Xavier got into the new room and saw the trial which was placed before him.
Contrary to what he believed, the trial was rather simple.
He had initially thought that this trial wood check his combat power, talent and stuff like that but this just contained a set of stairs.
The stairs had 9 steps to be exact. Each step was bigger than the previous one and each step was ornately decorated.
The trip of these steps was flat and clean like a mirror but the sides were filled with various murals. They depicted various beasts of different races, all the various rare beasts were found in these murals and some of these beasts, Xavier had never even seen them.
As she observed the steps closely, he could see that as the step was getting higher in level, the beasts depicted on it were of rarer kind among these and finally at the ninth step, there was a majestic dragon.
This drain was completely golden in colour. It had a long body which moved like waves in the clouds, for arms which ended with 5 claws, 2 horns on the head, numerous whiskers and a fiery red eyeball which seemed to be alive and looking at Xavier.
The myriad scaled on the body of the dragon shone golden and weave like fluctuations spread all across the whole body of the dragon and it was seen like there were waves moving about on the scales.
"What is the trial?" asked Xavier as he saw these steps.
"Your trial is to step into those steps and make it to the end of the 8th step. As long as you can do that, you'll recieved the inheritance of the Golden Yang Dragon."
"Do you mean that dragon?" asked Xavier as he pointed at the dragon depicted on the 9th step.
"Yes." answered the spirit.
"Then what will happen if I make it to the 9th step?"
"Hmph the 9th step? Even the original Yang Dragon Emperor didn't make it onto the 9th step. What do you have to think that you can make it onto the 9th step?" answered the spirit, it's voice laden with undisguised contempt.
Xavier couldn't help but feel a little disgruntled by the attitude of the spirit. He asked back," What will happen if I do make it to the 9th step?"
"Hmph, you're arrogant aren't you? Well let your ancestor tell this to you, of you can make it to the 9th step, you'll receive the their complete inheritance."
"What's that inheritance?"
"Even I don't know what that inheritance is. That is from a time that was way before my time and even before the time of the first Yang Dragon Emperor."
Xavier nodded. He could hear the reverence in the voice of the spirit whenever it mentioned the 9th step. From this, he could infer that the difficulty of stepping on to the 9th step was like climbing the heavens and it was practically impossible.
While it may be so for others, Xavier had the confidence in doing so. He was no ordinary foundation stage 4th level, he had practiced the Chaos Origin Art and had that mysterious chassis energy inside his body. It was his Trump card which could help him in clearing the trial.
"Are you ready to take the trial not." asked the spirit.
"Yes."
"Then step on the 1st step. The moment you step on, you'll feel the Yang energy penetrate into you."
"The main objective in this trial not to test your talent or combat prowess but it's too test you're will. The stronger your will, the more you will be able to resist the pain the Yang energy will inflict upon you when it changes your body. The moment you reach the 8th step, your body will be baptized by the Yang energy to a state where you are able to inherit the legacy left behind here."
"Because of this, talent and combat power is not important. Instead, it's your will. If you have poor talent, the Yang energy from the steps will improve it for you, if you have poor combat power, it can be increased exponentially in the future, but if you have no will, you'll not be able to cultivate at all. So this will be a test of your will. Remember, persist for as long as possible for the result of not being able to persist will be death!" the spirit said in a cold monotone.
"Will the test be of the same intensity for people of all states of cultivation?" asked Xavier.
"No, the level of difficulty will be dependent on the level of cultivation." said the artifact spirit.
It continued," That's because, the lesser the cultivation, the more mouldable the body and the spirit is and the easier it is to accept the inheritance. The higher the cultivation, the difficulty will increase exponentially."
Xavier nodded. He looked at the steps. He didn't think that he was more in the best condition to challenge this trial. His mind was a little worried by the consequences of failure both of himself and Clara as failure of any one of them will not be tolerated to the other.
He sat down and closed his eyes to meditate. After stabilizing his thoughts, he said up. He looked athe steps with determined eyes and said," I'm ready to take the trial."
The spirit said," Ok. Then step on to the first one. Brave yourself, the pain is unlike any other you have ever felt."
Xavier nodded. He looked at the steps.
They suddenly started trembling and soon the whole 9 steps turned golden as the beasts in those steps came alive.
The beasts looked at Xavier like they were looking at a pretty which they had encountered after they had been attaching for a thousand years.
