Chapter 224 The Ripples

It must be the case.

The quote was not some riddle. It was only a profound direction of what the test would be about.

Yang Lujia pondered about it. At the moment when the stele disappeared from his sight, he was not too shocked as he expected this to happen. However, what deterred his confidence most was that he was sent to a dark place—where he could see no one.

He could not even feel himself.

There was only his hearing that he could rely on.

"What is happening?" Even his vocal cords were muffled. He could not utter a single word, but his thoughts were properly working.

"Welcome to the White Tiger's First Test!"

Yang Lujia soon heard an ancient-sounding voice. It sounded so middle-aged that he could not help but think of his father.

Could this voice be his father's voice?

He wondered.

"What was inscribed in the stone stele is exactly what the first test is all about," the voice said, still causing Yang Lujia's heart to slightly tremor. That was because for a special reason!

If it were only because it was his father's voice, he would not feel such a way. However, that voice was so identical to his when he was still on Earth. It was that voice that could surmount and trample on people's lives and destroy them. It was that voice that could damage one's life forever.

That was his. And now, it was his father's.

He felt baffled and shocked. Nevertheless, he chose to continue to listen, albeit it sounded awkward on his part.

"You have to seek the quietest sound among the silent ones and amidst the loudest bunch," the voice explained. "The test will contain three ripples: the First Ripple; the Second Ripple; and the Third Ripple. Each ripple will become harder than the previous."

As though the voice heard Yang Lujia's questions in the latter's mind, the former continued, "In other words, the First Ripple may be easy but it won't be in the next. Beware."

"That's it?" Yang Lujia felt that the rules were too simple. His father just liked to keep everything in a grandiose manner. However, he was feeling skeptical at the moment. Normally, experts like his father wouldn't want to go through all this without a reason.

There must be a reason.

And since the voice had already settled down and did not intend to explain the details further, he knew that Yang Lujia was supposed to tread on this and experience what the previous events implied him to do.

'',

When Yang Lujia took his first step, a wave of soundwaves then blasted off his whole body which made him stand frozen. He was surprised. He didn't think the First Ripple would come too soon.

ROAR!

AHHH!

MEOW!

All kinds of sounds, strange and otherwise alike, intruded into Yang Lujia's ears. Most of them were so loud that he failed to distinguish which among them had the most muffled sound.

Screams from women who seemed to be tortured.

Heart-rending roars from beasts.

And the profound chanting of some person.

They all entered his ears. He even almost fell into a daze as he almost managed to comprehend a very dangerous skill, something detrimental to his mind, body, and soul. Fortunately, he did not linger on it too much. Otherwise, the result could have been fatal.

Heaving a sigh, he realized that this was still the First Ripple and yet he had already found it hard to succeed. What was his father thinking about doing all of this to him?

Although puzzled, Yang Lujia still showed determination and decided to sit on the black ground. He could not see but he could move—it was just that he lost all his senses, including his sense of touch—only his emotions remained untouched.

And this was his first feeling helpless.

All this while, he had been too invincible that no one could defeat him. However, in the face of his father's test, where he could even die, he was struggling so hard. He suddenly realized the feeling that others felt while he felt otherwise.

"I see," Yang Lujia said as he focused on his sense of hearing.

Everything he was wearing at the moment slowed down—be them be the beasts' roars or the people's cries. Everything almost went silent as he focused his concentration on one point. That one point pointed in the direction where an infant was crying his heart out.

With that being said, Yang Lujia knew that the infant wasn't the one who was producing the most muffled sound. It was something else that he had yet to pinpoint. He knew that he could not last long in this state of his. Therefore, he had to hurry.

When his sense of hearing reached the other side, he found that there was an even quieter sound. It was the sound of extremely small rocks lightly banging each other. But that was not all, he could even hear the flaps of the butterfly's wings as it flew above.

He was confused and his concentration was starting to waver. It was as if his hesitation became a hindrance to him achieving the result he wanted to attain. Despite this, however, he continued to search for a specific sound with an even lower volume that the previous two he had found.

"There it is!"

It was the sound of lightly tapping a surface, especially one that was made of wood. Yang Lujia felt ecstatic and proud of himself for finding this despite the loud disruptions around him. Soon enough, he chose this as his answer without hesitation—although he was still having second thoughts.

'New novel chapters are published on Novel-Bin',

And he passed the first test!

However, to Yang Lujia, it wasn't that surprising. It seemed like it was already a given for him to pass the test like that—after it was only the first test. However, Yang Lujia found it hard if he had no intangible discerning ability to know what was wrong and what wasn't.

"Congratulations on passing the first test! You may now proceed to the second test! It had the same rules, but it had been tampered with to make it different than that of the usual one."

Yang Lujia stroked his chin as if he had a beard, despite not feeling anything at all. "I wonder what has been tampered with in the second test. Let's see."

However, contrary to Yang Lujia's demeanor earlier—when he had almost lost his sanity by staying quiet, this should be something even harder that he would need to guard against something. It was just a feeling, but at the very least, he was already prepared.

A ripple of soundwaves, that was dozens louder than before, assaulted his ears. Painfully, with a solemn face, blood dripped from his ears as he continued to listen to the various sounds that kept intruding into his ears. They were so loud that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he was like he was inside a pandemonium of eternal torture.

Pain.

Yes, pain.

Ever since he came to this world, he rarely felt that. Now that he had felt this kind of pain, he naturally knew that this pain was something that his father wanted to make undergo—eventually or forcefully just like at the moment.

On the other side, two large beings were spectating the ongoing test.

However, one was akin to three times the size of an ant while the other had the size of a massive dragon.

They were naturally the Red Qilin and the White Tiger.

"Old Red, do you really not intend to tell him?" the White Tiger's voice sounded impatient that it incurred the dissatisfaction inside the Red Qilin's heart.

"How many times do I have to tell you that we cannot disclose this matter? If we tell that we know all the contents of the test and even held a meeting once before, he would become too complacent and would think that we, the five divine beasts are easy to deal with!"

"But that's not the problem at all. Look at him, he was already bleeding. Shouldn't you get him out of there?" the White Tiger said, looking at the Red Qilin with tearful eyes.

He had used this trump card several times on the Red Qilin and it worked. However, it was different this time. The Red Qilin did not even flinch upon seeing the cute face of Little White. "I already told you. His Highness, his father, was our master. Whatever his orders are, we have to follow them."

"It's a good thing that all the five of you were still here! Old Red! Little White!" a cheerful voice suddenly echoed in the entire place, except for the dimension where Yang Lujia was currently captured and imprisoned.

"What?!" The Red Qilin and the White Tiger were very frightened that they looked back. Then, at the front, they searched. They sought the presence of their master, but to no avail. However, even before they finally stopped searching, a figure appeared in front of them, albeit illusionary.

"Master!" the Red Qilin and the White Tiger's bodies trembled in his presence.

"Your Highness, I hope that we didn't make your efforts in vain!" the Red Qilin exclaimed.

"It's alright," the illusionary projection told him.

"It's all also thanks to you, Your Highness. If not for your formation pulling His Highness toward the core of the array formation, I'm afraid that not even he could find it."