7th Pagoda Trial

Yaan hardly had the time to process what was said, when the deep voice suddenly announced the start of the challenge! With that one word, all ten red robed figures charged towards Yaan, making use of their full cultivations to rush around the hall and surround him!

Not only did they possess equivalent cultivation to himself, but they also showed near perfect team work!

"Defeating ten copies of myself…interesting!"

Despite this seemingly impossible setup whereby he was being forced to battle against ten replications of himself, all with power equal to himself, Yaan actually showed a slight smile. He had been thinking for some time that he would like to test himself properly, but the problem with this was finding a worthy opponent who wouldn't end up killing him.

What better opponent could there be than himself?

Though, thinking about it, this wasn't actually a good test if he wanted to see how he measured up against cultivators following typical paths, since all of these copies also possessed Yaan's multiple cultivation methods.

Whoosh!

With no time to think about it any longer, Yaan was forced to act as the ten figures rushed in towards him. They all moved their bodies slightly differently, some preparing to throw punches, others kicks, and so on. It seemed that without any weapons and without any arts or spells, this was the tactic they all resorted to.

However, that's not to say that this was an easy assault to evade. Yaan's gaze became serious as he noticed the astral power and vital energy surging through the bodies of all ten copies, pushing them to their highest strength right from the beginning!

There was no time to warm up, and as he was surrounded so suddenly by this attack, Yaan was forced to utilise his Agile Sword Arts in order to escape. He did his best to only use a shallow version of his Agile Sword Arts, since the ten figures would gain the ability to utilise anything that Yaan himself displayed.

Yaan's footwork was fast, he swiftly evaded the attacks all together, whilst keeping an eye on the movement pattern of the ten copies. His expression changed when they began changing their own footsteps merely half a second after he used the Agile Sword Arts. Yaan had only just evaded the ten attacks by ducking down and sliding out from the encirclement, when the ten copies spread out, forming a net that would quickly surround him once again!

Yaan's expression darkened slightly. He didn't expect that they would adapt to his arts so quickly! This mimicry was displayed almost at the very moment that he used them himself!

He did not have the luxury to hold back at this point, as doing so would lead to his defeat…however, likewise, displaying all of his sword arts without defeating his opponents would put him in a position of absolute disadvantage!

'I need to kill quickly!'

Yaan had this thought and immediately acted.

Ever since Yaan's possessions and swords were taken from him, he had been considering the best way to deal a lethal blow to his opponent. He had always fought with a sword, his experience with hand to hand combat was not non-existent, but it was certainly lacking.

Yaan closed in on the nearest figure, using his Agile Sword Arts to pull back and away from the others, allowing him to single out one opponent. With that, his entire body blurred…

Whoosh…Bang!

As his form became partially illusory and seemed to vanish and reappear a dozen feet ahead, Yaan kept his eyes closed. He utilised the Agile Illusion Art, or at least, a variation of it…he was trying to use his hand, tightened and straightened like a lance, as a sword!

When his eyes were shut, Yaan pictured his hand as the blade and his arm as the whole sword. When his eyes reopened, an explosive sound almost akin to metal on metal resounded outwards.

Blood dripped down from the copy's chest as its eyes slowly turned dull. Ignoring the searing pain across his right arm, Yaan mercilessly twisted his arm around and leaped backwards, obliterating the vital core within that copy's chest.

The moment the vital core was damaged, the copy was already done for. With that final destructive action, its vital energy dispersed, its body lost all signs of life and it dropped to the floor, dead.

Even for Yaan, killing this entity that really did resemble himself perfectly, was eery and a very strange experience. Part of him expected this copy to dissipate like an illusion, but its body remained lifeless on the ground. He did not have time to dwell on this however, because he knew that every second now could be the difference between failure and success.

Whoosh!

Yaan moved again, turning to the left and taking three steps forwards, before once again blurring towards another copy. He grit his teeth as he struck through its chest, causing the skin across his arms to tear apart once again. These copies also possessed mythril bones, so even piercing through the flesh was quite arduous, whilst Yaan's skin was only gold rank, it could not withstand the strain.