Xavier took a deep breath and stepped onto the 1st step.
As soon as he did so, the beasts on the 1st platform roared and sent out numerous wisps of pure scorching hot take energies from their mouths.
These wisps of Yang energy penetrate into Xavier's body. As soon as this happened, Xavier felt like he was being penetrated by countless needless all over his body.
Xavier had the urge to scream but he held it back. This kind of pain brought back one of his memoirs from his previous life. When his tortures stuck thousand of needless into him everywhere but at the same time feed many high grade healing pills so that he would continuously bleed but not sure and writhe in agony.
When he remembers this expressive, the pain he felt from this felt like a small pin prick compare to bring arranged in the guts.
The beasts continued roaring at Xavier and after 10 minutes, the rising stopped and ask the beasts on the 1st step transformed into a beam of light and entered Xavier.
As soon as this happened, Xavier heard the voice of the spirit," You've passed the 1st step of the trial, now you can continue to the 2nd step."
Xavier continued to the 2nd step and also experienced the same thing. Then he passed to the 3rd and the 4th steps.
As he made way along the steps, more and more of his memoirs which he had subconsciously suppressed resurfaced one by one filling him with rage and motivation for passing this trial.
These emotions inside of him was also slowly changing his mentality. This trial not only changed his body, it also changed his personality. If he was a bit timid and a little retained before, now cache was slowly transforming into a willful man who had the desire as well as the power to carry out his desire.
Xavier stepped onto the 5th step and the situation suddenly changed. The poison which was slowly progressing in the 1st for steps increased exponentially as soon as he stepped onto the fifth.
The moment Xavier stepped onto the 5th step, the pain which was bearable until now became unbearable.
Now it felt like someone was hammering in nails into his bones. The countless strand of Yang energy file into his body.
The beasts which were till now remained without moving in the murals on the steps came out. They turned ethereal golden Yang beasts which attached Xavier.
Xavier, seeing this, wanted to fight back but the moment Xavier's arms contacted the beasts, they latched onto the skin of his body and started fight him to try to dig into his bones.
Xavier guessed this would happen the moment he stepped onto this step.
The previous 4 steps were all 4 stage of refinement.
The 1st step refined the skin, 2 nd step resume the muscles, the 3rd step refined the tendons and ligaments the 4 the step refined the blood vessels and nerves.
Now the 5th step, it was for refining the bones. The difficulty of refining the bones was exponentially more than the organs to now is They were hardened and difficult to refine.
As the refining process went on, a tiny spot of golden formed on the surface of his bones. Soon the golden spots spread throughout the whole skeletal system and Xavier entire body became golden.
After the whole of his bones, from the surface to the inner marrow walls and the bone marrow itself became golden, the beasts fused with his bones.
When one saw Xavier's while body, they could see the beasts which were found in the stone platform being engraved onto his very being.
After 3 hours of refinement, his bones were finally refined. Now it was for the 6th step, the refinement of the viscera.
Xavier stepped onto the 6th step and the pain increased exponentially. He has the urge to quit but his will didn't allow him to as he wanted to persist longer than that with his pure will alone.
The golden Yang beasts now attached Xavier's whole body. Knowing that he couldn't do much against this horde of beasts, Xavier closed his eyes and waited for the refinement.
In agony, 5 hours passed and all the viscera of his body, the heart, liver kidneys, spleen, guts and finally the area which had the most concentration of the beasts was the dantian and his nether regions.
As the place which stored majority of Yang energy, his genitals were the place which were focused on the most.
And it FUCKING HURT.
Xavier clutched his balls and feel down and writhed in pain. He felt like there were drills going into his testicles and burning them from within.
This took by far the longest time. Previously time taken to complete each step was increasing steadily but this time, it increases to three times more and took almost 15 hours.
Xavier said up in pain. He looked at the 3 steps he still had to conquer and felt as if he was going to crumble. But if he had to make it out alive, he needed to pass this test. The system already said the even though it could save him, he would have to pay a hefty price which he will regret for the rest of his life.
The only thing he knew that he has now which would he would regret for life was Clara's death. If he escaped, Clara will die. That was what the system was trying to say.
Xavier gritted his teeth and stepped into the 7th step. This step was for refining the brain, the spine and the nerves which were the containers for one's sea of knowledge.
This resulted in a headache which was like his whole body was splitting open.
