"Hoo... hoo... hoo..."

The heavy breathing sound came, as if the giant nose of the mythical beast Kompasini was right in front of you, behind you, above your head. In the darkness, it existed invisibly, but carefully observing you.

It brought a chilling and intense unease, as if there was a cliff right next to you, and if you fell, you would directly fall into the mythical beast's gaping mouth.

Karun crossed his arms and waited quietly.

Richard sat on the ground, his body trembling slightly, but when he looked at Karun, he immediately calmed down.

In fact, if Richard had participated in this selection alone, he would have been much calmer. Because at that time, he knew he could only rely on himself. Now, with Karun as his support, he became more emotionally unstable because he had this extra assurance.

"Roar!"

At this moment, a long roar suddenly sounded, and the souls of the people seemed like small boats that could capsize in this sound wave.

A black light appeared around Karun, encompassing Richard as well, isolating them from the impact of the sound.

The sound gradually disappeared.

Richard raised his head and touched his own nose.

Was it raining?

No, it seemed like it was snowing.

Karun also noticed that the temperature around them had changed.

Can the temperature change in the illusion?

It was possible, but the effect was not significant because everyone participating in the selection possessed a basic level of excellence. They knew that everything in the illusion was fake, and they understood that they couldn't freeze to death or die from heat.

If it was just a simple torment of cold and heat, most people with strong willpower could endure it...

Could it be that simple?

...

Above the sculpture of the mythical beast Kompasini, Bishop Burn's gaze swept over the 198 participants standing in the light circle below.

The gaze of the sculpture at his feet shot towards the sky, turning into a light screen that illuminated the entire venue.

The stone box next to it had already been fully opened, and several spiritual artifacts of the mental system were already hovering around the examination area, providing support for the formation.

On the periphery, a group of formation system priests transferred from other regions were maintaining the formation, while eighty invigilators scanned the venue without stopping, observing every movement here.

Bishop Burn sat down and spoke:

"Selection..."

...

The black color gradually faded away.

Everyone in the examination area could now be "seen." They appeared in their original positions.

This scene made Richard extremely embarrassed because he was sitting in front of Karun, feeling like he was about to do something bad when the lights suddenly turned on again.

But soon, Richard didn't need to worry. With a gust of wind and snow, many people screamed and fell, causing the formation of the examination area to instantly collapse.

Richard relaxed.

Then, he was blown back by the wind and snow, but Karun reached out and caught him.

A quick look at "pawread dot com" will leave you more fulfilled.

With this force, Richard stabilized himself again. He wanted to stand up like Karun, but found that he couldn't do it at all. The higher the wind, the stronger the force. He could only crawl on all fours.

However, when he looked around, Richard found that there were less than thirty people who could maintain a standing posture now. Most people, like him, could only crawl. As long as he had enough support, Richard could be at ease.

In front of them, a towering snow mountain appeared. In fact, everyone was currently on the road up the mountain.

This scene gave Karun a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen and experienced it before.

At this moment, Bishop Burn's voice sounded, "The selection rule is that within the specified time, the top five people who climb the highest on the mountain road will obtain the recommendation qualification for this region."

And then, there was nothing more.

The rule was explained briefly because the selection method was extremely simple.

The specified time was unknown because all you needed to do was to climb or crawl up as high as possible, ensuring that you could maintain the fifth position or, under the condition that others couldn't persist, continue climbing forward to surpass them and enter the fifth position.

Karun immediately analyzed the profound meaning beneath the simple rule because he also noticed that there were only about thirty people who could maintain a standing posture now, including himself.

This meant that these thirty people had a relatively strong spiritual power to withstand the pressure of the wind and snow on their souls.

But for some people, due to various congenital and acquired reasons, their spiritual power could not reach this level temporarily. However, it didn't mean they had no chance of winning.

As long as you could persist and keep climbing, even if it was slower, when the person in front couldn't hold on anymore, you could surpass their highest position and replace them.

The specified time, this time could be freely defined.

Everyone started to move.

Some were walking, some were crawling.

Some were originally walking but gradually started to crawl because crawling endured much less resistance than walking, making it more energy-efficient.

