Ethan never would have guessed the Divine Sea Temple was basically a glorified obstacle course.

He stood there staring at the four men, completely at a loss for words, trying to reconcile the grandeur he had imagined with the absurd reality in front of him.

"Look, kid, you might as well go in," the spearman said at last, his tone steady but heavy with something that lingered beneath the surface. "That’s the only way out. Otherwise, you end up like our ancestors... stuck here forever."

The last words faded into a bitter quiet, as if even he was tired of hearing them.

"What?"

Ethan’s brain stalled for a moment, like it had hit a wall it couldn’t process.

This was bad. Really bad. But even so, he was going in. There wasn’t any other choice.

If this place really was some kind of trial ground, then there had to be rewards hidden inside, something worth the risk, otherwise no one would bother building something like this in the first place.

"Anything I should watch out for?" he asked, forcing himself to focus.

The four men exchanged looks, their earlier indifference shifting into something closer to curiosity as they studied him more carefully. It made sense, Ethan realized. It had probably been a very long time since anyone new had appeared here, and an outsider from the Ancestral Star was bound to draw attention.

"The dangers fall into two categories," one of them said. "First, celestial beasts. They hide in the mountains and forests. Second... the natural formations inside the trial grounds."

’Natural formations.’

Ethan’s attention sharpened immediately.

He wasn’t an expert, but he knew enough to understand how serious that could be. Spending time around Micah and Ryan had rubbed off on him more than he liked to admit, and he could still remember the two of them arguing endlessly about formations, about how most were artificial constructs that required materials, energy, and a guiding hand to function properly.

But sometimes the world itself created them.

No one set them. No one controlled them. They simply existed, shaped by the environment, unpredictable and often far more dangerous than anything crafted by human hands.

Traps, illusions, killing zones. Some harmless, some lethal.

If these men were saying the natural formations here were among the greatest threats, then this trial ground was anything but ordinary.

Anyone who managed to clear it... would be something else entirely.

Ethan couldn’t help but wonder if some of the so-called legends he had heard about had once passed through a place like this, carving out their reputations step by step.

His expression hardened slightly.

"That bastard set me up," he muttered under his breath. "Fine. Then I’ll clear the whole thing and go back to crush him."

The Temple Lord had known exactly what he was doing when he redirected the portal. There was no way this was an accident.

Ethan drew in a breath, then clasped his hands toward the four men in a respectful gesture.

"Alright. I’m going in. And when I get out, I’m tearing this place down and bringing you all back to Earth."

He didn’t miss the look in their eyes when they spoke about being trapped here. The quiet longing, worn thin by time.

So he gave them a promise.

For a brief moment, something lit up in their expressions, a spark of hope that hadn’t been there before, but it faded just as quickly as it came. They remembered what he had said earlier, that he had been thrown here, not chosen, not someone who had willingly stepped into the trial.

Every decade, they sent their children in, hoping someone would be recognized, hoping someone would succeed and escape this place. Generation after generation, that hope had gone unanswered.

Their numbers were dwindling. Soon, there might be no one left at all.

Ethan saw all of that without a word being spoken, and chose not to say anything more. Instead, he turned and walked toward the swirling tear in the vortex.

"Wait, kid. Take this."

The man with the brush, who carried himself like a judge, stepped forward and handed him a jade token.

"You’ll need it," he said. "Inject your soul energy into it. It shows your position, among other things. Back in the old days, people fought over these as proof of victory. Now... it’s just a map."

Ethan accepted it with a nod of thanks, then stepped forward and jumped without hesitation.

The mist swallowed him instantly.

For a moment, there was no sense of falling. Instead, it felt like he was rising, his body weightless, as if gravity had been turned inside out.

"...I jumped down," he muttered. "So why does it feel like I’m going up?"

The sensation vanished as abruptly as it began, and his feet touched solid ground.

Fresh grass cushioned the landing, and a breath of clean, vibrant air filled his lungs, making his entire body relax without him even realizing it.

