Ti passed, and in the blink of an eye, two weeks had flown by. During this period, Kranos focused on cultivation and crafting arrays for protection. In the end, he successfully created about thirty loop arrays of various types—mainly offensive and defensive. Of course, he had many failures along the way, but with each attempt, his mastery of array techniques grew sharper.
Opening his eyes, Kranos stood up. Everything was ready. Since he had decided to participate in a group mission, he knew punctuality was important. Leaving his courtyard, he walked through the academy, passing several unfamiliar faces. Noticing a young man standing off to the side, he approached him.
"Hey, do you know where we can accept missions?" Kranos asked politely, cupping his fists in greeting.
The young man glanced at him, then recalled the upcoming trials. "We accept missions for the trial in the Law Enforcent Hall," he replied.
"Law Enforcent Hall?" Kranos murmured, trying to recall the location. His mory didn’t fail him as he quickly rembered Carlos showing them to the law enforcent hall, they were in charge of distributing missions and maintaining law and order among the cultivators of the academy.
"Thank you," Kranos said, cupping his fists again before heading toward the building.
The hall wasn’t far from the residential quarters, and soon Kranos arrived. Upon entering, he saw a handful of cultivators talking amongst themselves. Several jade slips were scattered across the tables, and to no surprise, he spotted Carlos in the crowd.
Kranos sighed inwardly. He had already predicted that his troubleso brother would be here. Fortunately, he was well-prepared. With the arrays he had crafted along with his spatial abilities, escaping in cases of extre danger would be no problem at all.
Aside from the law enforcers, he also recognized a few familiar faces from his classes. Nodding to them, he approached a different counter—avoiding Carlos entirely.
"I’d like to register for a group mission," he stated.
The young woman behind the counter blinked in surprise, then quickly realized he was referring to the trial.
"There are three groups still lacking one mber," she said, handing him three jade slips containing mission details.
The first mission was to eliminate a bandit group. Though it was confird that Golden Core cultivators were among them, their exact numbers were unknown—clearly a task for second-year students. The second mission involved hunting down a newly erged Golden Core realm demon beast. The third was similar to the first.
After a mont of thought, Kranos chose the second mission. Facing a single Golden Core demon beast seed far more manageable than fighting unknown numbers of organized bandits.
"I’ll take this one," he said, holding up the second jade slip.
The woman smiled faintly. "You’re the last mber needed to complete this group. Return with the beast’s head to receive your points." She then gestured to a corner of the room where a group of cultivators stood.
Kranos observed them. Five cultivators—all at the initial stage of the Golden Core realm. He felt no pressure from any of them, and with that, his mind eased. Even if Carlos had planted them to sabotage him, he had enough strength to act independently.
Approaching the group, he introduced himself. "Greetings, fellow cultivators. I’m Kranos, and I’ve joined your mission."
The five turned toward him. Sensing his cultivation at the eighth stage of Foundation Establishnt, a few frowned. However, the leader among them gave a simple nod.
"Welco to the group. We leave in ten minutes. Keep yourself safe—I can’t guarantee your survival."
Seeing him speak so politely kranos also smiled and bowed slightly before waiting at the side, everything he needed was already in the ti space.
...
Soon, the group departed. For Kranos, this was his first ti leaving the academy since arriving four years ago. A soft smile tugged at his lips as mories surfaced. Before he knew it, they had walked a fair distance and exited the academy grounds.
The outside world remained vast and boundless. Yet this ti, the colossal gate that once seed insurmountable didn’t feel so unreachable. With enough ti, he believed he could open it—or perhaps even destroy it.
Imdiately they went out of the academy the young man with dark brown eyes and hair—the leader, dressed in a black robe spoke to kranos and the others, "based on the description of the demon we should be able to reach where it is in a few hours and get back, any questions?"
No one replied. With that they set out. The trip was uneventful at first. They passed through two small cities, and almost two hours had gone by. But Kranos couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling...
I feel as though i made a very wrong decision coming on this mission... Kranos’ heart was in turmoil but he didn’t know why, also, strangely enough, i’ve felt a peculiar gaze on since leaving the academy.
At first, he dismissed it. But now, his heart pounded like a war drum. He made up his mind—to withdraw from the mission and return alone.
Since the five cultivators weren’t his match, they would have no opinion if he chose to leave.
However, just as Kranos made that decision and turned to leave, he froze in shock.
A colossal palm stretched across the sky, descending upon them with devastating force.
Kranos’ eyes widened in horror. The sight reminded him of the palm he had once faced in the lower realm—though this one was far weaker. At least now, he could move under its pressure.
The others were terrified as well and were frozen in fear, they didn’t even have a chance to scream and seed rooted to their spots. Without holding back kranos imdiately forcefully linked his ti core to the ti of the massive palm, hoping to pause it.
However, it didn’t change anything, he wasn’t able to escape. His heart sank. Kranos could only watch in despair as the gigantic palm crushed him and the others along with the city behind them, killing millions of lives in an instant.
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