"The four floors of the Padoga only test three things: willpower, comprehension, and your ability as a swordsman," said the artifact spirit.
"The first floor was created to weed out those who are not dedicated to the path of the swordsman."
"All of the floors except the fourth are equally difficult for all cultivators. The second and third floors become more difficult as your cultivation grows."
"All the trials in this padoga are relatively simple, the first being the simplest. All you have to do is swing your sword with all your might and precise form for 7 days. You have 3 months to complete this trial."
"My physical strength is not enough," said Xu Yue, hoping what happened in the trial will happen again.
"Do not worry, the padaga shall sustain your body. This is not a test of the body but rather one of the spirit."
"Let us begin," said the artifact spirit immediately after, not allowing Xu Yue any time to prepare.
Xu Yue disappeared from the hall and appeared in the middle of a room.
"Take out your sword and take your first swing. That is when the 30 days will begin."
As Xu Yue took out her sword, she noticed that a big cut was made on the sheath. Not dwelling on this, she prepared to take her first swing.
"Calm, be calm," whispered Xu Yue under her breath.
Then she took her first swing, normal, very normal. It was the same as the other millions of swings she took in her three years of training.
For the next thirty minutes, everything was normal, every swing as she had done them for years. After 30 minutes, she felt a small amount of heat. If she wasn't actively paying attention, she wouldn't have noticed it.
1 hour has passed. After 2 hours, 6 hours, and 12 hours, she could finally feel the heat without looking for it, and by hour 17, she found the heat to be distracting rather than painful.
"I wonder how hot it actually is?" thought Xu Yue.
"I shouldn't be thinking about stupid things," said Xu Yue lightly under her breath.
As 24 hours grew closer, the heat also continued to grow. Still, it was not in any way painful.
"10 seconds to go," thought Xu Yue, counting the time until 24 hours passed.
As 24 hours passed, Xu Yue felt relief for a moment after the heat disappeared, but that relief was gone in the next moment as she felt a chill.
"Ughhh," Xu Yue nearly wanted to scream. No, it was not pain, she felt a chill, even though most people would find the chill extremely bothersome, but after experiencing that annoying heat, it was nothing. The sensation of the chill made Xu Yue want to celebrate.
"It is not yet time to celebrate," thought Xu Yue as time passed, hour after hour, and the feeling of coldness increased. She felt as if this cold was slowing her movements down, even though this was not the case.
A few hours later, Xu Yue managed to shake off this feeling even though the chill had gotten even more severe. As time passed, and the second day came to an end, she couldn't help but remember the heat from the first day, and prayed that it would never come back.
As the third day began, she began feeling a schorching heat. She couldn't help but wince at how instantly the pain appeared. Even so, the pain wasn't that bad compared to the training her grandfather put her through. This was nothing. Time began to pass. Without the annoying heat and the feeling of coldness slowing her movements down, Xu Yue began to enter a cycle.
Without those things, she began to feel a certain boredom, which would sometimes be interrupted by pain when she let her guard down. As time passed, the amount of boredom she felt would decrease because of the increased pain. By the 23rd hour, Xu Yue felt like she was being fried. She now needed to fully resist the pain every moment and not let it interfere with her slashes.
For a moment, Xu Yue thought that the pain was over, but in the next moment, a seering cold swept over her. Because of the transition, Xu Yue almost failed to continue slashing her sword. But as she tried to get back into her rhythm, another wave of coldness swept over her. She continued to perservere hour after hour. By the 15th hour, Xu Yue felt like she couldn't feel her fingers.
"They move."
Even though she felt like that, her fingers were perfectly functional. This motivated Xu Yue to continue and persevere. Hour after hour, the cold increased. At first she felt like she couldn't move her fingers, but now both of her legs felt like they wouldn't move, but they did. She tried them.
By the time of the 24th hour, she could swear she saw the world itself freezing as she moved slower and slower.
Xu Yue let out a scream of pain as she felt like her lungs were being boiled and her internal organs were being cooked. She fell to the ground screaming. Though she kept her sword in her hand at this moment because of pure instint, she still failed.
A few seconds later, even though the heat had disappeared, she still felt unbearable pain. It took her a few minutes to recover, and that was only possible because of the refreshing feeling going through her that seemed to come from the padoga itself.
"I failed," Xu Yue said.
"You did pretty well for your first attempt." said a voice that Xu Yue knew was the artifact spirit's.
"No, I failed. I did not faint from the pain, which means that if my concentration was better, I could have held on for longer," said Xu Yue in a slightly depressed tone.
"Was that feeling of relief after the end coming from the padoga?"
"Yes, each participant has 12 attempts to complete this floor. I have to make sure they recover fully between each attempt."
Xu Yue breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. As recoving without assistance would take a long time.