Shin sat in a lotus position on the water basin. A rainbow of colours flowed out from the splashing of water drenching his robes and putting down his wavy hair. Climbing the Celestial River seemed easy enough. All Shin needed to do was to sit down and meditate, directing the Sovereign Koi as it meandered upstream. Alas, it really was that simple, why hasn’t anyone conquered the Celestial River yet?

The Trial of the Celestial Dragon was straightforward. If one had the Mark of the Celestial Dragon, he or she was eligible to attempt the Trial. It didn’t matter if they were a Rank 1 Spirit Practitioner or a Rank 99 Spirit Saint. The Mark was truly the only restriction. Many bearers of the Mark had attempted the Trial when they were mighty Spirit Venerates and Spirit Saints. However, cultivation levels didn’t matter in the eyes of the Celestial River.

There were some Spirit Venerates that only managed to cross a few dozen metres while some innocent Spirit Practitioners could cross the hundred-metre mark with ease. Up till this day, no one could accurately determine why some did so well while others failed. Still, that didn’t stop the scholars in the Lantis Republic from collecting data.

In the end, after a string of experiments, it was decided that the optimal time for a cultivator to attempt the Trial of the Celestial Dragon was just after the Spirit User had condensed their Spirit Core at Rank 20. The same went for the Celestial River Baptism. That’s why Meijing Bingying and Jingyu Taiyi had already attempted their Trials, becoming more and more attuned with their respective elements.

“...” Shin raised his right hand up and gently placed the Sovereign Koi at the foot of the Celestial River. The spiritual energy of the Empyrean Wonder was immense. Just by touching the water flow, Shin could feel his hand doubling its weight by the second. On the other hand, the Sovereign Koi had free reign, and it didn’t feel the slightest bit of unease. Evidently, the Celestial River wasn’t meant for the human touch as only Spirits could swim through it.

“Let’s go!” Shin muttered to himself, and his fingers set the small little Koi free. All of its fins paddled wildly tearing through the lower sections of the Empyrean Wonder with relative ease. In just a few seconds, the Sovereign Koi managed to speed through into the fifty-metre section. It was quite fast for a fish that wasn’t meant for high speeds.

“Wow...” Longyu Dao heartily smacked his lips, holding back the enormous grin that was coming up. “It really might transform into a Golden Sovereign Koi!” He couldn’t wait for Shin to show his talents.

Those from the Longyu Clan all cheered on the adorable little cerulean Koi while those from opposing clans simply stood there, silent as can be. The High Elders had somewhat mixed feelings when it came to the youth taking the Trial. Still, a defeat was a defeat. The only thing that they could do was suck on their thumb as they watched the young man took his first steps into greatness.

At the fifty-metre point, the Celestial River’s current increased tenfold. Shin still could visibly see the Sovereign Koi, but he opted to ‘feel’ it instead. Merging his consciousness into his Spectre Soul, Shin could ‘see’ the world through the Sovereign Koi’s eyes. Not much was known about the link between the spiritual world and the material realm, but at this moment, Shin was the Sovereign Koi, and the Sovereign Koi was he.

Shin could feel the pressure that the Sovereign Koi was under. At sixty metres, the Celestial River not only had much faster currents, but it also had increased amounts of spiritual and elemental energies. To put it in context, Shin felt like he was crushed under the pressure of five hundred elephants and the water was so thick that it seemed unusual that the Sovereign Koi could breathe at all.

Despite all of the deadly currents, the Sovereign Koi remained unfazed. No, it remained as cheerful as can be. Leaping out from the Celestial River from time to time, Shin’s adorable fish behaved like a salmon, skipping part some annoying segments of the river using its torpedo jump. The Sovereign Koi definitely had the capability of swimming upstream under these currents. Alas, just like its owner, the Spirit liked to find all sorts of shortcuts in life.

It didn’t take long for the Sovereign Koi to reach the hundred-metre point. If the leaderboard were to be believed, the hundred-metre point was just the bottom average among all who possessed the Mark of the Celestial Dragon. At this height, even if Shin wanted to use his eyes to guide the Sovereign Koi, the severe fog that obscured the peak sure wouldn’t let him.

