Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Dim light flickered in the room. The dome of the round pendant lamp was encircled by carvings of an older style, the faint mottling on its surface indicative of some age.

Under the lamp"s dim light, the cream-colored wallpaper added a touch of warmth to the atmosphere.

A small bed was neatly placed in the middle of this medium-sized room. The bed"s size indicated that it was probably not meant for an adult.

To the right side of the small bed was a medium-sized wooden bedside cupboard, somewhat crudely made.

To the left of the bed was a small antique wardrobe.

The doors of the wardrobe were half-open. A few pieces of clothing hung limply within. Again, the size of the clothes hinted that they belonged to a child of around ten years old.

“This is the trial s.p.a.ce?” Fallen Star scanned her surroundings somewhat skeptically.

After ascertaining that there was nothing wrong with the room, she promptly settled down and began sensing her own body status.

“Most abilities have not been restricted. Only the probing range of divine telekinesis is restricted—the probing radius has been reduced to within 1000 meters.”

After extinguis.h.i.+ng the pendant lamp, Fallen Star concealed herself in the darkness before inching sideways to the front of the window. Carefully, she poked her head out to take a peek.

A sea of red lanterns dotted the entire landscape everywhere she looked.

The entire sky was bathed in red from the light of these myriad lanterns.

Red lanterns hung from blocks of small residential buildings. Most of the buildings were around two to five stories high, none of them over five stories. The roof of each building was covered in red tiles that slanted downward.

It was disturbing to note that some buildings were oriented so some of the roofs faced left or right, and some simply faced downward. No one could see past the layered stacks of residential buildings to know if there were buildings other than residences, neither could they catch a glimpse of the sky nor the surface of the ground.

Not a single alley could be seen between the cramped buildings. The only things that resembled alleyways were wooden or metal planks or stairs that connected each small building to the next; these planks or stairs looked as if they were quite old.

Without exception, red lanterns glimmered at every corner of the residential buildings.

“What a strange trial s.p.a.ce.” Despite having previously partic.i.p.ated in plenty of other trials and having considerable experience entering various secret zones and ruins, this was the first time Fallen Star had encountered a trial s.p.a.ce that was so strangely put together.

Right after she completed the initial scan of her surroundings, a push notification popped up in front of her eyes again.

“Trial s.p.a.ce: Ten Thousand Level Tower”

“Number of Compet.i.tors: 3000”

“Number of Trial BOSS: 300”

“General Rules of Compet.i.tive Trial are as follows:”

“1. You will be awarded 1 c.u.mulative foundation point for each compet.i.tor you eliminate or defeat, and will gain all of your opponent"s acc.u.mulated points.”

“2. You will be awarded 100 c.u.mulative points for each Trial BOSS you defeat.

“Defeated Trial BOSSes will be teleported out of the trial s.p.a.ce immediately after being defeated. No c.u.mulative points will be awarded if the Trial BOSS defeats or eliminates a compet.i.tor.”

“3. A compet.i.tor may choose to surrender willingly during combat. However, choosing to surrender is equivalent to forfeiting the trial. Therefore, whosoever chooses to surrender will be directly teleported out of the trial and forfeit of all their c.u.mulative points.”

“4. All c.u.mulative points are non-transferrable and indivisible.”

“5. The Compet.i.tive Trial will last for a maximum of ten days. If there is only one compet.i.tor left in the trial within ten days, the trial will end ahead of time.”

“6. After the trial, the compet.i.tor who obtains the highest acc.u.mulated points will be awarded the right to partic.i.p.ate in an actual trial. After pa.s.sing all official trials, the compet.i.tor will be able to claim the Great Heaven inheritance.”

“7. Compet.i.tors" maximum combat strength is restricted to Rank-9 Virtual G.o.d.”

“8. All compet.i.tors" Sword Dao is restricted to below Sword Dao true meaning.”

“9. During the Compet.i.tive Trial, all compet.i.tors can utilize any skills or methods that they possess, including skills and methods other than Sword Dao.”

“10. To ensure the fairness of the Compet.i.tive Trial, all weapons or items that can harm a Rank-1 True G.o.d are banned. All defensive armor or other defensive measures above Rank-1 True G.o.d are banned. (Energy paraphernalia conjured up by one"s own abilities, as well as divine, magic, and arcane powers etcetera are excluded.)”

