But to enjoy that view, Krune himself has to pass the test first, but, then again, if he, who had his soul tempered with tribulation lightning, doesn't pass, then the others better give up there and then.
He was teleported to the room with the sphere in the center; it shined goldenly and left some ripples now and then. Krune moved forward to take a close look at it. It was then that the robotic voice talked again.
"Second test, soul endurance. You will receive ten attacks; if you resist all of them, the level of the attacks will increase, and you will receive ten attacks again. As long as you resist five levels of ten attacks each, you will pass the test. The contestant has one minute to put his hands over the Divine Sense sphere in the center of the room. If the contestant wants to give up, just release your hands from the Divine Sense sphere, and the test will be over. The test starts now!"
Krune took a deep breath and put his hands over the sphere, outside. Shinja and the other were observing Krune's performance. If Krune doesn't pass, then they will have even less of a chance of doing so.
Krune put his hands over the Divine Sense sphere and made up his mind.
'I don't know how to resist the attacks to start with, so I will simply counter attack by sending my Divine sense against the one coming at me. It can't be considered a real Divine Sense attack, but it's better than nothing.'
Outside, Yusa asked Hasik if it would be too hard for Krune to pass the test. Yusa and the other two understand very well. If Krune doesn't move all the ten levels, they definitely won't do any better.
"I think he has a good chance of reaching the eighth level, but to resist all ten, it will be somewhat difficult. As long as he tempers his soul enough to do that, it will be very beneficial to his future. If he passes all the ten levels, then that's even better, of course."
It was then that they heard a weird sound.
"Crack!"
Hasik's eyes glued on the illusory image showing the Divine Sense sphere; he could swear the sound came from it, just as he was about to check what had happened.
"Puff"
The Divine Sense sphere became dust. It was gone, just like that…
Yusa and the other looked at Hasik. The look on their faces told more than a thousand words.
'Wasn't it supposed to be a somewhat difficult test? How come it broke the moment Krune started?'
Hasik wanted to cry. He doesn't know either what has happened just now.
Krune passed through the teleportation formation and was back to the Order Hall. His face looked awkward; he went all out to be sure to resist all the ten levels. But the sphere broke just like that. Hasik looked at Krune and simply asked.
"When did the test start? What did you do?"
Krune sighed and recounted what had happened. It was then that Hasik understood the situation. He couldn't help but looked at Krune as if he were some anomaly.
"Well, I think that way because the Divine Sense Sphere adjusts itself according to the contestant level. Its defense also did the same, when you counter-attacked with all your power. It couldn't resist a Divine Sense that appeared at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment and then turned into dust."
Krune heard that and felt a little helpless.
"The Mohie Sect products are quite low quality, aren't they?"
Hasik's mouth twitched a little.
'Low quality your head! You were supposed to resist the attacks, not to attack back. Do you know how valuable and difficult it is to make those Divine Sense spheres ?'
"Cough, cough, I will send you to another test room. This time, don't try to attack back! Just resist the attack. This is an endurance test, not an offensive one."
Krune nodded and was teleported to another room with another Divine Sense sphere.
The robotic voice explained all the rules again and initiated the test.
Back at where Krune's friends were, Hasik and they were watching the test when suddenly:
"Crack!"
Hasik was just a sliver of will left behind in the illusory formation. But the will almost dissipate that instant. He looked at the Divine Sense sphere and then…
"Puff."
It turned into dust again. Hasik wanted to cry but had no tears. Yusa and the other looked at that and then looked at Hasik. They couldn't help but said:
"Isn't this Divine Sense sphere a little too fragile?"
Hasik pretended he didn't hear anything.
Krune came back, his face contorting, it was evident he didn't expect that it would turn to dust the second it started either. Hasik looked at Krune and calmed himself.
"What exactly have you done now?"
Krune shook his head.
"I really didn't do anything, I only protected myself! I didn't know how to defend against a real Divine Sense attack, so I simply converged my Divine Sense entirely around my soul. But who could have guessed the attack was so weak that it received a backlash from my Divine Sense and made the sphere turn into dust again. That thing is too weak! It can't be used at all!"
Hasik started to consider if it were really a good thing to have this guy to receive the Mohie Sect Legacy.
'Whatever, it just means that his Divine Sense power and control are excellent! I should be happy instead.'
He looked at Krune and said:
"There is no point in you doing this test anymore. The Divine Sense sphere isn't a match to your Divine Sense at the same cultivation level. I will just consider it as you passed the test with the highest score! Just take the spirit stones reward with me when the test for your friends is over."
'Besides, this branch doesn't have many others. If you break everything, this test will be doomed.'
Krune nodded and stepped aside. Ao went forward first to try his luck against the Divine Sense sphere.
This time things went as they should have. Ao resisted the attacks step by step all the way to the sixth level when he couldn't hold back anymore. But, just as they had discussed earlier, he opted for failing the test. They will use the Divine Sense sphere to temper their souls from now on, and only pass after they can resist all the ten levels.
Yusa did pretty much the same as Ao when he decided to fail instead of passing. Shinja did a little better; she passed the sixth level but fell short on the seventh, also choosing to abandon instead of passing.
Outside, Krune looked at their terrible faces with a bright smile on his face. He didn't remember when he had been in such a good mood before. Yusa looked at him, and for some reason, his smile made her feel like giving him another beating.
"What is so funny?"
Krune came back to himself and turned his face away.
"Cough, cough. Nothing! Nothing at all! Haha!"
The others looked at Krune. They didn't believe a single word he had just said.