Entering the thick mist, the Sovereign Koi could see nothing but a patch of white in front of it. The gushing currents continued to increase rapidly, and the spiritual pressure quintupled. If the fish attempted to leap out of the water once more, it would only be leaving itself to an uncertain fate. Thus, even though it really didn’t want to, the Sovereign Koi swam vigorously, inching forward one rock at a time.

The currents never seemed to cease. They gushed down, far faster than any waterfall could. Golden glimmers of stars hid the vicious intent of the Celestial River. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The never-ending stream continued to push the Sovereign Koi down as if protecting the treasure that stood at the apex.

A hundred and fifty metres. Shin’s Sovereign Koi made it all the way to a hundred and fifty metres within a minute. That was the record that Jingyu Taiyi had when he attempted the Trial. A dozen more metres and Shin would be on par with Meijing Bingying. But Shin’s goal wasn’t to break even… His goal was to challenge the Celestial River to his absolute limit, maximising any rewards that he could potentially get.

See, Shin was under the impression that the higher one climbed, the better his rewards. And to a certain extent, Shin was right. In the modern era, Longyu Tian had climbed up to five-hundred, and fifty-nine metres and her Sovereign Koi evolved to have a new element. Shin wanted that. No, he wanted more. How many times had someone undermined him? How many times has there been doubt over his abilities? How many times has he been kicked down into the dirt?

Shin knew what it was like to fail, but most importantly… He knew what it was like to succeed after he failed. There were no second chances. Every person only had one shot at the Trial of the Celestial Dragon. If he failed because of his sloth or a moment of carelessness, there was nothing that Shin could do. So, he was extremely cautious with his approach. There was a little trouble in adapting to the new environment, but the Sovereign Koi quickly got over it. Eventually...

“He reached two-hundred metres...” Longyu Tian was the first to mutter out. Shin was the first person after Longyu Tian to reach the two-hundred-metre point, and he was showing no signs of slowing down. Instead, the youth seemed like he was speeding up…

After the two-hundred-metre distance, the entire Celestial River had undergone a significant change. The pressure that kept increasing eased down a little, and the spiritual energies were oddly thinner. Shin was wary and still proceeded with caution, but his Sovereign Koi kept accelerating at a constant speed. It wasn’t afraid of anything in the world. It knew that even if the entire Celestial River were to collapse upon it, Shin would do everything in his power to save it. Which in turn, led the Sovereign Koi into the first trap of the Empyrean Wonder…

‘Illusions?’ Shin felt the Mind-Element running haywire around the adorable little Spirit, and his Spectre Soul was invaded by many spiritual energies. The Celestial River was known for its immense water elements. No one told Shin that it possessed a variety of other elements as well!

Still, the youth adapted. He’d been trapped in many illusions before. Shin knew precisely how to escape from the trap. The lake within his Spectre Soul went absolutely berserk. Thunder boomed, and lightning flashed as waves that towered over buildings were seen all around the five crystal obelisks that Shin had. All of his mana had been taken right from the Spectre Soul all to nourish the sweet little Sovereign Koi that was racing up the Celestial River.

Beating the illusions with ease, the youth managed to reach the three-hundred-metre threshold. There, a different set of challenges awaited him. Instead of targeting Shin through the Sovereign Koi, the Celestial River began to play tricks directly in his mind. All of his pent up emotions, his grievances, his hatred… His loss… Everything was now placed on the forefront of Shin’s consciousness. That’s right… From the beginning, the Trial was never meant to test the Sovereign Koi. It was always meant to temper Shin to become the man he ought to be.

Shin’s entire life flashed before his eyes. The happy yet arduous days he had on Frie Mountain. The assault by the Second Elder. The Watkin Murderer. The fall of Aldrich’s keep and the first patient he’d ever lost. The disappearance and eventual betrayal of Junius.

And most importantly… The loss of the one he loved the most. All of those heartbreaks in his youth, all of those failures before he moved to the Capital… They were all being played back to Shin.

