"You lot pass the trials."
"Hmm?"
"Wait–"
It looks like Silver was not the only one who heard that differently.
He looked at the woman, the outer elder.
She still had a weird expression as she kept staring at Silver.
She wasn't alone, almost everyone standing here other than the dumbfounded challengers was looking at Silver like he was some kind of monster.
Still, Silver was currently focused on something else as he looked at all the people here.
Aside from the seven immortals, there was him, the fatty, and three of his acquaintances, an unconscious Mo Chen, Han Ling, her friend Miao, a lone girl, and a pair of siblings?.
A total of eleven people had passed the trial of the will and awaiting further instructions here.
The last few minutes had been a wild ride for everyone present here, maybe even for the spectators outside.
And it was all caused by a single person who was none other than Silver.
Let's go back in time a bit.
***
Silver had just crossed the end line and had emerged out of the darkness.
If you looked at him from the perspective of one standing near the end, facing the gate. You'd only see his back as he was walking backward.
However, that was not what the people already there were paying attention to.
As soon as he shouted at the entrance of the gate, the expression of all the immortals changed.
They were not even given much time to react when a figure dashed inside from the other side of the archway.
Silver himself was a little shocked as he hadn't accounted for an immediate response, he was even more shocked when he looked at the person who had made their move, inching closer and closer to the entrance.
'It's her.'
Han Ling was a typical egotistical and immature case of a thirteen-year-old for Silver.
He knew from the memory of Yifan what type of a person she was and honestly, she didn't betray his expectation.
She was a perfect spoiled brat you'd get when you put all the pieces in the right places. A rich and powerful father, with good looks, and no lack of compliments and gifts.
Even then, Silver didn't blame her for it, because at the end of the day, she was just a thirteen-year-old kid, not mature enough to look at things from a side other than her own.
So when he saw her dash towards the entrance as soon as his voice subsided, he was slightly shocked.
He looked at the girl who was sprinting with all her might with cheeks swollen like balloons with all the breath she was holding.
She was running with all the strength she could muster.
You could see that her body was being forced down as the downward mystical force acted upon her but it was not given much time to fully function as she had already moved further.
It was all happening so fast that some people weren't even able to react. The spectators were absolutely stunned while the challengers on the other side looked at the back of the sprinting figure with baffled looks.
On this side, the eleven people excluding Silver and the unconscious Mo Chen too were looking at this scene with utter disbelief.
Before long, the girl had already crossed half the distance. Her face looked as red as a cherry and her body was getting heavy every passing moment.
But it looked like she wasn't giving up anytime soon, even when her speed started going down, she still kept moving.
She didn't stop or breathe. She just kept moving.
Thirty meters…Twenty meters…
The last ten meters, she had already made it to the very last checkpoint of the archway.
By now, she already looked exhausted and her stance looked poor, but she didn't care about it anymore/
At the last seven meters, her body wasn't able to take it anymore and she collapsed.
As soon as her hands landed on the floor, an instinctive reaction, the weight on her body increased several folds.
Her back arched and her joints started making noises.
Her face looked beaten up with tears at the corner of her eyes.
But even between all of this, she didn't open her mouth.
With whatever oxygen she had left in her mouth, she started crawling on all four.
Six meters…
Her hair looked unkempt with all the running.
Five meters…
Her palms and knees became reddish as though blood would seep any moment now.
Four meters…
The tears were now wetting the floors.
Three meters…
Her spine arched even further, making crackling noises.
Two meters…
No matter how unladylike she looked, she kept going.
Last one meter…
"..."
"..."
"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!?"
The crowd behind finally descended into chaos after an eerie silence.
"OH LORDS!!"
"WHAT DID I JUST WITNESS!"
While the challengers and spectators were lost in the absurdity of the moment.
The immortals, the fatty and his group, and Silver looked at the figure lying in front of them.
Her figure was lying barely a few centimeters ahead of the archway.
It looks like she had passed out from the exhaustion and lack of oxygen.
There was complete silence on this side of the archway, contrary to the other side.
The immortals were at a loss of words.
Finally the woman, the one who had ordered the people behind to tend to Mo Chen ordered.
"Check her and bring her to the side."
"Y-yes, outer elder."
"Yes."
Finally breaking the silence. A person from the fatty's group asked with a quivering voice.
This was a question everybody wanted to ask, not just him.
For the last fifty years, the Azure Order sect had been accepting disciples other than the ones from the founding families.
The trial of the Will and the trial of the Spirit was something that the forefathers of the sect had come up with in order to test the zeal and the courage of the challenger and find a worthy one.
When approaching the trials, people would always keep a cool head and approach them with caution.
Never had they ever seen or heard of such an approach, and it worked!
The rules only stated to cross the archway, it didn't matter how you did it.
But one thing even they had not considered was someone simply dashing through it even when knowing well that one misstep and they could lose their life.
It could even be that they never considered that the trial could be attempted in such a manner.
The fatty's acquaintance wasn't expecting an answer and he was right to think so, Silver was still looking at the collapsed girl who was being carried by two other women in white garbs.
The seven immortals were still ruminating on what just happened, knowing exactly what had just happened, the realization of which shocked them further.
One old-looking outer elder, who looked like he was above the age of a hundred with the amount of white hair and wrinkles he had, suddenly walked forward with his cane towards Silver.
The other immortals looked at him but didn't make any movements, knowing what the old man was going to do, and they too were looking forward to it.
Silver looked as the old man drew closer to him and picked a single hand thrusting towards him rapidly.
Silver was a little taken aback as he saw the index finger approaching his face and squinted his eyes.
What he expected didn't happen and he felt a touch on his forehead followed by a cooling sensation that appeared out of nowhere in his head and spread throughout his body, before he could relish in the coolness, it vanished as soon as it came.
When he opened his eyes, Silver looked at the person in front of him.
The old man's face was a little red with what he had just discovered.
"What is it?"
The woman asked.
"He has not yet initiated the three minor realms."
The old man said with a calm yet hurried voice.
"How is that possible? He must be able to see Bian's Reiki."
"How can he see it even without initiating the three realms?"
"Does he possess a divine physique!?"
"!!"
"A divine physique!?"
"It must–"
"Silence!"
When the ruckus reached its peak, a stern-looking man interjected.
The immortals instantly riled down, the stern-looking figure was clearly respected by the immortals.
When the surroundings returned to a quiet, the stern-looking man sighed and looked at Silver.
"Don't jump to conclusions so easily. There are still people left on the other side. Save your estimations for later."
"It looks like my age is finally getting to me."
"Young Bian, you can continue."
"Ye-yes elder."
The man called Bian looked at me briefly and then went towards the archway.
He made a small gesture with his hand. When he did so, Silver could see his clothes float up a little but there was clearly no wind.
'Is that the mystical force…?'
From what Han Ling, who was currently resting accompanied by two women behind the immortals showed him, his initial conjectures regarding the mystical forces were true, it was unfortunate he couldn't see it yet.
The man named Bian was already back in line with the other immortal. They would glance at him from time to time as if he was some kind of spectacle.
Silver didn't mind it much as he went ahead to mingle with the fatty and his fellows, not minding the raging crowd on the other side of the archway.