The reason he gritted his teeth tensely was not actually because of the pain though, but because two copies closed in on him from either side, right as his arm was impaled through the other copy's chest!

He leapt backwards, raising his arms to either side and slashing outwards. In this moment of crisis, Yaan's neck tilted back and his gaze shot upwards, only to find that unknowingly, another figure was directly above him! He had no time to think, so relying on instincts alone, his two arms became wrapped up in illusory water…

Cutting Typhoon!

It had been some time since Yaan utilised this art in battle, but it was still his best combative art for fending off multiple opponents coming at him from all directions. Not only that, but it was simultaneously offensive and defensive, allowing him to block the three strikes whilst lashing out in a counter!

BANG!

The three figures flew back as a wave of sharp illusory water slammed into them. Yaan's skin tore further away from his arms, revealing his dense flesh below. His expression became severe when following behind those three, three more arrived like ghosts!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Peugh!"

The three copies broke through Yaan's Cutting Typhoon by doing what he had feared the most; they stole his Agile Illusion Art!

By using Yaan's own method and forming a sword with their arms, the three stabbed towards him at the same time. A feeling of immense danger assaulted Yaan's senses, not only from these three, but also from a fourth copy behind him!

He twisted his body hastily, doing his best to predict their path of movement so that he could evade the attacks before they landed.

BANG!

"Ugh…"

Yaan grimaced. He barely managed to avoid three of the attacks, but ended up getting struck by the frontal assault. His body was sent flying and blood erupted out from his shoulder. He could feel his bone fracture, though likewise, the copy that attacked him had broken its fingers.

BANG!

Yaan gritted his teeth as Cutting Typhoon was used against him. He had not even landed, when he was attacked yet again from an unknown direction, causing the skin to be torn from the right side of his body, whilst multiple bones fractured once again.

Finally, he seemed to have broken out from the encirclement, but Yaan's condition was not good. It's not that he was injured terribly, but now…

The copies, all eight of those which remained alive, now knew his best sword arts!

Agile Sword Arts, Cutting Typhoon and Agile Illusion, these were Yaan's three best methods. He was forced to use these methods early on…he had hoped that he would be able to defeat his opponents in a short period of time, but that plan clearly failed.

'This trial is particularly difficult for body temperers, isn't it? It's too difficult to actually kill my copies, I need to land a powerful strike to the vital core every single time…'

Yaan landed unsteadily, quickly utilising his vital energy to lighten the pressure on his feet and to regain his footing. He realised that he was standing on something soft, and after glancing down quickly, found that he was standing on the corpse of one of his copies.

"Too realistic…" Yaan murmured. He didn't know if these things were true flesh bodies, if they were sentient in anyway, or even if they were somehow illusions, but they really looked just like him.

The image of his own dead body burned itself into Yaan's mind. Even when he looked up and stared at the eight copies charging his way, he had an odd thought.

"To progressive, I need to cut myself down, to stand on my own corpse in order to lift myself up…"

He couldn't help but recall the true-false illusion world in this moment, specifically, how it all ended. He recalled that feeling of death…

Back then, Yaan allowed his own illusion to devour him. He did this after coming to the conclusion that there was really no difference in the final result, if he devoured his illusion, or if his illusion devour him. If anything, allowing himself to be devoured, willingly accepting his own 'death' in exchange for power, was the reason that Yaan decided on this approach.

Unknowingly, a desolate feeling enveloped his heart. This feeling felt familiar somehow, and despite the current situation, Yaan suddenly recalled a past battle of his, when he faced that man with the blue mohawk. In that battle, he was quite distracted, as he had been feeling the lingering effects of experiencing the blood essence illusions.

"How was it that I won that fight again…?" Yaan murmured to himself, recalling how the mohawk man had surrendered without even attacking him once.

