After the trial of the Weight of Earth ended, the Blood Mark Bearers could rest in the Emperor's Scenery Pavilion for five days.
For many Heavenly Prides, those five days were actually damn near useless. Most had chosen to travel together, and though they had tempered themselves during the trial of the Weight of Earth, they had shared the Red Tide Pressure among multiple people, so they had come nowhere near their limits or total physical and mental exhaustion.
But for Ren Ye, the Little Marquis, and the Heavenly Prides on routes with fewer than three people, those five days of rest were extremely important.
Almost every Heavenly Pride who had made it this far possessed remedies and Divine Medicines for restoring their bodies. Thus, the Heavenly Dao's purpose in granting those five days was not actually to let them heal their physical injuries, but to let their minds relax and enjoy a quiet period of respite.
During that respite, would they worry over the difficulty of the next trial and rack their brains? Would they live for the moment and enjoy each day as it came? Or would they recall everything from the Weight of Earth in that quiet respite and savor its "aftertaste"...? That depended on each person's temperament, talent, and capacity for insight.
Different temperaments brought different rewards.
Five days later.
A cool breeze swept past. Ren Ye sat cross-legged in the Emperor's Scenery Pavilion, his beard unkempt and his hair a tangled bird's nest. From a distance, he actually looked rather like the legendary "Northern Beggar."
A little over a month had passed in the human world, but more than eight months had already passed inside the Emperor's Tomb.
Battered by wind and rain, facing danger at every step, struggling to survive desperate situations... under