1519 Completing the Test

The woman floated in the vast empty room, surrounded by a thousand different humans, each focused on their own thing. Her Spiritual sense, which was so close to turning to Divine sense, was spread amongst all of the thousand individuals, checking each one of them.

That was how she kept track of their progress with the trials, along with the help of various formations that were set up. She had been doing this for thousands and thousands of years, so she was very experienced in exactly what she had to do.

However, even in these dozens and dozens of millennia of experience, there was not once when instead of completing the trial, someone had instead made her the source of their training.

That made the woman uncomfortable. She was put in a new spot where she did not know what she was supposed to do. Should she increase the spiritual strain on him to make it harder? Maybe lower it instead so he had nothing to train on? Or maybe she should just make him fail right away.

However, none of these felt right for her. As far as she could tell, he had broken no rules that she had set up, so she decided to let him do what he wanted to. 'Go on,' she thought to himself. 'I very much want to see how long you can continue it.'

Alex was somewhat struggling against the combined assault of Spiritual sense and Intent that came from the woman. Thankfully, his spiritual energy replenished at the same rate as that the woman was making him lose it. 

Thanks to that, he didn't have to worry about running out of Spiritual energy halfway through this unexpected training method he had come across. 

His Intent had been strong from the start for someone who was only at the peak of the Saint Core realm. However, that wasn't enough for him. After seeing what the fight between two high-level Saints looked like, he knew he needed to improve, wherever he could.

Since then, he had focused primarily on his body as that was what needed catching up. After his body, he trained his Intent through painting. Painting helped him improve his Intent, but there was a diminishing return with it.

Unless he got inspired to make something great, he couldn't improve his Intent a lot with it, only how to better use it.

However, with a clash of Intents like this, he could directly benefit from fighting against someone else's Intent. It was by far the best way to improve one's Intent after all.

Hours passed, but Alex kept up with it. He said nothing and did nothing as he stared at the soul that hovered in the distance and fought against her mental onslaught. He was getting somewhat tired, but he ignored it as much as he could. His main priority right now was to improve his Intent, even if that cost him a win in the trial.

He was certain his Intent was improving as time went on, but the fatigue countered his improvement and made it impossible to determine right away. The fatigue he felt was quite a lot as if he had spent hours making pills.

That was not so different after all, since making a pill or doing any of these sorts of activities cost one a strong Intent.

Alex had had ample time to wonder what the point of this final trial was, and he came to the conclusion that at the end of the trial, each one of the 6 trial sections created a test that measured one's intent.

For Talisman, it was the woman fighting against him directly, but in the Alchemy one, it was more subtle. There, the test had been to make 2 pills in one cauldron, which required quite a bit of Intent and Spiritual energy on his part.

Alex couldn't help but wonder what the final test of the Formation and Artifact trials would've been had he reached them. If his hypothesis was correct, they would've tested his Intent as well.

An entire day had passed since the test started and Alex was still struggling against the spiritual energy and Intent. It was getting intense at this point, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it going.

Maybe another day at best, but what after that? Should he just faint? Without even completing the test that was to draw the same talisman from the last test?

He didn't want that. He wanted to pass the test, but he didn't want to stop whatever he was doing either. He wanted to have the best of both worlds, as long as it was possible.

He wasn't sure if it was.

"I'll let you know, the other participant from this test has already failed and been sent back out," the woman's soul spoke directly to Alex. "If you don't make the talisman, you will end up like that as well."

Alex was surprised to hear that his opponent had failed, and he was even more surprised by the fact that such information was being shared.

"I will pass, I'm sure of it," Alex spoke out loud. He hoped the soul wouldn't give him an easier time or a harder time than what he had right now.

He continued improving clashing Intent with the soul for another half a day and by the end of it, he felt drained. The mental fatigue had already taken a massive toll on his body and spirit, and he was about to faint at any moment.

However, he still had something to do. He still had the talisman to create. And he knew he couldn't do that while fighting off the constant pressure.

Midnight flew out of his storage ring with only a thought. Alex then held onto it, with the blade pointed upward. 

The Soul in the distance got concerned and wondered if he was about to attack her. If he was, she would have to immediately disqualify him and throw him outside.

However, Alex did no such thing. Instead, Spiritual energy gushed out of him as if a dam had been broken. If flowed into the sword, surrounding it as it created a spiritual sword and then extended outward from the sharp edges of the blade, slowly surrounding him.

When the spiritual energy surrounded him completely, it formed a strong barrier that pushed off all spiritual energy that was being used upon him. Not a single shred of it remained.

The woman felt a sense of surprise at the technique. 'What is this?' she couldn't help but ask herself. 'What sort of technique allows a Saint to stop my spiritual attack?'

She knew that if she wanted to, she could force the barrier to break, but that would require an effort that only an Immortal could handle. If she used it here, Alex would immediately die the moment the barrier was broken.

So, all she could do was sit back and watch as she could do nothing against the Spiritual technique created by the Weapons God himself.

Spiritual Providence.

With the relief that came from the lack of Spiritual pressure on him, Alex easily created the explosion talisman as the trial had asked him.

Once done, he showed the talisman to the female soul while taking back his sword. The spiritual pressure and Intent were no longer there, and the walls turned white.

He had done it.