Death... and me
chapter-1122

Roan found it strange, though. 'Wait, but doesn't the Soul Gem System protect our souls against things like that?'

[It does.] Sister Orb replied. [But when I noticed it was part of the test, I was able to stop the system from intervening. Otherwise, it would be obvious that something isn't right about you two.]

'I see...' Roan had to admit it was a good decision from Sister Orb.

[However, there was one thing I interfered with.]

'What is it?'

[The fact you two are together. I kept your consciences close to each other so that you two would appear in the same place. I have no doubt that the initial idea was to separate everyone.]

Rean liked her actions. 'That's a good thing. Thank you, Sister Orb.'

[No problem. Now, it's up to you to find out what you should be doing in this place.]

Rean then looked around before asking, "Well, that's exactly the problem. What should we do then? Are there no rules again? Maybe we need to escape the city?"

Roan shook his head in response. "Does it look like we're in danger? I don't think escaping this place is the case this time. First of all, it's not like we need to escape anywhere as our bodies are fine in the Sacred Land."

"That's true..." Rean agreed with Roan on that. "Then, what should we do?"

Roan pondered in silence for a bit before he got close to a wall. If his cultivation was the only thing that he couldn't use, then his body should still be much stronger due to the system's upgrade. Of course, it couldn't compare with using Divine Soul Power. However, as long as he punched that wall, it should break apart with his body strength alone.

Nevertheless, because this was a sort of dream world, perhaps Rean was right about having a normal human body again. In that case, Roan would only hurt his hand.

*Bang!*

The wooden wall on the side trembled a little. However, let alone breaking the wall, Roan simply made his fist turn purple due to the impact. "Forget what I said about our bodies' strength. This dream world truly uses normal human bodies. The same should be the case for the other humanoid races."

Rean nodded after that. "That's fine. Without Divine Energy, all the humanoid races are pretty much similar in strength. Except for a few races that evolved and got stronger bodies, of course. Well, those ones are a lot rarer."

Roan then began to walk after that. "Let's take a look around and see if we find any clues."

Rean didn't mind and quickly followed him.

Back in the guests' hall of the Sacred Land, the people watching found it quite weird. They changed between disciples that had entered different spatial gates, but they all ended up in the same dream city. It didn't look like it was dangerous to any of them. Soon enough, someone got the courage to ask Cassia again. "Errr... shouldn't one of the gates have an almost certain death situation in them?"

Cassia looked at the guy and smiled in response. "I lied. All gates are the same. I just wanted to eliminate the rats who weren't brave enough to even choose a spatial gate. Truth be told, no one can die in this test, only get disqualified."

The participants who stayed behind couldn't help but drop their heads after that. Obviously, she was talking about them. The worst part was that the test didn't have any dangers at all. How embarrassing was that? But then again, if Cassia did that one more time in the next test, would she be lying? No one could tell.

"So...now that they're all inside the gate, would you mind explaining what the rules of this test are?"

Cassia nodded. "Sure, I will also tell everyone inside what they should be doing anyway, so pay attention."

As the twins walked through the city, Cassia's voice suddenly echoed in their minds, and so did in all the other cultivators' minds as well. 'It seems that all of you are ready for what you should do. The rules of this test are very simple. Here, everyone has exactly the same physical strength. Cultivation has absolutely no meaning in this place. Even if you're from a physically stronger race, you will still have the same strength as everyone else.'

Rean's comments about the physically stronger races immediately became useless. Of course, he more than welcomed those words.

Cassia continued, 'For the idiots who haven't noticed yet, you're not using your real bodies. This is an illusionary realm, and only your consciousnesses are here. It wouldn't be wrong to call it a dream world, either. Your bodies are safe in the Sacred Land. As for the talk about the dangers inside one of the gates, that was a lie.'

Many mouths twitched after hearing that. Although they decided to face the gates' danger, it turned out that there wasn't anything dangerous at all. Well, they definitely wouldn't complain about Cassia, though.

'Alright, let's focus on the test. As I mentioned, you aren't any stronger than the fake people walking around you. In the entire city, I left many items called Existence Pearls. As long as you gather ten Existence Pearls, your consciousness will be pulled back into your body, and you will have finished the test.'

Cassia could guess everyone's thoughts. 'There are many ways to get an Existence Pearl, but you will have to find it yourself. Try to detach your head from the everyday cultivator's life and put yourselves in the skins of the common people. I believe many of you don't consider them more than ants. Nevertheless, you must understand that they are the foundation of every city, state, country, and continent. At some point down the line, even royal descendants came from a common lineage.'

After that, Cassia spoke about the final rules. 'Of course, there is one thing you need to know. You can rob other cultivators of their Existence Pearls. But remember that you're definitely not physically stronger than then, so think twice about your opponents. Last but not least, there's a hidden surprise in this test. Try to find that out.'