My Mother Has a System but Won't Use It

161  First Trial of the Seven Trials and its Reward

Sacred Lust Continent, Southern Lust City. As the sun dipped under the horizon, the chicken in the backyard clucked around the feed that someone had thrown around. Beside it, Liyue stood, a long stick in her hand as she impassively trained in spear art. She was already a High Proficiency practitioner of the art. Her movements were like a gentle bird, her hands an elegant display of fluidity. Sweat matted her forehead, her black hair floating behind her as she practiced different forms and ways of offense. Preciseness, quickness, reach. Strength and unpredictability.

Spear was all those things. For an Awakened, her Spear was nearly perfect. For an Awakened, she was far beyond the average; she was highly nurtured in the path of the spear. There was nothing in the world that any normal mortal could do that she couldn't do; she had ingrained all sorts of spear moves into her body.

Yet, she was not a Master. Only if she became a Master could her training as an Awakened be completed, only that was the remaining part of the Spear. Her movements slowly calmed down, and she slowly breathed out. That seemed far from her grasp; so far, it didn't seem achievable at all. She could already do anything with the spear; what made her different from the Masters was that she didn't have Han Li to give her an answer.

Li Yao looked at her from the doorway to the kitchen while two other women stood to the side with awed expressions. One of them sighed. She couldn't believe it.

"Even extremely skilled cultivators would struggle to teach someone as young as you this well. You are such a talented girl," The woman said, her face full of suspicion. "It is not just High Proficiency. Your foundation is so utterly stable it is terrifyingly well-learned. To the point that even old people with years of experience would be horrified."

Composed, Liyue looked at the stick that was acting as her spear. Her mind was contemplative, her heart filled with questions. It had been four days since her Brother Han left in the middle of their marriage; he had told her he would return in three days. The city's turmoil had long since calmed down after that weird red mist enveloped everything, and she, her mother, and Hua Feilan had come out of hiding right after the red mist vanished. Everything returned to normal even though Han Li told them to stay in hiding till his return, which he had promised to be three days.

There was a simple reason for them coming out: it was Hua Feilan's friend. She had a lot of women as friends on the continent, and many had grown concerned for her due to the weird things happening around her location. One of them, a Power Born, who had planted a tracking method on her, came to her rescue in that hidden cave with worry, only to realize that she was just hiding and completing a sort of mercenary mission.

That Power Born woman, named Hua Yu, then decided to stay with Hua Feilan till the mission was over, but Hua Feilan hadn't walked away and decided to stay with Liyue and Li Yao till Han Li returned or some kind of news about him did. Due to the recent chaos, no new marriages were being held anyway, so she had time.

It was also rare that she got to be with Hua Yu, her friend. So, she decided to take a vacation, and she was living with Liyue and Li Yao for now. With a Power Born, they didn't have to fear anything like an attack anymore, and the Starlight Head, Li Xingguang, was only happy to let another ally, Power Born, stay in his Zone. Hua Feilan really lived up to her name as the Friend of All Women! She even had Power Born friends who were constantly worried about her. He didn't want to slight this bomb at all! He even put his suspicions regarding Han Li and Li Yao's recovery aside.

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But sadly, Hua Yu declined to participate in any conflicts of the clan, and other Power Borns were not fools to disturb her as long as she showed who she was. Power was the best iron fortress.

"Where are you… Brother Han?" Liyue muttered, her face filled with a frown. She didn't believe something happened to him like Hua Feilan often said; she believed he was safe, but her heart couldn't help but be worried, had her brother actually… That frightened her, and her spear faltered slightly.

"Don't worry," Li Yao said from the side, a wine in her hand which she didn't sip. "Han Li is a clever person. I don't think something happened to him, and Hua Yu did say that she found no more battle marks or bodies anywhere. He must be safe. In fact, my guess would be, he is one of those people who had been 'Flown to the Heavens' as people called it." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

They always knew he was talented, and they did consider his talent cream of the crop, but what about Yue Li? She was nothing special, just a simple mother like Li Yao herself. What happened to her? There was no way she was also risen to the heavens as the news told only the most talented rose like that.

Li Yao was not jealous or envious; she was just worried and realistic. She couldn't understand that, just like her daughter couldn't. Where was that woman if Han Li rose?

Did he even rise?

Hua Yu asked calmly from the side, towards her friend. "Feilan, according to the news I got, only Sacred Talents rise to the Heavens; I trust your judgment; did he seem like he was so extraordinary?"

Hua Feilan shook her head but hesitated. "He did look quite special, but more or less, he appeared normal, or he might have done that on purpose." Reaching here, she stopped. She had a Heart Qi Binding on her, after all. She couldn't talk too much about that person.

Liyue sighed and began training again.

***

Sacred Lust Demon World, City of the Sacred Demon, inside the Statue.

Han Li and Yue Li were hand in hand. They were currently inside a stone room, extremely vast and filled with humanoid statues everywhere. Han Li jested, "We are inside a statue looking at statues."

It had been only seconds since they arrived here; the ringing sound had vanished, and they were flown into the statue just as they had risen from the ground into the Demon World. And then they melded into the statues. Han Li licked his lips as he looked at the humanoid statues around. And then he looked towards a door in the outside leading outside the stone room they were in; outside was pure darkness, but he knew that darkness would vanish and another room would appear there as long as he passed this round.

And on the ceiling of the room, there was clearly written everything someone needed to know about the Trials.

"[There are Seven Rooms of Trials in total. Each room would have a different trial catered to the cultivator's dao. There would be 2 Trials testing the Heart, 2 Trials testing the body, 2 Trials testing the Ethereal Magic Powers, and one unique Trial. Welcome to the first of the two Trials of Heart.]"

Yue Li read the words curiously and couldn't help but click her tongue. "Even thinking of how this must have all been set up gives me a headache."

"Oh? This is built in a way that it reacts to our Spark and Dao Soul and throws us to a specific set of Trials among the millions of sets that are inside the Statue. Even I have no idea how it works when there is no sentient being running it…"

No intelligent being could survive as long as the Trials already had. The Sacreds had vanished tens of thousands of years ago to the point where a history of them was not really available anymore. They were ancient.

"Artificial Intelligence, maybe something similar?" Yue Li asked, curious. "When I died on Earth, the world was just beginning to create it, but this really does seem like it. I don't know for sure, though, since I never bothered with something so head-blowing, even looking at those new inventions used to make me creeped out."

Han Li's pupils grew sharp. Hmm… Something was also understanding their intent and protecting everything in a bubble. This could only be such a thing. "Very curious. You never told me such a thing existed," He said, filled with interest as he scanned the humanoid puppets around. What was this trial actually about?

His Mother sighed. "Even I never saw much of it. I died; a truck hit me, as I already told you. This is why I have always been telling you to absorb Mom's memories. All those Main characters used to do so much with the memories of Earth; I am too dumb; I just can't make use of any. Maybe you might find something interesting in them?"

Han Li nodded, and his hand tightened slightly around his mom's plump hand. She looked at him, but just as she opened her mouth abruptly, a red flame lit up in the middle of the room and floated there silently.

Alongside that, new words appeared on the ceiling. It was already there before, but it seemed to have been set up so that it could only be read in the presence of the red flame.

[Reward upon completing the Trial: 3000 pure Minor Dao Crystals that could be used by any Dao Soul]