Karun continued to walk, with Richard following behind him, protected from the wind. They crawled forward.

The girl on the left, Aisley, frowned as she walked, then she started to bend over.

The young man on the right, who came from the knight order, stood straight and moved forward firmly. However, this time, he paid more attention to Karun beside him. It seemed that only now did Karun deserve a second glance from him.

Some people's pride was engraved in their bones, while others wore it on their faces. This person clearly belonged to the latter.

Behind them, the boy playing with pebbles kept throwing them forward, then walked over to pick them up, threw them forward again, and walked over to pick them up. His movements were continuous, as if the things he was throwing were not pebbles but ropes. He was leveraging his strength.

On the right, the girl who was dozing off had already laid down. She could be considered crawling...

Because she had her eyes closed, she seemed to still be asleep, but her neck and buttocks kept moving up and down, like a maggot persistently moving forward in its sleep.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Haha, you lost. You do this part, I'll do the next one."

"Okay, okay, I'll accept the bet."

The person behind them was also moving forward.

In front, Leon and Lauer continued to move forward. They had a burden to carry, and the people in that circle quickly gathered together. They divided into two rows, one in front and one in the back, and then they would switch.

This "teamwork" method indeed saved effort, but Karun believed that this test wouldn't be so simple to allow people to take shortcuts.

After all, the purpose of the selection was to choose five spots, not to form a team of five.

Sure enough, when everyone reached the snowy area, the temperature suddenly dropped.

This was no longer the traditional sense of low temperature, but an attack on the soul. Compared to this bone-chilling coldness, the wind seemed insignificant.

Leon, Lauer, and the others no longer continued their teamwork because everyone's speed had become different. What they currently existed as and could see were their souls. Each person's reaction to the freezing of their soul was different.

"Ah..."

Accompanied by screams, several dozen people's figures disappeared directly. They didn't die, they just withdrew from the test, although they might be injured as a result.

Aisley on Karun's left curled up her body, trembling incessantly. She continued to move forward while bending over, and she turned her head to look at Karun, especially at Richard, who had been crawling behind Karun. She licked her lips, showing some signs of restlessness.

The young knight on Karun's right still had a cold and stern expression, walking steadily with each step.

"Huhuhu... Huhuhu..."

Behind them, the drowsy girl who was moving forward like a maggot began to show a pained expression on her face. Even though she was still asleep, she was probably having a nightmare.

The boy who was throwing stones continued at the same frequency as before. His stones gradually emitted a faint heat.

These stones shouldn't be holy artifacts; they seemed to be some kind of companion. Upon closer inspection, Karun noticed that every time the boy picked up and threw a stone, the picked-up stone would merge into his palm, and a new stone would be generated when he threw it.

What was the trick behind this?

Karun couldn't figure it out.

As for the person behind him, he had already fallen behind because he was arguing with himself. With the decrease in temperature and the pain in their souls, the outcome of rock, paper, scissors was no longer recognized.

Karun glanced at Richard and found that although his little cousin was trembling, his crawling frequency remained stable. He could still hold on.

At this moment, people in front of them began to disappear continuously, as if they were entering a new stage by moving forward and backward.

As they continued walking, Leon and Lauer began to howl. The scattered team completely collapsed at this moment, with two people disappearing and choosing to withdraw from the test.

Leon covered his hand, and Lauer covered his face, groaning in pain as they continued to move forward.

"Ah!"

On the left, Aisley looked at the back of her hand. It had already been frostbitten, not with frostbite, but her body... no, her soul had become "brittle" due to the cold.

This feeling was like gradually turning your soul into ice from its initial state. It was a torture that was difficult to bear.

Karun reached out and touched his own neck, discovering that there were also ice crystals there, but he didn't feel much pain, just a slight sensation.

When the nails at his fingertips turned into ice crystals, Karun couldn't help but smile.

No wonder it felt so familiar,

No wonder it seemed so familiar,

It was only here that he confirmed that it was another divine revelation he experienced after denying the revelation given to him by the God of Order!

