As the eye appeared, it immediately started carefully examining the youths. When it reached Xu Yue, it stopped for a second while its pupil became slightly dilated before going back to normal.
"The trial shall begin shortly," a voice resounded in the minds of all present.
Immediately after, Xu Yue found herself in a small room with a small book in front of her. The words Water Drop Sutra were written on the cover.
When she opened the book, Xu Yue looked at the first page.
'This is an Earth Rank Sword Style, it wondered through the void after the destruction of it's home world and miraculosly survived, The Style was atracted towards the Sect because of the powerful sword qi that exists here, from then on it became one of the numerous sword art's held be the sect'
'This art can guide the cultivator towards the Minor Dao of Water Drop'
'To pass the trial, you need to comprehend the first chapter of this Sword Art to Greater Mastery .'
"Let's begin," said Xu Yue a bit weakly, remembering how long it took her to practice the Origin sword Style.
As she started reading the art, she became engrossed in it. Half way through, she wanted to put the Art down and begin practicing it immediately. After completely reading it a few times, she couldn't stop anymore.
She took out her sword from the sheath, that had been gifted to her by her grandfather when she was 5. If you looked closely at the sheath, you could see several big cuts in it.
As she began practicing, Xu Yue found herself unable to stop, even though normally she would become tired or hungry after practicing for more than 10 hours. In this place, she felt nothing but the improvement of her movements. As a day passed, she could feel herself coming closer to something. Her sword became more and more fluid, gentler but more overwelming.
After a while, her sword began to move like water, her somewhat unpredictable attacks from before transformed into an ocean that would drown the defender in them.
"I have reached Initial Accomplishment," thought Xu Yue.
"Luckily my fears have not become true, this is much easier to master than the Origin Sword Art."
Thinking of the Origin Sword Art, Xu Yue couldn't help but have an idea.
Xu Yue began to spantaneously practice The Origin Sword Art. This time her movements were quite different than usual. The the individual movements were more gentle and overwhelming, but the delicate balance between the moves was destroyed and her attacks were becoming more and more messy. After a while, she couldn't help but stop.
"Changing the Origin Sword Art is as difficult as i imagined. I have no chance of improving it at all" thought Xu Yue, but she did find something rather peculiar. She discovered that the Origin Sword Art seems to be a combination of a large number of powerful arts, the weakest of which should be equivalent to The Water Drop Sutra.
As Xu Yue was in deep thought, she did not know that a large eye was looking at her at that very moment.
"To reach Initial Accomplishment in a day, she has a good chance to pass the 4th floor," thought the artifact spirit.
"Since she is so talented, I shall ask master what rewards I should give her," decided the artifact spirit.
For the next few days, Xu Yue had been practicing The Water Drop Sutra. As she continued to practice it, she felt it becoming more and more focused. For the past few days, she felt her attacks transforming from an ocean to a sea to a river all the way to a single drop of water. From the outside the change did not look massive, it looked as if her attacks had gotten a bit more focused.
But the change was extremely great. Xu Yue felt that her strength using the Water Drop Sutra was a dozen times stronger than before, but comparing it to The Origin Sword Art, Xu Yue felt rather unsatisfied.
"I have reached Greater Acomplishment, but the strength of this technique is rather weak," said Xu Yue lightly.
As soon as she said that, the eye that was now in what seemed like an an endless void looked at her.
"5 days is faster than my estimations, " thought the artifact spirit.
At that moment, a swordsman appeared in that void.
As soon as the swordsman appeared, he waved his left hand and 3 lights started to move between the swordsman and the eye. When the items were halfway between them, a barrier that seemed infinite immediately appeared. As soon as they touched the barrier, the items stopped. And a majestic eye appeared inside the barrier.
"Heavenly Token, " said the swordsman, as he pointed towards one of the there items. As soon as he said that, the light surrounding said item disapeared revealing a golden token with the word heavenly on it.
When as the Heavenly Dao looked at the token, the token was reduced to ash, and a hole appeared in the barrier, through which the other 2 items went to the artifact spirit.
After that, both the swordsman and the Eye of the Heavenly Dao disappeared leaving only the artifact spirit.
As the artifact spirit was looking at the items, a burst of information regarding what to give to Xu Yue as her rewards appeared in his mind. It made sense of the information for a moment before looking at the first item in shock.
After a while, he calmed down and reappeared inside the Padoga.
A moment after Xu Yue said that she had reached greater acomplishment in the sword art, she disappeared from the room and appeared in the giant hall.
"W-When can I begin challenging the padoga?" asked Xu Yue, still remembering the feeling she had when the eye first looked at her.
"You can either start now or wait 30 days until the trial ends. " Xu Yue almost jumped when she heard this voice in her mind.
"I shall begin the trial now," said Xu Yue, trying to appear calm.
