Death... and me
chapter-609

Sometime later, Qia, Calina, Malaka, and Agis also woke up. Just like Rean and Roan, they met other girls after going through their own illusions. None of them failed in getting a Bloodline Soul Mark either. Nevertheless, the girls were obviously upset with what they found out.

"We need to save them!"

Rean nodded as he replied.

"We know. However, there are many problems."

He then explained everything he and Roan had discussed so far. Although the plan seemed somewhat reckless, that was their only choice. At the very least, they could help once they got inside by coming out of the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm, though.

"Still, there are a lot of questions. First of all, why have none of us failed in getting a Bloodline Soul Mark?"

Calina immediately raised her hand as she replied.

"I asked Juliana about it before our time in the illusion world was up. By the way, that was the name of the girl I met there. Well, in fact, I asked about what I should do to not fail it. Juliana then said that I didn't need to worry about it because she would make sure that the Bloodline Mark was compatible. I asked her why, and she said that the reason was that my trial was completely different from what it should have been for the Zasfins."

Rean and the others had puzzled expressions on their faces as one of them asked.

"Different? What do you mean?"

Calina continued.

"Juliana told me that once a Zasfin starts his or her trial, they don't fall into illusions of their own. Instead, the illusion created is something to do with the sacrifice they chose. They would go through the illusion world of that human and try to convince them to accept becoming their Bloodline Marks. As for Juliana, she was a medium that used her own soul to keep the connection between the Zasfin and the sacrifice's soul. In our case, because we are also humans, such a medium wasn't necessary. Instead of showing an illusion based on the target's memories, it showed an illusion based on our own. We didn't have to convince anyone to start with."

Rean immediately understood.

"That's probably the reason behind the girls being constantly swapped. Being the medium between both sides also means seeing everything that happens between both Zasfins and the human sacrifices. There's no way their soul will keep their 'purity' for much longer like that. It's even worse because of how Zasfins think about humans. What kind of forceful methods had they seen in their lives?"

Roan agreed with Rean.

"That's not all. Being a medium between two different souls. That alone is definitely not an easy feat. If I'm not wrong, it places a huge burden on their souls to maintain that connection. We know that there's a time limit for the illusions, which should be because the girls can't hold it for long until reaching their limits. Chances are that the Zasfins' tests last even less due to the different types of souls."

Qia couldn't help but ask.

"Wait? Isn't it bad, then? It means that the guy who entered before us should have already finished a long time ago."

Agis shook his head, though.

"Don't worry, that's not a problem."

"Why?"

Agis then pointed at all the humans on the walls.

"Even if he failed once, he can simply go to the next human and try again. As long as his Soul Power doesn't run out, he can keep trying it one after another. In fact, we could do the same thing if we had failed. Of course, it didn't happen because we are also humans."

Malaka didn't look happy after hearing that.

"Do you think... that the failed trials will get the human they chose killed?"

Roan immediately nodded as he answered.

"Most likely."

"How do you know?"

Roan snorted and did the same thing as Agis, pointing at all the human sacrifices around.

"If not, why the hell do you think they have so many sacrifices? We all know that someone rarely enters the trial, so there was definitely no need for so many souls. The reason we can see so many in this chamber alone is proof that the Zasfins who come will fail and waste the sacrifices many times."

Everyone went silent. Rean's group knew that Roan's words were most likely true.

Rean then changed the topic since it would be useless to keep thinking about it.

"By the way, we do know that the girls there and maybe a few boys are selected based on their soul purity. That's most likely because the purer it is, the clearer the connection between the Zasfin and the human sacrifice will be. However, how exactly are the human sacrifices are selected? Look at all their cultivations. They are all in the Core and Soul Fusion Realm. Wasn't it supposed to be almost impossible for humans to reach this level in the Zasfin world?"

It was then that Agis' expression changed as an idea popped into his head.

"I think we just escaped a calamity here."

Rean and Roan nodded, with Roan saying.

"It seems like you noticed that as well."

Obviously, it only made the rest puzzled until Agis began to explain.

"We were going to Unity Celestial Land because of the rumors of it accepting humans, right? It's a Celestial Land! Why would they take humans? Simple, because they needed high-level sacrifices. Not only that, but it's probably the place where they find the kids with high Soul Purity."

Rean also added.

"That's not all. The Unity Celestial Land is simply the only entity that Frandin knew about. Do you really think that's the only one? There must be many others out there. It's just that letting other Zasfins know that there were many cultivating humans around isn't good, so the information is kept away from the masses."

Calina also thought about something else after hearing that.

"Wait, these places like the Unity Celestial Land are for the high-level sacrifices. The lower the rank of the Bloodline Trial, the more there are in the Empire. That being said, they also need lower-level humans. The Celestial Lands wouldn't waste their time with it. That means..."

Roan nodded.

"For lower-level humans, you have the Decadence Region where humans are thrown inside to fend for themselves. Of course, we already know that many more of these regions also exist around the world. The thing about 'showing the humans' ugly side to the world' is just bullshit. Those are the places where the lower-ranked Bloodline Trial sacrifices are chosen from."