The four young men of the Ruth Family who had entered, although possessed a high cultivation base than Evelynn, they were still defeated in the trial.
Davis couldn’t help but think if they had tried their best or just fought randomly without any battle strategies.
A few minutes later, the battered youths woke up and had their heads down with a shameful expression on their faces.
Emperor Ruth heaved a sigh of relief, considering that they weren’t critically injured or beyond help.
He asked, "Which trial grade did you lads choose?"
A youth who looked unreconciled, answered, "Sky Grade..."
The hall turned silent.
Emperor Ruth cast a glance at each other and received the same answer.
Sky Grade!
He was not surprised but the others were woken up by reality!
Dead silence emerged among the remaining group of youths who were eventually going to enter the trial.
After that, the youths explained the content of the trial which they faced.
In this Immortal Inheritance’s history, the first batch is usually the weak ones, sent to gain information about the trial contents.
This came as a strategy even though it seemed cruel, after all, it remained that the strong would get stronger and the weak would remain weaker when considered in a wide perspective.
Equality and fairness is nothing but an illusion, even in families, especially when it grows to point when there are too many family members.
And from the results of their information gathering, all of them had faced numerous opponents to battle.
They struggled to defeat the opponents but one of them had failed at the final level while the other three had failed at the mid-level. It seemed like there were three levels to the Sky Grade Trial.
It was unknown if the King Grade Trial would contain the same amount of levels or more.
Seeing the atmosphere fall into an all-time low, their confidences in clearing the trial took a hit.
They simultaneously cast a glance at Isabella and realized the difference between them and the one generation senior elder sister, they unknowingly acknowledged her prowess for the first time in their lives.
Facts speaks a lot for itself. They had assumed that she had gotten lucky in the trial but it looked like they were the ones who were deep in the well, unable to see a wider world, like an ignorant frog.
At first, they were extremely unreconciled! Even though she was their elder sister from another mother, they had still pushed their bias over her because she was a woman.
For what reason? Because the Ruth Family had always been male-dominated family due to their prowess in strength!
Women rarely trained themselves in Body Tempering Cultivation due to their natural disposition against it.
And out of nowhere, a woman, regardless if she were their elder sister or not, came and took the scepter of the ruler and became the first Empress of the Ruth Empire through sheer power.
In fact, they had heard people outside talking of how the men in the Ruth Family were useless and a woman had to hold the banner for them in front of the world.
This made then feel extremely ashamed and unreconciled.
They wanted to prove themselves that they would clear the trial like her but now it looked like, her power before she cleared the trial was nothing but trivial.
They started to feel uncomfortable because they looked at her face. It was extremely calm as if their loss was already visible and inevitable in her eyes.
On the other side, Davis looked at Evelynn and wanted to advise her to back out.
Evelynn’s face was pale, yet she clenched her fists, her eyes shining with determination.
Davis was extremely worried because he knew that her age was 28, not much different from the youths who had entered before.
He had explained some battle strategies to her before like what one should do when faced with multiple enemies but she was even weaker than the Ruth Family youths, so would she be able to clear the trial? The answer was obviously no!
But when he saw her eyes shining with determination, he couldn’t bear to stop her.
Gritting his teeth, he controlled himself from saying anything that might curb her confidence but instead explained to her some strategies now since the contents were revealed by their mouths.
He could fine-tune and make it suit her fighting style so that it would make her chances to clear the trial shoot up more.
"Evelynn, do your best!"
Evelynn solemnly nodded and took a step forward as she neared the tunnel.
Davis looked at her back and sighed, ’In any case, she had promised me to back out if the situation goes awry...’
Emperor Ruth noticed Evelynn and looked back, "Three of you go..."
The youth who was placed on the top ten in the Grand Sea Continent Meet bravely stepped forward with two other youths.
Soon, they all entered the tunnel, leaving a listless Davis who had his teeth clenched secretly like a madman.
Even though Davis was overcautious with himself, he was extremely overcautious with his loved ones, especially Evelynn.
After the event that happened in the Ashton Empire Royal Capital, he was extremely protective of Evelynn, not letting her near any danger.
After all, he didn’t want to experience the feeling of losing her ever again, not in this lifetime.
======
Evelynn entered the tunnel and stepped on the epic flight of stairs that ran down to the underground, causing her to be cautious of her surroundings.
In front of her were the three youths going in first maybe because of their pride as men. As they descended, they stepped onto a leveled ground and saw a tunnel of light.
"We should all be able to enter at once..." Uttered the young man who was in the top ten.
His name was Wilmark Ruth, and he had reached Peak-Level Iron Stage even though his age was just 26.
He was the topmost participant who was in the advantage of successfully clearing the trial.
The previous youths were all at either, Mid-Level Iron Stage or High-Level Iron Stage.
"Wilmark... Don’t tell me that you are still planning on taking the King Grade Trial?" A youth asked with an expression of disbelief.
Wilmark’s expression turned ugly. He had been boasting all year long that he would clear the King Grade Trial just like Isabella, but now it looked like...
He clenched his teeth as he answered, "Yes!"
He just couldn’t afford to lose face at this point!