“11. All methods of communication are banned in the trial s.p.a.ce.”

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After reading the rules of the trial, a brooding expression settled on Fallen Star"s face.

"There are a total of 3000 compet.i.tors. I"ve been teleported into the trial s.p.a.ce, which means screening for the compet.i.tors in this trial is non-discriminatory. Even partic.i.p.ants from the G.o.d Territory are eligible to partic.i.p.ate.

"If my guess is right, the first condition in the screening is that the person must be a sword cultivator; secondly, considering how there"s a restriction on combat strength, the next condition should be that the sword cultivator is below True G.o.d and eligible to obtain Sword Dao Inheritance. As for the third condition, it"s most likely that after conducting a preliminary ranking of all qualified sword cultivators, they chose 3000 people based on ability ranking. a.s.suming that this is the screening method used, Xie Lin, Twin, and Destiny should be all here too.

"Thanks to Master Buried Heaven"s great insight, all four of us from Death Sickle who"ve been sent to the Great Heaven Territory this time are sword cultivators."

When Fallen Star thought about the number of sword cultivators sent into the Territory by other organizations, her lips involuntarily curved into a smile.

As there had been no news at all about the Great Heaven inheritance for the entire year, most organizations in the G.o.d Territory had treated the Great Heaven Territory as a typical trial venue. Among the dozens of cultivators sent in from some of the Grade-7 organizations, there might be only one sword cultivator.

"Hmm, but if my a.s.sumptions are correct, that fellow from Combat G.o.d Temple must have been teleported here too…” A face suddenly flashed through Fallen Star"s mind and her expression became grave.

"That fellow" whom she mentioned was the number one Virtual G.o.d powerhouse in Combat G.o.d Temple—Shen Wushuang, who was also the number one super Genius on the Virtual G.o.d ranking list in the G.o.d Territory.

As a fellow sword cultivator, Fallen Star had fought him a few times and she had never yet managed to defeat him. Her instincts told her that Shen Wushuang"s Sword Dao might have elevated to the state of True Meaning.

"If Xie Lin encounters him as an opponent, I wonder who"d win…"

Fallen Star let her train of thought run wild for a moment before quickly collecting herself and continuing to a.n.a.lyze the rules of the trial.

"Defeating one BOSS will give me 100 c.u.mulative points. This means the BOSS must be extremely powerful. I"d probably need to team up before I can hunt one down. The rules didn"t say that we"re not allowed to form teams. In a way, they"ve acquiesced to us doing so.

"c.u.mulative points are non-transferrable and indivisible. They"ve managed to apply some form of restriction on teaming up, in that sense. Yet, if all teammates have great trust in each other, this rule won"t be an obstacle.

"The three sword cultivators from Combat G.o.d Temple should be eligible for the trial this time. If they b.u.mp into each other, they might form a small team with Shen Wushuang as their leader and a.s.sist Shen Wushuang in acc.u.mulating points.

"Four sword cultivators from G.o.d Capital are partic.i.p.ating in this time"s trial. However, based on the temperament of those Pure Blood Protoss from G.o.d Capital, the chances of them working together are fairly remote. That"s one thing I don"t have to worry about.

"Precious Treasure Pavilion only sent one sword cultivator. That"s another that I don"t have to worry about.

"So far, it seems like Divine Clapnet and Xeno are the only ones strong enough to compete. The former sent five sword cultivators while the latter sent six of them. As an intel organization, Divine Clapnet"s organizational and planning skills are shockingly good. Meanwhile, as Xeno is where the non-Pure Bloods gather, their sense of unity is something other organizations can"t beat. The highest possibility is probably that these two organizations successfully team up.

"However, right now no one knows how big this trial s.p.a.ce actually is. After all, the trial will only last ten days. If the s.p.a.ce is big enough, there"s still the possibility of not encountering anyone from the same organization."

After thoroughly a.n.a.lyzing the likelihood of the seven organizations teaming up, Fallen Star suddenly realized that she had greatly underestimated the difficulty of this trial.