Chapter 556: The Selection Trial
At the 140,001st trial, Maximus requested a rest.
"This has gone insane!"
If the first few trials allowed him to be leisurely, exploring and trying new things, everything changed after landing on the 130,000th trial.
Maximus felt as if he'd been thrown into hell.
Although the trial stayed on the course he had previously deduced, the difficulty had become ridiculous.
"Are the others still in the trial?"
Entering an alternate resting space, his power returned to normal.
Mobilizing the River of Knowledge, he attempted to deduce if his family was still in the trial.
"Still on…"
Although his family was only a few thousand floors behind, no one had been eliminated yet.
"Just what happened to this trial?"
After a few hours and spending tens of millions of causality points, Maximus finally deduced the issue.
"A Selection Trial of the Origin Laws?"
Maximus still knew of the entities of the Origin Laws.
Although not the strongest, their authority within the Aeon Plane was the greatest.
All energy, paths of law, treasures, and phenomena were indirectly created by them.
Furthermore, for one's Ocean of Law to advance to the Absolute of Law, a contract with one of the Origin Laws was essential.
Over the past hundreds of billions of years, since the major war that devastated the Aeon Plane, no one has advanced to the Absolute of Law.
Even according to his deductions, these masters of the Absolute of Law hadn't progressed since the upheaval.
"Did the Origin Laws come out of hibernation?"
He didn't know about the complexities the Origin Laws experienced, and thus, Maximus was clueless.
With the current strength of the River of Knowledge, Maximus couldn't even deduce the plans of these Origin Laws if they hadn't permitted it, much less what happened in the past.
Now understanding the intentions of the Origin Law entities, Maximus finally knew why the trial had become more difficult.
"But whom will I choose?"
Several supreme laws had just issued him invitations.
From the Supreme Law of Soul, Astral, Void, Divine, and more.
Even the Supreme Law of Knowledge, which had the highest affinity with his path, extended an invitation.
Once Maximus chose, the trial would return to its normal difficulty.
Meanwhile, if he chose not to, Maximus could continue the trial, hoping for a supreme law he desired to take an interest in him.
Looking at the supreme law of knowledge, Maximus felt tempted.
If he chose the Supreme Law of Knowledge, Maximus deduced it would only take him a few thousand years to reach the Ocean of Law.
Furthermore, without the added difficulty, he could finish the trial without any more challenges.
However, just as Maximus was about to agree, he felt a strange throbbing.
His entire being, the origin he was made of, sensed a greater opportunity.
It seemed to urge him to finish the trial without contracting with any of the Origin Laws.
"What… is this?"
This was the first time his origin had reacted this way.
It was like a dragon too lazy to move, suddenly excited, like a dog wagging its tail at a mountain of treasure.
Instead of feeling joy at being reminded of a brighter path, Maximus frowned.
He was more concerned about the instinctual reaction of his origin.
Not caring about the trial, Maximus continued to sit down, determined to deduce the problem immediately.
[Origin Anomaly Analysis… Estimated time: 2 million years…]
"Two million years? This—"
Even with causality points, it would take him a full century to reach an answer.
"Fine… I'll see what you are…"
Based on the information he had deduced earlier, the trial selection would last thousands of years or until all Origin Laws had chosen their candidates.
With plenty of time available, Maximus didn't enter the next trial immediately but began to analyze the anomaly within his body.
After resolving the hidden time bomb left by the system, he couldn't allow another headache to fester.
As for his ideal supreme law choosing a candidate during these hundred years, Maximus was unconcerned.
It had been only a few decades since they entered the Tower of Trial and reached the 130,000-140,000th trials; that was when the difficulty was still normal.
For others to catch up, even a few centuries might not be enough.
Soon, while others busied themselves failing and retrying each trial, Maximus concentrated on deducing the anomaly in his body.
As his progress stalled, his wives, children, grandchildren, and in-laws began to catch up.
Even in the face of growing difficulty, they continued to press forward, trial after trial.
With their strong foundations, sheer strength, and the River of Knowledge to support them, they could always find solutions to pass each trial.
Their wills were unwavering; despite failing hundreds and thousands of trials, they remained undeterred.
They took each failure as a lesson, internalizing it and transforming it into strength for the next trial.
In the first few decades following the increase in difficulty, they could only advance one trial every few years.
Yet, after a century of countless failures, they became more and more proficient.
A hundred years later, they had already caught up to Maximus, reaching the 140,000th trial.
There were also the prodigies, elders, and leaders of various organizations in the Dimensional Alliance and on the Devourer side.
With the desire to make everyone stronger for the upcoming dark disaster, Elvian opened access to the Virtual Realm to the entire Aeon Plane.
This single act brought all other activities in the world to a halt.
Whether it was war, friendship or enmity, breakthroughs, clashes of interest—no matter one's allegiance or occupation—everyone dived into the Virtual Trial after receiving the news.
The chance to contact an Origin Law entity—a chance to reach the pinnacle of the world!
No matter who they were, no one would be reckless enough to discard such an opportunity.
Even those who mastered an Ocean of Law put everything aside to compete with juniors as low as the Tier 9 realm.
Fortunately, the difficulty of each trial depended on the individual; the stronger the participant, the harder the trial would be.