Chapter 280: Token
Chapter 280: Token
At last, the area finally turned quiet.
Cain had instantly collapsed to his knees, gasping and panting for air. He gritted his teeth, using whatever amount of Soul energy left to suppress and absolve the chaotic Law essence tearing his internal body.
After a few seconds, Cain had at least dealt with all remaining invading Law essence.
A turbulent breath of air spewed from Cain's mouth. "The difficulty sure wasn't anything to scoff at. But at the same time, if I was at my peak condition when coming, I wouldn't have struggled nearly as much. I guess that's what makes the Nightmare realm difficult to advance far into the later rounds. But because this is round 30, I should be getting…"
Expectations flashed within Cain's eyes. His palms opened up, eagerly awaiting a special reward for clearing the 30th round.
He waited moments to seconds in complete silence.
And when he still hasn't received any reward after several seconds, Cain instantly judged something was off.
For all previous rewards, the rewards had never taken this long before.
Cain was on high alert. He may have low reserves capacity now but was still ready for battle no matter who they were. His Soul Sense released, attempting to find anything suspicious.
The moment he did release his Soul Sense, a sudden sensation was promptly detected.
Cain tightly knitted his brows. This sensation wasn't unfamiliar at all to him.
It was precisely the same as what he felt just before he entered the 30th round!
Cain had no good inkling at all. He slowly stood up, forcing what little Soul energy he had left to revolve through his body.
A faint hue of green Chaos aura briefly alights his pupils like a flickering flame.
Moments went by, but nothing jumped out at Cain. Everything was still an eerie silence.
It was only when Cain began flicking his gaze around that he heard an ear-piercing cold voice reverberate in his mind.
The mere sound of this voice froze Cain entirely in his tracks.
"As I expected, you really are quite a perceptive boy. Despite your current state, you're still completely willing to fight once again. So here's the question, do you want to continue to the next round? Your rewards will be astounding if you choose to do so."
The voice was clearly a male and held a distinctly powerful tone.
There was a powerful presence that Cain nearly felt entirely enraptured by. Not even his grandmother could create such an unfathomable effect with this voice.
It was almost like he was listening to a whole world speak!
Cain himself thought that sounded a bit ludicrous. But it was simply the best way he could describe just how much of an unfathomable presence this voice was.
Many in this situation would feel a tremendous compelling force to this voice. They would have no options but to obey his words. While others would be frightened to their core. They wouldn't be able to even utter a groan at this moment.
Cain was experiencing a mixture of fear and compulsion. His Martial Heart was fiercely shaken up.
This was the first time anyone had been affected to such a massive degree, to the point where he felt he would nearly lose all of his reasoning.
But still, it was only nearly loose all of his reasoning.
A small portion of reason still clung to Cain's mental psyche. He stubbornly latched on to his reasoning, refusing to lose his mind.
If there's one thing that Cain engraved as an ultimate rule about this universe, it is that being determined is one of the foundations for success.
At every step in either Martial cultivation or the Spiritual path, there were bound to be massive hurdles. To cross over each and every one of them, a firm and steady mindset is required.
Cain may have immensely high Martial talent and overall potential, but he still needs a firm determination to achieve quite high results.
Thus, Cain determined himself, resisting all other confusing feelings, and discharged his last remaining Soul energy straight towards his Mental Psyche.
Cain promptly felt slightly less fuzzy in the head.
It wasn't much, but enough for Cain to focus himself, pushing away all other sensations trying to poison his mind.
He slowly said, "I am not sure who Senior is, but I am sorry. I do not believe in my current state I should continue on. I need to rest to recuperate my injuries and cultivate the most of my gains."
Even though Cain said he wasn't sure on this voice identity was, he already had some guesses in mind.
A couple of seconds passed, and the cold voice didn't speak up.
When Cain was beginning to get a little worry, he finally heard the voice speak. "Somehow, you can resist my presence? Really, I haven't chosen wrong with you, boy. Perfect, very perfect. Alright, here. I will gift you a special token that can allow you to come straight back into this round."
As he said so, Heavenly energy swirled around Cain's hands. He looked down, only to see white lights rapidly gathered.
Moments later, a unique white token formed on the center of his palm.
The white token was incomparably smooth to touch and an insignia symbol of what appeared to be lightning carved in the middle of it. At the top, there was a number 30 symbol inscribed.
A memory flashed within Cain. He analyzed, 'If under normal times, I would have received the options to just get an ordinary return token. An ordinary one would have just allowed me to return to the first round of the Nightmare Realm. To think I have a massive advantage like this…'
The more Cain thought about it, the more he was assured about this voice origin.
The only one who can possibly create such a cheat item like this has to be none other than Heavenly Venerate Nightmare Lord's remnant Soul!
