# Chapter 31: Trial
Storm Flame Dragon Dis flew among the clouds as Su Xiao sat cross-legged on its back in meditation. Recently, he had a feeling that his meditation ability was approaching some kind of bottleneck. Checking its level, his Heart Meditation ability had reached lv.89.
The reason Heart Meditation had grown so rapidly was that Su Xiao had obtained [Book of Souls: Soul Imprint] in the previous world progression. This secret technique required a soul strength of over 600 points to master, and its effects could well be imagined.
After Su Xiao constructed the "Soul Imprint" using the method recorded in [Book of Souls: Soul Imprint], his meditation efficiency had increased dramatically. In the previous world's High Wall City, his Heart Meditation level was lv.73, and now it had reached lv.89.
At this moment, Su Xiao could clearly sense that while continuing to meditate still gave him the feeling of meditation, he was no longer improving. As for how to break through this bottleneck, he naturally knew. With the knowledge accumulated over so long, especially in the "Void Great Library" and "Soul Library," he had paid considerable attention to this aspect.
To raise Heart Meditation to lv.90 was both simple and complex. Speaking mysteriously, it required enlightenment. Speaking plainly, it required consuming a certain amount of World Force during meditation.
The biggest characteristic of World Force was its difficulty to obtain. But speaking of its value, there weren't many places where this thing could be used. People who purely developed combat abilities would never need it. Even as an Alchemy Grandmaster, he rarely used this thing. This led to the situation where this resource was both hard to obtain and few people wanted to buy it.
Su Xiao took out [Ring of Holy Marks]. He had obtained this item in Dead Silence City. Its function was as a synthesis item. Of course, it couldn't synthesize everything. For example, Soul Crystals couldn't be synthesized with this thing — synthesizing multiple Soul Crystals (Large) into Soul Crystals (Complete).
Activating [Ring of Holy Marks], a dark-golden ring appeared ahead. Su Xiao took out three [World Core (Fragments)]. A single fragment, aside from being inserted into the soil around the Black Maple Tree for it to absorb, temporarily had no other discovered uses.
But if they were synthesized, that was different. Su Xiao gripped [Ring of Holy Marks] with both hands, his soul energy flowing into it as the energy to activate [Ring of Holy Marks].
This drew a curious glance from Sacred Hymn beside him, but she didn't ask further and continued reading an ancient text about gem explosion knowledge.
Su Xiao had seen this type of knowledge in the Soul Library. It was a formidable small-system ability. The so-called small system meant very few people developed abilities in this direction, mainly because it couldn't be afforded. Sacred Hymn naturally didn't worry about this aspect. As a Ninth Rank Contractor of Holy Light Paradise, she had no shortage of gems, just as Apocalypse Paradise lacked no mineral resources.
When this ability developed to high ranks, no one wanted to provoke it. Not only could contractors with this ability use gems as explosives — the stronger the gem, the more powerful the explosion, and depending on the characteristics, they provided different explosive damage consumption. What made people gnash their teeth in hatred was that when fighting someone with this ability, even if you ultimately won, the gems set in your own equipment would be mostly destroyed.
That's right. This ability at high ranks could detonate the gems set in an opponent's equipment. Not to mention the damage from your own equipment's gems exploding, the equipment with set gems would basically be guaranteed damaged. This meant that even if you won against such an enemy, you won with particular frustration. Every time you thought about it, you'd be too angry to eat.
[Ring of Holy Marks] contracted, forcibly squeezing the three [World Core (Fragments)] together, producing cracking sounds.
[Prompt: This synthesis has failed.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao was not at all surprised. He wanted the synthesis to fail. Opening [Ring of Holy Marks] and putting it away, a crystal covered in cracks, about the size of an apple, fell into Su Xiao's hand. He took out an arm-thick glass cylinder, crushed the crystal piece, and poured the fragments into the solution within the glass cylinder.
After a while, the crystalline fragments in the solution emitted wisps of energy, absorbed by the collection device at the bottom of the glass cylinder. The energy stored in this way was World Force.