Ice and snow, mountains and rivers, a lonely journey. It was a desperate expedition, but in the end, he persevered and completed his own divine revelation.

This scene, was it one of the formations? And it was used as a test selection question?

So, what would this scene be called in the Order of Gods?

Just like some fierce beasts being suppressed and gradually integrated into a spell or summoning creature within the Order of Gods, this situation appeared here, and Karun didn't find it strange.

But its actual significance couldn't be divine revelation, lies, or rebellion. It was likely a punishment within the church.

Perhaps, after being passed down for a long time, the specific formation had become untraceable, but it was indeed terrifying.

Karun continued to move forward, slowing down his pace to wait for Leon and Lauer in front. The pain was real, but for someone who had already experienced it once, the effect was greatly reduced.

Because the greatest pain came from the boundless despair ahead, this place was relatively better because there was a snow-capped mountain in front of you. Although it was towering and made you feel like you couldn't climb up, it was much kinder than the complete hopelessness Karun experienced last time.

Therefore, the freezing at this moment was nothing to Karun.

On the right, the young knight's face was covered in ice crystals, but he continued to move forward steadily.

The boy who was throwing stones seemed fine on his face, but the stones he threw turned into ice blocks.

The drowsy girl closed her eyes and cried and screamed. It seemed that she would wake up soon, but if she could fall asleep at this moment, it would also be a great "self-deception" method.

The "captain's relative" had already fallen far behind, and due to the obstruction of the wind and snow, he couldn't be seen clearly.

Also because of the wind and snow, Karun's current observation was limited to his surroundings.

Finally, he glanced at Richard again. Richard continued to crawl while panting. He seemed to only focus on his boots and didn't look at anything else.Karun stopped, bent down, and reached out to help Richard. He offered his right arm to him, allowing him to hold onto it and move forward. Richard didn't resist and pressed his face against Karun's arm, as if this was the only way for him to feel safe.

Although the wind would be strong when standing up, compared to the freezing of the soul, the initial wind could be called gentle.

The reason why Karun helped Richard up now was not because he didn't want to give him the opportunity to grow independently, but because he was worried that if the freezing deepened further, Richard would become weak and his soul would loosen, and he would be blown away by the wind. At that time, Karun might not even have a chance to react and grab him. It was better to hold onto him now.

Aisley watched this scene, and her envy was almost dripping from her eyes. She didn't even bother to hide her envy. If her gaze could materialize, she would be slapping "envy" onto Karun's face over and over again like a bedsheet.

But Karun chose to turn a blind eye.

"It's only right for me to drag my own cousin. Who are you?"

The young knight next to him saw that Karun was still dragging someone and his eyes filled with anger!

Of course, he wasn't accusing Karun of "cheating" by helping. He was angry that he was walking alone while Karun was still dragging a burden. He felt uncomfortable with the difference in difficulty.

Karun sensed the anger from the right side. As a psychologist, he could naturally guess what the arrogant young man on the right was thinking. If it weren't for the strong wind and snow, he wouldn't even bother to communicate with the people around him. He really wanted Aisley on the left to go to the right and hug the young knight of the knight order.

The freezing was intensifying!

It was no longer just ice crystals in some corners of the body, but a large area of freezing in the torso. More and more people chose to quit. This kind of pain was not something ordinary people could bear.

Leon turned his head and continued forward. His pride didn't allow him to quit now.

Laurie stumbled forward, persisting.

Gradually,

The freezing deepened further.

When the freezing reached its extreme, the ice...burned your body like flames.

Many people's bodies began to dissipate. Some had their elbows dissipate, some had their foreheads dissipate, and some had their calves dissipate.

But as long as you were willing to continue climbing, even if you had no legs, you could still move forward because everyone here was a soul, without a substantial body.

Aisley finally couldn't bear it anymore. She walked closer to Karun and said, "I also want to..."

Karun pretended not to hear.

Aisley shouted again, "I want to..."

Karun continued to ignore her.

This girl was indeed cheerful and naive, but she was also a bit too familiar.

Richard was already crying. If it weren't for Karun holding onto him, he felt that he would have given up long ago. He was in pain, and he felt hopeless.

