"I can finally begin my third attempt," thought Xu Yue.
After several hours of waiting, she had finally recovered from her last attempt at the trial. After recovering, Xu Yue once again felt much better than before.
"This may have been caused by the thing the padoga helps me recover with.
As she continued to examine herself, Xu Yue suddenly frowned, and even though she had not yet begun the trial, she felt a small amount of coldness. As she examined its source, Xu Yue was shocked to discover that the cold did not come from the outside, but rather the inside of her body.
As she continued to examine herself, Xu Yue found that the vast majority of the cold came from her head, while the rest of her body also emitted a miniscule amount.
"Is this an effect of what happened in the trial?" asked Xu Yue.
"You do not have to worry. This can be considered a benefit of the trial," said the artifact spirit.
As soon as Xu Yue heard that, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"Since this is a benefit from the trial, I will most likely not be harmed because of it," thought Xu Yue.
After a few moments of silence, Xu Yue was ready to resume the trial.
Slash, Slash, Slash, the monotous trial had once again begun. This time, Xu Yue found that the heat that was once annoying no longer bothered her, as the first day passed in a flash.
Xu Yue couldn't help but wonder if something had gone wrong with her sense of time, because of how fast the first day seemed to have gone.
"Nothing seemed to have changed," mumbled Xu Yue as she went through her memories of the first day.
As Xu Yue was thinking about time, she felt an ever so familiar coldness wash over her. The moment the coldness appeared, Xu Yue couldn't help but relax.
Suddenly, a small smile appeared on her face, which had stayed the same for the past few weeks. As Xu Yue was in this state, time seemed to pass extremely fast. In what seemed like a moment to her, Xu Yue went from heat to cold and then back to heat.
"Mother," mumbled Xu Yue, as the heat stopped her from dozing off. She couldn't help but compare this day to the feeling of being in her mother's embrace.
"For Ice's affection towards her to be at this level, she must have that both soul and physique ," thought the artifact spirit as he looked at Xu Yue.
The third passed uneventfully. The pain Xu Yue had felt here is still there, but compared with the fifth, it is quite miniscule.
As the fourth day began, Xu Yue once again began to feel the familiar coldness, but this time, she could no longer relax. As the strength of the coldness increased, Xu Yue could swear she felt it's unwillingness to impede her.
Even so, the day passed rather calmly. The fifth day began with the ever so familiar deep pain. Thinking of the experience with the coldness from the days before, Xu Yue couldn't help but curse the fire that was causing it.
Xu Yue was shocked as she felt the heat increase ever so slightly when she said that.
"Big brother flame, can you be a little bit more lenient?" said Xu Yue trying to act cute, but as she felt the heat increase after saying this, Xu Yue could only keep her mouth shut and try not to throw all the curses she had ever heard in her entire life at the fire.
Even as time passed and the pain continued to increase, Xu Yue felt that it was much more manageable than last time. Even as the end of the day aproached, Xu Yue didn't have much trouble bearing the pain.
As the sixth day began, Xu Yue felt a chill enter her spine. A deep coldness appeared and tried to stop her from continuing on. As the day went on, Xu Yue was extremely shocked at the difference between the other attempt and this one.
Even though she lost consciousness by around the 7th hour last time, this time she felt that the cold was quite bearable, as time continued to pass. Xu Yue felt that if what impeded her on the 7th day was a cold, she could quite easily pass.
As time continued to pass, and there were only a few seconds before the 7th day, Xu Yue felt a cold kiss on her forehead.
As the 7th day began, Xu Yue was still in deep thought about what had just happened. Her thoughts were rudely interupted by a scorching heat.
Xu Yue felt as if her entire body was being boiled alive. In fact, Xu Yue felt that if she were boiled alive, the pain she would feel would not be as great as this one.
By the time the third hour passed, Xu Yue felt that she had spent more time on this portion than the other six combined.
As Xu Yue continued to swing her sword, both the heat and the pain continued to get way worse. By the 12th hour, Xu Yue felt like her very soul was burning. Just as she felt like she would lose consciousness, Xu Yue felt a cold feeling errupt from her head. For the next several hours, this coldness managed to keep Xu Yue from fainting.
But even so, it seemed to have a limit. Xu Yue finally lost consciousness around the middle of the 17th hour.
"Let's see how much longer she can last," thought the artifact spirit as he looked at the now unconscious Xu Yue.
Even though Xu Yue had fallen unconscious, her body continued to work on pure instinct.
By the 23rd hour, just as her body seemed to slow down, a single thought managed to enter her mind, "Slash." A mere moment later, an agonizing pain caused Xu Yue to faint once more.
But even so, this single thought managed to make her body persist for a while longer.
As her instinct seemed to fail. Xu Yue was once again awakened. Slash, slash, slash, the agonizing pain began to fade as she felt a cool feeling emerge from her entire body. An unknown amount of time later, Xu Yue felt the heat begin to retreat from her body. She fainted immediately after this.
Just as her body was falling to the floor, a blue figure appeared and caught her.
"You shouldn't be here," said the artifact spirit.
"The trial is over," replied the figure in a female voice.
Unwilling to argue with her, the artifact spirit sighed and left.