Of course, the difference between the one at 101st place and the one at 100th place wasn't anything big. If anything, the 101st candidate still got two rings more than the other. In any case, it was from this point onward that big jumps started to appear.
In the 76th place, a female cultivator called Eliyen Enfina was able to pass through a surprising 36 rings. It was far above the previous record of this group, which was only 29. That showed her synergy with both energies was much better than most.
However, her record didn't last long as the 47th candidate, a cultivator of the Devask race called Filarion Wynran, achieved 39 rings. That obviously meant 3900 extra points for him. Just like Eliyen, Filarion shot up through the ranks, gaining tens of positions due to his level of synergy.
By the time they reached the top 10, the record was a total of 44 rings. Erfalis was quite satisfied with that number as it was above what he expected. The last time this kind of test was used with an age restriction, the record was only 48 rings. 44 was still lower than 48, but he was sure that the top 10 would go higher than the previous 48 from the other assembly.
"Next, Samu Kip. Come forward."
The order was still backward, so Samu, the 10th place, was the first to enter the formation. On the center, he used his Soul Power and Divine Energy to lift the orb before immediately shooting it through the first ring. Usually, the first ring would be one of the harder ones. After all, one needed to get used to the formation's disruptive power and learn how to achieve the best synergy to pass through the rings.
*Bang!*
*Shatter!*
However, Samu immediately showed why he was in the top ten. In fact, if he hadn't thought about attacking Rean and Roan together with his group, he would be much higher in rank. He passed through the first ring in less than two seconds, shooting the orb in the second ring's direction.
*Bang, bang, bang, bang...*
*Shatter, shatter, shatter, shatter...*
One barrier after another was destroyed. Of course, like everyone else, Samu could feel the resistance of those barriers inside the rings. It's just that his synergy with both powers was very high, so he could still pierce through them with relative ease.
"Time's up!"
Eventually, one minute was up, and the orb returned to the formation once again. As for Samu's result...
"Samu Kip, Kip Clan, 59 rings. He gets an extra 5900 points!"
Sure enough, he broke the previous record straight away. He already had 3165 points to start with. With those 5900 extra points, he now had 9065 points.
Samu took a deep breath as he came out of the formation. He was feeling quite pleased with his result until he remembered that he was over 3000 points behind Rean before, who had 6355 points. 'There's no way I can get first place like this.' There was nothing he could do, though. After all, intervening in the others' results meant instant banishment from the assembly.
"Next! Oglico, Vintchi Sect, come forward!"
Oglico immediately stepped on the formation, ready to do all he could. He might not take first place, but the Soul Power competition also rewarded Divine Stones for those within the top 10. He definitely wanted to at least get a high amount of them. After all, Divine Stones were very rare in this place, even for someone like him.
*Bang, bang, bang, bang...*
*Shatter, shatter, shatter, shatter...*
Oglico proved why he should have been in the top five before. He immediately broke Samu's record, taking two extra rings in the end. He was the first candidate to get more than one ring per second on average, passing through 61 in total.
"Oglico, Vintchi Sect. He gets 6100 points."
Ancel, Fingpi, Cloud, and Hudi ended up doing worse than Oglico. In fact, Kamu did better than them as well. Ancel got 52 rings, Fingpi 54, while Cloud was the worst, with only 46 rings. Last but not least, Hudi achieved 51 rings.
Vermont, however...
*Shatter...*
*Wow!*
"Very good!" Erfalis said with a nod before continuing, "Vermont Wafols, Wafols Clan, 67 rings!" Erfalis was happy to see how the quality of Soul Power cultivators had improved this time around.
A few moments later, the room went silent again. It was time for the top three.
"Next! Roan Larks, Lukimira Sect, come forward!"
Rean shrugged his shoulders when he heard that, telling him, "Well, make sure you bring the second place prize home with us."
Roan slightly nodded and moved in the formation's direction. He ignored all the eyes and quickly set into position.
"Sta-!"
*Shatter!*
Roan's reaction was faster than Erfalis's signal. Roan was able to tell when the formation activated, which truly symbolized the start of the one-minute test, not Erfalis's voice. Roan found no issues controlling the orb at all. With the system's fusion of Soul Power and Divine Energy, synergy was the least of their problems. It couldn't be said to be perfect, but it definitely wasn't far away from it.
This time, Roan really felt like cheating. After all, he didn't have to put much effort to get a great result. All he had to do was make sure his output of Divine Energy and Soul Power was similar so that the merged energy would be good enough to pass through the rings while ignoring the formation's disruption.
30 seconds into the test, and Roan already passed through 40 rings.
45 seconds, 62 rings.
One minute later... and Roan ended up with a total of 79 rings. Sure enough, his synergy smashed the previous best result of 67 rings. Sadly, he couldn't try it again, though. If he could, he was sure he would do better.
Nevertheless, everyone was shocked by that disparity between 3rd and 4th place. Roan and the rest of the cultivators were on completely different levels. That disparity affected even Sansa, who had no confidence of reaching Roan's result. Besides, everyone thought in their heads. 'If he already got this much, how much better can his twin do?' That included Fabio, the candidates outside the Soul Power Test, and all the elders who were watching.
"Roan Larks, Lukimira Sect. He gets an extra 7900 points!"