Su Xiao had discovered this wonderful use of [Ring of Holy Marks] when trying to use it to synthesize Soul Crystals. A single [World Core (Fragment)], due to its stable structure, couldn't extract World Force even if smashed.
But using the squeezing field formed during [Ring of Holy Marks]'s synthesis process could destroy this stable structure, making it easier to extract World Force afterward.
After collecting about 10 ounces of World Force, Su Xiao used his Proud Song ability to construct a hollow crystal container, put the obtained World Force inside, and then meditated while consuming this World Force.
Su Xiao didn't consider himself a genius at enlightenment. Having him comprehend the opportunity to advance Heart Meditation to lv.90, he estimated that he truly might not be able to figure out this mysterious thing. But that didn't matter. If enlightenment was insufficient, knowledge + resources could make up for it. The so-called enlightenment was actually absorbing trace amounts of World Force scattered in the air bit by bit, then achieving resonance with the world.
Since he lacked talent in this area, Su Xiao would absorb high-concentration World Force to achieve resonance with the world. If a genius only needed to absorb 0.001 ounces of World Force to complete this resonance, then he would absorb 10 ounces at once. If 10 ounces wasn't enough, then 100 ounces.
If that still didn't work, Su Xiao would use the knowledge he had mastered to construct a formation diagram, use this formation to achieve forced resonance with the world, then sit on this formation while absorbing World Force and meditating. He refused to believe he couldn't break through this so-called bottleneck.
Perhaps the world sensed Su Xiao's thoughts and didn't give him the opportunity to set up the formation. After consuming about 9 ounces of World Force in meditation, Su Xiao felt what seemed like a crisp cracking sound. His meditation state, like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, expanded from a meditation circle several dozen meters in diameter to several hundred meters. He could faintly sense the surrounding elemental forces and the trace amounts of Abyss Force in the earth's veins.
Strangely, that thin Abyss energy in the earth's veins didn't give him the feeling it used to. When Abyss energy reached such trace amounts, it instead felt slightly cold but nourishing to all things.
[Prompt: Heart Meditation ability has been raised to lv.90.]
[Your True Willpower has been permanently increased by 10 points.]
[Blood Qi ability endurance upper limit increased by 175 points.]
[Blade technique potential increased by 10%.]
[Spirit energy toughness slightly improved.]
[Mana recovery speed slightly improved.]
["Steel Will" permanent state slightly improved.]
...
Su Xiao steadied his breathing. When knowledge had accumulated to a certain extent, breaking through this type of bottleneck was this simple and unadorned. Spending months or even years on so-called enlightenment truly wasn't as good as using that time to master more knowledge.
Night had quietly fallen without notice. Su Xiao looked at the full moon above. This coolness wouldn't be available to enjoy tomorrow.
The further west they flew, the higher the temperature. Finally, the surrounding clouds disappeared, indicating this area was very water-deficient. The sun scorched the earth, vegetation withered, and faint white smoke drifted from the ground.
Looking down from the dragon's back, the surface showed a yellowish-brown color. A giant beast's skeleton was half-buried in the sandy soil, and in the shade it cast, snakes, lizards, and other animals hid.
A caravan of about thirty camels slowly moved across this scorching Gobi flatland. A young boy in the caravan was so thirsty his lips were white and cracked. He pulled out the soft stopper of his leather water bag, carefully poured a mouthful of water, held it in his mouth for a while to moisten it, then slowly swallowed. Water droplets falling from the dead skin on his lips barely moistened a small patch of sandy soil before evaporating instantly.
This was the Desert Kingdom. However, lack of water didn't mean no water at all. Here, there was a two-month rainy season each year, plus deep wells for groundwater, and four large freshwater lakes, making water resources barely sufficient. What was truly difficult was the annual dry spell lasting over a month, during which even groundwater somewhat dried up.
The average temperature of over 40° was indeed hot, but for Ninth Rank transcendent beings, this was completely within acceptable range — they wouldn't even feel hot.
