The Romantic Cultivator



Room 33.

1 Day had quickly passed and it was almost time for the trial to end. 

The fact that both the Old Reverend Beiyuan and Grand Holy Saintess Qi Yuexing did not return to the Goddess Star Palace, would only mean that they have already exited this trial and have returned to the Great Beyond. 

For Ji Yuan and his group, they were lucky that they did not encounter any of the roaming guardians even though they had taken the contingencies by meditating next to the exit portal or the 1st portal.

JI Yuan however was still sore from the beatings that he had received from Yun Chi, Bai Qianfeng and Shui Xisi.

They had shown him almost no mercy because he could hear them remarking to him, "Great Saint Ji Yuan, you won't die so easily. We all know what your golden body is made of."

Ji Yuan had protested, "But my profound defense is so weak and you know that…"

Shui Xisi laughed it off by adding for him, "But I know that you have a much stronger willpower than any of the cultivators. You are not afraid of pain…"

This resulted in Ji Yuan having a red-faced countenance and he was covered with the injuries of his beatings as he meditated next to the maidens.

He ended muttering nonstop for hours as though he was chanting, "I have internal injuries. Internal injuries are not so easily to be healed… even for a great saint…" 

Instead of getting what he had wanted from the 3 maidens, he ended up getting beaten up by them. 

Only the Lovely Empress Lu Jiangsu was there to comfort him but she was giggling to him, "I didn't want to say this to you but you definitely deserve their beatings."

Xiang Li and Fairy Anyang were unusual quiet as they pretended to sleep when Ji Yuan had called upon them to materialize and to help him to plead to Yun Chi, Bai Qianfeng and Shui Xisi. 

Ji Yuan had no time to goad over his sustained injuries when he was disturbed by a profound disturbance and saw that they were now shifting through the spatial space.

He was delighted as he explained loudly to the 4 maidens, "Haha… we have completed the trial now. We are going to claim our rewards now…"

Claiming any types of rewards were exciting to Ji Yuan and he immediately forgot any pains that he was experiencing. 

He shouted excitedly as he slowly faded away into the spatial space, "Sisi, Qianfeng, Yun Chi, Maiden Jiangsu. See you later. Hahaha… am I first?" 

He quickly found himself in a dark spatial space.

There was a solemn old voice from beyond the spatial space that said to him, "You have completed this trial by staying in this place for 7 days. According to your difficulty ranking, I shall bestow upon you a fitting reward…"

Ji Yuan interrupted the solemn old voice as he had identified it as the Trial Spirit, "Am I ranked number 1? The reward for completing this trial must truly be astonishing."

The Trial Spirit answered, "Indeed. There are many astonishing rewards for this trial. However, you are not ranked number 1 in the ranks."

Ji Yuan laughed weakly, "Hahaha… I wonder who can possibly rank better than me?"

He has suddenly remembered that Brother Lu Qingyun and Fan Yuqing are in the trials as well; maybe they have ranked better than him.

The Trial Spirit answered him, "There are many that have ranked higher than you. You are ranked at the bottom."

Ji Yuan: …

Ji Yuan: …

Ji Yuan: …

Ji Yuan was stunned as he began to protest loudly, "Is this a joke? Cos I am not falling for it. I would be among the last? I have a stellar performance in this trial, you know…"

But the Trial Spirit interrupted him solemnly, "You are supposed to take the trial in this place by suppressing your profound animus. This tested your continuous cultivation strength at how long you can suppress your profound animus and will be extremely draining to your profound strength. But you did not and freely reveal your profound animus in the Goddess Star Palace…"

Ji Yuan laughed bitterly to himself; he has almost forgotten that the trial automatically forces them to reveal their cultivation aura to its fullest in this place and they are like beacons to all the powerful profound monsters here. Therefore, they have to use their profound strength to suppress their cultivation aura instead.

The Trial Spirit added further, "And you have to stay in a place like the Goddess Star Palace where there are no profound monsters to harass you…"

"I've fought with the guardians." Ji Yuan insisted as he interrupted.

The Trial Spirit seemed to frown, "Did you really?"

Ji Yuan laughed weakly, "Hahaha… of course I did but my contribution is not as great as the others…"

The Trial Spirit ignored Ji Yuan and said solemnly, "Also, you have the protection of the two God Immortals all the time in this place. Each time you are under their protections and each time that they have helped you, your secret contributions in this place will be deducted."

Ji Yuan muttered weakly, "Deducted? Surely you can't do that to me. This is so unfair to me. I didn't want to mess with the two God Immortals, you know."

Xiang Li and Anyang, where are the two of you? Come speak a minute of fairness for me here…

No reply. 

The Trial Spirit hummed coldly, "You don't even have enough contributions for me to deduct further anyway. Now take your reward and begone from this place!"

Ji Yuan laughed weakly but when it comes to rewards again, he was excited. "I wonder what is my reward?"

Five huge silver profound pills began to float in front of Ji Yuan.

Ji Yuan laughed excitedly when he saw the rewards, "These profound pills are so big and it seems to be awesome. Hahaha. This is indeed a S+ Trial in the upper area…"

"These profound pills are Iron Tendons profound pills. Don't tell me you didn't recognize them? Or you have never studied your cultivation alchemy?" The Trial Spirit had interrupted Ji Yuan by informing him.

Ji Yuan was stunned as he protested immediately, "Iron Tendons are only 3th cultivation realm profound pills for regaining profound strength. This reward is too cheap! I can easily buy Iron Tendons profound pills outside the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth…"

"These are extraordinary 4th cultivation realm Iron Tendons profound pills. They are bigger and more effective than the normal ones." The Trial Spirit frowned.

Ji Yuan began to protest aloud, "3rd or 4th cultivation realm profound pills are still low-level cultivation profound pills. And these are still Iron Tendons! They have no other uses other than regaining profound strength, Moreover, they are also bad to our cultivation core when we consume them too much…."

"You talk too much." The Trial Spirit was now frowning. "You are behaving like an amateur cultivator than a seasoned cultivator, great saint. You ought to accept your lucky occurrence and begone from this place."

The Trial Spirit was actually right. 

In the Celestial Realm, all the cultivators plainly accepted their lucky occurrence. Only an inexperienced cultivator would argue with fate over their lucky occurrence for the first time. But eventually, even an inexperienced cultivator would learn that it is futile to argue with their fates and instead, they would put in more hard work for their future cultivation.

But now Ji Yuan was insisting that he was right.

And so, the Trial Spirit had suddenly caused the 5 Iron Tendons Profound Pills in Ji Yuan's hands to vanish and he had dismissed Ji Yuan.

Ji Yuan was shocked when he got dismissed just like this.

And he ended up getting no rewards for his efforts in this trial…

This was the 'most awesome reward' that he had ever received for putting in his best efforts...

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Author Note

1. This concludes the first trial in the Upper Trial Area of the Empyrean Warrrior Labyrinth.