Krune then left. Hase Hasik had told him to go to another building, the Books Hall, that was the place where he could get a cultivation technique for the soul. When he entered the room, he was surprised by the number of books there. A few puppets walked around, cleaning, or making new copies of old books. It made Krune remember that this was a Secret Realm from back when technology hasn't exist yet. So they kept everything in books.
Hasik voice appeared in the Books Hall but not his illusory form. His form could only be seen in the Order Hall.
"There are five floors available in this Book Hall. The first three floors have techniques that can be accessed by ordinary disciples. That is your case at the moment. The last two can only be accessed by Legacy Disciples. Before, there were outer, inner, and core disciples as well. Their access variated too, but now there is no point in having such a thing. So now, there are ordinary and legacy only, nothing else!"
"You can choose any technique you think is compatible with yourself in the first three halls. Besides the Divine Sense attack and Defence technique, there are different ones too. Just take your time and read through them. The best technique is the one most suited to you. Not the strongest, remember that."
After that, Hasik's voice disappeared. Krune then looked at the shelves; there were too many books. Then again, as he also had a lot of time, he started to read the introductions of each cultivation technique.
---
It has been three days since Krune entered the Book Hall. Back in the Divine Sense sphere test rooms, Ao, Yusa, and Shinja were still in the middle of using the Divine Sense attacks to slowly temper their souls. Their progress was much slower than Krune, of course, but they still had got some benefits already.
Yusa had just finished another round of attacks. His face was pale due to the constant attacks, but she would be okay after recovering for a while.
'This thing hurts like hell! If it were tribulation lightning, I might have been dead already. In the end, how did that idiot survive to that?'
Then, she remembered that smile Krune was giving when they first tried the test. She finally understood why he was so happy at that moment.
'Just you wait!'
She could only sigh and concentrate on recovering. It will take some time before she can complete all ten levels.
At Ao and Shinja sides, the situation wasn't much different. However, the last three days had helped them improve their souls. The time they need to wait for the recovery still took the most of them. Although cultivation has always been a slow process, there was no point in caring about that now. At least they can still cultivate while they wait for their souls to go back to its peak state.
At Krune's side, he had already read the introduction of the techniques of the first and second floor, but he hasn't found one to his taste. He noticed a point that all Divine Sense cultivation techniques had in common. They were usually centered at a specific element. Simply put, through the use of the best item that the cultivator can control, the Divine Sense technique will have better results. The problem is that Krune doesn't specialize in any element. Although there are a few elements he uses more than others, like fire and wind, the fact is that if one thinks about control only, he is pretty much good at all of them.
One mustn't look down on the Myriad Energies Technique!
Krune couldn't see any cultivation for all elements so far, then he went back to the Order Hall to ask Hasik about it.
"A Divine Sense cultivation technique for someone specialized in all elements?"
Krune nodded.
"I don't have any preference over elements. I can pretty much use anything. So if I get a cultivation technique that uses only a single element to cultivate, I feel like it will be a waste over the others. The most I found in the three floors were a few techniques that could be used through the control of two or at most three elements at the same time, but not a single one for all five main elements together."
Hasik pondered a bit, but in the end, he shook his head.
"It's not like there isn't. But those techniques are scarce. Thus, they are only available on the fifth floor, and there are only three of them at the top of that. At first, you will need to become a legacy disciple before being able to see them. I might as well tell you that they are tough to cultivate."
Krune couldn't help, but he asked:
"Isn't it weird? If there is a disciple capable of cultivating a five-element Divine Sense technique, and he can't access them, wouldn't it be a waste of talent?"
Hasik nodded his head.
"You are right about that point! In those cases, there was an option for such disciples: to get enough contribution points from the Sect and exchange with the required cultivation technique. But now such a thing, as contribution points, doesn't exist anymore. The option is useless now."
Hasik looked at Krune and felt helpless.
"Alright, let's do it like this! Tell me how your Divine Sense got this strong while still at the 4th Stage of the Foundation Establishment, and I can trade the information for the cultivation technique on the fifth floor. Don't think I'm taking advantage of you! The Divine Sense cultivation techniques on the fifth floor might not be many, but they are still extremely precious. I refuse to believe they are any less valuable than your information."
Krune pondered a bit. The problem is because Hasik is only a sliver of a will, so he can't sign a blood contract to keep the secret. Not to mention that if the real Hasik was here, his cultivation would probably be more than sufficient to ignore the existence of the blood contract anyway.
Hase understood what Krune was thinking.
"A blood contract would be useless even if I were the real Hasik! But I guarantee that I won't spread it around without your permission. First of all, I would need someone to come here first before being able to say anything. You should know very well that reaching this place isn't anything easy at all."
Krune finally gave up and decided to go ahead with the trade.
'What is the point if I don't get the most suited technique? It's not like this is something that can be copied by someone anyway.'
Krune then explained Hasik the process of creating his foundation and the Heavenly Tribulation. And that, even with a bolt of tribulation lightning in his rainbow core, he can use it to further temper his soul. When Hase heard it, he first thought Krune was making fun of him. Who would believe you can use tribulation lightning? But then, Krune summoned a little of the tribulation lightning power and show it to Hasik. If even after looking at it, he didn't believe it, then there was nothing more Krune could do.
"I think someone was crazy enough to use tribulation lightning for soul tempering. I don't know if I should call you brave or idiot."
Krune then went back to the Books Hall, and as soon as he entered, the three cultivation techniques that used all elements were already in the table in front of the first shelves. It seems like he still can't come into the fourth and fifth floors anyway. Hasik just sent down the cultivation techniques he required.
'Let's take a look.'