So what if I were to fail!? If I can’t reach the same heights as her than its better I live the life of a prince in the Royal Palace obediently... Or so were his thoughts right now.
The two other youths were shocked while Evelynn had no opinion on that matter.
Wilmark strode to the tunnel of light and disappeared.
The two youths smiled wryly and cast a glance back and withdrew their gazes sooner, afraid that they would succumb to temptation.
After all, the one behind them was a full-fledged vixen.
In truth, most of the youth’s eyes in the Hall outside would occasionally fall on Evelynn’s figure.
Davis was aware of this as well and didn’t take it to heart, because he deemed that a glance or a few would be okay but a stare would be not.
They hurriedly cast out their distractive thoughts and entered the tunnel of light.
Evelynn noticed their awkward expressions but took a deep breath and entered with a relaxed demeanor. Their thoughts on her were least of her concerns right now.
======
The landscape in front of Evelynn changed as she found herself viewing a new scenery.
Her figure stood at the center of a cave, and the over the other side was a lake, almost clear invisibility.
Amidst the silent echo of her footsteps, there were no sounds audible to her senses.
Suddenly, a beam of light shone above the lake and an image of a savage yet majestic dragon appeared in a simple manner yet its grand aura howled at her.
"Tell me, which trial do you want to enter? Sky Grade? King Grade? Emperor Grade? Immortal Grade?"
The Earth Dragon’s voice resounded out, it’s voice bold and dignified.
"Sky Grade..." Evelynn’s nerves were taut and stiff when she saw the savage image of the dragon, but she still spoke while being able to keep sanity.
Many normal people might lose their minds for a moment after seeing an unrestrained magical beast such as the Earth-Dragon.
She had already prepared for this event, so she was able to withstand its pressure to a degree.
"Very well! Sky Grade, it is..."
Once the image spoke, the scenery changed and Evelynn found herself on a horizontal split mountain which looked like a platform.
She stood at the center, glancing at the bright blue sky in awe. It felt very real!
The transition of space had left her in awe of the owner of the Immortal Inheritance; the Earth-Dragon.
If Evelynn knew that the Ruth Family would kneel down once they see the image of the Earth Dragon, then she might be feeling surreal right now...
"Trialist, you must clear three levels to complete the Sky Grade Trial. You could exit by uttering the sentence ’I give up’ and you will be sent out as long as you aren’t dead."
Evelynn gulped as she clenched her fists. She summoned out a weapon from her spatial ring and grasped it in her hand.
Her hand held a slim yet sharp sword and the handle was shaped like a dragon’s eyes. Evelynn specifically picked it up from the Loret Treasury with the advice of Isabella.
The sword was nothing more than Low-Level Earth Grade Weapon, yet she held it in her hand with confidence.
Apparently, one’s weapon-grade shouldn’t be greater than their cultivation, otherwise, the trial might launch an invisible attack and destroy the weapon into smithereens.
Imagine having low cultivation of Iron Stage, yet bringing a weapon of Sky Grade only to have it destroyed... It actually happened in the Ruth Empire’s trial taking history.
At that time, the Ruth Family mourned the loss of a powerful weapon and never ever used a powerful weapon again to take the trial.
"Let the first level begin then..."
The Earth Dragon’s voice echoed prompting the start of the trial.
Numerous figures emerged from all sides of the mountain and approached as if they were planning to surround her into a single point.
They were all releasing an aura that was equivalent to Peak-Level Bronze Stage and looked like armored soldiers, just like the youths had informed.
There were ten of them and they were all a single level lower than her, meaning that she had to take down numerous opponents who were just a level lower than her even though their stages were different.
After all, in the lower stages, there wasn’t much of a difference between their battle prowess when considered from a wide perspective.
Her eyes flashed and she dashed to an opponent in a random direction instead of waiting to be surrounded.
She quickly reached the opponent she had designated and slashed with brute force while the other opponents were still approaching her at their own pace.
*Clang!~*
The armored figure she targeted used its own sword to block, yet its weapon was sent flying from the impact because of the difference in their cultivation.
Evelynn’s hand trembled a little yet she jumped forward as she performed a swing at the opponent’s throat, trying to sever its head from the body.
*Slash!~*
At the same time, two spears came from afar and stabbed the place where she stood a moment before.
Evelynn landed on a place a few meters away from where the spears landed and looked behind. One of the armored figures were no more, condensing into a thick form of energy which disappeared into thin air, leaving only the nine armored figures which were approaching her fast with different types of weapons held in their hands.
She instantly moved and took the two spears into her spatial ring and rendered the two armored figures who threw the weapon at her weaponless.
Knowing that time was of the essence, she quickly approached the remaining armored figures who were spread out and managed to behead five more of them before the last four gathered together to group attack her simultaneously from a wide direction.
She had made sure not to get herself surrounded or else she knew that the ending will be the same as those youths who had entered in the first batch.
*Clang!~* *Clang!~*
*Clang!~*
The sounds of weapons colliding echoed throughout the open wide mountain.
But! Being relentlessly pushed back by their reckless teamwork with different types of weapons that had both long and short reach, she was left with no choice but to retreat.