Free Web NovelChapter 113: The Final Trial
Solomon hoisted his greatsword and followed the long column of first-year students down a winding dirt path. The trail eventually opened up into a steep mountain gorge.
A massive waterfall of glowing blue water completely blocked the passage forward, crashing violently into the rocky basin below.
The scarred instructor stood near the muddy banks of the rushing water. He pointed a wooden staff at the glowing cascade. "This is a basic physical filter. You must actively project your internal aura outward to form a protective layer. Anyone who fails to pass through this spiritual waterfall will be denied entry to the third trial."
"What if we haven’t awakened our aura or haven’t learned to control it?" a student asked nervously.
The instructor gestured at the line of instructors standing on the side and responded, "They will teach you everything you need. Every trial you faced today doubles as a foundational lesson. You will work with your respective trial instructors to overcome these exact obstacles. You are academy students, and your primary purpose in this realm is to learn. Take your time and absorb the teachings."
A group of eager disciples rushed forward. They stepped into the glowing water and were instantly blasted backward. Dozens of teenagers crashed into the mud, groaning as the spiritual pressure bruised their ribs.
Solomon walked up to the edge of the water. He had just awakened his internal energy during his dungeon run, so he possessed absolutely zero knowledge on how to project it outward as a defensive shield.
He simply tightened his grip on the hilt of Eden’s Penance, and stepped directly into the waterfall. Using aura to attack seemed easy and familiar to Solomon, but he couldn’t understand using it for defense.
The spiritual water slammed against his shoulders. Simultaneously, the divine steel of the executioner’s sword reacted to the foreign energy. Violent blue lightning erupted from the S-Rank relic.
The conflicting forces collided violently to create a blinding electrical storm around Solomon as he casually strolled through the gorge.
[GoonLord: WHY IS HE ALWAYS GETTING STRUCK BY LIGHTNING?!]
[NewbHunter: the mages are crying and throwing up right now.]
User12: bro just walked through a magical barrier using pure physical spite.]
[Last_Fables: completely zero finesse. just walking forward.] ƒrēewebnovel.com
Solomon stepped out of the water on the other side as his academy uniform dripped onto the stone pathway. He entered a sprawling courtyard housing a towering jade monolith. Ancient martial stances were carved deeply into the glowing green stone.
The scarred instructor bypassed the waterfall via a side path and stood beside the monolith. "This is the true third trial. You have exactly one hour to observe these ancient carvings. Decipher the flow of energy and successfully replicate a single sequence from this text."
The surviving students sat cross-legged on the dirt. They stared intensely at the monolith, sweating profusely while attempting to grasp the magical concepts hidden within the stone.
Solomon completely ignored the spiritual energy radiating from the jade. He analyzed the pure body mechanics of the carvings. The fifteen years of combat theory he inherited from the Paladin flooded his mind. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
He observed the sequence and instantly spotted a critical structural error. The center of gravity in the third stance completely compromised the fighter’s balance, leaving the lower body entirely exposed to counterattacks.
Solomon grabbed a wooden training saber from a nearby rack. He stepped forward into the center of the courtyard and fluidly executed the entire sequence etched on the monolith. While spinning into the third stance, he adjusted his footing and lowered his hips, actively correcting the flawed mechanics during his demonstration.
[LazyCat: bro is literally correcting the teacher’s textbook.]
[GamerGuy: Solo Man just casually speedrunning a thousand-year-old martial art.]
[BloodKnight: His comprehension of physical mechanics rivals actual grandmasters. This is absolute peak cinema.]
[1Fizzy: the instructors are probably questioning their entire existence right now.]
[Fatal_Beauty: he makes the other students look like actual toddlers.]
The scarred instructor stared at Solomon in absolute shock. He fumbled with his clipboard and dropped his wooden pen into the dirt. He stared at the jade monolith with his mouth completely open. He picked up his wooden pen from the dirt and looked back at Solomon.
The silver-haired boy stood casually in the center of the courtyard after flawlessly correcting the ancient martial stance. Several blue-robed trial instructors scratched their heads in sheer confusion.
Despite there being a one hour time limit, a novice student was expected to spend weeks just trying to comprehend a single movement. Solomon simply walked up and rewrote their foundational textbook in less than two minutes.
The sect had intentionally carved the flawed stance into the jade to filter out blind imitators. Finding the error and fixing the structural vulnerability was the actual test.
Solomon had just perfected their ancient technique on his very first try.
High above the valley, the ten pavilion masters observed the courtyard from their carved stone balconies. Master Wu gripped the wooden railing. He leaned forward to get a better view of the boy holding the Paladin’s sword.
"He is a genius," Master Wu declared, exchanging wide-eyed glances with Pavilion Leader Jin. "A gifted disciple of his caliber appears only once every thousand years. His comprehension far exceeds our most senior elders."
The elderly woman leaning on her carved wooden staff struck the floorboards with the base of her weapon. She narrowed her eyes at the sword master.
"Those specific words sound like an insult to his character," she commented. "Calling him naturally talented implies he never needed to work hard. It makes his flawless execution seem like a byproduct of sheer luck instead of grueling training."
A middle-aged pavilion master stepped away from his stone throne and gestured toward the dirt rings below. "We voice those conclusions because the boy is merely eighteen years old. Achieving that level of perfection requires decades of physical conditioning and endless practice. Unless he began swinging a sword long before he was even born, his current mastery simply defies all known logic."
The endless days Solomon had spent training in the paladin’s world ended up becoming the silver steps for him to climb to the top.
