Hearing what Crosby said, a huge commotion immediately rose amidst the Spiritual Emperors. After all,
the holy beast of the Sky-suppressing Mansion was one of the five holy beasts of the Ethereal Region.
Moreover, its strength was not inferior to that of a Spiritual Emperor at the peak stage. In fact, it was
even more powerful.
"All eyes up front. It is about to start." As these words left Crosby's mouth, he kept making various
gestures with his hands in front of his chest. Then, a beam shot towards the center of the square. In an
instant, the air just above the square started to stir up. Immediately after, the beam of light expanded,
forming a huge light hole. As everyone's eyes widened, a shadow of a giant beast slowly emerged from
the light hole, exuding an overwhelming aura at the Emperor Realm that filled the surroundings.
Upon the appearance of the beast shadow, everyone present was stunned. They could not help but
feel frozen and have a sense of submission before it.
The beast had lion-like features with a horn on its head. It had bright red fur all over its body, and its
two sharp fangs looked very deadly.
"Oh my god. This is a holy beast at the Emperor Realm? It is freaking powerful!"
"So, this is the widely-talked Fiery Lion of the Sky-suppressing Mansion..."
"I am considering myself very lucky to witness such a holy beast like this with my own eyes."
Since the Fiery Lion belonged to the Sky-suppressing Mansion, not many people were able to see it
before. Therefore, almost all of them were shocked, and its presence was eye-opening for everyone.
The moment the Fiery Lion stepped out of the light hole, it instantly spread its domineering aura that
enveloped every Spiritual Emperor standing there.
As the low-grade Spiritual Emperors perceived its unrestrained strength, they could not help but
tremble in fear and almost fall to the ground.
However, this was just the beginning. From here on, the tremendous power of the Fiery Lion would
gradually increase, and it would exert invisible stress on the candidates that would make it difficult for
them to hold on. In fact, even middle-grade Spiritual Emperors should have difficulties in holding on in
front of the beast for two straight hours.
Crosby announced earlier that the time limit for this test was two hours. Thus, most of the participants
had thought that as long as they did their best not to flinch and hold on during that time, they could
pass the test. However, they were yet to experience the dreadful stress from the Fiery Lion. By that
time, they would instantly think that they had underestimated its power.
The stress from the Fiery Lion was constantly superimposed. Hence, the longer they persisted, the
greater damage it could cause to the candidates. It also meant that it would be useless to just merely
hold on. They would need to counteract the stress that was suppressing them if they really wanted to
pass the test.
The only way for one to pass the test was to deliberately remove and fight off the stress by releasing
the power of the Spiritual Domain through the candidate's Imperial Soul.
However, since the low-grade Spiritual Emperors rarely had the time to cultivate the power of the
Spiritual Domain, they were naturally at a disadvantage.
So, the only ones who had a huge chance to overcome the test were the middle-grade and high-grade
Spiritual Emperors. But it did not necessarily mean that all of them could pass it.
At this time, as the test started, almost every middle-grade and high-grade Spiritual Emperor did not
show fear and concern before the ferocious Fiery Lion.
On the other hand, more than half of the low-grade Spiritual Emperors were already ghastly pale and
were shaking in horror.
Meanwhile, Rocky still tried to keep a low profile. But of course, it could be easily observed that
compared to the other candidates, he was unusually relaxed. He just sat on the ground with his arms
crossed over his chest, and he stared at the Fiery Lion with just a blank expression on his face.
Obviously, the other low-grade Spiritual Emperors and even the middle-grade Spiritual Emperors did
not have the guts to look directly in the eyes of the Fiery Lion at all.
Eventually, time flew by and an hour had already elapsed.
During this time, several low-grade Spiritual Emperors had already given up because of the continuous
stress that they faced. But still, most of them tried to struggle very hard and continued the test.
After another fifteen minutes, a few more low-grade Spiritual Emperors quitted from the test.
Soon enough, only fifteen minutes were left before the time limit of two hours was up.
