Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 422: Doppelganger.

Faced with the doppelganger, Ozul weighed his options on how to deal with it.

Since an artifact created it, there were still faint traces of Spiritual Essence on the doppelganger, but it wasn’t to the point that it could make practical use of it.

He wasn’t surprised that the doppelganger didn’t have Spiritual Essence for its own use, but the old man spectating quietly couldn’t help but think that something was wrong.

The old man had considered Ozul using an advanced artifact to conceal his Spiritual Essence, but the Mirror of Self-Reflection could look past such tricks. After all, it even read people’s memories and their emotions.

Only he didn’t know the mirror had failed to read Ozul’s memories.

’There’s nothing that I can do,’ Ozul couldn’t think of any way he could salvage the situation. The old man was bound to foster suspicion after this was over.

The best he could do was to kill the doppelganger before it made any moves. And so he did when he conjured only a slight trace of The Purity in his hand.

Before the old man could notice the black substance floating above his fist, he slashed it toward the doppelganger who could only watch as his neck was sliced off in one clean motion.

Before the head could even drop to the ground, the doppelganger’s body disintegrated into light particles and was instantly absorbed by the mirror.

For a second, the island became still as Ozul waited for the old man to process what had happened.

"What!?" The loud voice came from the direction Ozul had already predicted.

The old man haphazardly rushed to him before yelling again, "What did you!? This shouldn’t be possible!"

Since the mirror of reflection created an almost perfect doppelganger, it would take hours for anyone to defeat them. It required the person to grow and improve during the battle; that was the only method!

The only thing that lacked in the doppelganger was the fact that it couldn’t improve anymore after it was created. Since it would initially match the abilities of the person, they could only win if they were talented enough to grow in a span of a few hours. Else, the person would get tired but the doppelganger would continue to fight at its peak.

’This is impossible!’ the old man thought, scrutinizing the expressionless young man before him. All of those conditions made it unprecedented that the doppelganger would be defeated in a few seconds.

"I am asking a question, young man!" his voice suddenly thundered around the island in an attempt to frighten him so he would reveal his secrets.

Not in his lifetime had he seen anyone at the Origin Realm and below defy the Mirror of Self-Reflection.

Ozul, however, remained unperturbed in the face of the fuming old man.

But he had to be careful as he replied after a few moments, "Why do you want to know?"

This question caught the old man off guard and he realized his mistake. Shouting at a candidate for his inheritance because he was exceptional was strange and unsightly of him.

Trying to dispel the embarrassment, he coughed slightly before taking a few steps back, "Ahem! I was too rude in my excitement. Well done, young man! I am not supposed to tell you, but you are the most likely to receive my complete inheritance!"

The old man tried shifting his focus to the potential rewards that awaited him at the end of these trials.

But how could Ozul be deceived by mere words? He could feel people’s emotions and the old man wasn’t an exception even though he was only a construct of Spiritual Essence at this moment.

The greed and malevolence within the old man’s emotions had only gotten stronger toward him.

With that, he could at least conclude it was connected to how talented he appeared in his eyes.

’This is bad...’ Ozul sighed in his mind, thinking about the trio. If there was something wrong with the old man, then they could also be the targets.

As for completing the trials, he had enough confidence in them that they would also complete them all.

"So, what’s the last trial?" he asked the old man, who was a little taken aback by the question.

"Ahem!" he lightly coughed before answering, "Well, it will be a duel. I will personally choose your contender..."

Ozul eyed him, waiting for him to finish, but the old man seemed awkward.

"The thing is... you completed this trial too fast." At this point, he was only muttering, "Others haven’t even started yet..."

"So, I will have to wait here until someone is done?" Ozul asked with his indifferent voice that seemed to only add fuel to the fire burning in the old man’s heart.

Inclined not to let him get under his skin, the old man maintained his composure this time and replied calmly, "I am afraid so..."

Those words were left hanging in the air as the old man disappeared into light particles once again.

However, Ozul could still feel the presence lingering in the air and his senses tingled as if something was staring intently at him.

’Okay, so he doesn’t know how to hide his presence either...’ he sighed a breath of relief as he didn’t know previously if he was being observed even after he had disappeared.

He pretended not to feel the burning gaze on his body and went to the rocks to rest again.

The old man’s presence lingered around the island for a while, but since Ozul was simply resting with his eyes closed, it finally dissipated after a few minutes.

’Finally...’ He opened his eyes briefly before closing them again, a little satisfied that he could get a little nap time to himself.

There wasn’t really anything else that he could achieve by being here. If he ventured off to other islands in the distance, some mechanism might alert the old man and he could be teleported outside for all he knew.

. . .

The old man observed the others for a short while before teleporting to Kumaou’s island.

As he was second only to Ozul to come out of the labyrinth, he had just killed the beast.

But unlike Ozul, who had put a clean hole in the tiger’s throat, the beast fighting Kumaou was bruised and beaten all over. The beast’s head was also separated from the body in a gruesome manner.

At the same time, Kumaou’s body had multiple blood stains, none of which belonged to him.

Separating the head of the beast in that manner was an undeniable show of his physical prowess.

"You’ve finally defeated the beast, great! I see your physical arts are well-honed," the old man complimented, observing Kumaou’s body with no signs of any fatigue or wounds.

Kumaou smiled in response, feeling confident that he could outshine all other candidates.

"The next trial will be the Mirror of Self-Reflection..."

The old man then gave a brief introduction of the trial to Kumaou who was more than excited to fight someone exactly as strong as him.

Once again, as Kumaou’s doppelganger emerged from the mirror, the old man stayed there to observe him.

To his disappointment, Kumaou wasn’t anything like Ozul. This time, everything played out exactly as it was supposed to.

’Just what is that young man hiding?’ the old man wondered as Kumaou began his desperate struggle against himself.

’I like this boy more...’ he stroked his beard with a thoughtful face, ’That young man’s tricks will only take him so far.’

He eyed Kumaou with a keen interest shining in his eyes like a twinkling star at midnight.

In his eyes, although Ozul breezed through the trials as if they were nothing but child’s play, Kumaou was his favorite among all the contestants.

Not only did he show promise in the trials, but the robustness in his muscles and the raw instinct ingrained in his wild body also proved that he had indeed absorbed the partial cultivation technique.

Among the contestants, he was the only one who had found the cultivation technique even though he had left many in various locations spread out in the lower region of the continent.

Someone who had already cultivated the partial technique was the most suitable candidate in his eyes.

’But that boy...’ The old man’s thoughts again drifted to Ozul, who was hiding uncanny secrets in his body.

In the end, however, he smirked mysteriously before shaking his head. "I will let the duel decide," he muttered before disappearing from Kumaou’s island as well.

From his performance until then, he had no doubt that Kumaou would be able to defeat his doppelganger.

So for now, he had to look after the other candidates.

Although he didn’t believe any of them had the chance to outshine Ozul or Kumaou, he still catered to them until they gave up or succumbed to death.

More than half of the people who fought against the beasts evidently died a gruesome death. The sudden loss of the Spiritual Essence left them more vulnerable than they had imagined.

To their luck, Raven, Blaze, and Zier were among the few who managed to kill their beasts.

Only Zier sustained several cuts and small wounds all over his body. Raven and Blaze had a lot of experience; they also had to put up a struggle, but they fared better than most.

Unsurprisingly, none who had defeated the beasts backed out from challenging their own doppelganger.

But they all had to wait since the Mirror of Self-Reflection was only a single artifact and could only be used for 1 doppelganger at a time.

Everyone was given time to rest and recuperate until Kumaou rose above his current self and became a better version of himself in a span of a few hours.