No proper introduction was given regarding the rules of this world or how to pass the test.
However, those people had already given Zen a clear hint.
If he ate all the food, he would certainly die. His death would an he'd surely be kicked out of the ga.
This round of the ga would test his self-discipline and willpower.
Although Zen's trendous amount of experience had made his soul powerful beyond asure, it did not affect his decisiveness and willpower whatsoever.
Besides, when one's willpower had increased to a certain extent, it would be difficult for it to advance further.
Normally, Zen would've dealt with similar situations by utilizing the Emotion Closing Godly Way. Now that he had lost all his abilities and theurgies, it would be impossible for him to use it.
A familiar scent wafted through his nose and made him swallow. It was wine. With a newfound determination, he turned around and left.
In the wilderness, he was still alone.
His body was exhausted from being pushed to its limit—a constant reminder of his hunger and thirst. It was so bad that he felt his throat was dry and burning with each exhale.
This worsened once he saw light appear before him again.
Beneath it was laid a bevy of delicious food. What would've normally been pure pleasure turned into pure torture at that mont.
The light illuminated a mouthwatering and tempting array of food and wine, which suppressed Zen's waning restraint.
He thought to himself a few tis that this wasn't just rely a test but an act of torture as well!
Eight hours passed...
Ten hours passed...
Twenty hours passed...
This mortal body he possessed, although strong, could only take so much. If it reached its limit, then he would die too.
'If I push this body too much, then I'll never be able to pass the test, '
he thought to himself as he walked onwards like a living corpse.
When he was lost in his thoughts, everything before him faded into black as his eyes fell shut and his body fell to the ground with a thud.
It took a while before he gradually regained his consciousness.
He imdiately and quickly took a look at his surroundings as he ca out of his slumber.
He should've been back at the temple if he failed.
To his surprise, he wasn't in the wilderness nor the temple. Now he sat on a throne within the walls of a golden palace, his body covered in an imperial robe. At the bottom of the steps leading to the throne stood the civil and military ministers.
“I'm not eliminated. Have I passed the first test?” he asked as he still sat on the throne, a slight hint of joy beginning to wash over him.
The first round tested his desire for food and drink. What would the second test have in store for him?
As Zen gazed down at the ministers gathered before him, his faces held strange expressions. He ca to realize sothing and asked, “Will this round test my desire for power?”
Since he was aware that everything was rely an illusion, he also knew that the power and wealth surrounding him were fake. He began to wonder how this test could work. Moreover, he never held a desire to possess a high position or vast amounts of wealth.
This round of test wouldn't be too difficult, then.
However, Zen would soon find out that this round would be anything but simple and easy.
In a limited period of ti, tests like this were aningless.
However, illusions such as this had the potential to make him feel as though hundreds or even thousands of years had passed.
Zen was able to cope with this world with an indifferent attitude in the beginning. But as more ti passed, he soon beca more convinced that he was indeed the mortal emperor of this world for dozens of years...
It appeared that his real mories were slowly fading away—as if to give space for his new, mortal mories to take over.
He beca entangled in the various situations of the citizens, ministers, and even concubines. In one way or another, he was involved with all of them.
Within the temple, the statue located within its center tilted its head to gaze at the starry pattern.
Among the stars, Zen, Elvinia, and the human woman were all undergoing different trials.
The statue, which was a puppet, could still think like a normal person. However, it had its limits as well.
Its current mission was to wait in the temple and choose the most qualified one.
Deep within its heart, it had already rejected the idea of choosing the woman from the Nihility race or Elvinia from the beginning. If it had it its way, it would've prevented them both from entering the starry pattern and accepting the test in the first place.
“Will he find his end at this round?” the statue uttered to no one in particular.
In fact, Elvinia and the human woman were performing better than Zen.
The woman from the Nihility race had already managed to pass three out of the six desire tests. What amazed the statue even further was the fact that Elvinia had passed four desire tests in a row, as if none of the desires had great control over her. She seed to be totally in control of herself.
“I wonder if they know,” the statue said, “that the more complicated experiences one has, the harder it would be to make it through each test?” The statue could do nothing more than let out a sigh and see what would happen next.
In Elvinia's case, her past experiences were vast and unpleasant but far from complicated. Before eting Zen, a majority of her life was boring. This gave her the mindset and resistance to be able to pass through the temptations with ease.
Back in the illusion, Zen had believed that he had been emperor for nearly a hundred years.
He seed to have completely forgotten who he truly was and now believed that he was soone else—the sovereign emperor of an imaginary kingdom.
Throughout his rule, he had received nurous complints from his subjects and every word he said was regarded as a law.
Two hundred years passed...
Three hundred years passed...
Five hundred years passed...
One day, a strange feeling suddenly overca Zen.
His original mories returned and crashed into him like a tidal wave. Soon, he recognized the ridiculousness of all that surrounded him.
While he was realizing this, all the citizens, ministers and concubines turned into skeletons, their crumbling bones turning to dust that was swept away by the wind.
The huge palace collapsed in the blink of an eye.
Only then did Zen realize that he had been trapped in the test for a long ti. It took him hundreds of years to pass the test.
However, ti in the starry illusion passed at a different rate from ti in the outside world.
In reality, Zen had only been trapped in that kingdom for ten minutes.
After Zen passed the test, the entire world began to change once more. Before him stood nurous beautiful won. So of them were coquettish while others were more affectionate.
“A test of...sexual desire?” Zen raised his eyebrows.
The third test was considerably easier for Zen. Although he was a mortal now, he had already experienced love. The gorgeous won surrounding him were unsuccessful in tempting him any further.
While they possessed the most pleasant and seductive voices and slled of the most enticing perfus, Zen was able to restrain himself. Slowly but surely, he passed the third test.
The fourth test passed...
The fifth test passed...
Finally, the sixth test passed...
Originally, Zen was lagging behind the other two competitors, in last place to pass the tests. But now that both won were stuck in the test of sa desire, he was miraculously in the first place.
“Now that I've passed the tests of six desires, does this an that I've passed the entire test?”
If this was what the starry illusion would always be like, then it should be a piece of cake for Zen. After all, he only had difficulty in the second test.
But Zen remained in this world of illusions. He remained among the stars.
As if sensing his confusion, the stars began to cover and spin around him once more.
As a result, the spinning began to project spectacular scenes before his very eyes.
The grand desolated land, the sea, the mountains...
As the vision continued, he began to see the entire world before him from a great distance.
What he initially thought he was staring at was the Source World. However, he later confird that this was an entirely different world.
Whereas the Source World was shaped like a huge egg with nurous provinces within its shell, the world Zen saw before him at that mont was made up of countless stars.
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