Eternal Temptation: Awakening Sinful Desires

It wasn't long before Asher opened his eyes, which flickered with a familiar, dangerous gleam of excitement. He turned towards the silhouettes, which had started forming once more, and grinned with anticipation.

Then he mumbled, "Now, let's have some real fun!"

The next moment, Asher lunged towards the two silhouettes that had formed while swinging his dark blade.

A tremendous spiritual force was unleashed from his blade that followed his slash in a slashing arc towards them, but before it could touch the two entities, they moved in unison.

One dashed right toward Asher while the other circled him, keeping itself away from his reach while drawing the string of a bow before launching a sharp spiritual arrow.

At the same time, the second entity had already shattered the sword slash before the entity closed the gap between them in a blink of an eye while swinging his sword in his direction, intending to deliver a decisive blow.

But the moment two attacks hit Asher at the same time, they seemed to pass through his body as it was an illusion before he materialized right behind the entity that had shot the spiritual arrow.

"Got you!" Asher exclaimed as he swung his sword with full force.

In that instant, a dark flash swept over the entire floor before slicing through the enemy, causing it to disappear without any trace.

Then, with another quick burst of spiritual power, Asher lunged towards the other entity and severed its head off its shoulder, beheading it in one sweep.

It too soon vanished into light particles.

This pattern continued as Asher fought against more entities, which had a variety of weapons complementing their fighting styles and techniques.

They had varying elemental affinities, giving them unique skills while also possessing great technique that suited their realms.

After every win, Asher started feeling more exhausted as the attacks of these entities kept increasing with each fight, becoming even more of a challenge for him and making him work for his victory.

Whenever he was about to land a finishing blow, the other entities would use their full strength to deal him equal damage or distract him, forcing him to guard, thus resulting in a stalemate.

Every fight forced Asher to think several steps ahead as he adapted to each new situation while planning out his attack to obtain his victory in order to avoid his downfall.

The spirit essence in his dantian was also declining, and by the time he defeated all ten entities of the Middle-Stage of the Core Formation Realm, Asher was panting while sweat glistened on his forehead.

"Haaah... Haaah... This sure is difficult, but more fun than I imagined. And these fights are also making me more proficient and skilled in the use of the techniques I know."

Asher muttered in between his heavy breaths after getting teleported to the next chamber at sixth level.

"Let's see how far I can go in this Ranking Test," He said, brimming with eagerness as he was interested to see whether he could cross this level as well as climb higher levels of the Pagoda to discover his limitations.

After gathering his energy for a bit, the silhouettes that formed the enemy had cultivations in the High-Stage of the Core Formation Realm now and seemed to be way more fierce than the previous enemies, which made Asher furrow his brows.

Moreover, the battle was longer and harder as Asher's exhaustion rose. Even so, he endured as his battle senses sharpened along with the fights he kept on having with them.

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At the ground floor of the Pagoda, where the Dark Stele resided, the disciples that couldn't fight anymore and were defeated in the Ranking Test were teleporting back with light surrounding their bodies.

They would then fall to the ground due to being exhausted of all of their spirit essence after exerting their strength for the battle.

Many had varying levels of injuries on their bodies, while the ones that had light shields covering their bodies had severe injuries and would have surely lost their lives if it hadn't been for the shield's protection.

When these people fell to the ground, the Spirit Healer Hall's disciples helped them out with pills or special healing techniques to recover and stood around to watch them.

Meanwhile, Elder Katrina had her eyes on the Dark Stele, watching the results, all while taking notes of the disciples that gave a good showing while noting the names of the ones with impressive displays.

In the end, the disciples' rankings weren't decided by just the wins and losses, but also by how much cultivation difference they had compared to their opponents and how long it took them to win the fight.

It also took the age of the disciple into account, as someone younger but with similar results would get more points than someone older.

"Ah..." Cecil heaved out a tired breath as she got teleported back to the ground floor after being defeated at level five in the Ranking Test. Her green dress was disheveled and torn from the battle.

Soon, Scarlet also joined her, panting as well, sweat covering her face.

She then looked at Cecil as her eyes flickered with excitement and asked, "Hey, Cecil, how far did you manage to get in the Ranking Test?"

"Hehe... I got up to level five and was able to defeat five opponents in the Initial-Stage of the Core Formation Realm with just my High-Stage of the True Spirit Realm cultivation before getting defeated when six of them joined together. This is way better than my previous Ranking Test, as last time I couldn't get past level three.

Hahaha, what about you?" Cecil said, excited at her own result as she explained what happened to her and turned towards Scarlet, wondering what she did.

Scarlet had a smug smile as she replied, "Me too. I also reached level five; however, I did better than you and defeated seven opponents in the Initial-Stage of the Core Foundation Realm despite having the same cultivation as yours."

Hearing her response, Cecil shook her head at her, but she couldn't help but smile, seeing that both of them did great for their age in this Ranking Test.

It was all due to Asher changing their bodies into Spirit Body by using the Mystic Body Refinement Array, making them stronger and easier to absorb spirit essence within their own Dantian. Explore more at m,v l'e-m|p| y r

In a short while, Cai Yan and Lei Liwei also got teleported back with a light shield covering their bodies, heaving and panting while taking out pills to consume and heal.

"Hehehe... This was great. I haven't had this much fun in a while, fighting against such a strong opponent. Oh! To think I lost a life from the strike of the first opponent at the Middle-Stage of the Core Formation Realm, all due to excitement making me lower my guard down, hehehehe..." Lei Liwei burst into laughter.

"You're way too reckless! What if it was not the Ranking Test but instead the actual fight?" Cai Yan asked as she shook her head.

"Don't worry, I know very well how to handle situations in actual fights." Lei Liwei smirked while dangerous lightning flashed in her narrowed eyes.