This was the most pain he felt in his life. This time, the beasts didn't attach Xavier like they did the previous steps but they transformed into drops of pure Yang and incorporated themselves into his nerves and brain.
The originally gray and white matter of his brain and nerves started burning and melting. His whole nervous system started melting and drop by drop it peaked out of his body. Outside his body, the golden drops of Yang which were fused with his nerves started moulding his while nervous system. Xavier, due to his brain being outside his body had fainted but if he could observe it, he could see how his whole neural network was forming.
Like innumerable strings coming together to form a cloth, his nerves slowly came into being and slowly his cerebrum, cerebellum, his hindbrain and spine formed.
After that, his nerves started sprouting from this main body. Slowly, second by second, time went by as 10 days passed and his while nervous system formed.
The whole nervous system now encroached upon Xavier's body and slowly fused with him.
Xavier trembled a little and woke up. He was disoriented a little bit. This was one hell of an experience. Even though Xavier's body was unconscious, he was still experiment everything. While the first half of his transformation was a hell fuck. The latter half was a heavenly bliss.
Xavier shook off the contrast he was feeling and turned to see the 8th step. True was the step he needed to complete to finish the trial.
As soon as he stepped on it, he felt a suction force in his head. Before he could react, his sea of knowledge was stepped array from him.
Xavier's sea of knowledge was like a small pond. Just a small body was clear water but if one looked closely, they could see wisps of grey fading in and out of existence which indicated the influence of the Chaos Origin Art.
The beasts in the 8th step were very little
There were only about a 100 beasts which were all majestic to look at. The beasts came alive and tie into Xavier's sea of knowledge.
Being defenseless, his sea of knowledge was torn apart and devoted m devoured by the beasts.
Initially, Xavier felt panicky but seeing that the system didn't do anything, he understood that this was just a part of his inheritance, and called his mind down.
He also realised something. While refining the body was painful to the maximum, refining his sea of knowledge was not as painful. Infact it was pleasurable. It was like his whole being was getting an upgrade and his existence leaped with joy.
Time passed on and now it was already a month since he stepped into the 8th step. His sea of knowledge was slowly transforming into a better version and it's initially colourless appearance changes into a bright golden colour which radiated heart like it was going to burn anything which came in its way.
When the refining process was finally over, Xavier's while body changed. It was now completely golden in colour when one observed it with the help of their spiritual power but it was marked by some one unknown force at the same time which made him look like a normal man.
When Xavier took a deep breath, he heard the spirits voice," You have successfully passed the trial. Do you wish to proceed onto the last step it so you wish to recieve the inheritance?"
"What will happen when I fail the last step?" asked Xavier.
"You'll die." answered the system.
Now Xavier understood why nobody tried to complete this last step. The previous inheritors all went through so much to reach the 8th step and of they challenged the 9th step which was exponentially more difficult than the previous 8, if they were to fall, they lose all that they had gained. This will act as a deterring factor for many people.
But not for Xavier. He took a deep breath and answered," I'll proceed to the next step."
The spirit, which was now thoroughly impressed by the will of Xavier sighed and said," Continue."
And so, vague stepped onto the last and final step.
As soon as his for touhed the step, he recieved a few words in his head.
Soul Refinement.
And a world rending dragon's roar was heard. It was a road which soon the heavens and sent great fear through the heaven and earth.
The golden dragon which was the only best mural in the 9th step came to life.
This was the soul of the original Yang Dragon Emperor. This drain was one of the first beings born in the universe and it has passed down it's legacy for generations but nobody had ever challenged the final 9th Street and succeeded.
The last step was a battle of the soul. It was a battle to grasp the knowledge of the dragon soul had. It was a battle to devour the soul. The winner gained all and the loser lost everything.
But just as the battle was about to begin, the system sent a notification
[HOSTILE SOUL DETECTED
DETERMINING THAT THE CURRENT SITUATION IS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THE GIVEN TO MISSION
INITIATING SELF DEFENSE MECHANISM
HOSTILE SOUL DESTROYED]
The dragon sound which was about to come out of the mural and attack Xavier suddenly first as it trembled. It's eyes shone with undisguised fear as it suddenly disappeared into dots of light and fused into Xavier's sea of knowledge.
[INHERITANCE RECEIVED
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
INITIATING OPTIMISATION OF INHERITANCE.]