At the same time, the power of the Fiery Lion's Spiritual Domain had already reached the peak,
immediately causing an unimaginable impact on every candidate present there.
"This is actually surprising. These remaining candidates are much stronger than I expected. I can
definitely see that they will be great assets on the battlefield in the future!" Watching the admirable
performances of the participants, Colton could not help but be very satisfied.
"But soon enough, we shall see their true limitations," Crosby remarked, knowing that the hardest part
would be after the time limit.
Not long after, the last minute had finally come.
As soon as the two hours were up, the candidates who were able to persist to the end quickly rushed
out of the Fiery Lion's Spiritual Domain. After they got out, they were gasping for breath and were
sweating profusely. Their faces were deathly pale as if they had just escaped from hell.
At this time, only the high-grade Spiritual Emperors and some middle-grade Spiritual Emperors,
including Lilith, had remained in the Spiritual Domain. After all, they were after the reward from Crosby
once they became the last candidate to endure the test.
However, at the same time, many spectators were surprised to see that there was still a low-grade
Spiritual Emperor among the ones who remained inside. It was none other than Rocky.
Even Colton and the other two leaders could not help but exchange looks of shock. It was surprising
enough that he was the only low-grade Spiritual Emperor remaining in the Spiritual Domain of the holy
beast, but they also saw that Rocky seemed to be not having that much difficulty.
After all, it was extremely rare for any low-grade Spiritual Emperor to hold on up to this point just by his
own strength. In fact, if he continued the test, it would become very risky for him.
Another fifteen minutes later, a few middle-grade Spiritual Emperors already reached their limits and
gave up. One by one, the participants could not hold on and had no choice but to quit.
Not long after, only a few candidates were left who were still trying their best to struggle. Since only a
few of them were left, everyone believed that the ultimate victor should be decided soon.
Every passing second, the atmosphere became more intense. Any minute now, the last candidate who
could hold on in the Fiery Lion's Spiritual Domain would emerge.
About eight minutes later, another batch of middle-grade and high-grade Spiritual Emperors gave up
one after another.
At this point, only seven candidates were left inside. Apart from Rocky and Lilith, the other remaining
ones were the five high-grade Spiritual Emperors at the top of the ranking.
At this time, Lilith was already close to her limit. But when she saw that Rocky was still doing fine, she
persevered more, not wanting to admit defeat before him.
However, after another fifteen minutes, Lilith could not hold on anymore, so she gave up. Aside from
her, two more candidates also quitted.
Seven minutes later, only two were left inside. The first one was Rocky and the other one was the high-
grade Spiritual Emperor who was actually Israel in disguise.
After an hour, even Israel was not able to resist the vicious power of the Fiery Lion anymore. Hence, he
could do nothing but give up.
Therefore, Rocky was the only one left. However, he was still sitting on the ground with his legs
crossed. It was as if he was not aware that he was already the victor.
At the same time, the spectators also felt that this was very weird.
Upon seeing this, Colton and the other two also exchanged puzzled looks with each other.
"I am going to put the Fiery Lion away first!" Without wasting any time, Crosby appeared in front of the
holy beast and quickly made it return to its original space.
Immediately after, he also approached Rocky to confirm his current state. However, at this time, Rocky
suddenly opened his eyes as if he was out of it for some time now. Then, he stood up with an
indifferent expression on his face and asked, "Wait. Is it over? Oh no... I accidentally fell asleep. I have
missed what happened in the test!"
Upon hearing these words, the square instantly burst out into an uproar. The spectators could not
decide if they should cry or laugh because of what just happened. The test was enveloped in such a
fierce and tense atmosphere until the end, but Rocky actually dozed off in the midst of it. That was why
he could inexplicably persist and be the victor. Of course, this was way too inconceivable. It just meant
that the viciousness of the Fiery Lion had no effect on him at all.
But the truth was it was not really difficult for him. First of all, Rocky's real strength was already close to
the peak of the Emperor Realm. Therefore, he was even stronger than the Fiery Lion, meaning that its
fearsome stress would not affect him in any way.
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