"Finally here?"
The crisp voice of a woman was the first thing that greeted Damien when he arrived in Astoria. When he looked over, he saw a fiery red figure walking towards him with a smile on her face.
"Mm. I don't get why we had to meet up here before heading to the rendezvous point, but it's whatever." He smiled back.
"Don't be a bother. It's been an entire year since we came to this place, so isn't it normal to feel a bit sentimental?"
Damien let out a chuckle. He thought back to all the experiences that he had since entering the Trial World.
From meeting little Xue to establishing the Sanctuary, battling Demons on countless occasions and recruiting Elitra, getting struck by a Demigod's True Voice and taming Mirage in the Ancient Temple, and even fusing the Void Flames and conquering a Demon King.
It was truly a time filled to the brim with adventures. If he looked back on it now, he might've struggled more than he initially expected. As for sentimentality?
"Well, I guess you could say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time here."
He had reaped so many benefits in just this first trial that it almost felt unfair. He was extremely pleased with the progress he had made.
Not even just with the items he had come into possession of, but his own skills as well. Even his space element had improved by leaps and bounds. To have been able to increase his teleportation range to 10 meters in here, where the spatial suppression was leagues worse than it was in the 3000 Beast Mountain Range, he couldn't wait to see what it was like when he returned back outside.
"But if we have to talk about who had the biggest improvement, wouldn't it be you?" He quipped as he glanced at Feng Qing'er.
In the year since they had arrived, she seemed to have become more beautiful. A slight air of maturity had begun to mix with her original rebelliousness.
Feng Qing'er turned her head away with a smile. Even if she wanted to refute, she couldn't. Unlocking Reincarnation Flames before going through Universe Baptism was extremely rare, and for her to be able to do it was a huge boon.
After she became accustomed to her Reincarnation Flames, her progress in most other things also increased rapidly. Not to mention, the levels of her skills had skyrocketed.
"Enough about me. Where the hell is Qing Tan? We can't wait for her forever."
The day of the one-year deadline wasn't far away, and if they wanted to reach the rendezvous point in time, they had to leave Astoria today. As if waiting for her cue, though, Qing Tan's voice suddenly rang out from behind them.
"Oho~ I heard that someone was missing me to the point of tears around here, so I came as fast as I could. Don't tell me…it was you?"
Qing Tan smiled and jumped on Feng Qing'er, hugging her from behind.
"Hmph! We don't have time for your games today. Now that you're here, we can finally set off."
Qing Tan looked downcast as she was forced to pull her hands away from Feng Qing'er, but in the end, she accepted.
Playing around was fun, but not at the cost of being stuck in the Trial World forever. She was dying to leave this place and experience more of the blood-boiling trials to come.
With the three of them gathered, they soon set out for the rendezvous point, which was the hill where they first arrived in the Trial World.
"Say, what do you think the next trial will be?" Qing Tan suddenly asked.
It was a question that had been on both Damien and Feng Qing'er's minds ever since they became conscious of the fact that their time in the Trial World was ending.
The first Trial was something fairly straightforward, but ended in then having prolonged conflict with the Demons. They had also found out many truths that they didn't expect to be present in a simple secret realm.
If just the first trial was like that, what would the rest be like? Damien inwardly hoped that it wouldn't be anything so complicated.
Although he didn't mind the Trial World's plot twist that much, he would definitely mind if he kept getting used as a tool in the fight between two Divinities. It wasn't his purpose in the Primordial Undying Realm, nor was it something he had any interest in.
But at the same time, it was an issue concerning the Nox, so a certain part of his brain always urged him to get involved even deeper.
"The easiest kind of trial would probably be something dealing with comprehension or pure combat like this one, but I doubt they'd reuse that idea again. Comprehension would be nice, but it feels too straightforward for this secret realm that always likes to do the unexpected. I really can't predict what the next trial will be like." Damien muttered, half in thought.
Feng Qing'er nodded her head in agreement. "How nice would it be if the trial was similar to what happened at the end of the Ancient Temple?"
"Hoh? But I don't think Qing Tan would like that at all." Damien smirked.
Qing Tan shot him a pointed glare before turning her head away with a pout. She still hadn't forgotten what this bastard had done while she was still intoxicated.
"Ahh, what a shame that I didn't have a record crystal on hand. Tsk tsk, the blushing face of the Shadow Devil Qing Tan…it would've sold for millions!"
"What Shadow Devil? Quit making up nicknames on your own." Qing Tan grumbled.
"What do you mean?" Feng Qing'er replied. "You haven't heard it? Ever since the first battle we had with the Apostles when you used your Domain to kill all those demons, the other geniuses here have been calling you the Shadow Devil. They were even saying it in Astoria before we left."
Qing Tan's eyes widened in shock. "Seriously? And I didn't even notice something like that?"
"Do you ever pay attention to anyone you don't care about?" Damien said wryly.
"Fair point." Qing Tan immediately agreed. It would indeed have been weirder for her to notice the drivel of insignificant flies.
"How many do you think survived?" Damien suddenly posed a question of his own.
He had seen with his own eyes as countless geniuses died in battle. He didn't know exactly how many there were, but the number wasn't small at all.
Originally, there were around 100 of them that entered the realm together. Damien was 100% sure that at least half of them had died.
"Half? That's thinking too optimistically. If I had to guess, there'll be a maximum of 20 people at the rendezvous point, including us." Qing Tan scoffed.
"Even 20 is pushing it. Every time there was a battle with demons, a large number of them would die. And in the Ancient Temple, even more had died. I don't even think there'll be 10 left." Feng Qing'er pointed out objectively.
"Right. I forgot that there were other geniuses that entered the Ancient Temple. Pretty much everyone died before I got there." Damien replied in realization.
He really had to wonder how the forces of the 3000 Beast Mountain Range would react to the loss of so many geniuses. It was also curious whether or not such high death rates were prevalent in every Trial World or just theirs.
'Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough.'
The trio soon arrived at the rendezvous point, and as Qing Tan had predicted, roughly 20 people had gathered.
"We took our sweet time reaching here, so it shouldn't be long until the notification pops up…" Damien muttered to himself.
And as he expected, a blue holographic window soon appeared in front of his eyes.
[The Trial of Stars has been completed.]
