CHAPTER 102: HEADING TO THE PLATFORM... STRANGE CREATURE...

Kranos and the others frowned deeply upon staring at the puppet. Its strength increased when it was injured? They all realized the crucial information. However, if they decided not to injure the puppet, they wouldn’t be able to last another thirty minutes. In that case, the situation was hopeless.

Sensing the grim atmosphere, Luka shouted fiercely and rushed at the puppet.

"You can increase your strength every time you’re injured, right? Then I want to see just how strong you can get!"

Without waiting for the others, he immediately attacked. In an instant, his figure appeared in front of the puppet as he sent a sword strike toward its head.

The puppet seemed to possess intelligence and quickly raised its sword to block. The sword attack was immediately parried—however, everyone quickly realized that the strike was from an afterimage.

The next instant, Luka’s true figure appeared silently behind the puppet and struck its skull with a powerful blow, cracking it apart and sending it crashing into a pile of treasure boxes.

The puppet struggled to stand, hesitating. Everyone watched closely to see what would happen. Its head had been severely damaged—would its strength still increase? They soon got their answer.

As the puppet stood up, its strength didn’t just increase slightly—it skyrocketed, crossing into the mid-stage of the Monarch Realm.

Even Luka was stunned. Only now did he fully grasp the severity of the situation.

"Run!" Without any hesitation, he shouted to the others.

Kranos and the others were shocked. For a moment, they had thought Luka was willing to fight the puppet to the death.

Instead, they saw his figure silently appear behind the orb before the puppet could react. He quickly reached out, grabbed it, and vanished with it in his grasp.

Although Kranos and the others were stunned, they quickly realized what he was trying to do. Wasting no time, they too rushed out of the pavilion.

However, at that moment, the puppet suddenly appeared before the fleeing Kevin. Just as its sword came crashing down—its movement paused. Then it froze entirely.

Kevin immediately broke out in cold sweat. He had just brushed against death.

The others stopped running as well, noticing the puppet had gone completely still. Something was wrong.

Studying the situation for a moment, realization dawned.

"Could it be controlled by the orb? When the orb was no longer in place for it to protect, it lost its purpose?" Kranos suggested.

The others nodded in agreement, coming to the same conclusion. They all turned to stare at Luka—after all, if it weren’t for him coming up with the crazy idea of running away with the orb, they would never have discovered this.

Luka scratched his head awkwardly under their gazes and spoke as though recalling something.

"Doesn’t that mean... we could’ve just taken the orbs from the previous pavilions and left?"

Everyone realized the same thing at once, causing them to blush slightly in shame. However, it wasn’t entirely their fault. Placing the blame on the mysterious voice, Kathryn interrupted their thoughts.

"Let’s take the treasure boxes. After that, we’ll head to the trial ground."

They all nodded in agreement to her words and quickly rushed toward the treasure boxes. With the orb in their possession, there was no reason to remain in the pavilion.

Leaving it behind, they raced toward the center of the star pavilions as instructed by the voice. After moving forward for several meters, they finally reached the center.

Since the place was slightly elevated in midair, reaching it had taken some effort. In the center stood a stone platform where they were to place all the orbs they had gathered so far.

Luka immediately took them out of his spatial ring and handed two to each of them.

"Let’s do this!" he said, unable to contain his excitement.

The others nodded slightly and stepped forward to place the orbs onto the platform.

Kranos placed his along with the others. As soon as they were done, the platform began to glow with a deep blue light. The light intensified—then in a flash, they were teleported to a different space for the trial.

At that moment, the mysterious voice echoed once more in everyone’s minds:

"Welcome to the Disciple Selection Trial of the Sovereign Star Sect!"

Kranos opened his eyes to find himself alone in a separate room. Around him were ancient glyphs depicting a race of humans fighting against strange, blurry creatures he couldn’t recognize.

Not seeing the others, Kranos immediately guessed that they must have been teleported to different rooms for individual trials.

The voice echoed in his mind again.

"The trial for each participant is different and based on one’s cultivation. The higher the number of creatures you kill, the greater the reward you will receive."

As soon as the voice finished speaking, it fell silent, just like before.

Kranos was slightly surprised—but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. The next moment, a mysterious beast appeared before him. At a glance, he realized it was the same creature depicted in the glyphs.

He was shocked, but he didn’t hesitate. Eternal Hunger appeared in his hand instantly.

With a single strike, he cleaved through the beast effortlessly. Kranos realized the creature was of similar cultivation to his own.

The moment it died, the beast dissolved into a wisp of shadow. However, it didn’t vanish—instead, it slowly expanded, condensing into a second figure.

This time, the creature’s aura had increased slightly.

It glared at Kranos for a moment before growling and lunging at him. Its sharp claws came straight for his head.

Kranos didn’t panic. With perfect calm, he slowed down the creature’s movements. Eternal Hunger in his hand sliced silently toward the creature’s neck.

The beast didn’t even have time to react—it was cleaved in two, just like the first.

Two, Kranos silently counted.

The creature dissolved again and reformed, this time as a third beast. Its aura was even more terrifying.

Kranos frowned slightly, but without hesitation, he attacked again.