"Are you looking for the Sand King?"
Sacred Hymn spoke. Other than that, she couldn't think of anything else in the Desert Kingdom that could threaten Su Xiao.
Actually, that wasn't the case. Su Xiao had only brought Sacred Hymn here to go deep into the "Scorching Desert," also known by some as the "Molten Iron Desert."
The reason for this name was the "Molten Iron Town" beside the "Scorching Desert." This small town had only a hundred or so households but had produced several forging masters.
"Molten Iron Town" had excellent geographical resources. This town, right next to the "Scorching Desert," only needed to set up sufficiently stable gathering formations to collect some of the Solar Flame dispersed within the "Scorching Desert" for forging. The weapons produced were naturally imbued with extreme fire characteristics.
That noon, when Storm Flame Dragon lowered its flight altitude, a town built of steel came into view. Blackened steel buildings and towering chimneys were people's first impression of Molten Iron Town.
Su Xiao didn't plan to go to Molten Iron Town. He had Storm Flame Dragon lower its altitude over the White Stone Plain behind Molten Iron Town and jumped off the dragon's back.
The white stone underfoot was honeycombed. One careless step would break through and fall into the magma beneath the rock layer. For this reason, even the residents of Molten Iron Town rarely came here.
Su Xiao walked on the rock layer. After just a few steps, he stepped through the rock layer, and one foot was submerged in magma.
[Prompt: You are suffering from extreme flame erosion. If you continue to receive this judgment, you will endure 20 to 35 points of burn damage per second.]
Compared to the terrifying temperatures inside the Scorching Desert, this level of temperature was something Su Xiao could withstand.
Continuing forward for half a kilometer, a barrier faintly showing an orange-red color stood ahead. This barrier was like a wall of heaven, towering ahead. Behind the barrier was the Scorching Desert.
It was now noon, and the blazing sun in the sky was at its peak. This caused the Scorching Desert behind the barrier to seem as if semi-transparent, formless flames were slowly burning in the air.
Su Xiao took out a handful of iron pellets and threw them forward. These iron pellets passed through the sky barrier without obstruction, but as soon as they entered the Scorching Desert, they naturally turned into molten iron. Before they could even hit the ground, they evaporated into gas. This speed, no matter how you looked at it, meant the Scorching Desert was far more than 7000-9000°.
Seeing this, Sacred Hymn's expression stiffened behind him. She suddenly had a very bad premonition and tentatively asked, "That desert you mentioned earlier... it's not this place, is it?"
"Yes."
"Oh! I get it. You want me to give you all the buffs, and then you go deep into this desert yourself, right?"
As Sacred Hymn spoke, her gaze gradually became serious. Her eyes practically said outright: if you want me to go into this place with you, I'll fight you to the death right here.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. He found a tall stone hill and sat on it to meditate. He had brought Sacred Hymn here for two reasons. First, her survivability was strong. Even if her body was burned away by the high temperature, her soul form could continue to exist, and her various abilities wouldn't be affected. This was fully demonstrated in Gulu's encounter.
Second, no one could guarantee that Solar Flame wouldn't suddenly spread at night in the Scorching Desert. If such a situation occurred, and the high-tech tent for resisting heat failed, then with Sacred Hymn's continuous healing, Su Xiao could still charge out of the Scorching Desert.
Su Xiao took out a glass cylinder 10 centimeters thick and 50 centimeters high. Inside the solution were distributed semi-transparent tendrils, as dense as tree roots.
"If you 'die,' let your soul form enter this."
Su Xiao tossed the glass cylinder to Sacred Hymn, which made her smile even more "warmly." She said, "You're really, so, con-si-der-ate."
Sacred Hymn hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to carry this thing with her. In a situation with only her and Su Xiao, if she "died," her soul form indeed couldn't invade Su Xiao's consciousness space like it had invaded Gulu's. It wasn't that Sacred Hymn had special concern for Su Xiao; she was worried that if her soul form invaded Su Xiao's consciousness space, her soul form would be suppressed.
