Bai Jingshen was welcomed by an overwhelming feeling of closeness to nature. He almost believed he entered another small world, as he looked down upon an incredible world of water. He was still in a cave, but from all over the walls the clearest water fell down, forming rivers and lakes. Small fish and frogs played around, hiding behind beautiful aquatic plants. Bai Jingshen was sure each of these plants was a precious spirit herb, but just the thought of taking any of these away seemed blasphemous.
The young man enjoyed the scenery as he followed a small path of shallow water towards the room's center. Sam was already waiting there for him, surprising Bai Jingshen by greeting him with a hug. The former emperor took a closer look at his friend, noticing many subtle changes. First and foremost, however he seemed more stable and at peace with himself. After thinking about what he just went through, Bai Jingshen could imagine his friend had a similar experience. He could feel Sam's unspoken gratitude in his hug and just patted his shoulder in response. He reminded himself to ask Sam about his trial later, growing curious about his story.
As the young men ended their brotherly hug, the overseers voice sounded in their minds again:
"Congratulations… you… have passed the trials. Before you… you see… the sacred water. It… will attune… your body to… the law of… water."
Bai Jingshen slightly gasped at this revelation. This was an incredible chance. In his understanding this meant gifting someone a special body constitution, which let them advance smoothly as they tried to understand the law of water. Depending on the constitution this would have some benefits early on, while basically laying down the path for someone to reach the immortal realm. Such an opportunity was simply a wish come true for any cultivator.
Sam's reaction was a little bit more subdued. He was confused as such a mystical trial only gave such a small reward. In his understanding, the children of super rich families, mostly among the big five, would get gene boosters early on to strengthen their body and attune themselves to an element. It simply let to them being stronger in the Gene Activation Realm. As if the immortal being read Sam's mind, it continued talking:
"This opportunity… was granted by… the Supreme Ruler… himself. Back then… if an elf… hoped to reach… immortality. The Supreme Ruler's blessing… was the most common… requirement. Even in this world… it… should help… in advancing."
Hearing those words, Sam's doubts cleared up and he felt a little embarrassed for questioning the Supreme Ruler. A big smile could be seen on his face, as he imagined himself transforming into a supreme genius.
The last trial just now helped him get rid of his inferiority complex, which he had since his childhood. Behind his bubbly personally he had always hidden a lot of sadness, since everyone compared him to his genius older sister all the time. Although he loved his sister dearly, it still dealt constant blows to his psyche. Only the third trial finally taught him to walk his own path and embrace everyone supporting him on his way, while ignoring those who constantly throw obstacles in his way.
Just now he finally understood, that had to accept himself. He was happy to have friends and a loving older sister who supported him, but he would eventually only be able to cheer from behind. However, hearing of this reward tears started to run down his cheeks, as this opportunity gave him hope of walking parallel to the likes of Bai Jingshen and his sister.
As Sam suddenly began to cry, but kept up a smiling face, Bai Jingshen even felt his illusionary core slowly rotate. He looked at his brother and patted him on his shoulder again, before asking in his mind:
"Senior. How can we acquire this opportunity now."
"Just advance… to the center… I… will do the… rest. However… I… don't recommend you… to participate. Your body… is already special. Just give… all the blessing here… to your friend. I… will send you… to the new trial. If… you… succeed. I will also… leave here."
"I will do as you say Senior."
Bai Jingshen wasn't particularly surprised that this Senior saw through his constitution. He would happily give this chance to his brother, while participating in one last trial. He looked over at Sam and told him to start when he was ready.
The young man looked at his first good friend before nodding in determination. He stopped his tears and walked forward.
Suddenly the path of shallow water ended, and Sam fell unnaturally deep into the lake. Bai Jingshen observed for a bit and saw Sam surrounded by some azure light, while seemingly in a state of comprehension. The former emperor inwardly wished his brother the best, before walking forward. He circled around the room's center and approached the opposite wall. He arrived before a solid stone wall but smirked as a door revealed itself again. Much calmer about all those trials by now, he continued to pass another hallway before finding himself in a small room again.
His eyes didn't have any time to observe his surrounding however as they quickly fixed themselves on a light radiating an immense dignity and power. Bai Jingshen suddenly had trouble breathing just from looking at the treasure floating in the air before him. They pressure only receded a bit, as the voice once again began to explain:
"This is… a fragment… A fragment of… the elven king's crown. It was… one of the… most powerful artifacts… the elves possessed."
"Who could destroy such an artifact? How did it get here?"
"Only… the Supreme Ruler… can interfere with the pact… Only him… could place this here… However… I… wouldn't know… I… was asleep.
Your trial… is to subdue it..."
"Is there only this one fragment here?"
"Yes… you are… lucky. You… wouldn't be able… to subdue the complete… spirit."
Bai Jingshen understood what he had to do. High-level artifacts often had their own consciousness or spirit. Only a small fragment of this crown already left him in awe, so he understood why the overseer would tell him he couldn't subdue the complete crown.
The former emperor waited a few seconds for any more instructions. Not hearing the voice speak up again, he braced his will and walked forward. As he got closer the light began to dim and his gaze landed upon a transparent, elegant looking crown. It still looked intact, but upon closer inspection it seemed light and illusionary, as if a slight wind would be able to scatter it into a thousand directions. Bai Jingshen carefully touched it. Not felling anything, he grit his teeth and placed the crown on his head.
By now, Bai Jingshen was almost used to the feeling of being pulled in a different world. He observed his surroundings and first saw the illusionary image of the elven king's crown building a big circle around him. Looking down on himself, he was wearing strange, green robes with more jewelry than he ever possessed in his lifetime.
While still reorienting himself, loud shouts and rumbling sounds reached Bai Jingshen's ears, prompting him to look further away. He realized that he stood on a massive, hundreds-of-meters tall tree, looking down on a scenery of absolute carnage. Thousands of light elves stood before him, casting spells against crowds of dark elves. Everywhere on this battlefield corpses of his people could be seen. With every death Bai Jingshen stated to feel his vision to grow red. Suddenly a group of dark elves finished their spell, leading to a carpet of thorns shooting out of the ground, slowly sucking the life out of hundreds of light elves.
Bai Jingshen's whole mind clouded in anger as he yelled a frustrated 'stop!'. However, nobody listened to him. His light elves fought back, only leading to ever increasing attacks from the dark elves. Every minute Bai Jingshen had to watch these elves die, not realizing how the crown's image around him slowly shrank.
Suddenly his vision zoomed onto a peculiar elf on the battlefield. He instinctively realized this woman to be his daughter. He watched on in horror as a dark elf crept up behind her. Just as the elf wanted to slash out with his cruel looking blade and the crown's imagine almost landed on Bai Jingshen's head, his eyes revealed a heavy struggle. Everything in his vision stopped, while his eyes slowly took on a white color. His face became calm, and the crown wasn't able to get any closer. During their struggle, some elves died, while others miraculously came back to live again.
Just as the crown's spirit felt victory was near, Bai Jingshen all of a sudden managed to activate his illusionary core. A ball of multiple colors enveloped him. He weirdly felt multiple emotions assault him at the same time, but they were all controlled by a calm, strong, white light. Slowly but surely the elves around Bai Jingshen vanished as his illusionary core continued to grow, gradually pushing the crown's image back again.