Every trial in the F.LD.I.L is unique in some way, but that doesn’t always mean that ‘passing’ the trial is the end.

Life itself is, at its core, a constant repetition of trials. For mortals with a limited lifespan, their trials may include finding enough food to eat for the day or looking for a significant other to start a family with.

Of course, there are many other things that ordinary people must overcome if they want to live a successful life until their eventual death.

Cultivators, on the other hand, especially ones with higher cultivation, have their own set of difficulties that they must overcome.

One of those difficulties is time itself. More specifically, going into seclusion for thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years if you’re strong enough.

Only doing one thing, cultivating, for so long can easily mess with someone’s sense of self. If one is too focused on getting stronger, cultivating, or meditating on their Dao, then if they don’t have a strong enough will, they may lose their identity, becoming something they initially weren’t.

While this is extremely rare among weaker cultivators who have only been alive for a few hundred years or so, this phenomenon is actually more common than one might think amongst higher-level cultivators and immortals.

That’s what the trial for the Samsara Dogwood Tree is all about. In fact, the trial isn’t over even after Mira was sent out of the trial world.

Sure, she may have ‘successfully’ completed the trial and received the Samsara Dogwood Tree as her reward, but if she can’t regain her sense of self, she can’t use the item.

This trial may have been the most brutal of them all for the simple reason that Mira is too young and inexperienced, but there is also a reason for this. Although it may have gone to the extreme, the F.LD.I.L is trying to teach Mira a lesson she should never forget.

It wants Mira to understand that she isn’t just an emotionless tool meant for slaughter and revenge. That there’s more to her than her unhealthy need for power.

It wants to remind Mira where she came from and that she wasn’t originally an ice queen who only cared about herself.

Sure, she didn’t care for random people, but she loved her friends and family. She loved the connections that she made. She sought strength, not for revenge or because she wanted to feel superior to others. She wanted to get stronger and learn more about fighting because she enjoyed it!

People change over time, and the F.LD.I.L knew that. It also knew that the more tragedies one faces, the more they become indifferent to everything around them. However, the F.LD.I.L knew the importance of staying true to oneself.

This stuff might not be necessary right now, or anytime soon for that matter, but being able to stay true to oneself will definitely help her in the long run. It’s not like there are any downsides to it either.

Unfortunately, Mira wasn’t fully conscious and couldn’t try and figure all of that out right now.

Currently, her consciousness was inside a giant void and in front of her was the silhouetted of a girl. Around this girl were a bunch of fragmented memories.

These fragmented memories contain Mira’s entire existence; from what she can tell, she’s supposed to put these memories inside the girl’s silhouette.

However, there’s just a slight problem. There are way too many fragmented memories! Not all of them can fit inside the girl! From what Mira could tell, less than 1% of the fragments could fit inside.

That being said, Mira did what she felt was best. She began searching through these fragmented memories and decided to only place the most important ones inside the girl.

Naturally, this took a bit of time as she had to sift through her entire life in search of the most important or her favorite memories.

***

Two months later, Mira’s eyes finally opened, and she felt a sort of sublimation and clarity she’d never felt before. She almost felt like, for the past who knows how many years, someone else had taken over her body and was living in her stead.

Now, she was awake and had taken back control of her body.

Well, maybe it wasn’t to that extreme, but that’s just how it felt to Mira. She felt like she was finally whole again, or at least partially whole.

She still needed to understand what was happening to her and why, but that will have to wait as the Guardian just appeared right in front of her.

“Wow! You passed that trial pretty fast. I thought it’d take longer! You may not know this, but you were inside the trial world for only a month. However, you spent two months outside the trial trying to figure yourself out. Though, I think you should probably hurry up and start the last trial. You only have 70 days to complete it.” The Guardian said, much to Mira’s shock.

“That long?! I didn’t think I took that long for that last trial. Ugh! I hope I can make it in time…” Mira muttered.

The Guardian put on a pondering expression as he stared at Mira. After a few seconds, he spoke up, “I think you should be fine as long as you don’t screw things up in the beginning. This trial will probably be the easiest for you to complete, that is, if you can reign in your impulses. Just be patient with this last trial, and you’ll be fine. Oh, and try to be a little nicer than you usually are. Doing that will bring you a long way with this last trial.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to know anything about the trials. Weren’t they supposed to be unique to my circumstances and the item I’m trying to receive? How do you know what I’m going to face?” Mira asked with a skeptical expression.

“Oh please, little girl. You underestimate me too much. Although I don’t know exactly what you’re going to face, I can make accurate guesses, and my guesses are rarely wrong. Even if I am wrong in this situation, it won’t be by much.” The Guardian said with pride written all over his face.

“Is that one of the perks of being a god-like entity?” Mira asked curiously.

The Guardian had to think for a second before she answered her, “Yes and no. All gods are incredibly intelligent beings. No, I guess the right word would be that their comprehension speed is insane. It’s simply incomprehensible to a mortal like you. It’s so fast that most gods are considered omniscient just based on this fact alone. However, that doesn’t mean all gods are wise. That is especially so if they were in a place like this—the F.LD.I.L. I can only guess what trial you might face because the F.LD.I.L has allowed me to guess since I’m technically your Guardian. Anyways, forget about this stuff. You should start your trial right now.”

Mira nodded her head, put away the Samsara Dogwood Tree in her Storage Space, and mentally accepted the trial for the World Tree Seed. Just like the other three times, her consciousness was pulled out of her body and sent inside the trial world.

However, when she appeared in the trial world this time, she wasn’t inside a new or different body. Instead, she was inside an exact replica of her real body.

After inspecting her body, Mira realized there was something off about the situation that she was in. Her feet and hands are in chains.

Then she got a good look around her and noticed that she was surrounded by what seemed like Elves, and they didn’t look too happy whenever they looked at her.

She was about to break out of her chains and massacre everyone around her for daring to chain her up like some sort of animal, but then she remembered the Guardian’s advice.

She decided to try being patient and see where all of this is leading. Who knows, maybe something good will actually come out of it.

Of course, if they try anything funny, she won’t hesitate to make the streets fill with the blood of elves.

The Elves saw her being cooperative and began dragging her to their destination. It didn’t take long until Mira was pulled in front of a majestic castle.

This castle wasn’t too big like the ones that human rulers often made and wasn’t nearly as luxurious either, but when Mira entered it, she felt more at peace. She felt closer to nature.

Mira kept being pulled along even after she entered the castle, and she wasn’t stopped until she came face to face with one of the most beautiful beings she’s ever come across, other than herself, of course.