He knew that getting distracted right now was not safe, but somehow, he felt as if the extreme pressure of this situation was helping him to recall something, to touch upon something…

"Right, that was it."

As the eight figures approached, Yaan slowly lowered his arms and closed his eyes. The desolate feeling emanating from his body rapidly grew stronger, reaching a level that immediately surpassed even that which he had shown previously during his battle against the blue mohawk man.

"My greatest gain from the true-false illusion formation was my comprehension over illusions. I came up with my own sword art, but my understanding is so much deeper than just that…"

As Yaan spoke, for some unknown reason, the eight copies began to slow down. Or perhaps, it was Yaan who had sped up compared to everything around him; it was simply a matter of perspective.

"Illusion…I entered the illusion, I died…the illusion reflected me, then became me, gaining life…I am the illusion and the illusion is me…"

Yaan's body slowly became less corporeal, settling on a half-transparent form that made him look like a spirit. As he slowly opened his eyes, a deep, unsettling gaze spread out across the hall.

Gradually, Yaan's illusory state returned to normal, only the eery gaze in his eyes remained. The solemn aura that had enveloped the hall grew ten fold stronger in this moment, submerging the entire hall in an illusion.

This illusion had no appearance. It could not be heard, either. This illusion was one that could only be felt.

"You copies of me…are not me…if you are me, then surely, you are able to endure the desolate feeling in my heart?" Yaan spoke at an ordinary volume, but anyone to hear his words would shiver and back away. His gaze was calm, oddly serene, given the pain that could now be felt in his aura.

The ten copies showed confused looks, and actually each took a step back!

"Do you understand the experiences in my life that have led me to become this way? When people see me, they see only a savage, selfish demon…I know this…"

"Do you understand the doubt, the confusion, that I feel constantly, whenever I think of all of the absurdity that plagues my path? All of these encounters, all of these chance occurrences, as if I have no control over my life, as if I am constantly being toyed with…nobody can understand this…"

"Do you know what it means to feel loneliness? To always feel this sense of desolation, this disconnection from everyone around you…without fully understanding why?"

Yaan's gaze gradually became darker as he spoke. He no longer saw this as a battle, because in his attempt to search for a method to overcome this battle, he found something else.

Dao comprehension. And with this dao comprehension, he welcomed a whole flurry of feelings and memories into his heart that he had been trying to avoid for so long now.

"I am a demon, a person viewed as evil by the masses. At this point, I cannot refute these accusations, I really have become a monster…I don't even know why I go on, just to continue hurting myself and everyone around me…"

"In terms of my actions, I am clearly selfish and demonic…only I know why it is that I am this way, only I have lived the life that has led me to become this way…"

"So tell me…do you have any right to pretend to be me?!"

After saying this, Yaan's words seemed to form a ripple, which spread out across the room and caused the confusion in the eyes of the copies to deepen.

At this moment, Yaan snapped back to reality. The painful feeling in the room transformed into a cold ruthlessness. On its own, this ruthlessness was only akin to a person's killing intent, but when combined with the transformation from the previous desolate aura, it would make anyone who experienced it feel a terror within the depths of their heart.

This feeling was emanating from Yaan freely, as if screaming, 'this is my resolve!'

BANG BANG BANG…!

The eight copies were slaughtered in rapid succession, all dying to increasingly savage attacks before they were able to return to reality. Yaan did not hold back in the least, nor did he care for the grievous injuries that accumulated on his own body as he lashed out without a care for the consequences.

"Hah…hah…hah…so…tired…"

Once the eight copies dropped lifelessly to the floor, the illusory emotion that permeated the air quickly vanished. In this moment, Yaan became acutely aware of the intense exhaustion that seemed to stem from somewhere deep within his soul, so deep that it was simply impossible to resist. Even though his body was injured and his energies were low, he should not have been depleted enough to feel this way…

And yet, this exhaustion was all encompassing. Yaan managed to resist for a brief moment, but this instant of resistance burned away the last vestiges of his reserves. In the next second, his body collapsed and he fell to the ground, unconscious.