In fact, Sacred Hymn was overthinking. If she did that, her soul form wouldn't be suppressed — it would evaporate in a short time.
Time passed minute by minute. When the sun gradually fell below the horizon, the Scorching Desert behind the barrier began to show visible changes.
The dispersed formless Solar Flame quickly retreated, seemingly gathering toward the depths of the Scorching Desert. After a while, the temperature of the Scorching Desert plummeted, from nearly ten thousand degrees to about 120-150 degrees. Compared to the rumored nighttime temperature of only 40 degrees, this was much higher, but still acceptable.
When Su Xiao was at lower ranks, the nighttime Scorching Desert couldn't be entered. Now it was different. Over a hundred degrees was nothing. If he couldn't withstand this, then when facing fire-type contractors, he would be burned to ashes in a short time.
Walking through the barrier, Su Xiao seemed to hear a popping sound. When he stepped onto the surface gravel, he felt a sinking sensation. After all, this wasn't truly sand.
[Warning: You have entered the Living Creature Forbidden Zone: Falling Fire Land.]
[Warning: This is a high-risk area.]
[Warning: This area has two environments: Day/Night.]
[Falling Fire Land (Day): While in this area, you will suffer from "True Flame" burning, taking 5% of maximum health + 970 points of true flame burn damage per second. Equipment durability consumption +3000%, and you will suffer from Severe Flame Wound effect.]
[Severe Flame Wound: Potion treatment, aura treatment, equipment treatment effects reduced by 78%. Dedicated recovery ability treatment effects reduced by 15%.]
[Warning: While in Falling Fire Land (Day), you will stack one layer of "True Burning" effect every second. This effect can stack up to 100 layers.]
[Prompt: For each layer of "True Burning" effect stacked, you will undergo one stamina judgment. If the judgment fails, the "True Flame" burn damage you subsequently suffer will increase by 8-12 times.]
[Warning: When your "True Burning" effect reaches 100 layers, you will immediately suffer unavoidable Blazing Sun Execution.]
[Warning: If you move at high speed within Falling Fire Land (Day), the intensity of "True Flame" damage you suffer will rapidly increase (increasing according to your movement speed). When speed exceeds the critical value, you will stack 10-30 layers of "True Burning" effect per second. If you move at a constant speed, the damage suffered will tend to stabilize.]
...
[Falling Fire Land (Night): While in this area, you will suffer 500 points of true scorching damage per minute (i.e., 30,000 points of true scorching damage per hour), and you will suffer from Severe Flame Wound effect.]
[Warning: If you move at high speed within Falling Fire Land (Night), the true scorching damage you suffer will rapidly increase.]
[Prompt: In Falling Fire Land's 24 hours each day, 14 hours are day, 10 hours are night.]
[Prompt: This area completely suppresses perception. You cannot release your perception.]
...
Seeing these prompts, Su Xiao knew that the Scorching Desert, or Falling Fire Land, was no longer just a problem of high temperature. The "True Flame" dispersed here was a more terrible threat. Fortunately, "True Flame" only appeared during the day. This thing should be determined by the sun — appearing when the sun rose and disappearing when the sun set.
At this moment, Sacred Hymn, who had just passed through the barrier, spoke: "Bai Ye, in my experience, when we enter this dangerous area, we should first get a 'ticket.' Going in while enduring environmental damage is very likely to get us killed."
"Don't worry."
"It's not worry. It's for the safety of our lives."
"The nighttime environmental damage isn't high. It's not a big problem."
"Ah?"
Sacred Hymn was stunned. She looked at the nighttime damage of over 30,000 points per hour of true scorching damage. This value itself was quite terrifying, and it was true damage. This was called not high?
Su Xiao didn't say anything else. He just told Sacred Hymn to heal herself well and follow behind.
Seeing this, Sacred Hymn sighed helplessly. She had gone deep into dangerous areas several times and truly felt that not getting a "ticket" to exempt environmental damage was too risky.