And it didn’t end there. The first fight he had with Danroy and all the losses he had in Imperius Academy. Moving to the Land of Dreams for the first time and meeting Junius once more, only to let him slip through his fingers. The death of Star Face… Meeting with Lukman… And… Facing Latina when everything seemed lost…

All of these incidents had moulded Shin into the being that he was today. So what if he had to relive them once again? Every day of his life, the youth was constantly haunted by those memories anyway. What if I did that? Why didn’t I stop him? If Shin could turn back time, there was no question that he would undo many of his mistakes. Alas, Shin wasn’t that powerful yet…

So what was he going to do? Sit in a corner and wail about it for the rest of his life? No… He had to move on, just like the Sovereign Koi charging upstream.

‘You think that’ll stop me?’ Mana spewed out from each one of Shin’s pores. The radiating azure light made Shin look like he was engulfed in flames, ready to power up to make one final move.

Internally, the youth’s Spectre Soul wasn’t as calm. Gorgeous celestial light was being absorbed by the transcendent Mark that covered the heavens while the five crystal obelisks broke free from its restraints. They flew up higher and higher, taking their place among the stars. Massive shadowy figures surfaced from the depths of the lake, turning the entire ecosystem into a pandemonium. Though, they didn’t care about that.

Each one of those beasts looked overwhelmingly strong, some even looked powerful enough to take on Spirit Saints. Despite that fact… They all surrendered themselves to the mighty Mark, which had been continuously swallowing down endless amounts of Celestial River energies that were being sent its way. The Mark grew more significant, and the pulsating of its central part started to resemble that of a heart more and more.

No one in the audience knew what was happening, but they sure did realise the massive change in Shin’s demeanour. Currently, he wasn’t the timid boy that shied away from fame. Shin’s azure eyes sparkled, as focused as they could be. The veins in his muscles popped, and the mana within his body exploded. There was no turning back now… It was all or nothing…

“H-how far has he climbed already?!” Jingyu Shenxian, a woman renowned for her calm, had long dropped her marbles. The Sovereign Koi had stagnated at the two-hundred-metre point for a brief time before turning into a ray of light, shooting straight up into the apex. It ignored the deadly currents as if they were passing wind, dropping the jaws of any who witnessed it. Especially those who had taken the Trial before.

“How’s he going so fast?” Longyu Tian wanted to wake the boy to ask what was going on, but she held back her urges. The higher that Shin could climb, the better. That’s what she thought. That’s what they all thought. However…

“W-W-Wait! He’d just passed the five-hundred-metre mark!!!”

“W-what?!”

Every single Lantis Republic member had their eyes glued to the speeding Sovereign Koi. It moved like a missile, breaking through the sound barrier and slicing past the ravaging currents like it was cutting a cake. In just a few seconds, the Sovereign Koi did what many thought unthinkable… It broke Longyu Tian’s record and bypassed the six-hundred-metre mark…

‘I have to become stronger… Stronger than anyone else… Stronger than anything else in existence!!!’ The young man declared internally. He thought of Ella and Emma, who had sacrificed their freedom just to give Shin this chance. If Shin could dominate any that dared to harm his family, what could the Lantis Republic or the Himmel Empire possibly do to him?

Shin didn’t care about the stunned faces that were directed his way. He didn’t even know how high he climbed up the Celestial River already. All he wanted to do… Was to become the most powerful man in the world.

“E-Eight… E-E-Eight-hundred-met-tres...” Jingyu Shenxian gargled. Who could blame her? Even the High Elders of the Lantis Republic were feeling the same way. Members of the Longyu Clan, who had backed Shin from day one and had somewhat gotten used to the miracles he pulled off, were still unable to believe their eyes.

No one in the past hundred thousand years had ever reached eight-hundred-metres. If Shin could get past the final eighty-eight metres, he would write himself into legend, becoming the first-ever cultivator to conquer the Celestial River. However, there was a reason why the Celestial River has never been conquered…

Once Shin’s Sovereign Koi had crossed that final threshold, the entire Empyrean Wonder transformed. Phantoms of the original Eight Scions of Water descended upon the earth, turning the river into its most turbulent state. The water splashed with the force of a thousand exploding suns and a billion tsunamis. Dense Spiritual Pressure mounted down from the peak of the mountain, tightening the chests of every single soul beneath the Spirit Venerate realm. No, scratch that… Even Spirit Venerates were suffering under the new existence that had appeared at the very end of the Celestial River.

