“Don’t blame me, blame yourself for being negligent,” he indeed got a thick skin and was shameless, even more than I, “to be a hegemone…”

“Stop giving me this bull**!” I didn’t want to hear any of his garbage anymore. I slowly stood up, looked in challenge towards the sky before adding in a cold tone, “trying to use your fake authority to subdue me and make me fail? And you call yourself a man? Come here, let me teach you a lesson!”

“Hahahaha! Lovely little creature, hahahaha! Do you think you can even withstand a wisp of my power? That’s hilarious!”

He kept laughing, and I knew I’d be seeking death if he really came. But for a reason, I felt he wouldn’t. Or to be more precise, he couldn’t.

So what was the use of being cautious of him? He was doing his best to make me fail. So why wouldn’t I try and insult him a little? At least such anger in me would vent and get relieved.

“You got half a day of rest, these are the rules,” just before I’d say anything, he suddenly added, “I’ll wait for you to be ready. Or better, to be not, hahahaha!”

And in response to his provocations, I raised my middle finger, two actually, towards the distant sky. “Go f*ck yourself then while I’m recuperating,” I said in disdain, sat back again, and continued healing my body and regaining my strength.

This dude was just getting on my nerves! So speaking with him wasn’t going to do me any good.

Trying to trick me? Activating a test secretly without telling me about it?

Like this, I completed one test, the test of the body, with my sincere efforts. Luckily I also cleared the soul test without even knowing it.

All that remained would be the heart test, but what would it be like? I pondered for a few minutes before a thought suddenly passed through my mind.

“Wait a minute…” I slowly opened my eyes, stood up and looked at the sky in doubt, “I don’t need to rest, bring it on, bring that test right away!”

“Are you sure? Your body still needs rest and healing! Stay put and rest, that’s good for your sake.”

Hearing these words made me much surer of my earlier guess.

Damn! I was just this close from missing it out!

The idea was simple: if that bastard activated the second test without telling me, then why wouldn’t he also activate the third as well?

The test of a heart? Wasn’t it also a test of one’s will? Or what?

Sitting here and listening to his blabbery words, following my enemy’s instructions wasn’t going to do me any good.

I was sure the heart test was undergoing after he tried to persuade me to rest. Since when this jerk was on my side, caring about my body and my well being?

No way! He was doing this for his own sake, not mine.

“I said, bring it on right now!” without even hesitating anymore, I raised my fist high in the air, as if I was punching his face with it.

“Are you sure? Once started, you’ll lose this chance!”

“I’m sure,” stop bull**ting me. I wouldn’t fall for this trick, “do it now!”

“Tsk! And here I thought I was this close from making you fail… What a regret… What a loss…”

“I knew it!” without the need to listen to the rest of his words, I knew this was the third test and I cleared it.

“You passed the third test, the heart test of heart. You have a good will and your desire for strength can’t be subdued by any external factor. You passed the trial and are now eligible to step further ahead…”

Hearing his words made me feel something. This dude… He was just putting a show just now to corner me or what?

His tone showed his sincerity and happiness towards my success. Or was it my illusion?

Before thinking much about it, a glare appeared and blinded me for a few minutes. Then I found myself back into that miraculous world where I started everything from.

The first test was to see how I’d react in a fight. Of course if I knew that cultivation was allowed, then I could have used my power from it and crushed all these rocks without any struggle.

But for a reason, it seemed that mysterious beings used a special method to fog my mind and make me miss this crucial factor.

As for the second and third tests, they got activated the moment the first test started. The test for the soul was directed towards me getting over his manipulation with my mind. And the heart test was to see if I’d obediently follow my enemies orders or not.

So he had to act aggressive and show himself as my true enemy for this test to succeed. A good actor indeed, or perhaps this was just expressing what he really thought about me, about my race?

Just when I was in the middle of such deep thinking, I felt like a force was repulsing me away.

“Tsk… I couldn’t stay there after returning… That world was indeed a rare chance for me…” the next moment, I opened my eyes as I got back to the real world.

It seemed when I came out of that trial, my thoughts and state of mind weren’t perfect like before. And that cost me to lose the chance to keep training there.

However I got what I wanted and pushed the limit of my cultivation to a brand new level.

Even if I lacked the means to go inside the dark shadow world for now and explore the new changes in my base, the leap in power already occurred.

And that was what really mattered.

“Wow! How long was I inside that world?!”

Just as I stood up, and aside from hearing cracking noises coming from my joints, I found something shocking.

The bones grew to such a scary degree that they started to rise up in the air, sending thick branches that looked like dead and leafless trees.