Chapter 3714: Test Start
Chapter 3714: Test Start
Alex sat down in one of the open spaces, next to Ronron, Helen, and Liz. They were surrounded by cultivators of all levels of cultivation bases. There was no order to where one could sit, so they simply did.
A voice came once they were all settled, no doubt the voice of an actual person rather than that of a spirit or something similar. The voice sounded disinterested and simply gave them the instructions on what they had to do.
"A suppressive aura will soon begin forming around you. Remain upright for as long as you can without the use of any external means. For every hour you can stay up, you will earn a star," the voice said.
Alex raised an eyebrow. "A star per hour?"
That was quite surprising, considering there were people out there who had managed to last as long as eight days in total. That meant they had likely earned close to 200 stars.
"That’s a lot of stars if you can stay here for a while," Liz said. "I hadn’t thought this would be one of the better-paying tests around lately."
Ronron and Helen nodded in agreement. They waited for a moment, but no one continued speaking.
"Where is the rest of the announcement?" Ronron asked.
Alex blinked slowly. "I fear we know everything we need to by this point. Now, the only thing left to do is start."
No suppressive aura came at them right away, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. It took a few minutes for them to even begin sensing it because of how ridiculously weak it was.
Even someone who hadn’t reached the Immortal realm would likely survive for an hour or two when it was this weak. But no doubt, it was going to increase soon.
Alex and the group chatted among themselves for a bit. They weren’t the only ones, as everyone else was quite relaxed for now as well.
Alex looked far away in the direction of the two with the highest cultivation bases there and noticed that they had sat on opposite ends inside. He believed they had chosen their places so that the other wouldn’t be able to impact their session.
About three hours in, everyone finally could tell the presence of the suppression easily as it began pressing on each person. It wasn’t strong enough just yet, so they were fine for now. That strength kept increasing for another four hours, at the end of which they saw the very first person get knocked out by the pressure.
The one who had lost just now was a young man with a cultivation base in the Immortal Ascendant 1st realm. He was so weak compared to every single other person that it didn’t even make sense for him to be in this secret realm in the first place.
But he had somehow come, and had become the first among their batch atop the platform to lose.
Everyone focused on themselves afterward, letting their conversations die away as the pressure kept increasing. No one else was defeated for nearly half a day before someone in the Immortal Ascendant 3rd realm was knocked out.
The woman left, and half an hour later, another person of a similar cultivation base was knocked out as well.
"The pressure has reached around the Immortal Ascendant 5th realm," Alex said softly. "Everyone beneath it is trying their hardest to stick around, but many are already losing."
Ronron nodded in quiet acceptance.
Alex remained vigilant, searching around the place to find more people who were struggling. Another person failed an hour later, and then two more an hour after that. He had noticed them struggling before they went down.
"Immortal Ascendant 6th realm," Alex said once he sensed the cultivation base of the person who was thrown out most recently.
Nearly an entire day had passed, and the strength of the suppression was still within the Immortal Ascendant realm. It would take a while longer before it became even stronger than that.
Once the first 24 hours had passed with the sun rising once again, a total of 12 participants had failed. That was a very small number compared to the nearly 4000 people gathered there.
But since most of those people had cultivation bases in the Immortal Origin or Immortal Transcendent realm, it would be a long while before they were forced to leave.
As the strength of the suppression increased, the number of people failing continued to increase as well. As time passed, more people began getting dropped out as the suppressive power reached the Immortal Origin realm a little over halfway through the day.
Then, the number skyrocketed throughout the next day.
While only 12 people had been knocked out on the first day, over 400 people were knocked out on the second day. The number of people had suddenly dropped by over 10 percent in a single day, and it would continue to increase the next day, no doubt.
"I’m starting to feel slightly uncomfortable now," Liz said as the suppression inside the test reached around the Immortal Origin 3rd realm at the start of the third day.
"Same here," Ronron said, a slight frown on her face.
Helen said nothing, but it was clear she felt the same way. Throughout the day, the strength of the suppression continued to increase, getting to a point where people were beginning to get knocked out every five or so minutes.
At the end of the third day, the strength of the suppression reached as high as the Immortal Origin 9th realm.
For Ronron, Liz, and Helen, whose Qi cultivation was only as strong as the Immortal Origin 7th realm even at the highest, the strength of the suppression had far surpassed what they could handle on their own.
It was entirely thanks to their body cultivation that they were holding on.
But as over 750 people left on the third day, the women knew that they too would soon be knocked out.