Divine Emperor of Death

Tanya watched the slaughter with wide, bloodshot eyes. Her fists trembled as she suppressed herself from moving to save anyone.

"Elder sister… strike the bandits down with your cold indifference..."

*Puchi!~*

As soon as she heard those words, her icy sword flashed and leveled the village, creating countless severed corpses to appear in an instant before they froze into icy sculptures. Her Level Nine Ice Intent and Level Five Abstruse Sword Intent weren't things to be laughed at and were thoroughly frightening for a core disciple of the Aurora Cloud Gate, but she heard that little girl's voice once again.

"You failed at the last step..."

Tanya found herself standing on the footpath for the seventy-eighth time. She lowered her arms and raised her head to look at the stormy skies brewing with ominous dark clouds.

"Aghhhh!!!"

Abruptly, her mind snapped as she began screaming like a banshee, causing all the villagers and bandits around her to die in an instant. Her scream was full of sorrow, but without restraint, it caused a slaughter, putting her at the starting point once again, which caused her to feel dizzy and fall down, doing nothing as she looked at the skies, silently looking at it as numerous thoughts ran in her head.

"I see. Crippled by self-blame inducing a heart demon or in this case… wrong circulation driven by the wrong comprehension..."

Natalya raised her hand and saw it trembling as she shattered a few meridian points. Although she said that she was not playing this game, she found that to leave, she must complete this level first or just wait for the others to finish, although it was just a guess.

Now, she understood why the Frostcloud Sword Empress said that they could be crippled or even die, as she had made a mistake in comprehending the icy essence of cold indifference.

Moreover, the more they tried to comprehend this icy essence, the more they felt tired as they were using up their psyche, not to mention that the more they witnessed this scene, the more guilt they started to feel as they could begin to feel that they were becoming more and more indifferent to the slaughter, which wasn't like them at all.

It was starting to form a hole in their faith and beliefs, causing them to lose moral standards and, on a deeper note, their law hearts.

"Trialist Iesha has passed to the next level."

But at this moment, Tanya and Natalya both came out of their reverie as they were stunned to hear Iesha had made it to the next level. They were happy for her, but they certainly didn't think it was possible for her. Natalya especially thought she was a fool and made a blunder by bringing the gentle Iesha here. She thought that there was no way Iesha would be able to pass through this living hell.

"It is the most innocent that snaps harder than an evil person… I… What have I done?"

Natalya was deeply worried, afraid that Iesha could fall to the dark side. After all, the essence of this level was to comprehend the cold indifference of ice and take that to the utmost limit and reflect them on one's sword arts.

Even if they only possessed ice, as long as they could form sword-like elementary shapes and unleash them with their icy intents, it could still be considered a rudimentary form of Sword Laws of Ice. Therefore, Natalya knew Iesha could use sword arts but to pass the level by comprehending the icy essence of cold indifference was different altogether.

Time passed.

The second to pass the first level of comprehending icy essence was naturally, whom they considered the first person to possibly pass. It was the indifferent Yuren.

The third to pass was Niel Bladeheart, but by that time, they had already completed four hundred iterations.

The fourth to pass was Tanya. She shortly made it after Niel Bladeheart, leaving Natalya the only one remaining as she looked at the little girl getting skewered by a spear all over again. Her eyes were one of indifference, but as the bandit paraded her around as he cackled with a burst of wicked laughter, her indifference fell, and anger surged to her head like a stream.

"Why… why can't I comprehend indifference…?"

Did this make her more incompetent than the others, or did that make her more innocent than the others?

If she was incompetent, she couldn't understand. She possessed two Greater Laws. Her Ice Laws were similar to Tanya's and her Yin Laws were also at Level Nine Intent, equaling Iesha's comprehension as they shared the same Ice Law comprehension with each other. There was no way she was inferior to either of them. Yet, she couldn't even make progress in comprehending this icy essence.

Then, was she truly more innocent than the two of them?

Natalya didn't know the answer to these questions but still felt that she had to comprehend the icy essence as the urgency inside her grew.

She didn't want the only one to be left behind when the others had successfully passed their levels but, most importantly, didn't want to see the disappointment on Davis's face.

Just as she revitalized her perspective and looked at the ongoing slaughter with cold indifference, space suddenly stopped moving. The clouds no longer moved, and the bandits and aghast villagers came to a sudden stop.

Natalya's indifference fell apart once again as she looked at this scene with shock before she saw the little girl fly out of the spear and float towards her.

"Frostcloud Sword Empress…" However, Natalya could instantly feel coldness stemming from the little girl, reminding her of the icy sword aura she had sensed before.

She was dumbfounded but then smiled the next second.

"Have I completely failed? I'm getting eliminated, aren't I?"

Natalya's smile became wry. Perhaps, the last one to remain gets eliminated at every level.

"No." Answered the little girl as she sat by a rock on Natalya's side, looking at her with a smile on her face.

"Then why has the Frostcloud Sword Empress descended…?" Natalya's brows twitched.

Surely, what else could it be other than to kick her out?

"Because I took a personal interest in you."

"Personal interest…?"

"I really don't understand. You train in the Forsaken Yin Lotus Manual that prides itself in icy indifference but here you are... unable to even comprehend a sliver of it yet could still use the manual?"

The little girl with a hole in her heart appeared amused, "You're a marvel, little Natalya."

"…"

Natalya's cheeks reddened in shame as she couldn't tell if the other party was complimenting or mocking her.