"The four floors of the Padoga only test three things: willpower, comprehension, and your ability as a swordsman," said the artifact spirit.
"The first floor was created to weed out those who are not dedicated to the path of the swordsman."
"All of the floors except the fourth are equally difficult for all cultivators. The second and third floors become more difficult as your cultivation grows."
"All the trials in this padoga are relatively simple, the first being the simplest. All you have to do is swing your sword with all your might and precise form for 7 days. You have 3 months to complete this trial."
"My physical strength is not enough," said Xu Yue, hoping what happened in the trial will happen again.
"Do not worry, the padaga shall sustain your body. This is not a test of the body but rather one of the spirit."
"Let us begin," said the artifact spirit immediately after, not allowing Xu Yue any time to prepare.
Xu Yue disappeared from the hall and appeared in the middle of a room.
"Take out your sword and take your first swing. That is when the 30 days will begin."
As Xu Yue took out her sword, she noticed that a big cut was made on the sheath. Not dwelling on this, she prepared to take her first swing.
"Calm, be calm," whispered Xu Yue under her breath.
Then she took her first swing, normal, very normal. It was the same as the other millions of swings she took in her three years of training.
For the next thirty minutes, everything was normal, every swing as she had done them for years. After 30 minutes, she felt a small amount of heat. If she wasn't actively paying attention, she wouldn't have noticed it.
1 hour has passed. After 2 hours, 6 hours, and 12 hours, she could finally feel the heat without looking for it, and by hour 17, she found the heat to be distracting rather than painful.
"I wonder how hot it actually is?" thought Xu Yue.
"I shouldn't be thinking about stupid things," said Xu Yue lightly under her breath.
As 24 hours grew closer, the heat also continued to grow. Still, it was not in any way painful.
"10 seconds to go," thought Xu Yue, counting the time until 24 hours passed.
As 24 hours passed, Xu Yue felt relief for a moment after the heat disappeared, but that relief was gone in the next moment as she felt a chill.
"Ughhh," Xu Yue nearly wanted to scream. No, it was not pain, she felt a chill, even though most people would find the chill extremely bothersome, but after experiencing that annoying heat, it was nothing. The sensation of the chill made Xu Yue want to celebrate.
"It is not yet time to celebrate," thought Xu Yue as time passed, hour after hour, and the feeling of coldness increased. She felt as if this cold was slowing her movements down, even though this was not the case.
A few hours later, Xu Yue managed to shake off this feeling even though the chill had gotten even more severe. As time passed, and the second day came to an end, she couldn't help but remember the heat from the first day, and prayed that it would never come back.
As the third day began, she began feeling a schorching heat. She couldn't help but wince at how instantly the pain appeared. Even so, the pain wasn't that bad compared to the training her grandfather put her through. This was nothing. Time began to pass. Without the annoying heat and the feeling of coldness slowing her movements down, Xu Yue began to enter a cycle.
Without those things, she began to feel a certain boredom, which would sometimes be interrupted by pain when she let her guard down. As time passed, the amount of boredom she felt would decrease because of the increased pain. By the 23rd hour, Xu Yue felt like she was being fried. She now needed to fully resist the pain every moment and not let it interfere with her slashes.
For a moment, Xu Yue thought that the pain was over, but in the next moment, a seering cold swept over her. Because of the transition, Xu Yue almost failed to continue slashing her sword. But as she tried to get back into her rhythm, another wave of coldness swept over her. She continued to perservere hour after hour. By the 15th hour, Xu Yue felt like she couldn't feel her fingers.
"They move."
Even though she felt like that, her fingers were perfectly functional. This motivated Xu Yue to continue and persevere. Hour after hour, the cold increased. At first she felt like she couldn't move her fingers, but now both of her legs felt like they wouldn't move, but they did. She tried them.
By the time of the 24th hour, she could swear she saw the world itself freezing as she moved slower and slower.
Xu Yue let out a scream of pain as she felt like her lungs were being boiled and her internal organs were being cooked. She fell to the ground screaming. Though she kept her sword in her hand at this moment because of pure instint, she still failed.
A few seconds later, even though the heat had disappeared, she still felt unbearable pain. It took her a few minutes to recover, and that was only possible because of the refreshing feeling going through her that seemed to come from the padoga itself.
"I failed," Xu Yue said.
"You did pretty well for your first attempt." said a voice that Xu Yue knew was the artifact spirit's.
"No, I failed. I did not faint from the pain, which means that if my concentration was better, I could have held on for longer," said Xu Yue in a slightly depressed tone.
"Was that feeling of relief after the end coming from the padoga?"
"Yes, each participant has 12 attempts to complete this floor. I have to make sure they recover fully between each attempt."
Xu Yue breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. As recoving without assistance would take a long time.