the artifact and presented it to the emperor and told him about their idea of creating an illusion into the traditional palace of the emperor, the emperor was joyfully pleased. He compensated them handsomely."

"But, instead of creating illusion into the traditional palace, the emperor decided to make a domain. As a s.p.a.cetime ascendant, he could manage to create a domain to an extent while he was still on the mortal plane. With the help of the five friends, he created this palacium. The palace you are looking at, is the divine artifact."

" A divine s.p.a.cetime domain. Where you find yourself on entering is always different from time to time, but there are treasures to be found inside."

"One thing you need to know though."

"There are two more entrances leading into this palacium. This is only one them. There"s one from the Nether plane and one from the heavenly plane. Those two were added after the Jade emperors ascension. Which means, you could meet others from the other planes in there."

"After today, there wiĺl be no more access entrance from the mortal plane. Make use of the chance you have. Just be cautious in there."

"Or else, you might just die in there."

"That means, we may never meet again. So, farewell hunters."

"Yes, farewell. Now, you may enter the palace."

After finishing their admonishing talks, the Luduans returned to their statue form.

There was a sigh of relief among all the members of the group as they took a moment to regain their composure. After that they contemplated the course of action.

Jufeng and the other disciples ruminated on what was reasonable for them to do. According to the Luduans, the palace was a dangerous place to enter but with treasures. The best thing would be for them to just give up now since they already had the spirit fruits. But the allure of treasures was there and the safe-word which they could use immediately they enter. Hence, they made their decisions to enter first and to use the safe-word immediately afterward if the situation was looking grim.

"We proceed cautiously and we shouldn"t forget the safe-word. Immortal Dargehk said he would be waiting for us inside. Let"s go in and meet him."

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu looked at Reena who nodded in return.

Since they have reached this point, they would simply forge ahead. They entered the palace through the two opened ma.s.sive doors. With half a step into the palace, time appeared to freeze as Dargehk addressed them from within the palace.

"Remember, the palace is a s.p.a.cetime. You will find yourselves in different places and if you find yourselves in difficult positions, simply exit. May fortune smile on you."

Things returned to normal immediately after that and as his foot landed on the palace"s floor, Jufeng found himself alone in a snowy place yet not too cold. He looked around to observe his immediate sorroundings when he heard a voice.

"Eh you, over here."