Chapter 495 - 493:'Finally.''

Chapter 495: Chapter 493:“Finally.””

The moment the vessel came out of warp drive, our environment changed completely.

From the massive structures of the imperial city—the floating palaces, the massive towers, the loud ambiance—we were suddenly thrown into a world of green.

That’s all it was. For as far as the eyes could see, it was all green!

But before anyone could even take the time to begin wondering where we were, it happened again, but this time, with more force,

BOOOM!!!

"Ugghhh...." The sounds of bodies hitting the floor thundered through the hall as more than half the candidates gathered within the vessel were instantly dropped unconscious from the overwhelming aura that had slammed right into them.

"Fu... fuck!" The other candidates that had merely been brought to their knees weren’t having such a good time either as the aura seemed intent on flattening them to death.

I couldn’t help but raise a curious brow at the scene.

I had felt that aura. I had felt its weight, and it was one that dwarfed whatever it was we had felt upon entering the Martial Spirit World for the first time.

The aura back then had felt like a test. A check done by the planet to see if we were worthy.

But this? This felt like a bloody attack against a bunch of audacious mortals that had dared intrude upon a realm they had no business being in.

"Interesting..." A small smirk curled the edges of my lips as more and more participants continued to collapse, the aura’s weight mounting the longer we remained here.

"Alright, everyone, we shall be making our way toward the outer sect," the elder in charge, a beautiful black-haired woman draped in an emerald green dress that did nothing to hide her curves, spoke in a cold and emotionless tone.

She hadn’t spared the collapsed and still-collapsing candidates so much as a raised brow as she just gave out instructions, "Brace yourselves." And then, the vessel took off.

The moment the candidates in the room heard the words "Brace yourselves," they immediately did as ordered.

Not on any occasion where the elders had asked us to brace ourselves did something nice ever happen, so now, the candidates were taking that instruction seriously, yet...

"Ughh..."

THUD! THUD! THUD!

It was of no use as the continuous thuds of bodies dropping resounded all through as the vessel flew at a steady pace through the seemingly endless green.

The pressure within the realm kept mounting as we went deeper. A pressure not merely physical, but psychological as well. After all, for a bunch of law integration powerhouses that had already crossed the transformation stages of power, physical attacks could still be countered, but this?

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The resonant thuds of continuous collapses clearly said otherwise.

...

...

Slowly but surely, the endless green began ebbing away as I could finally make out structures in the distance. And the closer we got, the more visible they became.

WOOOOSH!!

The vessel finally broke through the endless green plains, and the view unfolded before me.

All I could think was,

"Of course it had to be like this. Heh!"

The so-called outer sect stretched across the horizon, its boundaries marked by mountain ranges that floated above the earth, waterfalls pouring upward into the heavens, and colossal pagodas piercing the clouds.

Millions of buildings spread across the land, connected by bridges that spanned valleys and rivers of spiritual energy. Entire mountains had been carved into cultivation grounds, their slopes covered in countless disciples while enormous formations rotated overhead, bathing the landscape in radiant streams of light.

And that was only the beginning.

In the distance, enormous battle platforms floated between mountain peaks, their protective barriers shimmering as cultivators clashed within them. Sword lights streaked across the sky by the thousands, while enormous beasts soared between the peaks, carrying disciples on their backs.

Somewhere beyond them, a gigantic golden bell rang.

BOOOONG!!

The sound rolling across the entire landscape, causing the formations scattered throughout the sect to light up in response.

And beyond the countless mountains, pagodas, and cultivation grounds stood an enormous staircase that climbed straight into the clouds, each step carved with ancient runes that glowed like stars.

I stared at the spectacle for a moment.

THIS was the outer sect.

The place where the weakest members of the Spirit Ascension Sect were supposed to begin their journey.

The pressure here was more than ten times greater than what we had been feeling during the trip here, which aroused my curiosity as I could see the disciples in the distance moving about like nothing was off. And yet the hall had become extremely silent, and that was because there were more bodies collapsed on the floor than there weren’t.

I couldn’t resist; I spread out my senses as I wanted to know just how many had actually been able to stay upright during this trip, and what I found out surprised me quite a lot.

I hadn’t bothered with taking a tally of the number of candidates the vessel had amassed during its travels across the galaxies as it picked up disciples left, right, and center, but now, after having taken count and then compared it to the number of candidates currently residing in la-la land, I was shocked to discover that it was a staggering 99%.

Now, don’t get me wrong. With how numerous the candidates had been, even a single percent of that number still amounted to a few tens of thousands of candidates still standing or struggling to maintain consciousness, but even then, the numbers were quite alarming.

"We have arrived, and your final tests have been completed." The voice of the female elder snapped me from my thoughts as a brilliant flash of light surrounded the fallen candidates.

The moment the light disappeared, the fallen candidates disappeared along with it, as just like that, the hall became extremely scanty.

"If you can’t even stand your ground against the world’s suppression, then you have no business being in my Spirit Ascension Sect." Her cold words were directed at the struggling disciples that had barely escaped being cut by the skin of their teeth.

"Prepare yourselves; we shall be arriving at the outer sect’s Ascension Grand Plaza soon," she said without so much as a change of expression after ending the dreams of millions in a heartbeat.

I could only shake my head in mock pity. "Quite ruthless you are, O Spirit Ascension Sect," I couldn’t help thinking in amusement.

No. I hadn’t for once believed that the sect was going to admit this ridiculous number of people into their outer sect.

I had expected some grand and loud tournaments held over a multitude of days to determine how we were going to be filtered out and who was going to make the final cut, but they just threw me a curveball by having the world’s aura itself be the judge.

It was ruthless. It was unexpected. But it was also undeniably effective.

"Alright then, Spirit Ascension Sect, you’ve successfully caught my attention. Let’s hope you don’t drop the ball."

I smiled thinly as the vessel finally arrived in the skies above a massive plaza, its platform lowering slowly as, finally, we were about to come into contact with the chosen sons and daughters of heaven, and I was sure things were about to become quite exciting..

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A/N: Am I dragging this arc out too long? I feel like I am despite rushing it and skipping a ton of stuff. I just hope you guys are enjoying it, anyways, as always...

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Thanks for reading....