Just a few steps in, Sacred Hymn felt the blood in her body heating up. The environmental energy caused burning pain from all parts of her body every moment. After adapting for a while, she barely ignored the feeling, but even so, she still felt a bit dizzy.
Sacred Hymn was certain that if she walked in this desert during the day, she wouldn't last more than a minute before dying here. Thinking of this, she gathered golden-green energy in her hand and pressed it against her abdomen to heal herself.
The nighttime Falling Fire Land wasn't dark. The gravel on the ground emitted a faint orange-yellow glow, giving the place a warm-toned, heat-sensing feel. Along with this, the scorching energy dispersed in the air.
[Warning: The Hunter will enter the high-risk area Falling Fire Land without shelter.]
Su Xiao ignored this prompt. Even at the most dangerous moment, he had ways to retreat. First, he would slash Sacred Hymn, let her soul form enter the soul vehicle, then he would take this vehicle and use the Drifting Bait. As for why he needed to "kill" Sacred Hymn first to let her enter soul form, it was because Drifting Bait was a single-person judgment item.
"Bai Ye, I have a strange feeling."
Sacred Hymn, walking beside him, spoke.
"Speak."
"Since just now, I keep feeling like you're going to suddenly slash me, but I can't perceive any malice from you. This is too strange."
"Your illusion."
"But... my perception warning equipment has been warning. The warning prompts have already flooded the screen."
"Malfunction."
"Alright~"
Sacred Hymn was speechless. This was truly the first time she had experienced such a wonderful healer.
Su Xiao moved forward at walking speed. Although this was slower, it was the way that consumed the least health. Moving quickly would cause health to plummet. While it seemed faster for travel, when actually calculated, covering the same distance would require enduring 7-10 times the environmental damage of walking.
After traveling for half an hour, Su Xiao felt the blood in his body becoming scorching hot. He took off his long leather coat and the clothes underneath, walking bare-chested. But soon, he found this was even hotter. He took out bandages, carefully wrapped them around his body, and finally took out a stable solution, pouring it over himself to keep the bandages moist. This indeed made things somewhat more comfortable.
Su Xiao continued forward, while Sacred Hymn, two meters behind him, healed herself every ten-plus minutes. When over an hour had passed, Sacred Hymn's gaze began to change.
When the two had walked deep into Falling Fire Land for over two hours, Sacred Hymn finally couldn't help but say, "Bai Ye, I still have plenty of body energy. You don't need to tough it out like this. Want me to help you recover?"
Hearing this, Su Xiao paused. He checked his remaining health — 90.2%, well within the safe range. He didn't need her to heal him.
"No need. Keep your stamina sufficient. If we encounter enemies, provide me with buffs."
"Would there be enemies in this ghost place? By the way, give me access to view your health. Whether now or later when you fight strong enemies, I must have this permission."
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak but chose to grant Sacred Hymn this permission. It was true that later, when fighting the Sand King or the Betrayer, she would need to provide him with timely treatment.
When Sacred Hymn saw that Su Xiao still had over 90% health, and that his health status bar showed no temporary potion resistance from consuming any potion, nor any recovery state from other equipment, she was confused.
"You have... over 600,000 health?!"
"Oh."
"I've never seen a boss unit with this much health before."
Sacred Hymn felt she had lived long enough to see everything. She truly couldn't imagine how one could stack over 600,000 health. At this moment, she suddenly felt that Su Xiao's choice not to complete the area's related tasks to get a ticket seemed to be a wise decision. It indeed saved a lot of time.
[Prompt: Your temporary teammate Sacred Hymn has shared a skill display with you.]
[Soul Surge (Ultimate Ability: lv.42): Can be used on self or a single allied target. After use, the target will recover 20% of maximum health per second for 15 seconds and remove all currently suffered debuffs.]
[Prompt: This ability has priority and ignores treatment suppression effects.]
