Duality of Shadows-Chapter 982: Victory Or Death
The two focused completely on the people. Seconds later, they sighed in sync. The souls were still inside their bodies, but they were in a unique state, affected by the calamity.
’Are they literally asleep?’ Bruno asked, surprised.
Alm came to the same conclusion. Everyone seemed to have their minds and souls dominated by the calamity. The souls, in turn, were in some kind of intense dream, something deeply internal to each individual.
’Blade of Devotion…’ Alm murmured. They needed to stop that item from vanishing and seize the chance to take control of it. However, as they focused on it from a distance, they felt, through the connection with the Heaven’s Will, that there was a clear intent behind its actions.
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Each Primordial Chaos item carried a fragment of the Heaven’s Will. Since Alm and Bruno had become one with the Heaven’s Will, they could feel this connection and subtly interpret its intentions.
Bruno confirmed, ’This is a trial... the kind where it’s victory or death.’
The calamity was a mental trial designed to judge the Dao Heart of those affected. If someone succeeded, they would gain a fraction of the blade’s power, and the trial would continue until all the power was claimed.
But obviously, there could only be one winner who would take it all, as there was a time limit. Each person’s mental energy was slowly being consumed to fuel the internal trial.
Alm and Bruno calculated that, at this rate, in about an hour, the first people would start to die, and soon after, everyone would fall. Of course, not everyone would be affected equally; Ruri, for instance, could probably hold out for a week before her mental energy was exhausted.
’The calamity won’t disappear until the last person fails. But we can’t stay here for too long. The queen already knows something’s wrong here and might send some heroes to investigate. Ideally, she shouldn’t find out the blade emerged here,’ Bruno reflected.
Alm scoffed. The problem was they couldn’t directly participate in the trial and claim the item, something entirely unexpected. There was the option of trying to seal the calamity within their inner universe, like the queen had done in hers. But as they considered that possibility, they instinctively felt it would be a complete failure.
If it were that simple, the queen would have already captured all nine items and sealed them in her universe. According to Caipora, in the past, when the queen discovered where a calamity involving three items would appear, she had to mobilize countless heroes and sacrifice nearly all of them just to seal the items within her universe.
Moreover, through their connection with the calamity, they realized that if they tried to force anything, it would refuse to allow the trial to ever be held again for anyone connected to them.
’Passing the trial means being accepted by the item and fully mastering it. Having it on our side at full power is a huge opportunity. But we can’t participate… we’re tied up here,’ Alm reflected seriously.
Bruno’s eyes widened. ’Wait, the trial is conducted by the Heaven’s Will of this calamity. We’re one with the Heaven’s Will, so we can just replicate its fluctuations and use the Miracle of Spiritual Connection to link our souls to someone in the trial. We can merge with the power of the calamity and infiltrate. That way, we can help a little without totally compromising the trial, right?’
’If we only influence things subtly, I think the calamity won’t cancel it. What matters is the Dao Heart; how someone achieves it doesn’t matter as much. As long as we don’t cross the line,’ Alm immediately understood.
The Oracle had merged with them earlier, showing that their bodies and souls were fully compatible. Now, representing the Heaven’s Will, replicating this calamity wasn’t difficult, since it was right there for them to analyze and imitate.
Could they infiltrate the trial like a virus? Possibly. The only issue would be the power of the law governing this item, something they couldn’t easily replicate. But in every other aspect, they could blend in effortlessly.
’Luckily, we have the solution,’ Bruno said, excited. He then pulled out the artifact designed by the two immortals and recently completed by Sohum.
This artifact combined the eight laws created by the immortals, synchronizing with the calamity’s law. While it wasn’t a perfect match—maybe not even 70%—it was enough for what they had in mind.
The two focused completely; there was no time to waste.
Soon, the whale’s body became ethereal, and they began to mimic the calamity’s power. Their Celestial Souls burned brightly. The artifact, an orange sphere about a meter in diameter with eight stars inside, began to spin and pulse.