Crying wasn't embarrassing because more than half of the people left on the field were crying.

At this moment, a new stage of freezing appeared. After crossing that line, figures disappeared one by one, unable to hold on any longer.

Among those who were still persisting, Karun roughly counted and estimated that there were only a little over ten people he could see, and if he counted the peripheral ones, there should be a little over ten more. So, there were probably less than thirty people still persisting on the field.

These thirty people could be considered to have entered the true elimination stage.

"Ah! Ah!"

Laurie finally couldn't hold on and knelt on the ground, crying as his figure dissipated.

Leon glanced at the spot where Laurie disappeared and continued walking like a walking corpse.

Yes, everyone on the field, including Karun, had become walking corpses.

Karun's mental state was fine, but he was not any less frozen and burned than others. The situation was the same, but what was truly different was their inner selves and mentality.

At this moment, a stream appeared beside them. The stream had flowing water, and there were small boats on it with steaming coffee and meat soup.

No one cared anymore whether this scene appearing here made sense or not. When it appeared, seven or eight figures couldn't resist the temptation and walked into the stream, disappearing.

There were less than twenty people left on the field.

And at this moment, both the wind and freezing instantly doubled!

In an instant, many more people chose to quit. Their psychological defense was shattered by this sudden doubling.

There should only be ten people left on the field now because the decrease in wind and freezing temporarily balanced it out.

Karun already had experience. Every exaggerated decrease was to reduce the number of people on the field. He was the referee, controlling the situation.

Ten to five, the finals!

When the young knight on the right looked at Karun again, the anger and pride in his eyes were gone, replaced by pure admiration. Because as a soldier, he admired the strong!

"Ka...Karun...let...let go of me...you...you can do it..."

Richard understood that they were in the final stage. He really wanted to make it onto the list, but he was more afraid that he would prevent Karun from entering because of himself.

The temptation to make it onto the list and the guilt of failing Karun in the final stage because of himself made him choose the latter.

Because the fact proved that Karun had really dragged him to this point. Karun would definitely make it onto the list if it weren't for his burden!

Karun knew that Richard wasn't pretending to be pitiful because in this extreme situation, everyone was in a state of numbness. If Richard still had the energy to act, he could have stood up and walked forward by himself.

In fact, most people on the field were numb at this moment. So, what Richard expressed was his purest voice.

People are like this, whether they are relatives or friends. If someone intentionally tries to take advantage of you, even if they gain a single Leier's worth of benefit, it feels uncomfortable. But if they always maintain a distance, never taking advantage of you, and even consider your feelings, you would willingly spend a thousand Leier for them.

Karun's arm had already dissipated, but he was still "holding" onto Richard, allowing his soul to maintain its forward momentum.

"Keep going, we're almost there."

"I can't... hold you back..."

"Just hold on a little longer, we're almost there."

"Let go... of me... after all... I... cheated..."

"We are brothers."

If you consider this as cheating, then am I considered as stealing the answers?

At this moment, the man in front of Leon could no longer hold on. He suddenly turned around and threw his broken body at Leon, knocking him down.

Leon, who was barely hanging on by his last breath, was knocked out of the game, his form disappearing completely.

This was a fight for a spot, by any means necessary. Of course, there were no rules against this, but the cost might be a bit high. Not only would one become a target for others, but more importantly, it was very easy to offend people.

10-9!

The man who eliminated Leon looked up, his gaze fixed on Karun.

Upon seeing this,

Esli, whose left face had almost completely disappeared, turned her head to look at Karun.

The young knight on the right also turned his head to look at Karun.

The boy playing with stones behind him also set his gaze on Karun.

The sleepy girl, who had just woken up with tear stains all over her face, was also staring at Karun.

Because Karun was still carrying someone. As long as Karun fell, the number of competitors would instantly decrease by two, 9-7!

But immediately,

Including the man who knocked Leon down and the others around Karun, they all shifted their gaze away from Karun.

They knew how difficult and challenging it was to get to this point, and yet, Karun was still carrying an extra burden.

Therefore,

This man,

Was not to be trifled with!