He lifted his gaze.

Mountains stretched into the distance, covered in dense forests that pulsed with life. The environment felt richer than Azure, almost overwhelmingly so, as if every inch of this place was saturated with energy.

"So this is the trial grounds," he murmured. "The energy here is insane... wait, what’s with these plants?"

At his feet, something that looked like a clover swayed gently in the breeze, except it had five leaves instead of three, and each one gave off a faint, soft glow.

It seemed to react to his presence, tilting away from him as if startled, which immediately caught his attention. He crouched down for a closer look, curiosity rising—

A blur flashed past.

Someone appeared right in front of the plant, grabbed it without hesitation, and yanked it out of the ground, roots and all.

Ethan blinked.

For a second, he wasn’t sure what he had just witnessed.

He didn’t even know what the plant was, but judging by the speed and precision of the movement, it was definitely something valuable.

His eye twitched slightly as he straightened up and looked at the culprit.

"Thanks! See you around."

The figure wore plain robes, their hair tied up neatly in a scholar’s style. They flashed him a grin, gave a casual wave, and then shot off toward the treeline in a blur of motion.

Ethan watched them disappear, his expression flattening.

"...a woman."

He rolled his eyes.

The disguise might have fooled someone else, but not him. The voice, the posture, the subtle details that didn’t quite line up, it was obvious if you knew what to look for. He had seen it before. When Evelyn had dressed up as an old man, she hadn’t fooled him for even a second, and this girl’s attempt was far less convincing.

"Amateur," he muttered.

Shaking his head, he looked around again before pulling out the jade token. It was time to figure out where he was.

The moment his fingers touched it, a soft surge of energy responded. Before he could react, another figure dropped from above and landed directly in front of him.

She froze the instant she saw his face.

In the next breath, her sword was already drawn and held across her chest, her stance tense and ready.

Ethan raised an eyebrow slightly.

’Another one.’

This one, however, was different. There was a sharpness to her presence, a controlled strength that suggested real skill. If he had to guess, her strength was somewhere around the Limbo rank, which wasn’t bad at all.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her eyes locked onto him. "I’ve never seen you before."

Her grip tightened on the sword.

That alone said enough. The group of participants here was small, tight-knit. They had likely grown up together, which meant any unfamiliar face was an immediate threat.

Ethan didn’t answer. He simply looked at her, calm and unreadable.

She opened her mouth to press further—then the ground exploded beneath his foot.

A shockwave rippled outward as he launched himself forward, his body cutting through the air like a missile as he shot toward the distant treeline.

"What—" Her eyes widened in disbelief.

"That speed... and that physique..."

For a long moment, she just stood there, stunned, watching the direction he had vanished.

If someone like that was participating in the trial, then everything had just changed.

She had heard stories from the elders, stories about how the trial used to be brutal, where survival meant fighting, where death was a constant possibility. But in recent generations, things had softened. Every decade, they entered, gathered resources, and left without incident.

This was no longer that kind of place. At least, it hadn’t been.

Until now.

She exhaled slowly, trying to steady herself, but her thoughts kept circling back to what she had just seen.

That speed was far beyond her.

Even the four guardians who oversaw the trial didn’t seem to possess that level of physical strength, or at least not in the same way.

And yet, his strength level had felt... low. Which only made it more unsettling. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

She shook her head.

"No... not at their level," she murmured, a chill creeping down her spine. Slowly, she sheathed her sword.

"He didn’t attack," she whispered. "If he had... I’d already be dead."

The realization settled heavily in her chest. She had nearly provoked him. If she had actually struck first, the outcome would have been very different.

"I need to warn the others," she said under her breath, her expression tightening. "Do not provoke the outsider."

Without wasting another second, she turned and disappeared into the forest.

---

Ethan eventually found his way to a mountain peak and climbed onto the thick branch of an ancient tree, settling himself into a concealed position where he could observe his surroundings without being easily noticed.

Only then did he take out the jade token again.