A minute later, their ethereal forms started pulsing with the same fluctuations as the sphere. They had replicated the pattern perfectly. They took a deep breath and turned their attention to their people, who were undergoing the trial.
As they sensed everyone, they noticed four figures subtly resonating with the calamity: Corin, Ruri, Rehvka, and Maelik.
It wasn’t surprising; their four disciples were under the most pressure. Whether it was the responsibility of leading so many lives as generals or the pride of being direct disciples of the whale.
That was their greatest pride, but this position pushed them to never back down and always strive not to disappoint their master. It had strengthened their Dao Hearts, putting them on a different level from the others.
Alm and Bruno also noticed Nixis and Thea very close to those four. Meanwhile, the others were far from ordinary cultivators; they all had strong Dao Hearts, though slightly below the main group.
’Once we enter one of their trials, it’ll probably be hard to leave before it ends. We only get one shot,’ Alm murmured.
Inside their minds, they were living a dream created from their own memories. But… they had access to the recollections of all their past lives, meaning anything could be used against them.
Time within this dream flowed differently from the outside world. One minute could represent centuries for them. From what Alm and Bruno sensed, the calamity was forcing them to relive the worst moments of their past lives, testing whether, with their current Dao Hearts, they could overcome and change those memories.
Events from the past could be altered within the dream. If the challengers managed to surpass the obstacle, the test would progress, opening new paths to explore until they built a new ending.
The rule was clear: they could only rely on their current Dao Hearts. The dream was shaped by their memories, but the calamity restored their minds and exact recollections as they had been during the moments portrayed.
In other words, if they were children in the memory, they would remain as such. They wouldn’t recall anything from the future or the present, and, of course, they wouldn’t be aware they were inside a dream.
It was like living everything over again, almost exactly as it had been in the past. The only difference was their will, something intertwined with their consciousness, acting as their sole new weapon.
As long as their mental strength held, they could live thousands of years inside the dream. However, if they failed by repeating exactly what had happened in their memories, they would have to restart from the beginning in an endless cycle. Naturally, it would eventually end with their deaths.
They might overcome a memory with Alm and Bruno’s help, but if their Dao Heart wasn’t strong enough to move the Blade of Devotion, it would all be for nothing. Another memory would likely be selected for them to relive, and they’d remain trapped, endlessly replaying memories. In other words, there was no way to cheat; only complete victory was an option.
Back to Alm and Bruno, they deliberated deeply over who they should try to help. The decision was made in under three seconds... their gazes turned to the most obvious choice: Ruri.
Since childhood, Ruri’s will and Dao Heart had been as vast as the heavens. After learning about her past, they understood why. She had been infected by celestial karma and had lived countless miserable lives until she met the whale.
Ruri had faced the worst of what anyone could endure. For someone like her, only two fates were possible: becoming a twisted and chaotic person or developing a will to live and move forward that defied all logic. Thankfully, she had chosen the latter.
Even so, despite being the most promising, the other three disciples were on equivalent levels of synchronicity with the calamity.
’She must be facing a maddening-level test. Her memories must be a feast for the calamity to choose and manipulate. And still, she’s holding her ground alongside the other three,’ Alm said, observing the small woman lying unconscious.
They knew her deeply, and since they could only offer support in the test, she was the only one they could assist perfectly.
’No matter her condition, her essence would still remain the same,’ Bruno affirmed.
The whale approached Ruri. She was lying on her back, with Meru beside her, holding her hand. The two were unconscious, leaning on each other.
[Miracle of Spiritual Connection] [30 Celestial Points]
[Use?] [Yes / No]
Alm and Bruno looked at the two and sighed softly, choosing to use the miracle.
A connection with Ruri’s soul was established. As they no longer had physical forms, they easily moved inside her, heading directly into her mental sea. There, they found her soul and the passage to the test’s internal world.
’Let’s do this...’