Seeing this ability, Su Xiao felt that Sacred Hymn's previous reputation as the strongest Eighth Rank healing type was indeed not exaggerated.
After seeing this ability, Su Xiao suddenly had an idea. But whether this idea could be realized depended on Sacred Hymn's acting skills.
Unconsciously, they had gone deep into Falling Fire Land for over 5 hours. Su Xiao continued toward the depths of Falling Fire Land. What he saw, aside from sand dunes, was nothing else. It seemed the entire Falling Fire Land was like this. Plus, perception couldn't be released here — everything had to be seen with the eyes and heard with the ears.
"Oh~"
Sacred Hymn behind him slipped and nearly fell.
"Bai Ye, there's something here."
Sacred Hymn knocked on a protruding object exposed from the gravel. This protrusion had a metallic texture and was dark golden overall.
Clearing the nearby sand and exposing the upper half of this object, Su Xiao looked at it and felt it was familiar. No matter how he looked at it, this thing seemed like a very large piece of Fire Gold. It was just that its size was too big, so big that it was hard to believe this was Fire Gold. Plus, the purity of this Fire Gold was too high — so high that in Reincarnation Paradise, it would be very difficult to exchange for even with permission. Of course, perhaps it could be exchanged, but it would require absurdly high permission.
"Can't view the attributes. It's unverified material. Need to use Space-Time Force to verify it."
Sacred Hymn, realizing this, lost interest in the object.
"This is Fire Gold, a rare material. You found it. Name a price."
"No need to be polite. It's a gift."
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. After a moment of thought, he asked, "Are you sure?"
"Even if this thing is worth tens of thousands of Soul Coins, it would be very loss-making for me to use Space-Time Force to verify it in Holy Light Paradise. I have some impression of Fire Gold. Verifying it might even make me lose money."
"..."
Su Xiao took out a savings card worth 10,000 Soul Coins and tossed it to Sacred Hymn. He then began clearing the sand around this large piece of Fire Gold. Taking everything for oneself might feel good temporarily, but it wasn't a long-term strategy.
Having received 10,000 Soul Coins for picking up a large piece of Fire Gold, Sacred Hymn would look around every few steps. Then, two hours later, she found a second piece of Fire Gold. This time was equally absurd. She hadn't even seen this Fire Gold — she slipped again, brushed away the gravel, and another large piece of Fire Gold appeared. This one was at least 2,000 kilograms.
"This..."
Sacred Hymn looked at the 20,000-denomination Soul Coin savings card in her hand and felt a bit embarrassed. As for returning the money, she was so poor from upgrading her abilities that she was almost an undead type — of course, she wouldn't return the money.
Truly strong healing types consumed resources only slightly less than undead types and technique types. This was why, the higher the rank, the fewer powerful healers there were — they all started developing toward poison healing.
Continuing forward, when Su Xiao had traveled 10 hours in this desert, the early sun began to rise on the horizon. It was time to avoid the incoming "True Flame."
Su Xiao took out a device two meters wide and one meter high. After activation, it quickly unfolded, constructing a sturdy tent on the spot. Calling it a tent was more like calling it a tent-shaped heavy shelter.
The door of the small shelter opened, and wisps of refreshing white cool air drifted out. Sacred Hymn, whose head was already dizzy from the heat, immediately walked inside. Sitting in the shelter with an area of only 5 square meters and a height of 1.4 meters, Sacred Hymn breathed a comfortable sigh, feeling as if she had come back to life. The surrounding cool air gradually brought her body temperature back to normal.
Outside the small shelter, Su Xiao looked toward the sky. Even from a great distance, he could see the formless flame surging forward. The next second, a wave of heat hit.
[Prompt: In the previous 10 hours, you have not used any treatment potion or received treatment from healing abilities.]
[You have triggered the Sun Trial.]
[Trial Content: Reach the core area of Falling Fire Land without using any treatment potion or healing abilities.]
[Completing this trial will grant you the Origin-level inscription: Supreme Blazing Sun, and qualify you to enter the Sun Temple.]