Other than him, it was basically impossible for any other cultivator to affect a quasi-mystic realm to a perfect degree.
If so, then it appears that the rumors were correct all this time.
But more than that, the Nightmare Lord knows about his Chaos Spirit Force! Or, more accurately, he knows that he can defy all rules and logic strictly brought by the Dao Diagrams inhabiting the quasi-mystic realm.
A sense of worry sprung up from Cain.
Against an unfathomably powerful person like the Nightmare Lord, there wouldn't be anything he could reasonably do.
It may just be a remnant Soul, but Cain didn't doubt it held immense power that could utterly ruin him.
If he were to be schemed against, all Cain could do was to accept it and adapt to the situation.
Still, Cain also was aware that it wasn't all bad. He keenly picked up the intrigued he managed to instill in this voice.
Whether it was the Nightmare Lord specifically or not, Cain decided to probe his luck.
He carefully asked, "I thank Senior for the gift. But if I may ask Senior, can you hand these types of tokens to two more people? They may not have the same combat advantage as me but have Source Law control rivaling myself."
"Oh? You mean those two little girls that you came with? Well then, I can attest that their results are certainly superior to all others, excluding yours. Alright, it shall be done." The voice readily agreed.
Cain felt a little joy at that. He was still on guard but did remember to gratefully bow to the supposed Nightmare Lord.
"Thank you, Senior."
Cain didn't receive a reply back.
Only Heavenly energy gathered, forming into a black portal.
Through the black portal was the outside world and specifically where Elder Weilong was.
Cain put the white token in his pocket and then unhesitatingly stepped right through the portal.
The power of space twisted, pulling Cain into the outside world.
A moment later, Cain blinked his eyes, arriving back in his mountain terrain camp.
Cain snapped his gaze around, seeing that only a select few youths were already back outside.
These youths were cultivating all of their gains but could no longer enter back in the Nightmare Realm.
After all, Cain was the only freak here that could tremendously increase his combat prowess without any issue.
As Cain looked around, he suddenly sensed many other Divine Senses sweep over him.
A cold shine reflected in Cain's eyes.
But the next moment, the presence of those Divine Senses washed away when Cain heard Elder Weilong's voice.
"Ah, young seventh prince. It truly appears you made quite the gains in your first attempt. You did receive the returned token, I assume?"
Cain turns back over to Elder Weilong, recognizing the expecting glint shimmering his eyes.
Seeing no reason to cover it up since his actions evidently caused a storm, he nodded, saying, "I did reach the 30th round. Through both Law Phantoms and other challengers, I used everything to my advantage."
"Excellent!" Elder Weilong's expression brightly lit up. "You indeed are a once in a ten thousand years genius."
Elder Weilong naturally heard of Cain's exploits from all other surrounding forces. And, of course, he cared little for those unimportant Holy Land's geniuses.
What truly was important was the fact that Cain has some sort of astounding talent with Source Laws!
The better he performed, the higher their Huang Dragon glory will spread out.
Elder Weilong now gazed upon Cain with a far higher favorable light. Hearing and seeing are indeed two entirely different concepts.
If Cain can already have such achievements merely in the Sky Ruler realm, then who knows how high he can grow.
Most certainly, Elder Weilong was favoring he would go far.
And at this time, two distinct twisting of space suddenly occurred.
Space Dao marks gathered into black space essence, rippling the air. The Space Dao marks formed into two black portals.
Stepping out from the portals were two beautiful young women.
Naturally, they both were Kali and Amber. Both girls looked equally elated as they returned to their terrain camp.
Upon stepping out of the portals, Kali and Amber instantly noticed Cain.
Kali reacted first, promptly taking out a white token, holding proudly high as she smugly said to Cain, "Well, well, brother? Did you return first? Don't tell me you made it less than me? I already completed my 20th round before receiving this token!"
As she said, on Kali's white token was the marking of 20 inscribed at the top, indicating her results.
She was beginning to feel a sense of pride over seemingly suppressing her brother.
Amber warmly smiled, taking out her own white token that had 15 inscribed on the top. She said, "Even if it's not 20, I am sure you are still above me, right crazy guy? Ah, just look at your condition. I am already sure you pushed yourself crazily hard."
Amber quickly went up without a second thought, slapping her small, petite hand onto Cain's broad chest and interjected healing Spirit energy in him.
It was simply an instinctive reaction to seeing the dirtied blood staining Cain's Dragon robes.
Her tone was reprimanding, but her expression was washed in a warmth that made Cain feel like he was in sunlight.
Cain merely smiled and gently stroked Amber's soft, lushes hair. With his other hand, he pulled out his white token.
In that moment, Amber, Kali, and even Elder Weilong snapped their gazes on the number symbol.
"Round 30?!" The girls' eyes lit up.