A white-robed woman, boasting long black hair as Kanari did, stood at the mouth of the river, looking down on the peasant that dared to tread on her land. She wore a gentle motherly smile; however, her actions were far from affectionate. Her two hands moved like an orchestra's conductor sending torrent after torrent of spiritual energies down the Celestial River.

“The Lady Of Water?!” Longyu Tian exclaimed. All members from the Eight Scions of Water shared the same blood as this progenitor of theirs. They didn’t need to see a portrait of the Lady to know who she was. Fear pulsated through their bloodlines, and even the Spirit Saints were beginning to feel breathless at the pressure. So, one could only imagine what Shin’s Sovereign Koi was feeling.

At this moment, it seemed that everything had been lost. Shin had done his best. He carried the burden all the way to the eight-hundred-metre point. There was no one else in the entire Lantis Republic that could come close. Even if Shin gave up at this point, no one could blame him, and his rewards would most likely be substantial. However…

‘That’s not the way I want to live my life...’ The young man declared, grabbing hold of the flawed amethyst pendant around his neck. During crossroads like these, Shin would often find himself asking just one question…

‘What would Ariel do?’

So what would that Amazonian red-haired girl do? Shin smiled. It was so apparent that it was almost laughable.

‘I’m going to bulldoze through you all! Cultivation levels be damned!!!’

Shin mustered up all of his mana and directed it straight into the Sovereign Koi’s body. His vision began to blur, and his upright hands fell ever so slightly. Shin could literally feel his Spectre Soul being pulled out from his body, but he didn’t care. All he wanted to do, was for the Sovereign Koi to make that one final push.

Scales tore off the Sovereign Koi’s skin, and its face began to peel. The torrents surrounding it continued to grow mightier, tearing off chunks of flesh with every passing second. If nothing were done, instead of triggering a spirit evolution, the Sovereign Koi would be transformed into fishbone for Shin to enjoy. In spite of the struggle, the duo still persevered…

A mixture of cerulean, azure, golden and grey beamed out from the Sovereign Koi’s body blinding anyone who had gotten near.

Ten metres… The Sovereign Koi was just ten metres away from the mouth of the Celestial River. At this distance, Shin had long surpassed the current frontrunner in the leaderboard, changing history forever. However, Shin wasn’t satisfied with that.

Eight metres… Those two metres that the Sovereign Koi gained were the most hard-fought battle it had encountered in its entire life. Alas, it was just about to get much harder…

Five metres… Shin and the Sovereign Koi were literally just five metres away from their goal. The currents here were now the strongest it would ever be. Heaps of elemental energies, ranging from mental and water, bombarded Shin’s Spectre Soul like a monk beating a bell. The Celestial River was never going to let them get a free ride to the top. Shin had to fight for every single millimetre that he had.

And then…

Plop!

The Sovereign Koi, who had enough of the pain and suffering it had been through, leapt past the dragon’s gate. The Lady of Water stood there silently, flabbergasted almost. Instead of honourably pushing forward till the very last second, the Sovereign Koi decided to pull a fast one on the Celestial River. A very Shin-like thing to do, one might say.

The Lady of Water had lost. Quite convincingly, in fact. Heaving out two deep sighs, the Lady of Water snapped her fingers and disappeared into a simple puddle of water which contained so much elemental energy that Shin was intoxicated just by looking at it. Instinctively, both Shin and the Sovereign Koi knew what to do. They had been taking the stick for far too long… It was now time to claim their carrot…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

The air shook as the heavy mist that had lasted for decades faded into nothingness. Ethereal light flowed down from the skies as if heaven’s door had been opened. Millions of celestial particles ran out from the river and continued to nourish Shin’s Sovereign Koi, which had most of its blood and scales ripped clean from its body. However, it didn’t care about that pain.

Taking in the celestial magic, the Sovereign Koi turned into an immense ball of light. All of its features had begun to change. Its body elongated, and its small, adorable face had turned into a sharpened snout of terror. Everyone present held their breath, with many falling straight on the buttocks. The spiritual pressure that Shin’s Spirit produced wasn’t that great, but its shock factor was far from small.

Why?

GGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Because…

Today was the day that…

The Celestial Dragon Roars Again.

Title for the chapter...

Chapter 49: The Celestial Dragon Roars Again

~~~ End of Book 9 ~~~