"Nobody’s dropping in on me this time, right?" he muttered.

He still didn’t fully understand how the trial worked. It felt a bit like those old tower-climbing games, where each level got progressively harder, but there had to be more to it than that.

Focusing, he pushed a thread of soul energy into the token. Information flooded his mind instantly.

Maps, records of celestial beasts, descriptions of herbs and plants, all of it compressed into a massive stream of knowledge that unpacked itself piece by piece.

He skimmed through it quickly, pausing only briefly when he spotted the glowing plant from earlier.

Five-leaf clover. The name was almost disappointingly simple.

He moved on without lingering. What he needed right now was the map.

Comparing the terrain around him with what appeared in his mind, he quickly pinpointed his location. He was on the southern edge, near the outer perimeter of what was labeled as the second layer.

The structure of the area became clear as he studied it further.

The entrance to the second layer formed a massive ring, guiding everything inward like a funnel. At the very center was a marked point labeled "Third Layer Entrance."

Ethan let out a quiet breath.

"Yeah... it really is a tower climb."

Several regions on the map were marked in red, with the density increasing the closer they were to the center. The core itself was almost entirely covered in solid red, a clear indication of extreme danger.

There were two possible routes to the third layer.

One path curved around the danger zones, leading north in a relatively safe arc.

The other went straight through the center. Faster, obviously. But the map didn’t specify what exactly made those red zones so dangerous.

Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly as he considered it.

The map was old, possibly very old. If those areas were filled with celestial beasts back then, there was no telling what they might have become after all this time. Maybe they had died out, or maybe they had grown even stronger.

He wasn’t particularly interested in finding out the hard way.

"I’ll go around," he decided.

The safer path might take longer, but it reduced unnecessary risk, and right now, his goal wasn’t to prove anything. It was to get through this place and get out.

Besides, the other participants would likely take the same route. They had been raised here, taught how the trial worked, and guided toward progressing upward rather than lingering in dangerous areas.

If he wanted information, they were his best bet.

With that in mind, he dropped down from the tree and began moving north.

The distance wasn’t short. Starting from the southern edge meant a long detour, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit unlucky about his landing point, but it was still better than wasting time dealing with unknown threats.

After about half an hour of steady movement, the jade token pulsed faintly in his hand.

A small dot blinked into existence.

"Someone nearby," he murmured.

He focused on the token, quickly activating its stealth function, which hid his own position from others, before adjusting his path toward the signal.

Another ten minutes passed before he found them. A figure crouched low in the grass, clearly trying to stay hidden.

Ethan slipped into concealment as well, lowering himself behind them just as additional dots began appearing on his token, all converging toward the same location.

Footsteps approached. A second figure stepped out from behind a tree.

"Brock? That you?"

"Yeah, yeah. Took you long enough," the one in the grass replied, standing up.

Ethan watched as the two bumped fists, their familiarity was obvious.

"Took me long enough?" the newcomer shot back with a grin. "There are people slower than me. They’re just not here yet."

"Not yet," Brock said with a sigh. "I’ve been waiting forever. Oh, and something weird happened earlier. A dot showed up on my token, then disappeared. You think something happened to someone?"

Brock frowned, clearly unsettled.

"For real?" the other man, Qenty, raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. And there aren’t many of us left as it is. The women are already too few. At this rate, how are we even supposed to find wives?"

Brock looked genuinely troubled.

Qenty snorted.

"You and your obsession with wives. Speaking of which, aren’t you betrothed to your cousin or something?" he said, giving him a teasing look.

"Don’t remind me," Brock groaned. "My cousin’s built like a beer keg. If you want her, you can have her."

"I might take you up on that," Qenty replied with a shrug. "Can’t be picky these days. When the lights are off, everyone’s the same. We’ve got to keep the population going somehow."

Ethan nearly choked trying to keep quiet.

’lights off, everyone’s the same.’

That line hit him with a strange sense of familiarity. Leo used to say the exact same thing.